The Four Great Academies

The agreement was settled, and they had nearly finished their tea.

Zhou Yi was just about to take his leave.

Shopkeeper He fidgeted, hope written across his face.

"Lay practitioner, do you have any spare copies of that Daoist scripture? I truly love your calligraphy and would gladly pay a high price for a volume."

People of old regarded calligraphy as an art. Many master calligraphers repeatedly failed the imperial examinations and held only minor offices with little authority, yet still commanded the respect of the world.

Those seeking calligraphy would resort to any means for the works they loved. Stealing books was not called theft but "appropriation"; some threatened to jump into rivers, while others dug up graves to steal books, leaving behind many famous anecdotes.

Zhou Yi was still far from a master calligrapher, but his writing was a rare pleasure nonetheless. When it came to the ability to imitate and an air of flowing elegance, who could compare with a cultivator?

Copying one volume of Daoist scripture took a day. How much should he charge?

Three or five taels would not be worth it, while eighty or a hundred would be too greedy. Zhou Yi wanted a business that would last.

Seeing Zhou Yi lost in thought without answering, Shopkeeper He assumed he had offended him and said with helpless regret, "I was presumptuous. How could your calligraphy be measured in the stink of copper coins..."

"How many volumes were you hoping for?"

Zhou Yi smiled. "Could you sell one a day?"

"You're willing to sell your calligraphy?"

Shopkeeper He looked delighted. Many scholars who prided themselves on their talent believed calligraphy must never mingle with the stink of money, or it would become utterly worthless.

"Living in the Capital isn't easy. More than ten years have passed, and I'm still staying at an inn. Lately, I've been thinking of buying a small courtyard house."

Zhou Yi had already intended to copy books for sale. The Top Scholar Hall's business acumen was exceptional, and its clientele encompassed scholars throughout the Capital. If he left the operation to them, the price would certainly be good.

An inn had too many people and prying eyes, after all, making many things inconvenient.

"Rest assured, lay practitioner. Your calligraphy is already good enough to serve as a copybook. One volume of Daoist scripture..."

Shopkeeper He calculated for a moment, then said, "Should fetch at least ten taels."

"Good. I'll bring the volumes over every three to five days."

The corners of Zhou Yi's mouth curled upward. My talent truly is extraordinary. Everything I've achieved today has come entirely through my own hard work.

Even if Tales of the Executioner sold well, his share would only amount to a few hundred taels, and it might flop. By diligently copying Daoist scriptures every day, he could buy a house in the Capital in about a year.

Art really is the quickest way to make money!

"Shopkeeper He, I'll be troubling you often from now on. Sorry for the trouble."

"You jest, lay practitioner."

Shopkeeper He flattered him. "These scripture copybooks will become another specialty of the Top Scholar Hall. I couldn't wish for anything better than frequent visits from you."

"Haha, I'll take my leave. Let's talk again another day."

"Another day, then."

With everything settled and both having gained something, they cupped their hands and parted.

After leaving the Top Scholar Hall, Zhou Yi did not go to the Ministry of Works to report for duty. Instead, he first visited the western market and bought a large yellow-skinned gourd.

He made his way outside the city, asked passersby for directions to Verdant Peak Mountain, then reached a deserted spot and transformed into a streak of escaping light.

Escape techniques were essential skills for cultivators, whether staying home or traveling, committing murder and arson, pursuing someone or fleeing. Mastering a profound escape technique granted speed far beyond one's peers, allowing one to enter or leave a magical battle at will, while even high-ranked experts could do nothing about it.

As long as your escape technique was fast enough, you could turn back and shout, "First-rank experts are nothing special!"

Zhou Yi knew quite a few escape techniques, but most offered unremarkable speed and no special properties.

The one he was using now was called the Five-Element Escape Technique. He had obtained it by executing a heretical sorcerer in the Earth-Class Prison, and it allowed him to pass through substances of the five acquired elements.

Burrowing through earth and entering water, wading through fire and traversing metal, passing through forests and wood-it was already a rare and wondrous technique.

Of course, it fell far short of Earth-Traveler Sun's earth escape art. Never mind a mighty divine ability that turned earth to steel with a finger-even ordinary restrictive formations could block the Five-Element Escape Technique.

Verdant Mist Mountain lay over a hundred li from the Capital, and Zhou Yi landed on its summit moments later.

For ordinary people seeking the spring water that fed Jade Waves Pool, any source beyond the already marked locations required a long, painstaking search upstream.

Standing on the summit, Zhou Yi used the Qi-Reading Technique to examine the mountain range and terrain. In moments, he discovered the spot where water spiritual energy was most concentrated.

A clear spring bubbled from a crack in the rocks, with a stone stele standing nearby.

Two large characters were carved on one side of the stele: Refreshing Spring.

