Library of Heaven’s Path

”He can’t go with us?” Luo Qiqi frowned as she turned to look at her close friend. ”Why?”

This mission was fraught with danger. Given teacher’s wisdom and superior cultivation, he would be able to aid them out of difficult situations. Why would her good friend turn down such a good idea?

”H-he… is lecherous!” Yu Fei-er exclaimed with gritted teeth.

”Lecherous? You’re overthinking it, he has no interest in you at all…”

Luo Qiqi shook her head at her good friend’s words.

She had confidence in this aspect.

Putting everything aside, Luo Qiqi’s appearance was top-notch as well, comparable to Princess Yu Fei-er. Yet, despite her beauty and her respect for Zhang shi, the other party never even spared her a glance.

Given how obstinate you are… that’s even more impossible!

”…” Yu Fei-er staggered backward as her vision darkened.

What do you mean by this? No interest in me?

I’m not that bad, alright?

Why does it sound as though I was turned down by the other party? As an esteemed princess, I should be the one turning others down…

”Qiqi is right. Zhang shi has high standards. He has a student known as Wang Ying who is much prettier than you—I’ve seen her myself—but he has no interest in her whatsoever. Given that, it’s unlikely for him to be interested in you either…” Xing Yuan nodded in agreement.

Given his fondness for Yu Fei-er, he felt threatened by Zhang Xuan’s capability and the intricate relationship between the duo. Thus, he had his men investigate the latter’s background.

Not only did Zhang shi have a student who was even more beautiful than Yu Fei-er, he had also had many pursuers in the past, but he still remained unmoved by any of them.

Yu Fei-er might be beautiful, but her temper was simply horrendous. Even Xing Yuan could only barely tolerate it himself. For others… it was probably completely out of question.

”What did you say?”

’Luo luo!’, the sound of teeth gritting against one another sounded as Yu Fei-er glared at Xing Yuan with widened eyes while emanating blatant killing intent. ”Xing Yuan, why don’t you try repeating what you have just said…”

”I…”

A cold shiver ran through Xing Yuan.

Seeing that Xing Yuan was frightened into such a state, Wu Zhen chuckled lightly beneath his hand. However, a cold glare from Yu Fei-er immediately removed any hilarity he saw in this matter. ”What are you laughing for? Are you dying for another beating…”

”…” Wu Zhen trembled.

I’m just watching the commotion, there’s no need to involve me in your affairs, right…

”Alright, enough! I’ll invite teacher later on, and Fei-er, you’d better don’t talk at all. I fear that teacher might try to enforce the bet or command you to serve him if you get on his bad side.”

Seeing the group falling into an argument before the entrance to the underground chamber had even been found, Luo Qiqi shook her head.

”…”

Upon hearing the words ’enforce the bet’, Princess Fei-er suddenly recalled the matter of her being a maid, and this immediately silenced her.

By the time the argument among them halted, Zhang Xuan was already done cleaning up the spirit beasts.

The thirty or so spirit beasts were lying on the floor, moaning in agony.

This time, the beast hunters didn’t come along. However, even if they did, the same fate probably would have awaited them.

Seeing Zhang Xuan clap his hands and preparing to leave after clearing up the spirit beasts, Luo Qiqi yelled and walked over.

”Teacher!”

”Little Qi!” Zhang Xuan smiled.

In truth, he had noticed the group as soon as they arrived.

Since he had come to save them, there was nothing for him to hide.

Walking up to Zhang Xuan, Luo Qiqi bowed deeply and said, ”Teacher, I have an insolent request that I need to ask of you.”

”Hmm?”

”I wish to invite teacher to participate in a mission from the academy…” Luo Qiqi began explaining the matter.

”Mission?” Zhang Xuan waved his hands. ”I’ll pass on the matter. I still need to meet up with Hong shi and the others, and head for Hongyuan Master Teacher Academy…”

Hearing Zhang Xuan’s words, Luo Qiqi was taken aback for a moment before replying.

