Chapter 31: Willing to Be Ordinary

Two blood brothers: one was the Dao Academy’s proud son of heaven, while the other lived alone in a corner of the clan.

The difference between heaven and mud was enough to drive a person mad, yet there was no resentment or bitterness on Wang Changji’s face at all. From beginning to end, he calmly ate his meal.

As though eating were the most important thing in the world.

He ate at an even pace, and very carefully.

Only after he had finished his pig trotter and vegetables, and swallowed the last mouthful of rice, did he look at his younger brother and ask gently, “Changxiang, is something the matter?”

“Nothing major. I just completed a mission and wanted to chat with you, Brother.”

“Be good. Eat the vegetables too. You can’t only eat meat.”

Wang Changji stroked the orange cat gnawing on the pig trotter and coaxed it gently. Then he turned back to Wang Changxiang.

“Go on. You seem weighed down by something.”

“We went to investigate why Little Forest Town had lost contact. Only after arriving did we discover that the entire place was covered in thick fog. Even Breath Tornado couldn’t blow it open. Wandering souls were everywhere in Little Forest Town, arranged into a Nine Palaces Wandering Soul Formation based on the Nine Palaces…”

At this point, Wang Changxiang suddenly shouted angrily, “Little Orange!”

It turned out that the fat orange cat had grown impatient with Wang Changji constantly teasing it with vegetables. It swiped back with a claw, leaving three bloody scratches on the back of Wang Changji’s hand.

“You’re so fierce.”

Wang Changji sighed helplessly and gave up trying to make Little Orange eat vegetables. He gently covered the wound on the back of his right hand with his left, then said to Wang Changxiang, “If you tell me about dao arts and formations, I won’t understand anyway.”

Wang Changxiang lowered his head, and his voice lowered as well.

“But for some reason, I just wanted to tell you, Brother.”

Wang Changji rubbed his forehead with one finger.

“Say it, then. Say it.”

“Do you know, Brother? Someone used all the living beings of Little Forest Town to gather the wandering souls accumulated across Maple Forest City’s territory over the years. Before City Lord Wei arrived, they condensed a phantom of the Gate of Ghosts and left!”

At this moment, Wang Changxiang was like a child seeking praise.

“A phantom of the Gate of Ghosts? Is that very powerful?”

“With such an enormous price paid, of course it’s extraordinary! With the phantom of the Gate of Ghosts in hand, one can communicate with the Netherworld anytime, anywhere. The power of Netherworld dao arts would increase by at least half! Dao arts such as ghost-commanding techniques could completely cross grade levels.”

At this point, Wang Changxiang lowered his brows again.

“I wonder what calamity that evil cultivator behind this will cause with it.”

“The Criminal Investigation Office will handle such matters. If Wei Quji cannot handle it, there is still the commandery governor. If the city Dao Academy cannot hold, there is still the commandery Dao Academy. Behind the commandery Dao Academy, there is the national Dao Academy. You don’t need to worry so much,” Wang Changji comforted him.

By now, Little Orange had gnawed the pig trotter completely clean. Without even glancing at the plate of vegetables, it licked its paw and strutted away proudly.

Wang Changji then rose to clean up the bowls and chopsticks.

“I won’t keep you,” he said before entering the room.

Wang Changxiang quietly watched his brother’s back disappear into the house. Only then did he turn and walk out.

But when he passed by the reclining chair where Little Orange lay, his little finger suddenly flicked.

An almost imperceptible wind blade flashed past.

Little Orange sprang up violently, looking around in alarm and suspicion. Half of its long whiskers drifted away with the wind.

“If you dare scratch my brother again… hmph.”

Wang Changxiang left with a smile at the corner of his mouth.

He only remembered that when they were still young, his brother had once yearned so deeply for dao arts, had loved that transcendent world so much.

Yet now, no matter what he spoke of before him, he could no longer see the slightest ripple.

It was as though he had already become willing to live this kind of life.

In the end, Wang Changxiang’s steps could not become light.

…

Today, the teacher was explaining the middle-grade D-class dao art, Flame Saber. It could be considered an advanced form of the lower-grade D-class dao art Flame Attachment, and it was also one of the foundations of fire-element dao arts.

It gathered flames into a saber and directly used blazing fire-element origin power to injure the opponent. It also had considerable effect against filthy things such as ghosts.

In truth, once dao arts reached this level, they were already stronger than ordinary weapons forged from common iron.

Jiang Wang had already memorized the hand seals and key points for this dao art. But at this moment, he suddenly thought of Wei Yan’s long saber. That blade was incomparably sharp and absolutely not an ordinary weapon. Given Wei Yan’s strength, common iron would only be a burden to him.

