Star Odyssey

Chapter 2190: Exploring

Suddenly, someone in the distance let out a shout, and everyone turned to look. "It's Qing Feng! Brother Qing Feng’s here!"

The moment those words were spoken, a moment of silence fell over the students, and they all looked in the same direction. They saw a slender man smiling at them. He looked very gentle, and almost everyone’s attention was drawn to his arrival.

Lu Yin looked over as well, and then he arched a brow when he saw that the young man was exceptionally talented. He was already an Enlighter, which indicated that he was someone at least as talented as the Ten Arbiters.

"Brother Qing Feng’s very handsome, and he is also the disciple of Senior Qing Chen from Humility's Gate. He’s one of the only people who can rival Xia Shenguang or Wang Xiaofan." A girl clasped her hands as she admired the young man.

"I wonder who’s better looking, Prof. Hao Yu or Brother Qing Feng?"

`"I also want to know."

...

This was surprising; was Qing Feng Supervisor Qing Chen’s disciple? Lu Yin carefully observed Qing Feng. There were factions even within a place like Virtue Archives, so it was only a given that Qing Feng represented Humility's Gate. As for the Xia Shenguang and Wang Xiaofan that the girls had mentioned, Lu Yin could take some guesses as to who they were.

Mr. Tang soon arrived, and he immediately started a lecture on cultivating and improving a domain.

The lecture contents were quite basic, so it was unsurprising that someone like Qing Feng would ask questions, as there was no other reason for him to attend.

However, what Lu Yin had not expected was that Qing Feng’s questions practically mirrored Lu Yin’s own, which indicated that Qing Feng’s domain had also reached the spirit manifestation level.

However, after a moment’s thought, Lu Yin realized that it actually made sense. While two decades had passed for everyone else, Lu Yin had skipped twenty years. If those twenty years were not added in, then the time that Lu Yin had spent cultivating was not much different from Qing Feng. Thus, it was not surprising for their domains to be at similar levels.

Mr. Tang's lecture was not only beneficial to the students, but also to Lu Yin. After all, improving his domain was one of his primary motivations for visiting Virtue Archives.

However, Lu Yin would not reap impressive benefits from such a class, so he intended to arrange to have a private meeting with Mr. Tang after getting to know him better.

Two hours later, Mr. Tang left, as his class had finished. It was time for Lu Yin's class, so he rushed ahead to the location that he had chosen for his class.

His classes were being held at a lakeside.

There was a huge lake in Virtue Archives’ territory, but given the territory’s overall size, what was considered a lake was large enough to hold entire stars.

For several days, in addition to sitting in on the other instructors’ classes, Lu Yin had also been contemplating what he should teach in his own classes. He had eventually realized that he wanted to cover topics that none of the other instructors taught.

Virtue Archives’ lake was stunningly beautiful, and the purple-gold flames of the Undying Bird made it even more impressive to look at.

It was a place where many students went to relax.

It was not difficult for Lu Yin to find a proper location to hold his class, and it turned out that his first class had a great number of students. Such attendance was not due to anything more than his good looks.

Most of the female students showed up after learning about Prof. Hao Yu’s appearance, as they wanted to see it for themselves. The female turnout naturally caused many of the male students to show up as well. In the end, the large crowd appeared almost entirely because Yu Hao’s face was so attractive to so many women.

The students were not the only ones attending the class, as Prof. Zheng had also arrived. He was very curious to see just what Lu Yin intended to cover in his classes.

Students were entirely free to choose whichever instructors’ classes they wanted to attend, and the instructors were similarly free to choose the content of their lectures. There was no need to notify the academy in advance.

The students arrived in groups of two and three, and the short, stuttering, fatty also showed up. He felt a great deal of respect for all of the instructors.

Lu Yin’s first class was attended by almost as many students as Mr. Tang's lecture, though the overall attitude of the students was completely different. Most of the girls were excited for the lecture, while most of the boys were hoping to find the new instructor inadequate.

Bai Nan also arrived with a group of his junior sect brothers.

"Brother Bai, Hao Yu’s clearly nothing more than eye candy, so we need to expose him," one of the young men insisted.