”Hong shi? They have already left!”

”Left?” Zhang Xuan frowned.

How could they leave without the champion of the Master Teacher Tournament?

”Indeed. In order to make it in time for the opening ceremony, they took a flying ship of the Huanyu Empire royalty along with the others. Before leaving, Hong shi consulted Pavilion Master Mo on your matter, and it was only with his agreement that they decided to leave…” Luo Qiqi replied.

”Flying ship?” Zhang Xuan asked doubtfully.

”Un. It’s a military transportation device found only within empires. It is driven by dozens of spirit beasts, and the ship can house up to a thousand people!”

Seeing that her apothecary teacher hadn’t even heard of such a thing before, Luo Qiqi looked at him in bewilderment.

There was no master teacher in the empire who didn’t know about flying ships. Given how knowledgeable he was and how formidable his teacher was, how could he have never heard of flying ships before?

Zhang Xuan nodded.

Truthfully, he had been thinking that given how far an empire’s territory stretched, if a war were to happen, wouldn’t it take years just to deploy troops, needless to say, send reinforcements in?

It turned out that there was a transportation device for this very purpose!

To use dozens of aerial spirit beasts to ferry a thousand people at once… probably only the royalty of an empire would possess the wealth and resources to do so.

”Right, Hong shi took teacher’s students along with him as well. He said that there’s no need to worry about you since you were with Yang shi, and it would be best for them to wait for you at Hongyuan Empire…”

Luo Qiqi continued filling Zhang Xuan in on the details.

Hearing those words, Zhang Xuan smiled bitterly.

He didn’t expect so many things to happen in the three days that he was out.

Everyone thought that given how formidable Yang shi was, he would be completely safe together with him. They probably never could have imagined that… the seemingly omnipotent Yang shi in their mind was actually just a hoax, a fictional character!

”Forget it!” Zhang Xuan shook his head.

He was still worried about his students and Sun Qiang since Hong shi had left, but since Hong shi had taken them along with him, they should be fine.

All he had to do was to appear at Hongyuan Master Teacher Academy when the time comes.

Since there was nothing tying him down now, Zhang Xuan became curious about the mission Luo Qiqi spoke of.

”So, what kind of mission are you all on?” Zhang Xuan asked.

”It’s…” Luo Qiqi hesitated for a moment before switching to telepathic message. ”It’s the underground chamber of 6-star Blacksmith Wu Yangzi!”

”6-star blacksmith?” Zhang Xuan’s eyebrows shot up.

”Un. Wu Yangzi is an extremely famous grandmaster blacksmith from three thousand years ago, and he possesses blacksmithing skills unmatched by any. He is known as Hongyuan Empire’s number one blacksmith in the past ten thousand years. In fact, even the royal seal currently used was crafted by his hands!” Luo Qiqi explained.

”If he is a grandmaster blacksmith of Hongyuan Empire… why would his underground chamber be located here?” Zhang Xuan asked doubtfully.

Hongyuan Empire was at least several million kilometers away from here. Why would a grandmaster blacksmith travel so far out here?

”This…”

Luo Qiqi scratched her head awkwardly and said, ”He was… kidnapped!”

”Kidnapped?”

For a 6-star master teacher, whose cultivation had reached Saint rank, to be kidnapped… are you for real?

Besides, standing behind every single blacksmith was the entire Blacksmith Guild. It was one of the strongest occupation alliance even when considering the entire continent. To dare to lay their hands on one of their esteemed members… who could be so arrogant?

”Un. Given how formidable his blacksmithing skills are… it is believed that someone captured him to have him forge weapons for them! Due to this matter, the Master Teacher Pavilion and Blacksmith Guild sent many experts out to search through the entire Hongyuan Empire, but they were still unable to find him,” Luo Qiqi said. ”However, in the last few months, while I was reading through some ancient texts, I found some clues about the incident back then!”

”You?”

Zhang Xuan was perplexed.