Then he thought of the sword Li Jianqiu always wore at his waist and guessed it was certainly extraordinary as well.

The thought made him somewhat envious.

His own sword had become half-ruined after cutting down the resentful ghost last time. After returning, he had spent money to replace it, but it was still only an ordinary refined iron sword. Truly powerful swords were not something he could afford, nor did he have access to them.

He wondered what kind of power the weapons held by those great martial artists who entered the Dao through martial arts possessed.

He became so absorbed in thought that he did not notice the atmosphere in the lesson. Only when Ling He quietly pushed him did he react.

The lecturer was an old man nearing sixty, rather rigid and stern, surnamed Xiao. The students privately called him Iron-Faced Xiao.

At this moment, Iron-Faced Xiao had finished explaining the technique and randomly selected several students to demonstrate it. When Fang Heling was chosen, he actually managed to complete the dao art stumblingly. Although the flame saber shook unsteadily, he had completed it after all.

Even Iron-Faced Xiao looked somewhat satisfied.

But then the fellow suddenly said, “Senior Brother Jiang opened his meridians before me. Why not let him try this dao art as well? If there’s anything not smooth, he can conveniently ask our teacher for guidance.”

Thus Iron-Faced Xiao’s gaze fell upon the distracted Jiang Wang.

This is bad, Jiang Wang thought.

He rose from his meditation cushion and honestly said, “I haven’t established my foundation yet.”

Fang Heling, who had entered the inner academy in the same batch, could already cast dao arts, yet Jiang Wang had still not completed foundation establishment. The gazes of the other students turned somewhat strange.

“If you haven’t established your foundation, does that mean you don’t need to listen to the lecture?” Iron-Faced Xiao glared.

What he hated most were students who tried to be slippery and lazy. They had clearly stepped onto the transcendent path, yet did not know to cherish it, treating it only as capital to show off before ordinary people.

“I know I was wrong.”

Jiang Wang very straightforwardly lowered his head and admitted his mistake.

Iron-Faced Xiao said coldly, “Go back and copy the Purple Void Scripture one hundred times. Before you finish, you don’t need to attend my classes.”

“Yes.”

Jiang Wang lowered his head and accepted, inwardly groaning.

The full name of the Purple Void Scripture was the High and Wondrous Supreme Scripture of Purple Void. It was the foundational Daoist canon of the Jade Capital Mountain lineage, and every Daoist of that lineage could be said to know it inside and out. There was truly no need to copy it. Iron-Faced Xiao was purely punishing him.

Most importantly, the full text of this Daoist canon was nearly thirty thousand characters long…

How long would he have to copy it?

But he knew he had to agree. Otherwise, with Iron-Faced Xiao’s temper, the old man might directly roll up his sleeves and beat him.

For the rest of the class, Jiang Wang forced himself to concentrate and did not dare slack off in the slightest. Only after finally enduring until Iron-Faced Xiao left with his hands behind his back did Fang Heling smugly swagger over.

“Aiya, Junior Brother Jiang, I’m truly sorry. I didn’t know you still hadn’t established your foundation!”

Cultivation did not recognize age, and order was always based on cultivation. Fang Heling very naturally changed “senior brother” to “junior brother,” his tone full of regret.

“After opening my meridians, it took me fifty-three days to establish my foundation. I already felt I was too slow and was ashamed of myself. Thinking of Junior Brother Jiang’s former prestige, I assumed you had long since established your foundation… Sigh, look at this mess.”

The Return-Origin Formation, the standard foundation formation used by Zhuang Country’s Dao Academies, had a total of eighty-one formation points. Based on two meridian cultivation sessions per day, producing two dao essences in total, establishing foundation in fifty-three days could not be considered slow no matter how one looked at it. After all, there were also many cases where mistakes occurred when moving formation points, causing progress to stall.

Currently, the fastest foundation establishment record in the entire city Dao Academy belonged to Zhu Weiwo. He had established his foundation in nine days, surpassing all previous records. Judging by this unimaginable speed, his dao vein true spirit absolutely could not have been at the level of Jiang Wang’s earthworm true spirit. But the exact grade of his true spirit involved personal privacy, so there was no way to know.

Returning to the matter at hand, among ordinary Maple Forest City Dao Academy disciples, sixty to ninety days was the normal range.

Thus, it was no wonder Fang Heling felt smug.

He did not hide the provocation in his gaze. He very much wanted to see this proud fellow before him fly into shameful rage. He had even already simulated in his mind how the coming battle would be resolved brilliantly with dao arts against this bumpkin who could only rely on swordsmanship.

But Jiang Wang only smiled, then turned and left.

No anger.

Utterly unconcerned.

(End of Chapter)