Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
After chatting with Wei Tianchong for a while, Tang Jie finally learned that quite a lot had happened in the academy while he was in seclusion.
The most exciting topic was naturally that the training was beginning!
Student training had always been a big deal in the academy. It was often only then that a student’s status began to truly change.
Starting from training, students would basically be divided into two groups.
One category consisted of those who lacked talent and resources, and so they turned their focus entirely to becoming students and advancing in cultivation. Wei Tianzhi and Wu Xing were perfect examples of this category.
The other category were those of decent talent, who could become students through their own efforts without a problem. Their goal was to become outer disciples or disciples.
For these people, training was when they could show their talent.
In Basking Moon Academy, there were two kinds of training.
One kind was solo training. Solo training involved taking on trials. Established on the Divine Battleground were the Seven Celestial Halls. Students could enter this hall to take on a trial, and when they completed the trial, they would receive an evaluation which could range from 0 to 100.
At one hundred points, one could receive a reward. But any person could only receive the hundred-point reward once from each trial. However, the earlier one got the reward, the higher the quality of the reward would be.
Above the hundred-point reward was the record reward, which was for the highest record the academy had for each trial. If one broke the record, one could leave behind their name and obtain the record reward.
This was divided into tiers. Each trial was divided into Spirit Spring, Spirit Lake, Spirit Sea, Mortal Shedding, Hundred Refinement, Nine Revolutions, and Cognitive Creation for a total of seven records.
As no one in Basking Moon Academy had ever reached Celestial Heart within ten years, there was as of yet no Celestial Heart record.
The second kind of training was paired training, which was student-versus-student sparring, the most exciting form of training. It was an important standard for evaluating everyone’s actual combat strength.
The academy would assign grades based on the sparring results of each day. It would select a top five and issue one to five energy-nurturing pills to the corresponding ranks, which could be used to slightly increase one’s cultivation speed.
Every three months, there would be a minor tournament. A top ten would be selected, and they would receive one to ten Essence-Refining Pills—the same that Wu Xing had tried to buy.
Every year, there would be a major tournament from which a top twenty would be selected. These would be given one to twenty True Essence Pills, and the first place winner would be able to select a spell weapon or art relic according to their cultivation level, but one could only receive one such prize per cultivation level. If one got first place again but had failed to advance in cultivation, the privilege would pass on to second place, and this privilege could not be accumulated.
One year after entry into the academy, all students would be formally evaluated. Exam grade, points, cultivation level, and training performance would serve as the four factors of one’s final evaluation, and the three hundred best would be selected.
These three hundred were called the “reserve” outer disciples and disciples. All that one could be certain about was that, while these three hundred would not necessarily all be able to become outer disciples, those who couldn’t get into this group would have no hope at all.
After the full ten-year term, the academy would add on an evaluation of one’s potential, which looked at whether a student resorted to extreme methods to overstimulate their potential so that they could increase their cultivation level.
If they really had done such a thing, the school wouldn’t punish them, but there could be no hope of becoming an outer disciple for them.
Thus, starting from training, the competition in school truly began.
Every day, month, and year, the training grades would directly decide the resources available to everyone. The higher one managed to rank, the more resources and rewards one would receive, and the more rapidly one would get stronger.
In order to prevent a minority of powerful students from monopolizing the resources, the academy had a rule that a student could only rank five times per month in sparring training.
After all, the academy understood that other than people who were of similar strength and would thus have both victories and losses, when the gap in strength got to a certain point, the weaker party would always lose to the stronger party. If they didn’t add this limit, there would be no need for training. They could just choose the strongest people and give them the rewards every day.
Fortunately, the limit applied only to the daily rewards. There was no restriction on the minor and major tournaments. If you had the skill, you could even hold the top position for ten years in a row without a problem.
For this purpose, the academy had designed a point system for the Divine Battleground.
Each student would start with ten points. A win was worth one point and a loss was minus one point. If the points ran out, one would lose the privilege to take part in sparring training for the day.
The battleground points would refresh once every day, and points did not accumulate over the days. The rankings were decided based on the points of that specific day.
