Since he already had an idea, the next step naturally was to figure out what to use to lure the other party.
Qi Ke quickly formed a plan in his mind.
He also felt that Li Yunxian had been at the academy for at least two and a half years.
No matter how you looked at it, Qi Ke’s cultivation at Qi Condensation Stage Level 6 was still relatively low; only reaching that level a year after enrollment would place one at an average standard.
Using that as bait should be fairly effective…
Qi Ke mentally listed out what they had in their civil and martial departments that could be leveraged. After leaving the workshop, Qi Ke once again contacted Pei Dongyuan and the others.
A break.
For matters like this, a teacher certainly shouldn’t get involved directly.
Students, after all, were peers; if relationships were good and they wanted to leave together, it would be difficult for teachers to refuse, right?
Qi Ke’s thoughts were beautiful, but reality was harsh.
After Li Yunxian left the arena area, Pei Dongyuan and his group mingled with the students from Tiantong, gathering a fair amount of information about Li Yunxian.
They reported everything to Qi Ke in full detail.
“First place on the freshman Green Vine List this year?”
“Freshman??”
“At enrollment, Qi Condensation Stage Level 2?? Advanced four levels in eight months?”
“Currently ranked 68th on Tiantong’s arena leaderboard? And it was an easy win—she just didn’t want to push further?”
“Very prestigious within Tiantong, everyone listens to her?”
“And when you asked Tiantong’s people about Li Yunxian’s deeds, everyone tacitly kept silent, as if it was a taboo topic.”
—About the Du family incident, only Tiantong people knew about it, but telling anyone from Wenwu would be too embarrassing.
—Similarly, despite training at the academy for so many years, no one could admit being outwitted by Ginkgo in the secret realm—that was equally humiliating.
So Pei Dongyuan and the others nodded heavily in agreement with Qi Ke’s summary.
“Making friends with Li Yunxian is fine, but given her level and status in Tiantong, it’s hard for anyone in Wenwu to really lure her, right?”
Qi Ke was instantly speechless.
He only wanted to complete the tasks—why did it have to be this difficult?
***
Meanwhile, Li Yunxian naturally returned to her villa and logged into Wanwu.
She notified those who had agreed to come earlier. By the time Li Yunxian arrived at the conference room, everyone expected today had already gathered.
Compared to before, the lineup had quite a few changes.
Not everyone could always be free, but there was always someone available. Personnel turnover was a normal occurrence.
Yesterday, Li Yunxian hadn’t assigned homework to Lǐ Tiānyíng. Their discussion lacked specific topics and felt a bit off.
Now that they saw Li Yunxian, the first question from everyone was: “Teacher Xiao Li, any homework today?”
“Mm-hmm.”
Li Yunxian replied with a hum, “I’ve gathered all the information and materials about that fan I mentioned before. Today, I’ll teach you about it.”
Since no one expected any gifts for the previous help, and everyone called her Teacher Xiao Li, it made sense to return to the teaching side of things.
Everyone was stunned for a moment.
Huh? A lesson?
Before she could say more, Li Yunxian opened the conference room door, and everyone entered.
While they were finding seats, Li Yunxian projected her design draft in the center of the room.
A three-dimensional disassembly model, very intuitive to look at.
Before Li Yunxian could explain, the starship artifact manufacturers immediately realized what she intended to discuss.
“Hey, is that a formation pattern added at the handle position?” They noticed some non-artifact forging elements embedded within the fan.
Recently, Wanwu had been selling this kind of thing, and their shops were promoting it too. Although the patterns looked somewhat unfamiliar, there was no doubt it was a formation.
“The pattern on the fan surface looks like talismans, but aren’t talismans disposable?”
Everyone chatted excitedly.
These were all veteran masters with sharp eyes.
Li Yunxian confirmed their discovery: “Yes, exactly what you see.”
“When I sold talismans before, I taught the basics about talismans. After all, talismans must be drawn by cultivators and must be understandable.”
