Yu Qingtang stared for a moment, then blurted out, “Can they still come back?”
The moment the words left his mouth, he realized how ominous that sounded and hurriedly corrected himself.
“I mean—I hope they can still come back!”
Although they never returned in the original novel, if they really could come back now, it would count as Ye Chenyan’s dream coming true. His whole family could finally be reunited.
Even if Ye Chenyan had never said he wanted them back...
Yu Qingtang remembered Ye Chenyan back in Nanzhou, staring at the image of his parents on the wall.
He remembered Ye Chenyan in the Reincarnation Pill’s pocket world, where both his parents were alive, looking at Master Ye and Madam Ye.
He muttered softly, “It’d be nice if they could come back.”
Wen Tianxia gave him a long, searching look. “No one knows whether they can.”
“But leaving that door open gives people something to hope for.”
“Heroes don their armor and depart. Those they leave behind keep watch over the road home.”
Wen Tianxia smiled faintly.
“If not for that hope, how could Bu Yetian have clung to a single breath and endured until now?”
Yu Qingtang said quietly, “But everyone says he can’t hold on much longer.”
“That’s right.” Wen Tianxia returned to the matter at hand. “Which is why Tianji Zi sent you here to enter the Sea of Books Formation.”
“I built that formation on a whim years ago. I also call it the Pulling-Up-Seedlings-to-Make-Them-Grow Formation. Time flows differently inside it. If you can endure it, you can stretch your available time by as much as a hundredfold.”
“If you had a hundred times as much time to slowly break through inside the Sea of Books Formation and then returned to reality afterward, wouldn’t that be wonderful?”
Wen Tianxia leaned back slightly against his chair and laughed.
“Unfortunately, when I was young and full of myself, I thought I was clever enough to outplay Heaven by half a move. I failed to account for one simple truth: heaven and earth remain in balance. Every gain comes with a loss.”
“Time inside the formation is stretched. If you break through while you’re in there, then the moment you return to reality, your physical body has to withstand the spiritual-power impact of an entire major realm all at once.”
“If your body isn’t tough enough, then in an instant...”
He lifted a finger and lightly pointed at the teacup on the table.
The cup exploded.
Porcelain burst apart in every direction.
Yu Qingtang’s eyes went wide. He fell utterly silent, too intimidated to make a sound.
Wen Tianxia beckoned with one hand.
The shattered pieces flew backward, reassembled themselves, and sealed together into a complete teacup again. He picked it up and took another sip.
“Tianji Zi tells me that Ye Chenyan has already fused the immortal and demonic paths. His body is exceptionally powerful, far beyond that of an ordinary cultivator. He happens to be perfectly suited to my Sea of Books Formation.”
“It’s sitting unused anyway. Opening the formation costs me no more than a few spirit stones. There’s no harm in letting him try.”
Concern crept onto Yu Qingtang’s face, but he still nodded.
“Then... if he takes it slowly, comes out often, and doesn’t stay inside too long at once, that should make things much safer, right?”
“In theory.” Academy Head Wen looked up at him and laughed. “But someone would still need to keep an eye on him.”
“I think you’d do nicely.”
Yu Qingtang had diverted the conversation, but Wen Tianxia did not seem to mind at all. He simply followed the new thread, proving himself remarkably talkative.
“Originally...” A trace of nostalgia entered Wen Tianxia’s expression. “Cultivation is actually the most fun in the early stages.”
“There are still plenty of people under heaven who can beat you. And even if they can’t, they’ll think you might offend some great figure someday and die halfway along your path. Trouble keeps finding you on its own. Everything is lively.”
“Then you make it past Out-of-Body and enter Soul Transformation, and suddenly the number of people willing to provoke you plummets.”
Wen Tianxia sighed with genuine melancholy.
“Before you know it, you’ve become some mighty expert everyone reveres.”
“Integration is even more troublesome. Barring accidents, by then you’re usually the master of some sect. And if you happen to belong to a sect as busy as Guiyi Sect, you even have to make yourself look older—dress up as some stern middle-aged man or dignified old fellow...”
He propped his head on one hand.
“Everyone who sees you treats you with tremendous respect. If you want to run into any real trouble, you have to disguise your strength and go traveling incognito.”
