Volume 2 Chapter 14: Bookworm Associate Professor

Only when she heard Lin Xi agree, did Associate Professor An lower the book in her hands, turning slightly in his direction and said, "In that case, you can come starting tomorrow."

Seeing how Associate Professor An didn't have any intention of immediately chasing him out, Lin Xi obediently nodded, and then began to examine the layout of this medicine room.

He saw that the endless books and containers soaking all different types of roots all had notes on them written in beautiful handwriting: "Keke, don't forget that this needs to be cooked over a small flame for ten hours... Keke, don't forget that the Ju Chrysanthemum leaves need to be gathered by students in five days... Keke, don't forget to pay Professor Lan a visit... Keke, what you are looking for is on the thirty-sixth page of this book..."

As such, Lin Xi became curious, asking, "Associate Professor An, is there a student named Keke who helps out here?"

"No." Associate Professor An seemed to have become a bit weary from reading, rubbing her temples while saying, "Those were memos I wrote for myself."

Lin Xi immediately became a bit stunned, a bit embarrassed as he asked, "Turns out teacher's surname is An, your name is Keke?"

"My name is An Keyi." Associate Professor An shook her head. "Keke is the nickname my family calls me by."

Lin Xi chuckled in embarrassment again, but he suddenly thought of another issue. Thus, he asked a bit out of selfish motives, "Teacher, then your respected self should be a part of the Medicine Department, right... then, doesn't your department also have a heaven's choice? Why didn't you seek her out to help out first?"

An Keyi said extremely directly, "Gao Yanan is quite excellent, but I am rather careless, easily forget things... her nature seems to be a bit unorganized, and also a bit careless, while you seem comparatively more cool-headed and attentive."

After a pause, An Keyi gave Lin Xi a look, saying with a bit of emphasis, "The research I am conducting this time is a bit more important for the academy... should I succeed, many people in the academy would obtain benefits, I will likely be able to directly rise up to professor rank. Meanwhile, apart from the two course points you can receive, there should be other point rewards, which is why you must be more careful. When the time comes, if there is anything I forgot or did incorrectly, you must tell me."

"There might even be more points?"

Lin Xi frowned. He knew that An Keyi's research project was definitely extremely important, making him feel a bit of pressure.

"Your fingers still need a bit more time to heal, so Tong Wei told me you do not need to practice in medicine valley, you can instead directly head to the new student training valley. There were already many new students who went down today."

"Training valley?"

When Lin Xi recalled the traditions left behind by that middle-aged uncle, Qiu Lu's provocations that morning, and the voice changing masks, he immediately developed a strong feeling of curiosity. Together with the fact that a Self Defense Department student had to enter the training valley at least six times each month, Lin Xi nodded without the slightest bit of opposition.

"The new student training valley isn't far from your Self Defense Freshman Dormitory, just southwest of the medicine valley you and Bian Linghan normally go to to train. You can head down directly from the southwest corner of our Medicine Department peak, there is a silverthread zipline next to Drug Lord Hall that leads straight there. Drug Lord Hall is the small two-storey building with yellow bricks and green tiles."

"Right..." Just when Lin Xi reached the entrance, this bookworm female associate professor seemed to have recalled something. "The academic point reward you obtained can be used at any time to be exchanged for a reward. Your cultivation is comparatively lower, so since you are passing by Drug Lord Hall anyway, I advise you to exchange it for a Fragrance Concentrate Pill, it can slightly increase your cultivation."

Lin Xi immediately stopped, because he never expected himself to obtain points that quickly, and as such knew nothing about the point exchange system. He turned around and faced An Keyi who was rubbing her temples, asking, "Teacher, will I be able to see what kind of things I can exchange for with course points there? Do I have to visit different halls to exchange for different things?"

An Keyi was clearly much more patient than the single-eyed black-robed lecturer, not showing the slightest bit of irritation, as if she was merely emptying the related information in her brain, explaining with a calm voice, "That is not the case. All of the peaks the students reside on have reward halls, inside of every one of them are picture albums and detailed descriptions of the items available for exchange. Moreover, even though exchanged points cannot be used to exchange for anything else, the record will still be there. Once one accumulates sixteen course points, one will no longer be limited to only new student courses,one is then able to select from year-long courses. As for the places one can only enter after accumulating certain amounts of points, they are also clearly explained in the reward halls. Only, after selecting what you want from the reward hall, a lecturer will bring it to you at their convenience, while if you directly head to Drug Lord Hall, you can immediately register and obtain the item."

Lin Xi muttered a bit to himself, asking, "It seems like teacher's judgment is that right now, the Fragrance Concentrate Pill is what is most suitable for me?"

An Keyi nodded, replying without wasting any words, "Yes."

"Okay, then I will first exchange for a Fragrance Concentrate Pill." Ever since he saw the stele left behind by Principal Zhang, Lin Xi had always saw soul force cultivation as filling bowls. Others had a single bowl, while he had two. If he could fill these two bowls with a bit more water, then this was naturally a happy thing. When he saw that An Keyi was more patient than Tong Wei, easy to talk to, he decided he might as well clear up some of the questions he had always been wondering. "Teacher, our soul force cultivation levels, just how are they divided up exactly?"

