Huiyuan Academy was located in the southeast corner of Chunhui Prefecture’s capital. It was in a relatively quiet neighborhood, and spanned a large area. The buildings were of varied heights, and arranged in an orderly layout. Plum trees, orchids, bamboo, and chrysanthemums were planted everywhere on the academy grounds.

Among the teachers, there were many old scholars who had achieved excellent results in the provincial examinations, and even a couple of officials who had retired but were somewhat restless to work.

To use words from Ji Yuan’s previous life, the learning environment was beautiful and the faculty was skilled, making it worthy of being one of the few top-notch academies in the entirety of Ji Province.

Although there were many children from prominent families studying in Huiyuan Academy, is said that there are many high school children studying in Huiyuan Academy, Star Scholar¹ Yin’s son was naturally very special. The academy had been looking forward to Yin Qing’s arrival. In the last letter they had received from Star Scholar Yin, they learned that Yin Qing would be arriving in the next couple days, so the academy’s gatekeeper had been paying special attention recently.

Huiyuan Academy implemented a system of management for student accommodation. Even students who lived in Chunhui Prefecture were not allowed to live at home, they had to live at the academy. Aside from on holidays, they needed a teacher’s written approval to enter and exit the academy, which felt a bit like attending a boarding school from Ji Yuan’s previous life.

But the differences from his previous life were also obvious. Learning at the academy was actually primarily centered around self-study. Students would attend lectures together and then study on their own. Although there were exams and papers every once in a while, there were actually not many expectations related to homework. Moreover, the teachers in the academy mostly ate and lived with the students. They not only taught knowledge, but also how to behave appropriately in society. The student-teacher relationship here was far closer than in Ji Yuan’s previous life.

The doorman at Huiyuan Academy naturally possessed excellent eyesight. If someone who looked like a scholar came by during a non-holiday period these few days, it was likely to be Yin Qing.

So when he saw Ji Yuan and Yin Qing approaching, he vaguely felt that it might be the son of the top scholar. Particularly from a distance, Yin Qing had a handsome, righteous, and elegant face, and while Ji Yuan did not look like an orthodox scholar he had an extraordinary bearing.

Sure enough, when Yin Qing and Ji Yuan grew closer, Yin Qing walked to the gatehouse alone, his book pack on his back. He bowed and then spoke.

“My name is Yin Qing, from Ning’an County, Desheng Prefecture. I came to Huiyuan Academy to study!”

“Do you have a letter?”

The gatekeeper asked. Yin Qing put down his book pack and took out two letters. One was written by his father, Yin Zhaoxian, and the other was written by the current head teacher of Ning’an County’s school.

“This is a letter from my father, and one from Teacher Zhou. Please take a look.”

Yin Qing handed over the letters. One of the doormen quickly took it with both hands, saying “please wait a moment,” and hurried to the inner courtyard.

Ji Yuan sat in the corner, carefully observing Huiyuan Academy with his supernatural eyes. It was said that three third-place winners and one second-place winner in the imperial examinations had matriculated from this academy in the past 40 years since its establishment. It was indeed a place with a strong literary atmosphere.

After a while, several people who looked to be teachers of varying ages hurried out, following the gatekeeper. As soon as they reached the door, Yin Qing respectfully bowed to the teachers, greeting them as their student.

“Hello, teachers!”

“Well, well, well, Lord Yin’s soon is indeed a man of great talent and bearing!”

“Indeed, so Young Master Yin came my Huiyuan Academy to study. It seems that the Academy will have another top scholar in the future, hahaha…”

Yin Qing continued repeating “I don’t dare presume.”

As they greeted each other and chatted, the old headmaster² bowed to Ji Yuan outside the circle.

“Who might this gentleman be, Young Master Yin?”

This old scholar had rich life experience. The bun held up by the black jade hairpin did not tie up all of his hair; the long hair in the back and at the temples was a little loose, but the overall look was very natural. It was not an orthodox scholar’s appearance, but rather that of a free and unrestrained wanderer.

Ji Yuan bowed with cupped hands in return.

“My surname is Ji and my given name is Yuan. I am a neighbor of the Yin family, and a friend of Master Yin. This is Yin Qing’s first time traveling away from home, so I accompanied him here.”

“Oh, so it’s Mr. Ji. My apologies!”

Yin Zhaoxian used to teach at the county school. This was no secret throughout the whole county. However, nowadays in Ji Province, and even throughout the country as a whole, they were accustomed to calling Yin Zhaoxian “Star Scholar Yin” or “Lord Yin.” For someone to still call him “Master Yin” meant that it was a habit that was difficult to change over time.

“Mr. Ji, Young Master Yin, please come in!”

At the headmaster’s invitation, Ji Yuan and Yin Qing entered the academy together.