“Under ordinary circumstances, I’d actually prefer that you young people cultivate slowly and enjoy all the trouble along the way.”
Yu Qingtang: “...”
He was beginning to suspect he simply could not comprehend the mental realm of true big shots.
“But no one knows when the sky might come crashing down.” Wen Tianxia sighed softly. “The sooner you become stronger, the better. Even if we ultimately find ourselves facing the same situation as in ancient times, every bit of additional strength gives you that much more hope of surviving.”
Something in his calm voice suddenly struck Yu Qingtang.
A quiet, unwavering resolve.
Yu Qingtang hesitated, then cautiously said, “The world I came from is very different from this one.”
“If I really tried to explain it, it might take a long time...”
“I know Four Books Academy’s cultivation method is unusual. It’s like the Sage’s Book—the more knowledge you possess, even if it isn’t exactly ‘knowledge’ but secrets or hidden information, the stronger your cultivation method becomes.”
“Especially secrets that very few people know. Those are even more useful to you.”
He sneaked a glance at Wen Tianxia.
“At Academy Head Wen’s level, ordinary gossip and secrets probably don’t help you much anymore. That’s why you went searching for otherworldly evil demons. And why you want to know the secrets of the place I came from. Right?”
Amusement flashed through Wen Tianxia’s eyes.
“Scholar Xiao told me you weren’t stupid and that when the situation called for it, you could be remarkably clever. I assumed he was merely defending you.”
“But yes. That is exactly right.”
“Think of it this way. When the sky falls, I’d like the umbrella held over your heads to last a little longer.”
“So tell me about...”
“The fundamental nature of your world.”
“What is most different about it compared to this realm?”
“There’s no immortal cultivation. No spiritual energy. No demonic energy.” Yu Qingtang rubbed his chin. “Where I came from... it’s a material world.”
“Material?” Wen Tianxia raised an eyebrow, immediately intrigued. “How is that different from an ordinary mortal world?”
“The level of technological development, I guess?” Yu Qingtang scratched his head. “Crap. If I’d known this would happen, I would’ve memorized more definitions. I don’t even know how to explain what ‘science’ is.”
“For example... Ah! You know the old Pill King’s pill, right? Everyone inside it is a mortal. That place is pretty close to what my world looked like in its earlier stages.”
“I know.” Wen Tianxia nodded. “When he first refined it, I went looking for him and entered it myself to experience it.”
“While I was in there, I became an old man, a woman, a flower, and a tree. I gained quite a bit from the experience.”
He casually asked, “What did you turn into?”
Yu Qingtang offered him a smile that was polite, dignified, and desperately awkward.
“Do I have to say?”
“It was only a casual question.” Wen Tianxia’s smile became radiant. “But with a reaction like that, it must have been something extraordinary.”
“Let me guess...”
“Did you perhaps turn into a lump of gold?”
Yu Qingtang’s eyes flew wide open in shock.
“Senior, you’re terrifyingly good at reading people! That’s extremely close!”
“I turned into a statue of the God of Wealth!”
Even Wen Tianxia, for all he had seen in his life, froze.
He stared for a moment.
Then he threw back his head and burst out laughing.
“Hahaha! A God of Wealth statue! Interesting, very interesting! Did they ever find you? What expressions did they make when they saw you?”
Yu Qingtang: “...Senior, do you remember that you were asking me grand questions about the ‘fundamental nature of the world’?”
“What harm is there in asking a little more?” Wen Tianxia laughed freely. “Four Books Academy was founded on curiosity in the first place. If I took no interest whatsoever in the affairs of the world, how could I have come this far? And how could our academy have produced so many famous publications?”
Yu Qingtang: “That makes perfect sense.”
“But right now, I’d like to talk about something slightly more serious. The God of Wealth statue story...”
“We can save that for next time.”
“The Reincarnation Pill’s pocket world had no spiritual power and no spiritual herbs. Only ordinary mortal crops. Yet even there, the old Pill King managed to refine gunpowder from mortal crops—something similar to a thunderfire pill, just much weaker.”
“My world basically kept going farther and farther down that ‘gunpowder’ path.”
Yu Qingtang innocently spread his hands.
“But if you ask me how any of it is made or what the principles are, I have no idea.”
