Xia Yi's little classroom

P.S. (A long, 3,700-character chapter. Please vote for recommendations.)

"Your second senior brother broke your leg?"

Zhou Xiaoxian looked in surprise at Shi Lai, who was leaning on crutches with one leg tightly wrapped in bandages, and asked hesitantly, "Could there be some misunderstanding?"

"What misunderstanding? That guy named Feng Mo was harassing a girl in the street yesterday. I stood up for justice, and he had his men break my leg!" Shi Lai complained.

Zhou Xiaoxian gave a startled gasp. "Is that what happened? Shi Lai, I apologize on my second senior brother's behalf. He actually... had his reasons for doing that."

"His father is the military governor of Zhi Prefecture, commanding all the troops in the prefecture, and his maternal grandfather is the current prime minister. His family is simply too powerful. To keep the royal family from growing wary of them, he has no choice but to act against his conscience and tarnish his reputation."

The current prime minister? Something stirred in Xia Yi's mind. He said earnestly, "Girl, you need to understand something. Whatever reasons someone might have, once they hurt an innocent person, they are no longer innocent themselves!"

Zhou Xiaoxian froze.

"You're right, Grandpa!" Shi Lai agreed, impressed despite not quite understanding, then clamored as he had on the way back, "Hurry up and teach me swordsmanship!"

Clearly, he did not actually care much about what had happened. After all, how could a mighty player get angry with a mere NPC? Besides, he now knew who the other party was. Once he leveled up... heh!

He might not care, but Zhou Xiaoxian could not dismiss it. Xia Yi's words had opened her eyes. Though she did not immediately come to dislike her second senior brother, who had often looked after her in class, she knew what she had just said was inappropriate.

"Shi Lai, you seem very interested in cultivation. Would you be interested in cultivating at the Holy Academy?" she asked. "Today is the last day for new students to register."

The Holy Academy? Cultivate there? Is it somewhere like a sect? Shi Lai's thoughts turned, and he hurriedly said:

"Yes, yes, yes! Of course! Where do I register? Is there an entrance test? Uh, either way, where's the Holy Academy? I'm going!"

Then he paused and looked thoughtfully at Xia Yi. This high-level NPC... might teach just as well as the Holy Academy.

I can't miss out on the rewards here, either!

"As the second senior sister of the beginner class, I can write you a recommendation letter to exempt you from some of the entrance procedures..." Zhou Xiaoxian was only halfway through when Shi Lai interrupted, "No hurry with the letter. I'll learn swordsmanship from Grandpa first and register this afternoon!"

Zhou Xiaoxian hesitated. There were only a little over two hours until the afternoon. How much could he learn?

Besides, his leg...

Xia Yi ignored all that and merely smiled. "Since you're so set on learning swordsmanship from me, I'll teach you a little, young man."

Shi Lai hopped on one leg, nodding furiously.

Xia Yi drew Zhou Xiaoxian's sword.

"We'll start with theory. Shi Lai, do you know why people use weapons? However much we practice with them, all we achieve is wielding them as naturally as our fingers and arms. So why don't we simply use our fingers and arms from the start?"

"Because weapons... do more damage?"

Shi Lai offered a tentative answer.

"That's part of it," Xia Yi affirmed. "But there are also the limitations of the human body. Everything has its own limitations, which is why we created all sorts of tools and weapons!"

"As the ancients said, the head is large, while the mouth and teeth are small; they are disproportionate and cannot serve each other's purposes. The hands and feet are large, while the nails are small; they are disproportionate and cannot serve each other's purposes. The wild duck cannot perch because its webbed feet are large; the domestic duck cannot peck because its bill is large; the kite cannot strike because its wings are large; the wolf cannot swing its tail because its tail is large..."

Shi Lai's head spun. What the hell is this?

Classical Chinese? I'm terrible at classical Chinese!

[You have gained a rudimentary understanding of the Sword Scripture.]

[You have gained a rudimentary understanding of the Sword Scripture.]

[You have gained a rudimentary understanding of the Sword Scripture.]

System notifications appeared one after another. Shi Lai could only struggle to understand with a miserable expression.

[You have gained a slight understanding of the Sword Scripture.]

Huh? Listening carefully works!

Why is Teacher just reading the original Sword Scripture to Shi Lai without explaining it? Zhou Xiaoxian had been puzzled, but when she suddenly saw a flash of delighted understanding on Shi Lai's face, she was astonished.

He can gain insights even from this?

Shi Lai really does seem rather extraordinary.

An hour later, Shi Lai was gazing dazedly at Xia Yi, who was slowly going through sword movements, when a dim glow suddenly rose from his body!

