Chapter 1111 Dragnet Academy
Loron thought for a moment and added, “There are certainly many fun places because the Heavenly Dragon Star Province is very big.”
“Your answer isn’t right. You’re supposed to tell me where the fun places are and give me some examples. For instance, in the Sea Dragon Star Area, one of the fun places is the Roland Star. It’s very beautiful. Also, there’s the Cloud Shadow Sky. The scenery there is particularly amazing and charming. The Dragon Horse Star is also quite fun. The whole planet is a playground. That’s how you should answer the question,” Mengmeng corrected patiently.
“Oh, I see.”
Loron finally caught on. He couldn’t help but exclaim inwardly at how different children’s thoughts were.
Perhaps only children could see the Cultivation World as a place to have fun.
Loron then said, “There are many fun planets in the Heaven Dragon Star Province. The science and technology there are much more developed than those in the Sea Dragon Star Area. We have beautiful places, such as the Neron Star and the Kadar Swamp. We have many unique places, too. The Dragnet Academy should be one of them. It’s an academy open to all the people. Members of many forces are attending that academy. There are three grades in the Dragnet Academy. One will graduate after finis.h.i.+ng the third grade. Lorry is now studying in the pellet-refining school of the Dragnet Academy. She is currently in the second grade.”
“Eh? Isn’t that just a school?” Jiang Yanlan was a little stunned.
“Yeah! There is a school system in the Cultivation World, too?” Zhao Feng and the others were quite surprised.
They had thought the forces in the Cultivation World were either alliances or sects.
“Of course, there is,” Zhang Han smiled and remarked. “The universe is very big, and the Cultivation World is just a part of it. Many planets have had civilizations, on which schools also exist. There are even totally barbarian planets.”
“Then why are there no schools in the Sea Dragon Star Area?” Yue Xiaoxi asked.
“Because the sects, alliances, and royal families are deeply rooted in the world. Even if some people know about the school system, they don’t want to teach others for no reason. In other words, they don’t have the proper opportunities and conditions to start a school,” Yue Wuwei replied.
Loron thought for a moment and said, “By the way, the headmaster of the Dragnet Academy is also from the Sea Dragon Star Area. He also said that there is a very mysterious place here. Before we came here, he told us that as long as we could find that mysterious place, we would have a way to save Lorry’s mother.”
This was not a secret. When the headmaster said it, he did it in front of dozens of people.
“I’ve been looking for that mysterious place in the Chaotic Region for days and visited several families, but no one has ever heard of such a place.” Loron sighed softly.
Hearing his words, they all looked at one another in surprise.
It was obvious that the mysterious place the headmaster talked about was Earth.
“Is that headmaster from Earth?”
“What’s the name of that headmaster?” Yue Wuwei asked lightly.
Without even thinking about it, the headmaster must be one of the 800 people who had failed the eight Heavenly Lord’s trials. No one knew how many of them had survived till today.
“I don’t know his exact name either. His Taoist name is Long Xiahua,” Loron replied.
“Long Xiahua? Huaxia Long?” Zhou Fei murmured.
“Haha, interesting.”
Yue Wuwei laughed out loud and asked, “How is the Dragnet Academy doing in your Star Area?”
“It’s very powerful. It’s a first-rank force with an extraordinary status. In the last several hundred years, the Dragnet Academy has educated countless students. Many of today’s patriarchs and elders graduated from there. Therefore, the Dragnet Academy’s status in the Heavenly Dragon Star Province is as steady as a mountain,” Loron answered.
“It’s surely impressive,” Zhang Han said and gave a soft laugh.
He knew very well how difficult it was to go out of Earth and embark on the journey of cultivation.
It seemed that he had forgotten the people Yue Wuwei brought into the universe were from the martial arts world, the worldlets, or the Kunlun Immortal World.
Even the weakest of them were at the Elixir Realm Last-Stage.
But what about him?
He stepped on this road as a rookie.
He suddenly came to the Cultivation World as an ordinary person.
