Chapter 388: The Cultivation World's Education System

More than ten minutes later, inside the tallest building on Yuyao Star.

Chi Jiuyu sprawled across the sofa, with Zhang Yunlu sitting beside her.

You Hao, meanwhile, sat across from her.

Soon, You Hao's aide brought over a paper dossier, an exquisite jade box carved from fine spiritual jade, and a silver-gray suitcase.

Chi Jiuyu paused, then glanced at the exquisite jade box: "Are you trying to bribe me?"

"..." That single line left You Hao completely at a loss. "The Envoy misunderstands—this is to protect the crystal cards that record cultivator data."

Saying so, he took the jade box from his aide's hands and opened it directly.

Inside the jade box was a layer of purple-red velvet lining, upon which rested a single crystal card.

"After all, this item is of great importance; if it were damaged, repairs would be troublesome."

The starry sky is nothing like the Central Continent—the Yuyao Star System has no artifact refiners in this field, so repairing a crystal card would require sending it to another star system.

Moreover, decent artifact refiners are hard to find, and a careless mistake could cause part of the data to be lost.

"Oh oh! I thought you were planning to use this to bribe me."

The grade of this spiritual jade box is actually quite decent.

You Hao: "..."

Honestly, at first he really did have that thought, but after chatting along the way, he found that this Chi Jiuyu, whom the outside world had built up into something almost mythical, seemed a little... bizarre?

To play it safe, he simply gave up on the idea.

Chi Jiuyu casually took the jade box, removed the crystal card inside and handed it to Zhang Yunlu behind her, then passed the jade box back to him.

Seeing this, the aide hurriedly placed the suitcase on the table and opened it, then handed the dossier bag in his hands to Chi Jiuyu as well.

"All three copies are here; the Envoy may cross-check them."

Inside the silver-gray suitcase was a jade slip.

Paper dossiers, crystal cards, jade slips—important data is typically stored in these three forms, serving as mutual backups, and each has duplicates.

Even if one is accidentally lost, the remaining two backups can be used to quickly recover the data.

If, by coincidence, all three copies and their duplicates happened to go missing at the exact moment the Inspector arrived...

Then you're done for!

Chi Jiuyu undid the seal on the dossier bag and took out a thick stack of materials from inside; the densely packed data on them gave her quite a headache.

Hiss~!

She scratched her head, then casually waved her hand and released her Natal Sword—a blue-gold longsword that inhaled and exhaled a long rainbow, its piercing edge causing You Hao across from her to stiffen all over.

"You are..."

"Don't worry, don't worry! This is my Natal Sword; I'm just having it lend a hand."

Hearing this, You Hao's mind went a little blank.

"Lend a hand?"

"Yep yep, my Natal Sword is super smart."

Buzz buzz~!

The sound of sword-chime rang out; the blue-gold longsword, as if in agreement, swam in a circle, making You Hao's heart feel a little creeped out.

Honestly though—sword follows its master, so if the person is weird, is the sword weird too?

They watched as wisps of sword Qi, slender as silk, drifted down, lifting a page of the cultivator dossier; the sword's body trembled slightly, as if it were truly reviewing the documents.

At least it's not slicing fruit, hanging trash bags, or cracking nuts this time!

Is this what the master calls the second stage of 'Sword' Dao cultivation?!

The blue-gold longsword was utterly engrossed.

Such a scene left You Hao and his aide exchanging glances, at a loss for words.

By contrast, Zhang Yunlu had long since grown used to such things and remained perfectly calm.

After taking the crystal card from her senior sister's hand, she took out the portable crystal card reader terminal she had prepared earlier and began examining the information within.

And so it was that Chi Jiuyu reviewed the jade slip, Zhang Yunlu read the crystal card, and the blue-gold longsword flipped through the paper dossier.

This was a planet with a permanent population of five million; even though their task was only to investigate the records of cultivators under twenty-five, the information was still an immense volume.

On top of that, everything had to be carefully verified—no room for carelessness...

As a Spirit Transformation Stage cultivator, Hehuan Laozu read the fastest; next was her Natal Sword. Zhang Yunlu was only at Jin Dan, so she had to be considerably slower.

During this time, Chi Jiuyu drank three pots of tea, ate three boxes of Yuyao Star's specialty pastries, and even found time to play a couple of rounds of games.

By the time they had finished reviewing all the data and cross-checked with each other, evening had already arrived.

The clouds at the horizon were dyed a brilliant golden hue.

The light shone through the glass into the room.

The two of them had already copied the information from the jade slip.

"Phew~ Finally done!" Chi Jiuyu picked up her teacup and drained the last of it, casually stowing her Natal Sword. "These tea leaves should sell pretty well, right?"

"..." You Hao deliberated for a moment. "They're alright."

This Chi Jiuyu was just too bizarre; better to answer honestly.

"Normally, what price do you give to the starry sky traveling merchants?"

"Fifty-seven spirit coins per tael."

Not the best, not the worst—considered an upper-middle grade of tea leaves.

"What about those pastries?"

You Hao's heart stirred—could it be that she found them decent and was planning to bring some back?