Given how so many experts in the Master Teacher Pavilion and Blacksmith Guild failed to find anything at all, how could she, a mere 5-star primary master teacher and Grade 2 student of Hongyuan Master Teacher Academy, possibly find any clues? More importantly, there was an interval of several thousand years in between!

”Actually… it’s all just a deduction on my part. On top of forging pills, I have an interest in smithing as well, and Grandmaster Wu Yangzi has always been a person I deeply respected. I even once tried to learn his ’Zither Forging Technique’… but due to his incomplete heritage, I was only able to learn a small portion of it.” Luo Qiqi explained.

”I did some research on the matter, and I realized that there were actually some weapons in Huanyu Empire that were created using such a forging technique. Perplexed, I did some investigation, and in the midst of doing so, I chanced upon a map to an underground chamber. That was why I applied for this mission with the academy. But of course, it’s still too early to tell whether it leads to Grandmaster Wu Yangzi’s underground chamber or not.”

Zhang Xuan nodded.

To actually notice some clues based on how a weapon was forged, it seemed like Luo Qiqi was a truly tenacious person.

But thinking about it, if not for her tenacity, how could she, a talented Grade 2 genius and a Transcendent Mortal 6-dan pinnacle cultivator, possibly acknowledge him as her teacher without any hesitation?

”Even though teacher hasn’t reported to the Master Teacher Academy yet, you can already be considered as a member of the academy already. Thus, you’re qualified to participate in this mission as well… Furthermore, the purpose of this mission is just to find whether the underground chamber exists and whether it is related to Wu Yangzi. There is not much danger involved in it. As long as we succeed, we’ll obtain two academic credits, and this will surely prove to be useful to teacher in the future!”

Luo Qiqi smiled.

”Academic credits?” Zhang Xuan was baffled by those words.

As the librarian of a high school in his previous life, he had heard of this term before. Was there something like that in the Master Teacher Academy as well?

”Academic credits are something unique to Master Teacher Academies. It’s said to be a system enforced by Kong shi personally. It serves as a judging criterion, and students can use it to purchase better cultivation resources, lessons for higher ranked master teachers… or even a currency for purchasing anything at all! Without these, students will find themselves unable to make any progress within the academy. In fact, one could say that the most valuable items in the Master Teacher Academy aren’t spirit stones or Tutelage Jade Tokens but academic credits!” Luo Qiqi explained.

As master teachers, those in the Master Teacher Academy had no lack of Tutelage Jade Tokens and spirit stones, and thus, such resources had lower value there.

”Is there an academic credit criterion to graduation?” Zhang Xuan asked with a bizarre expression.

”Of course not! Academic credits are just a currency used among students, they aren’t a fundamental criterion for graduation… how can one possibly be barred from graduation just because they don’t have sufficient academic credits?” Luo Qiqi replied in exclamation.

Only then did Zhang Xuan heave a sigh of relief.

Taking the model from high schools in his previous life, he thought that academic credits would be a necessary requirement for graduation… but it seemed like the only thing alike was its name. In essence, they were two completely different items.

”Teacher… do you want to come with us? If this is the underground chamber where Grandmaster Wu Yangzi was locked in, there’s a high chance that his heritage will be inside!” Luo Qiqi said.

”Heritage?” Zhang Xuan was taken aback for a moment before his eyes lit up. ”I heard that blacksmiths specialize in training their bodies. Suppose that he really left his heritage there, is it possible that there will be a physical body cultivation technique within it?”

Even though Zhang Xuan’s body and soul were in perfect consonance already, his body was still slightly weaker than his soul. If his soul were to grow larger than ten meters once again, the same incompatibility issue would crop up once more. Zhang Xuan couldn’t possibly abandon his soul cultivation, so it would be best if he could find some physical body cultivation technique to train his body.

Given that blacksmiths spent their days with flames, ores, and metals, their body had to be exceptionally resilient. Thus, they usually possessed a unique physical body cultivation technique.