Cohabitation with Sword Spirit

Chapter 543 - 44: Birds of a Feather Flock Together

May 22, 2018

After thorough calculations, Wang Jiu comprehensively clarified the strategy for the sword tournament in half a month.

The junior group will be represented by Shen Qingming in a solo attempt, challenging the three junior group competitors from Wuxiang Sword Academy in a round-robin manner.

According to the rules of the sword tournament, competitors in the junior group cannot exceed the Cloud Flipping Realm in True Essence, which is at most the level of the Cyan Cloud Great Competition. As the champion of the Cyan Cloud Great Competition, Shen Qingming has gone through more than half a year of improvement, plus specialized training by Zhao Chenlu, making victory almost certain.

The advanced group, however, will be handled by Wang Jiu himself, facing Wuxiang Sword Academy’s Celestial Sword and Broken Sword. Their strength is close to Li Fengyun before his breakthrough, and together they can even rival the current Li Fengyun, who has achieved Great Success in the Sword God Body. In theory, their arena strength far surpasses the recovering Celestial Divine Sword.

As long as they are sword cultivators using swordsmanship familiar to Wang Jiu, they are naturally restrained by the Divine Sword. Wang Jiu estimates his victory rate at over 99%.

The most troublesome is the mixed group, for this group’s battle carries the highest weight, accounting for over 60%. If the mixed group suffers a disastrous defeat, the victories of the other two groups will be futile. And it just so happens that the strength disparity in the mixed group is the largest.

In fact, the strength discrepancy in the mixed group is the most objective reflection of the disparity between the two academies.

Whether in the junior or advanced group, the presence of one or two genius cultivators could influence the outcome. For example, although Cyan Lotus Academy’s inheritance is mediocre and its system outdated, if the academy unexpectedly admits a once-in-a-millennium Sword Dao genius who comprehends the True Meaning of the Immortal Dao without any guidance, such a person could easily outmatch competitors in either group.

But the mixed group is different, with rules restricting every aspect. No single genius can surpass the combined power of a team. The strength of a team directly reflects the cultivation level of the academies behind them.

In truth, Cyan Lotus Sword Academy has never lacked a few elites. Whether it was the late Sang Yue and Sang Jing or the newly recruited cultivators, they all possess talents that surpass the Cyan Lotus system. Despite generally losing more often to Wuxiang Sword Academy in both advanced and junior groups, Cyan Lotus Sword Academy has had its moments of victory.

Only the mixed group has remained winless for decades. Although Wuxiang Sword Academy’s utilization of rules is imperfect, even an imperfect academy can crush Cyan Lotus Academy.

Now, Wang Jiu needs to bridge this gap, the difficulty of which is self-evident.

But he has found a way.

——

Cyan Lotus Academy, All Things Group.

As the research group dedicated to the study of all things in the world, the All Things Group occupies the most expansive research area within Cyan Lotus Academy: Senluo.

Senluo is a fragment of a Primordial Ruins discovered fifteen hundred years ago by the Saint Sect, a highly active cave space. It is speculated to have been a refuge created by a great power during the Jiuzhou Era, but disaster struck too suddenly for it to be used, and it was buried by the calamity. However, because of this, the refuge itself was not destroyed by war. When discovered by the exploration team of the Saint Sect, the space still retained astonishing vitality.

The Saint Sect gifted this special space to Cyan Lotus Academy as an experimental site. Over the next fifteen hundred years, the academy expanded the Senluo cultivation area to over ten times its original size, becoming an unbelievably vast space spanning over five hundred miles.

Within this space is a meticulously crafted complete ecosystem, containing almost all species from the Xiangzhou Continent. Under the meticulous calculations of the Cyan Lotus Scholars, a perfect ecological cycle was realized.

Senluo, with all its myriad of things, has always been the pride of Cyan Lotus Academy. According to the academy’s staff, as long as Senluo and all its necessities exist, even if Xiangzhou is suddenly destroyed, humanity can still recuperate and restore civilization within Senluo.

Moreover, Senluo is not just a repository of all things but also a testing ground for various biological experiments by the people of Cyan Lotus. Many high-yield crops and superior livestock now widespread in Xiangzhou originated from Senluo.

Currently, the All Things Group has received a challenging subject: cross-species reproduction research, working tirelessly towards it.

When Wang Jiu entered Senluo, he saw a dozen cultivators bustling about a spacious hall, each with a hurried expression, muttering to themselves, clearly unwilling to waste even walking time, concentrating on their thoughts at every moment.

"Breaking reproductive isolation at the microscopic level, using Type 73 fusion technique for body-soul fusion... or Type 85?"

"Seventh Chapter of the Theory of External Reproduction... why doesn’t this formula fit?"

"The integration progress of artificial puppet lifeforms..."

Wang Jiu, observing the researchers scurrying back and forth, completely ignoring the arrival of the new dean, and the high work efficiency of 98% displayed on the monitoring chart, pondered for a moment and realized he might need to slightly adjust his plan.

