Before they knew it, the day of the academy’s opening had arrived.
Shen Xuan had gone to bed late the night before, so it came as no surprise that when he opened his eyes, he was in an especially gloomy mood.
He cursed Lu Junheng in his heart a couple of times and felt slightly better. Then, like a resentful ghost, he slowly crawled out from under the covers.
Unlike Shen Xuan, Lu Junheng never had to struggle with the air before getting out of bed. He had always been an early riser. By the time Shen Xuan stepped out of his room, steam was already rising from the kitchen.
Shen Xuan stood in the courtyard, staring at the kitchen door.
Lu Junheng came out of the kitchen and casually handed him a red bean bun.
Shen Xuan had just finished washing up and hadn’t had time to tie his hair. With a hair ribbon in one hand and the bun in the other, he hesitated for a moment before handing the ribbon to Lu Junheng.
Lu Junheng casually took it, ran his fingers through Shen Xuan’s slightly messy bed hair a couple of times, and skillfully tied it up for him.
Shen Xuan kept a straight face and let him arrange his hair. He covered his mouth and yawned, slowly waking up in the slightly chilly morning breeze.
After finishing his hair, Lu Junheng returned to the table and sat down, resting his cheek on one hand as he stared at Shen Xuan boredly.
Today was the first day of the new term at the academy. Shen Xuan had changed into the academy’s white disciple robes with gold trim. The outfit was simple yet dignified, making him look even more striking and neat.
Shen Xuan didn’t notice what Lu Junheng was looking at. While eating, he began arranging Lu Junheng’s courses.
“You can’t use spiritual power right now, so I’ve removed all the courses that involve spiritual power training. For now, I’ve chosen some courses that I haven’t finished either—A Brief History of Cultivation, Introduction to Herbal Medicine, Basic Rune Identification… We can attend them together. That way, if something happens to you, it’ll be convenient for me to collect your corpse. As for the rest, we’ll decide after you get the Thousand-Spirit Silk…”
Lu Junheng didn’t respond.
After talking for a while without getting an answer, Shen Xuan frowned and looked at him.
“What are you spacing out for?”
Lu Junheng’s gaze rested on his face, as though his mind had wandered somewhere far away.
Hearing Shen Xuan’s voice, he looked away and gazed at a cluster of winter jasmine blooming beautifully outside the window.
“Nothing. I just suddenly thought…”
The flowers were quite beautiful, and the Taichi Academy’s disciple robes were quite nice too.
Shen Xuan waited for the rest of his sentence, but nothing came.
He narrowed his eyes.
“Are you thinking about dying again?”
Lu Junheng acted as though he had never spaced out in the first place and naturally continued the conversation.
“Where’s my schedule? Let me see it.”
Shen Xuan found the schedule and handed it to him.
While Lu Junheng looked through it, Shen Xuan finished eating, tidied himself up, then stood and called out to him.
“Let’s go. If we don’t leave now, we’ll be late.”
The two of them entered the academy side by side.
This was the busiest time of year at Taichi Academy. New students were entering, returning students were coming back to continue their studies, and people were constantly moving around the academy. It was almost impossible to find an empty space to walk.
Shen Xuan was already a famous genius within the academy, and he was also well known for his gentle temperament. As soon as he appeared, someone recognized him.
A disciple who had interacted with Shen Xuan before came over and greeted him.
“Good morning, Junior Brother Shen. Long time no see.”
Shen Xuan politely returned the greeting and chatted with him briefly about their recent lives.
Lu Junheng quietly stood beside him like a background prop.
After the disciple left, Lu Junheng suddenly spoke in an exaggeratedly strange tone.
“Good morning, Junior Brother Shen.”
Shen Xuan turned his head toward him.
Lu Junheng’s voice was full of envy.
“You’re really popular, Junior Brother Shen.”
Shen Xuan’s eyes curved slightly.
“You’re popular too. Quite a few people heard about what you did during the entrance examination and are planning to challenge you.”
Following his gaze, Lu Junheng indeed saw several muscular and intimidating-looking cultivators staring excitedly in their direction. When they noticed Lu Junheng looking over, one of them enthusiastically waved his saber at him.
Lu Junheng: “…”
Everything was exactly as he remembered.
What a friendly and simple academy.
This was precisely why he had never liked showing off in his previous life. It was just too troublesome.
Lu Junheng looked away and leaned toward Shen Xuan, beginning to mutter again.
“This place is really scary. How can they bully an ordinary person without any cultivation? Junior Brother Shen will definitely protect me, right?”
Shen Xuan did not disappoint him.
“How pitiful. To avoid being bullied, you should just die early.”
Lu Junheng unhappily protested,
“You were so polite when talking to that other person just now. Why can’t you talk to me like that too?”
Shen Xuan gently rejected his request.
“No. I don’t have any grudges against other people.”
Seeing that Lu Junheng was about to start whining again, Shen Xuan simply grabbed his wrist.
“Walk faster. If we end up being late because you keep dragging your feet, I’ll kill you myself.”
The disciples of the academy were all cultivators. And cultivators inevitably had to occasionally enter seclusion, break through their cultivation, travel outside, or encounter unexpected opportunities.
Because of this, the academy was quite flexible in how it educated its disciples. For most courses, disciples could freely choose when to attend according to their cultivation schedule. As long as they completed the required number of classes and received a passing mark during the assessment, there were no other requirements.
The first course Shen Xuan chose for Lu Junheng was A Brief History of Cultivation.
It was an introductory course that most young cultivators chose when first entering the cultivation world. There was no cultivation requirement, and spiritual power wasn’t needed during the lessons. It was also one of the compulsory courses for graduating from Taichi Academy.
It was extremely suitable for Lu Junheng’s current situation.
The course was held at Wenxian Terrace in the center of the academy. Shen Xuan calculated the time and dragged the lazy Lu Junheng inside.
Lu Junheng glanced listlessly around the room, where only about half the seats had been filled.
“See? I told you we still had plenty of time. Not everyone is here yet.”
He instinctively started walking toward the back.
Shen Xuan tugged on his sleeve and pointed to the first row.