[You have fully comprehended the two-star Saint Soul, Sword Scripture.]

[Thanks to Xia Yi's careful instruction, your Sword Scripture has leveled up.]

[Your Sword Scripture has leveled up.]

[You have comprehended your first Saint Soul and successfully condensed the Tianshu Star within your three souls. Your level has risen to 51. Your current level cap is 100.]

[You have unlocked seven Saint Soul slots.]

Shi Lai perked up and hurriedly opened his panel. Aside from his level rising to 51, the other major change was the newly added Saint Soul slots.

Equipped Saint Souls:

1. Sword Scripture (two-star)

Mastery: One-star, level 3 (0/20)

2. Empty

3. Empty

...

Remaining total stars available for equipped Saint Souls: Five

"Wow, I finally unlocked skill slots! Straight to level 3-is that a perk of attending a high-level NPC's lesson?"

Closing his attribute panel, Shi Lai discovered that Xia Yi had stopped practicing his sword movements, while Zhou Xiaoxian was staring at him in astonishment and admiration.

Her expression made Shi Lai feel that all the suffering he had endured these past few days had been worth it.

That's right. I, Shi Lai, am just that amazing!

Feng Mo, was it? I'll beat you into the ground sooner or later!

You're cheating. What have you got to be proud of? Xia Yi silently chuckled, looking perfectly composed, as if he had expected this all along. "Just as I thought. You have exceptional talent, child-a born sword seed."

"..."

Why does that feel like an insult?

Shi Lai paused, then seized the opportunity. "Grandpa, I feel there are still some things I don't understand. Could you explain it all again?"

Xia Yi raised a white eyebrow, instantly grasping Shi Lai's intentions. After a moment's thought, he said, "That will be all for the Sword Scripture for now. I'm a little tired, too. There's an hour until lunch. I'll be teaching Xiao Xian about using and combining Soul Apertures. If you want to listen, stay and listen."

Shi Lai immediately sat up straight.

Zhou Xiaoxian's expression grew serious as well.

"Everyone has three souls. We cultivators cultivate those three souls. Within them are Soul Apertures where Saint Souls can be imprinted. Their number varies according to each person's aptitude. This is innate and cannot be changed. All we can do is make the best possible use of them."

"That means we need to discuss Saint Soul star ratings."

"Saint Souls are rated from one to seven stars. Many factors go into their ratings, including the environment, the first cultivator to comprehend them, their prevalence, their power, and a whole series of other considerations. Thus, Saint Souls from one to four stars vary greatly. A higher star rating does not necessarily mean greater strength. If you discover that a certain one-star Saint Soul is stronger than a four-star one, don't be surprised."

"Next, five stars. Five stars marks a dividing line, and the variation in power within that rating is also the greatest."

"Simply put, five-star Saint Souls have a minimum threshold for entry. In at least one respect, they must surpass every Saint Soul rated from one to four stars. To use silver as an analogy, if the upper limit of power for one- to four-star Saint Souls is 9,999 taels, the lower limit for five-star Saint Souls is 10,000 taels," Xia Yi said.

That was easy to understand. Shi Lai got it immediately. Math. My math grades are pretty good.

"But the differences between five-star Saint Souls are enormous. The weakest is worth 10,000 taels, while the strongest can reach a million!"

"For instance, girl, that five-star Saint Soul belonging to your eldest senior brother's family is probably already infinitely close to the upper limit of five stars-that million taels. My Hat-to-Wings is also five-star, but its rating is primarily boosted by its ability to fly. Its offensive power is dozens of times weaker."

"Six and seven stars represent another qualitative leap. Six stars would be ten million taels. As for seven stars... haha, even I'm not sure. But the seven-star command-type Saint Soul, First Emperor, allows Ying Zheng to raise the strength of the entire human race. The known seven-star Saint Souls among humanity today can be counted on ten fingers. You can imagine."

Xia Yi smiled. "The lower a Saint Soul's star rating, the easier it is to master and become proficient with. Don't aim too high. Wait until you reach three-star Tianji before considering Saint Souls above five stars."

Shi Lai thought for a moment and raised his hand.

The gesture left Zhou Xiaoxian staring blankly, but Xia Yi understood. "A question?"

"Yes, Grandpa. Since lower-star Saint Souls are easier to master and become proficient with, and there's no fixed ranking of strength among one- to four-star Saint Souls, doesn't that make two- to four-star Saint Souls useless? Why not just comprehend the powerful one-star ones?"

"Good question," Xia Yi praised him. "That brings us to the key point I wanted to explain."

