The paper fox lay beside Lu Xiuyuan’s hand. On the table, a little pyramid of jade slips was piled up, written with things the paper fox couldn’t understand: “Research on a Systematic Construction of the Basic Theoretical Framework of Sword Riding: From Beginner to Mastery,” “Discussion of the Kinetic Principles and Teaching Practice of the Basic Sword-Riding Technique,” “Analysis of Sword Intent in the Swallow-Roaming Sword Art and Its Application in Actual Combat”…
A body made of paper had no sleep function, but the paper fox felt a heavy drowsiness wrapping him so he couldn’t move. So sleepy, but he couldn’t sleep; so sleepy, but he couldn’t sleep…
“Pop—”
Lu Xiuyuan placed a jade slip on top of the little pyramid, then crushed the discarded jade slips in the small trash can on the table.
Jade slips were efficient, but they turned consciousness into text indiscriminately. At first Lu Xiuyuan hadn’t been used to it and ruined several jade slips before mastering the technique. Fortunately he had just graduated, and his thesis-writing skill proficiency was still maxed, so he was able to organize his brain activity again and again.
Although it was hard to get started, he had to admit that the jade slips’ “brain-computer” typing efficiency was astonishing, and let him enjoy ahead of time the convenience of the smart brains in interstellar novels.
“With this, the teaching materials for close-range sword art principles and practice, hands-on introduction to sword flight, application and breakdown of basic sword techniques, and sword Dao fundamentals are nearly ready.” Although he didn’t know how one person could support a university, Lu Xiuyuan clearly hadn’t yet given up the idea.
“Gurgle~~”
His stomach made a loud noise, and Lu Xiuyuan picked up his phone to check the time and found it was already six in the morning.
The paper fox lying on Lu Xiuyuan’s leg felt the movement and rolled up in a tumble.
“Sect Master, are you going to take disciples? I’m going too.”
The paper fox rubbed his paws eagerly, clearly thrilled by Lu Xiuyuan’s two “appearances before the people” and disciple-takings.
Although it was the Sect Master who had taken the spotlight, he was the Sect Master’s fox! If the Sect Master had face, he had face!
“I’m only going to buy breakfast.”
The paper fox wouldn’t listen and kept pleading: “Sect Master, please, Sect Master, pleeease~”
Lu Xiuyuan had no choice but to change into a shirt and put him in his chest pocket, treating him as an abstract, cute patch on the shirt.
The paper fox poked his head out of Lu Xiuyuan’s shirt pocket and looked all around, not letting go of any chance to scout out an exceptionally gifted disciple for the sect.
“One soy milk, one fried dough stick, and a basket of xiaolongbao, eating here.”
“The xiaolongbao aren’t ready yet. Is two more minutes okay?”
“Okay.”
Even when Lu Xiuyuan queued to pay and carried his soy milk and fried dough stick waiting for the xiaolongbao, the paper fox didn’t believe Lu Xiuyuan had come only to buy xiaolongbao.
“Sect Master, why are there only elderly people here? Cultivation has to start from childhood. Unless they’re a first-rate genius, even if a sixty- or seventy-year-old man or woman is exceptionally talented, they won’t live to see their realm breakthrough and lifespan increase!”
Six-thirty in the morning was exactly when kids on summer break fell asleep after staying up late playing games and reading novels. Anyone under twenty showing up at a breakfast shop had surely stayed up all night and, afraid their parents would find out, was deliberately pretending to go back to sleep after buying breakfast.
The paper fox waited and waited but no children of the right age came. He even began to suspect that this place had bad feng shui. As for whether Lu Xiuyuan had picked the wrong place, impossible! Absolutely impossible! How could the Sect Master be wrong!
“I know! There must be a great opportunity here!” Just like yesterday, he hadn’t understood why the Sect Master wanted to go to the seaside, but the facts proved that appearing before the people at the seaside had not only seized Wenxin Sect’s thread of life but also earned fame points until his bowl and pot overflowed!
He sniffed, carefully smelling every wisp of air: “Where’s the danger? Where’s the demonic qi? Wicked petty villains, you will be judged by our Sect Master!”