Wen Tianxia rested his chin on one hand, deep in thought.
“Gunpowder...”
“I’ll have to go bother that old bastard for some and take a look.”
Still thinking, he lightly tapped his fingers against the tabletop.
“Compared with ancient times, spiritual energy has already grown extremely thin. If Heaven keeps sinking inch by inch, perhaps one day spiritual power truly will dry up completely and this realm will become like the world you came from.”
Yu Qingtang gave two dry laughs.
If that ever happened, a transmigrator who arrived in a world without spiritual energy should theoretically have a glorious chance to change history.
Unfortunately, he personally knew how to do absolutely nothing.
He muttered, “Then I’d rather Heaven didn’t fall. It’d be boring if every world became the same.”
Wen Tianxia laughed despite himself.
“True.”
“The three thousand worlds are each different. That is precisely why people yearn to know what lies beyond their own.”
“If everywhere were the same, there would hardly be anything interesting about it.”
“You’ve given me quite a few surprises today. I’ll need some time to digest all this. Conveniently, I can meet the others tomorrow.”
He sounded rather helpless.
“Barring some unforeseen disaster, there’s no way those two should fail again this time.”
Yu Qingtang guiltily raised his eyes toward the ceiling and wisely avoided mentioning the part about being thrown out of Central Province.
“Courtesy demands reciprocity.” Wen Tianxia raised his teacup toward him. “You may ask me one question as well. I know quite a lot, so choose carefully.”
Yu Qingtang blinked.
He had not expected that.
He frowned in thought.
Apparently, he really was completely unsuited to Four Books Academy. He had almost no thirst for knowledge at all. Even now, with a great expert offering to answer anything he wanted, he somehow could not think of a single question.
Surely he could not do what he had done back at Sage-Hearing Academy and ask whether Wen Tianxia knew any cultivation method that could make him rich.
He already had the Treasure-Gathering Basin.
Besides, he had heard that Sage-Hearing Academy was the predecessor of Four Books Academy. If there had been no such cultivation method there, there probably was not one here either.
Yu Qingtang thought for a while, then looked back at Wen Tianxia.
“Can I save the question for later?”
Wen Tianxia gave him a half-smile. “Are you sure? You may save it, but the next time you want to see me, you’ll have to take another exam—”
“I’ll ask now.”
Yu Qingtang changed his mind instantly.
“Who knows if I’ll get lucky enough to pass another exam next time?”
Wen Tianxia chuckled. “Ask away. I’m all ears.”
Yu Qingtang stole a glance at him, cleared his throat, and asked,
“Academy Head Wen, do you believe in fate?”
“Hypothetically speaking, if I had a friend who knocked someone else’s fate off course, how would he normally compensate them?”
“Oh—”
Wen Tianxia leaned back slightly, amusement filling his eyes.
“I’m also quite skilled at relationship counseling.”
“Fate can be a minor matter or a very serious one. If the other party truly wished to hold your friend accountable, practically any compensation they demanded would be reasonable.”
Yu Qingtang scratched his head.
Wen Tianxia watched him with a knowing smile.
“But if I’ve guessed correctly, that friend of yours...”
“He can simply pledge himself in marriage.”
Yu Qingtang: “...Senior Tianji Zi told you about that too?”
“Mhm.” Wen Tianxia smiled at him, visibly more delighted by this than he had been while discussing the fundamental nature of another world. “I know a little about that friend of yours.”
“I told you Tianji Zi has a loose tongue. And I happen to enjoy listening.”
“It’s far more interesting than all those miserable stories about his disciple.”
Yu Qingtang: “...”
“It’s rare for anyone to ask me about things like this.” Wen Tianxia crooked a finger at him. “Come closer.”
“I’ll teach you a trick.”
...
By the time Ye Chenyan and Chi Yantian emerged from the examination hall, Yu Qingtang and Scholar Xiao had already returned and were waiting outside.
Except Yu Qingtang seemed to have something on his mind.
Every so often, he would sneak a glance at Ye Chenyan, looking oddly hesitant.
Ye Chenyan grew increasingly curious.
Once they returned to their residence and no one else was around, he finally asked,
“What is it?”
Yu Qingtang stared at him in shock.
“Huh? How did you know something was up?”
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