What happened over at Miaoying, Li Yunxian didn’t know.
After replying to the messages, she headed to the Trading Market.
Li Yunxian knew many people wanted to ask her questions, and rather than replying to message after message, it was better to talk face to face.
Everything would be open, just, and fair.
Besides, she needed to rent a face-to-face consultation room for a week at the Trading Market.
Li Yunxian was busy online, but news of the events happening in the arena in reality had also spread.
The next day, when Li Yunxian stepped into the classroom of Building Three, she glanced at the number of students present.
In a classroom with a full capacity of 35, there were only 28 students now.
Li Yunxian said nothing, her ink-black eyes calmly watching everyone. “Class begins. As usual, practice the standard sword form once.”
Some students moved, ready to start the lesson according to her instructions, but a few did not.
Like discordant notes, they suddenly disrupted the harmony.
The classroom atmosphere stiffened abruptly.
“If you don’t want to attend class, leave,” Li Yunxian said coldly to those people.
Some hesitated, while others, angered by the straightforward statement, frowned.
One stepped forward decisively, confronting Li Yunxian. “You’re not Assistant Instructor Hua Shunyu, right?”
“You’re just a substitute teacher, aren’t you?”
Li Yunxian answered calmly, “Yes.”
The man’s eyes seemed to blaze with fury as he glared at her. “Why are you deceiving us?”
“I’ve been learning for so long, and it was all fake! A lie! Do you think our time is worthless?”
Li Yunxian looked at him. “Aren’t you at Qi Refining Sixth Layer? I think you can clearly tell that my Qi Refining Third Layer cultivation is genuine.”
The challenger was instantly silenced.
He had always assumed Li Yunxian’s display of Qi Refining Third Layer was a disguise—it turned out everything was true.
Indeed.
Everything was real.
As for being a substitute teacher…
Within the academy, this was extremely common knowledge.
Everyone knew about it.
Generally, substitutes were teachers of similar level, so no one minded much.
Sometimes approachable assistant instructors or professors substituted, and students would even joke and shout the substitute teacher’s name playfully.
This was permitted by the academy, so it wasn’t Li Yunxian’s fault.
Li Yunxian didn’t care about the man’s expression. She stepped forward, “Whether what you learn is useful to you is your own experience. It’s not my concern.”
“I’m just substituting.”
Li Yunxian looked at the students. “If you have doubts, question freely. I have only one rule.”
“If you don’t want to attend class, leave!”
The man grew even angrier, stepping forward aggressively. “You…!”
Before he could finish, a wooden staff, swift as lightning, suddenly pressed against his throat, silencing him completely.
No one caught Li Yunxian’s movement clearly—it was as if in the blink of an eye, the staff had arrived at a lethal point.
If it weren’t for the fact that it was a wooden staff, the man would have died on the spot.
The entire room fell silent, except for that enraged student, whose face was flushed red.
Li Yunxian looked at him, raising her head slightly, proudly and unapologetically arrogant. “Just so you know, I’m not an assistant instructor. There is no rule forbidding me from laying a hand on students.”
“Do you want to try me?” Li Yunxian asked, her voice even carrying an inviting tone.
The man froze.
Seeing no reaction, Li Yunxian regretfully withdrew the staff.
The man’s eyes were bloodshot; he opened his mouth to say something but couldn’t. Filled with hatred, he turned and walked toward the classroom door.
Yet as he reached it, he paused and then turned back again with the same hateful expression.
“I want to see what else you can teach!” he snapped angrily.
Li Yunxian glanced at him without a word.
Suddenly, a timid voice came from the back of the classroom.
“I—I think what the teacher teaches is very useful.”
“I come because I think it’s helpful and because the teacher teaches well.”
“You… don’t say things like that.”
Li Yunxian looked toward the voice. It was the little girl who always stood in the back corner during practice, forever shy and hesitant.
Li Yunxian’s expression didn’t change, as if she hadn’t heard either of them. Her gaze swept across the classroom.
Seeing this group of bewildered fledglings hesitating to respond, Li Yunxian interrupted before they could speak, repeating what she had said upon entering.
“Class begins. As usual, practice the standard sword form once.”
Li Yunxian refused to let them learn the game-style moves!
Everyone exchanged looks, but this time no one dared to defy her.
Li Yunxian walked slowly among them. After they finished practicing the sword form once, she lightly raised the wooden staff in her hand.
