Book 1 Chapter 30: Schools in the world!
Qiu Luliu suppressed her smile and frowned slightly, saying: “What? That man was the Zhang family’s young master? If so, this will be a bit troublesome indeed…
“But I didn’t do anything. So what if that head of the Zhang family Zhang Zhenshan finds us? What’s so amazing about his Glacial School? Our Green Willow School won’t be afraid of them!” Qiu Luliu only frowned for a short while in the beginning. After thinking for a while, she said in an unconcerned manner, “Plus, that Zhang Yang unexpectedly wanted to violate my junior sister. Luckily she’s okay now, otherwise I wouldn’t have let him go even if you hadn’t killed him!
“Right, speaking of which, I still haven’t thanked you for saving my junior sister. To find a clue, I had to spent a lot of time. If not for your appearance, heaven knows what would have happened by the time I arrived.” Seemingly not caring much about the Zhang family and the Glacial School behind it, she skimmed over this topic casually and began to thank Bai Yunfei.
“Since you’ve already thought it over, I won’t mention this again. You don’t have to thank me either. At first I indeed specifically went there to save your junior sister, but after I knew that Zhang Yang would come, it was all about taking my own revenge. As a matter of fact, I can’t accept your grat.i.tude.” Bai Yunfei shook his head and said modestly.
“That… that’s not true. If not for your appearance, that bad guy would have been able to go upstairs while senior sister would have only arrived half an hour later. If not for you, I would have been… I, I am very grateful to you for saving me…”
A timid voice came from behind Qiu Luliu. It was the young girl called Chu Yuhe. Seeming to have finally mustered up enough courage, she leaned out and gave Bai Yunfei a salute. Her voice sounded melodious and refres.h.i.+ng.
She was about sixteen years old, 1.65 meters tall and dressed fully in light green clothes. Her beautiful long hair was hanging down on either side of her face, covering it a bit, her complexion slightly red. She was looking timidly at Bai Yunfei with her big eyes, appearing very lovely.
“Er… you don’t need to thank me, miss. I killed Zhang Yang just to avenge myself. Even though I saved you, it was merely incidental… Er, what I mean is, I am honored to have been able to save you incidentally… Ah, I’m saying you don’t have to keep this in mind…” Bai Yunfei said while gently waving his hand. He felt uneasy being stared at by her timid eyes.
“Pfff…” Chu Yuhe could not help bursting out a laugh when she heard him speak incoherently and saw him wave his hand while smiling in a silly way. Then she covered her mouth immediately and hid behind Qiu Luliu again in a somewhat embarra.s.sed manner, her little face totally red.
Qiu Luliu could not help laughing either, saying: “Ha ha… I didn’t expect you to be such a simple person, mister.”
“Er…” Bai Yunfei was somewhat embarra.s.sed. In fact, when Chu Yuhe had thanked him, the idea of ‘her becoming devoted to him to return the favor’ had popped into his mind, which had startled even himself. He did not know why he himself had such an ‘immoral’ thought. It was his guilty conscience that made him speak incoherently.
Bai Yunfei gave a couple of dry coughs to ease the awkward atmosphere then said with a stern expression: “I want to consult with you about some things, miss. Hopefully you can help me.”
“Oh? What do you want to ask me about? Just tell me. You want to ask me how old my junior sister is and whether she’s married, right?” Qiu Luliu still said jokingly with a smile.
“Senior sister, you…” Behind her, Chu Yuhe immediately pulled her sleeve in a lovely manner to protest.
“Er… Ahem, Miss Qiu Luliu, I want to ask you about that Crafting School. What kind of school is it? And where is it?”
“Oh? Then you’re not from the Crafting School? Plus, you don’t even know these tidbits?” Qiu Luliu asked somewhat doubtfully, no longer joking with him.
“I’m not a disciple of any school. I just came across an elder of the Fate School and got a soul cultivation technique from him. But I haven’t joined a school.” Bai Yunfei explained.
“What? The Fate School?!” Qiu Luliu shouted softly, her doubtful expression turning into a surprised one.
“Oh, what? The Fate School is very famous?” This time it was Bai Yunfei who asked doubtfully.
“Very famous? Not only ‘very’ famous, I think you’re one of the very few soul cultivators in the entire Heavenly Soul continent who doesn’t know about the Fate School.” Seeing the doubtful expression on his face, Qiu Luliu continued in a somewhat frustrated manner: “The Fate School isn’t one of the ten great schools in the world, but it’s almost on par with them in status. The Fate School believes in fate and pays particular attention to following Heaven’s will. Its cultivation technique is extremely special. According to legend, the people of this school use their souls to sense Heaven’s will and use their ‘fate souls’ to find out the path of fate, thus being able to know the past and predict the future.
“Many schools in the continent consider it an honor to be given directions by the Fate School. Every time they encounter a catastrophe, they all hope to obtain directions from the Fate School. Moreover, every school helped by the Fate School has been able to turn danger into safety in the end. Only, whether they will offer their help depends solely on the word ‘fate’ they believe in. It can’t be forced. Plus, the Fate School seems to never have taken part in power struggles and stay in seclusion perennially so it’s quite mysterious. The location of the school is even known to only a few people. Every disciple of the Fate School who goes out to gain experience is desired and courted by the major powers in the world.”
Bai Yunfei was somewhat absorbed in listening. He had not expected the Fate School to be such a formidable school.