On the other side were several lines of small script: The wise delight in water, the benevolent delight in mountains; the delight of mountains and waters resides within a single spring. It begins with the unyielding resolve to pierce mountains and break stone, and ends with the measure of one's strength, knowing when to advance and when to stop...

The strokes were like iron lines and silver hooks, exuding an imposing air.

Unfortunately, someone seemed to have deliberately erased the final few characters, leaving them indistinct. There was no telling which refined scholar had left it.

With a wave of his hand, Zhou Yi drew a handful of water from the spring in the rock crevice and tasted it.

Cool and sweet, it contained considerably more spiritual energy than the water at the Top Scholar Hall. Still, the hall normally stored its spring water in jars, and the spiritual energy would dissipate over time.

Zhou Yi first drank his fill, then took the yellow-skinned gourd from his waist and filled it with spring water.

By the time he arrived at the Ministry of Works for duty, it was already the fifth quarter of the hour of the snake, roughly half past ten in the morning.

Zhang Cheng was sleeping soundly against his chair. Hearing the noise, he cracked his eyes open.

Zhou Yi set the yellow-skinned gourd on the table. "Brother Zhang, this is spiritual spring water from Verdant Peak Mountain. You always use well water and waste good tea for nothing."

"What do you know, brat? Tea isn't what I, Old Zhang, am drinking!"

Zhang Cheng unscrewed the gourd's stopper and sniffed it, his face immediately lighting up. "How thoughtful! It's actually water from Refreshing Spring."

"You know Refreshing Spring too, Brother Zhang? There's a stone stele beside it, and the inscription is quite interesting. Do you know who left it?"

Throughout the journey, Zhou Yi had pondered the inscription's meaning and the flavor of its calligraphy, becoming increasingly convinced that whoever had erected the stele was extraordinary.

"Why do you care who left it? Whoever it was, he was no good. What decent person leaves his name everywhere?"

Zhang Cheng snorted coldly and produced a tea set as though performing a conjuring trick. It was a purple teapot set Zhou Yi had never seen before.

A storage Dharma Artifact.

Zhou Yi was positively envious. Unfortunately, he could not afford one.

A house in the Capital cost three to five thousand taels, something he could still work toward. A storage Dharma Artifact, available on the market yet beyond pricing, was something he could only covet for now.

Zhou Yi kept comforting himself. Once I've learned the earthly baleful divine ability, the Pot-Heaven Technique, I won't spare a mere storage Dharma Artifact a second glance.

Shopkeeper He worked quickly. The books Zhou Yi needed bound were ready within two days.

The Top Scholar Hall's finest master craftsman had carefully bound them using wrapped-back binding.

Tales of the Executioner had also been proofread, without a single piece or word deleted or altered, and had moved on to typesetting and printing.

Zhou Yi expressed his satisfaction and gave Shopkeeper He two newly copied volumes of Daoist scripture.

Shopkeeper He immediately promised to invite several master calligraphers to appraise them. Once they established a reputation, the price could double.

Half a month passed in the blink of an eye.

The freshly printed Tales of the Executioner went on sale.

In ancient society, communication was slow and people seldom traveled. If the Top Scholar Hall relied solely on displaying books at stalls, its clientele would extend no further than the Capital's scholars, while it still faced competition from numerous bookshops.

The owner of the Top Scholar Hall had forged another path. Through excellent relationships with many scholars, his sales channels had expanded beyond bookshops.

Whenever a new book was printed and published, complimentary copies would be sent to several government offices with which they had connections, and, most importantly, to Jixia Academy.

Great Qian had four great academies: Jixia Academy in Luo Capital, the Jade Capital Academy in Hong Prefecture, Dragon River Academy in Wu Prefecture, and White Deer Academy in Jiang Prefecture. The latter three were all in the southern prefectures; only Jixia Academy stood in the north.

At court, officials who had studied at Jixia Academy equaled those from the other three combined, demonstrating the extent of its influence.

Students brought the new books into the academy and placed them on the desks of its various doctors, professors, instructors, and tutors. After reading them, these teachers would write their assessments, whether the books were good or bad.

A favorable review from a Jixia Academy instructor was enough, all by itself, to become a selling point for a book.

The academy's instructors were also willing to review good books. As the books sold widely, their reviews reached scholars everywhere, offering them a way to make their names.

When a book was exceptionally good, the academy's doctors competed to review it, and a great Confucian scholar might even write its preface.

If a book's good name endured for a hundred generations, its preface writer caught a ride as well, much like a friend of the Immortal Poet whose name became known through the ages.

The head of Jixia Academy had personally written a preface for a volume of the Newly Collated Five Classics published by the Top Scholar Hall. More than ten years later, it remained one of the best-selling books on the market.

As a result, Yan Yuanzheng's reputation had directly eclipsed those of the heads of the other three great academies.