[The start of term has arrived. Students, please upload your spiritual sense imprints.]
Term was starting already? How had time passed so quickly?
Li Yu hurriedly searched for how to upload his spiritual sense imprint.
After searching, he detached a wisp of spiritual sense from his body and pressed it against the tablet. Soon, he sensed that this wisp of spiritual sense seemed to have passed through some kind of barrier.
To his astonishment, Li Yu discovered that he now had another viewpoint, but everything was spinning.
His wisp of spiritual sense was plunging downward like a meteor falling to earth. Throughout its descent, he saw the scenery around him constantly shifting, from the depths of the cosmos to the vast Star River. Like a tiny meteor, he crossed countless star sectors in the space of a breath, traversing more than half the universe to arrive at a galaxy that resembled an immortal paradise.
Li Yu flew toward a planet wreathed in churning clouds. The instant he entered, a string of ethereal data resembling divination symbols flickered over him, seemingly verifying his identity before linking him to one of the buildings.
Li Yu involuntarily headed toward the planet's eastern side. Layers of clouds parted around him, revealing magnificent jade palaces floating in the sky.
Flying past one towering, exquisite immortal palace after another, Li Yu saw creatures of all shapes moving among them. Most were humans like himself, but a small number were other beings: human bodies with fish tails, human heads on horse bodies, dragon faces on human bodies...
There were, of course, ordinary beasts as well.
But whoever they were, they all wore clothes of the same style and material, with a taiji and eight trigrams emblem on their chests. Having watched livestreams, Li Yu knew these were the Great Evolution Academy's uniforms.
Did that mean they were all university students at the Great Evolution Academy?
Or were they here for adult education, just like him?
Or were they simply staff?
While Li Yu was speculating, his wisp of spiritual sense finally finished its flight and arrived at an enormous plaza.
Filled by some inexplicable, gentle force, his spiritual sense slowly expanded and solidified, taking on the appearance of Li Yu's real body. His clothes were in the same style as those he had just seen.
Was this the Great Evolution Academy?
Li Yu could scarcely believe it. He lifted the feet of this avatar, trying to feel the warm, pure-white jade paving beneath him.
There was no sense of touch.
That left Li Yu a little disappointed.
Just then, a clear chime of jade ornaments rang out, and a slender woman with snow-white skin slowly flew toward him.
Her features were gentle, her eyes smiling. The Great Evolution Academy's ordinary uniform looked particularly dignified and elegant on her. A green jade hairpin adorned her bun, with three tiny swords carved from a special crystal dangling from its end. They gleamed with a lustrous jade sheen as they bumped together. That was the source of the chiming Li Yu had heard.
Her first words to Li Yu were, "You must be the new student. I'm your student adviser."
Student adviser?
Did that mean a teacher?
Li Yu hurriedly greeted her, actually relaxing.
A single wisp of spiritual sense had allowed him to descend into the Great Evolution Academy. Such a Divine Ability was utterly beyond his understanding. With power like that, they could knead him round or squash him flat with a mere thought. Surely they would not stoop to cheating him out of his ninety-nine Star Coins.
"My name is Meng Wanzhu. Let's add each other as friends first. If you encounter any difficulties with your studies in the future, you can come to me."
Li Yu did not know how to add friends. Although he felt a little embarrassed, his thirst for knowledge prompted him to ask outright.
Meng Wanzhu was not surprised. She had already read Li Yu's profile. The address field said "Desolate Star Sector," indicating galaxies on the fringes of the universe that the Galaxy Alliance could not precisely locate and had not fully developed or brought under its control.
In the Galaxy Alliance, beings living in the "Desolate Star Sector" could be regarded as "primitive people." All the basics of civilization had to be taught to them from scratch.
Meng Wanzhu said, "After you enter the Metaverse, an identity is automatically generated for you in this world. That identity has many functions, including adding friends and chatting."
Under Meng Wanzhu's guidance, Li Yu began familiarizing himself with how to use this spiritual sense avatar.
During the process, he discovered that he could actually feel something when he touched Meng Wanzhu. This made him extremely curious.
Meng Wanzhu said, "Once your cultivation reaches the Purple Mansion stage or above, your own spiritual sense can fully fill out your avatar in the Metaverse. Then you're no different from a real person here."
Purple Mansion was the stage below Golden Core.
Using his own method of remembering things, Li Yu dubbed it "half-step Golden Core."
I wonder what stage Teacher Meng is at?
Li Yu was intensely curious, but back in the Mountains and Seas, asking a cultivator their cultivation stage to their face was a serious taboo. Presumably, the same applied here.
"Come with me first. I'll take you to register and set up your file, then explain the academy's rules and procedures for attending lessons." After they finished adding each other as friends, Meng Wanzhu lightly raised her delicate hand, and one of the tiny swords on her hairpin flew out and enlarged.
