Star Odyssey

Chapter 2187: Professor Hao Yu

Lu Yin decided to change topics. "Prof. Zheng, I’ve heard that Virtue Archives has recently developed a much closer relationship with the four ruling powers. Is that true?"

The older teacher frowned. "Prof. Hao Yu, let me take you to see the Eighteen Lines Formation. It’s one of Virtue Archives’ most famous sights, and it is famous throughout the entire Perennial World. If you can break through all eighteen lines, you’ll instantly become very famous, and many of the students will want to attend your classes."

The man then immediately started moving in a specific direction.

Lu Yin stared at the man’s back. Was he really not going to say anything at all? Apparently, there was some truth to the rumors of changes taking place in Virtue Archives.

That would have required the four ruling powers to put a great deal of pressure on the academy.

"In what aspect do you excel, Prof. Hao Yu?" Prof. Zheng asked as they made their way towards the Eighteen Lines Formation.

Lu Yin was caught off guard. "Where do I excel?"

"Of course. Instructors naturally teach classes about their own area of expertise. For example, Mr. Tang possesses an exceptional domain that has reached the void god level, and Prof. Xiao Wen focuses on the Literary Prison. Many students come to Virtue Archives to study ancient characters, and the Literary Prison is an impressive battle technique that can serve as both offense and defense. As for Prof. Wei, he focuses on history and teaches classes on that subject. Our instructors don’t necessarily teach classes about cultivation or combat."

Lu Yin thought for a while. "Where do you focus on, Prof. Zheng?"

"Physical combat is my specialty."

Lu Yin arched a brow. "Aurelian force?"

"Correct. I’ve mastered aurelian force."

This quite surprised Lu Yin. A place as small as Virtue Archives certainly had many hidden dragons and tigers. Mr. Tang's mastery of his domain had reached the void god level while Prof. Zheng had achieved aurelian force. This meant that the academy was able to guide their students to the peak in two different cultivation methods, and that was with only two instructors. There were also two Semi-Progenitors, as well as the academy’s own resources, which included secret techniques, sourcebox arrays, lockbreaking guidance, and much more. Virtue Archives was clearly the best academy in the Perennial World, and it made sense that even the four ruling powers wanted to send their youths to study in the academy.

Lu Yin thought for a bit longer. "I should focus on sparring and giving combat advice. I’m able to see weaknesses in other people's battle techniques quite clearly."

This was a surprising response. Combat advice? That was not a small matter. Seeing the weaknesses in other people's battle techniques? Virtue Archives boasted students from many large families and powerful sects, including even the four ruling powers themselves. Not even the headmaster would claim to be capable of offering something like combat advice to all the students.

Still, Prof. Zheng said nothing. He had merely been tasked with showing the new faculty member around Virtue Archives and explaining the rules to him. As for what happened to the new instructor in the future, that was none of Prof. Zheng’s concern. It was not unheard of for Virtue Archives to dismiss faculty members from the academy.

As the two men spoke, they tore through the void to travel. It took them half a day to arrive at a location that was surrounded by several mountains. The mountains were tall, but there was nothing in the valley between them.

At the front of the vale, a golden line hung sideways in the sky.

Prof. Zheng led Lu Yin to one the peak of one of the mountains. "This is the Eighteen Lines Formation. It is one of the methods that we use to determine whether a student qualifies to graduate. Anyone who can break through five lines qualifies. Generally, breaking through five lines requires one to be at least a peak Explorer, or even a Cruiser."

Lu Yin nodded in approval. "As expected of Virtue Archives. Only students with the strength of a peak Explorer are eligible to graduate. This really can’t compare to other academies. In most places, simply becoming an Explorer means graduation, The requirements here can’t compare."

Lu Yin clearly remembered that the Astral Combat Academy simply required a student to become an Explorer in order to graduate. A fresh Explorer and a peak Explorer were completely different concepts, as there was a five-fold difference in power level between those two.

Prof. Zheng arrogantly answered, "All who are able to enter and study at Virtue Archives are elites, so there is typically no problem with our students graduating. The biggest difference is how they go about doing so. There are some people who stay within the academy for a long time even after being eligible for graduation, as they want to stay here and study longer. Many want to use the Eighteen Lines Formation to prove their qualifications, as doing so is a way to become more famous in the Perennial World."

