Chapter 2188: Arriving At The Stone Pillar
Lu Yin found Bai Nan’s answer quite funny. Anyone with a discerning eye could see that the man could break through the five lines of the formation and was qualified to graduate. However, he simply did not want to. Many people in Virtue Archives were likely in a similar situation.
Prof. Zheng said very little in reply. "Forget it. Let’s just leave."
Bai Nan continued to stare at Lu Yin. "Shouldn’t Prof. Hao Yu give us a demonstration? Not every instructor can break through the entirety of the Eighteen Lines Formation. In fact, of the Enlighters who teach here, only Prof. Wu is capable of doing so. I was hoping to see if Prof. Hao Yu here is just as qualified, and he could raise the reputation of the academy’s faculty."
Lu Yin smiled. "I can't break through the formation."
Bai Nan was stunned. Such a direct answer?
Prof. Zheng was also taken aback, but he said nothing about it. Instead, he impatiently waved a hand to shoo the students away. "Alright, time to leave. Anyone who wants to challenge the Eighteen Lines Formation can do so on their own."
He then looked over at Lu Yin. "Prof. Hao Yu, shall we?"
Lu Yin nodded and followed behind Prof. Zheng to leave the mountains.
Still on the mountain peak above the formation, some of the male students started mocking Lu Yin. "He’s nothing but a piece of eye candy! He doesn’t even have the guts to try! Even Prof. Wei, the history teacher, has at least tried it. He might have failed to break through all eighteen lines, but he’s at least brave enough to try. This Prof. Hao Yu isn’t manly at all."
"Absolutely. He probably got in through some back door. If students can get accepted that way, then why couldn’t an instructor?" someone agreed.
A few of the girls became upset. "That’s ridiculous! What are you saying? Prof. Hao Yu is modest and graceful, unlike you brutes who have no sense of refinement at all."
"You people are too petty. You must have gotten jealous just because Prof. Hao Yu is so much better looking than you."
The accusations caused Bai Nan to become angry. "If you want to talk about looks, then Prof. Wei is even better looking."
One of the girls instantly shot back, "Prof. Wei’s clearly a woman pretending to be a man, and all of you should have already noticed that. I swear that you people are just servile bootlickers! Regardless, Prof. Hao Yu is very handsome."
"You’re so shallow!"
"You’re an idiot."
"You…"
…
As for Lu Yin and Prof. Zheng, despite already being far away from the students, they both clearly heard the argument. Prof. Zheng became quite unhappy, as this new instructor was already causing conflicts between the students. Even if it was only a small matter for now, it was not a good sign.
"Prof. Hao Yu, why didn't you challenge the formation just now? Your choice did not help to establish your authority over the students at all," Prof. Zheng asked.
Lu Yin smiled. "Headmaster Wen mentioned that the students and faculty here tend to have pretty casual and friendly interactions. So, why is there a need to establish a sense of authority?"
Prof. Zheng shook his head. "That's just how we interact, but this is still an academy, and the instructors are here to teach. If the students don't believe that an instructor is qualified to teach them, why would they bother coming to my Virtue Archives?"
Lu Yin nodded. "I understand what you’re saying. That makes sense, Prof. Zheng."
Prof. Zheng said nothing further. He knew that word of the incident would quickly spread throughout all of Virtue Archives, and he was curious to see just how many students would attend Prof. Hao Yu's first class. Would it be the lowest turnout in Virtue Archives' history? That was unlikely, as the man was attractive enough that he would at least draw a large number of the female students to his class.
However, such a turnout would be even more humiliating for the academy. Any instructor would be laughed at for using such a method to draw students to their class.
Mr. Zhen was not specifically targeting Lu Yin. Rather, he did not want someone unqualified to join the academy’s faculty. Virtue Archives was already dealing with enough problems at the moment, and if they were not careful, they could doom themselves.
In an effort to avoid being seen as they traveled across the academy, Prof. Zheng made it a point to lead Lu Yin through the true universe as they visited the stone pillars. No further information about Virtue Archives was shared as they traveled, and they also did not stop by the class that Prof. Zheng had initially intended to show Lu Yin.
