Chapter 406 The Test Arrives

Birds chirped on the old leafy trees outside as Lin Xun’s clear and calm voice echoed in classroom 9C.

In the classroom, the students attentively listened in their seats, occasionally displaying thoughtful, surprised, joyful, and doubtful expressions.

Outside the classroom, students from the other classes crowded around the windows and doors as they quietly listened with no one engaging in private conversations.

It was a serious and silent atmosphere.

Originally, the students had come due to their curiosity and Lin Xun’s fame. However, as Lin Xun began to lecture, they were gradually drawn in and soon forgot about everything else.

Instructors would occasionally pass by and be surprised by this scene. Unable to resist, they would also approach to listen, and thoughtful expressions soon emerged on their faces.

The teaching material was for initiate rune masters and wasn’t anything complicated. However, his teaching method was extremely unique.

There was none of the usual lengthy theoretical lecture, instructional tutorial on rune writing, or emphasizing the key points to look out for during rune writing.

Instead, he used various examples to elaborate on the usage of runes while also offering different perspectives such as from tool crafting or setting up an array.

The most interesting part was that these examples were unique and completely different from the common knowledge known by the instructors!

This was why they listened with great interest and found it an incredibly eye-opening experience.

It was honestly difficult to imagine how Lin Xun could possess such profound and unique knowledge at his young age. It felt as if he had opened a completely new chapter for them.

Some of the examples he brought up were especially refreshing, and even the instructors had never heard of them before, making them appear all the more novel.

For instance, one of the commonly used inks to draw the Blue Steam True Yang Rune required more than a hundred types of ingredients to be made.

However, Lin Xun suggested that using Drunk Fish Grass Sap as a primer would reduce the needed ingredients to only a few dozen and increase the quality of the ink.

Due to the Drunk Fish Grass Sap’s low value, none of the instructors had ever considered that it could be used in such a manner!

It was like opening a new door, and it made them itch to try it out right now.

The lesson ended two hours later.

Although it was over, the students and instructors both inside and outside the classroom kind of wished the lesson hadn’t ended and grew increasingly respectful toward Lin Xun.

As the saying went, there was usually truth to a person’s reputation!

……

From that day onward, Lin Xun would find a huge crowd waiting outside the classroom whenever he arrived for his lessons.

There were not only students among them but also quite a number of instructors.

Moreover, the number continued to increase day by day.

This made the class 9C students feel increasingly proud because Little Instructor Lin was their instructor!

Lin Xun was initially slightly bewildered by this development but soon grew accustomed to it.

Besides teaching, the rest of his time was used for either tempering his cultivation or polishing his martial arts.

Amidst these peaceful and fulfilling days, his intermediate Spirit Sea stage cultivation grew increasingly stronger and refined.

However, compared to the rapid growth of the past, Lin Xun felt as if he had encountered a bottleneck. Despite the aid of various cultivation pills, his cultivation remained stuck at the perfect intermediate Spirit Sea stage and was unable to break through to the advanced Spirit Sea stage.

This was known as a cultivation wall.

It was very difficult to break from purely training in a safe environment and usually required either a certain amount of luck in combination with training or the stimulation of an unforeseeable event to pierce through the final barrier and ascend to the next cultivation stage.

Although he had no breakthroughs in his cultivation, his martial arts progress was very pleasing.

For the Nine Heavenshaking Destructions Art, Lin Xun was now capable of fusing two different moves!

For example, the Mountain Smashing Destruction and Sea Splitting Destruction could be fused to become the Mountain-Smashing Sea-Splitting Destruction.

The Emptiness Destruction and Soul Shattering Destruction could be fused into the Emptiness Soul Shattering Destruction and so on.

The fusion more than doubled the Nine Heavenshaking Destructions Art’s power, which could also be further amplified through Lin Xun’s powerful cultivation!

Besides this, Lin Xun had also managed to learn the Hornless Ice Dragon Step. When used, he was able to fly in the air, whizz through the fog and clouds, and gallop across the endless space like a hornless ice dragon. Not only did it bestow astounding speed, but it also had transformation abilities that made it impossible to predict.

……

Time rapidly flew past like an arrow.

It was now a month after Lin Xun arrived at the Rune Department.

In Qinglu Academy, the affairs of the outside world seemed to become unimportant and unrelated to him.

