Ye Sheng's request to teach himself made everyone present laugh at him.
Hundreds of students stared at Ye Sheng with disdain in their eyes. One of them even shouted, "If you can learn everything by yourself, why did you come to Jixia Academy? Why didn't you just stay home and study?"
After that comment, everyone burst out laughing. They clearly saw Ye Sheng as a joke.
Elder Hanshan asked him once again, "Are you still going to insist on teaching yourself?"
Ye Sheng ignored the mockery and insisted on his original decision. He replied, "I would like to learn from all faculties and not only from one."
Elder Hanshan sighed and said, "Jixia Academy values the choices made by students. Since you've made such a choice, you will not be able to choose a teacher. After all, nobody is willing to teach a disciple if he has to work with someone else."
Ye Sheng nodded and said, "I understand. As long as I'm allowed to sit in on classes, that's good enough for me."
Elder Hanshan nodded and said, "You can leave now. The other students have to choose their teachers. There are a number of empty houses in the students' zone. You should pick one to stay in. In the future, you will have to rely on yourself to learn."
"Thank you so much, Dean Han, I will take my leave now," said Ye Sheng in a pleased voice. He ignored the stares from the other students and left the plaza alone.
Elder Hanshan said to the rest of them, "All of you can come with me to pick a teacher."
...
Jixia Academy was split into several areas. One area was for teachers to live in, one was for new students, and one was for senior students. The demarcations were very clear.
Ye Sheng soon found the new students' area, and, after looking around carefully, he found a house, used the keys that were hanging on the door, and went in.
This particular house was under a huge mulberry tree. There were no other houses right around this house, and it was extremely quiet. Behind the house, a large river flowed down the side of a mountain and fed into the huge lake that was in front of Jixia Academy.
Ye Sheng walked into the house and found that it was fully furnished. Everything was new, since this place was for new students. He nodded satisfactorily, quickly removed his shoes, lay down on the bed, and shut his eyes.
Ye Sheng didn't intend to sleep. He was going to inspect his dantian, Earth. He wanted to observe everything the Earthlings were doing as if he were a god.
"When I crossed the lake earlier, I heard the Voice of the Sage and sent it to the people on Earth. It seems someone has managed to translate it by some technique." Ye Sheng looked on with great anticipation.
There was a formation within the lake, and generations of seniors from Jixia Academy had spent time there to comprehend and cultivate philosophies. Everything they had learned was locked into the formation. One could listen to the Voice of the Sage via the lake and comprehend ancient techniques.
The sounds that Ye Sheng had been able to hear had been very weak and difficult to catch, but the geniuses on Earth were able to understand them.
Some of them had been able to comprehend it immediately, and some of them had been clever enough to record what they heard, and then seek to understand it after chewing on it for a long time.
Ye Sheng gave a quick check and immediately discovered that what these people had heard were some ancient Daoist incantations.
Ten Daoist incantations!
Sword Control! Call the Wind! Upset the Sea! Summon the Rain! Move Mountains! Pardon the Spirit! Ride the Clouds! Golden Steel! Disarm! Wandering Soul!
These ten Daoist incantations were ancient spells that only the most brilliant Daoists could master. For example, once one reached the Beginner stage of Sword Control!, a flying sword could kill an enemy standing 100 miles away. This was an otherworldly sort of power.
Call the Wind! was a way of controlling strong gusts of wind, so that you could use wind to attack your opponents. It carried tremendous impact.
Ye Sheng collected all ten Daoist incantations. He was utterly shocked. He didn't expect that the Voice of the Sage would be hiding so many Daoist incantations.
Although the names of these incantations sounded fairly ordinary, they were all extremely powerful moves.
After he had collected all ten Daoist incantations, Ye Sheng passed them back to Earth again.
KEBOOM!
A few thousand large rocks fell from the sky and landed in various parts of Earth. The ten Daoist incantations had been carved on these rocks so that the Earthlings could learn them.
Once ten of them reached the Learnt stage of these incantations, Ye Sheng would automatically reach the same stage. It was such a convenient thing to have. If 100 of them reached the Learnt stage, Ye Sheng would automatically reach the Beginner stage.
This was the main reason why Ye Sheng wasn't willing to just learn from one faculty. This dantian of his was such an amazing cheat code, and he was in Jixia Academy, a place with countless ancient texts and endless techniques available. If he didn't make full use of his advantages, then wasn't he wasting a golden opportunity?
