Chapter 3135

After two months, the new disciples had gained a deep understanding of the teaching styles of the senior brothers and sisters from each peak.

If we talk about the most popular class, it must be Senior Brother Jin Chen's Introduction to Law Cultivation.

There are three reasons: first, one can openly admire the beauty of the Free and Easy Immortal Sect's number one beauty; after a class, just looking at her face makes one feel refreshed.

Second, Senior Brother Jin Chen looks impressive when he casts spells; seven-colored flowing light fills the sky, and even the simplest Spirit Guiding Technique becomes pleasing to the eye under his hand.

Third, one can occasionally earn some extra money in this class.

Zhao Fugui was the first to spot this business opportunity. He noticed that whenever Senior Brother Jin Chen gave a lecture, senior brothers and sisters from other peaks would loiter near the Wen Dao Academy, holding letters they wanted to deliver but dared not. So he took on this job, delivering love letters to Senior Brother Jin Chen for a fee of two low-grade spirit stones or two talisman papers per letter—fair pricing, honest to all.

As for what happened to those love letters after they were sent, Zhao Fugui didn't know; he only handled delivery, not after-sales. However, from his observation, Senior Brother Jin Chen always received them with a smiling grin, thanked the sender, and casually slipped them into his sleeve—whether he later read or discarded them was none of his concern.

By comparison, Senior Brother Shen Guiyan's Sword Cultivation Class is somewhat rigid. He teaches with extreme seriousness, demanding every move be performed precisely, allowing no carelessness. After a class, disciples often end up too exhausted to lift their arms. Yet the class also has its joy: sword flight, where the exhilaration of riding the wind and breaking waves can dispel a whole day's fatigue.

Senior Brother Zhao Wuju's class is also interesting; he leads disciples around the sect to catch those who violate the rules. Zhao Wuju knows the sect's disciples' guidelines by heart, so no infraction escapes his eyes. However, the disciples who follow him running around the mountain soon notice a pattern: they often end up catching Senior Brother Jin Chen.

Either they were trying to beg jewelry from the peacock spirit beast senior behind the mountain, or they were fighting Senior Brother Chenshu somewhere corner without regard to occasion. Whenever this happened, they could learn from Senior Brother Zhao Wuju what it means to 'turn a blind eye'.

Senior Sister Su Wan Zhao's Herbal Garden Class is universally recognized as a treasure among the disciples. It is filled with all kinds of strange spiritual herbs and medicines; when in a good mood, she rewards perceptive disciples with a few high-quality herbs.

Don't go to the herb garden without being careful of those few herb sheep; they look docile and harmless, peacefully chewing grass, but chewing away they might suddenly come over and kick you, or stick their heads into the freshly turned mud you just prepared.

Senior Sister Ye Xiao Man's formation class requires extra caution; learning to set up formations is fine in itself, and Senior Sister Ye Xiao Man explains it clearly enough, but the practical session is prone to mishaps, especially the teleportation formation.

As for the teleportation formation, while success is certainly convenient, once it goes wrong it is very likely to send oneself to some bewildering place. In this regard, Gu Xiaoyue has deep personal experience.

Gu Xiaoyue was that unlucky disciple who, after the teleportation formation went wrong, opened her eyes to find herself lying on the back mountain of Unending Peak; even more unluckily, she saw Senior Brother Jin Chen being pressed against a tree by Senior Brother Chenshu, their faces so close their noses almost touched. Frightened, this girl shut her eyes and shouted that she hadn't seen anything, then scrambled and crawled to activate a backup teleportation talisman, sending herself back to the academy. Afterwards she didn't dare look directly at Senior Brother Chenshu's frightening eyes for three days.

Senior Brother Feng Yao's Beast Taming class is another style altogether. On Beast Taming Peak, fluffy spiritual beasts and semi-tamed demonic beasts are everywhere—there are soft, plush-like fur beasts, beautiful fantasy-colored butterflies, and puffball monkeys that like to perch on people's heads.

Senior Brother Feng Yao is very generous; in each class every disciple can at least get to hold and pet five spiritual beasts. The feeling of being surrounded by fluff is practically like being in heaven. Of course, the precondition is not to provoke them—if you accidentally pull painfully on a spiritual beast's tail, or step on its claws, you will instantly go from heaven to a chaotic scene of chickens flying and dogs jumping.

Once, Zhou Buyi secretly fed candied haws to a fire fox; after eating, the fire fox spat out sparks on the spot, causing all the fluffy creatures to run amok everywhere. Senior Brother Feng Yao chased after two disobedient snow ferrets, while Nine Gold circled overhead chirping and directing, the scene descending into utter chaos. After that class, Senior Brother Feng Yao, unusually stern, announced the rule for the next lesson: no feeding human food to the spiritual beasts—they eat better than you do.