Lin Xun had gradually grown to like this peaceful, comfortable, and fulfilling life. He felt content and happy spending each day with the energetic students.

By now, all of the Rune Department instructors and students were aware of Lin Xun’s existence while class 9C had become quite a famous spectacle in the Rune Department.

Whenever Lin Xun was teaching, numerous students and instructors would crowd at the windows to listen.

As the class became more and more popular, many students had no choice but to come earlier to book a good spot to listen to Lin Xun’s lesson.

The identities of the students and instructors also became more varied as even the instructors and students from the B and A classes began to drop by to listen in.

It must be known that the A class and B class students consisted of advanced and intermediate rune masters respectively, and their instructors were rune grandmasters.

Hence, it was rather strange for them to travel all the way to listen to Lin Xun’s lectures for initiate rune masters.

In fact, even an accomplished rune grandmaster like Shen Tuo would occasionally come to attend!

From this, it was obvious how unique and innovative Lin Xun’s lessons were. Only a handful of teachers in the entire Qinglu Academy could make these proud rune grandmasters voluntarily come to listen to their lessons.

However, many instructors grumbled that Lin Xun’s popularity had made them appear less capable.

At times, some instructors would discover that several of their students had skipped class to listen in on Lin Xun’s lesson instead. These instructors could not help but feel angry, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

Some of the rune grandmaster instructors had grown unhappy with Lin Xun, believing that he was being overly unique on purpose, and suspected him of grandstanding.

However, they were powerless to do anything because of Lin Xun’s high popularity.

Later on, Department Head Tang Gan was alerted about this matter. He was surprised when he found out and soon felt a slight headache.

Lin Xun’s unique teaching style disturbed the order in the Rune Department.

In the end, Department Head Tang Gan changed everyone’s teaching schedule such that Lin Xun’s lesson time did not overlap with any of the other instructors. As a result, the students would no longer have to skip their allocated lessons if they wished to listen in during Lin Xun’s lesson.

In addition, the department prepared a large hall as class 9C’s new classroom.

In this way, there would be ample space for the students and instructors who wished to attend Lin Xun’s lesson as well.

Shen Tuo could not help but sigh deeply at this development. Never in the history of the Rune Department had something like this happened where the Department Head had to intercede to specially change someone’s teaching schedule.

……

It was the end of the monthly teaching term.

According to the rules of the Rune Department, Lin Xun needed to bring his students to the Refinement Tower for a test.

The contents were simple: tool crafting!

Every student with initiate rune master potential would be given different materials to craft a human-grade low-tier aeth tool.

The results would be based on the quality of their work, which would also affect the number of points awarded.

As an instructor, Lin Xun’s points would depend on the performance of his students.

Of course, class 9C wasn’t the only participating class. All of the other C class students would also be taking the test together.

“As the saying goes, the best way to learn is through practical application. As rune masters, those who only know theory are jokes. Hence, we will be conducting a test in the Refinement Tower to evaluate everyone’s standards.”

In the classroom, Lin Xun looked at the students and said, “Of course, there’s no need to be overly nervous. Treat this as practice.”

He then took the lead and walked out of the classroom.

Thirty students swiftly made a noise in acknowledgment, rose to their feet, and nervously followed him to the Refinement Tower.

“The test is finally here. Heh, it’s time to see how the class 9C students will perform under Lin Xun’s tutelage.”

“Hahaha, class 9C students have always ranked at the bottom. It’s not as if Instructor Lin Xun will be taking the test this time, so I’m afraid it will be very difficult for the class 9C students to erase their previous shame.”

“Exactly, we’ve also attended Little Instructor Lin’s classes so everyone should be on equal footing. It’s impossible for them to surpass us.”

Not long after Lin Xun and his students left, the other C class students and their instructors also began heading to the Refinement Tower.

These conversations were from the other classes.

Although they showed no disrespect toward Lin Xun, his students became the target of their teasing.

Angry looks immediately appeared on Liu Hui’s, Fan Zhiqiu’s, Lin Jingyao’s, and the other students’ faces.

Just as they were about to retort, Lin Xun waved his hand to stop them. “If you disagree, use the test to prove your strength later. If you guys aren’t confident, you may choose to give up now. I will not blame anyone for doing so.”

Although Lin Xun’s tone was calm, his words ignited the students’ fighting spirit!