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Chen Qing... must have gone mad!

That was what Shen Yuan thought. Over the past two days, he had been busier than when he had diligently pored over classic texts, immersed in a sea of books day and night.

He awoke each day with his mind full of the characters, diagrams, and formulas from the texts, and his meals often involved musing over the content he’d seen that day, all because the techniques and principles he was seeing were ones he couldn’t even access within his own family.

Occasionally, the thought of Chen Qing swearing at him crossed his mind; couldn’t believe that someone would make such precious Taoist texts available for a bunch of common scholars to read!

Everything started from the first day of school!

Originally, he had regarded this so-called branch of the Yin Yang Academy with curiosity, anticipation, but mostly as a joke.

While he came with a sliver of hope, deep down he didn’t believe at all.

He didn’t think Chen Qing could actually establish a Yin Yang Academy, even if it were just a facade.

The first day of class, a woman in white appeared and directly led away the top ten ranked students, all of whom had scored the highest in arithmetic, physics, and understanding of Yin Yang theories.

The purpose of their leaving was to help organize what were called the teaching materials of the Mystic Art Academy.

At the time, he mocked in his heart. Chen Qing put on such a grand show, shamelessly announcing the founding of Yunzhou’s own Yin Yang Academy, only to reveal they hadn’t even prepared the basic teaching materials?

His only hope at that point rested on Chen Ying, whom he hoped would teach them something...

After all, he knew of Chen Ying’s reputation—top of her class for three years straight at the Yin Yang Academy and most likely to become the first female Academic Commissioner of Great Jin.

A talent like her, willing to cooperate with Chen Qing, might share some insights even if just for show, which could possibly allow him.

.. to advance to becoming a higher-level magician.

Instead, they were led into the Book Collection Pavilion and handed a heap of books to sort and categorize themselves. He was utterly bewildered; had they simply been brought in to do odd jobs?

He wasn’t disappointed, as he hadn’t held much expectation to begin with.

The madness began when he casually picked up the first book.

What nonsense is this? Can the fundamentals of techniques really be explained like this?

Misleading the youth, utter nonsense!

But, this perspective has some clever argumentation. Let’s see it through.

Hmm... this principle of the Five Elements differs from what my family taught, but many of the ideas really resonate.

On closer thought... there is some method to it.

However, the approach is too narrow and not nearly as profound and comprehensive as Zheng’s Great Exposition on Yin Yang and the Five Elements.

Wow... this Five Elements foundation branching into the Eight Trigrams Arrays can have this many variations? Is this even real?

This, mutual generation and overcoming, Yin Yang reincarnation can be utilized in this manner? Can the substances in the world really be broken down at such a minuscule level? This... this... is it really possible?

These theories are too shocking and unorthodox. Who is this madman who wrote them? How can one be so... hiss, but... upon deeper thought, it seems not entirely impossible.

And so, through a process of doubt, disdain, astonishment, and eventually fascination, Shen Yuan was jolted back to reality and realized it was already night.

If it were not for the young woman awakening him, Shen Yuan felt he might have never awoken in this lifetime.

"This student, your name is... Shen Yuan, right?"

"Ah, yes!" Shen Yuan quickly got up and bowed in salute, "I’ve seen Lord Chen!"

"You recognize me?" Chen Ying’s brows furrowed.

"Yes, I am Shen Yuan. I had the good fortune to meet you during my trial at the Capital City Yin Yang Academy!"

"Oh... some foundation, no wonder you’re so engrossed." Chen Ying nodded slightly, "I’ve seen your exam sheets. Your base in arithmetic is very solid, especially your innovative approach to several art calculation questions. You are a very gifted individual."

"I... have talent?" Shen Yuan was taken aback and then overjoyed!

Since becoming Second Place Scholar, many had praised his talent for study, but he’d heard flattery enough to know better.

However, the person before him was different—the recognized prodigy of the Yin Yang Academy, someone who could be mentioned in the same breath as Wang Ye and Fei Jun, the very top students of the academy. For such a person to praise his talent?

The feeling was entirely different!

"Lord... you flatter me!" Shen Yuan swallowed, struggling to regain his composure from the pleasant shock, stammering awkwardly, "I... what talent do I have? I couldn’t even get into the Yin Yang Academy back then..."

"You couldn’t get in?" Chen Ying was surprised, "What was your theoretical score during the entrance exam?"

"Third-class..." Shen Yuan answered honestly, "My theoretical score was third-class, yet my spiritual power score was extremely low. Among my peers, I ranked fifth from the bottom."

"Oh, is that so..." Chen Ying nodded.

Shen Yuan humbly bowed his head, waiting for the other’s mockery. It had always been like this in the past; at first, hearing about his theoretical achievements would earn him a bit of respect, but as soon as they heard about his lack of spiritual talent, they would show another face altogether.

At most, if they were polite, they would say it’s a pity...

"Low spiritual ability does not affect..."