"I'm going to use all the martial arts knowledge of Jixia Academy to educate the Earth. Soon, everyone on Earth will start cultivating. That way, I will grow very quickly." Ye Sheng had already decided on what he was going to do next.
The ten Daoist incantations that he had passed on to his dantian continued to create a sensation on Earth. Everyone was going mad with joy as they started their process of comprehending all these. Those who were already Daoists were the happiest to receive these incantations.
Daoists studied all sorts of incantations from a young age, but they simply hadn't been able to advance their study before this. But now that Ye Sheng had given them a clear path to follow, all these Daoists immediately started working hard on their cultivation.
After just one day, some of them had reached the Learnt stage for one of the incantations, and the total number of people who had reached this stage exceeded ten people.
This incantation was Call the Wind!
That evening, Ye Sheng opened his eyes and felt like the soul in his mind was beginning to feel hot. Ten people on Earth had reached the Learnt stage of Call the Wind!, so Ye Sheng had automatically reached the Learnt stage of Call the Wind! also. Daoist incantations were different from ordinary martial arts techniques. They moved the energy around within one's own psyche, and that was why Ye Sheng felt as if his head was rising in temperature.
The energy in his psyche had also started to expand, and it soon reached a particular amount. Then Ye Sheng quietly declared, "Call the Wind!"
A gentle breeze blew past his forehead and made his hair fly all around.
"Not bad. It's pretty weak right now, but I've also just started. When the energy in my psyche becomes stable, then I'm sure the power of Call the Wind! will increase by a lot." Ye Sheng nodded in satisfaction.
The amount of strength his psyche had currently was equivalent to Acquired Level First Stage, but the Daoists would say he was at Psyche Nourishing Level First Stage.
Daoist levels were split into Psyche Nourishing Level and Psyche Leaving Level. These were equivalent to Acquired Level and Inborn Level.
Psyche Nourishing Level First Stage was equivalent to Acquired Level First Stage. Ye Sheng had just started cultivating Daoism, so his level in it was way behind his martial arts level.
But this was still enough to give Ye Sheng a pleasant surprise.
"I made the right choice after all. Cultivating Daoism and martial arts at the same time will give me twice the amount of strength, and the power I will have will be extraordinary too." Ye Sheng smiled happily to himself.
Martial arts and Daoism were two different schools. Daoism focused on cultivating the psyche, while martial arts focused on cultivating the physical body. They had their own special characteristics and their own advantages. Ye Sheng was now combining the best of both worlds, so his future was incredibly bright.
"Coming to Jixia Academy was a good choice. I have to make full use of my time and mature as quickly as possible." Ye Sheng was filled with great confidence.
It was now evening, and a group of new students had come round the area to pick their houses. They had spent the entire afternoon choosing teachers, and pretty much everyone had settled on one. So they were all filled with a joyous energy and started to pick houses according to their fancies.
Fang Conglong had returned too. His face was filled with joy as he came looking for Ye Sheng to share his good news with him. "Brother Ye, this afternoon, I have become a disciple of the great Daoist priest of Dragon Tiger Mountain, Priest Qingxu."
"Congratulations! Dragon Tiger Mountain is a major sect in Daoism," said Ye Sheng in surprise. Even though he hadn't been very well exposed to many things, even he had heard of this name.
Fang Conglong laughed happily and replied, "Priest Qingxu says that I have a lot of potential for cultivating in Daoism, so even though I'm already 16, my foundations are very solid and I can pick up Daoism from scratch quite quickly."
"What about your martial arts?" asked Ye Sheng curiously.
"Brother Ye, one has to either be a fish or the paws of a bear. Since I've already decided on cultivating in Daoism, then I have to put aside my martial arts. There's a limit to how much energy each person has, and we shouldn't be greedy. I'd advise you to focus on one faculty first, regardless of whether it's martial arts or Daoism," Fang Conglong said.
Ye Sheng nodded calmly and said, "I hear you."
Fang Conglong knew from Ye Sheng's reaction that he wasn't going to be able to persuade him, so he decided against saying anything more.
Just when he was about to take his leave, someone shouted from outside the house, "I've got my eye on this house. Move out and let me have it."