Smack!
The staff struck the back of a student beside her.
***
In an instant, a second strike landed on another student farther back, and the third…
Li Yunxian stood in the far corner of the classroom.
She calmly watched the student who had just spoken up for her.
Smack!
The third strike fell.
“You few didn’t complete the practice assigned yesterday,” Li Yunxian said coldly.
“Learning is like rowing upstream; not to advance is to drop back.”
“No matter what happens, if you still want to learn swordsmanship, you can’t miss a single day!”
“Even Qian Shuo knows to practice, yet your discipline is worse than his!” Li Yunxian scolded.
The students who had just been hit hadn’t even had time to feel ashamed when they heard this and immediately looked at the one who had just lost his temper.
Everyone knew who he was—Qian Shuo.
Qian Shuo’s face flushed red as he glared fiercely at the group. “What are you looking at?!”
Smack!
The fourth strike landed on Qian Shuo’s back.
“No whispering during class,” Li Yunxian said coldly.
Qian Shuo: “………”
Was that whispering?
This was clearly deliberate retaliation!
The class ended with Qian Shuo gritting his teeth, barely holding back his anger the entire time.
When Li Yunxian finished and left, the classroom atmosphere finally eased.
Someone couldn’t help but whimper, “The previous Assistant Instructor Hua Shunyu never hit people!”
Hearing this, those who hadn’t planned to complain also grew sad. “Actually, I think the teacher has wanted to hit us for a long time.”
“Before, she still cared that she was an assistant instructor. Now she doesn’t even pretend anymore…”
“I’ve been corrected over ten times and still haven’t learned the seventh move—I can’t help it…”
They were just slow learners.
Those truly talented wouldn’t even have to attend a beginner swordsmanship class.
Someone patted Qian Shuo on the shoulder. “Buddy, why are you targeting the teacher in class?”
Qian Shuo’s brows were still furrowed with anger. “Everyone outside is talking about this, didn’t you hear? I asked, and she wouldn’t even give an explanation!”
“This is clearly her problem!”
The students looked at Qian Shuo with silent disbelief.
Got it, pure fool.
He’s just a substitute teacher’s student, and they’re not after anything from him. Why should she explain?
They got hit and didn’t dare complain.
Everyone knew how frustrating it was for parents when their slow-learning kids couldn’t grasp things no matter how much help they received.
And the more talented the child, the more frustrated the parents got.
Li Yunxian was someone who could defeat opponents with just two sword strikes, ranked over a thousandth at Qi Refining Eighth Layer—her sword talent was obvious.
***
In the end, the one who patted Qian Shuo’s shoulder left him a word of advice, with sympathy.
“Don’t be someone else’s tool.”
The students’ cries and complaints had nothing to do with Li Yunxian.
After class, Li Yunxian headed straight toward the Teaching Staff Dormitory District.
She replied to the message Yu Qiyao had sent her.
Yu Qiyao had just sent word that she was safe.
But Li Yunxian could sense the silence beneath Yu Qiyao’s simple message.
She had to go see Yu Qiyao.
Having just recovered from a serious illness, Yu Qiyao was not in her own Green Vine Villa, but in Professor Chen’s dormitory.
Though called a dormitory, it was actually a villa.
Much more upscale and luxurious than the Green Vine Villa.
—The Four Great Academies were all located deep within the mountains and forests. None of them lacked land to the point where a Fenshen Stage expert had to live in a cramped dorm.
Stopping at the villa’s entrance, the door slowly opened before Li Yunxian.
Professor Chen’s divine sense had already detected her arrival.
Li Yunxian entered and greeted him.
Professor Chen wore a faint, gentle smile and said, “Qiyao is on the third floor. Go ahead.”
Li Yunxian nodded and went upstairs.
No need to search—Li Yunxian arrived immediately at Yu Qiyao’s room.
It was a beautiful room with a view overlooking the garden.
Yu Qiyao was half-reclining on the bed, half of her body shrouded in shadow, radiating a deathly stillness.
Li Yunxian quickened her steps before entering.
Only then did Yu Qiyao hear her and, with effort, lift her eyes.
Seeing Li Yunxian, she forced a faint smile. “Yunxian, you came.”
“I’m fine now. The doctor said there won’t be any lingering effects.”
“Actually, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I’ve already opened 140 apertures and will soon reach Qi Refining Fifth Layer.”
“Thank you, Yunxian.”