Daoist Master of Qing Xuan

Shen Lian responded, “So you will be teaching without discrimination.”

“Yes,” Guan Longzi replied with a serious face.

Shen Lian looked at him, sighed and said, “Although teaching without discrimination is not absolutely fair, it is fair enough. Do you know what are the consequences of this?”

Guan Longzi remained silent for a moment and replied, “If it was not me, someone else would have done the same.”

Shen Lian smiled and said, “That’s great.”

No one knew if he was referring to the idea or Guan Longzi’s character, but it did not matter.

Guan Longzi’s student recruitment and preaching was the first blow towards Xia Kingdom’s strict policies on hierarchy. It was an open challenge towards the power of the aristocrats and royalties.

The Xuanzhen Temple and Buddhist sects had done such acts too but they all fell to the strict control of Xia Kingdom. Even if the Seven Disciples of Xuanzhen were the noble guests of the aristocratic families, they still could not change the situation.

The academy was a vast little tiny world but the interior of it was mainly bare and looked somewhat ridiculous. Even if Xia Kingdom had a big collection of books, it only took up a small area of the school.

Of course, Emperor Xia knew about this little tiny world but the aristocratic families and royalties’ style of cultivation were not connected to their spirits and thus, they could not control this little tiny world.

That was why the Prefect Grand Astrologer was in charge of this place. Although the Prefect Grand Astrologer did not practice Qigong to refine their spirits, the cultivation of their psyche were as deep as the connoisseurs of Daoism and Buddhism. Besides, this was Diqiu. Even the most powerful Daoist and Buddhist would not dare to mess with such a precious place.

Shen Lian knew exactly what this tiny little world has to offer. The Buddhist sect had a supernatural power known as the Buddhist Kingdom on the Palm. What made the cultivation of this power so difficult was the requirement to have a fragment of this tiny little world.

According to legend, there were twenty-four worlds to the ancient Dipamkara Buddha which were transformed into heavens with supernatural powers that could match the Heavenly King. When the Heavenly King was at his peak, he dominated the universe with celestial beings and Buddhas that surrendered to him. However, the ancient Dipamkara Buddha was one of the few that did not bow down to the Heavenly King.

Daoism too had a similar spell known as the technique of ‘Having an Ace Up One’s Sleeve’.

The technique of ‘Having an Ace Up One’s Sleeve’ was not the spell that Shen Lian used to store items. It was the ultimate celestial art that could entrap and suppress the enemy. However, even with the rich history of Qing Xuan, there was no inheritance to this celestial art.

Shen Lian knew how precious this school was but he had no greed in his mind. He knew that he would be able to open a new world in the void one day in the future.

However, he did not want to stay at such a barren place and thus he brought the water of Xia Canal to the school and planted some green vines. He also brought some seeds of the Plane tree from the Prefect Grand Usher’s manor and planted it around the school. Overnight, the school had a full transformation. The green vines wrapped around the structure of the school that had land full of grass with Plane trees along the walkway.

Such green landscape would require ten to twenty years to form but it only took Shen Lian a day to achieve it.

Guan Longzi was amazed and felt that it was a great decision to host Shen Lian.

The reason why he hosted Shen Lian was not just to seek knowledge from him but also to have a better understanding of the person who appeared in the prophecy.

The news about Guan Longzi, the scholar of State’s Academy started recruiting students and delivering lectures spread like wildfire. Aristocratic families like the Youhu’s, the Ming’s and the Xin’s were dismissive towards it. So what if a person acquired intelligence that was as deep as Guan Longzi and became the Prefect Grand Astrologer? He would still be a dog that Emperor Xia could easily get rid of.

Furthermore, these aristocratic families had countless powerhouses and their influences were deeply rooted. Even Emperor Xia could not eliminate them completely and had to rely heavily on them. Thus, the news of the student recruitment was only a conversation topic over dinner among the aristocratic families.

However, Diqiu had countless smaller aristocratic families that were not as prestigious as the twelve aristocratic families. It was impossible for them to make it to the top with their bloodline and that was why they were the main target of Xuandu Temple and Buddhist sect’s Da Jue Temple. But the two temples were located outside of Xia Kingdom and as they were deeply influential, they had to be under the strong supervision of Xia Kingdom, causing these smaller families to be fearful of being involved.

Now that Guan Longzi started giving lectures, it was a new way out for them. The strength of the disciples of the stronger aristocratic families was inherited through their bloodline. When they hit a plateau, they could use their bloodline for a breakthrough. The smaller families on the other hand, had to look for other means to elevate themselves.

Although Guan Longzi had no cultivation experience, people as high profile as the immortal son of Xuanzhen Temple who was also a roaming celestial had a moment of awakening when he met Guan Longzi.

He realized how little he knew about Dao.

Many of these smaller families were tempted by the student recruitment but it was the ambassadors who were stationed at Diqiu that were excited to hear about the school. They have heard so much about the profound scholar Guan Longzi, and even if they could only understand half of what he said, the knowledge would still be useful and relevant when they take it back to their country.

The news also traveled to the ears of Emperor Xia. Although Emperor Xia was strong headed, he was a wise person. Despite not liking the naggings from Guan Longzi, he was still respectful of him. Furthermore, Guan Longzi had no foundations and even if he was capable of teaching a couple of powerful students, it would still not affect the rule of Emperor Xia. In fact, it could make things more interesting for Emperor Xia to kill time.

After becoming the biggest powerhouse of Xia Kingdom and achieving the state of Dawu, not much was able to pique his interest.

Emperor Xia sentenced the news bearer to the hot pillar punishment as he said with contempt, “Anyone who tried to provoke things would end up with such punishment.”

However, Emperor Xia who was high above did not notice that there was a new addition to youth at the State’s Academy.

There were two classrooms at the school, one belonged to Guan Longzi and the other belonged to Shen Lian.

Shen Lian suggested to Guan Longzi that they would teach their students respectively and have a test between their students just to make things more interesting.

They decided to have the test three months later.

Guan Longzi agreed to the suggestion. After all, this seemed like a fun thing to do.

But another issue arose. Guan Longzi was already a well-known figure and students came because of his fame. Shen Lian, on the other hand, was a nameless youth and no one would believe that he was the second teacher of the academy unless if Guan Longzi said it personally.

There were people who guessed that Shen Lian was actually a personal student of Guan Longzi. If they could choose to attend Guan Longzi’s lecture, there was no point in wasting their time on Shen Lian’s classes.

After three days, Guan Longzi had recruited hundreds of high potential students while Shen Lian had none.

That was until a youthful boy came with his pegasus and stopped right in front of Shen Lian’s classroom. The rest was history.