Fellow Daoist
"Secretary-General Lin, the paperwork for the two newly recruited lecturers in the Water Virtue department has all been completed. We need your signature here!"
For more than a month, Lin Tongjiang, busy with countless affairs, had sat in the university president's office handling official business. He left early and returned late, without missing a single day, making the entire secretariat staff cry out in misery!
It was no exaggeration to say that the employment approval forms received today had drawn the attention of all of Luyu University, simply because one of the lecturers bore the surname Gu.
The Nanling Gu Household was the family of True Lord Dongyuan's wife, a great Aristocratic Clan that had held sway in the Central Palace of Yuanhuai Heaven for nearly a thousand years. Its ancestors had also produced a Weak Water Divine Core cultivator, but more than two hundred years ago, the household had left the Central Palace in anger, causing an uproar in the outside world!
Unexpectedly, at this critical juncture, the Gu Household had put forward another "Dao Child" for Yuanhuai Heaven. Dao Children were cultivators born with the destiny of a Dao lineage. At birth, phenomena descended from heaven and earth, drawing the attention of those with spiritual attainments.
Gu Changhuai, twenty-six years old. His Spirit Aperture had manifested at seven, and Huaqi had awakened him to the sixth-grade Cultivation Method "Record of Gun Transforming into a Black Fish to Seek the Sea." Three months ago, he had forged the Weak Water Immortal Foundation "Sinking Feather Abyss." He had been born with the destiny of Weak Water.
Across all of Qinghuan, only Yuanhuai Heaven could take in a Dao Child like him. Yet this time, the Gu Household had not put him forward to enter the grotto-heaven directly. Instead, they had strictly followed the rules of the past century, first having him become a lecturer at Luyu University!
It was rather funny, really. The Gu Household, which had always flouted the rules, was strictly following the regulations and procedures this time. One could only say that they had great designs.
The Gu Household was plainly intent on returning to Yuanhuai Heaven openly and honorably this time, so they would leave no loose ends for anyone to gossip about!
Naturally, Lin Tongjiang would not play any petty tricks with the approval process. He and his master cultivated Kan Water, and as for the struggle between the Weak Water and Clear Water factions of Yuanhuai Heaven, he kept as far away from it as he could!
The second was his junior sister of the same direct lineage, a clanswoman of his master, True Person Chonghuan. Fu Zhaohua, twenty-eight years old, had obtained the fifth-grade Cultivation Method "Scripture of Gathering the Four Seas and Raising Waves" from Huaqi. Half a year ago, she had forged the Confluence Water Immortal Foundation "Birth of the Azure Sea."
There was even less to be said about this junior sister. Half a year ago, he had personally gone to the Fu Household in Quanzhou to guard her during her breakthrough. She was the pillar of the Fu clan's current generation and was destined to strive for a Purple Mansion Divine Ability.
Fortunately, she cultivated Confluence Water. For his master's sake, his junior sister could cultivate in peace at Lüyu, and if she could catch the eye of some great figure in the grotto-heaven, that would be better still!
With these two new-generation Water Virtue Foundation Establishment cultivators joining Lüyu, however, the Water Virtue department, which had only just been suppressed by the Metal Virtue and lightning departments, would likely rise again!
That ran counter to his master's philosophy of governing the university. More than thirty years ago, when True Person Chonghuan took over, Lüyu had been a comprehensive university in name, but in practice, the two water Dao lineages had been fighting each other at the school.
True Person Chonghuan had felt that things could not go on like that. He had thrown his support behind Metal Virtue and lightning, and with the favorable wind of the newly established Luyu Port at his back, he had succeeded over the years in considerably reducing the Water Virtue department's standing.
In the years since Lin Tongjiang had taken charge of the secretariat, the Metal Virtue department's funding had increased year after year. Thanks to Luyu Port, the largest trading port in Jiangnan, Metal Virtue at Lüyu was thriving. Even its Rare Metal program, a veritable gold-swallowing beast, was being run with some success!