The lost feeling, confusion, and difficulties he had faced and those the others had experienced should not be mentioned in the same breath.
“How could an academy be fun to visit?”
Yue Xiaonao turned up her nose at this idea.
Thus, everyone surrounded Loron and began another round of chitchat.
Through the talk, they had a general idea about the Loron and the others.
“It only took you 20 days to cross the Blue Sand Wind Domain? You traveled by king vessel, right? How much is a king vessel?” Liu Qingfeng asked.
“Yes, the Blue Sand Wind Domain is terrifying, but king vessels can still cross it safely. The cheapest kind of king vessel is one million top-grade crystal stones. It is very expensive because the materials required to construct a king vessel are various kinds of spirit treasures,” Loron answered.
“King vessels are this expensive?” Liu Qingfeng was stunned.
In other words, a king vessel would cost at least 10 billion low-grade crystal stones. That was an astronomical figure.
“It’s indeed very pricy.” Loron dropped his voice. His eyes became pensive. It seemed that he was thinking about something.
“Are there many forces in the Heavenly Dragon Star Province that own king vessels?” Liu Qingfeng asked again.
“Rustle, rustle, rustle…”
As soon as he spoke, Xiao Ling, who was next to him, began to record the information.
She was such a considerate secretary. She was excellent at all times.
“There are quite a lot of forces that possess king vessels.”
“It seems that the crystal stone reserves in the Heavenly Dragon Star Province are amazingly large,” Liu Qingfeng said.
“It’s fairly sufficient, I guess. Our reserves are most definitely larger than in the Sea Dragon Star Area.”
“It’s actually not as large as you think,” Zhang Han said with a smile. “Uncle Liu, you know a lot about inflation, stocks, futures. There are similar concepts in the cultivation world, too. Some things are high in value, but in fact, they can’t be sold for so many crystal stones.”
“Yes.” Loron came to his senses and said with a smile, “Of course, we don’t all pay with crystal stones when buying a king vessel. If we all pay with crystal stones, few people can afford it. Generally speaking, we pay with a lot of resources, such as gems, energy stones, various kinds of metal mines, spiritual herbs, and so on. These can all be used as crystal stones. Some metal mines and energy stones make a relatively large part of the payment. These are consumables. After processing, they can be made into useful treasures. The second-largest part of the payment is crystal stones. The minimum part is spiritual herbs. Moreover, when purchasing a king vessel, the purchasing price of these resources the seller offers is 30% higher than that in the outside world. After all, the purchase of a king vessel involves at least a million top-grade crystals. The seller usually gives a discount in this way.”
“Oh, I see.” Liu Qingfeng was suddenly enlightened, “Are gems, energy stones, and metal mines easy to attain?”
“Very easy,” Loron said. “The area of the Heavenly Dragon Star Province is huge. There are countless planets, but only one-tenth of which are inhabited. There are a lot of barren planets on the margins, where plenty of resources can be found. It’s just that you have to send people there to mine the resources, and you have to face the compet.i.tion of other forces. It’s just that most of the energy stones, metal mines, and the like are of low value. If you find some that are of high value, you will have to fight fiercely for them.”
“I don’t think there are any forces in the Sea Dragon Star Area who mines these resources,” Liu Qingfeng said, baffled.
“There are some.”
Li Hao laughed, “Such resources are all in the direction of the Chaotic Region, for there are a lot of barren planets there. Each force has sent people there to mine the resources. It’s just that the mining will take years, so the progress isn’t very fast.”
“Oh, I see.” Liu Qingfeng nodded.
“Daddy, I’m going to play the game.”
Bored by their conversation, Mengmeng couldn’t sit still anymore. She took Nina and Yue Xiaoxi to play in the Game Capsules.
“I’ll go with you.” Mu Xue stood up, too.
“Sister Mengmeng, wait for me.” Chen Chuan ran to catch up with her.
He was kind of addicted to computer games.
Seeing this, Zhou Fei felt a headache was on the way.
When he returned home, he might have to take some time to get used to normal school life.
