Cloudtop Academy

A week passed in the blink of an eye.

Li Chen looked at the red, green, and gold Shulker Boxes arranged in his home. The red ones were filled with materials for Redstone Devices, the green ones with Bottles o' Enchanting, and the gold ones with Enchanted Golden Apples.

Every day, he now wondered whether he should duplicate Bottles o' Enchanting or Enchanted Golden Apples. After some thought, he realized he already had so many Enchanted Golden Apples that he would still have some left even if he gave every villager ten.

He had actually tried giving the villagers Enchanted Golden Apples, but none of them seemed able to cultivate normally. Their innate soul power was locked at level 0.

And as his level rose, he had to start counting the Bottles o' Enchanting he needed by the box, because the formula for the required experience points seemed to have changed again after level 46.

He soon made his decision. Today, he would duplicate another box of Bottles o' Enchanting and get his level up to 60 first.

With that, he picked up a green Shulker Box and activated his Soul Skill, Duplication. Once he was done, he set one of the boxes aside, then kept taking bottles from the other and smashing them on the ground.

He absorbed countless Experience Orbs. Although his progress was somewhat slow, at least his experience points kept rising.

Soon, after smashing an entire box of Bottles o' Enchanting, he had only reached level 59, leaving his expression a little dark. He could only take another two stacks from the other box to push his level up.

"Master, it's time for us to set out for that academy in Sword City."

"We have the Teleportation Stele. There's no rush." Seeing Wine Fox return, Li Chen said, "Take this box of Bottles o' Enchanting and use it."

After using about five stacks, Wine Fox reached level 40. When he saw her stop, he said, "Keep going. Don't worry about wasting them. Your level isn't rising only because you don't have a Soul Ring yet."

Even with the system, Li Chen couldn't see Wine Fox's exact level now. But as long as she absorbed another Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring to supplement her soul power level, reaching level 50 probably wouldn't be a problem.

He put the remaining empty Shulker Box into a Cauldron to wash off its dye, so he wouldn't grab the wrong one while duplicating in the future and end up copying an empty box.

He went over to the Teleportation Stele and activated it. In the blink of an eye, he appeared in an alley in Sword City. Feng Yi was already waiting there and hadn't brought any of the other villagers surnamed Feng.

In fact, Feng Yi was the only one left in Sword City. The others had continued on to make arrangements in other cities. It was just that the locations they had secured were rather hard to describe.

But when he thought of the funds he had given them, it seemed this was his own fault. It looked like he would have to duplicate more Gold Soul Coins in the future, so they could at least have a decent base in every city.

"Lead the way. From now on, just call me Young Master when we're out."

Sword City Advanced Soul Master Academy hadn't been built within the city, but outside it, closer to the Sword Mountains.

Zhong Yiheng came to the academy gates in person.

Soon, he spotted Feng Yi approaching, with Li Chen and Wine Fox behind him-a boy and a girl. The boy looked only seven or eight years old.

Zhong Yiheng's expression soured at the sight. It wasn't that he had anything against children. After all, he was a Soul Saint. Even if he wasn't among the continent's strongest, he could still dominate an entire region. What bothered him was that the other party had sent only two children.

"I didn't expect Headmaster Zhong to come out and welcome us personally." Feng Yi stepped aside. "This is..."

Before Feng Yi could finish, Li Chen gestured that there was no need for an introduction. Then he stepped forward. "A pleasure to meet you, Headmaster Zhong. I'm Li Chen, the founder of Heaven Beyond Heaven."

Heaven Beyond Heaven was the name he had come up with for the organization he planned to establish in the future. For now, it was only a framework, with himself, Wine Fox, and those villagers as its members.

The ranks within the organization were based directly on ore materials, divided from lowest to highest into Copper Rank, Iron Rank, Gold Rank, Diamond Rank, and Netherite Rank.

After hearing Li Chen's introduction, Zhong Yiheng was already beginning to regret agreeing to the wager so hastily. Did the other party really have enough money to save the academy?

Could he be some noble family's child acting on a sudden whim? Still, since the wager had already been made, Zhong Yiheng had no intention of going back on his word.

"Hello. Thank you for making the long journey. Please follow me."

"Headmaster Zhong, let's go straight to the conference room. Please call over all the teachers still at the academy while you're at it."

Once they reached the conference room, Li Chen and Zhong Yiheng sat at the front. Feng Yi and Wine Fox sat to Li Chen's right, while the teachers who had stayed at the academy sat to his left. There weren't many of them-or rather, there were very few. Only five teachers remained.

Once everyone was present, Li Chen stood and said, "We don't know one another, but you can probably guess why I've come."

"My name is Li Chen. I don't want to waste words, so I'll make a long story short. For any teachers willing to stay, your monthly pay will depend on your strength: 2,000 Gold Soul Coins for Soul Kings, 5,000 for Soul Emperors, and 10,000 for Soul Saints.

"The condition is that any teacher who stays must continue working here for a full ten years. I don't want to sign agreements or ask for your verbal promises, either.

"So, until those ten years are up, you'll receive only fifty percent of your salary each month. Once you've completed ten years, you'll receive five years' worth of salary in one lump sum, calculated according to your cultivation rank at that time. In practice, you'll only receive more, never less.

"Of course, high pay comes with requirements. You must unconditionally follow the arrangements I make regarding admissions, courses, teaching, and so on.

"All right, you may discuss it and think it over now. If you can't accept these terms, please stand up and leave the conference room now. You won't need to take part in the rest of the meeting."

With that, Li Chen sat down and patiently waited for the five teachers to discuss it.

"Old Wang, you're a Soul Emperor. Even half your monthly salary would be 2,500 Gold Soul Coins. That's already about the same as the noble academies in the Heaven Dou Empire."

"Exactly. I didn't expect the new headmaster to be so generous. Good thing we didn't leave early."

"Old Li, how do you see it?"

"From my seat. How else would I see it?"

"We may have to work a full ten years to get our entire salary, but even half is already plenty. I think we should stay."

"Then I'll stay too."

About three minutes later, all five teachers reached an agreement and chose to stay. There was no helping it-Li Chen was simply offering far too much.

"Good. Since you've all chosen to stay, make sure you do your jobs well. Let's continue the meeting."

Li Chen stood again and said:

"First, starting today, the academy will be renamed Cloudtop Academy. We'll also discard the traditional division into elementary, intermediate, and advanced academies, integrating them into a twelve-year system of nine plus three years."

Cloudtop Academy was a name he had prepared in advance. After settling on Heaven Beyond Heaven for his organization, he had mulled over names until Teamfight Tactics suddenly came to mind. In the end, he chose the word "Cloudtop" and found that it fit remarkably well.

"I know changing an advanced Soul Master Academy into one covering every age group all at once will be difficult, so I've decided to spend a year expanding it grade by grade while continuing to plan and renovate the academy."

"As for admissions, we'll accept anyone aged six or older, regardless of martial soul or innate soul power. We'll even accept those with innate level zero. Tuition will be a flat ten Gold Soul Coins per year. We'll accept work-study students, but work-study will be limited to the first three years. Starting in the fourth year, they'll have to pay tuition."