Chapter 170
Right now, it was just the beginning of autumn. In the season that represented harvesting, the Celestial Fortress Academy was also full of vitality. Baiyi led the two girls and walked among the students whose youth were radiating out overwhelmingly in the academy. At once, he could not help but feel like he himself had gotten younger from being among the students.
Unfortunately, with his age, even if several hundred years were slashed off from his actual age, it still would not make much of a difference.
After watching Mia and Tisdale walked into the special classroom marked with a Golden Rose emblem, Baiyi went back to the Seniors Park alone and he could see that many of the retirees were already there. When he walked up to them, he was immediately greeted with a pile of small gifts. A variety of plants that were in small animal pots; homemade smoked sausages by one of the kid’s mother; some small souvenirs and local delicacies. All of it was given by the group of retiree-slash-Soul Armatures to Baiyi.
Baiyi was the only one who went there empty-handed... In order to avoid the awkwardness, he reopened the small cabin by the park and started his long-awaited repairing shop.
However, he had decided not to open the blacksmith shop for long. He only wanted to help repair the retirees’ bodies and deal with the sore joints that were caused by vigorous exercises during the holiday. Fortunately, the retirees’ holiday seemed to be more tranquil than his therefore there was nothing much that he needed to fix... Well, except for Mr. Owl. Somehow, for some unknown reason, Mr. Owl’s neck was now 180 degree backward. Are you trying to become an owl again?
“Er... My little girl insisted on going for some adventure in a cave so... in the end, I became like this again,” Mr. Owl explained.
Baiyi understood that most Soul Armatures treated their practitioners as their own child and it was actually very common. But how did going for an adventure in a cave turned your neck this way?
“... Well, the cave was a little too narrow and I could not get my body in. Yet, my girl refused to give up and in the end, I had no choice but to take my head off so that I could go along with her. And when we got back and put my head back together, somehow it became like this...” He continued to explain.
The statement knocked Baiyi’s breath off. He thought that he had been spoiling Mia too much but there was another one who was way worse than him. You might as well take your head off and let her play football with it!
“I can’t help it! When I died that year, my daughter was exactly the same age as Cynthia right now. Everytime I see her, I can’t control the feelings that I have for her!” Mr. Owl confessed.
Stop explaining! You perverted oni chichi! Baiyi retorted inwardly and affixed the label ‘Hentai Owl’ on him.
There was not much work that Baiyi needed to do. After he speedily examined his retirees’ friends, he closed the workshop door and tried to blend in with their conversation. There was nothing important about the content. As usual, the topic revolved around their kids or the rumors going around in the city.
Much to his interest, a few people brought up the word ‘Godsfall’ and from their conversation, Baiyi learnt that the Church had started its operation. However, in order to not cause any panic among the people, the Church chose a gentle and low-key approach so as to not upset the peace of the people’s lives. They only put up some notices publicizing the cult and worked together with the city guards to carry out their operation secretly. It looked like it must be the Church who was leading the affair and not the judicial paladin.
Baiyi was a little annoyed by the gentle approach of the Church. He really could not fathom the thinking of the Church leaders at all. It was already clear that the hidden cult was a big-scale organization that was powerful and influential but they actually chose to use such superficial mean in order to not ruffle their feathers? Yes, it was true that the approach would have the least impact on the order and serenity of the society but wasn’t it a little slow?
In Baiyi’s opinions, the merciless judicial paladin was the most suitable when it came to the matter of cracking down on cults. Although he was at an antagonistic position with the Church, that was something that he had to admit.
Still, the battle between a Church and a cult was not his business as long as the Church avenged his enmity for him. Even though the Church’s operation was a little slow, it did not mean that they did not have any underground movement at the moment. No matter what Godsfall’s plan was, Baiyi doubted that they would be able to continue it under the constant pressure from the Church. Needless to say, there was absolutely nothing that he needed to worry about.
Now that they had the ‘Godsfall’ as their topic, there was finally some substantive conversation among the retirees. At once, they started to express their opinions and some had the same idea with Baiyi when it came to the Church’s approach to dealing with the cult. However, as they did not know much about the Church’s progress, they just chatted a while before the conversation started to move off-track to ‘How many cults I’ve wiped out during my golden period’.
Now that the conversation had started to turn meaningless again, Baiyi pulled out something from his storage pouch... it was a set of Chinese chess. The set of chess was specially prepared for his retired friends. Everyday, they would sit at the Seniors Park killing time by doing nothing and that kind of life was just too boring.
The rules of Chinese chess were actually very simple. After a brief explanation, Mr. Sorry requested to be the first to play the game with Baiyi. Not long after, because it was his first time playing the game, his army was completely exterminated very quickly by Baiyi.
The others retirees slowly showed their interests. One by one, they took turn to battle it out with Baiyi but it did not take long before all of them were beaten into pulp, too. For a moment, Baiyi felt like he was the Chess Master of the world.