In order to prevent fraud, match-ups were decided by drawing lots, and matching those of similar strengths took priority.
As usual, the division was done by tier: Spirit Spring versus Spirit Spring, Spirit Lake versus Spirit Lake. While lower tiers could challenge higher tiers, the opposite was not true. The rewards for doing so would not change, however, as the privilege of challenging was already a sort of favor toward the weaker side.
There was one other type besides these two: combat drills. These were held in special regions within the Clear Sky Mountains and could be considered the safest basic missions. But taking part in them required payment of a fee.
In summary, Basking Moon Academy had a lot of rules, and every one had its purpose. While they encouraged competition, they didn’t blindly believe in it.
While Tang Jie had been in seclusion for half a month, Wei Tianchong had been to the Divine Battleground several times.
Solo training tested one’s personal strength, so it didn’t permit the help of external aids. Thus, he had gone to the sparring training field, but he had ended up badly losing.
“They’re all vicious people!” Wei Tianchong wept, grabbing onto Tang Jie. “Normally, they’re all polite like brothers, so why do they suddenly become hostile in the arena? They’re brutal when they fight, focusing on the face!”
Looking at Wei Tianchong’s dejected expression, Tang Jie began to understand why he had been waiting for him for half a month.
But Tang Jie found it strange. “This shouldn’t be. You have a puppet, which is much easier to use than spell arts.”
“The problem is that they’re all lowly scoundrels! They know I’m using the Spirit Guidance spell to control the puppet, so as soon as the fight starts, they use spiritual energy to disrupt me and prevent me from giving commands, then beat me up!”
Tang Jie was dumbfounded. “How could they know something like spiritual energy disruption? They’re just activating their spiritual energy to agitate the surrounding spiritual energy, just yelling into the air. How much effect could it have? In my view, it’s because you’re too afraid and aren’t properly using your spells!”
Wei Tianchong’s face reddened, and he dropped his head and fell silent.
Tang Jie was right. Those students hadn’t learned any spell art that could specifically disrupt spiritual energy. It was just that he lacked combat experience and would lose his courage in battle.
If one couldn’t work up the courage, one might not be able to use even ten percent of one’s strength.
In the end, Wei Tianchong was a young master who had not suffered much hardship. His mother had kept his personality in check, and while he was a little bit of a degenerate, he wasn’t so bossy as to be tyrannical.
But as he was so mediocre in all aspects, in an actual fight, he naturally wasn’t better than the others. The puppet could only serve as a decoration.
“This sort of thing isn’t a big deal,” Tang Jie comforted. “Train a little more and you’ll adapt to the environment.”
“Then I’ll have to get beaten up a lot more,” Wei Tianchong bitterly said.
“If you don’t go and get used to it yourself, I can’t help you.”
“How can that do?” Wei Tianchong jumped up. “You said that you would help me get to the top ten, but my scores are terrible everywhere else. How do you think I’m going to get into the top ten with just that?”
Now you want to become a top-ten disciple?
Tang Jie was utterly speechless.
After thinking it over, Tang Jie finally said, “Right, you should have reached Spirit Spring, yes?”
“Mm, a few days ago.”
“Did you learn a new spell yet?”
“No. Didn’t you say you were going to help me pick one?”
“Good; then I have an idea. Come on. Let’s go and pick out a spell for you,” Tang Jie said as he pulled Wei Tianchong along.
“What spell?”
“You’ll know when we get there.”
“Just tell me first.”
“Jeez, don’t be such a worrywart. You’ll find out once I help you choose it. Right, why didn’t Shi Meng come with you?”
“Oh, him? He’s still in class. He didn’t pass the exam.”
When they came out of Heaven One Pavilion, Wei Tianchong was still pestering Tang Jie. “You’re sure this spell is good?”
“Trust me, Third Young Master, it will definitely work,” Tang Jie firmly replied. “Why not try it now?”
“Now? I haven’t even practiced this spell yet.”
