The next day, as was customary at the academy, a New Student Assembly was held in the auditorium to introduce the school’s outstanding achievements from the past year, followed by a rundown of rules and important notices.
After the assembly ended, everyone couldn’t help but look toward Shen Bofeng and Ying Qian.
Ying Qian was quick to slip away once he sensed trouble coming.
Shen Bofeng, however, stubbornly stayed put to take the beating… ah no, to face the new challenges.
In the end, Ying Qian, who lost two matches, maintained his original ranking, while Shen Bofeng managed to win one match and was currently ranked 291.
Just as Li Yunxian had expected.
“They’re seriously bullying us!” someone said angrily, “Isn’t this just picking on the new students?”
Ying Qian’s temper was decent.
While Bofeng was getting beaten on stage, Ying Qian casually struck up conversations with some of the veterans hanging around the arena.
That’s when Ying Qian learned the truth.
He glanced at Li Yunxian with a deep look.
“Actually, it’s not so bad. It’s just that Shen Bofeng got some special ‘treatment’ because he’s second on the Qingteng Ranking.”
“As for why…”
“Of course, it’s because their Qingteng Class Number One beat up a lot of the older students.”
“They can’t fight back against those Silver Ginkgo, so they’re venting on the foul-mouthed Shen Bofeng?”
“Old grudges and new grudges combined, and they’re all paying for it.”
Ying Qian didn’t know how Xu Zhu fought Shen Bofeng, but when Zheng Jiping was thrashing him, it was obvious the more he hit, the more excited he got.
He’s innocent!!
Li Yunxian ignored Ying Qian’s gaze.
It wasn’t her fault if she couldn’t win the challenges she accepted.
Li Yunxian looked at the course selection screen on her phone.
Earlier, Duan Qiu had pulled her into a marketing group chat where she posted her course schedule.
Li Yunxian had also signed up for the Aperture course.
It was interesting to hear about how this world studied Aperture knowledge using scientific methods.
Besides that, Li Yunxian also chose the “Basics of Magic” course and “Body Refining Techniques.”
All basic classes, mainly to understand the differences between the two worlds at a fundamental level. She planned to casually attend a couple of them to see how things went.
For her, whether she learned or not was irrelevant—these were just for expanding her knowledge base.
Finally, she reached the various specialized courses.
Basic classes were all taught by assistant instructors, limited in variety and generally standardized, but the specialized courses covered a broad range of topics.
There were traditional weapon advancement classes, as well as courses on beast taming, body refinement, medical arts, magic tool crafting, and more.
Li Yunxian glanced over dozens of different categories available to choose from.
These specialized courses were taught by proper professors.
Assistant instructors needed to have at least reached the Jindan Stage, while professors required the Nascent Soul Stage at minimum.
There were over a hundred professors in the school above Nascent Soul Stage.
Li Yunxian mused.
Even the strongest sects in the Cultivation World only had about thirty Nascent Soul stage masters.
The population advantage of this world truly showed in every aspect.
***
After scanning all the courses, Li Yunxian skipped the weapon-related ones.
She had no interest in further honing those skills.
Her gaze eventually settled on Magic Tool Crafting.
If she was going to study something, it had to be the most practical thing in this world.
Let’s see how they combine technology with magic tool manufacturing!
As the most eye-catching new student this year—and arguably in the entire academy—the teachers naturally paid close attention to Li Yunxian’s choices.
The basic classes were no big deal.
Everyone guessed which professor’s swordsmanship course Li Yunxian would choose.
Teachers had seen her battle videos; a swordsman with her skill level would bring extra prestige to any professor she studied under.
Yet…
No.
The swordsmanship professors waited a long time, but Li Yunxian’s name never appeared on their enrollment lists.
If it wasn’t with them, then which professor had she chosen?
They quietly began probing each other.
They’d lived for centuries; at the academy, this was the only fun in their work—some good-natured competition.
