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Chapter 48: Attending Class
After opening his natal palace, Ai Hui found that his previously accumulated experiences weren’t useful enough. There was a big difference in the rotation of his elemental energy. Every ability was composed of many details, so if even one went wrong, the ability would decrease significantly in strength. How to ignite the energy, how to revolve the energy, what time to speed up, and what time to slow down were all details that decided how strong the ability would be in the end.
Ai Hui was stable and dependable, a gift given from his experiences.
He never thought about topics that were too deep and didn’t think of himself as the type to. His guess in using the Metal Suspending Pagoda was very successful, but he did not become complacent because of that. Master Dong was very thorough in his lectures and Ai Hui had already thought about it a lot in the Savage Territories. He was able to understand little after a lot of contemplation.
He knew the limit of his abilities and could tell he wasn’t some heaven-born talent. A lot of what he had were out of convention.
The Induction Ground had developed for a thousand years and produced many talents and ancestors. Weren’t they stronger than him? What he could do was persevere, cultivate diligently, and learn what the teachers taught well.
What did learning well mean?
It was understanding everything the teachers taught. Why speed up here? Why slow down there? Learning meant breaking it down completely and understanding it.
With his natal palace open, Ai Hui no longer had a ticking time bomb. He had four years to slowly learn and did not need to be hasty. As long as he seriously and stably studied for those four years, then he would be able to become an official elementalist right?
He didn’t have much certainty he would succeed, but he strived towards his goal.
Probably because he saw so many deaths and lives, Ai Hui viewed his own life with clarity.
People who had seen the fragility of life had a hard time finding ambition for distant goals and acquiring impractical emotions.
In the introductory course, Ai Hui listened to the teachers’ lectures very closely. The classrooms were only half filled and most of the students came from Old Earth. The class was very basic, so students who came from land within Five Way Heaven rarely hadn’t learned the material.
Interpine Institute had a system where students selected their own courses since everyone’s level and foundation were different and thus needed guidance in different areas. People like Duanmu Huanghun had already left all of the other students behind, so the average classes had no benefits for them. Interpine Institute thought of these situations and sent out its best teachers to guide those students. In addition, the Exemplary Wind Society assisted them outside of class times.
Ai Hui never thought of himself as talented, but he never thought Duanmu Huanghun as a talent either- that childish and malicious youth people would rather avoid!
Ai Hui greedily absorbed everything the teachers taught.
The teacher’s last name was Wang. He only spoke about basic topics such as after opening the natal palace, what needed to be watched for during cultivation, what kind of abilities could be learned, and from whom each topic could be learned.
Everything within Five Way Heaven was closely related to elemental energy. Ai Hui heard more than once from the teachers that the elemental cultivation system must be completed since that was the only way to grow into something like the old sword cultivation world and exist for hundreds of thousands of years.
The teacher’s praise for the sword cultivation world made caught Ai Hui by surprise, but after listening to him, he gradually understood. Five Way Heaven grew from the ruins of the sword cultivation world. From certain perspectives, they could be said to share the same blood. In front of the sword cultivation world’s long and glorious history, Five Way Heaven’s thousand year history couldn’t even be considered an infant.
When the teacher applied the importance of elemental energy to Old Earth, Ai Hui was able to more directly understand.
Before he entered the Savage Territories, he had always lived on Old Earth. In comparison to Five Way Heaven, Old Earth seemed like a completely different world. The old sword cultivation center, now became some rural area. Life was slow there and very safe. Under the protection of Five Way Heaven, there weren’t any savage beasts or barbarian tribes.
Old Earth did not have much to do with cultivation. There was very little elemental energy and no savage beasts for cultivation materials. There were no teachers to guide cultivators and the environment served little to influence them to. The recent years were not bad. Many cultivators that came from Old Earth returned to their hometowns after becoming older, then opened training halls to teach elemental cultivation.
The teacher was on a roll during his lecture and from time to time, criticized some of Five Way Heaven’s policies.
Ai Hui found that every teacher within the Induction ground had their own particular interests. For example, Master Dong loved to talk about Five Way Heaven’s history and Master Wang loved to speak about the future. This probably had to do with Induction Ground’s position. Whether if it was an influential family or one of the Thirteen Divisions, they all could barely affect the Induction Ground.
Ai Hui not only did not think it was boring, he actually thought it was very interesting. History and future plans were all things he did not know before. Listening to them broadened his knowledge.
“If you just opened your natal palace, I do not advise immediately learning abilities. Why? Because these abilities can easily restrict your understanding of elemental energy. A lot of our understanding on elemental energy is very shallow. Many people would deny that and ask aren’t we very familiar with the five palace eight halls? Yes, compared to our initial elemental cultivation system, our current five palace eight halls system is much more mature and complete. Everyone must know that elemental energy’s development has been only one thousand years. The sword cultivation world had systems that were so expansive, detailed, and complex. Our five palace eight halls is too rough and superficial. Thus, what everyone should do right now is familiarize themselves with their elemental energy. You must understand it, like how you must understand a partner.”
However it was obvious students were not interested in this discussion.
Induction Ground’s learning style was very free, especially the teachers. They had very little restrictions and only needed to complete their work. The school did not interfere with any of their personal problems.
The active and free atmosphere allowed the Induction Ground to acquire the most schools and theories in all of Five Way Heaven. There was a saying that however many teachers were in the Induction Ground meant how many schools and theories there were.
Students had already long become accustomed to each teacher’s “personal interest” and completely numb to their teachings. Not every teacher’s theories grabbed the students’ interests.
Teachers obviously also long became accustomed to the reactions in front of them.
For beginner cultivators, those fancy and extravagant abilities were what they gravitated towards the most. From their perspective, those were symbols of power. Teachers were once children themselves and were very familiar with that mindset.
“Ok ok, I know what you guys really want to know. No matter how easy the ability is, you all must remember your aptitudes and don’t randomly practice. Pay more attention to even the easiest of abilities.
The teacher saw the students that had long lost their patience and thus ended class.
He felt a little powerless. His own theories seemed to have attracted no one’s interest since day one.
Even though theories like his were very common in the Induction Ground, he was still hurt by the lack of interest.
The students could not wait any longer to begin learning more abilities.
The teacher was ready to clean up and leave when suddenly a voice spoke up.
“Master, can you speak with greater detail? How can one further understand their elemental energy?”
Much thanks.
Thanks for the chapter!
Thanks for the chapter. I have a couple of doubts. They weren’t stronger than him? Shouldn’t it be weren’t they stronger than him?
And, Five Way Heaven’s thousand year history couldn’t even be considered immature. Shouldn’t it be could even be considered immature?
I made the first change since it sounds a lot better even though it’s slightly less accurate. The second one, I can understand how it might have been confusing, so I altered the beginning and the end of the sentence to make it sound better while still adhering to the meaning.
Anyway, thanks for the suggestion.
Thxs for the chapter
Thanks! So well written.
Lots of chapters lately!