Days passed, the last few weeks of Lin Songmei’s break blew by in a flash. Throughout the break, after her grueling workout schedule, she was starting to see progress. Previously, Songmei was just a sack of bones, but now, some muscles were beginning to show!

At the same time, over the course of the last bit of break, Songmei grew closer to Yan Mingqing, as the two of them learned some of the basics of cultivation under the tutelage of Liu Xueli. They also had a few sleepovers! It was always fun to tell stories and get to know each other in the middle of the night...

Today though, today was the day that they had to begin attending classes. Songmei and Mingqing would be taking these classes with the inner disciples accepted this past year, they’d go to the classic classes, literature, math, science, history, among others while also going to cultivation classes.

Songmei in particular was not happy to go back to school, she didn’t think anyone was...

Those cultivation novels Songmei had read were lies! If they were true, they could just say “You dare mess with this young master? Asking to eat dog food!”

Bleh.

Songmei pushed herself out of bed, swinging her legs out from under the covers into the cold, biting air. Stumbling out of bed, Songmei, who had a serious case of bed-hair, made her way to the bathroom, washing her face and freshening up before getting dressed, grabbing a hair-brush in addition to her school bag on her way out.

Slinging the bag over her shoulder, Songmei patted it a few times as she cracked the door open. Songmei still remembered, Liu Xueli had come back one day carrying two of these bags, saying that they were provided free by the sect, and that she and Mingqing could use it.

Free stuff! Songmei, without hesitation, took it. Inside the bag were also some notebooks and stationery.

Patting her bag, Songmei was still happy to have the free book-bag, it was a dark blue color, similar to Mingqing’s hair, emblazoned with the sect’s logo.

‘Damn this place is rich as always though...’

Songmei’s head turned and looked around, Mingqing was... not out yet.

8 am...

There was still some time left before they had to go, so she could wait.

Sitting down on the edge of the wooden walkway that surrounded the courtyard, Songmei leaned back onto her hands, admiring the courtyard while waiting for Mingqing.

It must’ve snowed again overnight...

“Hi, hi, sorry, sorry, it took me a few snoozes before I finally realized that today was the first day of classes,” Mingqing apologized as she ran out of the door. “Are you ready to go, Songmei? We can pick up some breakfast on the way.”

“Yeah, I’m ready, should we get going now?” Songmei yawned, feeling a wave of fatigue rush over herself. There was no way under the four divine beasts that she had slept enough...

Grabbing Mingqing’s hand, Songmei walked out towards the school with Mingqing, the two deciding to not disturb their still asleep master as they left.

-----

In the classroom.

Songmei and Mingqing sat in a corner of the classroom near the back, they’d had some interactions with the inner disciples but there was still a bit of... division between the direct and inner disciples.

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The school though, was quite nice. It wasn’t actually a “school” it was actually the “Hall of Learning” but everyone just called it a school.

From the outside, it followed the sect’s theme, it was a modern-ish, futuristic-ish building made of wood, the outside seemed to be woven together, with the gaps in the wood being filled in with glass.

Inside the building though, it was different, instead of wooden and earthy tones, there were lighter, sleeker materials and colors. It was still quite cozy, things were made of this off-white material that wasn’t cold to the touch, the floor was carpet, and there was a warm lighting.

Moreover... The Hall of Learning wasn’t that big, there was only one class per year, so all the inner and direct disciples who entered the sect in the same year would be in the same class.

In the said classroom were Mingqing and Songmei. Songmei was sitting there, brushing her hair as she watched people trickle into the classroom. Her hair, which looked white-ish under the current light, was... a touch more neat.

‘At least my hair doesn’t look like I just walked into a tornado.’

Mingqing on the other hand, had already re-equipped her cold demeanor, creating a sharp contrast between herself and Songmei. Just sitting next to Mingqing, Songmei could feel an aura of coldness, it was as if an empress had descended and was glaring at all her subjects.

Mingqing really needed to fix her approachability...

BAM

With the door being thrown aside, everyone’s attention was drawn to the front as Cai Yufei walked in, dragging a still half-asleep Lu Qiang in behind him.

Murmurs began to break out.

Songmei suppressed a chuckle, Lu Qiang was... literally trying to escape while half-asleep. If asked, Songmei wouldn’t hesitate to bet, Lu Qiang, without a shadow of a doubt, had no idea what he was doing.

Man was a serial sleepwalker after all.

At least he wasn’t sleepwalking right now, just trying to walk his way back into sleep.

With the last of the students making their way into the classroom though, a middle-aged elder walked in.

At an average height, he wasn’t especially good-looking. However, although he was middle-aged, he walked with a youthful air around him. His hair was black with a few gray streaks through them, and his hands had clear calluses on them.

Wearing a casual suit, he stroked his short beard, standing at the front of the classroom facing the students with a warm smile. “My name is Jiang Yonghang, I’ll be your teacher for the next few years, nice to meet you all! I hope we have a pleasant few years together, and I look forward to all of you growing.”

Songmei, having put her brush away, took out some notebooks and a pencil, leaving them on her desk for later while listening to the elder’s words.

“I’m sure you all are aware of it by now,” Jiang Yonghang began, turning around and firing up a projection of some slides, “But, the elder in charge of the hall insists that we go over the structure of education, just in case.”

A smile broke out on Songmei's face as she made a small fist pump under her desk. There weren’t transitions in the slideshow! Thank the heavens, thank the heavenly dao. A true moment of unparalleled luck.

Moreover, Songmei hadn’t asked around to find out what the school was like, so this slideshow was... actually useful to her.

“So, as you all know, this is kinda like school. However, I’ll be pointing out several differences in how we’ll be teaching compared to a normal school.” Jiang Yonghang explained, facing the students instead of the slideshow.

Songmei was amazed, this elder not only knew how to make a slideshow that wouldn’t cause cultivation deviation, but also memorized his slides! ... Maybe he should be the sect leader...

“Today, we’ll just be doing some introductions. Then, we’ll move onto some classes in the morning. Then, during the afternoon, we’ll be doing some cultivation related classes. Depending on the day, the curriculum will be different, so look forward to that.” Jiang Yonghang continued, the detailed slides changing behind him as he explained.

“There will be no tests, so rest assured on that front. However, I will still be giving ungraded assessments to make sure you all are still putting in effort to learn the material.” Jiang Yonghang shrugged. “Going back to the schedule, once the afternoon classes are finished, you all will be free around 4-5pm. The afternoon classes I assure you will be more than just theory, there will be plenty of time to get some hands-on practice.”

“And lastly... several times during the school year there will be long breaks. This will allow you to either go out and do some missions from the assignment hall or allow you to focus on your own cultivation.”

Damn... was this even school?

Songmei didn’t know what to think... This was a lot more lenient than she thought it would be. This was practically just like... have some more knowledge, but make sure you don’t slack off on your cultivation...