Chapter 1829 — Five Paragons of the Dao Academy

Since Zhu Santong was a rare and exceptionally clever child, he lavished every effort on nurturing him, spending money to send him to the finest primary school and buying a house in the Lower Capital so that he could study there.

Zhu Santong did not disappoint his expectations; his accomplishments rose higher and higher, until, at the great examination of the Grand Academy, he passed with ease and was admitted.

The Grand Venerable of Black Mountain was so moved that tears flowed freely, and he laid out a grand celebration at Black Mountain, feasting yao deities from every direction for three days and three nights. After Zhu Santong entered the Grand Academy, he displayed extraordinary aptitude, and before he had even graduated, he was recommended by the Grand Libationer, Pei Wujiu, for advanced study at the Academy of Dao. The Academy of Dao was no small matter — it was the most sacred and solemn holy ground in all the heavens and the myriad worlds, and throughout all those heavens and worlds, any divine ability practitioner or deity of surpassing talent would regard admission to the Academy of Dao as the highest of honors.

When the Grand Venerable of Black Mountain heard this news, he could only think that green smoke was curling up from his ancestral graves — such a pity that his family had no ancestral graves at all. Yet the Academy of Dao was full of brilliant talents.

After Zhu Santong entered it, he still counted as an outstanding figure, but no small number of talents could run neck and neck with him.

Su Muzhe, the dean of the Academy of Dao, and its various high-ranking members initially took no notice of him.

It was only later, when Zhu Santong came into contact with the way of reincarnation preserved within the Academy, and his aptitude and insight unexpectedly began to rise again by degrees, producing any number of ingenious fancies and thought-provoking observations, that Su Muzhe, Si Youyou, and the others took notice. Si Youyou summoned this young yao and questioned him.

Zhu Santong said, "I myself do not know how I became so clever. Ever since I began cultivating the way of reincarnation and studying its mysteries, strange ideas and images keep surfacing in my mind from time to time.

" Si Youyou exchanged a glance with Su Muzhe, then sent him away, saying, "These are the signs that the memories of a former life are on the verge of awakening through the cultivation of the way of reincarnation.

This person does have a former life. And with insights as exquisite and original as his, that former life must have been no ordinary one.

Could he be the reincarnation of some remnant of the Heavenly Court? Yet that does not seem right. Even the Ten Heavenly Venerables might not possess his breadth of vision and knowledge.

" Su Muzhe said, "We must bring in Tu Bo to look into his background. " Shen Fengqing descended, heard the two of them speaking of Zhu Santong, and so told them of Zhu Santong's origins. Si Youyou and Su Muzhe's eyes flew wide, and they cried out, "Can such a thing really be?

Why did you not say so sooner? What if he awakens his former life and his savage nature breaks loose — what then? " "How could he awaken so easily? " Shen Fengqing was unconcerned.

"The way of reincarnation is the most difficult path to cultivate.

For him to awaken, he would have to cultivate to the twenty-eighth heaven of the Dao realm.

And as for the twenty-eighth heaven of the Dao realm through the way of reincarnation, even Her Majesty the Empress barely managed to reach such a level while she was alive. Give Zhu Santong three thousand years, and perhaps he might then refine his way to the twenty-eighth heaven.

" The two breathed sighs of relief, and then Si Youyou remembered something and said hurriedly, "But what of the other four?

Of the five prehistoric Dao Ascenders reborn, we know only Zhu Santong — you must tell us of the remaining four as well. " Shen Fengqing made inquiries, then said, "Jun Xieyu is already studying at the feet of the Flower Heavenly Venerable; she was the old woman among the five Dao Ascenders. That Dao Ascender called Ya Ya is at present in the Shangcang Academy, where Mu Yingxue is instructing her; her name now is Tu Yulou. There was also a middle-aged woman who was reborn into the demigod race, going by the name of Yi Qiqi; not long ago she sat the great examination of Lesser Yujing and entered Lesser Yujing.

As for the one with the finest aptitude, Dong Yang — let me check. .

. " After a moment, Shen Fengqing's expression turned strange, and for a long while he said nothing. Si Youyou pressed him anxiously, and Shen Fengqing hemmed and hawed, "Dong Yang. . .

is doing odd jobs at a government workshop on Western Mountain.

.

.

" Si Youyou and Su Muzhe were struck speechless for a long time. Shen Fengqing hastily explained, "His family was once rich and noble, but after he was born, their fortunes declined and they fell into utter poverty. He had no more than two years of schooling before dropping out. He is thirty now, scraping a living in a small county town, earning money by casual labor.

Because he has no skill, he changes workshops every ten days or half a month, and no woman can bring herself to look at him, so he is still all alone.

" Si Youyou glared at him viciously and said, "Find that Dong Yang for your old mother, and deliver him to the Academy of Dao! " Shen Mu had been raised by her and had always feared her, and Shen Fengqing, by extension, feared her too.

He searched frantically, then said, "Within two days, I will send him to you, Granny!

" With these words, not even pausing to spin his form, he hurriedly sank back into the Nether Capital. A few days later, Dong Yang — big and burly, with a face of artless simplicity — was escorted to the Academy of Dao, looking this way and that, at a complete loss.

A crowd of strangers swirled around him, sizing him up from head to toe, poking and prodding him, and one after another they shook their heads, saying, "He has already missed the optimum period for cultivation — he is beyond saving. " Si Youyou chased these libationers aside and examined Dong Yang herself; she, too, knit her brows and sighed.

"Perhaps he can still be saved. . .

Quick, summon the Alchemy Master! " From the moment the man known as the Alchemy Master arrived, Dong Yang's days of misery began: every day he was steeped in a vat of medicinal liquid, his body stuck all over with silver needles of every kind, his suffering beyond words.

Dong Yang tried on several occasions to slip away, but each time he was caught and dragged back, and he groaned inwardly, wondering what crime he had committed to be subjected to such torment.

A young man named Zhu Santong often came to the Alchemy Master's courtyard, and as the two met again and again, they grew familiar and gradually became good friends.

In the end, Dong Yang was freed from the medicinal vat, but he still had to swallow a great many spirit pills every day. Si Youyou arranged for him to study at a primary school, and Dong Yang, sitting among a crowd of children of about ten years of age, was deeply ashamed.

At first, he was very slow to learn everything; the young pupils beside him were replaced, crop after crop, and at the age of fifty he was still studying at the primary school.

Another twenty years passed, and Dong Yang, white-haired and hoary, was still seated in that primary school, becoming a strange sight within it. Yet after the age of seventy, it was as though some knot in his head had finally come undone — he learned everything with great speed, entered the university within a few years, and a few years further on was sent by Si Youyou to the Grand Academy.

Zhu Santong, by then already a great yao deity renowned far and wide, clicked his tongue in wonder at the sight.