“Sit here.”
Lu Junheng objected.
“Why sit in the front? I want the seat by the window in the back. The flowers are blooming over there.”
Shen Xuan said, “I always sit in the front.”
Lu Junheng replied, “I’m used to sitting in the back.”
The front row was directly under the lecturer’s eyes. What serious disciple would willingly sit there?
The two stared at each other and refused to give in.
Qi Shu happened to walk past them with his books and innocently interrupted,
“Then why don’t you sit separately?”
If they had different habits and clearly didn’t seem to get along, why insist on sitting together?
The two people who had been arguing simultaneously turned their eyes toward the innocent passerby.
Qi Shu suddenly felt an inexplicable pressure. He blinked and his voice became quieter.
“I…I was just asking.”
Shen Xuan smiled and explained,
“Because I hate him. I don’t voluntarily separate myself from people I hate.”
Lu Junheng casually made up an explanation.
“Cultivation is all about facing difficulties head-on. If you don’t even have the determination to sit beside someone you dislike, then what will you do when you encounter greater difficulties on your path of cultivation? Run away?”
Qi Shu looked at the two of them, and his already insufficient brain began tying itself into knots.
Shen Xuan had already put his things down in the front row and conveniently pushed Lu Junheng into the seat beside him.
Lu Junheng muttered and argued with Shen Xuan for a while, verbally insisting that he wanted to sit in the back, but he didn’t actually leave.
Instead, he resigned himself to the situation, lay down on the desk, and turned his head to stare at Shen Xuan’s profile.
Qi Shu sat behind the two of them. After arranging his books, paper, and writing materials neatly on the desk, he began thinking.
It was already established that the two of them disliked each other.
Disliking someone meant feeling uncomfortable around them.
Discomfort was a test of one’s state of mind.
Passing such a test would temper one’s state of mind.
A strong state of mind meant a smoother path of cultivation, which meant becoming stronger.
No wonder these two were so powerful.
So, the more you disliked someone, the longer you should stay with them.
The logic made perfect sense.
This really was an excellent way to temper one’s state of mind!
The more Qi Shu thought about it, the more reasonable it seemed.
So he asked the unfamiliar male disciple who happened to sit beside him,
“Do you dislike me?”
The male disciple was flipping through a miscellaneous book he had brought with him. Hearing the question, he looked up in confusion.
“No. I don’t even know you.”
It was their first time meeting. Wasn’t it a little too early to decide whether he disliked him or not?
Qi Shu regretfully chased him away.
“Then don’t sit with me. We’re not suitable for each other. We can’t help each other temper our state of mind.”
The male disciple stared blankly for a moment.
Eventually, he understood what Qi Shu meant, and his confusion slowly turned into anger.
“…Now I really do dislike you. Are you trying to challenge me to a duel?”
What is wrong with this guy?
He’s obviously just looking for a fight!
Qi Shu happily patted him on the shoulder.
“Then let’s sit together. We can arrange a duel too.”
He loved competing with people.
The anger on the male disciple’s face froze.
He stared at Qi Shu for several seconds, his mind going blank.
Eventually, his expression changed into realization and sympathy.
“You’re crazy.”
Qi Shu looked at him blankly.
He only wanted to become stronger.
But the male disciple had already accepted the situation. He gathered up his miscellaneous books and quickly moved to the back.
They’re all crazy.
The new students this year really aren’t normal.
Qi Shu didn’t know what the male disciple told the others after leaving, but from that point until the class began, no one dared to sit beside him.
Qi Shu could only listen to the lesson alone while glaring darkly at the backs of the two culprits sitting in front of him.
The teacher for this course was a male elder who appeared to be middle-aged.
Although the course was officially called A Brief History of Cultivation, the historical records from the old era of the cultivation world had long since been destroyed. In practice, the lecture could only begin from the start of the new era.
Lu Junheng had already heard all of this in his previous life, so he was rather bored.
He turned his head and glanced at Shen Xuan, who was sitting upright beside him.
He decided to bother the model student a little.
He took out a blank sheet of paper, wrote a sentence on it, crumpled it into a ball, and secretly passed it to Shen Xuan.
I’m so bored.
Shen Xuan glanced at the note and wrote one word in reply.
Lu Junheng looked at the note pushed back toward him.
Get lost.
Undeterred, he passed another note.
Want to play a game with me?
Shen Xuan replied:
Get lost.
Lu Junheng continued:
Can’t you say something else?
Shen Xuan had no intention of indulging him.
Get lost.
After being told to get lost three times in a row, Lu Junheng became even more enthusiastic and continued rolling up little notes to bother Shen Xuan.
So this was how fun it was to annoy Shen Xuan during class.
He had really wasted so many wonderful opportunities when he was younger.
Shen Xuan finally couldn’t take it anymore. Seeing Lu Junheng’s hand move from the corner of his eye, he slapped it away in advance.
Lu Junheng lost his grip.
The paper ball flew out of his hand and landed in the back row.
Shen Xuan glared at him.
Lu Junheng temporarily stopped causing trouble and obediently settled down.
The elder teaching the course was an old-fashioned and serious man. His lectures were precise and concise.
However, this style was still far too dull for a group of half-grown youngsters.
In less than half an hour, most of the room was already nodding off.
The elder was accustomed to this behavior. He turned a blind eye to the disciples slumping in their seats and continued calmly with his lecture.
Qi Shu sat upright, staring intently at the book he hadn’t turned a single page of for quite some time, solemnly fighting off his sleepiness.
Suddenly, something struck him on the forehead.
He woke up from his drowsiness and looked carefully.
It was a crumpled paper note.
Qi Shu solemnly opened it and solemnly read the contents.
What should we eat for lunch?
What a difficult question.
He thought hard for a while, then seriously wrote a reply.
Yeah. What should we eat?
The academy’s cafeteria was notoriously terrible, but going down the mountain to Qingxi City was too troublesome.
So what should they eat for lunch?
He became so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn’t notice the elder approaching.
Suddenly, the elder rapped his ruler against the desk.
Qi Shu looked up.
The elder stood there holding the ruler, staring at him darkly.
