55: Third Academy 2

“This stone sculpture was formed from a Saint Spirit Rank Xiezhi that took a wrong path a thousand years ago. It possesses the ability to distinguish between good and evil, so the principal at the time placed it at the school gate to conduct an initial screening of students.

Due to that Xiezhi's special experience, its screening isn't overly strict. As long as someone isn't truly wicked, the statue won't have an extreme reaction.

As for the badge in your hand, it's your student ID. After passing it before the Xiezhi statue, it's now bound to you. From now on, you can use this to freely enter and exit the secret realm where the academy is located.”

Listening to Zhao Xuan's introduction, Xu Yan nodded and put away the badge in his hand.

Afterward, Zhao Xuan led Xu Yan through the academy gate and to a circular magic array not far away.

“Because the academy’s area is simply too vast, relying on either manpower or beast control would waste a lot of time. So, the school found a Space Element spirit beast tribe and carved teleportation arrays throughout the school for the teachers and students of the academy to use for free.”

Watching the virtual screen that appeared before them after they entered, Zhao Xuan reached out and tapped on the words 'Dormitory Area'.

“Individual accommodation areas have special spatial barriers. Without personal consent, no one can trespass into another's accommodation area, except in special circumstances. We are going to your dormitory next, so you need to verify it.”

After speaking, he gestured for Xu Yan to place his hand on the screen.

As Xu Yan placed his hand on the screen, a prompt sounded in both their ears.

“Beep, unregistered information detected. Cultivation Department freshman Xu Yan, your accommodation area has been assigned: Dormitory 001, Freshman Year. Teleportation will begin shortly.”

After a slight dizzy spell, the two were teleported to the foot of a mountain.

Looking at the vast mountain in front of him, and the more than thirty buildings of different shapes and styles from the foot to the summit, Xu Yan asked with some confusion, “Senior? With so many dormitories, which one is mine? Or am I supposed to choose myself?”

Facing Xu Yan’s question, Zhao Xuan replied, “How should I put this? In a sense, you do get to choose here, but it’s not choosing one room. Instead, this entire mountain belongs to you for the duration of your studies at the Third Academy. You can live wherever you want.

You can adjust the orientation and style of the buildings yourself. Each building is equipped with complete basic facilities, and your Cultivation Department is even equipped with a laboratory containing various conventional instruments found on the market.

In addition, there is also a butler-type spirit beast and accompanying housekeeping-type spirit beasts. You can entrust daily affairs to them, and all of this is free.

As students, you only need to study hard. The school will handle everything else for us.”

Listening to Zhao Xuan’s introduction, Xu Yan was utterly shocked. Is the Third Academy really that wealthy and powerful? Such a large mountain, just given away?

After a brief introduction to Xu Yan, Zhao Xuan took out a freshman handbook and handed it to Xu Yan.

“My main task this time was to pick you up. For some details, you can check this freshman handbook or our school’s forum. You can register for a forum account using your student ID. I’ll go submit my mission first. If you have any questions, you can call me.”

After speaking, he bid farewell to Xu Yan, stepped into the teleportation array, and disappeared from Xu Yan’s sight.

After seeing Zhao Xuan off, Xu Yan stepped onto the teleportation array, opened the aerial view of the mountain he was on, and finally selected a garden-style building halfway up the mountain as his residence for the foreseeable future.

He casually found a room and moved in, then released Zhu Yan and Wuxiang from his beast-taming space, allowing them to move freely.

Afterward, Xu Yan opened his phone, clicked on the link Zhao Xuan had sent, and entered the Third Academy’s forum.

The forum page was very concise and clear. After skillfully completing the forum account registration, Xu Yan began to search for the things he had been curious about throughout the journey.

When Zhao Xuan introduced the Xiezhi stone statue earlier, Xu Yan had been curious about what 'took a wrong path' meant, but out of respect for the statue, Xu Yan didn't feel it was appropriate to ask directly. Later, Zhao Xuan left in a hurry, and Xu Yan didn't have time to ask, so he had to search the forum himself.

He tried his luck and unexpectedly found an answer in the forum, and the post had quite a high click rate.

The general situation was that the Xiezhi, due to its bloodline's instinct, had an almost fanatical obsession with good and evil.

This black-and-white worldview encountered the grayness of the real world. Unable to tolerate the situation yet powerless to change it, the somewhat extreme Xiezhi met an equally fanatical idealist.

One person and one spirit beast loudly proclaimed, “We want to create a world without evil!” Then, with the connivance of many powerful figures, they went abroad and caused trouble.

After a series of 'you kill me, I kill you' struggles, they actually managed to create the prototype of an ideal kingdom.

However, as time passed, it seemed they had gone too far. In the end, only a Xiezhi with a shattered Dao heart returned to Huaguo with a mutilated human corpse.

After burying that person, the Xiezhi, whose strength had grown to Saint Spirit Rank, sealed itself and transformed into the stone statue at the entrance of the Third Academy.

After reading the entire post, Xu Yan rubbed his head, somewhat confused as to why he suddenly decided to read something like this.

He quickly closed the forum and took out the freshman handbook Zhao Xuan had given him to read.

Unlike regular universities where each major has fixed courses, the Third Academy gives students greater freedom.

Students can freely choose the courses they want to take. As long as you want to learn, the academy will provide you with corresponding assistance, even if it means opening a single course just for one person.

At the beginning of each semester, the school will set semester tasks based on the students' situations and reward or punish them according to their completion.

As long as you can meet the school's conditions before the end of the semester, even if it's just the lowest-tier conditions, then even if you don't choose any courses and do nothing but stay in your dormitory for a year, the school will not interfere with your behavior.

Conversely, if you fail to meet the school's requirements, the first time your benefits will be reduced, the second time you won't receive additional resources or an extension for graduation, and the third time will result in direct expulsion.

How far one can go depends entirely on the student's free will. The school only provides teaching and resources and does not interfere excessively.