Nevertheless, Zhou Fei figured she could also use games to attract him to study.
This could be considered as a little consolation.
“Let’s go and play the fun game, too.”
Jiang Yanlan, Instructor Liu, Chen Changqing, Zhou Fei, Ah Hu, Liu Jiaran, the others all left.
In just two minutes, there were only about seven people sitting here.
“Wow!”
An hour later, Zhang Han came to the pellet refining room to check on Lorry’s progress.
He found that this girl was doing quite well.
Thus, he casually asked, “Lorry, how old are you?”
“Seventeen,” Loron said with a bit of pride on his face. “She entered the Dragnet Academy at 14. Last year, the academy made an exception for her, so she advanced to the second grade earlier than scheduled. She is extremely talented in pellet refining. Fellow Taoist Zhang, Fellow Taoist Liu, I’ve noticed that you two are quite interested in king vessels. If you like, I can give you this Dragon Snake as a gift.”
“No need, your Dragon Snake is too old.” Zhang Han shook his head.
“Alright.” Loron laughed in resignation.
Through the previous conversations, he didn’t get to know more about Zhang Hanyang. Instead, he seemed more mysterious.
“This is really strange.
“Where did they come from?”
“Fellow Taoist Zhang, what do you think about Lorry’s talent in pellet refining?” Loron asked.
“Not bad,” Zhang Han replied casually. “Her comprehension ability is alright.”
Loron was bereft of speech.
Lorry was considered a top student in the Dragnet Academy. She had even made her name known in the pellet-refining field.
However, in Zhang Hanyang’s eyes, she was just “not bad”.
But this comment came from a mighty pellet refining master who could condense pellets in the void.
Thus, Loron couldn’t refute.
They then observed Lorry’s pellet-refining progress.
At first, she was fl.u.s.tered.
“What should I do?
“How can I refine 20 top-grade fifth-tier pellets?”
The pressure was so great that Lolita felt suffocated.
“Buzz!”
All of a sudden, she felt her brain buzz.
It was because she received Zhang Han’s secret skill.
Lorry was taken aback. But a moment later, she began to comprehend the new skill.
After realizing its benefits, she gained a higher degree of affinity with the art of herbs.
Right at this time, she closed her eyes and began to adjust her breathing.
Three minutes later, she cleared her mind and began to fully concentrate on refining the pellets.
The first step was to set up the furnaces.
The second step was to start a fire.
The third step was to put the spiritual herbs into the furnaces.
But when she made the fourth step—
With a loud bang, a furnace exploded when she barely started the refining.
That gave Lorry a fright.
“Which part went wrong?
“Yes, I was distracted.
“Luckily, I only put in three kinds of spiritual herbs.”
“Phew…”
She closed her eyes to adjust her breathing again.
It took her a total of 10 minutes to enter the focused state.
She started refining and carried out the three steps smoothly.
“This is an ordinary fifth-tier pellet.”
Seeing this pellet, Lorry seemed to have seen hope. Her fighting spirit had been ignited.
She went on with the refining.
“Bang!”
“Bang! Bang! Bang…”
Ten furnaces exploded in a row.
Fortunately, there were still enough spiritual herbs. But Lorry felt a little distressed.
She had never wasted so many precious herbs before. Thus, she took out the stock in her s.p.a.ce Ring, most of which were third-tier herbs, a few were fifth-tier herbs, and some were fourth-tier herbs.
She tried again.
This time was a success!
“I refined a medium-grade fourth-tier pellet!
“I seem to have just understood a bit of the secret skill that senior taught me.
“Come on, keep it up, Lorry! You can do this!”
She continued to refine pellets.
“Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang…”
Five furnaces exploded again.
Zhang Han’s face was devoid of expression.
Zhang Guangyou probed with his soul sense. The result held him in dismay.
“The failure rate is terrifyingly high!”
However, Lorry seemed accustomed to it.
The failures hadn’t affected her at all.
It was common for furnaces to explode.
Her next try was a success, too.
“This one is low-grade fifth-tier.”
She kept on trying.