Lu Xiuyuan said nothing, a little glad that the Celestial Fox’s presence was too low to easily attract anyone’s attention.
“Oh my, isn’t this Xiao Yuan!”
A delighted voice exploded beside his ear, and an old woman and a middle-aged woman came up to Lu Xiuyuan, pulling at each other.
“I said it looked like Xiao Yuan! Oh, don’t pull me, what’s wrong with saying hello when I finally see him?”
Lu Xiuyuan’s cultivation had reached Qi Refining Great Perfection, and his five senses and memory far exceeded an ordinary person’s.
The old lady’s sudden voice didn’t surprise him. He had recognized them earlier than they had recognized him.
Pretending not to know them was no longer a way out, so Lu Xiuyuan only put on a surprised look: “Oh? Granny Lin and Auntie Cheng also come here to buy breakfast.”
Granny Lin and Madam Cheng were a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law who had lived next door to his family when he was little. Perhaps because they lived too close, Granny Lin and Lu Xiuyuan’s grandmother didn’t get along.
Or rather, because Lu Xiuyuan’s grandmother refused to agree to the demolition, she had quarreled with all the neighbors and made rifts.
In the early period of the demolition, some people had thought that dragging it out would get them more housing and money, but as the developer lowered the price bit by bit, everyone got anxious. Grandma Lu wouldn’t sign, causing them to lose several thousand yuan!
Over a decade ago, several thousand yuan was no small sum. Even Grandma Lu’s best friend had cut off contact with her over this.
Granny Lin and Grandma Lu’s relationship had always been bad, and back then she had said no small number of ugly things.
Madam Cheng showed Lu Xiuyuan an awkward but kind smile: “Xiao Lu, you’ve graduated from university and are planning to come back and work?” A household with a domineering mother-in-law probably had a gentle and yielding daughter-in-law.
Madam Cheng’s son was the same age as Lu Xiuyuan, and as children they had been good friends. It was only that after Granny Lin’s family moved into their new home, the two families never contacted each other again.
Lu Xiuyuan’s gaze flicked, unobtrusively, to Granny Lin’s wrist: a solid gold bracelet with a loach-back shape and a vivid spicy-green round jadeite bangle. It seemed their family had been demolished more than once.
Lu Xiuyuan didn’t much want to chat with them, since it would remind him of his grandmother, who had not lived a good life, and only replied perfunctorily: “Mm, Lincheng’s economy is good and there are more job opportunities. I have an interview, so I’ll first—”
He wanted to find an excuse to leave first, but Granny Lin interrupted: “I heard you studied computer repair in Sha City?”
It was… never mind, an old person wouldn’t understand anyway.
Lu Xiuyuan had prepared for Granny Lin’s sharp tongue, but did not expect Granny Lin to simply look at Lu Xiuyuan with a strange and complicated expression.
“Fixing computers is so tiring, staying up late and working overtime every day, and at thirty-five you’ll have to worry about having no job. Come work at my grandson’s company, I’ll pay you thirty thousand a month.”
Lu Xiuyuan was stunned. He was a bit surprised, but seeing a glint of moisture at the bottom of Granny Lin’s eyes, he suddenly understood.
Granny Lin and his grandmother had been neighbors for decades. Although they had also quarreled for decades, and hated, resented, and cursed each other, Grandma Lu had gone without ever enjoying much good fortune. Thinking of it, would there be regret?
“No need. I’ve already found a job. I’m now a teacher at Wenxin Cultivation University.”
Granny Lin frowned: “Wenxin Xiuxian University? Never heard of this university! You’re a graduate of a famous university, so how did you end up teaching at this kind of fly-by-night university!” Having thought of something, her brows relaxed again. “But that’s good. There are winter and summer breaks and holidays, and you can pick up side jobs. That’s actually pretty good.”
As she spoke, she curled her lip again: “Still, Lu Aifen’s grandson isn’t as promising as my grandson. So what if you went to a key university? After graduating, don’t you still have to go fix computers at a fly-by-night university! My grandson started a business in his first year, and now he’s the owner of three chain murder-mystery game stores! If you don’t want to be a teacher anymore, go find my grandson!”
