Chapter 32 – Martial Arts Academy
Qing'er mentioned a place that piqued Huang Ye's interest.
In this world, there are cities of various sizes. Besides the Immortal Sects, there are also martial arts sects and factions. Unlike the Immortal Sects, these martial arts sects are mostly located within mortal cities.
Huang Ye had seen such sects in martial arts novels. Even in his previous life, there were some martial arts sects like Shaolin, Wudang, Emei, and Qingcheng, but these sects were all established outside the cities.
What truly intrigued him was another place—the Martial Arts Academy.
The Martial Arts Academy was initially founded by martial artists without a sect. Due to its advanced philosophy, the academy's scale continued to expand, and its model was replicated.
Like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, they kept emerging in various cities.
Many martial artists from different sects also joined the Martial Arts Academy because the martial arts knowledge taught there was more systematic and comprehensive, and it didn't matter if you had a talent for martial arts or not.
As long as you had money, you could go there to study. Even if you weren't a genius, having studied at the Martial Arts Academy was like being gilded.
Since there was profit to be made, the City Lords of various cities naturally wouldn't miss such an opportunity. The government also invested in the Martial Arts Academy to earn money together.
The city's functional departments and some family forces also liked to select talents from the Martial Arts Academy.
Because the people there, unlike sect martial artists, were more reliable to use.
Gradually, the Martial Arts Academy became the largest force besides the City Lord.
During its development, some City Lords wanted to fully control the Martial Arts Academy.
This led to conflicts between the two sides, and slowly, the Martial Arts Academy formed a coalition-like force.
This made the Martial Arts Academies in various places more stable.
Although the story can be summarized in a few sentences, this development process took over twenty thousand years to stabilize.
Brother Xu told Qing'er that the place in the city most likely to obtain Immortal Sect techniques was the Martial Arts Academy.
Because the Martial Arts Academy also had a youth class, many wealthy families sent their children to the academy at a very young age.
In each youth class, there were also students with the aptitude for cultivating immortality who were taken away by people from the Immortal Sects.
So the Immortal Sects and the Martial Arts Academy always maintained an exchange, and there might be introductory immortal cultivation techniques there.
Huang Ye also learned that the cultivation system here was different from his previous life. The guards knew that the initial stage of cultivation was called the Initial Yang Realm, followed by the Primordial Yang Realm, but they didn't know what came after.
In the novels of his previous life, the stages mentioned were Qi Refinement, Foundation Establishment, Golden Elixir, Elemental Infant, Divine Transformation, Void Refinement, Great Ascension, and Tribulation Crossing.
Some authors also wrote about methods like Bone Refinement and Blood Refinement.
However, these stages were just imaginary and had no practical significance.
How many stages there were and how much longevity one could have, only by entering an Immortal Sect could one know, but Huang Ye wasn't concerned about these.
He wanted to know what stage he was at, what combat power he had, and how he compared to a Martial King. Only by knowing this could he decide his next step.
Immortal techniques were undoubtedly powerful, but whether they could quickly enhance his strength to compete with a Martial King who had trained for decades, he wasn't sure.
The prodigies in novels always consumed heavenly materials or spiritual pills, while he had only cultivated a Dual Cultivation technique, so there was definitely a gap.
The Martial Arts Academy was a good choice. If he could go there to study and find low-level immortal cultivation techniques, it would be a treasure.
"Qing'er, is it difficult to join the Martial Arts Academy?"
"Young Master, it's not difficult. Brother Xu said that as long as you have silver taels, you can join. If you go, the Martial Arts Academy will definitely welcome you with open arms."
"Qing'er, you misunderstood. I meant the difficulty in terms of money."
Qing'er was taken aback. This shouldn't be a problem, right?
"Young Master, you can ask the City Lord for money."
"Hehe, given the current situation, I don't want to ask him for money."
"I have over a hundred taels here. I don't know if it's enough, but you can take it all."
Huang Ye thought for a moment. It seemed he needed to recover quickly so he could go to the academy.
The matter of avenging the former host could wait. If he had the ability, he would do it; if not, there was no point in worrying about it.
Although he heard that not avenging the original host might affect his mental state for cultivation, he hadn't noticed any impact yet, and there was no sign of the original host's memories returning.
If he could never recover them, even better, then he wouldn't have to worry about the original host's matters.
"The matter of going to the academy can wait. I need to speed up my recovery. Only by returning to normal can I go to the academy."
The next morning, outsiders saw that Huang Ye was already able to walk with the help of one person, and he walked more smoothly.
Two days later, Huang Ye no longer needed assistance to walk, although he walked a bit slowly and his body wobbled a little.
A week later, Huang Ye could finally walk normally.
The news of his rapid recovery reached various forces, and few in the City Lord's mansion were happy.
The three madams, of course, were not pleased, and the siblings all looked gloomy and uneasy.
Previously, they had looked down on this fool, but now seeing him recover quickly after waking up, and learning some information from their mother, they were naturally not happy.
Because what he was fighting for wasn't the position of the family head, but most of the family's wealth.
"Master, you should think of a way. Seeing him getting better day by day, if he really demands the family assets at the coming-of-age ceremony, what will be left for our Wu family?" the First Madam said.
"It doesn't matter what is left. Since the heavens allowed him to suddenly wake up at this time, it is the will of heaven."
"If he really does that, we can only comply with his wishes, and it would also be my way of fulfilling my promise to my brother."
"But if he leaves the Wu family with the assets, your position as City Lord might not be secure."
"I will talk to him and see if he can stay. After all, I was a close friend of his father, and I raised him."
"When he was severely injured back then, I spared no effort to save his life."
"If he understands what I say, that's good, but the coming-of-age ceremony will surely attract attention unless he voluntarily acknowledges the unity of the Wu and Huang families at the ceremony."
"Tomorrow, I'll go ask him and explain the pros and cons."
"If I am not the City Lord, it will be difficult for him to protect the family business alone. I just don't know if his intelligence has fully recovered."
"I asked his maid Yue'er, and she said that boy's intelligence is also recovering quickly, but he can't remember things from his childhood."
"As long as he's not a fool, he should understand what I say. Alright, you don't need to worry about this matter, I have my own plans."
The next day, Huang Ye met his adoptive father, tall and imposing, exuding an aura of authority.
Following behind City Lord Wu were two others, whose auras were not weak either.
During his time out of the hospital, Huang Ye had seen several guards, and their auras were much weaker than these two.
These two should be two of the three Martial Kings, but both were middle-aged, not the old man he saw that night.
Huang Ye didn't know if this City Lord could detect his aura, and he had no way to conceal it.
He could only disperse all his aura, pressing the Spiritual Energy of heaven and earth he had cultivated during this time firmly into his Dantian, as did Qing'er and Yue'er.
Judging by the City Lord's expression, it seemed he hadn't noticed anything unusual about him.
Huang Ye could only consider himself lucky. Perhaps because his cultivation system was different from martial arts, he hadn't been discovered.
At least when Qing'er went to the guards to gather information, she used this method, and the guards hadn't detected her cultivator's aura.