Li Tianying’s complicated feelings were unknown to Li Yunxian; all she heard was her own teacher saying to her, “Since you’ve started teaching, do it well.”
There was no need for Li Tianying to say this—when it came to teaching, Li Yunxian had always been earnest and responsible.
Still, for some reason, ever since she arrived at Wenwu Academy, unexpected things seemed to happen to her much more easily.
“Teacher Xiao Li!!”
Li Yunxian, who was out hunting for food, lifted her head slightly and found a skewer stuffed into her hand.
“This skewer is delicious, try it!” The person beamed at Li Yunxian with a radiant smile, then waved happily and said goodbye.
Li Yunxian:
“Teacher Xiao Li!!!”
On her way out of the library, Li Yunxian turned her head and found a jade slip pressed into her hand.
“The book ‘XXXX’ you read before, my teacher wrote it back when he was still a student. Reading the physical book is too much trouble, so I asked him to engrave it onto a jade slip. Take a look at this.”
She hadn’t even walked far from the Teacher Villa District before someone stuffed a sweetly scented pink envelope into her hand.
Li Yunxian paused in silence for a few seconds and opened it.
Inside the letter, at the front was a list of books Li Yunxian had borrowed, followed by a book recommendation list that, it seemed, had been compiled by the sender, or rather, by the sender’s entire dorm and their friends together.
Quite a few of them, Li Yunxian had already read in Tiantong, and their quality was indeed pretty good.
Li Yunxian blinked.
There was no doubt that she was being specially taken care of by everyone at Wenwu.
But… she had only opened a class, and if she didn’t consider student overlap among the three books, there were only about nine hundred students—after accounting for overlapping students, not even seven hundred. In an academy with tens of thousands of people, this was only a small fraction.
A minority.
—After all, just like in the cultivation world, most people here still focused more on how to raise their combat power, and only a handful put effort into the four arts.
But what was going on with Wenwu? Why did it feel like everyone knew her and went out of their way to look after her?
Li Yunxian swore on her tribulation-transcending memory that only a handful of the students giving her things had ever attended her classes.
Why did everyone here call her “Teacher Xiao Li” just like those guys in “All Things”?!
Li Yunxian was speechless.
But for the people of Wenwu Academy, this was easy to understand.
When students from other academies came, they were usually here to exchange and learn about Wenwu’s strengths—or at least, their own students did that when they went elsewhere.
Everyone was pretty frank about it… finding ways to make things a little less pleasant for the other side.
But Li Yunxian broke that convention.
Finding “Introduction to Talismans” and “Introduction to Formations” in the library was one thing.
In everyone’s mind, those things were left behind by some predecessor, and had little to do with Li Yunxian herself.
But once Li Yunxian started teaching, it was different.
She wasn’t here at Wenwu Academy to learn, but was instead teaching them things.
And it only cost three credits per person.
How could Wenwu Academy take advantage of someone like this for nothing?!
It was so shameful!!
How could they face the people from Tiantong after this?
If they chatted in the future, the other side might just say, “Oh, so you’re the Wenwu Academy that bullies our junior Li Yunxian, huh?”
How could that be allowed?
If they ever went to Tiantong again, they’d be at a disadvantage!
So after everyone discussed it, they agreed: If Teacher Xiao Li is so good to Wenwu, they absolutely had to reciprocate.
She must feel at home!!
VVVVIP treatment!
Li Yunxian maintained a straight face about all of this.
Ah, it really did feel like she was back in “All Things.”
But in “All Things,” when faced with everyone’s overenthusiasm, she could just log off. Here at Wenwu Academy, that wasn’t an option.
So…
Li Tianying watched Li Yunxian, who looked half-dead inside whenever this was brought up, and after laughing for a long time, finally gave her some good news.
“The Wenwu Tower will be fully maintained this week. You’ll be free.”
Once maintenance was complete, Li Yunxian and the other Wenwu students would enter the tower to cultivate for a week. When they came out, the two of them could return to Tiantong.
For Li Yunxian, this was truly a liberation.
Li Yunxian announced this in her class.
Of course, the main reason for announcing it was to make sure she fulfilled her original promise: before leaving, she would finish teaching the three books in her class before Wenwu Tower opened.