“Who gave you that?”
Sleeping in his class was one thing. After all, the elder knew how boring his lectures could be.
But passing notes?
That was absolutely unacceptable.
Qi Shu: “…”
Following the basic principle that suffering punishment alone was worse than making everyone suffer together, he immediately pointed toward the front row.
“They gave it to me.”
Shen Xuan: “…”
Lu Junheng: “…”
Oh no.
They had forgotten that Qi Shu was sitting in the back.
After class ended, the elder kept the three of them behind.
He first turned his attention to Lu Junheng.
He had naturally heard the recent rumors and recognized Lu Junheng’s face.
His brows furrowed as he began lecturing him.
“Correct your attitude.”
“Don’t waste your talent.”
“Strength is important, but knowledge is important too…”
Lu Junheng’s head began spinning from the lecture, and he immediately adopted an extremely cooperative attitude, repeatedly admitting his mistakes.
Qi Shu quietly took a step toward the corner and positioned Shen Xuan in front of himself like a shield.
After dealing with the newcomer Lu Junheng, the elder turned his gaze toward Shen Xuan.
Elders who had taught at the academy for many years had practically watched Shen Xuan grow up.
This child had always been an obedient and well-behaved student.
The elder genuinely hadn’t expected to see Shen Xuan in such a situation.
Looking at the student who was universally considered the easiest to teach, he sighed.
“Xuan, I could understand the others causing trouble, but you too…?”
Shen Xuan lowered his head.
“This disciple is ashamed.”
This was all Lu Junheng’s fault.
The elder paced back and forth in front of the two of them, looking deeply disappointed.
Finally, he announced their punishment.
“Enough. All of you will go sweep the library. No spiritual power allowed.”
The two bowed and replied,
“Yes.”
Shen Xuan grabbed Lu Junheng and left.
With the two of them gone, Qi Shu, who had been hiding in the corner, quietly emerged and prepared to sneak away.
The elder looked up and immediately spotted him.
The two stared at each other.
Almost forgot about this one.
The elder coldly pointed toward the door.
“You too.”
Qi Shu held up the note and tried to plead his case.
“I only wrote one sentence, and I hadn’t even passed it yet. Do I still have to be punished?”
The elder treated everyone equally and solemnly replied,
“Yes.”
Qi Shu left with a deeply aggrieved expression.
Well, at least he no longer needed to think about what to eat for lunch.
There was no lunch anymore.
The three unlucky souls gave up on lunch, registered their punishment with the staff outside the library, grabbed some cleaning tools, and entered.
Unlike the main library, which was located in a prominent part of the academy and where every book was carefully preserved, this library tucked away in a corner of the academy was obviously much rougher.
It didn’t even have a permanent dust-removing formation.
A layer of dust had already accumulated on the bookshelves.
Most of the books here were discarded materials from the main library.
They included miscellaneous books of little value, duplicate copies, damaged books with printing errors or missing pages, old books that had been contaminated or damaged beyond proper reading, and so on.
In short, they were books that would be a shame to throw away but weren’t valuable enough to justify spending much effort preserving.
There was no classification system on the shelves either. All kinds of books were randomly piled together. Once one shelf was full, they simply moved on to the next.
Looking at the familiar scene, Lu Junheng couldn’t help sighing nostalgically.
“Oh, I haven’t been here in so long. I almost miss the days when I used to read books here.”
Time flew by, and before they knew it, it was the day the academy reopened for the new term.
Shen Xuan had gone to bed late the night before. As expected, the moment he opened his eyes, he was greeted by an especially gloomy mood.
He cursed Lu Junheng twice in his heart, which made him feel slightly better. Then, like a resentful ghost, he slowly crawled out of bed.
Unlike Shen Xuan, who had to struggle with the air itself before he could get out of bed, Lu Junheng always woke up early. By the time Shen Xuan stepped out of his room, steam was already rising from the kitchen.
Shen Xuan stood in the courtyard and stared at the kitchen door.
Lu Junheng came out of the kitchen and casually handed him a red bean bun.
Shen Xuan had just finished washing up and had not yet tied his hair. He held the hair tie in one hand and the bun in the other. After hesitating for a moment, he handed the hair tie to Lu Junheng.
Lu Junheng took it without a word. He ran his fingers through Shen Xuan’s slightly messy hair a few times, then skillfully tied it up for him.
Shen Xuan kept a straight face and let him fix his hair. He covered his mouth and yawned, slowly waking up in the slightly chilly morning breeze.
After finishing Shen Xuan’s hair, Lu Junheng returned to the table and sat down. Resting his chin on one hand, he stared at Shen Xuan out of boredom.
It was the first day of the new term at the academy. Shen Xuan had changed into the academy’s white student robes with gold trim. The outfit was simple yet dignified, making him look especially bright and composed.
Shen Xuan did not notice what Lu Junheng was looking at. While eating, he arranged Lu Junheng’s classes.
“You can’t use spiritual energy right now, so I removed all the courses that involve spiritual-energy training. For now, I chose classes that I haven’t finished yet either: A Brief History of Cultivation, Introduction to Herbal Medicine, Basic Rune Identification… We can attend them together. That way, if anything happens to you, it’ll be convenient for me to collect your corpse. We’ll decide on the rest after you get the Thousand-Spirit Silk…”
Lu Junheng did not respond.
After talking for a while without getting an answer, Shen Xuan frowned and looked at him.
“What are you staring at?”
Lu Junheng’s eyes were fixed on his face, as if his mind had wandered somewhere far away.
Hearing Shen Xuan’s voice, he shifted his gaze toward a cluster of jasmine flowers blooming beautifully outside the window.
“Nothing. I just suddenly thought…”
The flowers were pretty.
The Taiyi Academy’s student robes were pretty too.
Shen Xuan waited for the rest of his sentence, but nothing came.
He narrowed his eyes.
“Are you trying to die again?”
As if his moment of distraction had never happened, Lu Junheng naturally continued the conversation.
“Where’s the schedule? Let me see it.”
Shen Xuan found the schedule and handed it to him.
