“Sister Zijun,” Yun Che suddenly changed how he addressed her, his tone turning serious and carrying just the right amount of curiosity. “By the way, Sister, is your background really that impressive?
“The last time… well, the first time I came here, I seem to remember your maid Qingcha saying that the vice dean of Cloud Deer Academy personally came to deliver a formal invitation to you?”
Li Zijun’s will let out a soft laugh, carrying the meaning of, “So you finally remembered to ask about this?” “What is it? Now you want to find out?”
“Before, well…” Yun Che said confidently, “things are different now. I’m your newly taken-in little brother, so isn’t it only natural for me to care about my sister?”
He said it smoothly, with a roguish kind of intimacy, and Li Zijun found it very pleasing.
“You want to know?” she asked, deliberately keeping him in suspense.
“Yes!” Yun Che answered immediately, his eyes lighting up with gossip-hungry excitement.
“Do you know Jixia Academy?” Li Zijun asked, her tone ordinary, as if she were mentioning something completely unremarkable.
Yun Che answered instinctively, “No? What is Jixia Academy? Is it famous?”
As soon as the words left his mouth, he himself felt that something was off. That name… sounded extraordinary just from the way it sounded.
In the sea of consciousness, Li Zijun’s will clearly froze, then came back with stunned disbelief. “…You don’t know?”
Her voice rose a little. “Xiao Che, you… you don’t even know Jixia Academy?”
That was like asking someone in the cultivation world whether they knew which side the sun rose from.
Yun Che’s heart skipped a beat, and he knew he might have stepped on a landmine.
He had transmigrated to the Guixu Realm several years ago, and this world had no internet, so his understanding of the Guixu Realm mainly came from the original owner’s scattered memories, which were incomplete. The original owner had merely been an ordinary disciple with limited horizons.
He only knew that this world had seven continents, and he knew about Cloud Deer Academy only because it was in the same prefecture as one of them, Xiaoyao Prefecture. Beyond Xiaoyao Prefecture, he knew nothing.
To travel from Xiaoyao Prefecture to the other continents, one had to cross the Endless Sea, and unless one was a top-tier cultivator, one had to take a mystic ark to cross that vast, boundless ocean.
He was poor, had no money, and could not afford a ticket for the mystic ark.
And before he had the system, he was just a nobody, even in Xiaoyao Prefecture. In order not to remain a nobody, he had been grinding away these past few years; how could he spare the time to care about the outside world?
“Uh… I, I really don’t know,” he admitted with a stiff face, hurriedly trying to cover for himself. “The place I grew up in was remote, and after I joined the sect I only focused on cultivating, so I don’t know much about what’s outside…”
That explanation felt a little hard to make sense of. After all, he had grown up from childhood with no one else around…
Li Zijun’s suspicion deepened obviously, and her probing will swept over him. “Xiao Che, I’m really starting to suspect… whether you are even a person from this world.”
Yun Che’s heart jumped, and he gave two dry laughs. “Sister, you’re joking. Of course I am… I just used to live rather reclusively.”
Li Zijun did not press the issue; perhaps she felt it was unnecessary, or perhaps she thought it unimportant. She began to explain patiently, her tone carrying a kind of matter-of-fact pride:
“Fine, since you asked, I’ll tell you.
In the Confucian school inheritance, there are four academies spread across the world, widely recruiting disciples and imparting doctrine and instruction; Cloud Deer Academy is one of them.
And above the four academies is ‘Jixia Academy.’”
She paused, letting the weight of that name settle.
“It is the supreme holy land in the hearts of all scholars under heaven, the true core of the Confucian school, gathering the most top-tier Confucian cultivation in this world, the most extensive texts, and the most profound inheritance.
In a sense, it is the greatest symbol of the Confucian school’s power in this world.”
Yun Che clicked his tongue in amazement. In this transcendent world, to be honored as a “holy land” and the “greatest power of the Confucian school” carried far more weight than anything ordinary.
“That’s incredible…” he murmured.
“Naturally.” Li Zijun’s tone remained flat, but the words that followed were earth-shattering. “Jixia Academy was founded by the Confucian Sage.”
The Confucian Sage! Just hearing that title made it clear he was an unparalleled figure who had founded the Confucian tradition, or at the very least a peerless sage who had revived it to glory.
Li Zijun added silently, “By the way, the Confucian Sage was also surnamed Li.”