Only, after she made the announcement to everyone in the classroom, she very clearly heard a collective sigh of relief.
It was obvious this relief wasn’t about having to attend class.
That could only mean… they were relieved about their own enthusiasm during this period.
Li Yunxian, who was used to keeping a stern face in class to maintain her authority, couldn’t help but complain: “So, what’s the point of all this?”
She only needed to accept Wenwu’s kindness. As for these Wenwu students, they clearly had much more to think about.
After a month of this, plenty of students were probably at their wit’s end trying to come up with gifts for friends.
Faced with Li Yunxian’s complaint, everyone just chuckled awkwardly.
They couldn’t answer either.
Even if it was a dumb thing, doing it together made everyone strangely happy, just as the rumors said.
Of course, maybe it was just watching others be silly that brought joy.
Like the one who, after hearing Li Yunxian’s complaint, cheekily made a big heart with their hands for her.
“Teacher Xiao Li~ It’s because we love you, of course~” the person said loudly.
Li Yunxian looked at them, nodded, and pointed: “Alright, then stand up and answer this question.”
The student: Critical hit!!
“Don’t love you anymore.”
Choked with emotion.
***
One week later, Li Yunxian’s classes concluded, and Wenwu Tower’s maintenance was completed right on schedule.
Li Yunxian didn’t pay much attention to how other students vied for spots in the tower—she’d secured her place early and stood at the front of the line as promised.
No one at Wenwu found this odd or had any objections.
In fact, some Wenwu students had even thought about pooling resources to get Li Yunxian a spot.
They only stopped when they heard she already had one.
Only Li Tianying, who had worked hard maintaining Wenwu Tower for a month, sat on the main platform, gazing at her student and pondering a question.
When Li Yunxian visited their Tiantong Blood Pool, the pool malfunctioned.
She went to the Xuanwen Secret Realm, and the secret realm fractured.
She visited the Heavenly Staircase, and judging by the reactions of the Wenwu teachers who’d helped with maintenance all month, it seemed there’d been trouble there too.
Wenwu Tower wouldn’t be next, would it…
Of course, the most important point wasn’t whether the tower would have problems, but…
If something happened to Wenwu Tower, could she still return to Tiantong?
Li Tiansuo’s expression suddenly grew grave.
Regardless of everyone’s thoughts, after the not-so-brief speech by the leader, Wenwu Tower opened.
The spirit stones set in the tower’s body shone brilliantly, and in an instant, all the students present were absorbed into Wenwu Tower.
Li Yunxian had expected the week inside the tower to be lively, but when she opened her eyes, she found herself alone—she couldn’t see anyone else around.
Inside the tower, everyone had their own separate space.
For Li Yunxian, this was a good thing.
She tried again to see if she could enter “All Things.”
As with the Xuanwen Secret Realm, access to “All Things” failed.
She didn’t know if this was because Wenwu Tower counted as an independent space or due to the difference in time flow.
Inside Wenwu Tower, time passed at a rate of 100:1 compared to the outside. Seven days in the tower equaled two years inside.
The spiritual energy inside the tower was quite high—not as dense as the Teacher Villa District, but not much different from Qingteng Villa.
With such dense spiritual energy, and two years of time with nothing else to do but cultivate, it was truly a golden opportunity to improve one’s cultivation.
But Li Yunxian had no plans to do that.
She took out the Xiayun Sword, placed it horizontally before her, and gently closed her eyes.
Cultivation could be done anywhere.
But a place where she could sense the flow of time—there was only this one!
After hearing Li Tiansuo explain the tower’s function, Li Yunxian’s greatest thought was:
With time as her sword, could her swordsmanship advance even further?
She released a wisp of her divine sense, but sensed nothing at all.
She only felt the surrounding space tremble slightly.
As if it couldn’t withstand a certain power.
Without hesitation, Li Yunxian instantly withdrew her divine sense.
When the area settled again, Li Yunxian pursed her lips.
From the Mingnian that cracked in two, to the Heavenly Staircase that shook violently with a single step, and now Wenwu Tower…
The things at Wenwu Academy sure were fragile.