"I remember hearing that, decades ago, there was a student known as Wen Diyi. How many lines was he able to break through?" Lu Yin suddenly remembered something and decided to ask about it.

Prof. Zheng froze for a moment before turning to look at Lu Yin. "You know Wen Diyi?"

Lu Yin nodded. "I was at Hope Restaurant years ago when he went there. I wanted to participate, but my age disqualified me. Still, I saw Wen Diyi there, and he was quite impressive."

Lu Yin had no choice but to say that he had been too old to participate in the excursion to the Dominion Realm. Otherwise, it would place him in the same generation as the four Junior Progenitors. Both Long Tian and Xia Shenfei had spent time in Virtue Archives, and it should be impossible for anyone to become a three-tribulation Envoy before the Junior Progenitors.

Also, if Lu Yin’s comment had revealed the name Hao Yu as a fake, it did not matter. Lu Yin was not really trying to hide the fact that Hao Yu was Yu Hao, as Yu Hao was a disguise that no one could see through. After all, it was practically impossible to see through Lu Yin’s Mask of Death.

Prof. Zheng stared at the Eighteen Lines Formations with complicated emotions filling his eyes. "Wen Diyi was the most talented student that my Virtue Archives has seen in thousands of years. During his time as a student, he broke through the seventeen lines in the formation."

Lu Yin’s brows climbed high. "That's quite powerful."

It appeared that this Eighteen Lines Formations was set up to evaluate people beneath the Envoy realm. When Wen Diyi had taken the evaluation, he had been an Enlighter, and his combat strength had only been slightly weaker than the four Junior Progenitors’. The four Junior Progenitors had each been able to rival Envoys as Enlighters, which suggested that they had the strength to break through the entire Eighteen Lines Formation, as Wen Diyi had been very close to doing that himself.

Lu Yin stared at the golden line in the sky. If his guess was accurate, then it meant that any Enlighter who could break through the entire Eighteen Lines Formation had the strength of a peak Enlighter and were comparable to the four Junior Progenitors.

"What do you think, Prof. Hao Yu?" Prof. Zheng asked, rather interested. He already knew that Lu Yin had an impressive level of cultivation and was at least an Envoy because he himself could not see through Lu Yin’s strength. Still, it should still be possible to discern something when the entire Eighteen Lines Formation was overcome.

Lu Yin waved a hand dismissively. "This should be set up for Enlighters, and given the fact that I’m an Envoy, it would not be any issue for me to overwhelm all eighteen lines."

"You don’t even want to give it a try, Prof. Hao Yu?"

Lu Yin shook his head.

At this moment, there were many students who had chased after the two men, and most of them were girls, and they were clearly following Lu Yin. Upon seeing them, Prof. Zheng frowned again. "Return to your training. What are you doing here?"

One girl boldly asked, "Prof. Zheng, is the man next to you a new student? Introduce him to me!"

"Right! Prof. Zheng, we want to meet our new classmate."

"Prof. Zheng, please introduce us."

Prof. Zheng glared at the students. "Don't be so untoward! This man is a new instructor: Prof. Hao Yu."

"An instructor?" All of the students were shocked. "One so young?"

"An instructor so handsome?"

"And so pretty?"

The few male students all suddenly grew quite uncomfortable. "Prof. Hao Yu, that’s the Eighteen Lines Formation just up ahead. Give it a shot. Show us that you’re able to teach us."

"Right, Prof. Hao Yu! Give it a try." The shouting students drew more attention and an even larger crowd.

At the moment, Virtue Archives had a very high number of students. The Perennial World was massive, and every region had powerful families and sects. It was not overly difficult to get into Virtue Archives, and any district in the Middle Realm alone saw hundreds of youths join the academy. This meant over a thousand students just from the Middle Realm, and then there were also the students who were from the Higher Realm, the Bifrost, the Lower Realm, not to mention independent cultivators who were not affiliated with any specific region. All together, Virtue Archives had a total of almost 2,000 students.

