On the eve of every recruitment period, as new guides took the stage, Book Peak would welcome a surge of enthusiasm for learning ancient script.
Some guides placed great importance on it themselves, while others followed recommendations from their seniors, wishing to make ancient script their Specialized Mandatory Course.
To pass down the ancient script, Book Peak had specifically established a dedicated assessment.
They also released an overview of the assessment content in advance to provide guidance for these disciples.
Meanwhile, notices were issued throughout the peak for the entire month, directed at everyone from the Peak Master and elders down to regular disciples.
So long as they were not in secluded cultivation or at a moment of life and death, they were required to check their identity jade tokens once every morning and evening.
If any disciple came to seek advice, they had to explain it to them.
If they did not understand it themselves, they were expected to recommend an elder or disciple within the peak who was well-versed in that particular path.
When Book Peak's First Senior Sister—True Monarch Chan Shu—succeeded to the position of Book Peak's Young Peak Master, she had once stated: The mountain of books has no barriers, and the Dao of Script knows no selfishness.
During her tenure, she vowed to carry on the will of the ancestors and pass down Book Peak's precepts, allowing more Xiaoyao disciples to learn what they wished to learn and find the ancient texts they sought.
From the look of things, she had indeed achieved this.
For the once-a-decade ancient script craze, she had added a month of mandatory Q&A on top of the original assessment.
Preaching Peak in the inner sect had undergone numerous reforms across its various preaching halls, and Book Peak had participated in every single one of them.
Connecting the library to the preaching halls, as well as promptly collecting and compiling new instructional recordings, were all True Monarch Chan Shu's ideas.
Before she assumed the post, it was common for disciples to run off to the library to buy jade slips halfway through classes in the various preaching halls; how could it have been as convenient as it was now?
She had not even overlooked the handyman disciples of the External Sect.
According to Xiaoyao sect rules, handyman disciples were not permitted to set foot on the floating peaks without permission, nor did they have the qualification to enter the library.
Instead, a library branch pavilion had been established on one of the External Sect's peaks.
A portion of the free basic common knowledge and historical texts from the first and second floors of the main pavilion were selected, copied, and placed in the branch pavilion.
Furthermore, on the third floor, cultivation techniques useful to handyman disciples were made available for them to redeem using sect points.
After True Monarch Chan Shu took office, she established a Preaching Hall beside the library branch pavilion.
Every half-month, a Book Peak disciple at Qi Refining level twelve or the Foundation Establishment stage would come here to preach the Dao.
Referencing the inner sect's discussion hall, space-expansion arrays were arranged inside the hall.
It looked unremarkable from the outside, but stepping inside revealed a whole other world—a vast space capable of accommodating hundreds of thousands of people.
The preaching platform was laid out with an echo array that propagated sound, allowing whatever was spoken above to be heard clearly regardless of where one stood in the hall.
All handyman disciples could come here to listen to the preachings free of charge.
The disciples responsible for preaching could also earn sect points.
Disciples from other inner sect peaks who wished to participate in preaching could also apply to Book Peak and wait in line.
...
Such measures taken by Book Peak to spread the Dao throughout Xiaoyao were countless, too numerous to mention individually.
Gu Ningyun and her two companions had recently heard Yang Churan mention some of this. Even with just an initial understanding, they were already filled with deep admiration.
For Xiaoyao to reach where it was today, it owed much to the pioneering efforts of the patriarchs.
It was equally inseparable from successors like First Senior Sister Chanxi and Young Peak Master Chan Shu, who researched and innovated generation after generation.
The doors to the Assessment and Training Hall were grand and wide. Facing the quiet expectations of the Book Peak seniors, the newly appointed guides stepped through the entrance one after another.
Three days later, the hall doors reopened. On the notice board outside the doors, within the identity jade tokens, and on the front page of the Book Peak platform, the assessment results were simultaneously announced.
Among those who passed the assessment and obtained the teaching qualification, the three names of Gu Ningyun, Mu Chenze, and Jun Luo were prominently listed.
Aside from them, there was a fourth person—Qin Xiaosheng.