"They're not worth much. If the Envoy likes them, I'll have someone send more over—consider it me fulfilling a host's duty..."

The assistant standing beside him understood at once and turned to leave.

But Chi Jiuyu waved him to stop: "Just answer what I ask."

"Two spirit coins per box."

"Oh oh!" She nodded, rising from the sofa, "Let's go, it's time for the next one."

After reviewing the records, we must conduct an on-site inspection. "My lord, please wait a moment—I'll arrange it right away." You Hao hurriedly said.

"No need. We'll go ourselves."

Before the word "go" had fully left his lips, You Hao felt a flash of light and shadow before his eyes.

The next instant, Chi Jiuyu and Zhang Yunlu had vanished from before him.

So fast!

He couldn't help but feel a chill.

Rumors said Chi Jiuyu had already reached Soul Transformation—but I'm Mid-Spirit Transformation, and I still didn't see how she left!

The Xiang Jianzong's prodigies are terrifying indeed.

"My lord," the assistant reminded him.

Only then did You Hao notice that some spirit coins had appeared on the desk.

With a sweep of his spiritual sense, he counted exactly six hundred fifty-seven.

"..."

Not a single error in content, not one!

He stared silently at the spirit coins on the desk for a while, then sighed inwardly.

He looked out the window.

All he could hope now was that they wouldn't notice anything amiss—but... why did it have to be Chi Jiuyu?

…………

Above the clouds.

Chi Jiuyu stood in midair, one hand gripping the dazed Zhang Yunlu.

When she regained some clarity, Chi Jiuyu released her: "Well? Did you notice anything odd?"

Zhang Yunlu summoned her magic power to lift herself: "I didn't spot any anomalies in the data. Did you, Ye Shijie?"

"Neither did I," Chi Jiuyu shrugged. "From the data alone, the weight increase ratio of cultivators on this planet is indeed normal."

Such inspections occur once every ten years.

During the last inspection, the entire Yuyao Star had achieved full cultivation—meaning all individuals aged twelve and above had entered the Dao path.

Among cultivators under twenty-five, one thousand seventy-three had reached Foundation Establishment, and over seventeen thousand had completed Qi Condensation.

In this cycle's cultivation records, the number who reached Foundation Establishment rose to one thousand three hundred twenty-five, and Qi Condensation completions reached over eighteen thousand.

Compared to population growth over the past decade, overall cultivation levels have indeed increased.

"But I don't believe that guy is really this honest."

Chi Jiuyu gazed at the direction she had just left; golden light reflected in her eyes, and even Zhang Yunlu beside her couldn't tell whether it was sunset's glow or the Grand Void True Sight Golden Eyes.

"Anyway, let's investigate first."

A flash of purple-gold light passed through Zhang Yunlu's eyes.

She too cultivated the Grand Void True Sight Golden Eyes, but residual effects from the Purple Altar Observing Qi Method still lingered, hence this appearance.

Only when the purple hue fully faded during the technique's activation would the Grand Void True Sight Golden Eyes be truly mastered.

"If there is a problem, Ye Shijie, how do you plan to handle it?"

"Report it to Silutang," Chi Jiuyu said bluntly, then turned to look at Zhang Yunlu. "If we resolved it ourselves, nothing would happen to us—but it would definitely affect the planet's residents. So it's best left to Silutang."

If the Planetary Warden suddenly vanished, unrest would surely follow.

"Mm."

Zhang Yunlu nodded slightly, yet inwardly sighed.

Since Master disappeared last time, although Ye Shijie still acts the same on the surface, certain details reveal she's grown far more composed.

"Hey hey hey! What's that look for? Why do you have that 'you've finally grown up' expression?" Chi Jiuyu said sternly.

"I'm the senior sister!"

…

…

Yuyao No. 1 Middle School.

Since the planet's total population isn't large, even the capital of Yuyao's fourth planet has only four middle schools.

According to Xiang Jianzong regulations, compulsory education lasts twelve years.

Generally, primary school takes three years to lay the foundation.

Under normal circumstances, only a few students manage to enter the Dao path within those three years, as children's minds are hard to steady.

Even doing homework requires elaborate avoidance—let alone how dull cultivation is at the start; few children can sit still enough to cultivate.

In middle school's six years, students formally begin systematic cultivation, and each student receives a dose of Calming Incense weekly.

In high school's three years, differences emerge based on each person's innate constitution and temperament.

During this period, the upper-middle tier begins touching the Foundation Establishment realm; the most exceptional may even reach Jin Dan!

Once one reaches Foundation Establishment, the cultivator is truly independent.

At minimum, they can secure a job to support their continued cultivation.

If there's still anything hard to uncover today, it's talent in the hundred arts of cultivation: artifact forging, pill refining, talisman crafting, array formation.

After all, the costs are simply too high.

Outside the security office.

A security guard with Jin Dan cultivation held a thermos in his hand; across from him sat a man with a very youthful appearance.

But in the Cultivation Realm, judging whether someone is young cannot rely solely on appearance.

The two spoke casually, appearing quite familiar, as if they were not meeting for the first time.

At that moment, two figures descended from the sky, followed by a voice tinged with surprise.

"Uncle Master?" (End of Chapter)