Lu Xiuyuan’s father took after his mother, and Lu Aifen was Lu Xiuyuan’s grandmother’s name.
Lu Xiuyuan politely declined: “No need. The cultivation university isn’t a fly-by-night university. Lu Aifen’s grandson is still more promising.”
“Hmph! You’re just like your grandmother! Short-sighted!”
Granny Lin stomped off in a huff. Madam Cheng smiled awkwardly at Lu Xiuyuan: “My mother-in-law also feels sorry for your grandmother.”
Lu Xiuyuan only smiled and said nothing.
Thinking of the many times the two had pulled each other’s hair and quarreled loudly, Madam Cheng was somewhat guilty saying this, by a bit.
“The xiaolongbao are ready. Who wanted xiaolongbao?”
Lu Xiuyuan said at once: “Me.”
The shop owner poured the first basket of xiaolongbao into a bowl and handed it to Lu Xiuyuan: “You’re good-looking, so I might forget anyone but I could never forget yours.”
“Then one more tea egg, please.”
The paper fox saw that he was still slowly buying tea eggs and was so anxious he was about to jump out and “appear before the people” for him.
“Sect Master, they dared look down on you! Hurry and fly up and give them a shock to their cultivation worldview!”
He was not some “mild as a chrysanthemum” sect guardian beast! A divine beast had to have some temper!
As it happened, neither was Lu Xiuyuan.
Cultivators contend with Heaven and fight demons. If they never contend or grab in anything, were they going to walk the “good-for-nothing” Dao? Has anyone ascended on that Dao?
But Lu Xiuyuan was truly hungry. Spiritual power couldn’t count as a meal, and he hadn’t yet reached the realm of fasting.
“Follow them and take a look.”
The paper fox was much more excited than Lu Xiuyuan. Given permission, he shot out like lightning.
Having sent the paper fox off, Lu Xiuyuan found a seat and sat down to think about the excuse he had just casually said, “being a teacher at a university.”
Although he had overturned the feasibility of running a cultivation university once, in his subconscious he still felt the university system was more advanced than the traditional sect system, with advantages too many to count.
As for how a sect with one and only one person could transform into a university, that was a very difficult problem.
No, not one, three!
“Lu Xiuyuan” could be the internal affairs staff in a hereditary designated post at the “Wenxin Cultivation University” through bloodline inheritance, and the white-clothed sword cultivator could be the specialty-course teacher of the sword Dao and the heartless Dao!
When disguised as the sword-cultivator master, Lu Xiuyuan not only wore elevator shoes to add to his presence, but also wore a wig and makeup, and the layers of ancient-style clothes hid much of his figure. Even if someone laid two screenshots over one another to compare, they could only see five or six tenths of a resemblance.
Descendants resemble ancestors, what’s strange about that!
This degree of resemblance could be fully covered up by a “bloodline” relation. After all, the cultivation-less “Lu Xiuyuan” could get the cultivation university to set up a hereditary post for him. Didn’t that explain everything?!
Lu Xiuyuan had no ability to erase his information from this world. That would require at least the Spirit Transformation stage to veil heaven’s secrets.
Even stepping back ten thousand, he still had to gain fame points to get rewards, so it was fated that he couldn’t stay low-key. The country would sooner or later investigate him to the bottom, so rather than cover things up, he’d better show his cards from the start.
A specialty-course teacher, an internal affairs director, plus a mysterious and unfathomable president, with this, the cultivation university had three teachers!
If there were techniques or tools like clone arts or puppet arts that could let several of him appear at once, the cultivation university might really not be a dream.
Lu Xiuyuan was building the university framework in his heart when a trembling pop-up box suddenly jumped out in front of him—
“Sect Master, it’s terrible! Another demon has awakened!”
It was a distress message sent by the paper fox through the Sect Master Token!
“Cultivate! I’ll let you cultivate! I’ll take Wenxin Sect and send it to the underworld, and you can go cultivate ghosts!”
