Yama Rising

Chapter 226: Shaking Up Academia

Zhen Daoming’s breaths grew quicker and shallower, and he wiped his mouth haphazardly as he tightened his grip around the papers with great trembling.

Naturally, nobody knew how heavily this matter had been weighing on his heart all this while.

At least, this was the case until now.

“The Mutation of Yin Spirits: Causes, Developments and Possibilities.”

“Co-authors: Instructors Su Feng and Lin Han, First Academy of Cultivators.”

“Everyone.” He took a deep breath and tossed the papers onto the center of the table. His mouth felt slightly dry, “Have you all had a chance to read this thesis?”

The entire building was built in the shape of a five-sided star. This was also how it came to be known as the Star Building. The building was densely packed with all of the most important research laboratories of the SRC. It was meant to be lunch hour right now, yet there was an excited buzz going on everywhere within the building.

“I’ve seen it. I think… the author is right!” A tall researcher flushed with excitement, “There are a plethora of things that can now be explained if we look at them from the fresh perspective he has offered. In fact, this would even give us a greater insight of the mysterious zones that had previously been classified as more dangerous than a regular hunting zone!”

Just then, the announcement system in the building suddenly went off.

Ten minutes later, and with a great scrambling of footsteps, the main conference hall of the SRC Headquarters was completely filled up.

“This must have been triggered by the thesis paper published on Cultivators Weekly, isn’t it?” A white-haired professor sat in his seat and sighed in exclamation, “Amazing… the author is most certainly a national-level expert. The immaculate flow of logic and the unparalleled choice of examples simply draws anyone in as soon as they begin to read it.”

A lady in her fifties added, “Indeed. This paper is truly inspirational. Besides… have you seen the comments below? It mentioned that Academician Yu personally attests to the contents of the paper. In other words, he’s verified the claims set out in the paper. Do you know what that means? It means that we can take this as none other than the truth!”

“Silence.” Just then, a majestic voice resounded throughout the hall. All four entrances to the conference hall slammed shut, and then three figures slowly made their way to the podium. Immediately, the entire hall was filled with soft gasps.

“Silence.” The man who stood right in the middle was the chubby Academician Song. But there wasn’t even a trace of a smile on the face of the otherwise bubbly and sprightly man. Instead, there was only a stern and somber expression on his face at this very moment, “Today, just some moments ago, we’ve come across an academic paper in Cultivators Weekly that will go down in history as one of the greatest papers ever written.”

Being the three pillars of the SRC, the three academicians naturally understood just how staggering and impactful this paper was.

This was the extent of its significance.

Meanwhile, at Pearlriver’s Astronomy Experimental Base.

Unlike the SRC, which was built upon the unending depths of resources from the Cathayan government, the Astronomy Experimental Base prided themselves instead with the maxim that less is more. As the dot hovering over Pearlriver Delta grew redder and redder, the importance of the Astronomy Experimental Base naturally grew more and more important.

“Qin Ye! Have any of you heard of this name before?” The conference room wasn’t large, and their meeting was nothing compared to the grandeur of the SRC conference. There were only ten men seated around a table within a room that was no larger than twenty-meters in length. And none of these men were young.

“I don’t know whether he’s important or not, and I don’t care about that either. Right now, the only thing I want to do is to sit face to face with him and have a good discourse about his theories and hypotheses!” Another old man flushed with excitement, “The Pearlriver Delta is undoubtedly one of the greatest victims of the supernatural upheaval in recent times! The three eastern provinces are the same as well - Westriver has detected the presence of immeasurable amounts of Yin energy. Fortunately, that’s also where Dao Ancestor Zhang’s legacy is located, so they’re not in such dire straits as we are. On the other hand, the Pearlriver Delta has seen almost a dozen incidents like the thirty-three headless bodies discovered in the Greatriver City!”

“I’ve already sent him an invitation.” The chairman appeared well-built, completely different from the typical researcher out there. Instead, he looked like he would fit right in with the cultivators from the Special Investigations Department. He crossed his hands and sighed softly, “But… Shang County’s Origin Research Center, Luo River’s Dragoncircle Research and Development Center, Eastsea Building 653, and several other renowned research institutions have also sent out their invitations to Mr Qin at approximately the same time.”

“Therefore, we absolutely have to invite him over!”

“There’s no need. The City of Salvation is a place that we can’t enter. And even if we could, we wouldn’t be able to leave. They are under close scrutiny right now - far worse than what you or I could possibly fathom.” Old Man Lei tapped the table gently as he continued, “The reason why I’ve called this meeting is in fact to inform all of you that no matter where Mr Qin decides to go, we’ll head there right away.”

With that, the meeting was adjourned, and everyone left. Only Old Man Lei remained behind, picking up the papers and slowly gleaning the contents of the publication once more.

……………………………………………………………………

Just as the academic world was roiling with raving reviews over the thesis publication, so was the First Academy of Cultivators.

“Did I get that right? Qin Ye, Lin Han and Su Feng? They’ve lessened their course schedule for this very purpose?” “That--... is awesome! A full-page publication on Cultivators Weekly?!” “Bloody hell… why does it feel like we’re living in completely different worlds? Their achievements truly put us to shame!”

“Awesome!” “Awesome x2!” “Send a red packet!” “This… is the work of the devil! What a beast!” “Holy crap… the title of outstanding instructor in the first semester is rigged, isn’t it? It has to be! It absolutely has to be!” “Here I am, slaving my ass off with lesson plans in the hope that I can catch up to you guys, and there you are dropping these nukes on us like that?!”

Perhaps none of them could truly appreciate the true implications of this paper. But their inability to appreciate the contents of what they had read didn’t necessarily mean that they were similarly unable to understand the significance of a publication on Cultivators Weekly.

Even the students from the Faculty of Combat were holding their heads up high as they strutted around the academy - Did someone deride our instructor for being too young? Come, come, come, take a look at the publication on this week’s edition of Cultivators Weekly?

This was why Qin Ye was hardly surprised as soon as he heard the announcement being made in the academy. Besides, it would be far too humiliating if a collaboration between Arthis and Gu Qing wasn’t able to produce a paper good enough for publication on Cultivators Weekly.

It’s not that I’m looking down on anyone over here. It’s just that when it comes to the understanding of Yin spirits, everyone here is as good as garbage!