Lu Yin looked up at a stone pillar that towered high into the sky. It looked similar to the one that belonged to Headmaster Wen.
"This is the stone pillar where Prof. Xiao Wen has been living. Wait here a moment while I go talk to him." Prof. Zheng then stepped forward and disappeared.
Lu Yin stood at the bottom of the stone pillar and studied it. Only after a moment did he finally notice that the pillar was not actually straight; it leaned slightly in the direction that he and Prof. Zheng had come from.
He looked into the distance, and he saw another stone pillar. However, that one leaned in a slightly different direction. Were all of these stone pillars leaning towards the middle of Virtue Archives? If that was the case, then given the height of the pillars, if someone looked down from high in the sky, the pillars might form something similar to the outline of a birdcage that encircled the middle of Virtue Archives.
Did the faculty all live on the edge of the academy and protect the students? If that was the case, then Headmaster Wen's pillar was likely in the center and also the tallest.
After waiting for a while, a woman arrived. She gave Lu Yin an odd look and then moved towards the stone pillar.
Lu Yin glanced at the woman and found that she looked rather familiar. Where had he seen her before?
He scoured his memories, but he could not remember where he might have seen the woman before.
The woman glanced back at Lu Yin before starting to climb the pillar. "Are you new here?"
Lu Yin nodded with a smile. "Yes."
The woman blushed as she looked at Lu Yin's face, and she softly said, "I’m Hou Qing. Feel free to reach out to me if you need any help."
She then offered her contact information so that Lu Yin could call her communication crystal before making her way up the stone pillar.
Lu Yin found this quite entertaining. There were very noticeable advantages to Yu Hao's appearance. Wait, Hou Qing?
Lu Yin finally remembered. Wasn’t Hou Qing the disciple of Liu Ye and Fei Hua?
When Lu Yin had been at Hope Restaurant long ago, Liu Ye and Fei Hua had taken Hou Qing to meet him and Long Kui. At that time, Hou Qing had bowed to Long Kui. Yes, this was the same person.
So she was in Virtue Archives now? She was also still an Enlighter, and although her appearance did not seem to have changed much over the years, the woman’s temperament had shown quite a bit of maturation. She no longer had the same energy as when Lu Yin had first met her, and she behaved more like an elder.
She was from the same generation as Lu Yin and the four Junior Progenitors, which meant that she could be considered an elder in Virtue Archives.
Eh? Lu Yin suddenly looked up, as he had noticed someone looking at him. Could that be Prof. Xiao Wen?
Looking up, Lu Yin could make out a pair of cold eyes that were set in a quite beautiful face. Was that Prof. Xiao Wen? So she was a woman.
A short while later, Prof. Zheng landed on the ground beside Lu Yin. "Prof. Xiao Wen is confirming matters with the headmaster, so things should be settled soon. You’ll just need to wait a short while."
Lu Yin felt curious. "Her name is Prof. Xiao Wen? Who is she?"
Prof. Zheng replied, "She’s the headmaster’s great-granddaughter, Wen Zhao. We typically refer to her as Prof. Xiao Wen."
Lu Yin nodded to show that he understood.
"Prof. Xiao Wen is not very friendly. The headmaster has asked her to give up her residence for you, so she might not have the best opinion of you. Still, there’s no need to worry, as she does not normally make trouble for people. However, it would be best if you don’t disturb her." Prof. Zheng should not have been the one to say such things to Lu Yin, but Prof. Xiao Wen had asked him to deliver the message.
Even if Prof. Zheng did not understand Headmaster Wen very well, how could the same be true of Prof. Xiao Wen?
As soon as Prof. Zheng had told the woman about Lu Yin and she had seen him, she had instantly been able to guess at her great-grandfather’s intentions. Thus, she had asked Prof. Zheng to deliver a message to Lu Yin in order to avoid embarrassing them both.
Lu Yin nodded. "I understand. Don't worry, I won't bother Prof. Xiao Wen."
After delivering his message, Prof. Zheng did not say anything more about the matter. "You’ve been shown around and brought to your residence, so I’ll share the class schedule with you through your communication crystal so that you can choose a timeslot for your class. I should be on my way now."