Bringing family members to visit the academy was one of Huiyuan Academy’s traditions. Several teachers were busy, so in the end an old teacher surnamed Chen took them on a tour.

During this period of time, some well-informed academy students came to see Yin Qing, wanting to see the legendary son of Star Scholar Yin for themselves. Fortunately, Yin Qing’s appearance did not embarrass his father’s reputation. Although not everyone judged people by their appearance, it was true that a good appearance was certainly important to an individual’s esteem.

Finally, they arrived Yin Qing’s school,³ and arranged for Yin Qing to move in. Once that was complete, Ji Yuan bid farewell to Yin Qing, but promised Yin Qing that he would return to Ning’an County after Huiyuan Academy’s holidays in two days.

As for Hu Yun, he naturally stayed at the inn with Ji Yuan.

That night, in an inn in the capital city, Ji Yuan lay on his back on the bed, eyes closed and breathing evenly, looking as if he had fallen asleep.

Hu Yun, who was lying on the ground, twitched his ears and quietly opened his eyes. He stood up on tiptoe to look at Ji Yuan. Seeing that Mr. Ji was sound asleep, he crept towards the window.

He stretched out a fox paw, grabbed the wooden bar beside the bed, then carefully opened the window.

“Squeak…”

The old wooden hinge made a slight sound as it turned, and the red fox felt his palms sweat when he heard it. He slowly turned his head to glance around, and breathed a sigh of relief. He was afraid that he would see Mr. Ji standing behind him when he turned around.⁴

Seeing that Mr. Ji was still sleeping, he hurriedly propped open the window with the wooden pole, then jumped up from the second floor room and landed lightly on the ground in the backyard of the inn. The whole process was entirely silent. His fluffy tail acted exactly the same as a squirrel’s tail.

‘Ha-hah! ’

With secret joy in his heart, he quickly ran towards the outskirts of the city.

Beside Ji Yuan’s bed, the Green Vine Sword leaning against the bed slowly floated up, but Ji Yuan, who was still lying on the bed, did not open his eyes. He just whispered softly.

“I’ve already made arrangements, let him go!”

Hearing its master’s words, the Green Vine Sword lowered itself back down, still quietly leaning against the bed.

About two more breaths passed before Ji Yuan suddenly sat up from the bed.

“Such an interesting thing, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t go see it. I have to go!”⁵

So Ji Yuan quickly put on his coat and shoes, grabbed the Green Vine Sword, and jumped out of the window.

. . .

Two nights after the boat ride to Chunhui Prefecture, Ji Yuan and Yin Qing had already agreed on a place to meet the big black carp by the river, so Yin Qing could easily find the big black carp on his future days off.

Hu Yun had already privately made an appointment to meet the black carp there at night. He sensed that, when he returned, Ji Yuan would most likely take him back to Ning’an County, so he had to take advantage of the opportunity to spend more time and chat with his new friend.

The excitement of going to see the big black carp softened the tension caused by the unfamiliar environment. Hu Yun ran all the way to the city wall and scrambled up it like a gecko, then down the other side of the wall and sprinted along the southern section of the river as he searched.

In less than a quarter of an hour, Hu Yun finally found the agreed-upon location, where several particularly sturdy willow trees stretched across the river. This was also the place where the Wei family had met the old turtle.

As soon as Hu Yun caught sight of the large willows across the river, he was overjoyed. He quickly leaped forward and landed directly onto one of the willows across the river.

He gazed out at the dark river. Hu Yun shouted a few times into the water in a low voice.

“Old Fish… Old Fish… Are you there?”

“Splash…”

The water under the willows stirred, and a large black carp floated to the surface.

“Bo…Bo…Bo…”

“Hahaha, you’re here. Today, Mr. Ji took me to a very large dim sum restaurant. It was even more magnificent than the outer-temple building in Ning’an County. The food inside was delicious. Come on, you can’t claim that I didn’t think of you, Mr. Ji didn’t allow me to go find Yin Qing, so I will give it all to you.”

Hu Yun swept his big tail in front of him and rummaged around with his claws in the long fur. He untied two small lotus leaf packets from his tail.

At this scene, Ji Yuan, who had secretly reached the riverbank and was hiding in a willow, was stunned for a moment. He knew that Hu Yun had hidden some snacks, and had turned a blind eye to it, but he didn’t expect him to have hidden so much. This was unusual, given Hu Yun’s greedy personality.

The red fox slowly unwrapped the lotus leaf package and tossed the cakes into the water. The big black carp caught them as they fell.

“Hehehe… Could you please allow me to also have a taste of these snacks?”

The water surface not far away shook in large ripples, and a slightly old voice came from the water. The big black carp instinctively swam far away and fled by the shore, but didn’t dare go too far, as Hu Yun was still by the willow tree.