Soon after, he stood up and gave his seat to the other enthusiastic retirees. After all, bullying other people in chess was not his cup of tea. He actually did not have much interest in playing chess just like the other Voidwalkers. Not only were they bad at it, they kept changing the rules here and there just to suit their own needs.
Just take the Thane for example, he insisted that a General should be in the van of his officers and men so he was persistent in putting his General in front; his opponent, the Paladin, did not want to be outdone so he kept saying that his Knight was a paladin and he must help cover his Soldiers when they took charge.
Those two were not the most absurd. The rest of the guys were trying to pwn their opponents to the max, the Lich changed all of his pieces into Soldiers and said that those were his spartois; the Assassin said that all of her pieces were assassins so they were all invisible and nobody else could see her moves. Of course, the title of ‘The Worst Player’ was given to none other than the Archmage, he kept insisting that his minister last time was a powerful sorcerer so his Bishop should be a sorcerer as well. In just the first move, he cast a forbidden spell and wiped out all of the Chariots, Knights, and Cannons of his opponent.
For that reason, Baiyi banned chess from ever being played again in the Void. Those group of people really did not respect the rules of the game at all. No wonder they were all sent to and imprisonned in the Void! In comparison, the retirees were much more well-behaved. No matter what their situation was, they still strictly adhered to the rules and did not come out with any bizarre rules saying that their Elephant 1
was like Dumbo so he could fly all over the chess board.This is quite a progress right. I guess I could teach them some Taichi or how to keep a pet bird when I’m free. Hmmm, then this park would really become a Seniors Park .
Just like that, after the morning passed, Mia and Tisdale came to the park and looked for Baiyi, telling him that they could all go back home in the afternoon.
For a moment, Baiyi was taken aback before he quickly remembered the fact that Mia was now an elite student of the Golden Rose class. The class practised ‘open education’ like the colleges on Earth. Not only that, the education approach was much more inclined to practicality and there were only a few compulsary subjects that they had to take. The classes did not even teach the basic theory of magic anymore because the students who were able to enter the elite class would either already be equipped with the knowledge or have the ability to study on their own.
In the Golden Rose class, the students were able to choose 1 to 3 categories of subject to be their major. Mia was handed a list that contained the names of 20 teachers who were in charge of the Golden Rose class a
And also the subjects that they were in charged of, including The Study of Elemental Magic, Assist Magic, and Theoretical Magic Research.
Students would have to think over their choices carefully before they decided on one. Taking into account the limitation of time and energy level, a low-level sorcerer would best choose one major to excel in. If they decided to major in offensive or strength, then it would work best for them to take up a Fire and Wind-type magic with another offensive subject; likewise, if the student decided to major in assist defensive, then they needed to study Water-type and Boost along with another Assist Magic subject. However, if the student wanted to become a scholar doing theoretical research, then there was no need for them to specialized in any of the elemental studies at all, they only needed to take theoretical research subjects.
After they had chosen a major that they were going to study, they would then need to continue down the path until they become a Master or Legendary level before changing to other majors. That would help them gain their powers much faster. It would be much easier for them to change subjects after they had strengthen their foundations.
Last time, Tisdale had chosen to major in the offensive line and now, Mia decided to go for the assist defensive line.
In truth, if Baiyi was the one who got to choose the subject, he would choose the Theoretical Magic Research for them. The reason was because this major had fewer classes so it would leave him with more time to teach them both personally.
“Let’s talk about this at home,” Baiyi said before leading the two beautiful girls back to the mansion under the envious eyes of others.
At that time, Attie who was staying in the mansion alone had finally learnt how to dress properly. The moment she heard the door creaked open, she darted to the door in her little leather shoes to welcome them. After she had greeted them, she left to the kitchen to prepare their lunch while humming a traditional folk song.
It seemed like she was kind of enjoying herself living this servant life.
While Attie was cooking, Baiyi told the two girls his opinion about the majors and at once, horror dawned on their faces. Somehow, it seemed like the two girls were not fond of theoretical studies at all. Are they afraid that they are going to be single and become an old virgin?
Anyway, seeing how the two of them were kind of opposing his idea, Baiyi did not push the subject any further. He decided to respect their wishes and let them chose whatever they liked themselves. A question suddenly flashed across his mind.
Now that Tisdale was already in the fourth grade, theoretically, she should have already gone out for internship with her mentor, should’t she?
“Not necessary. We can choose any method of internship ourselves,” Tisdale explained, “As long as we meet the required assessment standards by the end of the year. I decided not to choose an internship mentor and stay by your side instead, sir. I’m more interested in Rohserlian magic, you see.”
Awww, what a cute loyal puppy you are! Good girl! Baiyi nodded in a satisfied manner before reaching a hand out to pat her head.