"What's the difference between a one-star Saint Soul and a four-star Saint Soul of equal strength? The amount of Saint Soul power they provide! With an imprinted one-star Saint Soul, each stage of progress provides us cultivators with one unit of Saint Soul power. But an imprinted four-star Saint Soul provides four units!"

Shi Lai turned it over in his head. So... the higher the star rating, the more mana it provides?

"Through the explorations of our Human Race predecessors, mastery of Saint Souls has been divided into 300 levels. The first 20 levels are one-star mastery, levels 20-40 are two-star mastery, 40-70 are three-star, 70-100 are four-star, 100-150 are five-star, 150-200 are six-star, and 200-300 are seven-star."

These are skill levels, right? With a cap of 300?

"Now, a question." Xia Yi suddenly grew serious. "Given that the mighty Xia Yi's mastery of his two-star Saint Soul, Sword Scripture, is six-star, level 195, how many units of Saint Soul power does it provide him?"

Huh? Another math problem? Two, six, 195... Shi Lai was still calculating when Zhou Xiaoxian answered, "2 × 195. 390 units."

"Very good. Given that Xia Yi's mastery of his five-star Saint Soul, Hat-to-Wings, is six-star, level 174, how many units of Saint Soul power does it provide him?"

"5 × 174!" Shi Lai blurted out, then went blank for a moment. Zhou Xiaoxian answered again, "870."

Shi Lai fell into profound silence.

This game is way too hard!!!

"Haha, very good. I won't give you any more complicated combined calculations. Think those through yourselves. This answers Shi Lai's question about why we don't imprint nothing but powerful one-star Saint Souls. Such cultivators would have extremely poor staying power in battle!"

Xia Yi laughed heartily. "Then can we imprint nothing but high-star Saint Souls? No, we can't do that either."

"Leaving aside our limited time and energy, and the fact that having too many high-star Saint Souls would prevent us from raising their mastery and instead make us weaker, the carrying limit of our three souls alone makes that impossible."

"For a one-star Tianshu cultivator, the three souls can carry Saint Souls totaling at most seven stars. Take you, Shi Lai. You've just condensed the Tianshu Star and imprinted the two-star Sword Scripture, so you can now imprint at most another five stars' worth of Saint Souls. Of course, whether that means one five-star Saint Soul, five one-star ones, or some other combination is up to you. But right now, you definitely cannot imprint a six-star Saint Soul!"

"As a cultivator's realm rises, this carrying limit keeps increasing, until a seven-star king can carry a total of 77 stars!"

"What is the best combination of Saint Souls? One calculated so that the total star count of the Saint Souls you master is exactly 77. If you then master all of them to the highest level, theoretically, they will provide 300 × 77, or 23,100 units of Saint Soul power."

"That might not mean much to you. Hmm, as cultivators level up, their Saint Soul power continually undergoes qualitative changes. An attack containing 100 units of Saint Soul power from a seven-star king could basically destroy half of Lieyang City!"

Shi Lai and Zhou Xiaoxian gaped in astonishment.

"So, with 23,100 units, if no one stopped him, he could wipe out the entire Zheng Kingdom!"

"Of course, even Xiang Yu, the Conqueror, falls far short of that. Generally, a king with 10,000 units of Saint Soul power already has considerable staying power among kings. But at the very least, when imprinting Saint Souls, we should aim for that, taking our number of Soul Apertures into account to maximize our improvement."

"I have seven Soul Apertures. That's so few! Even if I imprinted seven seven-star ones, that would only be 49." Shi Lai immediately raised his hand to speak. "What about you?"

"It's not terribly few, but it certainly isn't many."

Xia Yi said, "Plenty of people discover they have only two or three Soul Apertures after opening them, leaving them with very limited cultivation prospects. There are also many cultivation geniuses with more than ten Soul Apertures. The most I know of is a king with 22 Soul Apertures. I have only 16."

The one with 22 Soul Apertures was his third elder brother, Xia Shun.

Xiang Yu, the Conqueror, has 24 Soul Apertures. Does Teacher not know that either? Zhou Xiaoxian kept the thought to herself. She could not undermine her teacher. Still, which king has 22 Soul Apertures? I think the War God only has 21. The First Emperor's number of Soul Apertures is still unknown...

There's really no way to get more? They have 21 or 16, and I only have seven. What am I supposed to do with that?

Shi Lai scratched his head, growing unhappy.

I really want to kill all those geniuses with more than ten Soul Apertures! The thought flashed through his mind so suddenly that even Shi Lai himself froze.

Holy shit, what's wrong with me?

He hurriedly shook his head and continued listening attentively to Xia Yi's lesson. Yet the violence and murderous intent in his heart only grew stronger!