Starting Cultivation During a Trip-Chapter 46: Legends of East University, the Zhenwu Daoist
In the blazing July sun, everything was calm and peaceful.
Zhang Fan had been living leisurely days; with nothing serious to do, his routine was just daily cultivation of the [North and South Sect Origin], pondering the [Northern Emperor Technique], slacking off at work, and browsing posts on [Thousand-Year-Old Demon].
"Jiang Hu, if we keep being this idle, won’t our company go bankrupt? Shouldn’t we start job-hunting in advance?" Zhang Fan glanced towards Bai Buran’s office—the boss hadn’t shown up for over a week.
"Over ten million students are graduating this July and looking for jobs. Cheap and efficient labor,"
Jiang Hu didn’t even look up, just opened his phone, its home screen lined with over a dozen social apps.
"Next month then..." Zhang Fan smacked his lips.
"August is the hottest month. Who looks for jobs then? Where do you even find free air conditioning?" Jiang Hu replied flatly.
"September..."
"September’s Mid-Autumn Festival, October’s National Day—you get holiday gifts and actual time off..."
"Then..."
"November and December are the slowest season all year round, and it’s cold too. Are you sure that’s when you want to job-hunt?"
"..."
"Then it’s Spring Festival. Do you even have money set aside for New Year?" Jiang Hu put down his phone and fixed Zhang Fan with a serious gaze.
"Well...I was just talking, really, I love this company," Zhang Fan replied with an awkward laugh.
In the excruciatingly idle July, Zhang Fan hadn’t gotten nothing done. Besides his ever-progressing Daoist studies, he’d been running into his upperclasswoman Wang Tiantian daily during lunch.
After a few encounters, the two of them got pretty close.
Only then did Zhang Fan realize Wang Tiantian really worked at the [Skinny Pig] run by He Fei.
"Junior, did you really study in A1 before?"
On this midday, the two of them were eating at [Old Wang’s Chopped Pepper Fish], and Wang Tiantian couldn’t help asking about what Zhang Fan had said the other day.
"Well..." Zhang Fan gave an awkward laugh.
East University’s A District No.1 Teaching Building was famous—even notorious—throughout University City, but the reputation was a bit unsettling; even many upperclass students spoke of it with dread.
Even inside East University itself, apart from classes held during the day, no one ever set foot in the building otherwise. In the height of summer, forget air conditioning, even fans weren’t turned on. People sitting inside would just feel chills racing up their spines, like someone was blowing icy air right at the back of their necks.
Some said that building wasn’t clean, the Yin Qi was too dense, and that usually after 4pm you shouldn’t be inside at all.
Zhang Fan had once heard a senior say that a female student from their department had a boyfriend visiting from out of town over a weekend. After missing his train when he was leaving, he returned to campus too late, saw lights on in the building, and figured they could spend the night inside.
That night, while the girl was chatting with her boyfriend, her boyfriend even praised East University students, saying they were so dedicated, staying up late studying in the building.
At that, the girl totally freaked out, because she knew that the A1 Teaching Building was locked up at 5pm every day—there was no way students could be studying inside at that hour.
She immediately called to make sure, but nobody picked up. The whole night, her boyfriend never sent another message.
The next morning she rushed to the A1 study room, but of course didn’t find anyone. His phone just went straight to a dead line.
In the end, they reported it to the police and treated it as a missing person case.
Her boyfriend vanished off the face of the earth—never found again. Later, the girl grew dazed, started hallucinating, and soon dropped out. As for her dorm mates, all of them went straight to post-grad.
Back then, Zhang Fan had just enrolled, and rumors about it were running wild, with all sorts of versions flying around. The school even stepped in to try to hush it up.
Some said the girl already had mental issues and basically imagined lots of things, like those chats with her boyfriend that supposedly happened that night—it turned out there were no such messages in her chat log at all.
Maybe her boyfriend’s disappearance was too much for her and she made it all up.
Others said there was a secret study room in A1 that filled up with people at midnight, including her missing boyfriend.
"I ran into this right when I started my studies. Like hell I’d go there—last time I was just joking," Zhang Fan said with a grin.
East University had no shortage of horror stories. Across University City, people said the place was haunted. In fact so many tales cropped up that it was impossible to tell truth from fiction, actually making East University’s reputation more and more creepy.
"I know the story you’re talking about..." said Wang Tiantian in a hushed voice, picking out the fish eye from the chopped pepper fish head.
"You do?"
"Mm, that girl was my classmate...well, actually, she was my roommate," Wang Tiantian said.
"Huh?" Zhang Fan stared, then couldn’t help gossiping, "I heard your entire dorm all got straight into grad school. Is that true?"
"About that... heehee..." Wang Tiantian smiled sweetly. "Let me tell you something you probably don’t know."
"What?"
"Back then, the school...approached a Daoist master privately," Wang Tiantian said, tone suddenly serious.
"Wait, what..."
Zhang Fan pursed his lips. Even though he’d stepped into the Cultivation Realm and knew the world had its share of supernatural weirdness, in the eyes of regular folks, schools were for nurturing minds and spreading science and reason—dabbling with this kind of ’feudal superstition’ was borderline scandalous.
The main thing was, once rumors got out, the school’s reputation would really tank. Public opinion would tear them apart.
"It was all hush-hush. I heard it was our department head’s friend..." said Wang Tiantian.
"Our department head spent some time on a Meditation Class at one of the famed Taoist mountains in their youth. Knows quite a few Daoist priests."
"Meditation Class?!" Zhang Fan’s expression turned weird.
He knew this program all too well—promo price 5,888 yuan. Back when it was recommended to him, it was by Zhenwu Mountain Sect Leader Chu Chaoran, a Living Zhenren today...
If that ever got out, bragging rights for generations right there.
"I heard that Daoist master was the real deal. Our department head went through a ton of trouble to invite him over..."
"A Maoshan Daoist?" Zhang Fan blurted out.
In Jiangnan Province, the most famous Daoist priests were from Maoshan.
"Nope..." Wang Tiantian shook her head. "That master said he was from Zhenwu Mountain, in North of the River’s Zhenwu Mountain..."
"Huh?!"
Zhang Fan hadn’t expected that. If it really was a Daoist from Zhenwu Mountain, then they’d actually be part of the same lineage.
In reality, the ten great Daoist Sects’ sacred mountains were like Double First-Class universities in the Cultivation Realm. Not only great for employment prospects, but wherever you went, you were a notch above so-called ’wild’ Daoists.
"What was the Daoist’s name?" Zhang Fan asked offhand. Maybe he even knew him.
"His name was kind of unique—his last name was Bai..."
"Bai Buran!"
"The boss?!" Zhang Fan blinked, totally shocked to hear Bai Buran’s name come out of Wang Tiantian’s mouth.