Whenever funding came up for approval, Water Virtue's lecturers and old professors would block his office door and demand more money. Lin Tongjiang, for his part, held fast to the green mountain and would not let go.
Who didn't know that the Water Virtue department at Lüyu secretly received private funding from great figures in the grotto-heaven? Since they already had a private stove, Lin Tongjiang held back their funding whenever he could, angering the old Water Virtue professors so much that they wanted to expel the Kan Water cultivated by him and his master from the ranks of Water Virtue!
Lin Tongjiang was even more shameless about it. The Kan Water lineage had always been treated as invisible at Lüyu, and in several years he had not found a single promising seedling to put forward for Foundation Establishment. Funny as it was, Lüyu's Water Virtue department could be called the largest department in the university.
The number of students it enrolled each year far exceeded that of the other departments, but the quality of those students? A complete mess. Fewer than thirty percent of the new students were at Qi Refinement, and a closer look at their names showed that every one of them was related to a lecturer or professor!
In six years, Lin Tongjiang had been unable to recruit even one Water Virtue student who passed muster. No wonder his master, despite being a Water Virtue Purple Mansion True Person, had dealt the harshest blows to Lüyu's Water Virtue department!
So be it. He and his master could be considered loners within Yuanhuai Heaven as a whole. With the addition of his newly arrived junior sister, they formed a faction of their own. At most, they could also count a certain young man of twenty who was currently forging his Immortal Foundation.
After stamping the two employment approval forms with his seal, Lin Tongjiang found himself standing by the window, looking in the direction of the Clear Frost Osmanthus Garden.
The jade-green box belonging to Jiang Wangxuan had shown no movement for more than a month. That was good news to Lin Tongjiang. Many cultivators at Qi Refinement Perfection fell at the first hurdle when forging an Immortal Foundation: the Liberation by Violence of the six wheels.
If their foundations were unsound, their Law Power insubstantial, and their True Essence bloated and weak, then once the six wheels underwent Liberation by Violence, their True Essence and Law Power would run out of control, and their bodies would return to a mortal state. Before long, their Dao would perish and their lives would end.
Jiang Wangxuan had undoubtedly passed the critical juncture of the six wheels' Liberation by Violence. With more than a month gone by, he should be at the stage where the six streams of spiritual light merged with his True Essence. It was a process where slow work produced fine results; too slow or too fast would not do.
Whether an Immortal Foundation could finally condense depended on the cultivator's own attainment. True Essence and Law Power were only the basis; understanding of one's own Dao lineage was the key. Whether one could obtain a wisp of the Immortal Foundation's divine wonder was the most crucial part of the breakthrough!
Generally speaking, a cultivator's breakthrough to Foundation Establishment took one to three months. If it took longer, their life would also be in danger.
An Immortal Foundation was, at its core, the result of a cultivator merging with heaven and earth to seek a divine wonder. But if the cultivator could not retain that Immortal Foundation, it would spontaneously connect with heaven and earth, ultimately turning into a stream of spiritual Qi and returning to heaven and earth.
The longer it dragged on, the more inclined the Immortal Foundation would be to return to heaven and earth. Thus, the prevailing saying was: "Foundation Establishment, Foundation Establishment-of ten, not one remains."
It had only been a little over a month, so Jiang Wangxuan should still have time. Lin Tongjiang silently calculated in his heart!
Honestly, allowing Jiang Wangxuan to attempt Foundation Establishment at his current age was an enormous risk for Lin Tongjiang himself. Such a move clearly violated Lüyu's relevant rules.
That was especially true for exceptionally gifted Foundation Establishment candidates, whose advancement was jointly assessed and promoted by several lecturers and professors. A written report of their research and discussions also had to be kept on file!
This was done both to protect the interests of students seeking Foundation Establishment and to protect their teachers. After all, in many people's eyes, Foundation Establishment was a task that sent people to their deaths!
With the corresponding assessment report, responsibility could be assigned clearly. Jiang Wangxuan's attempt at Foundation Establishment, however, could be said to have had none of that.