“Since you were taught by an elder from the Fate School, did you learn that secret method for peeking into the future?” At this point, Qiu Luliu looked at Bai Yunfei with glittering eyes.
“Er… I have to disappoint you, miss. That elder only taught me the most basic soul cultivation technique and gave me this interspatial ring and some soul items. There wasn’t that mysterious secret technique you mentioned at all.”
“Oh, I see…” Qiu Luliu said with some disappointment, “That’s right. How can the secret technique of the Fate School be taught to an outsider easily? I think it’s possible that this traveling elder of the Fate School worked out that he and you are destined to be connected so he conveniently gave you an opportunity to change your life. This kind of thing has frequently happened in the Heavenly Soul continent before.”
“It was because we are destined to be connected?…” Bai Yunfei thought for a while about what the old man from the Fate School had said. He could not help forcing a smile inside because now he knew that he owed the Fate School a debt of grat.i.tude.
“That Crafting School is one of the ten great schools in the world you mentioned? What are the ten great schools? And please tell me in detail about the situation of the Crafting School, Miss Qiu.” Bai Yunfei continued to ask after pondering for a while.
“It seems you really don’t know anything?” Qiu Luliu had no choice but to shake her head and explain as if she was teaching something to a child: “The ten great schools in the world are the Heavenly Soul School, the Crafting School, the Soul Refining School, the Beast Taming School, the Wind Lightning School and the Five Elements Schools.
“The Five Elements Schools definitely isn’t the name of a single school. Rather, it’s the collective name of five schools, consisting of the Metal, the Wood, the Water, the Fire, and the Earth Schools. Starting from the Soul Sprite stage, you can control the natural elements. Most soul cultivators are affiliated with one of the five elements, therefore these five schools have been very successful in terms of disciples. Of course, the other five schools have a lot of disciples too. In fact, each individual element school is inferior to the other five schools and is even only slightly stronger than the few schools which are very close to reaching the top ten schools in status.
“However, the five elements reinforce each other and are like birds of a feather. These schools have been in alliance and doing things together since they were created. It’s because of this that they are listed among the ten great schools together. Of course, you could also regard these five schools as a single school, but then it would become ‘top six schools’ instead of ‘top ten schools’.
“The Wind Lightning School is a school that mostly uses techniques related to wind and lightning for cultivation. It’s usually in disagreement with the Five Elements Schools. It fought the Water School once, and when it was winning, the other four element schools came to help the Water School and greatly damaged the Wind Lightning School’s vitality. They have been feuding with each other ever since and both sides’ disciples often fight as soon as they see each other.
“The Beast Taming School is a very special school. The people from this school almost never use their own bodies to fight. Instead, they mostly control soul beasts. Unlike the other soul cultivators, who can form a spiritual bond with only one soul beast, they seem to be able to control multiple soul beasts directly using a secret technique, just like controlling puppets. Therefore this school is the arch-enemy of all soul beasts. Rumor has it that a level 8 soul beast in the depths of the Soul Beast Forest once led an army of soul beasts and attacked this school’s headquarters, wanting to rescue the soul beasts enslaved by the Beast Taming School. But they had to fight the controlled soul beasts. According to legend, the Beast Taming School even unleashed a level 8 puppet soul beast in this battle. In the end, both sides suffered great losses, but I don’t know the specific circ.u.mstances.
“The Soul Refining School doesn’t refine their own souls, but other people’s souls! If the Beast Taming School is the arch-enemy of all soul beasts, this Soul Refining School is the arch-enemy of nearly all soul cultivators! All the people of this school are very evil and malicious. Their cultivation technique is extremely strange. They absorb other people’s souls to strengthen themselves. The most powerful people among them can even refine other people’s souls to absorb the power of soul essence! Even though the world of soul cultivators is a place where might is right and power talks, the Soul Refining School is publicly accepted as an evil power that everybody has the right to punis.h.!.+
“The Heavenly Soul School has the same name as the empire. The only reason for this is — the Heavenly Soul School is a school controlled by the imperial clan of the Heavenly Soul Empire! As a school built with the resources of an empire, it’s worthy of being the most powerful school of the continent. In the school, able people are present in large number and new talents never stop coming out. It’s also the most ideal school in the eyes of most ordinary soul cultivators. The headmaster of the Heavenly Soul School is the reigning emperor, His Majesty emperor Wu Hong, and at least half of the va.s.sals in the sixteen provinces of the empire came from the school. It can be said that the Heavenly Soul School is the empire’s protector. It seems to never partic.i.p.ate in power struggles but it checks and balances the powers in the world all the time. In addition to the wise politics and management of successive emperors, the empire’s two-thousand-year prosperity must be due in part to this Heavenly Soul School.”
“Prosperity, wise politics and management?…” Bai Yunfei curved his mouth slightly downwards in an unnoticeable manner while thinking to himself with a mental shake of his head: “This is only true in the case of those who are rich and live happy lives. It’s just your wishful thinking. Only a few people know about the darkness at the bottom of the society and the painful struggles of those ‘lowly’ people…”
With her teacher mode on, Qiu Luliu seemed to become more and more excited as she talked. Perhaps because she found the way Bai Yunfei was listening to her earnestly like an obedient child amusing, she covered her mouth and gave a gentle laugh then continued: “Next, I’m going to explain to you the situation of the Crafting School, which is what you want to know the most…”