While Lu Junheng looked through it, Shen Xuan finished eating, tidied up briefly, then stood and called to him.
“Let’s go. If we don’t leave now, we’ll be late.”
The two walked into the academy side by side.
It was currently the busiest time of year at Taiyi Academy. New disciples were entering, old disciples were returning to continue their studies, and people were coming and going everywhere. The academy was so crowded that there was barely room to walk.
Shen Xuan was already a well-known genius in the academy, and he was also famous for his gentle personality. Someone recognized him as soon as he appeared.
A disciple who had interacted with Shen Xuan before came over and greeted him.
“Good morning, Junior Brother Shen. Long time no see.”
Shen Xuan politely returned the greeting and chatted with him briefly about how things had been going.
Lu Junheng quietly stood beside him like a background decoration.
Once the disciple left, Lu Junheng suddenly spoke in an exaggerated tone.
“Good morning, Junior Brother Shen.”
Shen Xuan turned his head toward him.
Lu Junheng sounded full of envy.
“You’re really popular, Junior Brother Shen.”
Shen Xuan smiled.
“You’re quite popular too. Quite a few people heard about what you did during the entrance examination and are planning to challenge you.”
Lu Junheng followed his gaze.
Sure enough, he saw several muscular cultivators who looked extremely aggressive staring excitedly in their direction. When they noticed Lu Junheng looking at them, one of them enthusiastically waved a saber at him.
Lu Junheng: “…”
Everything was exactly the same as he remembered.
What a wonderfully peaceful and honest academy.
No wonder he had never liked showing off in his previous life. It was simply too troublesome.
Lu Junheng looked away, leaned toward Shen Xuan, and began muttering again.
“This place is really scary. How can they bully an ordinary person without any cultivation? Junior Brother Shen will definitely protect me, right?”
Shen Xuan did not disappoint him.
“How pitiful. To avoid being bullied, why don’t you just die early?”
Lu Junheng unhappily complained, “You were so polite when you talked to that person just now. Why can’t you be that polite to me?”
Shen Xuan gently rejected his suggestion.
“I can’t. I don’t have any grudges against other people.”
Seeing that Lu Junheng was about to start whining again, Shen Xuan grabbed his wrist.
“Walk faster. If we’re late because you’re dragging your feet, I’ll kill you myself.”
The disciples of the academy were all cultivators. Cultivators inevitably needed to go into seclusion, break through realms, travel outside, or encounter unexpected opportunities. Therefore, the academy’s approach to education was relatively relaxed.
For most courses, disciples could choose when to attend according to their cultivation schedules. As long as they completed the required number of classes and obtained a passing stamp during the assessment, there were no other requirements.
The first class Shen Xuan chose for Lu Junheng was A Brief History of Cultivation.
It was a common introductory course for young cultivators entering the cultivation world. There was no cultivation requirement, and students did not need to use spiritual energy during the class. It was also one of the compulsory courses required for graduation from Taiyi Academy.
It was extremely suitable for Lu Junheng’s current situation.
The class was held at Wenxian Terrace in the center of the academy. Shen Xuan calculated the time carefully and dragged the lazy Lu Junheng inside.
Lu Junheng glanced uninterestedly at the room, where only about half the seats had been filled.
“See? I told you we still had plenty of time. Not everyone is here yet.”
He habitually started walking toward the back.
Shen Xuan tugged on his sleeve and pointed toward the first row.
“Sit here.”
Lu Junheng objected.
“Why sit in the front? I want to sit in the back by the window. The flowers are blooming over there.”
“I always sit in the front,” Shen Xuan said.
“I always sit in the back.”
The front row was directly under the lecturer’s watchful eye. What respectable disciple would willingly sit there?
The two stared at each other, neither willing to give in.
Qi Shu happened to walk past them carrying his books and innocently asked, “Then why don’t you sit separately?”
If they had different habits and apparently didn’t even get along, why insist on sitting together?
The two who had been arguing simultaneously turned toward the innocent bystander.
Qi Shu suddenly felt a strange pressure. He blinked and unconsciously lowered his voice.
“I… I was just asking.”
Shen Xuan smiled and explained.
“Because I hate him. I would never willingly separate myself from someone I hate.”
Lu Junheng casually made up his own explanation.
“Cultivation is about facing difficulties head-on. If you don’t even have the determination to sit beside someone you dislike, then what will you do when you encounter greater difficulties on the path of cultivation? Run away?”
Qi Shu looked at the two of them, and his already insufficient brain began tying itself into knots.
Shen Xuan had already put his things down in the front row and, conveniently, pushed Lu Junheng into the seat beside him.
Lu Junheng muttered and argued with Shen Xuan for a few moments. Although he kept saying he wanted to move to the back, he never actually left. He simply accepted his fate, lay his head on the desk, and turned to look at Shen Xuan’s profile.
Qi Shu sat behind the two of them.
He arranged his books, paper, and writing tools on the desk one by one. Looking at their backs, he began to think.
Given that the two of them disliked each other, disliking someone meant being uncomfortable around them.
Being uncomfortable was a test of one’s state of mind.
Passing that test would temper one’s character.
A strong state of mind meant a smoother path of cultivation, which meant becoming stronger.
No wonder these two were so powerful.
So the more you disliked someone, the longer you should stay with them.
The logic made perfect sense.
This really was an excellent way to temper one’s state of mind!
The more Qi Shu thought about it, the more reasonable it seemed. He turned to the unfamiliar male disciple who had happened to sit beside him and asked:
“Do you dislike me?”
The male disciple was flipping through a miscellaneous book he had brought with him. He looked up in confusion.
“No. I don’t even know you.”
They had only just met. Wasn’t it a little early to decide whether they disliked each other?
Qi Shu regretfully told him, “Then don’t sit with me. We’re not compatible. We can’t help temper each other’s character.”
The male disciple froze for a moment.
Then he finally understood what Qi Shu meant, and his confusion slowly turned into anger.
“…Now I do dislike you. Are you challenging me to a duel?”
What kind of person was this?
Wasn’t he obviously just picking a fight?
Qi Shu happily patted him on the shoulder.
