Isaac was entranced by how similar these Outer Disciples (Non-Tenure Track) of the Imperial Institute of Esoteric Cultivation were to the grad students he knew back on Earth. They immediately bombarded him with questions and he spent an enjoyable half an hour hitting on a particularly cute one till they reached the college grounds.
It was a spacious campus, on one end you had clearly recognizable student dorms, with the Inner Disciples getting their own attached cottages, while the Professors had floating houses that gently moved with the breeze and were anchored down with chains. They passed a large pit where mundane laborers gamely dug deep into the ground, supervised by a young Cultivator of the Dao of Archaeology. She was pretty good at her job, since next to her was a sleeping baby dragon of a breed long extinct in the Mortal Realms.
The Wizard's Tower shimmered in the light, its ethereal appearance half-suggested it would blink out of existence. Under the curious gaze of some Inner Disciples, Isaac was escorted inside, where a revolving staircase led all the way up to the rooms at the top.
There, he met a Cultivator who could have passed as an extra in the Lord of the Rings, wearing a sparkling wizard's robe and a pointy hat with a frog snoozing on top. An ornate plate on his desk announced him as High Chancellor Short Aotian (PhD, CIS, LMFAO), Spirit Master of the Spirit Realm. He was standing in front of a window, gently pondering an orb that spun with arcane flames. In the background, another knock-off albatross patrolled as its operator sprayed a tank of Qi over the neighborhood, reducing the strain on the local Cultivators.
"Sit, Isaac isn't it?" Short Aotian said.
Isaac bowed again, before taking a seat. "Yes Lord Aotian, I am honored to be in your presence."
"We can skip the pleasantries! Your arrival is a great boon, here I was thinking we'd have to shut down the Otherworldly Demon research program, we've got one poor Daoist going on 70 and yet unable to submit a dissertation for his PhD without a research subject. By the way, in your world, do they have wizards?" He asked earnestly.
"Uh.. I suppose you could say that." Isaac admitted.
"Really? What did they wear?" Short Aotian brought out a magical scroll and began scribbling furiously.
"I think it was white robes and pointy white hats for the most part."
"Ah! And can you tell me about any relevant roles and ranks?" The "Wizard" adjusted his reading glasses in anticipation.
"I don't remember all the details, but I'm pretty sure that the higher ups had something called a Grand Dragon!" Isaac said glibly.
"A perfectly cromulent name for such an enlightened people. Can you tell me what kind of magic they used?"
"Mostly lighting people on fire I guess."
"Perfect! Here, have some tea, you come from a very interesting world indeed."
Isaac spent a pleasant couple of hours explaining all about Earth, eventually, Short Aotian was so taken by him that he granted him permission to use his wizardly name, "Jim".
Eventually, Jim examined Isaac's meridians and Dantian and said that in his opinion, while Isaac was getting on in years and past the ideal age for an awakening, it was nothing that an experienced teacher couldn't fix.
He was accepted as an Honorary Outer Disciple Second Class, and would be permitted to stay and cultivate at the college, with his room and board covered. He'd be allowed to join the Remedial Cultivation program, where late blooming would-be Cultivators were coaxed into not being useless. For spending money, he could conduct a few lessons as an Assistant to the Adjunct Professor's Assistant, using his dim memories of 3.5th Ed D&D, which had a remarkable resemblance to the mechanics of the old Realms of Magic.
Isaac had a pretty good fucking time, he'd been in and out of college for half his life already, and knew exactly how to settle in and make himself comfortable. When he wasn't attending guided meditation and Qi shaping sessions, he was showing hot young undergrads the magic of iPhone selfie cameras and then getting them out of their robes. He discovered an underground racket selling "focus pills", which he immediately recognized as close cousin to Adderall, and promptly managed to make a small killing dealing on the side.
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He made a new best friend, a Fatty Wang, who he helped lose most of the weight by generously doling out the study pills, and was thinking about starting the world's first fraternity when tragedy struck.
Isaac was in the middle of a particularly lively game of "Truth or Dare" with a group of young cultivators, when a stunning young woman walked into the room. She was a vision of ethereal beauty, with hair like spun silver and eyes that shone like the starlit sky. She was clearly not from around here, her robes were of a higher quality than most, adorned with intricate embroidery and precious jewels. She was introduced as Lady Ling, the girlfriend of a visiting Young Master from a prestigious cultivation sect.
