Chapter 128 The Master Uses a Ruler to Tap the Immortal Bones! A Peerless Genius Learns to Write
The east wing had been tidied up by Old Wan until it was bright and clean.
Five sets of brand-new cypress wood tables and chairs were arranged neatly, with brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones placed on each table.
Lin Yuan wore a cyan robe and held a wooden ruler in his hand to use as a pointer. This ruler had been casually carved by him that morning from scraps of the Primordial World Tree; its surface was polished smooth, revealing a faint purple-gold grain.
“Everyone, find a seat and sit down.” Lin Yuan stood before a large black wooden board at the front and lightly tapped on it.
The five little ones lined up and obediently sat in their seats.
Zhang Xiaopang from Butcher Zhang's family sat in the first row, while Xiao Yuer and Xiao Lian sat in the middle. The peerless Dao Child with an Innate immortal bone, “Goudan,” and the destructive Ancient Demonic Fetus, “Tiezhu,” shrank into the corner of the last row with great tacit understanding.
These two peerless prodigies from a hundred thousand years ago were now sitting upright, not even daring to breathe loudly.
In this seemingly ordinary room, they felt like a small boat in a violent storm. The ink wash painting hanging on the wall faintly emitted terrifying fluctuations that suppressed the Universe, and the teacher standing on the podium was even more shrouded in an indescribable supreme mist.
“Today is the first lesson of our Fanchen Academy.”
Lin Yuan picked up a white stone pen, turned around, and wrote a large character on the black wooden board.
“Tian (Heaven).”
Lin Yuan pointed at the character and said gently, “This character is read as ‘Tian.’ The vast sky above your heads. To be a person, one must revere Heaven and Earth; this is the first step in your learning to write.”
Zhang Xiaopang bit his finger, seemingly understanding yet not quite, and nodded as he shouted loudly, “Teacher, I know! Heaven is the place where it rains and thunders!”
“Well said.” Lin Yuan smiled and praised him.
But in the last row...
Goudan and Tiezhu stared fixedly at the character ‘Tian’ on the blackboard. Their eyes were bulging out, and cold sweat was pouring down their bodies!
In the eyes of a Mortal, it was just four simple strokes.
But in the eyes of the peerless Dao Child and the Ancient Demonic Fetus, the moment Lin Yuan wrote that horizontal stroke, it was clearly a supreme sword light that split open the heavens, forcibly cleaving through the endless Chaos and void!
The diagonal strokes further transformed into the Law pillars that propped up the Myriad Realms!
That ‘Tian’ character was not text at all, but the true Origin of the Heavenly Dao!
“Terrifying! A casual stroke can establish the order of Heaven and Earth. This... what Realm of supreme truth is this!” Goudan trembled wildly in his heart. His proud Innate immortal bone felt like a fragile piece of glass before this character, liable to be crushed at any moment.
Tiezhu was so scared he grabbed his head; the destruction Origin within his body was wailing frantically. The supreme Noble Spirit emitted by that ‘Tian’ character firmly suppressed all of his malevolent aura.
“Alright, now pick up the brushes on your tables, dip them in ink, and write this ‘Tian’ character ten times on the paper,” Lin Yuan instructed.
The five little ones quickly picked up their brushes.
Zhang Xiaopang’s grip on the brush was very clumsy, like he was holding a butcher knife, as he drew crookedly on the paper.
Xiao Yuer and Xiao Lian had been by Lin Yuan’s side for a long time, so they wrote with some semblance of form.
Lin Yuan held his hands behind his back, carrying that purple-gold wooden ruler as he slowly patrolled between the desks.
“Xiaopang, hold the brush barrel straight. Don't hunch over the table to write; it will ruin your eyes.” Lin Yuan tapped on Zhang Xiaopang’s table.
“Understood, Teacher.” Zhang Xiaopang quickly sat up straight and looked at the chubby, somewhat disjointed ‘Tian’ character on his paper, smiling sheepishly.
Lin Yuan nodded and walked to the last row.
He wanted to see what the writing level was of these two peerless prodigies who had been disguised as country children and sent here by their elders.
Lin Yuan looked down, and the smile on his face instantly froze.
He saw that on Goudan’s Rice paper, there was no ‘Tian’ character written at all. Instead, it was covered in dense, profound talismans that looked like ghost scribbles. Every stroke carried a sense of distortion, and the edges of the paper were even slightly charred because they couldn't withstand the force of his brush.