“Then let’s sit together. We can arrange a duel too.”
The anger on the male disciple’s face froze.
He stared at Qi Shu’s face. His mind went blank for several seconds before his expression changed into realization and sympathy.
“You’re crazy.”
Qi Shu stared at him blankly.
He just wanted to become stronger.
But the male disciple had already accepted the situation. He grabbed his miscellaneous books and quickly moved to the back.
Everyone here was crazy.
It seemed the new disciples this year weren’t very normal.
Qi Shu had no idea what the male disciple told the others after leaving, but from that point until class started, no one dared sit beside him.
Qi Shu could only listen to the lecture alone while glaring darkly at the backs of the two culprits in the front row.
The teacher of this course was a middle-aged-looking male elder.
Although the course was called A Brief History of Cultivation, the historical records from the old era of the cultivation world had long since been destroyed. Therefore, the actual lessons could only begin from the start of the New Era.
Lu Junheng had already heard all of this in his previous life, so he was rather bored.
He glanced sideways at Shen Xuan, who was sitting upright and listening attentively, and decided to bother the model student.
He took out a blank piece of paper, wrote a sentence on it, crumpled it up, and secretly passed it to Shen Xuan.
“I’m so bored.”
Shen Xuan glanced at the note and wrote back one word.
Lu Junheng unfolded the note that had been pushed back to him.
“Get lost.”
Undeterred, he continued passing notes.
“Want to play a game with me?”
Shen Xuan replied:
“Get lost.”
Lu Junheng continued:
“Can’t you say something else?”
Shen Xuan had no intention of indulging him.
“Get lost.”
After being told to get lost three times in a row, Lu Junheng became even more enthusiastic and continued making little paper balls to harass Shen Xuan.
He had never realized how entertaining it was to bother Shen Xuan during class.
He had truly wasted so many wonderful years of his youth.
Shen Xuan was fed up. Seeing Lu Junheng’s movements from the corner of his eye, he reached over and slapped his hand away.
Lu Junheng lost his grip, and the paper ball flew out of his hand and landed in the back row.
Shen Xuan glared at him.
Lu Junheng stopped causing trouble for the moment and quietly behaved himself.
The elder teaching the class was an old-fashioned and serious man. His teaching style was precise and concise.
Unfortunately, that style was still rather boring for a group of young disciples.
In less than half an hour, most of the room was already fighting sleep.
The elder was accustomed to these children’s behavior. He turned a blind eye to the disciples slouching in every direction and continued calmly with his lecture.
Qi Shu sat upright, staring intensely at the book he had not turned a page of for quite some time, solemnly fighting off his drowsiness.
Suddenly, something struck him on the forehead.
He woke up from his sleepiness and looked down.
It was a small crumpled piece of paper.
Qi Shu solemnly opened it and read the contents.
“What should we eat for lunch?”
Indeed, this was a difficult question.
He thought deeply for a while before solemnly writing his reply.
“Yeah. What should we eat?”
The academy’s cafeteria was notoriously terrible, but going down the mountain to Qingxi City was too troublesome.
So what should they eat for lunch?
He became so absorbed in his thoughts that he failed to notice the elder’s movements.
Suddenly, the elder struck his desk.
Qi Shu looked up and saw the elder glaring at him with a ruler in hand.
“Who gave you this?”
Sleeping during his class was one thing. The elder knew perfectly well how boring his lectures were.
But passing notes during class was absolutely unacceptable.
Qi Shu: “…”
Following the principle that taking punishment alone was worse than making everyone share it, he immediately pointed toward the front row.
“They gave it to me.”
Shen Xuan: “…”
Lu Junheng: “…”
Oh no.
They had forgotten that Qi Shu was the idiot sitting in the back.
After class, the elder kept the three of them behind.
He first looked at Lu Junheng.
The elder had naturally heard the rumors that had been circulating throughout the academy and recognized Lu Junheng’s face.
His brows furrowed, and he immediately began lecturing him.
“Have the proper attitude.”
“Don’t waste your talent.”
“Strength is important, but knowledge is important too.”
Lu Junheng soon felt dizzy from listening and immediately admitted his mistakes with an excellent attitude.
Qi Shu quietly retreated toward the corner and moved Shen Xuan in front of himself.
After dealing with the newcomer Lu Junheng, the elder turned his attention to Shen Xuan.
An elder who had taught at the academy for many years had practically watched Shen Xuan grow up. Shen Xuan had always been an obedient and well-behaved student.
He truly had never expected to see Shen Xuan involved in something like this.
Looking at the student who was universally considered the least troublesome, the elder sighed.
“Xiao Xuan, I can understand the others causing trouble, but you too…”
Shen Xuan lowered his head.
“This disciple is ashamed.”
It was all Lu Junheng’s fault.
The elder paced back and forth in front of the two of them, frustrated by their behavior. Finally, he announced their punishment.
“Enough. Both of you will go clean the library. No spiritual energy allowed.”
The two bowed and answered, “Yes.”
Shen Xuan grabbed Lu Junheng and left.
The two of them had been taken away, so Qi Shu, who had been hiding in the corner, quietly emerged and prepared to slip away.
The elder looked up and immediately spotted him.
The two stared at each other.
He had almost forgotten about this one.
The elder coldly pointed toward the door.
“You too.”
Qi Shu held up the paper slip and tried to plead his case.
“I only wrote one sentence, and I didn’t even get the chance to pass it on. Do I still have to be punished?”
The elder treated everyone equally and solemnly answered:
“Yes.”
Qi Shu left dejectedly.
Well, at least he didn’t have to think about what to eat for lunch anymore.
He wasn’t going to get lunch.
The three unlucky disciples skipped lunch, registered their punishment with the staff outside the library, and entered with cleaning tools.
Unlike the prestigious main library, located in a prominent part of the academy and filled with carefully preserved books, this library tucked away in a remote corner was much rougher.
It did not even have a permanent dust-removal formation, and a layer of dust had already accumulated on the bookshelves.
Most of the books here were discarded materials from the main library.
