Chapter Fourteen: The Sage

Why did you choose to do this?

Liu Ru asked the question.

It was something she had been pondering for a long time.

“How do you mean?” Su Ziye countered.

“Like this. I know the whole affair began with Carot’s promise of a million gold clovers. If you accepted that promise, then you would have to devote a great deal of effort to it. But to me, there are surely more important things you should be doing.”

She did not say what those more important things were, but some things need not be spoken aloud.

Now that Su Ziye was in Ye Ye Academy, he could indeed shut out almost every attack and injury aimed at him, leaving him free to spend his time on things he wished to do.

But whatever the case, should he not be focusing on improving himself faster and higher, gathering strength?

Was that not what Su Ziye ought to be doing?

Instead of tinkering with these sugary drinks.

And from the looks of it now, Su Ziye truly intended to make it big.

“In truth, this is the more important thing,” Su Ziye said with a smile.

“This?” Liu Ru clearly could not understand.

“Do you know why I wanted to come to Ye Ye Academy?” Su Ziye asked, looking at her.

Liu Ru shook her head.

Su Ziye had many reasons for coming here, but the girl still did not know why he had wanted to come.

Wanted to come, rather than had to come.

“Because this is the greatest experiment ever undertaken by that saint,” Su Ziye said calmly. “He wanted to see, through it, where the future of humanity truly lies. Even now, though he is already dead, that experiment continues.”

“Experiment?” Liu Ru found the word hard to grasp.

“Because the very founding of Ye Ye Academy was itself an experiment,” Su Ziye explained, looking at her. “The academy recruits the most outstanding talents from across the world, trains them under the best conditions, teaches every kind of knowledge they may need or may never need, and removes for them every possible external pressure. Because that saint and the disciples he left behind are maintaining this system, no one knows when the experiment will finally end. But until it does, it will keep on going.”

“I don’t really understand,” Liu Ru said, looking at Su Ziye.

The young man smiled. “Now that you’re already one of the students, how do you feel?”

“Very good,” Liu Ru replied.

“In what way?” Su Ziye asked.

“There is almost no pressure at all. As for food, clothing, housing, and transportation, the academy provides the best of everything. Maybe not the absolute finest, but certainly the best. There is little in the way of competition among the students here; everyone is very friendly. One’s status and class from outside can hardly be brought in at all. The academy’s order is truly maintained by the Student Self-Governance Council, the Burial Snow Society, and the Crimson Heart Dojo. That is something utterly unimaginable before coming here. Clearly the academy has so many senior and powerful professors and teachers, yet they scarcely take part in any of the actual administrative work. Everything is left to the students, who run it in perfect order.”

As she spoke, Liu Ru almost burst into a flood of words.

Yes, the academy’s atmosphere was wonderfully enchanting. Looking back on such a utopia, it almost seemed unreal.

“But have you ever thought that this kind of life could be extended to the whole world?” Su Ziye asked.

“How could that be possible?” Liu Ru blurted out at once.

Yes, how could it be possible? Just as Su Ziye said, the reason the academy could provide such a life was that it had been founded by one of the greatest saints in human history, and surrounding it was an entire city, Ye Ye City, supplying the funds needed for the academy’s operation. On top of that, there was a host of top-tier experts led by the current headmaster, all protecting it from behind the scenes, which made the present situation possible.

In other words, even Saint Moonlon could only establish a single academy that existed by virtue of Ye Ye City. So who could possibly extend it to the whole world?

“But what if that was exactly what the saint intended?” Su Ziye said with a faint smile.

“What the saint intended?” Liu Ru murmured.

At that moment, one could almost feel the echo of the saying, Since it is not a fish, how do you know its joy?

Yet for some reason, when Su Ziye said those words, Liu Ru had the feeling that Saint Moonlon may truly have had such an intention.

“Do you know the life of Saint Moonlon?” Su Ziye asked.

Liu Ru thought for a moment, then finally shook her head.

Perhaps Ye Ta could yield records about Saint Moonlon, but after thinking it over, Liu Ru realized she had never really come into contact with, nor learned much about, the saint who had changed the destinies of countless people.

“Among humankind today, three saints have been born. One of them I have already told you about: he was the first saint, my ancestor. Nowadays most people call him the Hero. Of course, he is still alive in this world, though he no longer has any real connection with most people.”

“As for the second saint, he was the one who founded Ye Ye Academy. His name was Moonlon. He was an ordinary human born in Ye Ye City. Compared with the other two saints, his origins were the most humble, and his talent was not considered top-tier.”

At this point, Su Ziye could not help but smile. “Of course, when I say humble and ordinary, one is in comparison with the Hero, and the other is in comparison with the third saint.”

“Anyway, he was born, he grew up, and he was a very good person. Though all three saints possessed exceedingly noble qualities, if one had to say who was the most compassionate and benevolent, without question it would be Moonlon.”

“After coming of age, he chose to travel across this land. At that time, the Stru Empire had just fallen, and the balance of power in the world had left a vast vacuum. Countless lesser factions were locked in savage struggle with one another, and the ones who suffered were the common people living on this earth.”

“Wherever he went, there were innumerable humans in misery. He wished to save them, but with his power alone, that was destined to remain a distant dream. And thus he also began the path of seeking greater strength.”

“Exactly how he became a saint, I do not know. But in any case, sixty years later, the already white-haired Saint Moonlon finally took that last step. Then he returned to Ye Ye City and declared the entire city to be his own territory.”

“Of course, this provoked a great deal of dissatisfaction and resistance, but no one could understand how powerful Moonlon had become by then.”

“In the end, all who resisted were overawed by his strength and chose either submission or destruction.”

“And after that, Saint Moonlon carried out the Ten Heavenly Punishments, which remain deeply controversial to this day.”

“The Ten Heavenly Punishments?” Liu Ru had never heard the name.

Su Ziye smiled. “At that time, on this land of the Lan Ye Empire, there were countless city-states, large and small. They had once bowed beneath the iron hooves of the Stru Empire, but after Stru collapsed, these city-states and nations began endless warfare and slaughter against one another.”

“No one knew how long that chaos would last. In any case, war spread across this land.”

“And when Moonlon returned to Ye Ye City, the very first order he issued was this: warfare was forbidden here.”

“Those who violated it would suffer heavenly punishment.”