Isaac, already a few cups down, was immediately smitten. He couldn't resist the temptation and invited her to join their game. Lady Ling, always up for a bit of fun, agreed. As the game progressed, Isaac was dared to kiss the prettiest girl in the room. Without missing a beat, he turned to Lady Ling and planted a soft kiss on her cheek. The room erupted in laughter, but Lady Ling didn't mind. She was amused by Isaac's audacity and found his charm irresistible.
Word of Isaac's daring act spread quickly throughout the campus and eventually reached the ears of the visiting Young Master, Li Tian. He was furious and felt disrespected. Not only had Isaac dared to kiss his girlfriend, but he had also done it in front of a crowd, making a mockery of him. Li Tian was known for his fiery temper and was not someone to be trifled with.
When he stormed into the game room, his aura was so powerful that it silenced the room. His eyes were fixated on Isaac, who was still laughing and joking with the others, oblivious to the storm that was about to hit him. Li Tian stepped forward, his eyes burning with anger, and demanded an explanation.
Isaac, taken aback by the sudden confrontation, tried to smooth things over with a joke, but this only served to fuel Li Tian’s anger. He challenged Isaac to a duel, promising to teach him a lesson he would never forget. Isaac, despite being a late bloomer in cultivation, accepted the challenge, not willing to back down in front of his new friends.
The news of the duel spread like wildfire across the campus, and the next day, everyone gathered to watch the spectacle. Isaac, with his limited to nonexistent cultivation skills, was clearly at a disadvantage. But he was not one to back down. He was determined to stand his ground, no matter what.
He didn't win. This isn't that kind of Xianxia.
Academic duels had strict rules, lethal weapons and armor weren't allowed except with the consent of both participants, and Isaac wasn't stupid enough to let himself get talked into it. But what made the Young Master extra smug was the fact that the rules forbade Isaac from employing his Lord of Destruction abilities, since they weren't recognized as a certified branch of Cultivation.
The ensuing "battle" was a farce, Isaac spent about 5 minutes running away at top speed from the vengeful Li Tian, who chased him relentlessly. He had been an alumni of the Imperial Institute, dabbling in Muscle Wizardry in the hopes it would improve his standard path of Body Cultivation.
Isaac was panting like a bitch in heat when Li Tian finally caught up to him and punched him hard enough in the guts to break several ribs and leave him doubled up over on the floor.
Seeing that Isaac wasn't willing to get back up, Li Tian snorted, grabbed him by the hair and lifted him back up to his feet, before headbutting him with bone crushing force.
A pool of blood formed at his feet, yet Li Tian was far from done, breaking the bones of his hands one by one. The pain was too much for Isaac, he blacked out several times yet kept getting woken back up by the seating agony. Cultivators tend to have lax definitions of "lethal injury", so Isaac was horrified to discover that the spectators and referee were content to let the torture continue for a good while longer.
Out of options, he shuddered and summoned his Lord of Destruction kit, breaking the explicit rules of the duel. Before he even got to swing Obbie, his arm was broken so hard that shards of bone stabbed into an unlucky bystander, and then he was smashed into the ground and beaten to a pulp.
Honor satisfied, especially by the cowardice of his opponent who had tried to use unsanctioned weapons, Li Tian spat on Isaac and walked off to where his adoring girlfriend and miscellaneous hangers-on awaited him.
Fatty Wang was the first to rush to Isaac's side, and with the aid of a few of his closer drinking buddies, he was dashed to the infirmary, where he spent a week recovering. Consider him lucky, because in 2023 Earth, those injuries might have taken months to heal if they healed at all.
To add insult to injury, Li Tian showed up the day he was due to be discharged, and demanded Obbie as compensation for Isaac's violation of the rules. It was either that, or be expelled from the IIEC, which would leave him a penniless vagabond, so gritting his teeth more than he should have for a largely useless blade, Isaac handed it over and verifiably cut his link to it under the supervision of Jim and a few other professors.
Luckily for him, Li Tian was too reverent of what he thought was a fine enchanted blade to go around swinging it at dummies, so it was added to his collection and he left a few days later in high spirits.
This marked a turning point in Isaac's trajectory in Cultivation OS. So far, even with the one serious battle he'd been in, he'd started treating his life as little different from his old one, content to lounge around banging barely legal students and schmoozing. Things weren't remotely as cozy, without true strength to call his own, he was at the mercy of anyone who looked his way, and as he saw it, if he didn't cultivate as hard as he could, he was doomed to die a painful death from cancer stuck in the Mortal Realms.
So, for the first time in his life, he got Serious.