The boy had wanted to attempt Foundation Establishment, and Lin Tongjiang had not refused. He had even helped him apply for the pills needed for the breakthrough, yet the university did not even have a corresponding application report on file.
If Jiang Wangxuan failed, Lin Tongjiang would certainly be unable to escape the consequences of the procedural violations. He might even implicate his master.
But this was how Kan Water cultivators like them ought to act. If you did not take risks in your actions, how could you earn Kan Water's favor?
Take his own master: True Person Chonghuan had ruthlessly suppressed the Water Virtue department at a university directly under Water Virtue Xuantian, while greatly elevating Metal Virtue and lightning. That, too, was dancing on the tip of a blade.
And the fact that the policy could still be pushed forward, however haltingly, could only mean that his master's influence and courage were truly immense.
Just as another day of life as a beast of burden was about to end, Lin Tongjiang stretched and prepared to leave work. Suddenly, his expression changed, and he took out a jade-green box.
From time to time, the box was spouting fine wisps of Lunar Essence, while a deep, distant Grand Yin presence circled within it.
With a bang, a great hole burst open in the window of the president's office. Lin Tongjiang, secretary-general of the president's office, flew through the air from the academic affairs building, racing westward.
The secretary-general's secretary rushed into the office and nearly fainted at the sight of the hole in the window. Just what madness had seized Secretary-General Lin?
Classes had just ended, and Luyu Port was thronged with tourists. Many people watched a streak of pale cyan escaping light flash across the sky over the Central Palace!
The people below joked, "Which family's young master is returning to the grotto-heaven?"
At that moment, Lin Tongjiang could think of nothing else. There was only one possible reason for the change in the jade box: the boy had reached Foundation Establishment in just over a month. That was the Immortal Foundation "Autumn Moon Osmanthus," a sixth-grade Cultivation Method, and the Grand Yin Dao Lineage!
Three precious thousand-li sound transmission talismans shot into the sky from Lin Tongjiang. True Person Chonghuan was away on official business at the moment, and Lin Tongjiang had to summon him back to take charge of the situation!
The escaping light sped westward, passing through "Where the Clouds Are Too Deep to Know the Way." The lecturers and professors below also recognized Lin Tongjiang as the one riding the escaping light.
A senior professor in blue-gray Daoist robes, who had just finished class, said gravely to the person beside him, "Notify the academic affairs office and the campus administration office. Issue our great Secretary-General Lin a fine, and order him to provide a reasonable explanation within twelve hours for his flight through the Central Palace!"
"Yes, True Person Chonglang!"
More than a month later, Lin Tongjiang returned to the Clear Frost Osmanthus Garden. In his haste, he even got the opening incantation wrong several times. When he stepped into the garden residence, there was none of the surging Lunar Essence or overflowing Spiritual Qi he had imagined.
Instead, an air of quiet serenity greeted him. The waterside pavilions and towers were just as they had always been, but Lin Tongjiang had already noticed that streams of moonlight were flowing through the daughter plants of the Plain Shadow Cold Moon Osmanthus.
Deep along the path, clear water rippled, and Spiritual Qi blended into the stream. A man sat upright in a pavilion. A slender thread of smoke rose halfway into the air, transformed into a ray of moonlight, and merged into the garden residence.
The man turned around, holding a cup of clear tea, and smiled at Lin Tongjiang below the pavilion. "Teaching assistant, you came quickly!"
Moonlight flowed within those smiling eyes, like peach blossoms, yet he invited his friend up to the pavilion to enjoy himself like a big boy from next door!
Lin Tongjiang shook his head involuntarily, but he could not hide the smile on his face. A bronze bell in the upper pavilion rang with an ethereal sound, tea poured softly into a cup, and its delicate, secluded fragrance filled the entire room!
The man sat down at ease and raised the freshly brewed "Osmanthus Rain Tea" in both hands. Its fragrance filled his mouth, and he could not help praising it. "Fellow Daoist, excellent tea!"