Chapter 464: Academy

At dusk, Wei Yuan came to Zhang Sheng's small courtyard again and saw that she was still fast asleep.

However, a piece of jade paper was laid out on the table. Wei Yuan picked it up to look, and he knew that Zhang Sheng had already gotten up to move around; perhaps it was because she was too exhausted that she had fallen asleep again.

Thinking of the madness of last night, Wei Yuan felt a bit of self-reproach. Moreover, Zhang Sheng had just reshaped her Dao body, and the next period was the critical time for cultivation; indulging in pleasure would certainly affect her cultivation base.

Wei Yuan quietly exited the room, letting Zhang Sheng rest well.

Over the next few days, apart from her normal cultivation lessons, Zhang Sheng basically did not step out of the house, either reading books or sleeping. Seeing that although she slept a lot, she still appeared quite exhausted, Wei Yuan felt self-reproach in his heart and dared not pester her again, preparing to let Zhang Sheng recuperate well for a period of time.

Furthermore, there were now more and more internal and external affairs in Qingming. The imperial court's edict merging Ningxi Prefecture into Qingming had already come down; apart from those officials the imperial court had other appointments for, the original Ningxi Prefecture officials were all merged into Qingming.

Now Wei Yuan needed to send people to take over the government offices in various places, and just the issue of selecting candidates alone kept him busy in a chaotic mess.

In addition, another major event was also put on the agenda. This day, someone reported that Li Zhi had come to visit. Wei Yuan went to welcome him personally and then brought Li Zhi to the main hall of the main peak.

Several cultivators from the Primordial Palace were already sitting in the main hall; apart from Bao Yun and Cui Yu who had other important matters, everyone else had arrived.

Wei Yuan arranged for Li Zhi to sit down and then said to the cultivators: "Today, there is a very important matter I want to discuss with everyone, and that is regarding the establishment of the Qingming Academy. Initially, I want to set up a Qingming Academy in every city, plus a number of auxiliary schools. The schools will be responsible for enlightenment and literacy, while the academies will be places to teach classics, histories, state affairs, and military strategy."

The cultivators had long known that Wei Yuan wanted to provide enlightenment for the mortals within the realm, and establishing an academy could be said to be a matter of course; this was also a good thing, so naturally, no one opposed it. However, where the academy teachers would come from was a big problem.

Currently, these people in Qingming were fine cultivating themselves, but they had absolutely no interest in teaching others, especially mortals who had neither bone structure nor Qi luck. Old Daoist Chuhe and the others taught cultivation methods in the New City, but they only taught Xu family youths or high-rank offerings who had a certain degree of bone structure and talent. Letting them go teach a group of mortals who couldn't even refine a Great Radiance Demon-Subduing Sword in this lifetime would be better than killing them.

At this time, Li Zhi said: "I have one person who can be competent as the head of the Qingming Academy. This person's surname is Cai, given name Shizhi; he is a great Confucian of the contemporary era and also a senior of mine at the academy. Mr. Cai is particularly fond of enlightening the people's wisdom; he hasn't reached a hundred years of age yet, but his students are all over the world, and he currently has over three thousand introductory disciples."

"Before this trip, I had already discussed this matter with Mr. Cai. He readily agreed and is willing to lead a hundred disciples here to contribute his strength to the spread of the Sage's teachings in Qingming."

For matters like teaching and educating people, the Four Sages Academy was more suitable; those in the Primordial Palace were all free and unfettered, and one by one, they were unwilling to associate with stupid people, so this matter was decided then and there. After Li Zhi went back, he would go to invite Mr. Cai to take up the post, and during this period, Wei Yuan had to select sites in several cities to establish the Qingming Academies.

With this matter decided, the cultivators of the Primordial Palace scattered one after another, each busy with their own things; only Feng Tingyu did not leave for a moment, preparing to rummage through Wei Yuan's place to see if there was anything delicious.

