Chapter 336 – Choosing the Future (2/2)

Some people had already gotten to the bottom of Xiao An and Li Qingshan’s relationship. They sent their disciples to Cloudwisp island to discuss matters with him. They all secretly offered him extremely abundant conditions for Xiao An to switch over and take them as a master instead.

Under the gathering darkness of night, Li Qingshan sent away another visitor. He turned around and passed through the silent, weaving corridors, returning to his room.

A woman was currently in his room, laying down under the light as she read. She seemed like she had recently washed, as her hair was still wet; it was much shorter compared to other women, shoulder-length and rather messy. A few strands on her fringe stood up stubbornly, which gave her a hint of adorable laziness.

Her thin, navy robes hugged her enchanting figure, as if it were wordlessly communicating that she was already a grown woman.

The woman’s face reddened and closed the book like she did not care. She shot a glance at Li Qingshan. “What’re you looking at?”

“Senior sister Han?” Only then was Li Qingshan bold enough to draw a conclusion. Today, Han Qiongzhi differed greatly from her usual appearance of an “older sister”. She seemed more gentle as she read under the light.

“What’s wrong?” Han Qiongzhi was afraid to make direct eye contact with Li Qingshan.

Li Qingshan smiled. “And I had thought the Han family had a second young miss. How come you have the time to come here today?”

Everyone had their own lives. Han Qiongzhi was no different. Now that Hua Chengzan had entered seclusion, his responsibilities as the primary disciple and Scarlet Wolf commander had fallen onto her shoulders. However, she would struggle to complete matters that took Hua Chengzan two hours to complete even if she had ten times as much time, so she faced a truly miserable predicament. Fortunately, she got along relatively well with everyone else, so she could still have some spare time to herself if she forcefully allocated work to others.

In the past, she would spend this time relaxing and having fun to her heart’s content, but she felt rather uneasy recently. A certain figure would frequently cross her mind. Not only had she washed up today, but she had even put on a set of clothes she never wore for some odd reason and came to visit involuntarily. She wanted to see what Li Qingshan was up to.

However, she could not bring herself to ask him that. She avoided it completely. “What brought the monk here?”

Li Qingshan told her the reason, and Han Qiongzhi said, “The Lone Mountain temple is a mid-sized sect, so you can consider it. The Lone Mountain Patriarch is a powerful cultivator who’s condensed a śarīra. He’s renowned even throughout the entire Ruyi commandery. I never thought a disciple of his would be participating in the dharma assembly this time. He does have the right to serve as Xiao An’s master.”

The Lone Mountain temple was not located within the Clear River prefecture. The Foundation Establishment monk who had come this time was the Lone Mountain Patriarch’s direct disciple, and one of the conditions he offered was accepting Xiao An as a disciple on his master’s behalf.

Li Qingshan said, “What’s wrong with staying in the Academy of the Hundred Schools?”

Han Qiongzhi said, “With Xiao An’s cultivation, reaching Foundation Establishment is only a matter of time, so how can she remain in the academy?”

Li Qingshan said, “Isn’t there an academy in the Ruyi commandery too?”

“So you don’t know. The academy in the commandery is just for show.”

Han Qiongzhi gave him a detailed explanation. Only then did Li Qingshan learn that the Academy of the Hundred Schools in the Ruyi commandery was not a larger version of the one in the Clear River prefecture, with hundreds of Foundation Establishment cultivators learning together under the guidance of over a dozen Golden Core cultivators.

Every single Foundation Establishment cultivator was an elite that could reign over an entire region, so why would they still receive the treatment of Qi Practitioners? It was even less likely for Golden Core cultivators to be all cooped up. Instead, they all had their places.

The academies on the level of commanderies existed basically only in name. Their primary function was for management. They did not even possess the function to communicate between the schools.

After all, they could exchange items that covered the basics with one another, but at their level, all cultivation methods and arts would be secrets that would not be passed on so easily among all schools.

Let alone disciples from other schools, but even disciples from their own schools would have to accept a master to learn these cultivation methods or arts. This master-disciple relationship would no longer be as flimsy as the student-teacher relationship in the academy. Instead, it would turn into a traditional familial relationship.

Reaching that step, finding a good master became a critical matter to consider.

“Do I also have to find a master?” Li Qingshan thought. No wonder the monk from earlier had hinted that he could check out the Lone Mountain temple too.

Han Qiongzhi said, “Of course. Who doesn’t want a master to guide them along? The only issue you’ll face is insufficient talent and being too old, making it so that no one wants to accept you.”

Li Qingshan was obviously no exception. It was possible to say that all those who could emerge as Foundation Establishment cultivators under this strange free-charging system of the Academy of the Hundred Thoughts were young talents. They would not be troubled over finding a master.

This was the academy’s special method of inheritance. It was different from cultivation sects, yet somewhat similar at the same time.

Li Qingshan laid out his hands. “Then are there Golden Core cultivators for novelists?” Or should he say “Golden Talisman cultivators”. The Divine Talisman of Great Creation that the school of Novels focused on would turn golden after the second heavenly tribulation.

Actually, apart from Foundation Establishment where cultivators would all be the same, they would all be given different names due to differing cultivation methods if they advanced any higher. For example, śarīra for buddhism, golden talisman for the school of novels, and sword embryo for sword cultivators. They were called Golden Core cultivators due to the habits passed down through history.

Han Qiongzhi lowered her head. “Although you’re a disciple of the school of Novels, you don’t have to find a master from the school of Novels. For example, I’m a disciple of legalism, but if I can establish a foundation, I’ll definitely take my father’s elder brother, my uncle, as my master.”

Han Qiongzhi’s uncle was naturally one of the three major pillars of the Ruyi commandery—great general Han Anguo!