“Rumble———”
A huge thunderclap fell over the Jiang family’s old residence, and the air went still because of it.
Jiang Yuhuai raised his eyebrows triumphantly at Father Jiang, then turned and, in an admonishing tone, said to Old Master Jiang: “Disrespect toward my Master, disrespect toward my Wenxin Sect, disrespect toward the Heavenly Dao. Grandpa, this is a warning from the Heavenly Dao to you. Quickly apologize—”
“Smack!”
Madam Chen slapped her stupid son on the head. Jiang Yuhuai was usually a bit lively in character, and had a bigger temper after entering his rebellious period, but he had always been a pretty obedient, well-bred, polite good kid, and most importantly, her son had a pretty high IQ and wouldn’t do such stupid things!
Angering his own father was nothing, because the idiot who had produced an illegitimate son and made the Jiang family lose face had already become a discarded piece in the Jiang family. As one of the grandchild heirs the family had high hopes for, Jiang Yuhuai had always been “doted on” by Old Master Jiang, who had even said he would let him sit in on the shareholders’ meeting at year’s end.
Disliking the illegitimate son? That was even less possible. The old man had grandsons and granddaughters by the handful, and the just-brought-back illegitimate son ranked last. He would have no effect at all on Jiang Yuhuai, this outstanding grandson.
Jiang Yuhuai had no reason to, and could not, spoil his relationship with Old Master Jiang.
Madam Chen lowered her voice: “Son, tell Mom, have you been bitten by some insect and had a stupidity gu put on you?”
Jiang Yuhuai looked at his mother aggrievedly: “Mom, even when you think I’ve been cursed with gu, you still don’t believe me when I say there’s cultivation in this world?!”
Seeing Jiang Yuhuai about to yell again, Madam Chen hurriedly clapped her hand over his mouth: “Stop making trouble—”
“Gu-da—”
Madam Chen felt her foot being pulled out of her shoe, and nearly lost her balance and fell.
“What’s going on?” She looked down. It wasn’t her foot being pulled out; her high heel had been stuck in place.
“Gu-dong, gu-dong—”
Thick, sticky black water like asphalt suddenly bubbled up from the expensive long-pile carpet, and then even the walls gushed large streams of slime.
“Ah! So disgusting! Cleaners! Cleaners, what do you eat your keep for! How can such a disgusting thing appear in the Jiang family!”
Jiang Yuhuai’s younger brothers and sisters were crying, Jiang Yuhuai’s aunt was screaming, Jiang Yuhuai’s uncle was cursing, and Jiang Yuhuai was—
Jiang Yuhuai’s overheated brain cleared, but at the same time the pain instantly left him unable to speak, and he felt as if there were a needle in his brain.
Thick demonic qi came from all directions. The crowd was scared out of their wits by the scene. The bodyguards used their bodies to slam hard against the doors and windows, but saw that where the black thick water touched skin and flesh it gave off a scorched, rotting smell.
“Mom…”
Jiang Yuhuai wanted to tell his mother to run. He saw more and more clearly than all of them, muscle texture, blood vessels, lumps of flesh… they were inside the demon’s stomach.
At some point, the entire Jiang family mansion had been swallowed into this demon’s belly.
“Master…” The sword Master had given him, if only he could swing the sword Master gave him, like when he had just swung the sword and cut—
Jiang Yuhuai was pinned immobile by that needle in his brain. His whole body trembled, and cold sweat soaked his clothes, but what he took to be “giving it his all” was only a slight tremble of his fingers.
“Use the sword.”
A familiar voice rang in his mind, a clear and cold voice that seemed to carry no emotion, and yet seemed full of earnest teaching and encouragement.
Jiang Yuhuai bit his tongue. His body, unable to tell for a moment where hurt more, let him seize control for an instant. He suddenly drew the sword, and a sword qi stabbed toward his own brow—
“Crack!”
The black qi screamed and dissipated in Jiang Yuhuai’s body.
“——————”
At the same moment, a terrifying shriek rang out, unlike the roar of any beast.