In the past, Virtue Archives could have never recruited this many students. After all, they only had a few instructors, and they had also deliberately made it difficult for anyone from the four ruling powers to enter. Even Xia Taili had to pay a power vessel to gain admittance to the academy.

However, Virtue Archives had greatly changed in recent years, and both the numbers of students and faculty had risen.

Prof. Zheng scolded the students, saying, "Stop fooling around! Prof. Hao Yu is free to do as he wishes, which has nothing to do with your whims. If you want to see the formation be overcome, then try it yourself."

The instructor’s words calmed a few people down, but others were still kicking up a fuss. Naturally, the stubborn students were the ones with powerful backing, and that gave them the courage to stand up to the academy’s instructors.

Most people would feel humiliated when being mocked and teased by so many students and would give in to their demands, especially given the bright eyes of the many spectating female students.

However, Lu Yin had long since stopped giving in to the mood of the moment and his impulses. Even with so many people trying to kick up a fuss, he simply treated the entire thing like a show. It was actually quite funny to him, as the people raising the biggest complaints seemed to be the jealous ones.

Slowly, the students started to calm down, mostly because Lu Yin was clearly unfazed by their attitudes.

Prof. Zheng glanced over. If an instructor could not assert their authority over the students, it would be a struggle to get anyone to listen to their class or even attend.

"It seems that Prof. Hao Yu doesn't want to demonstrate his skills for us. In that case, allow me, Bai Nan, to demonstrate so that he can be mentally prepared." The young man who had been the most outspoken about Lu Yin challenging the Eighteen Lines Formation stepped forward and approached the golden line in the sky.

Bai Nan? Lu Yin's eyes flickered. This person should be a member of the Celestial Frost Sect’s Bai family, though he was clearly not from the main family. Still, his cultivation was impressive for someone from a branch family, and his status should be correspondingly high. He was a peak Hunter, which was at the very top of Virtue Archives’ students’.

At his age, only the Fifth Mainland’s Ten Arbiters had been able to reach such a level, and even they might not have broken through to the Enlighter realm this quickly.

A single step took Bai Nan off the mountain peak, and he made his way straight towards the golden line. Once he drew close, one end of the line twisted, as though bent by an invisible power.

Suddenly, it released, and the end of the line shot towards Bai Nan.

Wind and clouds swept around Bai Nan's, and he waved a hand, unleashing a Wind God Slash. The golden line was torn apart, and Bai Nan quickly shot past it and moved forward.

Another golden line soon appeared in the sky in front of him, and the first line also quickly recovered. The two lines then worked together to attack Bai Nan as though they were connected.

Lu Yin was quite surprised by what he was seeing. These golden lines seemed to act like a human’s battle force.

"The Eighteen Lines Formations is a sourcebox array unique to my Virtue Archives. There are rumors that it was created by Progenitor Wen. Each golden line is a stroke from an ancient character, and various strange abilities can appear within it, including recreations of human battles," Prof. Zheng explained.

This was also quite surprising. "It’s a sourcebox array? In that case, when the defensive sourcebox array for the academy is activated, will countless golden lines will appear?"

It was Prof. Zheng’s turn to be surprised. "Are you an array master, Prof. Hao Yu?"

Lu Yin remained modest. "I know a few things."

Prof. Zheng said nothing more.

Within the mountain valley, a total of five golden lines had appeared, and Bai Nan was clearly struggling now. If he could overcome the five golden lines, he would be allowed to graduate.

"Brother Bai, relax a bit and give Prof. Hao Yu a chance to show what he can do!" someone called out. It was a deliberate reminder for Bai Nan to not go too far and accidentally graduate by pushing too far.

Bai Nan snapped back to his senses, and he quickly pulled back and landed on the peak of the mountain once again. He let out a breath. A bit of sweat could be seen on his forehead.

"Bai Nan, why didn’t you continue?" Prof. Zheng gave the young man a stern look.

Bai Nan forced out a smile. "This student knows that he is not invincible, and he also still wishes to learn from the professor."

The young man then turned to shoot Lu Yin a pointed stare.