"I've troubled Prof. Zheng with showing me around," Lu Yin said with a smile.
Prof. Zheng answered politely, "I hope that Prof. Hao Yu will be able to help raise up more talented cultivators for our Perennial World so that humanity will continue to prosper. Goodbye."
"Goodbye," Lu Yin replied. The other man quickly left.
Half a day after Prof. Zheng left, two people descended from the stone pillar. One was Hou Qing, and the other was Prof. Xiao Wen, the woman whom Lu Yin had seen when he had looked up at the pillar.
Prof. Xiao Wen glanced over at Lu Yin. "I’ve already cleared out everything that wasn’t originally there. If you have any questions, just take them up with the headmaster."
Lu Yin nodded. "I understand. I’m sorry to bother you, Prof. Xiao Wen."
She remained completely cold towards Lu Yin and quickly led Hou Qing away. As for Hou Qing, she was very curious about Lu Yin. She had just heard that this man was a new instructor, despite his youth and exceptional appearance.
After the two women left, Lu Yin quickly climbed up the pillar himself.
From what Lu Yin had learned from Prof. Zheng, basically every member of the academy’s faculty placed restrictions on the pillar where they lived in order to limit how many students bothered them in their home. More and more students were joining Virtue Archives in recent days, and some of them were no weaker than the instructors. It was only natural that certain precautions needed to be put in place.
The restrictions on Prof. Xiao Wen's former pillar was a powerful wind that blew down from the top, covering all the space within two meters of the pillar. The wind was powerful enough to stop a Cruiser, which meant that only Hunters and Enlighters were able to reach the top of the pillar to bother whoever lived at the top.
Lu Yin looked around after he reached the top of the stone pillar, and he found things to basically be as he had guessed. The pillars did indeed lean towards the center of Virtue Archives, and while the angle was not very much, the height of the pillars meant that the top of each pillar was significantly closer to the center of the academy than the bottom. Also, the unseen pillar that stood at the center of the academy was indeed the pillar that held the headmaster’s office.
There was no courtyard residence at the top of the pillar. Instead, there was nothing more than a very simple stone house, as well as some lakes, flowers, and various small animals. It was the sort of place that Lu Yin quite enjoyed.
As for the two neighboring pillars, one was home to Mr. Tang, the instructor who had reached the void god level with his domain, and the other was home to Prof. Xiao Wen.
It would have been sufficient to assign Lu Yin the neighboring pillar, as it had been unoccupied, but the headmaster had decided to cater to Lu Yin slightly with his desire to receive pointers on improving his domain. That was why Prof. Xiao Wen had been asked to move, as it would place Lu Yin slightly closer to Mr. Tang. This also demonstrated the importance that the headmaster placed on Lu Yin.
A short time later, Lu Yin noticed Prof. Xiao Wen and Hou Qing climbing up the neighboring stone pillar.
While the two pillars were neighbors, they were still very far apart. Not even a Cruiser would be able to see from one pillar to another, but an Enlighter like Hou Qing was capable of doing so.
She looked back, saw Lu Yin, and smiled at him.
Lu Yin nodded in reply.
"Prof. Xiao Wen, what’s Prof. Hao Yu's level of cultivation?" Hou Qing asked.
Close by, Prof. Xiao Wen had already started to arrange the top of her new home. "I don't know. I can’t see through him."
Hou Qing looked back towards Lu Yin. "I wonder if he’s an Envoy, but it would be very unusual for someone so young to be an Envoy. If he really is about the same age as us, then it would mean that he’s as talented as the Junior Progenitors."
Prof. Xiao Wen casually said, "Don't worry yourself with him. What are you struggling with concerning the Literary Prison?"
Hou Qing quickly returned to her senses and immediately started asking for some advice.
The flames of the Undying Bird left the sky, and the flames of the Dark Undying Bird took over, causing darkness to fall over Virtue Archives. A day had passed.
Lu Yin was relaxing on the chair, enjoying the breeze that blew across the top of his pillar. The wind was a bit chilly, but it was still quite comfortable.
Prof. Zheng had sent the class schedule to him about an hour ago, and the next two days were booked solid. In the end, Lu Yin chose a class time that would take place in the afternoon three days later.
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