Chapter 1: Cultivation is important, but quality is even more important!

  The sun rises and sets, spring goes and autumn comes, in the blink of an eye, two years have passed.

  Still the Lingjian Mountain, still the Wuxiang Peak, still the rugged and worn-out mountain range like a dog gnawing on bones. Two years of time have not left too many marks on Wuxiang Peak. However, facing the clear breeze between mountains, the morning sunlight shines down, this quiet place has more vitality than two years ago.

  In the valley surrounded by mountains, there is a winding and narrow mountain road. A young man wearing a red and white Taoist robe runs along the mountain road at a steady pace, not fast, but with one foot in front of the other, running very steadily.

  More than half a time later, the young man had run around Wuxiang Peak and then climbed up the steps to return to his starting point, in front of a small wooden house located between the mountain valley and flat ground.

  "Master, I've finished my morning exercise, may I have breakfast?"

  Dead silence reigns indoors.

  The young man outside the door let out a sigh, pushed open the door and entered. He saw that the dining table had already been set with a bowl of thin porridge, a plate of green vegetables, and a plate of sliced meat - all of which were cold, of course. As for his kindly and benevolent master, who provided him with food and lodging, he was sleeping in the bedroom like a dead dog, reeking of alcohol.

  The young man furrowed his brow, leaned in front of the bedroom and sniffed, blocking the door and scolding: "I'm going to die, isn't this three-grade Cold Spirit Spring wine?... 500 spirit stones for a jug, is she planning to ask the sect leader for credit again this month? No wonder the recent meals haven't even had any oil residue, this damned thing has really used my allowance to drink!"

  Scolding is scolding, two years have passed, the young man has long been accustomed to the current situation, and at the table, he hastily swept into his mouth the breakfast that tasted like chewing wax, and then returned to his bedroom to prepare for his daily practice.

  The bedroom furniture was simple, with just a bed, a table and a stool. Apart from these, there was an unusually eye-catching large wooden bucket, half-filled with clear water, in which several sprigs of herbs floated on the surface, adding a fresh fragrance to the room.

  The young man took off his red and white Taoist robe, and soaked naked in the tub. The chill of deep autumn had already permeated this vat of clear water, but the young man was not affected at all, quietly soaking in the tub, without saying a word.

  The medicinal bath was, of course, the master's design, with unclear intentions. The ingredients of the medicinal bath were also unknown, and as for its effects, they too remained unclear... But this was one of the master's most emphasized and repeatedly instructed important courses, not to be neglected.

  After a while of incense, the young man stood up, wiped himself clean, and put on his red and white Taoist robe again, pushing the door out.

  After finishing his cultivation on Wú Xiāng Peak, the next stop was Tiǎo Miǎo Peak. Wang Lù ran slowly along the rugged mountain road of Wú Xiāng Peak and soon arrived at the foot of Tiǎo Miǎo Peak. Two young men wearing black and white Taoist robes stood guard in front of the mountain path, their posture as straight as pines.

  Wang Lu spent two years in the Lingjian Sect, frequently coming and going, recognizing them as disciples of the Lianlian Peak. At this time, they were on duty at the foot of the mountain, performing their daily tasks... The slightly older disciples of the Lingjian Sect would be assigned similar tasks within the sect, such as collecting medicinal herbs, guarding the mountain gate, refining elixirs... and so on, an indispensable part of their cultivation.

  These two had entered the sect many years earlier than him, and at this point, they were already well-established in their cultivation. The slightly older one was even approaching the Yuandan boundary. By the standards of the immortal cultivation world, they could be considered geniuses and top-notch experts, with different levels of seniority. However, according to the rules of the Lingjian Sect, unless a Golden Dan had been formed, it was not possible to be called a True Person. Therefore, when an inner sect disciple met a direct transmission disciple, regardless of who entered the sect earlier or later, addressing them as "Shixiong" (senior brother) was necessary, just like how outer sect disciples addressed inner sect disciples.

  So the two saw Wang Lu wearing a red and white Taoist robe, and they all bowed their hands to greet him.

  "Wang Lu, brother, are you going to use the Earth Shrinking Array to ascend the mountain?"

  Wang Lu raised his hand in response and smiled at the two of them: "Exactly."

  Then he walked past the two of them and in one step crossed a vast distance to arrive directly at the Cloudy Peak's Yun Tang.

  Tengyun Hall is located on the gentle slope of Lianxiao Peak, and it's an important place for all Lingjian Sect disciples to cultivate, whether they are inner door, outer door or true transmission, they must study important courses in Tengyun Hall.

  Cultural course.

  This was also another surprise for Wang after he went up the mountain. At some point in time, in his youthful imagination, the Immortal Realm was a place where the weak were preyed upon by the strong, and killings were decisive. Each sect should have been stimulating their disciples to cultivate with their lives on the line while searching for resources and strengthening their forces. As the Lingjian Sect, this declining sect that was once one of the Five Absolutes of the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance, should have been striving to become stronger, cultivating with all its might...

  But in reality, it wasn't like that at all. Wang Lu didn't stay on the mountain for two days before being arranged to go to Tunyundang with his fellow disciples Blue and White, Black and White, to receive cultural education. The content of this education? It was a real mixed bag, hard to summarize in one phrase. Apart from the most basic and necessary reading and writing, there were also mathematics and logic, foreign languages, history of the nine states, etiquette rules for the immortal world...

  According to the Lingjian Sect's propaganda, this is called quality education. Nowadays, many sects in the cultivation world only focus on the cultivator's cultivation realm and profound magical powers, and they can't wait to spend all their time meditating or practicing. However, they neglect a cultivator's overall quality.

