Chapter 79 - Investment
Mt. Spirit Beast College was massive: it was separated into four courtyards, namely North, South, East, and West Courtyard. Jiang Yi lived in the courtyard known as the West Courtyard. The Elite Cadets and the Prodigy Cadets lived in the East Courtyard; all the mentors lived in the North Courtyard. As for the South Courtyard, it was the chamber for the storage of equipment used to facilitate in the cultivation.
Mt. Spirit Beast College had a strict hierarchical system. Write-In Cadets and Ordinary Cadets were forbidden to enter the East and the North Courtyards; those without accumulated points could not enter the equipment chamber in the South Courtyard, too.
Write-In Cadets would be banished from the college if they did not manage to elevate their ranks within two years. Similarly for the Ordinary Cadets, their titles would be stripped off if they did not manage to elevate their ranks within two years; and they would be downgraded to Write-In Cadets.
The status of the Write-In Cadets was the lowest in the college: they had to do chores every day, and the clothes they wore and the food they ate were of the lowest grade. They did not have any mentor to teach them how to cultivate, and they could not learn any martial skill. There were no cultivation rooms for them to meditate either. The only difference between being inside and outside the college… was that they did not have to do that strenuous manual labor.
At the moment, Jiang Yi and a group of people were allocated to one of the mountains on the west side of Mt. Spirit Beast to hunt and kill demonic beasts. Everyone must hunt three demonic beasts every day, and they had to harvest all valuable parts of the carcasses for submission. Consecutive failure for three days would result in banishment from the college.
Leading the team was a young, male mentor. However, after he led the team to the foot of the mountain peak and gave some brief instructions, he proceeded to sit under one of the ancient trees and rest.
“Go on, up the mountain!”
Jiang Yi looked at the towering mountain peak and spoke a sentence to Fatty, who was beside him, before setting off on his journey towards the top of the mountain. Hunting for three demonic beasts was not considered a tough job; if he was lucky, he would be able to accomplish the mission within two to four hours.
“Why should we go?!”
Fatty twitched his mouth and looked around before spotting a stone cave. He smiled sheepishly and said, “Big Brother, there is a cave over there; come on, let’s go and take a rest over there.”
Jiang Yi frowned and stole a glance at the mentor who was meditating under the distant tree. He whispered, “Are you crazy, the mentor is just nearby; and you dare be lazy? Do you plan to not slay any demonic beasts?”
“What demonic beasts do I need to kill? I am dying from the heat under the sun.”
Fatty pulled Jiang Yi towards the cave without thinking much of it. He explained as they walked: “Relax, my men will take care of our shares in the task. As for Mentor Zhao, you do not have to worry about him; he accepted ten thousand purple gold from me. Thus, he will not care about what we are going to do out here from now on.”
Jiang Yi blinked his eyes and sighed in astonishment. “Can it be done like this?”
“Hehe! Money talks; if not, how can I get into Mt. Spirit Beast College based on my capabilities?”
Fatty took a few steps into the cave, gave a few sweeps, and nodded delightfully. “Not bad! From today onwards, we shall rest here during the time for our task. Of course, you can cultivate here, Big brother, and I will be your guardian.”
Jiang Yi looked and Qian Wanguan and asked curiously, “Qian Wanguan, you only have the capability of the fourth stage of the Cast Tripod Realm, and improving your capabilities does not seem to be the aim of you entering this college. Are you here to play?”
“What is so fun about cultivation?”
Qian Wanguan smiled with a sense of despise, pointing at the top of his head. He said, “Let me tell you—none of the elders in our Qian Clan are powerful; the most formidable of them only reached the peak stage of the Purple Mansion Realm. However, the Qian Clan can survive for more than ten thousand years, and why is it so? It is because we have the brains and contacts, and my objective for entering the college is to build up more connections. This college gathered all the elite descendants from all the clans in the Divine Martial Kingdom. If I made friends with these people—and they become the Clan Head of their clans, I will then be able to amass a huge sum of fortune.”
“So that is why…”
Jiang Yi is not very familiar with all these, but he was still perplexed and asked, “Why do you have such high regards for me? Is it because of my identity? Or is it because Zhan Wushuang owes me a favor? Tell me the truth, or I will feel uneasy.”
Qian Wanguan kept a resolute look and muttered silently before answering in a serious manner: “To be honest, at the start, I wanted to make use of you to get closer to Zhan Wushuang. Later on, it was also because of your identity, but now… I value you as a person. Although your capability is not as strong, I had a hunch that your achievement in the future will surpass my imagination. Of course… I might end up losing everything, but I would like to take the gamble.”
