Chapter 316: Taoist Taotie and Qiongchi Sect
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The dark cultivation forces had actually only been brought up as a concept several decades ago, and were distinctly differentiated from the light forces, which had clear qualifications to run schools. The light forces consisted of the large state-run and private cultivation academies as well as some of the large sects specifically for itinerant cultivators.
To put it simply, the dark forces were a group of unapproved black organizations which illegally recruited itinerant cultivators and opened schools just for profit; they were like those small shops which didn’t have food certification and made contaminated latiao .
On the dais, Old Antique briefed them on the history of the concept. “In everyone’s eyes, the dark forces are a congregation of evildoers. But we cannot make generalizations. There is both right and wrong among the dark forces. There are even some centuries-old sects that were blacklisted, but only because their founders were in seclusion, and so they couldn’t apply for their qualifications in time. Over the past few years, many dark cultivation forces have obtained their qualifications through the standard channels.”
Everyone immediately understood; in simple terms, it was a matter of getting certification or not getting it.
After all, the Spirit Energy Information era was already no longer a time when hundreds of sects could freely compete or immortals could freely fight one another. Everything was now restricted by laws and regulations, and to continue in the modern cultivation world, one had to obey them.
Wang Ling couldn’t agree more with this point.
The reason why he had eliminated Immortal Mansion was because it hadn’t abided by the rules; not only had it disrupted his life, the most important thing was that it had severely affected his studies!
Why couldn’t he be left to do his homework in peace nowadays?
But like Old Antique had said, not all dark forces were congregations of cunning villains. Some were really sects that hadn’t been able to get certification since their elders were in seclusion, and because of that had been directly blacklisted.
Reliance High School was one example.
Everyone knew that the headmaster of Reliance High School, Patriarch Reliance, was a seclusion maniac. Back then, if several school elders hadn’t personally dragged him out of seclusion to get certification, the school would have been torn down straightaway.
Speaking up to this point, Old Antique’s eyes lit up. “Looking at the trend in the exam papers which Teacher Ji Chongkui set in previous years, I’m guessing that he will definitely include questions on the history of the dark forces. This teacher doesn’t really like testing students on concepts, but just in case, I’ll draw up a chronological list of all the well-known dark forces in history for you to remember.”
“Teacher, who are the well-known dark forces in history?” At that time, someone couldn’t help standing up with a hand raised to ask the question.
“Don’t rush, I was just about to get to them.”
Old Antique gestured for the student to sit down. “Then, let me tell you about some of history’s more well-known dark forces; Teacher Ji Chongkui will very likely test you on this.”
Hearing this, all the students in class took out their notebooks.
Seeing that Wang Ling hadn’t done the same, Dopey Guo hastily nudged him. “Why are you spacing out, hurry up and take notes!”
Wang Ling: “…” As long as he put his mind to it, this type of information would be instantly engraved in his brain once he heard it, so there was no need for him to take notes at all.
Of course, Master of Dopey had been kind enough to give him a reminder. After sweeping his gaze around the class and realizing that most people had taken out their notebooks, Wang Ling could only do the same and take some token notes, otherwise he would really look strange.
He sighed inwardly; nowadays, it was hard to be a person, hard to be a top student… and hard to be a top student trying every means possible to get average grades in class!
Thus, there were times when he would see people in class who were especially good in their studies nod off after gaming all night… Maybe they really weren’t studying frantically outside of class; maybe they were relying purely on their very high IQs.
…
The people in class had never doubted Old Antique’s expertise at forecasting test questions; this was a living test predictor. Years ago, the district education committee had monitored him for half a year because he had been too precise with his predictions, and had been suspected of leaking the test paper.
However, in the face of his strength as the number one history teacher in No. 60 High School, the committee hadn’t been able to find any evidence of misconduct.
After seeing that everyone had taken out their notebooks, Old Antique crossed his hands behind his back, cleared his throat, and said, “An accounting of the infamous dark forces in history must start with the Flying Talismans Gang. Back then, the founder started from scratch by selling shoddy talismans and recruiting relatives and friends as sales agents. To be promoted to Bronze Agents, one needed to sell one hundred flying talismans; one thousand to become Silver Agents; and ten thousand to become Gold Agents… Finally, this gang’s numbers expanded to millions of people.”
“…What happened to them?”
“Later, they were all arrested in three days for selling shoddy talismans. Because they weren’t especially strong, it didn’t require much effort to deal with them. After that, this Flying Talismans Gang was called the Fallen Talismans Gang,” Old Antique said.
Everyone: “…”
“Based on member numbers, it was the largest gang in the history of the dark forces. Based on overall strength, however, Immortal Mansion currently ranks first. But before Immortal Mansion’s appearance, there was one other large dark force which deserves our attention… Have you heard of Qiongchi Sect?”
When Old Antique said this, there was an abrupt and subtle change in his expression. It was only for an instant before it went back to normal, but Wang Ling had noticed it.
“This was a sect made up of top gluttons; anyone who wanted to join them had to eat fifty jin’s worth of food 1 .”
Everyone: “…”
Old Antique said pensively, “When Qiongchi Sect was at its peak back then, its disciples expanded its influence by forming teams that went out searching for local delicacies in the region. They scoured every part of the country with the aim of hunting spirit beasts for food, directly leading to the extinction of seventeen spirit beast species…”
“Shit! Seventeen spirit beast species were eaten into extinction?” someone cried out in shock.
“…” Even Wang Ling had a disbelieving expression on his face.
To be frank, because most of the history of the dark forces was pretty dark, they actually couldn’t be found in textbooks.
If Old Antique never spoke to them about it here, Wang Ling would have never known about this bizarre history.
Now that he thought about it carefully, it was no wonder that the silver unicorn utterly despised the human race; if it had run into a dark force like this Qiongchi Sect, that would have been a real pain in the ass.
Since he was speaking about Qiongchi Sect, Old Antique naturally had to introduce its founder, and it was likely that Teacher Ji Chongkui would be testing the students on this point.
After composing himself, Old Antique continued speaking. “Next, I’m going to talk about the founder of Qiongchi Sect… Taoist Taotie.”