The workload of the All Things Group is overly saturated. The existing staff can barely complete the current work, and asking them to assist in advancing the Sword Fighting Tournament is really an unreasonable demand. In research, the worst thing is to make unreasonable demands.

Back then, Shang Lanfei, renowned as Jiuzhou’s greatest thinker, frequently complained when she was entrusted by the Myriad Immortals Alliance to oversee research work. She often received unreasonable research requests. Those high-ranking members of the Myriad Immortals Alliance, who had hardly read any books in their lives, always loved to have her invent world-shaking advancements to propel Jiuzhou’s progress within three to five years, despite limited funding.

And whenever Shang Lanfei told them not to daydream, those old folks would threaten to cut funding, leaving her no choice but to find alternative solutions.

"Although my intelligence isn’t sufficient to make earth-shattering inventions in a short time, it’s at least enough to pretend I’ve made such inventions and write papers that no one can understand or refute."

Afterward, Shang Lanfei embezzled funds to conduct research she was interested in while fabricating lengthy treatises filled with flawless words that could easily overturn the entire foundation of Jiuzhou’s Immortal Cultivation Theory and create immense wealth.

And indeed, her papers easily deceived all the elders of the Myriad Immortals Alliance. After the paper was published, awards poured in endlessly, and celebrations were lavishly organized by the Myriad Immortals Alliance leadership. At banquet tables, the elders enthusiastically discussed how to divide the enormous cake achieved under the leadership of the Myriad Immortals Alliance.

However, a few months later, when theory needed to be put into practice, the elders who had divided the cake discovered numerous difficulties, with the practical work diverging completely from the theory almost from the first step. Naturally, they angrily questioned Shang Lanfei, but she countered with a new paper, detailing the correctness of her theory and the many deficiencies in their practice. At this point, even if the elders used lymphatic thinking, they realized they had been duped, but despite racking their brains, they couldn’t find any flaws in her paper and had no choice but to swallow the bitter fruit themselves.

Wang Jiu, of course, didn’t want similar events to replay in the All Things Group. Research in the Immortal Dao follows its own objective laws, and any attempt to distort these realities with leadership will only result in an insult to someone’s intelligence—either the leaders’ or the researchers’.

Moreover, Wang Jiu had once asked Shang Lanfei a question.

"If those old folks really find a flaw in your paper, what will you do?"

Shang Lanfei laughed, "If my article can be found flawed by them, it means my intelligence advantage is only so much, and without it, I wouldn’t want to continue living, so I’d end it all."

In Wang Jiu’s view, considering the average intelligence in the Cyan Lotus All Things Group, forcing them to write perfunctory articles would definitely be seen through by him at a glance, leaving them with only one option: ending themselves.

The Cyan Lotus Academy was in need of personnel at the time, and couldn’t afford to lose talent, even if the All Things Group had the lowest average intelligence in his opinion, it was still just the lowest average at Cyan Lotus Academy, and still usable.

And just as Wang Jiu was considering how to allocate more manpower, a surprised voice suddenly came from beside him.

"Dean, you’re here?"

Turning his head, he saw a white-robed cultivator holding a large containment box with an astonished look at Wang Jiu.

Zhang Tie, born in 1970, former assistant to the Cyan Lotus Academy Dean, deputy leader of the Sword Group, was reassigned by Wang Jiu to the All Things Group as an assistant to the group leader due to intellectual reasons two days ago.

Judging by his current state of work, Zhang Tie seemed quite at ease in the new environment. Even his slightly pale face had gained some color, indicating that life in the All Things Group was quite comfortable for him.

This was exactly the effect Wang Jiu desired. The worst mistake one can make is misunderstanding their own role. With only a 5 intellect, insisting on joining a 6 intellect group, results in twice the effort for half the results, leaving one miserable. Zhang Tie’s talents were completely unsuitable for the Sword Group, so Wang Jiu unceremoniously transferred him to the All Things Group, which required a slightly lower level of intelligence, and indeed, he thrived there.

Upon seeing Zhang Tie, Wang Jiu immediately thought of the principle that "birds of a feather flock together" and asked, "Do you have any friends you get along with in the Sword Group?"

Zhang Tie, seeing Wang Jiu, felt complexity in his heart. He was driven out of the Sword Group by the new dean for low intelligence, and in a place like Cyan Lotus Academy, the label of low intelligence was worse than sexual incompetence—considering that to many destined to a solitary life at Cyan Lotus, the latter was already common. Yet, undeniably, life in the All Things Group was indeed much more pleasant.

Hearing Wang Jiu’s question, Zhang Tie quickly answered, "Yes, there are a few."

"Good, give me the list, and I’ll transfer them here to help."

Zhang Tie was stunned, feeling puzzled, but then a flash of insight hit him, and he instantly realized a great opportunity had arrived.