Deadbeat Academy

Time flew like a shuttle through a loom, and Qian Chongling had already spent three leisurely months at Skywater Academy.

Over those three months, Qian Chongling gradually came to understand Skywater Academy inside and out. Honestly, its facilities were exceptionally well equipped, far more reliable than some future Monster Academy that did nothing but blow hot air.

First, there was the teaching staff. Both the dean and vice dean were Soul Douluo experts, while the faculty included four Soul Saints, eight Soul Emperors, and seventeen Soul Kings. There were no lower-ranked Soul Masters, since Skywater Academy required its teachers to be at least Soul Kings.

That so-called Monster Academy had no Soul Douluos, two Soul Saints, and three or four Soul Emperors. In terms of teaching staff, Skywater Academy crushed it into dust.

Next came student numbers. Skywater Academy had four to five hundred students across its junior and senior classes, while Monster Academy had enrolled fewer than a hundred students in total since its founding. Once again, it was crushed into dust.

As for facilities, there was even less to discuss. Shrek Academy lacked the Mimicry Training Ground essential to any advanced Soul Master Academy. It did not even meet the basic facility standards of a junior Soul Master Academy.

Beyond its Mimicry Training Ground, training fields, and classrooms, Skywater Academy had even set aside dedicated spaces for a Swimming Pool, Dance Studio, and Music Room. After all, many of its students over the generations had been lovely young women skilled in singing and dancing.

Of all those facilities, Qian Chongling liked the Swimming Pool best. As for why, well, there were those exquisite, gorgeous front ends, those big, white headlights, and those streamlined bodies and rear ends.

All in all, Skywater Academy really was wonderful!

Finally, there were the admission requirements. Monster Academy accepted only monsters, not ordinary people. Anyone older than thirteen or whose Soul Power had not reached level twenty-one or higher was rejected outright.

That raised a question: a young Soul Master capable of reaching level twenty-one before turning thirteen had to possess at least level-six Innate Soul Power, if not higher. Would studying at Shrek Academy really make such a huge difference for a talented Soul Master like that compared with studying elsewhere?

If this so-called Monster Academy could nurture Soul Masters of ordinary talent, such as those with level-three or level-four Innate Soul Power, then its teaching quality would naturally be beyond reproach. But any advanced academy could turn a genius into a success. As the saying went, even I could do that. What did anyone need you for?

Lastly, there was Monster Academy's graduation rate. According to a certain Peerless Silver Tiger, Shrek Academy had admitted sixty-two students in total, but only fourteen had graduated. Its graduation requirement was to reach level forty-one before the age of twenty. Anyone who failed to do so was not allowed to graduate.

In other words, out of sixty-two talented students with Innate Soul Power above level six, only fourteen had reached level forty before turning twenty.

For geniuses, cultivation before becoming a Soul Ancestor was still quite fast. Besides, those figures counted only the graduates. The remaining forty-eight were geniuses too.

Had those students failed to graduate because they had not worked hard enough, or because this so-called Monster Academy was a bottomless pit? Of course, some of them must have come to their senses midway and fled to other academies.

But even by a conservative estimate, Shrek Academy had ruined or killed off at least twenty talented young Soul Masters.

Or put it this way: a newly founded school, whose highest-ranking faculty member was merely a professor, declared that it would accept only the top scorers in each province or city's college entrance examinations-everyone else was unworthy. If you were one of those top scorers, would you attend Tsinghua or Peking University, with their Chinese Academy of Sciences academicians, or this newly founded school?

Skywater Academy, meanwhile, set its graduation requirements according to each student's talent upon admission. In other words, the standards depended on their Innate Soul Power, with required Soul Power levels ranging from thirty to forty-five and age limits ranging from thirty to forty.

Across that entire comparison, Skywater Academy thrashed Shrek Academy until there was not a patch of intact skin left.

Back to the matter at hand. Although Qian Chongling had officially joined Skywater Academy and enjoyed fairly high status and generous treatment, he was a little too idle.

Skywater Academy had not assigned him any classes, telling him to teach whoever he liked. In other words, if Qian Chongling felt lazy, he could teach nothing at all and still receive Gold Soul Coins from Skywater Academy every month.

Anyone who claimed Skywater Academy was losing out on that arrangement was talking nonsense. Spending a little money to hire a Titled Douluo as a teacher was worthwhile even if he did absolutely nothing and merely served as a mascot. His presence alone provided plenty of deterrence.

And if that Titled Douluo happened to be in a good mood and personally instructed a few students who caught his eye, they would soar straight into the sky.

Well now, those students could count as a Titled Douluo's personal disciples! No matter how one looked at it, Skywater Academy was getting an excellent deal.

Of course, although Qian Chongling's laziness was terminal, he was still willing to select a few students whose talents he thought promising and give them a little guidance.

The most talented of the students Qian Chongling selected was Shui Rou's own daughter, fourteen-year-old Shui Yuewu. At the time, her Soul Power was level twenty-nine, her top-tier Martial Soul was the Ice Crystal Blue Phoenix, and her Innate Soul Power was level nine.

Shui Yuewu had already possessed considerable talent. Under Qian Chongling's guidance, her Soul Power had now reached level thirty-two, and her third ring was a purple Soul Ring aged two thousand one hundred years, exceeding the usual configuration.

Two years later, it was noon at Skywater Academy. The sky was cloudless for ten thousand miles, and the campus lay quiet.

Inside Skywater Academy's library, Qian Chongling reclined lazily in a wicker chair beside the desk, his eyes narrowed. After several months of arguing his case, coupled with the previous librarian retiring and returning to his hometown, Qian Chongling had taken on the additional post of Skywater Academy's librarian.

Just as Qian Chongling was about to fall asleep, the library doors were suddenly pushed open. A pair of seemingly flawless legs, snow-white and soft, stepped inside with an elegant gait.

"Oh, it's little Yue Wu," Qian Chongling said without raising his head.

With a faint smile on her pretty face, Shui Yuewu slowly approached Qian Chongling. "Teacher, the dean wants you to come to her office. She said she has something to discuss with you!"

"Oh? Did she say what it was?" Qian Chongling asked with a faint smile.

"I don't know either."

"Then it probably isn't urgent!" Qian Chongling said listlessly. "Let your teacher sleep for an hour first."

As soon as he finished speaking, he closed his already drowsy eyes, ready for a nap.

Shui Yuewu: ???

"Teach. Er." Shui Yuewu ground out through clenched teeth, stressing each syllable.

Half an hour later, Qian Chongling emerged from the library, grumpy from being woken and wearing a deeply resentful expression. He slowly made his way to the neighboring building, knocked on the door of a room marked "Dean's Office," and went inside.

As for his foul mood, that was because Shui Yuewu had forcibly dragged him out of his nap.

You promised a massage, but then you tickled me! And you even said you would use ice cubes to perk your teacher up!

Young people have no martial honor. You'd better watch your tails!