Book 1: Chapter 20: That World, This World
Book 1: Chapter 20: That World, This World
The travel-worn students of other departments also finally arrived.
Before that, all of the Self Defense Department students already had another big meal.
At the very end of the ranks, a hobbling Meng Bai appeared in Lin Xi’s line of sight. “Lin Xi!” As soon as he saw Lin Xi who was standing together with the other Self Defense Department new students, this little fatty whose face clearly became a ring thinner was already about to cry.
Wow!
However, as soon as he heard that he could eat what he wanted in this courtyard, in just the blink of an eye, Meng Bai appeared at the very front of the pack.
Lin Xi saw Zhang Ping and Xiang Lin at the middle of the ranks, both of them looking famished. When the two saw Lin Xi, they also immediately nodded their heads in his direction. Lin Xi’s eyes then landed on Gao Yanan’s body.
This young lady who made his heart rate speed up a bit already removed her cloak, her face also seemingly a bit slimmer. Then, she picked a few things in an extremely natural manner, and then she rubbed her own legs while slowly eating. It seemed like these few days of trekking weren’t all that pleasant for her either.
“When did guys get here?”
“What did you guys eat these past few days?” When they were more or less full, those like Meng Bai and Lin Xi whose relationships were rather good naturally began to quietly interact.
“We already got here yesterday… those large yellow antelopes and elks.”
“You guys actually ate that well?”
“What? Then was it that bad for you all? What did you guys eat?”
“We ate almost everything… rabbits, grassroots, snakes… even bugs!”
“Ah?” Lin Xi and a group of Self Defense Department people’s eyes immediately widened, feeling that the black-haired man was much more lovely. Turns out even though Meng Bai’s group didn’t get hurried on with their trip as much, they learned how to fill their own stomachs while traveling through the wilderness, thus using up quite a bit of time. The worst part of it all was that most of their bellies weren’t even filled.
That black-robed middle-aged professor’s theory was extremely simple: only when hungry can one clearly remember what kind of things can be eaten, and what kind of things shouldn’t even be touched.
“Aren’t these things what our Self Defense Department people ought to learn the most? Why did your Statecraft, Internal Study, Natural Arts, and Medicine Department people instead end up learning them?” Li Kaiyun couldn’t help but secretly ask Xiang Lin, Meng Bai, and Zhang Ping.
Xiang Lin said with a low voice, “Before, there was a Statecraft Department senior brother who was trapped with a border army troop in a desolate valley for half a month. In the end, it was only because that Statecraft Department senior brother learned these skills in the academy that he ended up surviving. When the various departments are undergoing trials of self tempering, there is still a chance that they might be chosen to head out to the border army…”
Dang… dang… dang…
While most of the new students were already starting to chat idly with each other in low voices, sharp and clear striking sounds rang out.
A row of more than twenty black-robed lecturers walked out in a stern but unhurried manner from a corridor, appearing before them.
“Vice Principal Xia.” All of the lecturers who walked out bowed respectfully towards the single-armed elder whose face reflected great hardships.
This single-armed elder didn’t say anything, only nodding towards these lecturers.
“Everyone, line up into two rows and follow us.”
A fifty-something, pale-faced black-robed lecturer immediately said this coldly to all of the new students. Then, all of these lecturers turned around, walking along the corridor they previously came out from.
This black-robed lecturer’s left eye was caved in, not bright, a single-eyed individual. Apart from this, there was also a long scar running down his left cheek. His appearance and tone of speaking left many of the new students extremely scared, all of them immediately lining up into two rows, following behind Vice Principal Xia, as well as the other professors and lecturers.
…
All of the new students, including Lin Xi, continuously sized up their surroundings.
This corridor’s floor was completely covered in white marble, with a relief sculpture every few dozen steps, what was carved always a green luan and some decorative patterns. Everyone noticed that the ground was extremely worn, extremely ancient.
The palace halls that towered before them all looked extremely close, but only now that they were truly moving through them, did all of the new students realize that they were actually quite far apart.
There were some that were separated by large expanses of woods, some separated by rocks and hills.
The courtyard they were at before, the location on this mountaintop, could only be considered a city gate.
After leaving this corridor, those lecturers and professors up ahead then stepped on a wooden path.
This wooden walkway passed straight through a forest, and then it actually went through the center of a giant bell tower.
This bell tower was created through rectangular yellow stones, a large bronze bell hanging from the roof. Long weeds grew from the cracks between the yellow stones.
After passing through this bell tower, the wooden path forked many times, but these lecturers and professors continued straight forward. At the end of this road was an imposing and majestic circular palace hall.
Lin Xi’s breathing suddenly became a bit difficult.
This circular hall had three layers, the topmost black, middle yellow, lowest one green, the colored glass these three colors. This was clearly in the style of Temple of Heaven[1]!
However, this circular three-layered hall was three to four times larger than the Temple of Heaven!
This temple was supported by twenty-eight golden gilded chinese cedar trees. The Green Luan Academy lecturers and professors moved aside the curtains, entering the main hall.