Li Zhi looked deeply at the backs of the crowd as they left before walking side-by-side with Wei Yuan out of the main hall, then said: "Who was that woman in the scholar's robe just now? It seems I have never seen her before."

Wei Yuan said: "That is my teacher, Zhang Sheng."

"Your teacher? But observing her aura, her cultivation base seems to have not yet reached the Dao Foundation? But her momentum is truly rare in the world!"

"Teacher has just recovered from a serious injury, her Dao body has been reshaped, and everything needs to start over from the beginning."

Li Zhi understood then and comforted him: "It is good that the Dao body can be reshaped; as long as the Dao heart is fine, there is no big problem. The progress of re-cultivation will be much faster."

Wei Yuan naturally could not say that Zhang Sheng's Dao heart also had problems, so he glossed over it. Li Zhi did not stay long, not even staying overnight in Qingming, and returned directly to go pick up Cai Shizhi.

Watching Li Zhi's flying boat leave, beside Wei Yuan, Tian Yu emerged from the night and said gloomily: "I remember I gave you a communication magic treasure."

Wei Yuan gave an awkward smile and said: "The signal here is not good."

"The signal is not good? Then how come my whole family collapsed?"

Wei Yuan was startled and immediately checked the Human World Renjian Yanhuo, only then understanding that the problem lay in that prayer phrase thanking Tian Yu's whole family. This phrase purely belonged to the mortals responsible for presiding over the sacrificial ceremony being clever and adding it on their own initiative; as a result, they accidentally knocked down Tian Yu's whole family.

"Is your family alright?" Wei Yuan asked with concern.

Tian Yu gave a heavy snort and said: "We Power Shamans are not so easily knocked down! Nor are we so easily injured; as long as the prayers stop, it will be fine."

Wei Yuan immediately gave an order: next time there is a prayer, the number of people must be halved; no one is allowed to increase the number without authorization, nor is anyone allowed to expand the scope of worship without authorization.

Tian Yu's eyes were deep as he said: "You are in such a hurry to find me; it would be best if you have a justifiable reason!"

Wei Yuan then led Tian Yu to the reception hall, let him sit for a while, then went to take a box decorated with the utmost luxury, came before Tian Yu, and said: "I have gotten some good goods; you take a look first."

Tian Yu opened the lid, and saw three rubies placed inside; that fishy, sweet, and decaying aura instantly made all the blood in his body restless!

Tian Yu exclaimed: "True Blood! The True Blood of a thousand-year Master Yu Jing!"

"How does it compare to the True Lord's flesh and blood from last time?" "It is not on the same level at all! This can be used for the highest-level sacrifice! It's a pity, if only there were more."

Tian Yu finally managed to move his gaze away from the True Blood and suddenly saw Wei Yuan's half-smiling expression, saying: "You have more!?"

Wei Yuan said: "There can be a little more."

Tian Yu's expression changed uncertainly, and finally, he gritted his teeth and said: "If there are fifteen drops of such True Blood in total, then I can give you double the price!"

Tian Yu saying this was truly beyond Wei Yuan's expectations, so he asked: "Why can the price double if there are fifteen drops?"

Tian Yu hesitated for a moment and said: "This counts as a core secret of my tribe; don't be uncomfortable after hearing it."

"I won't, you speak."

Tian Yu said: "When True Blood reaches a certain quantity, it can trigger a higher-specification sacrifice. If paired with enough auxiliary offerings, heaven and earth will automatically collect a portion of the power of the True Blood owner's original body, thereby raising the sacrificial effect by one level."

Wei Yuan feigned realization and said: "Then is it too little for you to add double for me?"

Tian Yu also appeared somewhat embarrassed and said: "It should indeed be added more, but this level of exchange is no longer something I can decide; it requires the Desolate Shaman elders in the tribe to decide."

Wei Yuan smiled and said: "Be more confident; the elders will definitely agree. In the Desolate Ancestor tribe, I only recognize you, so you can be more open and bolder. Oh, that's right, there will be a lot of brocade later, very much; the Desolate Ancestor tribe might not be able to handle it. You can start preparing to open up channels to other tribes."