“Splash…”

The old black-backed turtle emerged from the water. Because the willow tree leaned out over the river, the huge turtle’s eyes were only less than a meter away from the fox’s eyes.

‘What a huge old turtle. He’s even bigger than Lu Shan Jun…’

Hu Yun regretted not escaping immediately. He had originally been curious, but now he was a little scared.

“You want some snacks too?”

The red fox looked at the lotus leaf packages spread out along the willow branch and doubted that this was what the old turtle was talking about. They might have been his snacks alone, but he instinctively grabbed a few pastries and tossed them down.

The old turtle stretched his neck and opened his mouth to catch the snacks, which weren’t even large enough get stuck on his teeth, and chewed them for a while.

“Hmm…the taste is acceptable.”

The old turtle looked at the red fox and the big black carp about two or three feet away. They were clearly scared, but readying for a fight.

“Today the Lord Red Yaksha had something to do, so he asked me to patrol this section of the river on his behalf. I didn’t expect to meet you two. This must be fate. It’s not surprising that water creatures might like to swim here in the river, but you, a fox, actually appeared at the edge of Chunhui Prefecture. Aren’t you afraid of being captured by the underworld officials?”

“I-I have this…I’m not afraid!”

Hu Yun used his claws to smooth away the hair on his chest, revealing a Yin wood plaque.

“Oh… I just felt that your aura was quite unusual and difficult to identify. So that’s how it is. However, you can stay in Chunhui Prefecture, but this big black carp cannot stay in this section of the river.”

The Old Turtle waves his hands and feet,⁶ and the big black carp felt the surrounding water suddenly spinning around like a whirlpool, rendering it unable to move. It was then brought closer to the old turtle.

“Hey hey hey, what are you doing? Let Old Fish go. Be careful or I’ll ask Mr. Ji to deal with you!”

The old turtle smiled. It was rare to see such a good friendship between an aquatic creature and a terrestrial monster.

“Ah, it’s rare to meet a terrestrial monster. You have refined your horizontal bone and can speak clearly, so you must have some experience. Chat with me. If there is anything interesting that can amuse me, I promise to ask the Lord Yaksha and the River God to allow this big black fish to stay in this section of the river.”

The Old Turtle’s announcement was purely an effort to raise his own status, making it seem as though he was very familiar with the River God. In truth, he only dared to ask the Yaksha for help, but petitioning the Yaksha was enough for this kind of matter.

“Uh, what are you talking about?”

“Naturally, a story from on land!”

Hu Yun felt that this kind of request was not such a difficult task. The big black carp was also nearby, so he tentatively talked about some trivial matters from the mountains and Ning’an County. With the Old Turtle chiming in from time to time, the red fox grew engrossed in speaking, and couldn’t stop once he had begun chattering.

The sense of chatting with other monsters and gaining recognition was very different from chatting with Yin Qing. Moreover, the old turtle was very different from Lu Shan Jun. He seemed much gentler. The red fox grew more and more excited, and continued telling stores about his personal experiences.

Thus, he finally spoke of the injury he had gotten when he went down the mountain. However, as they talked, Hu Yun felt that something was wrong. The old turtle had not spoken for a long time, and the atmosphere seemed a little off.

When he looked down at the water surface, he saw a huge turtle’s mouth fast approaching.

“Crack-“

The old turtle bit off a large section of the willow trunk in one bite, only a foot away from the frightened fox’s head.

Hu Yun turned around stiffly like a puppet to look at the tree trunk next to him. An enormous hole had been bitten into it. If the turtle had chomped on him instead of the tree trunk…

“Hooh…haah…”

The old turtle made a terrifying sound as it chewed the wood chips, and actually swallowed them directly.

“So… So that damn fox was you…!”

T/n: heads up, I won’t be able to upload next week since I’m going apartment-hunting. See you all on March 17th!

RIP Hu Yun, your ignorance and arrogance finally caught up to you. I cannot WAIT

This entire chapter felt like a surreal mix of “The Little Mermaid” and “The Office”:

Turtle: I wanna be… where the cultivators are

HY: On land?

Turtle: y e s

1. 文 (wén): language/culture/literary, 曲 (qǔ): song, OR 文曲 (Wénqǔ): refering to Wenquxing (文曲星), a star in Chinese mythology associated with literature, wisdom, and scholarly talent, believed to influence intellectual ability and academic success. Literally deifying Yin Zhaoxian
2. Oldest teacher, not really a headmaster per se, but in terms of hierarchy functionally equivalent
3. Similar to how universities have departments
4. T/n: the man is fully pretending to sleep, it’s hilarious. I wonder how hard he has to work to resist laughing
5. T/n: LOL me all the way XD
6. T/n: does a turtle have hands…? Don’t mind me

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read