Everyone covered their ears together, but couldn’t stop their eardrums from being pierced, and wisps of blood flowed from their ears.
The darkness was split open, a sword fell from the heavens and split the entire darkness, and long-lost sunlight poured down like a waterfall, illuminating the Jiang family’s fearful, frightened faces.
A man in snow-white clothes, holding a sword, stood in the air before the sun, a faint sword intent flowing about him, his biting edge making the crowd afraid even to breathe loudly.
“Thud!” The split-open giant beast fell to the ground, and that dull sound finally woke the crowd from their shock, good heavens! Someone was flying!
Jiang Yuhuai looked up, tears pouring out, his voice choked: “Master, it’s Master who came to save us! Master!”
Only then did the Jiang family come to their senses. So he was Jiang Yuhuai’s master! Jiang Yuhuai had said just now that his master was the number one sword cultivator of the world’s number one hidden cultivation sect. A sword cultivator flying through the air, a sword cultivator splitting a beast with his sword, it seemed normal enough!
Normal, my foot!
Madam Chen asked in disbelief: “Were you really taken in by a cultivation sect, as the disciple of the number one sword cultivator?!”
Jiang Yuhuai scratched his head sheepishly: “I haven’t formally become a disciple yet…”
Old Master Jiang’s pupils quaked. He had not expected that cultivation really existed in the world, but everything he was going through now told him, seize this great opportunity!
Old Master Jiang took a deep breath, stepped forward, and bowed deeply to Lu Xiuyuan: “Daoist, may I ask how I should address your honorable name?”
Whether or not they had recovered from their shock, everyone in the Jiang family pricked up their ears to hear Lu Xiuyuan’s answer.
Jiang Yuhuai pricked up his ears too. It was embarrassing to say, but because he hadn’t yet passed the trial to formally enter the sect, he still didn’t know his master’s name.
“I am called Guanji.”
The crowd immediately repeated the name over and over in their hearts many times.
Hearing this, Old Master Jiang immediately took on a choked tone: “So it is Daoist Guanji! You not only don’t despise my Yuhuai’s dullness and are willing to take him as a disciple, but today you have also saved the lives of more than a hundred of my Jiang family. For such a kindness of rebirth, we don’t know how to thank you or show our goodwill!”
A bit overdone, isn’t it… Jiang Yuhuai secretly rolled his eyes. Wasn’t he the one who said just now he wouldn’t believe it even if beaten to death and kept saying he would take Wenxin Sect down? And now he’s saying these things so elegantly—
Madam Chen stepped hard on his foot.
Jiang Yuhuai’s features twisted in pain, but being hit by his own mother, he didn’t dare feel wronged.
And he also remembered his series of idiotic behaviors just now, and now was so embarrassed he wished he could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.
“A trivial matter, no need to dwell on it.” Daoist Guanji said lightly. “Demons are rampant. Since my Wenxin Sect upholds the righteous qi of heaven and earth, we naturally must protect the living beings.”
Old Master Jiang wanted to say more, but Lu Xiuyuan no longer looked at him.
Daoist Guanji waved his hand, and a small white porcelain bottle fell in front of Jiang Yuhuai, who reached out and caught it.
“If you want to thank anyone, thank your grandson Jiang Yuhuai.”
Daoist Guanji looked at Jiang Yuhuai: “You were attacked by the demon earliest and most heavily. If the demon hadn’t concentrated its demonic qi on you, the Jiang family would have been destroyed before I arrived.”
All of the Jiang family’s faces went pale, still frightened.
Jiang Yuhuai had been the most severely eroded one. He was a born sword bone, and although he hadn’t formally stepped onto the path of cultivation, a genius of the sword Dao defied common sense. As long as he could swing a sword and his sword intent was sharp enough, he could gain an extra thread of life.
That was why the demon had spent a whole night preparing to take out Jiang Yuhuai first, without anyone noticing.
“Oh my god, from now on our Jiang family ancestral graves won’t need to smoke, we can just worship Brother Huai!”
Although he knew his brothers and sisters were deliberately flattering him, Jiang Yuhuai was still flattered to death!