Library of Heaven’s Path

Just recalling the offense of that sweeping student left the two vice principals on the verge of tears.

He was simply too powerful! It was as if he could peer right into the flaws of their movements. No matter how they attempted to dodge, the broom would accurately fall on their faces without fail.

Were it not for the fact that they possessed superior physical resilience as Primordial Spirit realm experts, they would probably have ended up bedbound!

Initially, they had thought that the sweeping student might just have been a hidden expert of the Xuanxuan Faction, so indignant with their loss, they had chosen another opponent to fight against. Yet, they actually lost even more tragically!

To think that they would be no match for the students when in the same cultivation realm!

”Zhang shi said that… he conducted a few lessons for them?” Seeing the pitiful plight that the two vice principals were in, Zhang Yinqiu suddenly recalled what the young man had said earlier, and his lips started quivering wildly. Just what in the world did Zhang shi teach them for the students to become so powerful?

Unable to take it any longer, he turned his gaze toward the Byzantium Helios Beast.

”Principal Zhang did conduct a few lessons for the students, but as for the exact details… I am not too sure about them either.” the Byzantium Helios Beast shook his head.

He had spent most of his time in the Myriad Anthive Nest cultivating, so he was not too sure about the happenings within the academy.

”Never mind, let’s find Mo Zhu and the others!” Seeing that the Byzantium Helios Beast wasn’t too certain on the details either, the trio hurriedly headed toward the Elder Hall.

Not too long later, they met Zhao Bingxu, Mo Zhu, and the others. The school heads were agitated to meet them once more, and the trio ended up explaining what had happened to them in the ancient domain. It took quite a while before the trio was finally able to pose the question that was on their mind.

”Ah. We had the Combat Master Selection not too long ago, and the Combat Master Hall ended up sending two parties to assess our students. However, they were defeated so tragically that they were completely sapped of their confidence. In fact, they even fled overnight just a day before they were supposed to fight with Principal Zhang’s direct disciple, not bothering to bid any of us farewell beforehand…” School Head Mo swiftly brought Zhang Yinqiu and the others up to date on recent matters.

”Are you certain that it isn’t our students who were sapped of their confidence?” The trio was frenzied by what they were hearing.

Just what in the world had happened to the Hongyuan Master Teacher Academy in the two years that they were trapped in the ancient domain?

”Not only so, Principal Zhang also managed to tame all of the spirit beasts and saint beasts on the Cloudmist Ridge, and he has distributed them among the students of the Beast Tamer School. Currently, just counting the number of Perfect Harmonization realm spirit beasts, we have more than twenty thousand of them. Also, Principal Zhang has conducted a few public lectures from time to time, and those have induced at least a twofold rise in the overall fighting prowess of our students…” Seemingly oblivious to the shock the trio was going through, School Head Mo continued explaining the various changes in the academy nonchalantly.

The more he spoke, the stiffer the bodies of the trio became. Eventually, before School Head Mo could finish his piece, the trio was already completely petrified.

It was just a moment ago that they had been worrying that Zhang shi was too young and inexperienced to manage the academy, but at this moment… they realized that they were the ones who were too inexperienced to manage the academy.

To think that they had even doubted the other party’s capabilities, it sure was a huge farce.

…

Ten days later, Zhang Xuan stood on the deck of a massive ship, looking ahead into the distance. Within the compartments of the ship housed the tens of thousands of Xuanxuan Faction members, and the heart of every single one of them was leaping in excitement. They could not wait to cross blows with the combat masters with their refined skills.

Over the prior ten days, Zhang Xuan had conducted another five lessons for them before packing them into the ship to set forth for Qingyuan Conferred Empire.

Due to the enormous size of the ship, they had to find dozens of saint beasts before they were able to take off.