Senior Brother Zhao Tiezhu's Artifact Crafting class is basically a big handicraft workshop. Senior Brother Zhao Tiezhu teaches the disciples to make simple puppets and minor magical implements, from polishing components to assembly and debugging, guiding them step by step.

However, Senior Brother Zhao Tiezhu will especially remind them of one thing: do not accept Senior Brother Jin Chen's suggestions when he drops by for a visit.

After all, Senior Brother Jin Chen always comes up with bizarre suggestions whenever he visits—for instance, that time he proposed making wooden figures for a square dance; ten disciples laboured for three days to build them, and the resulting wooden figures were so noisy that all the peaks came to complain; later those wooden figures were recruited by the guard squad to stand watch, standing ramrod straight.

Senior Brother Qian Duoduo's Talisman Crafting class is comparatively mysterious; the classroom always has curtains drawn, filled with various talisman papers, cinnabar, and brushes. Talisman patterns look simple, but drawing them is extremely difficult—the amount of Spiritual Power infused depends on one's heart; aside from those naturally gifted disciples, for everyone else this class is practically like an ordinary person mistakenly entering an advanced art refresher course. After one lesson, the wasted talisman papers can pile up into a small hill.

All of the above are experiences summed up by the disciples from nearly two months of personal practice.

And if you ask them which class is the hardest to endure, everyone's answer is unanimous: Senior Brother Chenshu's Body Cultivation class.

Whether it's the body‑tempering class or the training class, aside from Zhu Baba's naturally gifted physique for body cultivation, nobody can possibly make it through intact. The intensity of Chenshu's training is such that after each lesson the other disciples feel as if they have been taken apart and reassembled—no wonder body cultivators are all monsters of strength.

That day, it just so happened that Chenshu was leading the body‑tempering class again, but the training site was chosen to be the rear slopes of Spirit Peak.

Spirit Peak lies at the junction of the nine main peaks; it is midsummer now, and the already abundant spiritual energy blends with the scent of mountain flora, making every breath feel fresh and invigorating. This somewhat eases the newcomers' suffering—enduring hardship in a scenic spot is still better than doing so in the training grounds.

After a full day of lessons, even Zhu Baba, who aspired to join Unending Peak, was left panting with his tongue out, let alone the other disciples, who all slumped sideways, wishing they could just lie down on the ground and not get up.

At last Chenshu showed a merciful side, telling them to ease up: "I'll take you to soak in the spiritual pool down at the foot of the rear mountain."

The spiritual pool isn't actually a pool; it's a combination of several sizable flowing spring pools, their water coming from meltwater at the summit, flowing down the mountainside and gathering into natural basins.

The mountain spring water sounds refreshingly cool, and the disciples instantly perked up, cheering as they followed Chenshu down the mountain path.

After walking about the time it takes to burn an incense stick, the coolness became increasingly evident; through the gaps in the leaves one could see shimmering ripples of water below. They were almost at the spiritual pool when Chenshu, walking in the lead, suddenly halted and raised a hand, saying, "Wait a moment."

The disciples behind were all moving on sheer momentum, with no time to brake, and they ended up bumping into each other one after another.

"What happened? What happened?" they asked, rubbing their sore noses and foreheads, peering out from the edge of the branches to look down.

The surface of the spiritual pool glittered with rippling light in the sunlight, clear enough to see the bottom. The person in the water had their back to them, long hair floating on the surface, currently lying sideways on a smooth stone, as if taking a nap.

"It looks like someone's in there."

"Let me take a look!"

"Hey, there's clothing over on that bank…"

Before the words even faded, a glance at the color of the robes on that bank was enough to tell who was in the water—their iridescent dharma robes were unmatched anywhere in the Carefree Immortal Sect.

"It's Senior Brother Jin Chen…" Zhao Fugui's eyes lit up, "Good heavens, am I actually going to get to see a beauty's bathing picture?"

"At last Senior Brother Chenshu spoke, "The riverside is cool and full of spiritual energy—keep tempering your bodies for another half hour."

The disciples all responded with "???".

They looked bewildered as Chenshu turned and walked toward the edge of the spiritual pool, and Zhu Baba went further, voicing a soul‑searching question in a low mutter: "Surely we're not going to have to fight and spar with Senior Brother Chenshu and Senior Brother Jin Chen in the water, are we?"

Gu Xiaoyue shook her head and answered, "…Not a fight."

Zhao Fugui watched Chenshu's disappearing back into the treeline, then glanced toward the spiritual pool and lowered his voice to ask his companions, "Who's going to make the first move? I'm dying of curiosity."

"Yeah, yeah, just take a look—we'll watch the showdown."

"Senior Brother Chenshu only said to temper our bodies for half an hour, and he didn't say we couldn't watch…"

Zhu Baba hesitated for a moment: "Ah, the senior brothers said we couldn't move, but…" He swallowed, "…but I'm curious too!"