Academy Planning

"Um, Li... Headmaster, someone with zero Innate Soul Power can't cultivate at all. Should I still admit them?" the middle-aged man called Old Wang asked, raising his hand.

"Yes," Li Chen answered without hesitation. "I know you must all be wondering what use there is in admitting an ordinary person who can't cultivate. Even if they learn all this knowledge, they still can't become a Soul Master."

"I want this academy now, but it won't merely be an academy. It will also be a place where I select geniuses and nurture talent."

"And high Innate Soul Power and a powerful Martial Soul aren't the only things that make someone a genius. Soul Masters make up only one-thousandth of the continent's population. Among all the ordinary people left, how many geniuses have been buried because their bloodline was lacking, they had no good Martial Soul, or they failed to awaken Soul Power?"

Hearing Li Chen show such consideration for the common people at the bottom, Zhong Yiheng's impression of him improved somewhat. He himself had only gotten the chance to become a Soul Saint because his Martial Soul had mutated.

"Headmaster Li, that may be true, but being unable to cultivate is a crippling drawback," Old Wang said. At his age, some beliefs had already taken deep root.

"Who says a genius has to be powerful? Some people might be geniuses at forging, others at scientific research. Yet because of their Martial Souls, these geniuses end up trapped in their villages for their entire lives, accomplishing nothing."

With that, Li Chen turned and wrote on the blackboard: mathematics, physics, biology, physical education, art.

After writing them, he drew a horizontal line and said, "These are the additional subjects our students will need to study in the future. Each of you can choose one subject, and I'll teach you one-on-one. You need to strive to learn it within a month."

Li Chen then wrote "Outer Court" beneath the line. "After converting the academy to a twelve-year system, I plan to divide it into an Inner Court and an Outer Court. Everything I just listed will be available to the Outer Court, and for now, all of you belong only to the Outer Court."

He wrote "Inner Court" beside it, followed by forging, potion brewing, construction, and redstone. This time, however, he had no intention of explaining further.

"Now, let's discuss class assignments. The first nine grades will belong to the Outer Court, divided into twelve classes: Rat, Ox, Tiger... through Pig. Each year, only those who pass the assessment will advance a grade. Fail once, and you repeat the year. Fail twice consecutively, and you'll be expelled."

"Grades ten through twelve will be the Inner Court, with just five classes: A, B, C, D, and E. Each class will take only fifty students. Only the top two hundred students in the ninth-grade final exams can enter. The rest must either repeat the year or graduate from the Outer Court."

"That's all for the divisions for now. They'll take effect next year; we'll keep things as they are in the meantime. If you have any questions, you can ask them now."

"Headmaster Li, why use two different methods of assigning classes for the first nine years and the last three? Also, if tenth grade has five classes with fifty students each, shouldn't that be two hundred and fifty students? Why admit only two hundred?"

"Good question." Li Chen circled the words "Inner Court" on the blackboard. "Because during the first nine years, students need only to acquire knowledge and cultivate. But in the last three years, what I need is competition."

"Only Class A graduates will all be able to enter the Inner Court. Students from the other four classes will have to compete for guaranteed admission slots based on their individual performance over those three years."

"The five classes will take only two hundred students because fifty slots will go to special recruits from outside. All of those special recruits will join Class A."

After answering two more fairly basic questions, he announced that the meeting was over. Once the five teachers left, only Li Chen's group of three and Zhong Yiheng's group of two remained.

"Headmaster Zhong, I have other matters to attend to and will be away for a while. Although the academy now belongs to me in name, everything you have here will remain unchanged."

With that, Li Chen took out a Teleportation Stele and set it down beside him. Once he activated it, he and Wine Fox vanished.

Naturally, he had done this to reel Zhong Yiheng in. Although their wager meant Zhong Yiheng would join if he lost, there was still a difference between joining willingly and being forced to join.

Besides, during the meeting, Zhong Yiheng had shown interest in many of his proposals, and Li Chen had also given him a glimpse of his capabilities.

Finding the node at the Great Rift, they vanished from the meeting room in a flash.

Zhong Yiheng had never seen anything like it. He turned to Feng Yi beside him and asked, "Brother Feng, what is this?"

"Headmaster Zhong, this is Heaven Beyond Heaven's Teleportation Stele. By channeling Soul Power into it, you can teleport back and forth between the steles."

"To think such a treasure exists in this world."

Li Chen and Wine Fox teleported straight to Hurricane Canyon.

They immediately saw that the Iron Golem standing guard there was covered in cracks, while a heap of corpses from various Soul Beasts lay around him.

Li Chen checked his inventory. Fortunately, he still had some mineral materials that hadn't been made into blocks, including iron ingots, which he could use to repair the golem.

He then had the Iron Golem guard them as they entered the great canyon together, though they no longer really needed him for Soul Hunting.

Just as they stepped into the canyon, a thousand-year-old snake Soul Beast turned and fled at the sight of the Iron Golem. Clearly, it knew what had been happening outside the canyon lately.

At first, only one Soul Beast had approached and been sent flying by the Iron Golem's elbow. But the Iron Golem didn't dispose of corpses, so the smell of blood had drawn other Soul Beasts.

The final outcome was obvious, however: all of them lay on the ground, sleeping the sleep of death. After witnessing the Iron Golem's might, the other Soul Beasts no longer dared approach the area.

Even with cracks covering the Iron Golem's body, no Soul Beast dared provoke him again.

[Third Soul Skill, Command: Time Stop]

Li Chen couldn't be bothered to search slowly for a Soul Beast. The first one he saw was born to become his Soul Ring. His Time Stop now lasted a full five seconds; he only needed to catch up and strike once with his sword.

After finishing it off, he immediately sat cross-legged to absorb its Soul Ring. It was only a Thousand-Year Soul Ring, and didn't even cause a Soul Shock.

He fully absorbed it in no time, then placed the Command Block on the ground and activated it. He could now add another new command.

He didn't actually have any good ideas for this sixth command, though he had already decided to set one of them to disable mob drops.

That way, dead Soul Beasts would leave no corpses, Soul Bones, or Soul Rings, ultimately allowing him to completely monopolize advancement in this world.

But he planned to save that command for his ninth Soul Ring.

After pondering on the spot for a long time, he still couldn't think of any other commands to use. In the end, unable to come up with a suitable one, he could only enter into the Command Block: /effectgive@sminecraft:resistanceinfinite32true (grant himself permanent level 32 Resistance Boost).

Although level 5 already provided 100% damage reduction, with higher levels offering no further effect, this wasn't Minecraft. What if things worked differently here?

However, once he finished entering it, "infinite" was highlighted in red, just as he had expected. He couldn't grant a permanent effect.

A suggested revision appeared above it, though. His English wasn't very good, so he could only roughly make out that it had probably been changed to scale with his Soul Power Level.

He couldn't think of any other commands right now anyway, and this command would allow him to remain invincible even without Creative Mode, Time Stop, or Zeroing.