  The term "comprehensive quality" sounds empty, but citing a few examples can illustrate its significance. For instance, historical knowledge - if someone asks you which three ancient countries were the Three Kingdoms, and you answer Xin, Ma, and Tai... then just wait to be ridiculed by everyone.

  Apart from this, the importance of etiquette classes is self-evident. It's like when people from the Beast Tamer Sect brag about how delicious dog meat hot pot is, and then ask a devout Christian to eat braised pork with noodles... it's a miracle that such people can go out in public without getting beaten up.

  Also, there's the geography of the nine states. Later, when I come out and travel, where is rich in what resources, where may have ancient caves, where is the habitat of fierce spirits that cannot be offended... If you don't figure it out clearly, you'll end up getting killed by the Kunlun slaves, this kind of thing has happened before.

  Nowadays, high-level cultivators with low abilities are a dime a dozen in the cultivation world, but the Lingjian Sect, as one of the Five Absolutes, does not deign to do so. In the words of the sect leader, cultivation must be high, and quality must be even higher! And in the words of the five elders, even if the disciples' cultivation realm is not comparable to the likes of Shengjing Xianmen or Kunlun Xianshan, at least they can use their comprehensive quality to brag a bit, so as not to lose face too much at the Wanxianmeng conference.

  In any case, the Lingjian Sect's quality education has been vigorously carried out for a hundred years, thoroughly implemented, and now it has formed a relatively mature educational system. Even if the disciples do not understand or even support it, there is no choice.

  Of course, Wang Lu himself was delighted with this.

  Why? The reason is simple. As a fellow apprentice of Yun Tang who entered at the same time, Wang Lu's academic performance has been overwhelmingly strong for two years. Not to mention poetry, lyrics and other subjects that Wang Lu was familiar with before the age of 10, even in needlework and embroidery classes, which made countless male students roll around on the ground in frustration, Wang Lu achieved top grades. In Wang Lu's own words, this is called the persistence of a successful person, but in the eyes of countless male classmates, it is called shamelessly trying to curry favor with female teachers and sisters!

  In fact, there are not a few people who are extremely disgusted with quality education. At least the new people who entered the mountain with Wang Lu had some reservations about this, especially towards Wang Lu, the genius of Ling Jian, whom they hated to the bone.

  Some people might say that when it comes to cultivating immortals, the most important thing is to have a high level of cultivation, so even if Wang Lu's grades in cultural class are high, they don't matter.

  It's really meaningful, because cultural courses are a manifestation of intelligence! At the same time, the entrance to the cultural course scores is vastly different, isn't it saying that in front of Wang Lu these geniuses are just at the monkey level?

  Haha, I just successfully inhaled air into my body recently, and now I'm a dignified practitioner of internal energy cultivation. How's your own practice going?

  Hello monkey.

  My master just rewarded me with an eighth-grade artifact, what did your master give you?

  Hello monkey.

  I just learned a magical skill!

  Hello, Monkey King!

  As the top student of Ling Jian, Wang Lu had long been accustomed to this life of verbal sparring and was not tired of it. His greatest opponent, who also shone brightly after entering the school, was a certain prince from the Great Ming Country. For two years, the two had been in love and killing each other, with their verbal exchanges having already broken through the sky.

  But today was okay, when I arrived at the Cloud Pavilion, I didn't see Zhu Qin and others... This is also reasonable, today's course in the Cloud Pavilion is Advanced Nine States History, only those with an A-level evaluation or above can continue to study this course after passing the Advanced Nine States History course. And for the same period of cultivators, no one has yet received such a high evaluation, usually they have to repeat the advanced history course two or three times before getting an A-level evaluation.

  As for the senior disciples in the sect, there were no shortage of historical experts. When Wang Lu arrived, there were already twenty or thirty people gathered inside and outside Teng Yun Hall, all of whom were professional history students, a scale that was quite impressive.

  These people may not be true history enthusiasts, but the Lingjian Sect, which advocates for quality education, has set quite generous reward conditions for cultural courses. For example, this major in Nine States History, if you can pass the assessment smoothly, you can get 500 points of sect merit, which is enough to exchange for a high-quality artifact. And if you can get an evaluation of A+, the merit point reward is even over a thousand, extremely generous.

  Wang Lu casually calculated the huge amount of points he was about to receive, and stepped inside. The hall was neatly arranged with rows of desks and meditation cushions, which could accommodate around 70-80 people. However, it was not fully seated, as apart from three or four inner sect disciples in black and white robes, most of the others were outer sect disciples from Xīyáng Peak, wearing blue and white Daoist robes.

  The Lingjian Sect has different treatment for its inner and outer disciples. Inner disciples have more ways to earn points, so they don't pay as much attention to cultural classes as outer disciples do. Although the sect requires inner disciples to pass certain level exams for many courses, it won't be as demanding as professional level. Those who come to attend professional classes are either true history enthusiasts, or outer disciples who desperately need points, or... they're like Wang Lu, seeking intellectual superiority and a sense of accomplishment.

  Before long, the front row of the hall was almost full, but the first row was empty. That was a special seat for the true transmission of red and white disciples, unfortunately, only Wang Lu came today, and no other true transmission disciples appeared.

  In fact, Wang Lu had been here for two years and had only seen other true disciples less than ten times. They were just acquaintances who nodded at each other, and some couldn't even remember each other's names. They weren't as familiar as some of the black and white or blue and white mixed ones. After all, the Lingjian Sect had the most relaxed rules for true disciples, and the number of true disciples was also the rarest.

  But anyway, Wang Lu sat down in the middle of the first row with a big smile on his face and greeted the fellow students around him. Before long, the teacher floated in.

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