For the exchange with the Combat Master Hall, Zhang Xuan had only brought School Head Mo and Pavilion Master Mo Gaoyuan with him. Zhang Yinqiu, Ji Yan, and Tan Qing, seeing that there would likely be no problem with the exchange, chose to remain behind at the Hongyuan Master Teacher Academy to manage the matters there.

In truth, as Zhang Xuan knew that he would have to continue charging ahead in order to resolve his Innate Fetal Poison, as well as to get together with Luo Ruoxin, it was very unlikely that he would be able to spend much time in the Hongyuan Master Teacher Academy in the future. In fact, there was a good chance that he would not return there after heading to Qingyuan Conferred Empire, at least not in the short run. Thus, he had attempted to return the position of principal to Zhang Yinqiu.

However, the latter just would not agree to it no matter how he tried to convince him. Zhang Yinqiu was deeply concerned by the state he was in. He felt that if an incomplete person like him were to become the principal of the Hongyuan Master Teacher Academy, it might undermine its prestigious name.

As such, Zhang Xuan could only continue holding onto his title as the honorary principal. But of course, all of his responsibilities as the principal were still entrusted to Zhang Yinqiu to handle.

In the past ten days, Zhang Xuan had also paid a visit to the Blacksmith Guild to browse through their books in hopes of finding a way to heal the Golden Origin Cauldron, but it was a pity that the smithing mastery within the Hongyuan City was deeply limited. He had found a way to give birth to a new spirit within an existing artifact, but waking up a dormant one was proving to be far more difficult than he had anticipated.

It was to save them that the Golden Origin Cauldron had ended up falling into the state it was in, so Zhang Xuan could not allow it to die just like that. After careful contemplation, he decided to pay a visit to Qingyuan Conferred Empire to study more advanced smithing techniques before making a move.

…

Looking at the fleeting white clouds and feeling the raging wind before his eyes, Zhang Xuan sighed deeply.

The day before their team set forth, Luo Ruoxin had paid a visit to him and informed him that she still had matters to attend to, so she had to leave Hongyuan Empire for the time being, and she would not be able to meet him in Qingyuan Conferred Empire either. As reluctant as Zhang Xuan was, he could only nod in agreement.

In any case, since he had already learned of her true identity, he did not need to worry about being unable to meet her in the future.

There was one thing that Wu shi had said that he agreed deeply with—his current strength was still insufficient to go against the Sage Clans directly. If he wanted to be together with Luo Ruoxin, he would have to work a lot harder.

”Zhang shi… this is a gift that my father and King Huai prepared for you. Fearing that you would be reluctant to accept it, they told me to hand it over to you only after we left Hongyuan City!”

A crisp voice came from behind him, and Yu Fei-er walked up to Zhang Xuan’s side.

For the exchange at the Qingyuan Empire Combat Master Hall, Luo Qiqi, Hu Yaoyao, and she had tagged along as well. They were considered members of the Xuanxuan Faction as well, so they had been allowed to join the trip.

”Gift?” Not expecting Emperor Yu Shenqing and King Huai to prepare something for him, Zhang Xuan took the storage ring from Yu Fei-er’s hands.

”Knowing that Zhang shi is proficient in the art of smithing and pill forging, they have prepared some ores and medicinal herbs within the ring. They aren’t particularly valuable or rare, but they have prepared many portions of them so that you need not fret about being short of ingredients!” Yu Fei-er said with a smile.

As the principal of the Hongyuan Master Teacher Academy, Zhang Xuan was bound to have a bright future ahead of him. Naturally, Yu Shenqing and the others were reluctant to let go of this huge tree.

”Actually, I am the one who should be thanking your father!” Knowing their intentions, Zhang Xuan decided to accept the gift graciously.

Thinking back, had Yu Shenqing not given the Bodhi Seed to him, which he had used to grow a Bodhi Saint Tree within his folded space, there was a good chance that they would have been unable to overcome the Black Sand of Oblivion in the ancient domain!

He had been too busy over the past ten days, so it had slipped his mind to extend his gratitude to Emperor Yu Shenqing for the matter.

