Chapter 346: 355 Bonsai

Luo Nian is a student in the class with average grades, just barely clinging to the passing line. At this moment, he was very happy to hear Tang Zhao call his name, but not particularly surprised. Instructor Tang has always liked to randomly call upon "middle-of-the-road students" with unremarkable grades to come forward.

Luo Nian took a Jade Plate from under the pillow on his stool, hurried forward, and handed it to Tang Zhao.

Tang Zhao handed the Jade Plate to the turtle—that is, Gui Ye. Gui Ye took it in its mouth and placed it into the pillow Tang Zhao had just been leaning on, then began to tinker with it.

This pillow is, naturally, the signature Dharma Artifact of Dayuan: the Youmeng Pillow.

Back then, Tang Zhao had tried this kind of pillow at a Talisman gathering; it was extremely useful, capable of Dream-Entering, Dream-Creating, and Dream-Reading. To be able to roam through thousands of worlds within a dream was one of the best memories he had from his trip to Jianzhou.

Tang Zhao had always wanted one, but the Youmeng Pillow is extremely precious to Dayuan, and its quantity is limited. Even though Tang Zhao rendered great service in the Battle of Jianzhou and Dayuan sent many gifts, they did not give him a Youxian Pillow. Naturally, Tang Zhao was too embarrassed to ask for one directly.

It wasn't until a few months ago, when he succeeded in Sword Casting and Ju Tianxuan went up the mountain on behalf of Dayuan to offer congratulations, that the gifts were even more generous than the last time, and the gifts included a Youxian Pillow.

It goes to show that if you want to obtain precious things, friendship is one thing, but one's own value is another.

However, although he had it in his hands, Tang Zhao could not immediately figure it out. For such a high-level Dharma Artifact, not to mention manufacturing or modification, even using it flexibly requires studying for a while. Fortunately, he has Gui Ye.

The Youxian Pillow was originally a Dharma Artifact developed by Dayuan based on the Mirage Path heritage, and the Mirage Path heritage was carried out of Dayuan by the Ancestor Tortoise; it also has a heritage within their own clan. Gui Ye is proficient in this path and can manipulate the Youmeng Pillow at will.

When at Dayuan, it could even open backdoors for the Youmeng Pillows configured by Dayuan, let alone when it obtained a blank Youmeng Pillow? The three types of Talisman techniques were at its fingertips.

It is precisely by borrowing its methods that Tang Zhao developed the Youmeng Pillow into a convenient and easy-to-use teaching tool, creating dreams himself and guiding students to enter them; it is capable of everything from daily study and training, martial arts experience, to pre-exam simulations.

This is the best method Tang Zhao could think of to improve everyone's grades, and it is also very popular among the students. Although dream cultivation cannot replace real-world cultivation due to differences in the body, learning knowledge is twice the result with half the effort, not to mention that dream combat is also excellent combat experience; one only needs to digest it after waking from the dream to turn it into one's own personal experience.

Of course, there is also...

"Dream-Reading."

In the center of the classroom, a miniature canyon suddenly appeared out of thin air, like a bonsai. The one-zhang radius surrounding the canyon was pitch black, and a miniature moon floated in the air.

Looking from afar, it was as if a piece had been dug out of the center of this classroom, and a square patch of night had been inlaid into it.

"A miniature illusion?"

Li Yijian raised an eyebrow, somewhat impressed, though not overly surprised.

Similar miniature illusions are also used in the military, most commonly "miniature sand tables," used for tactical deduction, analysis, and formulating local plans. Especially when he served as a Military Advisor, he often used sand tables to study and create plans for the main general to reference.

However, Li Yijian had to admit that this miniature illusion was far superior to ordinary three-dimensional sand tables; the illusion was very delicate, without blurry color blocks, and it was clearly demarcated from the surrounding scenery, and...

That moon above seems to be...

"As everyone can see, the last exam specifically chose the night of the Calamity Moon, when the Yin energy between heaven and earth is heaviest. At this time, not only is visibility extremely poor and the spirit suppressed, but Internal Energy is also unstable. If the Mysterious Technique has not been practiced well and the Gang Qi is not solid enough, there is even a danger of the Gang Qi spiraling out of control. That is why I said before, except for a limited number of students, others should try not to use Gang Qi and try to choose Art Tools for Body Protection."

"It really is the Calamity Moon!" Li Yijian thought to himself.

He remembered that the last exam was hosted by the Jing'an Division. The Jing'an Division has always done dangerous spy and secret agent work and is extremely bold; they actually chose to organize the exam on the day of the Calamity Moon, making the risks of the exam more than double?

In that exam, the number of casualties was unprecedented, even causing the Prison-Suppressing Division and the Land-Inspecting Division to have quite a few complaints.

Previously, when they went to have a discussion with the Jing'an Division, the Jing'an Division spoke of this risk as their own proud achievement, taking pride in the dangerous and arduous work of their department in their words. They scoffed at the criticisms of the two divisions, saying they only knew how to raise delicate flowers and tender grass.

Regarding this, Li Yijian only gave a faint smile and asked one question:

"Have you ever been to the front line?"

"I will not repeat the operational guidelines for the Calamity Moon; everyone, look at Student Luo's choices."

Tang Zhao pointed, and a small figure appeared at one end of the canyon and walked into the canyon entrance.

"Not bad." Li Yijian was increasingly impressed by this illusion. Static illusions are easy to make, dynamic illusions are hard to make, and making the movements vivid and lifelike is even harder...

Judging by their tone, this illusion was something the youth had just experienced, and it could be reproduced directly like this; that is even more rare.

Could that strange pillow not be an Art Tool, but a Dharma Artifact?

