Ning stopped cultivating. He had returned from the Northern Continent a few ago and had returned to teaching.
He walked out of his underground quarters and made his way out onto the Alchemy wing.
“Hello, teacher Ning,” A teacher greeted him.
“Hello,” Ning greeted back and went on with his day.
“Good morning, teacher Ning,” another teacher greeted him. Ning greeted him back too.
When he finally reached the staff room, most of the teachers turned around to greet him.
Ning sighed on the inside but greeted all of them. He quickly set up his classes for the day and left.
He went to his class and waited for the students to arrive. It was barely a few minutes before the students started coming in.
“Good monring, teacher Ning. How was your day yesterday?” a student asked as she walked in.
“Good morning. My day was fine. How ab—”
“Teacher Ning!! Good morning,” another student greeted him.
Ning was about to answer when another student greeted him again. And then another, and another. He was greeted all the way until the final student arrived and there were no more seats in his room for the others.
The students who arrived after the final students could only go back with a disappointed face.
Ning was surprised when he realized that one of the students that couldn’t make it to the class was Reya, who just looked saddened as she walked away from the door.
Ning looked at his class and saw that more than half of these students were people he had never seen before. He wanted to ask a student to leave so Reya could come in and learn, but he couldn’t play favorites as a teacher.
He sighed and finally spoke up. “Alright, today we will be learning about ingredients with Fire materials in it.”
“Let’s start with a few examples of Fire materials…”
Ning started teaching for the next 3 hours. He taught the knowledge he knew as well as he could, but he could see many of the students getting bored.
Some even yawned inside the classroom and that made Ning a little annoyed. There were students out there that missed this class because of these people, and yet they weren’t paying any attention at all.
For the entirety of the 3 hours of teaching, maybe a thousand out of the 10 thousand students actually paid proper attention. The others were here for something else.
“Alright, any questions?” Ning asked.
Several students, including the bored ones, suddenly raised their hands. Their boredness seemed to have suddenly disappeared as well.
“You,” Ning pointed at one of the boys.
“Teacher, is it really true that you are only at the 1st Nascent Soul realm?” someone asked.
“Uhh… yes,” Ning said. He was surprised at the question, but perhaps he shouldn’t have been. This had been happening for the last 2 days as well.
He pointed at another student.
“They say you turned down the opportunity to become an Emperor, is that true?” the student asked.
“What? Who’s spreading such false rumors?” Ning was surprised.
Neither of the students he chose asked any proper questions so he called out one of the students that he remembered were paying attention.
“Can you explain more about this thing you said regarding Firemoss and us not being able to replace it with other ingredients? Is there a reason?” the student asked.
Ning smiled when he finally heard a question related to today’s class.
“It’s not that Firemoss can’t be replaced at all. Do you know the energies found in the Firemoss plant?” Ning asked.
“Yes, Fire and Water,” the student answered.
“Yes. You see, fire and water are opposite energies. In most cases, the one that has a higher quantity or quality will usually destroy the other when you mix those together.”
“So, when making pills that require you to put water and fire in equal amounts at the same time, you could technically go with 2 different ingredients that have an equal amount of both, but how do you tell if any ingredients have that amount in equal quality or quantity.”
“The slightest mistake, which is very much possible, will ruin your entire set of ingredients.”
“Firemoss are naturally occurring red plants in the ocean. They gather fire energy while keeping it from going astray with equal water energy. It’s the only ingredient in this planet that will always have Fire and Water in equilibrium.”
“So, that’s why I say it’s an irreplaceable ingredient. Understand?” Ning asked.
The student made a face of realization. “Ah, thank you for the explanation, teacher,” the student said and sat back down.
Ning smiled and chose another student to ask some questions. “You!”
“Yes!” the student shouted out. “Teacher Ning, how can we become just as strong as you? Is there a secret?”
Ning nearly lost his cool when he heard that question. “I’m not answering any questions that have nothing to with alchemy. If you have such a question, just put your hands down.”
More than 80% of the students put down their hands and Ning felt horrible. These students weren’t here to study at all.
They were all there to see and talk with the famed teacher Ning who defended the academy and saved the Emperor during the coup. Ning was a celebrity for these people, not a teacher.
This had happened for the last 2 days as well, but it was much greater today. And that made him feel horrible.
“You,” he asked one of the remaining hands in the air.
“Um, is there a pill or something that we can eat to get as strong as you?” the student asked.
That was the final straw.
“Alright, class dismissed.”
Ning immediately walked out and went out to find Principal Singeer.
The Principal was sitting in the underground looking at some talisman when Ning reached him.
“Oh hey, teacher Ning. Are your classes over?” Singeer asked as he walked in.
Ning walked up to Singeer and said, “Principal, I would like to ask that I be allowed to go into closed cultivation for the next few years.”