Chapter 1829 — Five Paragons of the Dao Academy
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 4 of 5
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.