"There’s nothing to regret, it’s just fate. Not everyone in this world can become a magician...huh?" Shen Yuan blinked in surprise, looking up at Chen Ying: "My lord, what...what did you just say?"

"I said, it doesn’t matter much..." Chen Ying put the books around her back in their places and turned her head: "Our academy is dedicated to training Array Masters and Rune Masters. Based on my sorting and observations over the past few days, I’m certain that if we focus on formations, we don’t need to demand high spiritual power from the Array Masters themselves. "

"How is that possible?" Shen Yuan exclaimed, "The art of formations is the most difficult to sustain. One must constantly perceive changes while maintaining a continuous flow of spiritual power within the formation. The magician’s own spiritual power should be very high."

"That’s the old method."

"Huh?" Shen Yuan was momentarily speechless, bewildered: "The...old method?"

"Yes, the old, outdated methods of Yin Yang Academy, relying on human intermediaries to drive the arrays, which makes operating costs extremely high.

Just for multiple formations in Capital City, it needs hundreds of noble families, thousands of magicians for maintenance.

In this way, the art of formations, time-consuming and laborious, will never be able to flourish.

But Chen Qing...ah, no, the method in our academy is different. "

"Not...different? How is it different?" Shen Yuan quickly asked.

"Our academy doesn’t rely on people but on objects, or even the formation itself to power the arrays."

"What?"

"This content is too advanced for you at the moment. If you manage to enter the Tiandao Institute, I will explain it in detail. For now, just concentrate on helping to categorize the textbooks." Chen Ying sighed, "We’re short-staffed, and frankly, I have no choice. My spouse...cough, Prefectural Governor gave us a tight schedule to open the academy. We haven’t finished categorizing these scriptures yet. You have some basics in techniques, which is just right to help with general categorization. I’ve already arranged the tags on the shelves; just file the books according to my classification.

Remember, don’t look too deep into them.

Your knowledge is limited now, and it’s not beneficial to delve too deep! "

"Yes!"

After that day, Shen Yuan plunged into frantic reading, especially after he sorted and confirmed which books could be read by beginners.

He virtually lived in the Book Collection Pavilion, like a sponge long dry, crazily absorbing the knowledge within the books, almost to the point of forgetting to eat and sleep.

The more he read, the more he realized the value of these scriptures within the academy.

Thus, every minute, every second, he wished he could bury himself in the books, wishing a day could be stretched to two, because he knew such good fortune wouldn’t last forever.

Maybe one day...the opportunity to read would be gone, so every extra second spent reading was a second gained!

With this mindset, these few days Shen Yuan was utterly obsessed yet immensely satisfied. The only dissatisfaction was that there were about a dozen outsiders reading along with him in the Book Collection Pavilion, one of whom was only nine years old. This made him quite displeased.

————————————-

"Minister Shen?"

Inside the academy’s dining hall, seizing the rare opportunity of catching Shen Yuan coming to eat, Gu Beiquan and others leaned in: "Minister Shen...what happened to you?"

"Could it be that Chen Qing intimidated you?" A former County Magistrate beside him asked.

"What nonsense are you talking about?" Shen Yuan originally didn’t want to deal with these people, just wanted to finish eating and return to his books, but he was unexpectedly pestered, and he became impatient: "You arrived here before me, I heard you even got caught up in a murder case.

Does that mean Chen Qing intimidated you? "

The group was taken aback, recalling Lyu Yiqi’s madness from the other day, they instinctively shrank their necks, and the fire of their scheming flickered out.

"That Chen Qing has wild ambitions. He took our official seals before, and now he expects us to serve him, hehe, Minister Shen, we can’t let him succeed!" Gu Beiquan earnestly advised.

Shen Yuan looked up at him in astonishment: "Chen Qing...wants us to serve him? Where did you get that idea?"

"Otherwise, why create an academy?" Gu Beiquan sneered, "Is it not just to reengage our services? As more and more people come to Lyuzhou, we naturally need those who can manage affairs. If we’re not reengaged, does he really plan to govern the academy relying on cultivating those teenagers?"

"Just watch, it won’t be long before Chen Qing comes asking for help," Gu Beiquan sneered as he took a bite of his meat skewer.

Shen Yuan looked at him oddly and quietly asked, "May I ask, Brother Gu, in the previous examination, how many points did you score in Art Calculation, physical sciences, and the study of Yin Yang and the five elements?"

"That twisting path of trivia?" Gu Beiquan burst into laughter, "I was too lazy even to fill it out. Brother Shen, you can’t seriously be taking that exam seriously, are you?"

Shen Yuan: "....."

"I reckon..." Shen Yuan glanced at the meat skewer on the other’s plate and then at his smug face, pondered for a moment, and decided to give a suggestion: "Brother Gu, you might want to eat as much as you can now. In a few days, when you’re sent back to North Street, I’m afraid you won’t be seeing this for a while. .."

"Huh?"