!.

Tian Yu was struggling greatly and said: "Our two tribes were originally hostile, but now we are doing business..."

Wei Yuan laughed: "Didn't we do business before? When there is business to do, we do it; when it's time to fight, we fight. Don't think so much."

Tian Yu reluctantly convinced himself and asked: "Is there anything you want? These True Bloods are enough to open the tribal treasury; you can exchange for some things you can't usually get."

"What are the options?"

Tian Yu also knew some of Wei Yuan's preferences, so he said: "There are two more types of immortal plants, Soul Yingluo, several rare artifact-refining materials from beyond the heavens. A set of four supreme-rank sacrificial animals."

"Can I have them all?"

"How is that possible? Unless you have parts more critical than True Blood in your hands."

Once this was mentioned, Wei Yuan immediately remembered that the young girl Yin-Yang had also brought back an eye that day. It was just that the eye had been taken away by her, and he didn't know where it was now. If that eye were added, he should be able to exchange for everything.

So Wei Yuan's spiritual sense moved, and he asked the young girl Yin-Yang about the whereabouts of that eye from that day; as a result, the young girl Yin-Yang indicated she didn't know there had been any eye.

Wei Yuan was stunned on the spot; that day he had seen with his own eyes the young girl Yin-Yang pick back an eyeball with her sword, and all these True Bloods had fallen off that eyeball. For this, Wei Yuan had owed the Shadow of the Mid-Month a pile of Qi luck, and he didn't know when he would be able to pay it back.

When Wei Yuan asked again, the young girl Yin-Yang had completely lost all response, as if her Qi luck was exhausted, and she didn't even have the strength to give a response.

Wei Yuan was helpless and in the end could only exchange fifteen True Bloods with Tian Yu for one immortal plant and that set of supreme-rank sacrificial animals.

In fact, immortal plants not only could accelerate Wei Yuan's spiritual energy absorption speed, but they were also important nodes of the Human World Renjian Yanhuo; it could be said that for every additional immortal plant, even if it was a bottom-tier one like the Immortal Orchid, it could significantly improve the processing speed of the Human World Renjian Yanhuo.

Soul Yingluo was the main ingredient for the Kunyuan Longevity Pill; once this ancient-prescription immortal-pill-level longevity pill was refined, the benefits it would bring went without saying.

As for the supreme-rank artifact-refining materials, they were hard currency among powerful experts and were much more useful than immortal silver. So Wei Yuan actually wanted all the conditions Tian Yu offered, but unfortunately, the young girl Yin-Yang was playing dumb.

Tian Yu had come to discuss the details of the transaction; the actual transaction would have to wait until he returned and led a merchant caravan to come to Qingming again. Wei Yuan also needed time to organize a new batch of brocade materials.

Now Wei Yuan was buying silk on a large scale while also purchasing large quantities of Ning brocade; as such, both silk prices and brocade prices began to rise, though silk prices rose more.

At this time, in the Human World Renjian Yanhuo, after several days of hard study, Zhang Sheng finally initially mastered this brand-new array design method. Among them, the parts regarding mathematical calculations were exceptionally numerous; by comparison, the content regarding Yin-Yang and the Five Elements was much less.

Zhang Sheng closed the materials in front of her; now the books were mostly learned, and there were still several books that one could tell were quite profound just by looking at the titles, but they had already exceeded her authority, and she couldn't read them yet.

Zhang Sheng turned her head slightly; from this angle, she could see Cui Yu. As soon as Cui Yu came in, he buried his head in hard work, but strangely, from the angle of his line of sight when he came in, he could see Zhang Sheng, yet Cui Yu acted as if he didn't see her. Zhang Sheng was thoughtful: was Cui Yu's line of sight blocked, or was his spiritual sense suppressed?

(End of chapter)