Li Yijian felt a slight envy: he is only a Sword Guest and does not possess Sword Techniques himself. Having reached his position, he certainly has a few Dharma Artifacts to keep on his person, but those are only for his own use and are used as trump cards; he is not extravagant enough to make them into teaching tools for students. He himself did not have such a lavish experience in the recruit camp.

Tang Zhao stretched out his hand, spread his two fingers, and the local area of the illusion was magnified; the youth's large head appeared in the environment.

"Hahaha—" The crowd laughed. Suddenly seeing the large headshot of a familiar classmate, especially with a face full of nervousness and looking around, it was indeed quite funny.

"What are you laughing at?" Tang Zhao said sternly, "I am telling you to look at how well Student Luo did. Looking in all six directions and listening in all eight directions before entering the canyon is what a trained Martial Artist should do. Some people... did not do that."

A few youths lowered their heads slightly, feeling a bit ashamed.

Tang Zhao added, "Because before this exam, the rules told you that you could choose five paths to enter the canyon, so some people thought that it was safe before choosing a Path, and that the canyon entrance was also safe, so they could temporarily relax. However, who said that?"

Wen Caifei raised his hand weakly and said, "But... there really was no danger."

Tang Zhao said, "There really wasn't this time; the Jing'an Division let the students off the hook. But you didn't know that beforehand. The so-called 'treat the enemy with caution,' how can you ignore any possibility? What if the examiner set a trap? Could you say it wasn't allowed? In any case, you must be prepared for all kinds of situations."

Li Yijian listened from the outside and thought: This logic is not bad. But it is not because of fear of being tricked by the examiner, but because even if no one is actively deceiving, intelligence can still be wrong. On the front line, the situation changes in an instant, and one must never rely too much on known intelligence.

Immediately after, Tang Zhao began to explain the secrets of scouting for intelligence and analyzing terrain in front of the mountain valley based on the canyon terrain; this is the application of the Art of War and Tactics course.

Li Yijian listened, nodding at times and shaking his head at others, thinking: This Instructor Tang's Art of War is just so-so; the terrain analysis is roughly correct, but some details are explained incorrectly, and the layout still has flaws.

This was indeed him saying it correctly. Tang Zhao was not originally good at the Art of War and Tactics and had never studied it before. He had only been making up for it in the Training Camp for the past month or so, reading books on one hand and asking the old Teachers in the camp for advice on the other; even so, his level might not be better than the students of the same batch. That he could explain it up there was entirely due to having obtained the map beforehand and having discussed a lesson plan with Instructor Dong.

Therefore, what Li Yijian despised was not Tang Zhao's level of Art of War and geography, but the level of Tang Zhao and Dong Cheng combined.

It's just... the two of them combined still couldn't beat him.

This is also normal; how can two scholar Sword Guests compare Art of War with a General? Why doesn't he compare Sword Casting with Tang Zhao or medical skills with Dong Cheng?

After Tang Zhao finished explaining the key points of the valley entrance, he began to explain the subsequent battles all the way through.

Luo Nian chose the middle path and moved forward cautiously along the road. Along the way, Phantoms and Fierce Beasts would occasionally ambush from both sides. Luo Nian fought while moving forward; when he encountered Fierce Beasts, he would boldly move forward to fight, and when he encountered Phantoms, he would act according to the situation—fighting when he could, and thinking of ways to take a detour or even flee when he couldn't.

This is not worth mocking; the camp originally taught one to adapt to circumstances.

Tang Zhao selected several of Luo Nian's battles and magnified them to analyze his gains and losses in detail; when explaining the details, he would sometimes pause, sometimes slow down, and could even pull back the progress to explain, which was very meticulous. While the other students certainly benefited, Luo Nian himself gained even more and was overjoyed, not even caring that his own embarrassing appearance was being publicly broadcast.

This could not be prepared for in advance; it was his own foundation. However, this was not the Art of War and Tactics, but pure combat, which was his strong suit. He had experienced many battles, but in terms of pure quantity, it might not compare to some students, but he had seen a great deal of the world, and his broad horizons naturally improved his insight, making it easy to analyze these individual small battles.

Li Yijian came with the intention of finding faults again, but as he listened, he gradually nodded and sighed in admiration, thinking: At his age, to be able to explain to this extent is indeed not easy; the new generation of the Land-Inspecting Division has indeed grown up.

At this time, the classroom entered a debate session. It was Tang Zhao who chose a battle where Luo Nian was in a rather sorry state and asked the other students how they should respond.

The students immediately expressed their own opinions, bringing out one set of plans after another; it was also because Luo Nian's grades were average that everyone felt they could do better, and they were soon arguing.

Later on, the usually taciturn Ouyang Zhou also joined the discussion, and others couldn't help but shut up, but Qu Huan would not let him have his way, and they continued to argue endlessly.

Tang Zhao listened for a while and said, "It doesn't matter, let's all test it out." After saying this, he waved his hand, and the canyon changed again.

Hearing him say this, Gui Ye opened its mouth, then stopped.

Yet, the small figure of Luo Nian began to move again, fighting according to Ouyang Zhou's plan, trading blows with the Fierce Beast; it was quite a lively scene.

Gui Ye stared blankly with his two round, rolling eyes. Li Yijian, however, thought: How is his illusion Art Tool so convenient? Can it change in real-time according to one's intent? Is this what a Dharma Artifact is?

At this moment, someone gently nudged him. Li Yijian turned his head to see Huang Ping, who always only echoed his own opinions, and asked, "What is it?"

Huang Ping pointed at the Dharma Artifact inside and whispered, "Commandant, it is too strange... those attacks in his illusion... they truly carry power!"