Lüyu

In the 1327th year of the Qinghuan calendar, at Luyu University.

Jiang Jinyi stood uneasily among the freshmen. Not yet eighteen, she had entered the university she had dreamed of attending since childhood.

In all of Jiangnan, Luyu University was the only comprehensive university established by Yuanhuai Heaven. It had stood for over four hundred years. It primarily admitted cultivators of Water Virtue and Wood Virtue, enrolling students every two years for a course of study that generally lasted six years.

In recent decades, under the direction of its current president, Luyu University had also gradually strengthened its Metal Virtue and lightning departments, with a corresponding increase in admissions.

Luyu University's freshman welcome ceremony had always been brief. President True Person Chonghuan merely offered a few platitudes welcoming and encouraging the freshmen before stepping down from the dais.

Jiang Jinyi was not particularly tall, but fortunately, as a cultivator still in the Fetal Breathing Realm, she had been placed near the front of the crowd, as was customary. She could just make out the face of the True Person who was their president.

Solemn and dignified, he seemed no different from the principals at her high school. That did not quite match what the books said.

Purple Mansion cultivators who had mastered Divine Abilities belonged to the select few at the very top, standing above Qinghuan's two emperors and six realms. All manner of mysteries often flowed around such True Persons. According to the books, those were traces left by the circulation of Divine Abilities.

Jiang Jinyi was a little disappointed. This might be one of the few occasions in her life when she could come into contact with a Purple Mansion mighty figure, yet she had seen nothing wondrous. It was a pity.

She had been enrolled for nearly half a month. Having "tested into" this illustrious university from a prefecture-level city that was neither particularly large nor small, Jiang Jinyi felt only one thing: lost. Utterly lost.

In high school, Jiang Jinyi had begun cultivating and drawing in Qi at the age of ten, thanks to the Spirit Aperture she had been born with. Ordinary students generally had to wait until they were twelve or thirteen to have a Spirit Root implanted before they could begin cultivating.

This had given Jiang Jinyi a considerable sense of superiority from the time she started school, even though her family background was entirely ordinary.

But her older brother was no ordinary person. The various cultivation aids and medicines he mailed home sent her cultivation soaring into the sky.

Before she was eighteen, she had already reached the Embryonic Breathing Sixth Layer. Without putting in much effort, she had smoothly "tested into" Luyu University entirely thanks to her generous older brother's support.

Back home, Jiang Jinyi's cultivation stood out among her peers like a crane among chickens. Even those born with Spirit Apertures, like her, lagged well behind.

Only after arriving at Luyu University did Jiang Jinyi truly grasp that the heroes under heaven were as numerous as crucian carp crossing a river. In her Metal Virtue department alone, more than half the students had already broken through to the Qi Refining Stage at her age.

The student with the highest cultivation was already a "big shot" at the Qi Refining Third Layer. She had heard that as soon as he enrolled, he had secured a Foundation Establishment Realm instructor as his teaching assistant, responsible for planning his cultivation all the way through the Qi Refining Stage.

In an ancient sect, that would have made him a genuine inner disciple, with veteran sect elders personally escorting and protecting him.

Jiang Jinyi was envious, but there was nothing she could do, and she let out a long sigh. After all, breaking through to the Qi Refining Stage at eighteen was unthinkable at her high school.

More than anything, though, she felt lost. Only in the past two days had she gradually realized that freshmen admitted to Luyu University at the Fetal Breathing Realm either had at least extra-large Spirit Aperture aptitude or were born with Ectopic Spirit Apertures.

Generally speaking, Spirit Apertures were located in the lower Dantian. In ancient times, only those born with Spirit Apertures could draw in and refine Qi to enter the Fetal Breathing Realm. An Ectopic Spirit Aperture was one located elsewhere in the body rather than in the lower Dantian.

Those born with Ectopic Spirit Apertures often had unique gifts. Her own brother's Spirit Aperture, for example, was between his brows. It had been detected when he was seven, his spiritual sense was unlike that of ordinary people, and his cultivation had progressed rapidly all the way.