At her signal, Li Yu hopped onto it.
"This plaza and the grand hall above it are called the Purple Origin Palace. There are three hundred and seventy-six classrooms in total. The adult education program you enrolled in is taught here, from primary school all the way through junior college. There are three teachers: Su Wen, Pei Jiulang, and Jiang Jishu. They take turns teaching. Remember to add all three as friends."
Li Yu was surprised to hear this. "Teacher Meng, don't you teach?"
Meng Wanzhu shook her head. "I've only just spent forty-seven years in postgraduate studies. My level is somewhat below those three senior students, so I'm starting as a student adviser to familiarize myself with things. If you study for a few decades and are still willing to attend classes, perhaps I'll be able to teach you by then."
Meng Wanzhu had come here sixteen years earlier on a work-study arrangement. She had seen many adult students start out brimming with confidence, only to give up on themselves and stop attending after repeatedly losing marks on exams, failing subjects, and having to retake them.
By her estimate, Li Yu, who came from the Desolate Star Sector, would probably last until high school at most.
As they talked, Li Yu had already been led into the grand hall. Under Meng Wanzhu's guidance, he completed the enrollment formalities, adding another divination-symbol imprint to his spiritual sense.
This was the imprint that allowed him to attend adult primary school. Only with it could he enter the relevant classrooms.
Eager to learn, Li Yu asked when lessons would begin.
"Right now is fine. Do you prefer group lessons or private lessons?" Meng Wanzhu glanced at him as she spoke.
Was there some difference between group and private lessons?
"Group lessons are held together with the other beings enrolled in adult primary school. Private lessons are when a teacher teaches you alone."
"Do private lessons cost extra?"
Li Yu felt that Meng Wanzhu was trying to reel him in and get the Star Coins in his account. He immediately raised his guard.
"No. All fees have already been collected in a single payment. Some students simply prefer studying alone, while others want the atmosphere of learning together, so we made this distinction." Meng Wanzhu's words left Li Yu secretly ashamed of his petty suspicions.
"I'll choose private lessons for now. I have quite a few questions, and I'm afraid I might interfere with the other students' learning in a group lesson." After thinking it over carefully, Li Yu made his choice.
"Come with me. I'll take you to meet Teacher Su." Meng Wanzhu snapped her fingers, and the flying sword beneath their feet immediately carried them upward.
During the flight, Li Yu saw oval classrooms floating above the white clouds over the plaza. They were built from transparent glass with purple-gold, dragon-bone frames. Various divination-symbol patterns flowed across the glass, flashing with multicolored light. Like stars, they dotted the space above the enormous white jade plaza.
Some classrooms were filled with beings, while others held only a single student. Because Li Yu had not known how to descend using his spiritual sense at first, he had been late registering and missed the main influx at the start of term.
What puzzled Li Yu, however, was that all the teachers looked alike, differing only in their clothes. There were also unoccupied classrooms in the sky, filled with books or all manner of strange magical implements and tools.
Li Yu could hardly take it all in. He felt as though he had entered the immortal realm of myth and legend.
At that moment, the flying sword stopped. Meng Wanzhu raised her hand and pressed it against the center of a round door. "This one will do."
As soon as she finished speaking, Li Yu saw a Qian Trigram flash across the round door and connect with Meng Wanzhu's palm. As though verification had been completed, the door parted down the middle, revealing an empty classroom.
Meng Wanzhu stepped inside first and beckoned to Li Yu. "Go in and sit down. I'll notify Teacher Su to come over."
Li Yu obediently took a seat. Then he saw a clear, boundless spiritual radiance light up above the teaching platform. Like flowing moonlight, it spread little by little, taking the shape of a handsome young man with an unusual hairstyle.
The young man looked exactly like the teachers in the other classrooms, but his clothes were different: a white shirt, black trousers, and a red necktie-a very trendy combination.
"Is this the one who was late? Where is he in his studies?" After appearing, the young man held a hand out toward Meng Wanzhu. She swiped through the air, and Li Yu's information immediately appeared above the teaching platform.
"From the Desolate Star Sector? Then he has no foundation at all!" The young man nodded and retrieved the most basic adult primary school teaching materials from his mind's database, projecting them onto the blackboard behind him.
Only then did Meng Wanzhu begin introducing him to Li Yu. "This is Teacher Su Wen. He's on teaching duty at the Purple Origin Palace this year. All the teachers in the classrooms are his avatars. But don't worry. Teaching adults throughout the entire Purple Origin Palace takes up no more than thirty or forty percent of his spiritual sense's processing capacity. The quality of instruction is certainly guaranteed."
So one teacher could do the work of several hundred! No wonder they could offer both group and private lessons!
Li Yu was utterly amazed.
Before you continue