“En, I feel at ease now!”
Jiang Yi gave a faint smile. Since Qian Wanguan wanted to gamble on him, then he would leave out all formalities. He would not be at a disadvantage anyway. If he really became successful as what Qian Wanguan predicted, he would just return some favor to him in the future.
Seeing that Qian Wanguan had already prepared everything, Jiang Yi wasted no time. He immediately sat cross-legged and began cultivating. What he lacked the most now was time: even if his cultivation speed was very fast, he still had a long way to go in order to catch up with the elites from the same generation.
Qian Wanguan saw that Jiang Yi had begun cultivating so he went to find a limestone slab and laid on it. He looked at Jiang Yi, revealing a trace of a smile from the corner of his mouth and muttering: “Half a year ago, you were still at the first stage of the Cast Tripod Realm. Only a few months passed, and you could kill the martial artist at the first stage of the Purple Mansion Realm now. If a prodigy like you is not worthy enough for me, Qian Wanguan, to invest in, then who else in the entire college will be?”
The Qian family had always been doing business; they were never involved in any fight for power. The business that the Qian Clan loved the most was investing in a prodigy. After the prodigy rose to power, it would bring in boundless benefits for the Qian Clan. Although Qian Wanguan might be young, it seemed obvious that he had inherited the Qian Clan’s essence in doing business.
Of course, only God would know whether or not the investment on Jiang Yi was a lucrative or losing one.
Jiang Yi cultivated until noon; he was then awakened by Qian Wanguan. What awaited him was a table of dishes—four kinds of dishes with a bowl of soup—and they all looked delicious.
“Big brother, time to eat.”
Qian Wanguan smiled beamingly and passed Jiang Yi a set of utensils; Jiang Yi gave a thumbs-up in his heart as he was secretly shocked that Qian Wanguan truly had some methods up his sleeves. Having money really made things easy.
After having a sumptuous meal, Jiang Yi continued to cultivate. He still had some Earth Essence Elixir on him. He recalled that Jiang Yunhai had mentioned for him fully focus on cultivating and that he would send the elixirs over once they ran out.
Upon waiting till the sunset, Jiang Yi was once again awakened. Qian Wanguan scurried to Jiang Yi’s side and lowered his voice: “Big brother, I will head out first. Jiang Yunhai will be here soon. You two shouldn’t talk for too long as we need to return to the college soon.”
Jiang Yi nodded his head and waited outside the cave after watching Fatty leave.
“Swish!”
Not long after, a veteran holding crutches rocketed towards him with speed as fast as lightning—so fast that the students nearby merely felt that a white light flashed past.
“Grandfather!” Jiang Yi let out a comforted smile; that crippled old man could always let him feel a sense of warmth similar to that of a family member.
Jiang Yunhai smiled with a face full of benevolence. He nodded and laughed. “Young lord, why are you together with the young clan head of the Qian Clan?”
“Young Clan Head?”
Jiang Yi was shocked. He had guessed that the status of Qian Wanguan wasn’t low in the Qian Clan, but he had never expected it to be of such respectable standing. He hurriedly recounted the incident during Blood Purge. The only thing he did not reveal was the obscene part where he accidentally saw Yue Mei’er—he just could not bring himself to say it.
“Jiang Qilin? Why did you offend him? Young lord, you were too impulsive this time!”
Jiang Yunhai’s face turned serious. His eyes flickered, and he lowered his voice: “But it is a blessing in disguise. With Zhan Wushuang and Qian Wanguan around, Jiang Qilin shouldn’t be able to touch you. But if this matter caught the attention of Jiang Yiliu, it would be troublesome.”
As expected!
Jiang Yi sighed heavily with his heart and asked suddenly, “Grandfather, was my mother’s family name ‘Yi?’ ”
“Yes, how did you find out?” Jiang Yunhai answered him subconsciously, but his eyes immediately shot up brightly and asked,” Young Lord… have you already known all about it?”
After seeing Jiang Yi nod his head, Jiang Yunhai let out a long, deep sigh and laughed wryly. “I didn’t plan to tell you this matter so soon, but since you found out about it, I shall not keep it from you any further. You are indeed the son of the Western Garrison Liege Lord, Jiang Bieli. But I do not think that he is aware of your existence!”