The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#228 - Course Selection

The three mandatory courses for everyone were Professor Zheng's "Mystic Power Deciphered," Professor Cui's "Secrets of Strange Objects," and Professor Yue's "Supervision Essentials."

Each course was held once a week, lasting about an hour, and the remaining time was left for the students to arrange themselves.

They could either attend lectures by other professors or cultivate on their own.

Alternatively, they could wander around the academy, hoping to encounter reclusive senior experts. If they could win their favor, they might receive a stroke of luck.

They could even try to find the strange objects hidden in the academy, although the outcome was unpredictable.

Everyone had a limited amount of time each day, twelve hours, no more, no less.

Attending a lecture meant that they couldn't cultivate during that time. Similarly, wandering around the academy and searching for strange objects meant they couldn't attend lectures…

In short, everyone needed to repeatedly weigh their options and allocate their time reasonably.

This was also the first lesson the academy taught to all newcomers.

It was unrealistic to try to take care of everything. Taking lectures as an example, Professor Zheng's "Mystic Power Deciphered" only taught people how to initiate the cultivation of mystic power.

However, to truly utilize mystic power, one still needed to attend other professors' courses, such as Professor Sun's spell class, Warden Huang's formation class, or Professor Han's talisman class… In addition, there were courses related to mystic power such as alchemy and weapon refinement.

Although the lectures of each professor were staggered, if one attended every class, the students would have no time for their own cultivation.

In the end, they would know a little about everything but wouldn't have mastered anything.

Therefore, Professor Zheng warned all the students during the first class of "Mystic Power Deciphered" that the most important thing in studying at the academy was not to be greedy.

The sooner one chose a direction that they were interested in or good at, the more beneficial it would be for their future cultivation. The professors in the academy all had their own strengths.

In the utilization of mystic power, the usual approach was to choose one major, concentrating the main energy on it, and then choose one or two minors to enrich combat options.

The two seniors, Gu Zhongling and Jing Xiang, whom Lu Jing had encountered in Another Heaven, were classic examples of this combination.

Gu Zhongling's major was sword control, and he was also known for it, breaking all spells with one sword. But besides that, Lu Jing had also seen him use the immobilization spell, while Jing Xiang was most skilled in formations, and his first thought when facing an enemy was to use formations to solve the problem, also supplemented by some spells.

However, these courses related to mystic power had nothing to do with Lu Jing.

In addition, the academy also offered martial arts courses to help students with average martial arts skills continue to improve, but Lu Jing couldn't use these courses much either.

So, after this calculation, there weren't many courses he could actually attend.

In addition to Professor Cui's "Secrets of Strange Objects" and Professor Yue's "Supervision Essentials," there was also a "Strange Object Records" exam, and a course on "History of the Directorate of Astronomy and Observation of Celestial Phenomena."

Among them, Lu Jing understood the "Strange Object Records" exam as a branch of "Secrets of Strange Objects," focusing on introducing the strange objects in the Strange Object Records. Perhaps because it was considered fresh and interesting enough, or because of Professor Cui's strong recommendation, quite a few people chose it.

In comparison, there were significantly fewer people attending the "History of the Directorate of Astronomy and Observation of Celestial Phenomena."

There were only a few scattered people, less than thirty, in the lecture hall of the "History of the Directorate of Astronomy." After all, history was always a bit boring and dull, and it didn't seem very useful in combat. The senior experts were all gone, and it could only increase one's knowledge.

As for the "Observation of Celestial Phenomena," it was even more outrageous.

Logically speaking, only this course was the counterpart major of the Directorate of Astronomy, a compulsory course for regular students of the Directorate of Astronomy.

But in reality, there were only three people willing to attend this course.

Besides Lu Jing, there was a young Taoist from a Taoist temple near Kyoto, and… Yan Jun.

Yes, Lu Jing didn't expect that Yan Jun would also choose this seemingly useless course, and this was the first time Lu Jing had seen this successor of the Cloud Water Quiet Compassion Pavilion, the girl who had surpassed him on the Heavenly Pivot Ranking.

This number one person of the younger generation lived up to her reputation. No matter where she appeared or what she was doing, she would involuntarily attract the attention of those around her.

If Kui was like the bright moon reflected in the river, looking cold and detached, and Xia Huai was like the budding peach blossom in the neighboring courtyard, innocent and lively, then Yan Jun, Yan Jun was like a piece of white jade.

There wasn't a trace of flaw on it, and no matter which angle you looked at it from, you couldn't see any defects.

For such a perfect person, most ordinary people would feel inferior just standing next to her, and even the heart of jealousy wouldn't arise.

For example, the young Taoist surnamed Xie next to Lu Jing couldn't take his eyes off Yan Jun from the first moment he saw her, and then his face turned red, and he quickly lowered his head.

He seemed to feel that even just looking at her was a kind of blasphemy to the beauty.

On the other side, Yan Jun also saw the two people in the lecture hall, and then greeted the young Taoist and Lu Jing quite naturally.

Lu Jing also praised in his heart, as expected, even her personality and demeanor were impeccable.

However, he also noticed that Yan Jun's gaze seemed to linger on him for a longer time than on Xie Xiaodao.

Of course, Lu Jing wouldn't be so self-absorbed as to think that Yan Jun had fallen in love with him at first sight. In fact, considering what had happened to him, he was quite eye-catching wherever he went now.

It was just that unlike Yan Jun's eye-catching, he was the kind of eye-catching that made people surround him like an animal in a zoo.

After all, he was probably the only one in the entire history of the academy who had been writing words at Professor Zheng's place for three days without turning them into gold.

Lu Jing put himself in her shoes and felt that he would probably take another look, so he could understand the curiosity of the new students towards him and wasn't very angry.

Soon after, the old professor who taught the Observation of Celestial Phenomena also walked in from outside the lecture hall.

He looked to be seventy or eighty years old, his hair was all white, and even his legs and feet were a bit clumsy, leaning on a cane.

After entering the room, he turned his head and glanced at the only three students in the room, and then moved step by step towards the front of the hall, spending a long time to sit in a grand master's chair.

Then he coughed and said, "Tell me, why did you come to listen to my lectures?"