Chapter 49: Sect Dao Academy

"If I were her, I'd just switch to a different clan academy." Su Cheng said with feeling: "Or go straight to the Dao Academies run by the sects to study. Better than staying on with no hope of an outer-gate seat."

Su Jin thought to himself, what they were really after in the clan academy was still just securing an outer-gate quota.

"What are you thinking? You think some other clan academy would take her in?

Once she's expelled from the Su clan academy, no other clan academy will take her." Su Wuji said coldly: "After all, expulsion means she committed some grave offense and couldn't stay on at the Su clan academy.

Or her talent is so poor the Su clan academy can't stand her anymore.

You think any clan academy would want someone like that?"

Both Su Cheng and Su Jin were stunned.

"And you think she'd have it any easier at a Dao Academy? How naive." Su Wuji said mockingly.

The Dao Academies were places the sects set up to match the clan academies of the great families, selecting and training outstanding young cultivators of the future.

Listen well — places that select and train outstanding young cultivators of the future.

A clan academy at most wants to train a few future family elites, bellwethers, so the clan can survive and thrive.

But the moment the sects set up their Dao Academies, they cranked the pretension all the way up. Their stated mission: we train the outstanding young cultivators who will be the backbone of the sect in the future, so our so-called elite disciples must be a tier above the ones you train.

That's why the kids in the Dao Academies cutthroat-compete for real!!

After all, the Dao Academies take in far more children each year, and their demands on talent are far harsher. If you want to enter, you need at least upper-grade talent — don't even bother signing up. They won't take you!

Of course, they also hand out far more and far better resources.

So don't think the sects run only a handful of Dao Academies.

Even in Xiancheng, the city where their family lived, there were four Dao Academies.

Each Dao Academy covered an area at least one or two wards in size.

On par with the size of some small towns outside. They could hold students in the thousands.

Truly far more than what the Su clan academy could hold.

The offspring of loose cultivators hoping to join a sect, children of mortals, and scions of the various powers of the great mortal kingdoms — every year, the number of applicants exceeded a hundred thousand.

Fortunately, the mortal populations of the surrounding secular kingdoms were huge; otherwise, where would they find so many applicants of superior talent?

But once you take in that many students, it's also deadly.

This guaranteed that the competition inside a Dao Academy was more than ten times as brutal as inside a clan academy.

The competition in the Dao Academies even involved all sorts of underhanded tricks.

In any case, as long as the Dao Academy didn't catch you with hard evidence, it turned a blind eye to whatever underhanded moves everyone pulled.

All they cared about was making sure that small handful of children with the very top talent got into the sect smoothly. As for the rest, whether it was Zhang San or Li Si who got into the sect, they didn't care.

Do whatever you like, as long as nobody dies inside the Dao Academy.

"Surely the Dao Academy students wouldn't dare bully her to her face?" Su Cheng asked, tongue clicking.

"I've heard the students over there all band together into little cliques, and they're extremely bold.

Some cliques force other students without backing to kneel, to slap their own faces; to hand over the various pills and spirit-items the Dao Academy distributes; to give up rare benefit slots they've already won; to deliberately score low on the Dao Academy's major exams.

The students over there really dare to do anything.

If Qi Yi went to a Dao Academy, how long do you think she'd last?"

Su Cheng sucked in a sharp breath.

Thought to himself: Who knew the Dao Academies were this dark!!

Then, with a surge of relief, thought: Thank goodness I didn't go to a Dao Academy!

"With them running things like this, won't a lot of talented students find it hard to get into the sect?" Su Cheng asked, cold sweat streaming down his face.

"But anyone who can carve a bloody path through an environment like this and fight their way into the sect — their future achievements are never low. I hear many of the sect's Nascent Soul bigwigs originally fought their way in from a Dao Academy." Su Wuji said.

"Anyone who can fight their way out of a Dao Academy into the sect needs talent, strength, opportunity, and connections — not one can be missing. People like that are naturally more likely to surge ahead and break through to Nascent Soul than anyone else." Su Jin spoke up at this point.

"I used to think our clan academy was brutal enough, grinding us to the bone. Now it looks like the clan academy was already being very kind to us. The Dao Academies out there are the ones you really can't survive." Su Cheng said.

"It's not that you really can't survive. The Dao Academies out there are at least way more decent than the demon sects' talent-selection process. At least the students don't face the tragedy of being discarded into a talent-pit after elimination, and they certainly won't end up in a situation where even their corpses have to contribute to the sect."

"Su Wuji, stop talking, I'm going to cultivate right now. I swear I won't let the clan academy's training down, I'll definitely cultivate properly." Su Cheng shrieked and ran off to cultivate.

Su Wuji: Too timid, scared by the slightest thing.

Su Jin: "……" She should go cultivate too.

Deep in the clan academy, the principal's office.

The principal and the two vice-principals were all seated at the long table.

The principal said sternly: "Now let's discuss the punishment for Qi Yi once more.

First: fine her three thousand spirit-stones. Any objections?"

"None." Vice-principal Su Guangting said immediately.

Vice-principal Su Jiuniang also shook her head without hesitation.

"Then second: Qi Yi is expelled. Any objections?"

"None." Vice-principal Su Guangting agreed just as crisply.

But Su Jiuniang hesitated, recalling Su Zhang's desperate plea before her. "Qi Yi is only—? And she said that bottle of black-market forbidden drug wasn't hers, she didn't know how that bottle of medicine ended up in her little cabinet.

Maybe she was framed."

"She says it isn't hers — where's the proof?" Vice-principal Su Guangting retorted at once. This vice-principal was also a female cultivator, and looked even younger and prettier than Su Jiuniang, but her bearing was very cold. Like a glacier that never melted, year after year.

"No proof, and just because she says she's been wronged, you believe her?

Has your brain been swapped out for a pig's?"

"You—" Su Jiuniang was so angry she shot to her feet at once.

"Su Guangting, apologize." The principal said sternly.

"Sorry." Su Guangting's apology sounded utterly insincere.

"Su Jiuniang, sit down. I'm no fool. Since you've raised this suggestion, I'll do you the favor and let her stay for now," the principal said.

Hmph, Su Guangting directly let out a disgruntled snort through his nose.

"Third: since Qi Yi is staying, our clan school must also show some stance. After all, this involves forbidden pills — the other students either dropped out, or were held accountable before being expelled. Just letting her stay, and the only punishment is confiscating three thousand spirit stones?

So she has no future qualification to be recommended by the clan school as an outer disciple."