Choosing not to delve too much into this topic, Yu Fei-er looked at Zhang Xuan with a heated gaze. ”Zhang shi, I have recently met with some troubles in my cultivation. May I ask you to give me some pointers?”

”Of course…” Zhang Xuan nodded.

While he was offering some pointers to Yu Fei-er, Luo Qiqi, Hu Yaoyao, and the others also dropped by. Thus, he decided to share the recent insights he had regarding cultivation with them as well.

After receiving the warning from Kong shi, he had not rushed into cultivating for the past few days. Instead, he had been thinking about the path that he intended to head down.

While he hadn’t managed to create any formidable cultivation technique or battle technique, he did reinforce his cultivation further, allowing him to tap into his newfound strength more smoothly.

His insights were profound yet concise, making them valuable pointers to any cultivators. Luo Qiqi, Yu Fei-er, and Hu Yaoyao benefited greatly from his teachings.

A month passed in a flash.

The three ladies advanced substantially in their cultivation within that period of time.

After three months of cultivation, Yu Fei-er had managed to achieve a breakthrough to Half-Saint pinnacle, and Hu Yaoyao had managed to reach Nascent Saint pinnacle.

Of course, the one who had made the greatest advancement within that period of time was none other than Luo Qiqi. Two months ago, her cultivation had still been at Chrysalis realm pinnacle, similar to Yu Fei-er. However, within this short period of time, she had managed to advance her cultivation to Saint 1-dan pinnacle, putting her on par with Zhang Xuan!

Even Zhang Xuan could not help but be astonished by the rate at which she was advancing her cultivation. It seemed like she was indeed a person of great talent.

Her recent improvement was not just limited to her cultivation; her mastery at pill forging had also made significant progress as well. With her current proficiency, she could probably forge any grade-7 primary pill easily.

While the three of them were improving at light speed, Zhang Xuan’s two direct disciples, Wang Ying and Liu Yang, weren’t slacking either. Within a span of two months, Wang Ying had managed to advance from Chrysalis realm primary stage to Nascent Saint pinnacle. It was the same for Liu Yang as well.

It was due to them cultivating a simplified version of the Saint Ascension Decipher that their cultivation was not advancing too quickly. If it had been an ordinary Heaven’s Path Divine Art, they would have long reached higher realms.

On the other hand, Sun Qiang’s progress was still the slowest of them all as his heart was not in cultivating. Nevertheless, with Zhang Xuan’s spot-on guidance, as well as the vast resources he had available to him, his progress was still much faster than the normal students of the academy.

At this moment, he had already reached Ethereal Treading realm pinnacle, just a step away from Chrysalis realm.

After a month of cultivating, Zhang Xuan had fully reinforced his Saint 1-dan pinnacle cultivation. Even though he had not achieved a breakthrough, his true fighting prowess could already be said to be invincible among all cultivators beneath Primordial Spirit realm.

More importantly, he had found that his Soul Depth had also increased quite a bit after the Saint Ascension Ordeal, rising from the initial 21.1 to 23.1.

The difficulty in raising one’s Soul Depth was not constant. Instead, just like cultivation, it became increasingly harder to raise one’s Soul Depth the higher it was. Raising one’s Soul Depth from 1.0 to 3.0 wasn’t difficult, but raising it from 21.1 to 23.1 required at least several dozen times the effort required for the former.

Even so, if not for the Heart Ordeal being too easy, the growth of Zhang Xuan’s Soul Depth would surely have been more than that.

As Zhang Xuan had spent most of the journey cultivating, he did not converse much with others. After an entire month of traveling, a humongous city finally came into sight.

The capital of Qingyuan Empire, Qingyuan City!

...

As Zhang Xuan and the others arrived at Qingyuan City, Poison Master Bai Ting and Poison Master Hai Mingjin finally arrived at the Poison Hall headquarters with Wei Ruyan.