Chapter 933: Ascension Pool (1/2)
With the changes in the world, the Dao Academy soared to the highest peaks it’d ever known since its founding.
As dean of the demonic school, the demon god assimilated the demonic dao that’d been drifting outside the proper dao of the world of immortals. The Star Demon Sect, Skandha Range, and other demonic factions all emerged from the shadows to take their place on the world stage. Due to congregating in the Dao Academy, the newcomers managed to settle down peacefully in the bigger picture without undue conflict.
Apart from bringing demonic dao into the fold, Qi Hai’s sacred land of pill dao in the South Sea sent an olive branch petitioning to join the Dao Academy. Lu Yun naturally wouldn't turn him down.
When Qi Hai joined the academy, the current dean of pill dao—Gu Xun—immediately vacated his position in favor of this prestigious senior. After a certain degree of polite refusal, Qi Hai accepted the seat as his accomplishments in pill dao were far greater than Gu Xun’s. He still reigned at a lofty pinnacle of pill dao mastery even after all of Lu Yun’s changes to the supplemental path, to say nothing of how he’d dominated the field from the human dao and primordial times.
……
There were more Dao Academy disciples than could be counted twenty years after the institution’s establishment. Even some of the geniuses of peak factions were willing to enroll in the inner academy and become a disciple of various mentors or deans teaching within.
Nothing could be compared to the Dao Academy’s age of glory; it completely outshone the nine majors. In fact, there were many in the world of immortals who knew only the academy headmaster and none of the nine celestial emperors.
For a long time after repairing the immortal dao, Lu Yun spent his days engaged in a mundane routine. He slowly crossed things off on his to-do list and continued working on his book of history, recording what had been buried in the long river of time.
Wanfeng and Ashu joined his efforts as well, filling in the blank period that was the era of the human dao.
In addition, he collaborated with Qing Yu to derive various cultivation methods, combat arts, and secret techniques to pass them onto the world at large. He also held various lectures to circulate the combat arts he’d invented and assorted tomb raiding knowledge.
His lectures weren’t held behind closed doors and limited to academy disciples—Lu Yun sat on the peak of Mount Xuanhuang and orated to the entire world.
Though the immortal dao had left the mountain to meld with the heavens and earth, Mount Xuanhuang was still the foremost sacred peak beneath the immortal dao. One could overlook the entire world of immortals when sitting cross-legged on the mountain, and Lu Yun’s voice could reach every nook and cranny if he spoke from it.
His reputation soared to unfathomable heights after repeated public lessons; the Karmic Tree hung heavy with sparkling karmic fruits and all of hell was awash with golden radiance. There were eighteen thousand fruits glittering on its branches!
What most delighted Lu Yun was the appearance of a second Karmic Tree sapling beneath the first.
Immense goodwill had propelled the Karmic Tree to peak evolution and it’d split off, forming a second shoot of itself.
“Tianqi’s coming back.” An unbidden smile rose to Lu Yun’s face when he thought of the strong and dignified youth of the great wilderness. That the Karmic Tree had given birth to a second sapling foretold one thing—Tianqi was on his way back.
Lu Yun had passed on the Method of Life and Death to his disciple, and the method’s foundation was the Sal Tree of Life and Death, now known as the Karmic Tree. During human dao, Tianqi had used the method to control the Sal Tree and create hell.
Now that he was about to return, the evolved Sal Tree couldn’t go back to his hands, but it could form an offshoot and become Tianqi’s own Karmic Tree.
“However, Tianqi’s circumstances don’t look too good at the moment.” Lu Yun frowned slightly as he inspected the small sapling an inch tall. “The power of reincarnation surrounds this sapling, so if my guess is correct, he’ll come back after it grows up. Maybe… he’ll be reborn from this Karmic Tree.”
Lu Yun’s heart sank. The Dao Tree had concealed the secrets behind the great war a hundred thousand years ago, so he hadn’t been able to observe the truth of the situation. However, he’d sensed Tianqi’s presence in it. If his disciple had been a part of the conflict, who had been his opponent?