“It doesn’t require any particularly hard training. This Fearless spell is a spell to reduce pain. After you use it, it will be effective for some time. During a battle, you only need to release it once and be fine, and it doesn’t require any special training,” Tang Jie casually said.
The Fearless spell!
This was the spell that Tang Jie had selected for Wei Tianchong. It was a spell that weakened the effect of pain, and even the pain from being struck by a sword or saber would be greatly reduced. For some types of pain, it would even stimulate the user and make them feel joy.
Tang Jie began to instruct him. “When facing formidable strength, you first have to have a formidable heart. Your current problem is that you’re afraid of fighting and pain. We have to take care of this problem first before we can consider solving the problems with your combat strength. With this spell, you won’t have to worry about the pain. All that’s left is to instruct you in how to properly use your puppet!”
“You’re sure?”
“Extremely sure, Third Young Master!” Tang Jie affirmed.
Under Tang Jie’s encouragement, Wei Tianchong once more went to the Divine Battleground.
The Divine Battleground was located in a valley of the Clear Sky Mountains. On one end of the valley was the solo training area, and on the other end was the sparring training area.
This was Tang Jie’s first time here, and he found the area very refreshing and lacking in any of the murderous aura he expected. If someone hadn’t told him, he wouldn’t have realized that this was a place of bloodshed within Basking Moon Academy.
Wei Tianchong led Tang Jie to the sparring training grounds like an old hand, and Tang Jie was greeted with the sight of a massive drilling ground.
This was not the sparring area, but the practice area. It was where students cultivated, practiced their skills, made friends, and also agreed to spars with each other.
The rooms lined up along the sides of the practice area were the sparring rooms. Each sparring room had a formation protecting it. Registration was required before entry, and there was someone overseeing it. Besides that, there was also a doctor to safeguard against accidents.
The Divine Battleground wasn’t the mission area, and no one was allowed to die here.
Wei Tianchong went straight to a sparring room, where the student managing it drew a lot to decide his opponent.
Tang Jie took the time to observe the practice area and watch those students training on it. He was used to deciding on his plans before carrying them out, and he had always placed an extremely high value on information. Anyone might be a future opponent, so he would first see how they practiced and get a sense of their style so that he could draft tactics for the future.
He wasn’t worried about Wei Tianchong. He had done so poorly in this period that, according to the principle of assigning opponents close in strength, he would probably be given a rookie as an opponent.
Sure enough, after a little while, Wei Tianchong excitedly rushed out, waving around his arms. “I won! I won!”
But his body was covered in blood, and even his nose had been broken. He was in miserable condition.
A student came out behind him, his angry face all black and blue. He muttered as he walked, “God, what a tough bastard. What did he eat that made him so fierce? It’s like he didn’t care for his life.”
Wei Tianchong hugged Tang Jie. “Tang Jie, you’re incredible! I really won!”
“Third Young Master, congratulations on your first victory in your lifetime, but I believe that it won’t be your last,” Tang Jie very officiously replied.
“Naturally. This Fearless spell is really good. Your choice really was excellent!” Wei Tianchong excitedly said.
Tang Jie’s heart tightened when he saw how happy Wei Tianchong was. He cautiously warned, “The Fearless spell is good, but…”
“But what?” Wei Tianchong didn’t care. Rolling up his sleeves, he flexed his biceps to show off his strength.
Tang Jie bitterly smiled. “But the Fearless spell can only conceal pain for a moment. The wounds will normally last for somewhat longer…”
“What?” Wei Tianchong was startled, and his jubilant smile began to fade.
The Fearless spell’s effects began to fade, and the pain instantly engulfed Wei Tianchong.
Wei Tianchong immediately howled, covering his face as he cried out, “Holy shit! It hurts like hell! Tang Jie, you bastard, why didn’t you tell me this earlier!?”
“You wouldn’t have picked it if I had. Third Young Master, in life, you’ll have to confront things that you don’t like. To experience this later is actually a blessing. After all, you still won, yes? It’s still better than being beaten up and not winning.”
“I know! The problem is that I was so comfortable getting hit that I let him punch me a few extra times!” Wei Tianchong moaned as he covered his nose.