They included miscellaneous books of little value, duplicate copies, books with printing errors or missing pages, old books too damaged or contaminated to read, and various other materials that would have been a shame to throw away but were not worth the effort of preserving.
There was no classification system either. Books of all kinds were mixed together. Once one shelf was full, they simply moved on to the next.
Looking at the familiar surroundings, Lu Junheng could not help sighing.
“Oh, I haven’t been here in ages. It brings back memories of the days when I used to read here.”
Qi Shu was somewhat curious.
“…Didn’t we all just enter the academy today? You’ve been here before?”
Lu Junheng nodded and casually made something up.
“Of course. Not only have I been here, I’ve read most of the books here. I even remember exactly where every book is. For example, An Introduction to Agriculture is the third book on the third row of Shelf A, The History of the Crystal-Shelled Insect’s Extinction is the eighth book on the fifth row of Shelf C…”
Shen Xuan listened to his nonsense and could not be bothered to expose him. He picked up a rag and started wiping the bookshelves.
Lu Junheng really was very familiar with this library, as if he were returning home.
In his previous life, he often got into minor trouble and was punished. He was sent to the confinement room sometimes, but he was also frequently sentenced to clean the library.
Most people at the academy were only familiar with the main library.
Lu Junheng, however, had not only read practically every book in the main library, but had also read most of the books in this storage library. Naturally, he knew where everything was.
That made it especially easy for him to make things up.
Shen Xuan did not believe a word of it.
But there was still Qi Shu.
Qi Shu belonged to the type of person who might actually believe someone who told him the sun was square.
So he enthusiastically played along.
“Really? That’s amazing.”
Lu Junheng: “…”
He had only wanted to tease Shen Xuan.
He had forgotten that there was also this not-so-bright friend here.
Lu Junheng sighed and explained.
“Of course it’s fake. I was just joking. I only came to the academy today. How could I have read all the books here?”
“For example, the third book on the third row of Shelf A isn’t An Introduction to Agriculture at all. It’s a miscellaneous—”
He took two steps forward and casually pulled out the book he had mentioned.
But when he saw the cover, he paused strangely.
His sentence suddenly changed.
“No, it’s a biography… A fictional biography?”
Lu Junheng flipped open the back cover and found the seal of the Fourth Divine Temple.
His eyes narrowed.
Seeing Lu Junheng fall silent, Qi Shu had no idea what was happening. He simply grabbed a broom and went to sweep the floor on the other side.
Lu Junheng found a secluded corner, sat down, and quickly finished reading the thin book.
Afterward, he held up the book and called out:
“Shen Xuan!”
Shen Xuan turned around from the other side of the library, still holding his rag.
“What do you want? To die?”
Lu Junheng asked him:
“What is the second book on the third row of Shelf A?”
Shen Xuan answered:
“Records of Customs at Lishan Mountain.”
“And the third?”
Shen Xuan thought for a moment and confidently answered:
“Notes from South Garden.”
Qi Shu listened to the conversation from a distance, and his head began to spin.
…What kind of person memorized the location of every book in a library?
What was the point of remembering something like that?
“You’re wrong!” Lu Junheng happily announced Shen Xuan’s mistake. He waved the book in his hand and helpfully explained, “It’s The Biography of Blazing Fire. It tells the story of the growth and achievements of a fictional Fourth Divine Temple Master. Let’s see… this ‘Master’ is named Cheng An? That’s quite a rare name.”
He looked around.
“A newly delivered book was placed directly onto a sealed shelf… Isn’t that against the rules? Should we report it?”
Shen Xuan’s hands paused for a moment.
Then he continued wiping the shelf.
Hearing the name, Qi Shu could not help sticking his head out.
“Cheng An? Is his surname Li?”
Lu Junheng raised an eyebrow.
“Yes. You know him?”
Qi Shu shook his head.
“No, but the name sounds familiar. He was from my great-grandmother’s generation.”
“Great-grandmother?”
Qi Shu explained:
“Yes. Apparently, he was my great-grandmother’s younger brother. My grandfather told me about him. He was extremely talented, and the family had high hopes for him. Unfortunately, when he was a teenager, he went out on a training expedition and died unexpectedly. The family was devastated for a long time. Apparently, my great-grandmother was still talking about it before she passed away.”
Lu Junheng sighed.
“That’s unfortunate. But it’s probably just the same name. The protagonist of this… fictional novel, at least, didn’t die young. He eventually became the Master of the Fourth Divine Temple.”
He put the book back on the shelf.
Qi Shu did not think much of it and returned to work after their brief conversation.
Shen Xuan smiled and reminded him:
“I don’t know whether the protagonist can become the Master of the Divine Temple, but I do know that if you keep wasting time over there, we won’t even have dinner.”
A fictional Divine Temple Master was obviously less important than a real dinner.
Lu Junheng picked up the broom again and began cleaning skillfully. At the same time, he deliberately dragged out his voice as he played the victim.
“Fine, fine, I’m working already. Stop rushing me. When it’s time for dinner, you two can go eat. I’ll finish the rest myself.”
Shen Xuan coldly snorted.
In the end, the two still left together.
As soon as lunchtime arrived, Qi Shu happily ran off like a rat escaping its hole.
Shen Xuan stayed behind to supervise Lu Junheng until he finished the last part of the work.
The two walked out of the library side by side.
It was already late.
The sky had been overcast all day, so it was difficult to tell whether the sun had already set.
They walked along a narrow mountain path.
Lu Junheng walked ahead, while Shen Xuan followed behind.
Watching the back of the person in front of him, Shen Xuan suddenly remembered something from the past.
This path was secluded, and in his previous life Shen Xuan often took it when returning home from the academy.
Back then, he would occasionally run into Lu Junheng coming out of the library after being punished, covered in dust and looking disheveled.
When the two encountered each other, they usually did not even say hello.
They would simply pass each other from a certain distance away, just like strangers would.
Then Shen Xuan would watch Lu Junheng disappear around the end of the mountain path in only a few quick steps, like an agile cat.
It was strange.
When they were sixteen, they were hardly familiar with each other.
Yet whenever they looked back on those years, they could always find traces of each other in their memories of youth.