Jiang Jinyi's Spirit Aperture aptitude could not be considered poor. It was merely large; below large was medium, and, well, there was nothing below medium.

Supposedly, this system for grading Spirit Apertures had been devised by a certain ill-intentioned True Lord of Qinghuan.

Her large-grade Spirit Aperture was not ectopic, and she had not broken through to the Qi Refining Stage at eighteen. In truth, she did not meet Luyu University's standards at all.

But what could she do? Jiang Jinyi was only her brother's "accessory." As long as she reached the Embryonic Breathing Sixth Layer by eighteen, she would be admitted to Luyu University without a hitch.

This buy-one-get-one-free clause had been written in black and white in her brother's enrollment contract with Luyu University, without a single word altered.

Jiang Jinyi still remembered the afternoon her brother signed the contract. Her mother had held her, still a little girl, and wept tears of joy. Her own Spirit Aperture had only just been detected at the time.

Their Jiang family was going to have two students at Luyu University.

Local government officials came one after another to pay their family visits. According to her father, a guard station was established at the entrance to their residential complex that very night.

Over the next few years, housing prices in their complex rose severalfold. As the ancients said, when one person attained the Dao, even their chickens and dogs ascended to heaven. This was exactly that.

There was, however, another public route into Luyu University: Spirit Roots. Children of major clans who had no Spirit Aperture could have a Foundation Establishment Realm Spirit Root implanted and gain admission by reaching the Embryonic Breathing Sixth Layer at eighteen.

In her Metal Virtue Class One, half the students in the Fetal Breathing Realm were Spirit Root "geniuses" of this sort. Though they had no Spirit Apertures, the power of money paved their way, and their futures were bright.

Foundation Establishment Realm Spirit Roots gave these students the confidence that they could at least catch a glimpse of Foundation Establishment. Each one cost an astronomical sum, far beyond the dreams of a child of commoners like Jiang Jinyi.

"Jinyi, look!" Her roommate Chen Suqiu suddenly tugged at Jiang Jinyi, sounding somewhat excited.

On the dais, a tall, slender male college student with sharp, sword-like brows walked to the center of the podium. He was Xue Renya, the senior student representative at this year's freshman ceremony.

Jiang Jinyi had heard the famous name of this senior who cultivated Profound Lightning as soon as school began. He was twenty, at the Ninth Layer of Qi Refinement, and came from the Yuzhang Xue Clan.

An esteemed elder of the clan cultivated in the Thunder Palace, and that elder held Xue Renya's gifts and talents in high regard.

"Suqiu, your clan is one of Yuzhang's major families too. Have you met Senior Xue before?" Jiang Jinyi turned her head and asked quietly.

"How would someone of my standing ever get close to him? I did see him once or twice when I was little, but that was a long time ago. His family kept a close eye on him and sent him to Lüyu early on."

Chen Suqiu was tall and slender as bamboo, with open, striking features and a naturally heroic bearing. She came from the Yuzhang Chen Clan, was a Qi Refining cultivator who cultivated Qian Metal, and was also Jiang Jinyi's roommate.

Luyu University's dormitories were called dormitories in name, but each was actually a small detached villa inscribed with a complete set of spirit-gathering formations, housing two students.

Freshmen at the Embryonic Breathing Stage were given priority in being assigned a roommate at the Qi Refining Stage. The school's little scheme was easy enough to guess.

Half a month after enrolling, Jiang Jinyi, who came from a modest family, had met another wealthy young lady in her life. Everything Chen Suqiu ate, wore, and used was something Jiang Jinyi had never seen before.

Chen Suqiu was generous with her money, too. She had the little villa renovated inside and out, and even saw to every detail of her roommate's daily necessities.

According to Young Lady Chen, the pink Jenny bear toothbrush Jiang Jinyi used seriously undermined the beauty and harmony of their dormitory.

Overpowered by the power of money, Jiang Jinyi could only swallow her air of poverty and painfully put away her little pink toothbrush. In her heart, she swore, Just wait. Thirty years **, thirty years **. Do not bully a young girl for being poor.