This was Goudan putting forth all his strength, trying to copy that trace of Heaven-opening Dao Rhyme Lin Yuan had left on the blackboard.
He looked at Tiezhu next to him.
Tiezhu’s paper was also a mess of foul air, depicting a black vortex with bared fangs and brandished claws as if it wanted to swallow everything. He was resisting that Noble Spirit and had instinctively drawn the Destruction Demonic Patterns from within his body.
“You two, what kind of ghost scribbles are you drawing?”
Lin Yuan frowned and sternly tapped on their desk.
“I told you to write the character for Heaven, and you're here drawing talismans to catch demons? Look at Zhang Xiaopang; though his writing is ugly, at least you can tell it's a word! What you've drawn is a tangled mess!”
Lin Yuan was a bit angry. These two children looked quite smart, so why were they making trouble as soon as class started?
Hearing the teacher’s anger, Goudan and Tiezhu shuddered, and the brushes in their hands fell directly onto the table.
“Teacher, please appease your anger!” the two cried out in unison, nearly kneeling on the floor.
“Stretch out your hands.”
Lin Yuan kept a stern face and raised the purple-gold wooden ruler in his hand.
“If you don't follow the rules and don't write properly, you must be punished. One strike on the palm for each of you to help you remember.”
Goudan and Tiezhu watched that high-raised wooden ruler, their Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering.
That was a branch of the Primordial World Tree!
If this ruler struck down, let alone the Physical Bodies of two three-year-old children, even the Mahayana Stage old monsters outside would have their Divine Souls obliterated!
But they didn't dare to dodge at all. They could only despairingly stretch out their tender little hands and close their eyes.
“Pa!”
With a flick of Lin Yuan’s wrist, the wooden ruler lightly struck Goudan’s palm.
Goudan kept his eyes tightly shut, already prepared to be smashed to pieces.
However...
The expected destruction did not come.
The moment the ruler landed, a stream of Life Qi, extremely gentle yet boundlessly vast, surged from his palm into his entire body!
This power gently brushed over the Innate immortal bone in his body, instantly washing away every trace of obscurity and chill left by the hundred-thousand-year Seal!
Not only that, the Dao Rhyme contained within that one strike directly allowed his Dao Heart to reach a state of flawless perfection.
“Pa!”
Another crisp sound as the wooden ruler struck Tiezhu’s palm.
Tiezhu snapped his eyes open.
He discovered in horror that the destructive Devilish Qi within him, which was always trying to run wild and almost backfiring on him, had actually become incredibly docile under this one strike!
This wooden ruler had forcibly helped him completely tame the violent Ancient Demonic Fetus Origin into a pure power he could control at will!
This was a supreme fortune sufficient to save them a hundred thousand years of bitter cultivation!
The two peerless prodigies stared blankly at their slightly reddened palms. Their eyes instantly welled up, and large tears of excitement rolled down.
“Thank you for your teachings, Teacher! Thank you for the punishment, Teacher!”
Goudan and Tiezhu sobbed as they shouted. From their posture, it looked as if they wished they could stretch their palms out for Lin Yuan to hit them a few more times.
Lin Yuan looked at these two children crying their hearts out and sighed helplessly.
“Alright, alright, stop acting pitiful. I didn't even use any strength; how much could it hurt? Write properly next time and don't doodle anymore.”
Lin Yuan put away the wooden ruler and shook his head.
Children from the city are just so delicate, crying like this after a light tap on the palm. The fat boy from Butcher Zhang’s family is much more durable.
“Hurry up and wipe your tears, then get a new sheet of paper. If you don't finish ten pages, you won't be allowed to eat lunch.”
Lin Yuan turned around and slowly walked back to the podium.
Goudan and Tiezhu glanced at each other, both seeing the fervor and shock in each other’s eyes.
“This teacher... is using punishment to cleanse our marrow and temper our bones, completing our Dao Foundations!” Goudan roared frantically in his heart, his reverence for Lin Yuan having reached its peak.
“So great! Even the ancestor of the Demon Abyss didn't have such means to seize the fortune of Heaven and Earth!” Tiezhu was also moved to tears of gratitude.
The two little prodigies quickly wiped their tears and picked up their brushes. They no longer dared to be overambitious and try to copy the Great Dao Origin; instead, they honestly and stroke-by-stroke began writing the most ordinary ‘Tian’ character on the paper.
They had already made up their minds. Even if they were to die in this life, they would die in this academy, being the most obedient students in the teacher’s hands.