Perhaps because he felt like he didn't explain clearly enough, that An Keyi might misunderstand the meaning of his question, Lin Xi added, "I obviously know that soul force cultivation levels are Soul Knight, Soul Expert, Soul Master, State Knight, State Master, Sacred Expert, Sacred Master, titles like these, what I want to know is... exactly how great is the difference between these levels? What clear boundaries are there?"

An Keyi looked at Lin Xi, saying, "There is a lot of information in the academy, these can all be studied alone."

"However, it isn't as fast as teacher telling me directly. My aptitude is only second, if I waste too much time, then my cultivation will lag behind much more."

Lin Xi felt like towards this bookworm-like, rather serious associate professor, he didn't have to be too tactful. Sure enough, when she heard Lin Xi's honest words, An Keyi instead produced an expression of admiration and realization. "What you say does have a point... in reality, it is also extremely simple. A beginning Soul Knight's strength can easily raise a boulder weighing a hundred jin, mid level Soul Knight can easily lift two hundred jin, high level soul knight easily raise three hundred jin. Once one reaches Soul Expert level, the body's strength won't increase too much, but soul force can already be used externally. That is why when one's soul force isn't completely consumed, an early stage Soul Expert has around three hundred fifty jin of strength, mid stage Soul Expert four hundred jin, while high level Soul Experts should have no problems handling four hundred and fifty jin of strength. As for Soul Master and above, apart from an increase in strength, soul force can be imbued into soul weapons... if the soul weapon's material quality is good enough, won't suffer any damage, then a mid stage Soul Master's soul force can roughly destroy thirty sets of Blacksteel Heavy Armor in succession."

"Only thirty sets?" Lin Xi frowned. An Keyi stopped when she spoke up to this point. She wasn't the type to scheme, judging from the bookworm associate professor's face, Lin Xi could tell that knowing this much right now was already enough, any more and it would be biting off more than he could chew. After staying in Green Luan Academy for a few days, Lin Xi already knew that cultivating up to Soul Master wasn't an easy feat. For him, several hundred jin of strength was obviously already quite amazing, able to easily send a burly fella flying. However, if they could only break through thirty sets of heavy armor... on the battlefield, wouldn't it be a bit too dangerous?

"No one will just stand there and let you hack at them, moreover, there are no cultivators who only know how to attack heavy armor head-on." An Keyi also saw through Lin Xi's thoughts, calmly explaining, "On the battlefield, apart from cultivation, what is important is the difference in martial skill. Unless there is absolutely no choice, every cultivator will choose to attack where the other party is weakest. When facing heavy armored soldiers who aren't cultivators, a mid stage Soul Master should be able to kill a hundred of them in succession without any difficulty, but when facing other cultivators, they definitely wouldn't remain indifferent. That is why the ones cultivators face are mainly other cultivators."

To help Lin Xi understand more clearly, An Keyi raised her thumb. "Blacksteel Heavy Armor is normally the thickness of my thumb." Then, she picked up a bamboo writing slip. "However, there are many joints where it is only as thick as this bamboo slip."

An Keyi's completely serious face while raising her thumb made Lin Xi couldn't help but laugh. Meanwhile, when An Keyi revealed a slight frown in confusion after seeing Lin Xi laugh, Lin Xi only felt that this scene was even more amusing.

After controlling his laughter to prevent himself from seeming too rude, Lin Xi gave An Keyi a respectful bow, and then left this medicine room.

The rising sun was still moving, it was still morning. He saw that An Keyi's medicine room was inside a three-storey small gray building, a building halfway up Medicine Department's peak, the area where the flames began clearly visible.

The wooden buildings on that mountain slope were almost completely destroyed, only large amounts of black-colored wreckage left.

"The academy's cultivation... turns out it is just training greater strength, and then tempering us with methods that allow us to more quickly and more precisely attack the enemy's weaknesses..." When he saw the black charred remains, Lin Xi didn't think too much, only simply thinking about the academy's cultivation. He was completely unaware just what kind of astonishing undercurrents there were under that great flame.

...

The academy's buildings, for Lin Xi, were still complicated, just like this world. There were too many areas he didn't know about.

However, as a tourist who had assimilated into this world, his thoughts were instead rather simple.

Regardless of how complicated this world was, as long as he could properly admire the things before his eyes, live life a bit more brilliantly, then it was already good enough.

Above An Keyi's medicine room was a mountain slope, weeds with long black leaves growing on it. These weeds were rather thinly spread, growing like clumps of black hair. Apart from these weeds, there weren't any other weeds that grew here. A wooden path led up the mountain slope, producing a rather peaceful scene. In the distance, there was an ordinary brick house full of vines, located within tall red maple trees.

Following An Keyi's instructions, Lin Xi quickly found the yellow bricked dark green tiled Drug Lord Palace within the cluster of Medicine Department Halls built on the mountaintop.

After heading inside and telling a skinny, strict-looking, skin a bit dried yellow-colored black-robed middle-aged lecturer his purpose for coming, the black-robed middle-aged lecturer directly handed him a porcelain pill bottle.

"You did well." After telling Lin Xi that he could immediately take the pill, when Lin Xi turned around to leave, this outwardly and inwardly strict black-robed middle-aged lecturer who rarely gave praise actually looked at Lin Xi and said this.