“But I never had time to talk about formations or pills.”
Because in the interstellar world, artifact forging was highly advanced, low-level formations and pills could be created as long as the parameters and power requirements were met, regardless of understanding.
“I just didn’t have time before.” Li Yunxian wasn’t making excuses.
Before school started, there was the Xuánwén Secret Realm incident, and not long after enrollment, she was taken as a disciple by Lǐ Tiānsuǒ.
Daily classes and homework consumed most of her time, and she had to maintain her daily cultivation.
It wasn’t until recently, after being assigned missions, that Li Yunxian finally had some free time.
“The main focus here is artifact manufacturing; pills and the like will be put aside for now.”
“Today, I’ll talk about the conception of formations, and how different artifacts combine to create a 1+1>2 effect………”
Once she said this, the entire conference room fell silent.
Whether or not they had authorization to develop formations from Li Yunxian, no one could forget the mysterious and magical effects of those formation arrays.
Li Yunxian had told Sheng Yu and Ying Wenhe before that everyone was free to develop further.
Naturally, this had spread to the Changguang and Miaoying guilds.
Everyone thought that was already excellent.
But unexpectedly, Li Yunxian planned to teach directly.
“Teacher Xiao Li……” Someone was sensitive, tears sparkling in their eyes as they looked at Li Yunxian.
“Hm?” Li Yunxian cautiously glanced at the person.
“You’re just too kind!”
The person was deeply moved and, before Li Yunxian could respond, stepped into the role of a technician, “But I think if the three materials used in the fan ribs were changed to a semi-triangular shape, the stress resistance would be better……”
Listening to his lengthy explanation, Li Yunxian smiled gently: “Okay, once I’m done, I’ll trouble all of you teachers to continue teaching me.”
That day, the atmosphere in the conference room was very relaxed and lively.
Before logging off, Li Yunxian handed over usage permissions for the conference room to the more reputable and frequently online members.
When she was offline, people who wanted to learn could borrow the room from them and acquire formation knowledge.
With everything settled, Li Yunxian smoothly pressed the logout button.
Li Yunxian froze.
The scene before her didn’t change.
She was still inside the trading market’s conference room.
Had she failed to press the button? That shouldn’t happen.
Li Yunxian tried again, but the logout button still had no response.
Seeing her actions, others in the conference room realized something.
They glanced at the status information and clicked their tongues.
“Beast Tide again,” someone said with a headache.
Hearing them, Li Yunxian immediately understood and asked, “This Beast Tide means I can’t log out?”
Everyone nodded: “Yes, everyone must resist the alien horde together, no retreat.”
This was the first time Li Yunxian had heard of such a thing.
“How long does this Beast Tide last?” she asked immediately.
“No set time.” No one gave her a definite answer—because there really wasn’t one.
“At the fastest, three days; the slowest… well, it’s not a matter of days anymore…………..”
“The Beast Tide isn’t a guaranteed victory event. If we lose, the whole Cheng Chi is destroyed, and next time we log in, we’d have to live in a city in another star system.”
“That’d be so embarrassing!”
After seeing Li Yunxian’s shocked expression, everyone noticed.
They had all guessed that their Teacher Xiao Li’s situation was a bit special—she’d only started playing Wanwu a few months ago and was probably not even in their star system.
Otherwise, no one in reality would have failed to see her by now.
Li Yunxian hadn’t mentioned this but hadn’t hidden it either.
In the adult world, sometimes you had to play dumb—whatever others said, you just went along with it.
They kindly brought up what Li Yunxian most likely wanted to know.
“When our Cheng Chi had more people before, it usually took about seven days to fend off a Beast Tide.”
“Now, since most people in the star system are offline fighting the real Beast Tide, this one might last around ten days.”
“This considers the recent production of many supplies for trading, plus the influx of many merchants in the city.”