On the Book Peak platform, messages popped up rapidly under the assessment announcement.
“Four disciples passed the assessment this term. Not bad at all.”
“Didn't only Senior Sister Yang pass last term?”
“Seems so.”
“I kept saying the assessment set by the martial uncles was too difficult. How could anyone deconstruct a whole massive volume without making a single mistake?”
“Even I, someone dedicated to ancient text collation missions, couldn't pull that off.”
“Junior Brother, you are mistaken. The patriarch said, ‘A single slip in thought blemishes the cultivation technique; a single mistranscribed character topples the Dao foundation.’
“Just how important is ancient script? How could the assessment standards be lowered merely because disciples lack the ability?”
“Stop arguing. Look at the roster—don't these names look a bit familiar?”
“Hiss, three of them are disciples mentored by Senior Sister Yang, and the other seems to be that know-it-all who is well-informed and frequents Book Peak.”
“How did the other disciples fail? I recall more than a dozen guides took part in the assessment, didn't they?”
“Not everyone has the perseverance to finish reading all twenty-some jade slips on character deconstruction.”
“Indeed. While this looks like an ordinary qualification assessment, its demands on a disciple's character and temperament are actually higher than the Phantom Cloud Mirror's.”
“Judging solely by today's list, the future achievements of these four will definitely be extraordinary.”
Beneath the notice board beside the doors of the Assessment and Training Hall, things were just as lively.
However, aside from the assessment, the crowd was discussing another topic entirely.
Beneath the notice board, Qin Xiaosheng stood right at the front, holding a dozen or so jade slips in his arms.
“Step right up, don't miss out! For guides newly taking up their posts, 《66 Tricks for Raising Kids》 is a must-have!”
“Are you still anxious about raising kids? Still worried about motivating them? Here with Qin Xiaosheng, you can find all the solutions!”
“No way, right? What if a kid gets homesick and loses heart in cultivation?”
“Or what if the kids bicker, bully, or ostracize each other? Do you really have to trouble senior sisters and brothers over such trivial matters?”
“Come buy 《66 Tricks for Raising Kids》! Qin Xiaosheng has meticulously gathered sixty-six scenarios that might arise when raising kids, along with their solutions.”
“Not high-grade spirit stones, not mid-grade spirit stones—just eighty low-grade spirit stones! Only eighty low-grade spirit stones!”
The guides who had failed the assessment had been about to leave, but hearing this, they turned back. “Six-year-old new disciples really aren't easy to handle. Give me one.”
“I want one too. So many people are buying it—can you give us a discount?”
“That's right, Senior Brother Qin. You even set up a protective array on this jade slip so it can't be copied onto blank slips.”
“Junior brothers, this is a small business; I can't lower the price.”
“All right, then. I'll take two copies; one's for a friend.”
Book Peak disciples passing by the Assessment and Training Hall saw the commotion and went over to listen, only to freeze in place.
Experienced as they were, they had never expected anyone to hawk their wares in such a solemn place.
And the sales pitch was so... so enticing.
It was simply outrageous, a disgrace to decorum, like ants gnawing at one's heart... “Junior Brother, hand me one.”
She wanted to see what kind of marvelous collection this 《66 Tricks for Raising Kids》 really was!
Back in her year, they had managed just fine without such a thing, hadn't they?
Gu Ningyun and her two companions had originally been by the notice board, about to greet Qin Xiaosheng, when his sudden hawking startled them.
In their momentary daze, the bustling crowd pushed them to the outer edge.
From outside the crowd, Gu Ningyun looked out over the sea of dark heads. “After so many years, I never expected that seeing Qin Xiaosheng again would be in a scene like this.”
The last time they met had been after their return from Penglai, when Qin Xiaosheng had come to the Governing Peak plaza to sell the latest edition of 《New Disciple Xiaosheng's Remarks》.
Mu Chenze listened intently for a moment. “Why don't we go buy three copies too?”
Jun Luo sighed silently. “Let's arrange another time to get them from him. In a situation like this, how could we possibly buy any?”
Rate on N.U.