“This one is low-grade fourth-tier.”
“Is this only top-grade third-tier?”
“Bang! Bang! Bang…”
She succeeded three times in a row. But her good luck seemed to have been used up. Twelve explosions occurred in a row.
Gradually, Lorry felt that she had been finally enlightened.
She gave up the idea of refining the fifth-stage pellet right away. Instead, she began to study the secret skill taught by Zhang Han with those cheap spiritual herbs she brought here.
The art of herbs was very complicated. It required tremendous comprehension ability.
Lorry’s comprehension ability was quite good.
“Low-grade second-tier.”
“Medium-grade second-tier.”
“Bang! Bang! Bang…”
“Top-grade second-tier.”
“Medium-grade third-tier.”
“Top-grade third-tier.”
As the grade of the pellets she refined went higher bit by bit with her every try, Lorry’s cultivation began.
Because Zhang Han saw this scene, his impression of Lorry had improved a lot.
A person’s talent alone didn’t mean anything.
Even the most talented disciples who entered the G.o.d Transformation Realm only a few years after they were born might find themselves doomed if they b.u.mped into a cultivator at the Tribulation Stage.
Strength was the only thing that mattered. To become a strong cultivator, persistence and hard work were the most crucial makings.
Zhang Han saw the two making in Lorry.
Clearly, she would be able to go even further in the pellet refining field with these qualities.
The test would be due in five days.
It was not until the fourth day that Lorry began to refine fifth-tier medicinal pellets.
The furnaces still kept exploding.
Lorry couldn’t even remember how many times she had blasted the furnaces during the past few days.
As her understanding of the secret skill given to her by Zhang Han deepened, her success rate of refining top-grade pellets was rising.
The success rate of refining fifth-tier medicinal pellets was very low. Fortunately, the medicinal pellets Lorry chose to refine were all extremely easy to make. Each of such pellets only took half an hour to refine.
She kept refining despite the explosions.
Her hard work paid off.
“This one is top-grade fifth-tier! I made it!”
Lorry felt the long-lost excitement.
Just when she was having her moment—
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
She blew up three furnaces at a time.
Nonetheless, Lorry was used to it. This happened a lot after all.
Furthermore, she felt that her success rate was much higher than before after studying the art of the herbs.
“Top-grade fifth-tier!”
“Low-grade.”
“Top-grade.”
“Medium-grade.”
“Low-grade.”
“Top-grade.”
She sought success while the furnaces exploded.
She refined more and more top-grade fifth-grade medicinal pellets.
By the time the fifth day was about to end—
“There are 20 qualified pellets! I made it!”
There was a flash of excitement in Lorry’s eyes. She walked out of the pellet-refining room with the medicinal pellets.
She looked around and probed around with her soul sense.
“Where is everyone?”
After searching for a few minutes, she found that this s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p was at the Cloud Shadow Sky’s s.p.a.ce station.
There were 10 Thunder Kings and dozens of defensive s.h.i.+ps beside her king vessel. A fleet of this scale could already be considered quite powerful.
She thought for a moment, then took out the communication device and dialled Loron’s number.
A screen popped out.
“Lorry, get on an aircraft and come to the main palace. We just started eating,” Loron said cheerfully.
As soon as he finished speaking, he hung up the communication device. Before that, Lorry saw from the screen that Loron was holding a gla.s.s of wine with a big smile on his face and talking with others.
“Come on, let’s have another drink. We shall not go back until we’re wasted…”
Lorry was bemused.
On the screen, she seemed to see Lyu Qi and the others who looked tipsy.
“They’re all having drinks?
“What’s going on?”
Muddle-headed, Lorry was sent to the aircraft by the intelligent system and flew to the main palace from the s.p.a.ce station.
Lorry felt a little astonished and a little puzzled.
This was also because she had relaxed both physically and mentally. In the past, when she refined pellets in the Dragnet Academy, many students would come over to watch. Every time she succeeded, there would be countless exclamations, applause, and congratulations.
Now, she had managed to refine 20 top-grade fifth-tier pellets in five days!