“More supplies and manpower mean efficiency won’t be too bad.”
But seeing Li Yunxian’s face, everyone knew that whether it was seven or ten days, she wouldn’t accept it.
And indeed, she couldn’t.
It wasn’t that she couldn’t accept staying in the game and fighting alongside everyone.
It was that she needed to settle things with her own teacher first!!
If her students suddenly went silent during daily check-ins, her teacher would definitely storm the villa to check on her.
Li Yunxian felt as if the sky was falling.
Seeing their Teacher Xiao Li’s expression, the others quietly laughed.
It was the first time they’d seen Li Yunxian like this.
This was the real look of a teenager!
The group subtly teased Li Yunxian in sync, then offered her a reliable solution.
“But if there’s a real emergency, you can definitely log out.” Just like when someone had frantically banged on Li Yunxian’s door at the city gate before.
“If you choose to log out yourself, you can also opt to die on the front line.”
“But if you die this time, it’s not the usual three-day no-login penalty; you can’t log in for the entire duration of the Beast Tide.”
As someone spoke, they reached out and grabbed Li Yunxian’s arm. “Come, I’ll take you to the city gate.”
“I have a contract to sign in the next two days, so I can’t stay. I’ll teach you how to log out quickly.” The forger was very straightforward.
Li Yunxian was completely stunned as she was led out.
Outside the conference room, she noticed the sudden grim atmosphere.
Everyone seemed to be in battle mode.
One by one, they sorted supplies; several zones had colored canvases hanging, apparently representing different functional areas.
From the moment Li Yunxian entered the conference room, only four or five hours had passed; no matter how you looked at it, this efficiency was impressive.
But it made sense.
In reality, perhaps because spiritual energy was sparse, the righteous path had absolute suppression over alien beasts, so no large-scale Beast Tides appeared.
They only fought scattered hunters and demonic creatures.
But in the interstellar world, large-scale Beast Tides did occur, naturally developing mature operational procedures.
Soon, a person wearing Miaoying Guild attire stopped Li Yunxian and the other.
They clearly recognized Li Yunxian but still dutifully asked, “What’s your purpose?”
“To log out.” The forger dragging Li Yunxian answered promptly.
The Miaoying member, without hesitation, extended a hand indicating the direction: “Go to Nan Men San Qu; there are more alien beasts there.”
“Got it.” The forger responded cheerfully.
Li Yunxian glanced back at the Miaoying member, who continued dutifully maintaining order on the busy street and guiding the crowd.
Li Yunxian felt she finally understood a bit about the relationship between guilds—or rather, professional cultivators—and ordinary citizens in this interstellar world.
Soon, at Nan Men San Qu.
Li Yunxian stood atop the city wall, watching the hordes of alien beasts pouring in below like a tide.
She took a deep breath.
Li Yunxian had already seen how others who wanted to log out were handling things.
In short, they exerted their last bit of strength to jump down and perish along with the beasts.
Using their flesh and blood to block this wave of alien assault.
Soon, it was Li Yunxian and the forger’s turn.
The forger called out to Li Yunxian, “Xiao Li Shifu, let’s go.”
Without hesitation, she activated her weapon, laughed heartily, and jumped down.
Li Yunxian glanced at the Beast Tide below, hesitated slightly, then looked at the spirit sword in her hand—gifted by everyone, shining like moonlight.
Taking a deep breath, Li Yunxian jumped down.
She had jumped, but why did she feel………………
The Beast Tide…………… was indeed large, but few of them were strong enough to be taken seriously………………
The others lined up behind Li Yunxian and the forger waited quietly.
Waiting for the two to fall so they could follow.
Wait and wait.
Soon, the forger exhausted and was swallowed.
Wait some more, wait some more… and more…
Finally, they saw the spot where Li Yunxian landed—the Beast Tide had somehow opened a gap there.
Those atop the city wall: “…………”
Wait, are you really here just to log out?!
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