The ground was covered in giant blue-colored bricks. Inside the palace, every few dozen steps, there would be a row of copper crane-shaped oil lamps. These oil lamps were already lit, lighting up the architraves brilliantly, portrayed on the relief sculptures were scenes of wars. What was engraved on the eastern and western temple dome walls were the images of a qilin and a mandarin duck. The rear figure of a middle-aged uncle towered at the end of a strip of ruined city walls, and outside those city walls, were densely packed corpses and great armies, this scene making everyone feel shocked and suffocated.
The inside of the great palace was extremely spacious. Twelve bronze lotus seat lamps surrounded a dark red stele.
“This stele was originally a piece of the past Starfall City’s walls.” The black-robed, singled-eyed lecturer’s stern and cold voice rang through this great hall, making all of the new students tremble inwardly.
“Line up before this stele, receive the advice the principal has left for all of you!”
Under the stern voice, Lin Xi lined up before this stele.
This was Green Luan Academy’s most important tradition.
All of the new students saw the ‘runes’ carved on this stele. Indeed, these ‘runes’ were just too strange for them, impossible to understand. Only, the name ‘Principal Zhang’ made them feel the most devout respect and reverence.
However, the instant he saw the ‘runes’ on this stele, Lin Xi didn’t know exactly what kind of feeling his mind was experiencing, whether he ought to roar towards the sky or cry out loudly.
It was because the ‘runes’ on this stele, for him, were just simplified Chinese.
“Fellow otherworlder, you finally came, it really isn’t easy… even television sets are hard to explain, it really makes one feel helpless…”
This string of runes that left all of Green Luan Academy’s professors at a loss rushed at them with the aura of an entire world.
At this moment, he confirmed that the legendary middle-aged uncle was a traveler from the same place he came from. At this moment, he knew that he didn’t just experience an extremely long dream. Everything about him really did exist in this world. He wasn’t alone in this world.
This was a sense of intimacy that was fundamentally difficult to suppress.
Meanwhile, he was sure that this middle-aged uncle was also like himself, or else he wouldn’t have left this type of sentence on the very first line of this stele.
Lin Xi’s entire body was shaking slightly. As if there was no one around him, he stared at the characters on the stele that used to be incredibly familiar to him, continuing to read them.
“I came from Chongqing City. Before arriving in this world, I was a high school physics teacher. Where did you come from, and what did you do before coming here?”
“I came from Wuxi, a student…” Lin Xi replied inwardly.
“If you are reading the words on this stele, then I am definitely no longer in Green Luan Academy. Uh, I might be stating the obvious… however, since you can understand these words, then as a comrade from the same place, you shouldn’t mind me rambling on a bit… since you came after me, then you shouldn’t know as much about this world as me, right? However, unless you are a doctoral student of astrophysics, I still advise you not to waste energy on figuring out just what kind of place this is, because even after all these years, I still haven’t been able to figure anything out. The sun, moon, and stars are just like earth’s, but our planet doesn’t seem to have experienced a dynasty like this before… just what kind of parallel universe is this, what kind of dimension, thinking about this stuff is all meaningless. What my intention is, since you came, then you should live a bit better, live a life that is a bit more brilliant.”
“Uncle, my thoughts are just like yours…” Lin Xi quietly said to himself, as if he was having a conversation with the middle-aged uncle on the other side.
“By now, you must have also realized that this world’s people have formidable fighting strength… they call it soul force. Of course, I’ve always interpreted it as mental force or spiritual force, perhaps it might be easier for you to understand it as a supernatural power, some true qi, internal qi produced through meditation, all of this is fine… the formidable individuals really are incredible, it isn’t an exaggeration at all to say that bullets are completely useless against those who are a bit more amazing, which is why I recommend that you not vainly think that setting up a firepower army will allow you to dominate the world… honestly speaking, I’ve experimented with gunpowder before, but this world doesn’t seem to have much materials for making gunpowder, so just properly cultivate this soul force… alright, back to the main point. The most important thing is, in your head, do you have a roulette?”
Lin Xi sucked in a deep breath. This question came extremely abruptly, yet this made him feel an urge to cry.
Inside his head, when he searched with his perception, there was a green light, as if there was a shining green roulette.
“If you don’t have one, then don’t feel bad or anything, you just won’t understand what I am saying here, so just skip over it… if you do have one, have you discovered that each time you use it once, you could return to ten halts time, which is also ten minutes before? … on this matter, I actually spent quite the time studying it. As for just what kind of power was used to produce this type of ‘supernatural power’, it is too hard for me to deduce, but as for how this thing took form, I managed to surmise a possibility… it might be that our souls occupied our bodies in this world, while the soul force of our body’s soul in this world merged with the energy that caused us to transmigrate into this word, thus producing this type of thing… this type of roulette, from a physics standpoint, should also be a type of energy I reckon… moreover, right now, I can tell you extremely seriously that this roulette, can be slowly pushed…”
1. Temple of Heaven in Beijing