"He didn’t even have the guts to challenge the Eighteen Lines Formation, so he might not even be as strong as you, Brother Bai."

"He actually chose a place like this for his class? Isn’t this a waste?"

In contrast, the girls' comments were almost entirely different. "As expected of someone like Prof. Hao Yu! Even the location for his class is so elegant and beautiful."

"Even if I don't want to attend his class, I’d still come here if I needed to cheer up. Prof. Hao Yu really understands us."

Prof. Huai heard some of their conversations from the distance, and an odd expression appeared on his face. Why didn’t I think of this? This is the kind of place that these girls like; it’s beautiful and has a romantic atmosphere.

Prof. Huai had deliberately searched for a location that would keep his classes somewhat hidden as he did not want to be embarrassed when people saw his classes’ poor attendance. He had not expected such reactions to classes being held beside the lake.

If he moved his classes to the lake as well, some of those girls would still attend, and wherever the girls went, the boys would follow. Prof. Huai realized that his decision to hide his classes had been a terrible mistake. It really was the youths who were more innovative.

More and more students arrived as the conversations continued. Once he saw that it was just about time, Lu Yin revealed himself.

This was his first time delivering a lecture, and he was actually a bit nervous about it.

Lu Yin had his motives for traveling to the Perennial World, despite his history with it. Yet at the moment, he was acting as a teacher, so he felt rather torn about his situation.

However, he was almost instantly distracted from his feelings about the matter, as a group of girls started shouting at him, clearly excited to see him.

Lu Yin pursed his lips. This was his first time receiving such reactions from anyone. If Ling Que were in Lu Yin’s place, he would definitely be incredibly excited over such treatment. After all, he paid women to act as his cheerleaders, and those women followed him around everywhere.

The girls' excited shouts startled some of the boys, and Bai Nan's expression turned even uglier.

The simple-looking fatty stared at Lu Yin in a daze. This instructor was gorgeous.

Some distance away from the students, Prof. Zheng's expression fell, and his mood changed. This was not proper. Virtue Archives was a place that focused on learning and discipline, not sensationalism.

Prof. Huai was completely speechless. He was reminded of his youth, but he knew that he had never been nearly this handsome.

Atop a stone pillar at the center of Virtue Archives, Headmaster Wen just laughed. "It must be nice to be so young and energetic!"

Across from the old man, Prof. Xiao Wen indifferently responded, "He's too lazy. He wouldn’t even challenge the Eighteen Lines Formation despite the students trying to get him to prove himself, and he still hasn’t replaced the restriction I placed on the pillar where he’s living. Being too casual is also not a good thing."

Headmaster Wen felt that he needed to respond. "Child, you’re too stuffy. Don’t you think that he’s handsome? Don’t you feel even a hint of temptation?"

Prof. Xiao Wen was unbothered, and she simply stayed silent.

Headmaster Wen shook his head. "Young people are supposed to be energetic. It’s no crime to chase after beauty. It’s just a way of giving a compliment. Those children aren’t doing anything wrong, though as far as they’re concerned, Prof. Hao Yu is just eye candy."

"That is all he is," Prof. Xiao Wen said before leaving.

Seeing as it was his first class, Lu Yin wanted to take his lecture quite seriously, so he raised a hand to silence the shouts. He coughed and said, "Let me introduce myself: my name is Hao Yu, and you can all call me Prof. Hao Yu. Starting today, I will be another one of the academy’s instructors, and outside of lectures, I’m very good at critiquing people’s battle techniques. Feel free to approach me if you have any questions about your combat abilities. As for today’s lecture-"

Two characters appeared in the air in front of everyone: Exploration.

"Instructor!" a girl called out to ask a question.

Lu Yin smiled. "Go ahead."

The girl swallowed, staring at Lu Yin with eyes that were practically glowing. "Will you be giving lectures regarding cultivating in the Explorer realm?"

Lu Yin shook his head. "The word ‘explore’ does not only refer to the Explorer realm of cultivation, as it also has its own, independent meaning. It refers to exploration of the unknown."

The exploration of the unknown? This comment confused many of the students.