…Even with his prejudice, Shen Xuan probably had to admit that Lu Junheng really was someone who left a strong impression.
While Shen Xuan was reminiscing about their younger days, Lu Junheng, who had been walking quietly ahead, suddenly turned around.
“Guess what I’m thinking about.”
Shen Xuan gave him a friendly guess.
“Dying?”
Lu Junheng skillfully ignored his friendly suggestion.
“I was thinking about one time when I came out of the library. You were standing exactly where I’m standing now.”
He paused.
“The sunset that day was beautiful.”
He seemed unusually awkward for a moment, then cleared his throat and added:
“…Just as beautiful as today’s.”
Shen Xuan frowned.
It was hard not to suspect that Lu Junheng was taking the opportunity to insult him.
“It’s cloudy today.”
The clouds were too thick for the sunset to shine through.
Lu Junheng: “…”
He changed the subject.
“Let’s buy some chili peppers. I want to eat spicy numbing chicken today.”
Shen Xuan genuinely felt that he was provoking him now.
“Do you want to die?”
For the rest of the journey, Lu Junheng remained strangely sulky.
One moment he sarcastically announced that he was going to move out. The next, he threatened to go back and throw away Shen Xuan’s candy jar.
Shen Xuan had no idea what he was trying to accomplish.
He tolerated it for a while, but eventually could not take it anymore and concluded that Lu Junheng must simply want to die.
He continued dragging him home.
Halfway there, a young man wearing academy robes suddenly walked toward them.
The other person seemed distracted and did not notice anyone on the path. He walked directly into Shen Xuan’s shoulder.
He looked up.
The moment he saw Shen Xuan’s face, his expression turned pale as if he had seen a ghost.
He stammered out an apology.
“Junior… Junior Brother Shen, I’m sorry. I wasn’t watching where I was going.”
Without waiting for Shen Xuan to respond, he hurriedly ran past them.
Lu Junheng suddenly stopped being sulky.
He turned and looked at the man’s departing figure, his expression unreadable.
“Do you know who that was?”
Shen Xuan thought for a moment.
“Jiang Shaoyuan. He entered the academy a year before me. We haven’t interacted much. Why? Is there something wrong with him?”
Lu Junheng threw the question back at him.
“Why are you asking me? Don’t you know what kind of history you have with him?”
“History?”
Shen Xuan frowned and thought for a moment before finally digging up a tiny fragment of memory involving that person.
“I once caught him badmouthing me to someone else. Does that count?”
It had been something along the lines of saying that Shen Xuan had only achieved his current position because he had been born into a good family.
He had both excellent talent and a powerful father to plan his future for him.
Apparently, he was actually an unpleasant person and would eventually get into trouble.
If Jiang Shaoyuan had been given the same conditions, he claimed he would have been far more successful.
Being exceptionally outstanding attracted more than admiration.
It also attracted jealousy.
There would always be people hoping to see Shen Xuan fall.
After hearing those remarks, Shen Xuan politely invited him onto the dueling platform and thoroughly beat him up.
Although Shen Chenghe later punished him for “failing to show friendship toward his fellow disciples,” Shen Xuan was certain that if the same thing happened again, he would deal with it in exactly the same way.
He did not care what people said about him behind his back.
But saying it directly in front of him was another matter.
And that was why Jiang Shaoyuan looked like that whenever he saw Shen Xuan afterward.
As far as Shen Xuan was concerned, the matter was over.
He would not kill someone over a few insults. In fact, unless he happened to see Jiang Shaoyuan, he would probably not even remember the man’s existence.
…Later, Jiang Shaoyuan seemed to have died in some kind of accident.
After hearing the story, Lu Junheng nodded.
“I see.”
Shen Xuan asked again:
“What exactly is wrong with him?”
Lu Junheng casually replied:
“I just thought the way he looked at you was strange, so I asked.”
He moved to Shen Xuan’s left side, placed a hand on his shoulder, and started complaining again.
“Come on. I want spicy numbing chicken.”
Shen Xuan: “…”
Lu Junheng was seriously annoying.
Shen Xuan cooked dinner.
Under Lu Junheng’s relentless demands, two spicy dishes were added to the table.
After dinner, Shen Xuan sent Lu Junheng to wash the dishes while he walked over to the window and closed it.
Damp rain filled the air outside.
After being overcast all day, the weather had finally begun to rain.
After dinner, Lu Junheng surprisingly did not cause any more trouble, and the two soon went to rest.
Around midnight, Shen Xuan put on a robe and opened the window.
The loud patter of rain immediately poured into the room.
The rain was getting heavier.
Shen Xuan looked toward Lu Junheng’s room.
There was no light.
…And no one inside.
He knew it.
Lu Junheng really was a troublemaker.
Shen Xuan put on his clothes, took an umbrella, and left.
Somewhere in the wilderness outside the territory of Taiyi Academy, a strange blood-red formation had been drawn across the ground.
A young man was crouching in front of it.
It was Jiang Shaoyuan, whom the two had encountered earlier that day.
He stared nervously at the formation, calculating the time. Without realizing it, he muttered:
“It should be coming soon, right? It should be time…”
A figure emerged from the darkness.
Lu Junheng, who had stayed out all night, silently approached from behind under the cover of the rain.
He gently patted Jiang Shaoyuan’s shoulder.
“Waiting for me?”
Jiang Shaoyuan turned around.
The moment he saw Lu Junheng’s face, his pupils contracted.
He scrambled backward several steps and quickly drew his sword.
“You’re… the one beside Shen Xuan today… Lu Junheng!”
After his performance during the entrance examination, Lu Junheng’s face had become fairly recognizable throughout the academy.
Seeing his reaction, Lu Junheng guessed what was happening.
“Ah, I understand. Are you wondering why the person who came is me? Or are you wondering why I haven’t lost my mind?”
Lu Junheng took out a black pill and kindly explained:
“Because the thing is on me. It uses the spiritual energy inside a person’s body as a medium. Since I have no spiritual energy, it doesn’t work on me.”
It was the same thing Jiang Shaoyuan had secretly placed on Shen Xuan when he bumped into him earlier.