Yun Che seemed to think of something and asked, “Also surnamed Li? Then, Sister Zijun, do you mean…?”
Li Zijun said, “Mm, the Confucian Sage is my ancestor.”
“The Confucian Sage is your ancestor?!” This time Yun Che was truly shocked, his voice carrying utter disbelief.
“Mm.” Li Zijun answered, and there seemed to be a trace of helplessness in her will, along with a calm that had long since become accustomed to it. “The Li family is the direct bloodline of the Confucian Sage.
I am the direct daughter of this generation.”
Silence. A deathly silence.
Yun Che’s mind buzzed.
He had guessed that Li Zijun’s background was extraordinary; otherwise, she would not have reached the Gentleman Realm (Nascent Soul) at such a young age, nor would she have commanded such deference from an academy vice dean.
But he had never imagined that this extraordinary background would reach straight up to the heavens!
The direct bloodline of the Confucian Sage!
This backer… was not just strong, it was practically a sky-supporting white jade pillar!
Instinctively, through Li Zijun’s throat, he let out a heartfelt exclamation full of envy and the urge to cling to a powerful patron:
“Wow… Sister Zijun, your background… really does reach the heavens!” He paused, and his tone became incredibly sincere, even a little flattering.
“I suddenly feel that being able to call you sister is a blessing I earned over eight lifetimes!
Sister Zijun, from now on I’ll follow you! If you tell me to go east, I absolutely won’t go west!”
Li Zijun was amused by him, and clear delight came through in her will. “Look at the little ambition you have!”
“Then, Sister, why did you leave Jixia Academy and come to Cloud Deer Academy?” Yun Che asked in confusion. “With your cultivation level and status, you should have been highly valued in the academy.”
The will in the sea of consciousness fell silent for a moment.
Only then did her voice softly rise:
“Because… there were too many rules.”
“Rules?”
“Jixia Academy is the holy land of the Confucian school under heaven.” Li Zijun’s voice carried complicated emotions. “There are the most complete texts, the most learned tutors, and the most profound inheritance there.
But there are also the strictest rites and laws, the densest rules, and the heaviest… expectations.”
Yun Che listened quietly.
“I am the direct daughter of the Li family, the ‘pearl of the Confucian school’ in the tutors’ eyes.” She gave a self-mocking smile. “At age 3, I recognized a thousand characters; at 5, I recited the classics; at 12, I condensed a literary heart; and at 23, I entered the Nascent Soul stage.
Everyone said I should be the next academy chancellor, that I should inherit the Confucian school, that I should… become everything they expected me to be.”
She paused.
“But, Xiao Che, I don’t want to follow the path they laid out for me!
“Have you ever heard that reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles?
You know every interpretation of ‘restrain yourself and return to propriety,’ but have you ever seen how an old farmer in the misty rain of Jiangnan prays for favorable weather and good harvests?
You can recite the doctrine that ‘the people are paramount,’ but have you ever truly looked at those hands covered in calluses?”
Yun Che said nothing and fell into thought.
“So I ran away.” Li Zijun’s voice grew softer, but firmer. “Under the pretext of traveling, I hid here in Xiaoyao Prefecture.
I wanted to see whether the principles in books were still the same outside them.
I wanted to know what the Dao I cultivated was really for.”
After a long silence, Yun Che slowly said, “Sister Zijun, you are more like a scholar than many scholars…”
The sentence came out a little abruptly, but Li Zijun’s will clearly shivered.
Li Zijun went on. “As for Cloud Deer Academy, it somehow learned that someone like me, a big shot from Jixia Academy, had come to Xiaoyao Prefecture, and it wanted to invite me to give a lecture to its academy students!”
Li Zijun then grew a bit more serious. “It’s enough that you know this; don’t spread it around. I like peace and quiet, and I don’t like drawing attention.
I left the academy and came here precisely to stay away from those halos and restraints for a while.”
“Understood, understood! Sister is traveling incognito to experience life!” Yun Che immediately chimed in. “I promise I’ll keep it secret!”
Li Zijun then added, “Still, I’m not such a rigid and inflexible person.
If you really run into any danger or trouble, you can mention my name; don’t be afraid. Sister will protect you.”
“Thank you, Sister Zijun!” “I’ll obey Sister’s decree!” Yun Che answered loudly.
Knowing that he had such a powerful backer behind him, even with restrictions and even if it could not be used unless absolutely necessary, did indeed make his mindset different.