Lu Yin continued, "The universe is vast and full of still unknown mysteries. Topics ranging from how the Mainlands themselves were formed, to how a specific battle technique was created. All such things fall within the topic of exploration, as exploring means to seek the unknown and gain a sufficient understanding of it."

Even more students started to feel lost.

Further away, even Prof. Zheng felt a bit lost by the direction that the lecture was taking. Exploring and understanding the unknown?

In his office, Headmaster Wen straightened up. Exploration was not a common topic. Exploration required venturing into the unknown, and despite the countless years that humans had existed, there were still too many mysteries that countless people had not been able to untangle. Could Hao Yu unravel such things? This was too broad a subject, so where did Hao Yu get the confidence to approach it?

"Instructor, by exploration, do you want us to investigate how the Mainlands were formed?" One of the students could not remain silent, and his question brought out his doubts.

Lu Yin answered with a small smile. "I won’t be asking that of you, but we’ll explore some mysteries together."

Bai Nan could no longer restrain himself. "There are too many mysteries in the universe, and not even the four ruling powers can answer all of them. Instructor, can you guide us to explore those things? How do you intend to do that? Just one example—can you answer the mystery of the Undying Bird and the Dark Undying Bird here in Virtue Archives? When the academy was first founded, both of those birds were already here, and they could be seen in the sourcebox array, but no one understands why Progenitor Wen used the flames of the two birds to dictate the hours of the day."

Prof. Zheng shook his head. It was true that Progenitor Wen had created the sourcebox array, but no one understood why the flames from the Undying Bird and the Dark Undying Bird could be seen. It was a mystery of Virtue Archives, and it was also why the Purple-Gold family had always sent people into the academy, as they were desperate to unravel this mystery.

Lu Yin smiled. "Both the flames of the Undying Bird and the Dark Undying Bird come from the academy’s sourcebox array. Since that’s the case, it means that they appear either because of a side effect from the sourcebox array, or because Progenitor Wen deliberately introduced the effect. Since the answer’s a mystery to us, we might as well explore this mystery in this class."

As Lu Yin, he raised his head. "The first step in exploring this mystery is to study the sourcebox array itself."

Many of the students were stunned for a moment, but then most of them started to laugh.

Bai Nan felt pure contempt. Just as he had thought, this person was just a bit of eye candy. Study the sourcebox array? It was something that Progenitor Wen had designed and set up. In order to even begin studying it, a person would have to be an Array Master, possibly even a Realm Array Master or an Array Grandmaster. After all, Progenitor Wen was a true Progenitor, so how could normal people possibly unravel something that he had created?

Many of the girls felt disappointed. While this instructor was indeed lovely to look at, he was an idiot, and his lectures would be worthless.

Most people considered wisdom to be far more important than mere physical attractiveness. Few people who would be attracted to an idiot.

Lu Yin drew an image in the air. He started by creating images of the Undying Bird and the Dark Undying Bird, and then he created some bullet points that referenced suspicious points about the array. One was that the sourcebox array’s own power was somehow automatically generating the images of the flames that everyone observed. Another line of text appeared, this one stating that the flames appeared because of Progenitor Wen’s purposeful design. Question marks appeared at the end of each possibility.

"These two questions accurately depict the question that the student brought up, so now what we need to do is explore. In one direction, we would need to check the historical records and investigate Progenitor Wen's life to determine if he had any connection to the Purple-Gold family. In the other direction, we can pursue the path of investigation that I just mentioned: study the sourcebox array itself," Lu Yin stated loudly, "To study this sourcebox array, we can’t limit ourselves to only studying a single person, as this mystery involves lockbreaking, a sourcebox array, and even a mighty Progenitor. Clearly, we won’t be able to find an answer overnight, and we need to start at the very basics. In this case, the basics to unravel are mystery are simple.”

Lu Yin paused to write two more characters in the air: lockbreaking.

As the students all stared, Lu Yin continued to write in the air. All of the students quickly refocused when it became clear what needed to be done to explore this particular mystery. While the process was not complicated, it was far from easy, as it was a mystery that involved a Progenitor. However, the answer would prove invaluable, as even if Progenitor Wen was dead, the Purple-Gold family was still around.