Lu Junheng mercilessly mocked him.
“But even if that thing had reached Shen Xuan as you intended, you still wouldn’t have succeeded. This method is far too clumsy. If I hadn’t intervened, Shen Xuan probably would have noticed something was wrong long before now.”
Jiang Shaoyuan’s hand trembled around his sword.
He tried to bluff his way through it.
“I… I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Lu Junheng sighed and bluntly exposed his intentions.
“Do I really need to explain? It’s the Spirit-Swapping Technique, isn’t it? Taking someone else’s spiritual root and putting it into your own body so you can inherit their talent and abilities.”
“As for this pill… it’s used to separate a person’s spiritual root. It also controls the person who takes it and makes them instinctively come to the location of the spirit-swapping formation, right?”
The moment he heard the name, Jiang Shaoyuan was almost horrified out of his mind.
“…How do you know about the Spirit-Swapping Technique?”
This was clearly a forbidden evil technique.
Even he had only learned about it by chance from some incomplete ancient records found in a secret realm.
An ordinary righteous cultivator would never know about it.
Who exactly was this Lu Junheng?
Lu Junheng could not help laughing.
“Oh? Are you trying to compete with me over how much we know about forbidden techniques?”
This was the first time he had met someone who dared to compete with him in this area.
Jiang Shaoyuan was already beginning to break down. His voice rose uncontrollably.
“What exactly do you want?”
“Shen Xuan is the kind of person who only strikes back when someone provokes him. If you had fallen into his hands, you would probably already be facing the academy’s disciplinary proceedings. If you were lucky, you might even keep your life.”
“But unfortunately, I discovered you first.”
Lu Junheng casually tossed the pill up and down in his hand, a lazy smile playing at the corner of his lips.
“Unlike my leader, I’m not particularly good at fighting on the front lines. Waiting until someone provokes me before killing them is too late for me.”
“I prefer eliminating a threat on the very first day the conspiracy begins.”
“My purpose is simple. Whatever you wanted to do, you can bear the consequences yourself.”
He held out the pill toward Jiang Shaoyuan.
“This thing will work if you take it directly. Since you don’t like your own spiritual root, why not just remove it?”
Jiang Shaoyuan desperately backed away.
“I… I haven’t done anything yet! You can’t touch me! This violates the academy’s rules!”
He had already taken another pill beforehand.
If he took another one…
He would die.
How interesting.
Someone actually dared to talk to Lu Junheng about rules.
Lu Junheng almost laughed.
But his opponent was so insignificant that he could barely bring himself to take him seriously.
Instead, he simply urged him:
“Hurry up. I’m tired. I want to go home and sleep.”
…He had no spiritual energy.
That thought became a lifeline for Jiang Shaoyuan.
He poured all his spiritual energy into his sword and charged toward Lu Junheng.
Lu Junheng easily dodged the attack and kicked him into the muddy water.
He complained:
“I only don’t have spiritual energy. Don’t treat me like a helpless cripple, okay?”
Jiang Shaoyuan struggled and tried to reach for his sword again.
Lu Junheng had already stepped on his hand.
He forced Jiang Shaoyuan’s jaw open and shoved the pill into his mouth.
Jiang Shaoyuan desperately coughed.
A few breaths later, he clutched his throat and writhed on the ground.
Then he stopped moving.
Lu Junheng indifferently watched the body on the ground and reached out to confirm the man’s death once more.
Time to finish up.
He yawned and prepared to clean up his traces before going home to sleep.
But the moment he turned around, he saw a figure standing in the rain behind him, holding an umbrella.
Shen Xuan.
Lu Junheng did not know when he had arrived or how long he had been watching.
His hand moved very slightly behind him.
He sighed and lowered his eyes listlessly.
“This seems to be the first time you’ve caught me carrying out an assassination. I guess not having spiritual energy really is inconvenient.”
Shen Xuan said firmly:
“You killed him in your previous life too.”
“Yes.”
Lu Junheng nodded and admitted it.
“He wanted your spiritual root in our previous life too. I happened to discover him just before he drugged you, so I did a good deed and let him suffer the consequences himself. Just like now.”
Shen Xuan said:
“I didn’t know about this.”
In his previous life, he had not noticed Jiang Shaoyuan’s scheme at all.
Although he had been the target, he had not been involved in any part of the incident.
He had even learned about Jiang Shaoyuan’s death from someone else.
…What had Lu Junheng been thinking?
Lu Junheng casually ran a hand through his wet hair, looking like a drowned ghost that had just crawled out of the river.
“Because there was no need for you to know. I cleaned everything up. Why drag you into it?”
Shen Xuan continued:
“We weren’t even close back then.”
Lu Junheng laughed.
“We were only not close. That doesn’t mean I had no sense of right and wrong or that I wouldn’t do a good deed.”
After all, he was still a righteous cultivator.
If someone wanted to harm another person, he would save them.
He just… would not necessarily go to such lengths to cover everything up.
It was strange.
He knew perfectly well that Shen Xuan was not as harmless as he appeared.
Yet whenever something happened, he would instinctively feel that Shen Xuan should stay away from certain things.
Perhaps it was simply because the sun was supposed to shine during the day.
Shen Xuan said nothing.
The silence around them began to feel uncomfortable to Lu Junheng.
In a lazy tone, he asked Shen Xuan what should be done next.
“Anyway, he’s already dead. Should we report this to the academy?”
Shen Xuan finally spoke.
“You got one thing wrong.”
Lu Junheng froze.
“What?”
“This isn’t the first time I’ve caught you carrying out an assassination.”
Shen Xuan walked forward two steps and raised the umbrella, bringing both of them beneath it.
“You don’t always manage to clean everything up either. Some of the evidence you didn’t have time to deal with… I destroyed it.”
He did not know why Lu Junheng was so determined to keep him away from these things.
But if that was what Lu Junheng wanted, Shen Xuan was more than willing to cooperate.
“You have fifteen minutes.”
He calmly looked into Lu Junheng’s eyes.
“Go clean up the scene. I’ll wait here.”