This was recording-breaking! Even the teachers and the headmaster of the Dragnet Academy had never made such an achievement.
Her refining had been such a success. But this time, she had no audience at all.
This kind of contrast made Lorry a little uncomfortable.
When she arrived at the main palace, her expression was slightly complicated.
She knew that she had met the most inspiring person in her life.
There were several dining tables on the viewing platform. The atmosphere was very lively.
“Lorry is here.”
Lyu Qi stood up and greeted, “How did it go? You made it, didn’t you?”
“Yeah.”
Lorry nodded slightly. She was in a good mood. She came to Zhang Han’s side and bowed deeply.
“Thank you, senior. I… I don’t know what to say. You’ve helped me so much.”
“Have a seat first. You don’t need to thank me.” Zhang Han shook his head slightly.
“Right. Lorry, sit here and eat. This is a farewell meal for Fellow Taoist Zhang and the others. After the meal, they will go home. We also have to go back and deal with our business,” said Loron.
“We’re leaving so soon?” Lorry pursed her lips, a complicated expression appearing on her face. She walked toward Loron in a daze and took a seat.
“Have you succeeded?” Mengmeng looked at Lorry and asked.
“Yes, I succeeded.” Lorry nodded. She took out all the refined medicinal pellets and made them float toward Zhang Han. “Senior, I’ve finished refining. Please take these.”
Zhang Han glanced at the pellets and waved. The pellets instantly went into his s.p.a.ce Ring.
He didn’t say anything else.
Lorry, who expected to be praised by Zhang Han, did not get what she wished for.
Thus, she was somewhat disappointed.
“Is it that I didn’t do a good enough job?”
In fact, Lorry did not care much about other people’s praises, because they were not in the industry. But Senior Zhang was a mighty pellet-refining master. She truly yearned for his praise.
Although Zhang Han didn’t say anything, Mengmeng complimented, “You can refine pellets too. You’re amazing!”
“Thank you.” Lorry thanked her sincerely.
She remembered very clearly that Mengmeng had grabbed Senior Zhang’s hand and asked him to help her.
“Princess Mengmeng.”
Lyu Qi lightly coughed and said, “Lorry is one of the best among the second-year students in our pellet-refining school. She’s extremely brilliant. She often discusses pellet refining with the third-years.”
“You flatter me. I’m still learning. Senior Zhang is the one who is truly brilliant,” Lorry said in a low voice, which carried a somewhat delicate temperament.
“My daddy is super-amazing,” Mengmeng said seriously. “He knows everything.”
Mengmeng’s face was lit with pride.
The little girl was happy to hear any compliments made for Zhang Han.
“Mengmeng, you can go to our academy to play in the future. Well, you can also be a student there. There are many different schools. You will not only learn knowledge but also for getting to know all kinds of people there,” Lorry said.
“I know. It’s basically the same as the schools in our place,” Mengmeng said. “I haven’t attended high school and university yet. There is no rush.”
“Oh, okay.”
“High school? University?”
Lorry had never heard of such things.
Now Lorry was relaxed, she also chatted with Mengmeng, Yue Xiaonao, and the others for a while.
The vibe on the scene gradually became very cheerful.
But all good things must come to an end.
Seeing that Zhang Han and the others were ready to leave, Li Mu approached Mengmeng and asked eagerly, “Can I go to your place and play as well?”
“No,” Mengmeng refused directly.
Li Mu was rather speechless.
He really wanted to ask why he went there.
“Nina, you’ll see the waterfall that looks like a silver screen in a moment. It is very spectacular.”
Mengmeng and Yue Xiaonao chatted happily with Nina.
“Alas.”
Li Mu sighed and glanced at Li Hao, as though begging for consolation.
But Li Hao ignored him.
“Well, the elegant Young Master Li has been cold-shouldered. Having been in the Cloud Star Area for so many years, do you think I know nothing?”
Li Hao didn’t mind seeing his son be ignored. At the very least, he was satisfied with Li Mu’s recent changes.