In the end, no one was confirmed.
The swordsmanship instructors were stunned, and so was Professor Li Tianying, the Magic Tool Crafting instructor.
Did she see correctly?
Why was Li Yunxian appearing in her classroom?
Magic tool crafting was mostly for cultivators who were not great at combat and lacked talent in that area—it was a support specialty.
It was nowhere near as glamorous as weapons classes.
Freshmen usually didn’t choose her course at first; only after a year or two, when they gave up hope, would they gradually enroll in Magic Tool Crafting.
Not being able to fight didn’t mean you could starve.
At the very least, mastering a skill meant you wouldn’t die of hunger after graduation.
To be precise, her graduates often had plenty of Spirit Stones.
Li Tianying was quite happy with this.
Freshmen struggled and stumbled for a year or two, familiarizing themselves with various weapon types and taking their fair share of beatings in the arena.
They developed a good understanding of what kinds of magic tools would actually help combatants.
But someone like Li Yunxian…
Li Tianying frowned slightly inwardly.
Such a prodigy should be focusing on cultivation properly.
Other than sensing the surprise in her classmates’ eyes when she entered the classroom, Li Yunxian felt nothing unusual.
She had been attending classes diligently, following routine, only noticing that Professor Li called on her frequently to answer questions and perform forging operations on stage.
In fact, almost exclusively her.
Though accustomed to being in the spotlight, being treated as the class example still made Li Yunxian a bit embarrassed.
She felt she was stealing the opportunities of other students.
But deliberately performing poorly? That was out of the question.
Professor Li Tianying, preparing to throw difficult problems to make Li Yunxian quit:
Asking questions was fine if she was paying attention in class, but asking her to come up and operate the forging process…
How on earth was Li Yunxian managing it, making every mistake possible, yet having no problems at all?
Sometimes she would forget to take certain tools, or use the wrong ones, or skip optimizing the basic blueprint design.
When temperature control failed and the refined iron was about to melt, she calmly cast the Extreme Ice Technique, evenly cooling it to the right temperature.
When attaching the spiritual energy, she operated too fast, causing the tool’s energy density to spike—but Li Yunxian accurately caught the timing, extracting the energy from the device and absorbing it herself…
Yes, she absorbed it herself.
She ate it herself!
Because of the shortage of spiritual energy in the instrument, she forced the bonding speed to slow down, finally achieving a harmonious magic tool.
Li Tianying:
I have never seen anyone forge like this!!
Li Yunxian made every possible mistake, but how could she immediately spot the problems and solve them with various techniques?
At times like this, shouldn’t she adjust the machine and reset the proper parameters?
Is she a genius or an idiot? Professor Li couldn’t help but wonder.
But she had to admit, Li Yunxian’s insight was incredibly sharp…
Suddenly, Li Tianying felt a spark of excitement.
There were plenty of geniuses good at fighting, but they really needed someone as gifted as Li Yunxian in Magic Tool Crafting!
You agree, right?
She definitely did.
And Li Yunxian had no idea she was being tested so harshly; she didn’t feel she was being singled out unfairly.
She just felt she had made the right choice coming to this class!
She was even a little excited when she finished her forging demonstration on stage.
“So this is how the machine works—I used to just heat and decompose materials. What a waste.”
“This instrument has such special functions. I should get one for my villa; it’d be even better for alchemy.”
“It really saves a lot of trouble.”
Li Yunxian had originally thought her simplified four-arts procedures at the villa were already easy, but it turned out it could get even simpler!
As for the minor mistakes in the middle of the process, Li Yunxian considered them completely natural.
Mistakes? Just a couple of small issues—this was an exceptionally smooth forging process!
In the Cultivation World, everything was done manually by cultivators, so unexpected situations were perfectly normal.
The difference in skill levels among various four-arts cultivators boiled down to how well they handled these unforeseen issues.
Not a big deal at all.
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