"Fellow students, welcome to Luyu University. I believe that every freshman standing here is proud at this very moment. Directly above us, Yuanhuai Heaven watches over us, watches over every cultivator in Lüyu..."

"Thirteen hundred years ago, Immortal Lord Dongyuan upheld Qinghuan's Dao lineage and founded a nation in Jiangnan. From there, he embarked on a campaign, fighting north and south. Thirteen hundred years later, we of Qinghuan have two emperors and control six realms. Our cause continues to flourish, but we must remember the sacrifices made over these thirteen hundred years..."

"Yuanhuai Heaven was the domain of True Lord Dongyuan, one of Qinghuan's first generation of True Lords. He fell in the 'Nether Exile Tribulation,' a chapter of history filled with blood and tears. And Yuanhuai Heaven's sacrifices have continued without cease over the centuries, beginning with the True Lord and carried on by the Divine Dan cultivators, with generation after generation of True Persons advancing over their fallen predecessors on the battlefields of the six realms..."

"As freshmen of Lüyu, we should be proud, because our seniors, our teachers, and our forebears have already carved indelible Dao marks for us. We have come to Lüyu, we take pride in Yuanhuai, and we will inherit this glory and carry it into the next millennium..."

"That concludes my speech. Thank you, everyone..."

Thunderous applause followed. The instructors on the dais also clapped in evident satisfaction, and True Person Chonghuan nodded as well. Cultivators who aspired to the Thunder Palace ought to have such conviction and masculine vigor, just enough to offset some of Lüyu's gentle ways.

To be honest, eighteen-year-olds really could not resist being stirred up like this. Jiang Jinyi's little face flushed, and she silently clenched her small fists.

Present-day Qinghuan had thirty-two Mysterious Heavens, but fewer than twenty admitted outside students and operated universities. Though she had squeezed into Lüyu as her brother's accessory, she already stood at a starting line that too many of her peers would never reach in their entire lives.

The Qi Refining Stage-she had to enter seclusion and break through this month. She could not let her brother's efforts go to waste.

Chen Suqiu, by contrast, remained composed. Cultivators who aspired to the Thunder Palace had always shouldered Qinghuan's burden. What they spoke of was never empty bravado, but facts unfolding before their eyes.

That was also why the Chen family did not much want Chen Suqiu to get close to Xue Renya, even though both clans were in Yuzhang. After more than a thousand years, everyone had grown somewhat weary of fighting and wanted to live in peace.

The current situation was stable, but the Thunder Palace never knew a day of peace. Xue Renya was not the right husband for her, Chen Suqiu, so it was better to keep her distance.

Lüyu's freshman ceremony thus ended after a brief morning. School had already been in session for half a month, and everyone had gradually adjusted to its rhythm, keeping busy with their cultivation and future prospects.

Chen Suqiu took her roommate's hand, ready to return to their little home, have a simple lunch, and prepare for the afternoon's classes.

Her goal had always been clear: the Yuanhuai Heaven overhead was what the Chen Clan expected of her.

It would naturally be best if she could ascend there herself. If she could not, she was to find a suitable partner who could, bear several children, and provide the Chen Clan with one or two sources of support.

Then, in the midst of these thoughts, the roommate whose hand she held suddenly pulled free and raced ahead.

Chen Suqiu looked up and saw a cultivator dressed in white robes and a blue-green outer garment standing in front of their dormitory. He was young and tall, though somewhat thin.

His brows and eyes had a cool, distant look, yet his peach-blossom eyes were like the first rays of a spring morning. He had a straight nose and somewhat thin lips-a man with feminine features.

"Brother!"

Jiang Jinyi threw herself at her beloved brother and buried her head in his chest. In the half month since arriving in Lüyu, she had not seen the brother she missed day and night. She had not expected him to be here today, waiting for her to finish school.

The lonely younger sister's eyes grew a little damp, while her roommate froze where she stood.

Chen Suqiu had already realized that her roommate's brother standing before her was actually a cultivator at the Ninth Layer of Qi Refinement.

And he looked to be only in his early twenties!