Chapter 7: The Great Teacher Pan
Translator: Henyee Editor: JulesNye
w.a.n.g Ling had already long heard about the glorious deeds of Teacher Pan Shengcong. As a leading teacher at No. 60 High School who had come back to work after retirement, she had trained quite a number of students with the greatest potential of breaking through to the Golden Core stage. Unfortunately, though they were clearly only one step away from Golden Core, by the time they graduated, they hadn't been able to break through to that stage.
But Teacher Pan was absolutely not to blame.
As the saying went, you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink; if you are lazy to cultivate in your prime, you'll regret it in your old age.
Despite countless cases of failure, Teacher Pan Shengcong was able to clutch at one last straw the year she was going to retire — No. 60 High School's legendary figure, Odd Zhuo.
That's right, the legendary Odd Zhuo, who graduated from No. 60 High School and who became famous for killing the sky-swallowing toad with one blow, used to be Teacher Pan's student.
Because of this, the school leaders had the utmost trust in her. Thus, though she had the lowest realm of all the teachers that had returned to employment after retirement, she was the leading teacher with the highest salary.
Whether or not this was the result of some back-door connection, w.a.n.g Ling didn't give a d.a.m.n.
He just hoped that Teacher Pan was a little more astute, and wouldn't find trouble with him for no reason. After all, he was working hard to become a transparent existence!
Like all teachers-in-charge, Teacher Pan had sharp eyes and ears.
For example, she had been able to hear the students in cla.s.s laughing when she had still been far away in her office.
Also, when she had walked down the corridor, she had seen that the students in the cla.s.s next door were all diligently learning, but her own cla.s.s was a mess.
As a result, Teacher Pan was infuriated; as soon as she entered the cla.s.s, she slapped the roll book down loudly, making her dissatisfaction clear. "This will be my eightieth year teaching at No. 60 High School. I've been in charge of ten elite cla.s.ses, and you are the tenth! Of all of them, you are the worst cla.s.s that I've ever been in charge of!"
Everyone was taken aback at her words, but somehow felt like they'd heard them before.
Nonetheless, as the most difficult female teacher in the history of No. 60 High School, n.o.body dared to get on her bad side on the first day of school. Of course, Lotus Sun might be an exception. But Teacher Pan wasn't stupid enough to provoke her for no reason.
She didn't know any of the other students, so in that situation, Teacher Pan swiftly looked for someone to be made an example of in front of everyone else, in order to demonstrate her authority as the teacher-in-charge.
"Which one is Student w.a.n.g Ling?"
w.a.n.g Ling was startled as everyone in the cla.s.s turned in unison to look at him.
Teacher Pan: "It was you, I heard your voice just now in the corridor!"
w.a.n.g Ling: "..."
"No matter how any of you got here, whether by strength or luck, since you are already here in my cla.s.s, I hope all of you elites take heed! You must not be late, nor can you leave early, and don't make a racket! If you really want to challenge me, I'll have no choice but to invite your parents to school!"
This was the typical routine before the start of a new cla.s.s. As the taciturn one in cla.s.s, w.a.n.g Ling had almost always experienced this unjust treatment from a young age.
He remembered that the worst incident had been during Qi Condensation prep cla.s.s, when he had directly summoned a meteorite which had smashed into the sports field, causing cla.s.ses to be suspended for three days...
Luckily, w.a.n.g Ling had now already learned how to control his mood.
Otherwise, if he really went crazy, even he himself would be afraid.
...
Teacher Pan was mainly in charge of teaching the Dao talismans course. Apart from some of the basics of making talismans, the bulk of it was aimed at teaching the elite cla.s.s advanced content.
Cinnabar, yellow talisman paper, spirit water and a writing brush — these were the four basic raw materials for drawing a talisman.
The elite cla.s.s didn't spend as much time on the course basics, so the cla.s.s moved at a much quicker pace. It was just the first cla.s.s, but Teacher Pan had already brought the four main raw materials with her as she lectured, "I don't know if any of you have drawn a talisman before, but in my cla.s.s, we're going to start from scratch. Now, I'm going to teach you how to draw a ghost-summoning talisman."
The ghost-summoning talisman, as its name suggested, was a talisman for summoning ghosts, and belonged to the summoning category of talismans.
Compared with other attack, defense, function-type or seal talismans, the ghost-summoning talisman might sound frightening, but of all the basic talismans, it was the easiest one to make. Even newbies had quite a high chance of successfully making one.
After she spoke, Teacher Pan mixed the cinnabar with spirit water, spread open the yellow talisman paper, and lifted her writing brush.
"Now I'm going to show you how to draw a ghost-summoning talisman."
Everyone's eyes were fixed on Teacher Pan as she skillfully lifted the writing brush and seemed to draw randomly on the yellow talisman paper. Just like that, a standard talisman was successfully created. The last step was to gather spirit energy and toss the talisman up into the air...
In the next moment, they witnessed a miracle.
The ghost-summoning talisman, which had been floating in the air, suddenly froze, and in the next instant, burst with a soft glow.
Everyone could see a transparent silhouette hovering in the air.
This thing was the so-called ghost.
Teacher Pan pointed at the greenish-gray thing and said, "I controlled the release of my spirit energy. What you are seeing now is the weakest of all ghosts, the hollow spirit, which doesn't have any killing intent. Because novice students can't control their spirit energy, they are likely to summon more aggressive spirits of a higher rank. But you don't have to worry, if anything unexpected happens, I will personally deal with it. Since I've already summoned this hollow spirit, I'll explain simply how to release it."
As she spoke, she dipped the tip of her forefinger into the blend of spirit water and cinnabar on the table, then quickly swiped at the area between the hollow spirit's eyebrows.
The hollow spirit let out a wretched cry and was instantly torn into two parts, which turned into wisps of vapor that then vanished.
"The area between the eyebrows is a ghost's weak point. Cultivators can easily release ghosts using a blend of spirit water and cinnabar, with the addition of a little more spirit energy. As for what is available in the market, to throw salt, use urine or chicken blood... all these are completely untrustworthy."
Teacher Pan waved her hand, and light flowed through the air as the four raw materials for making a talisman were distributed to each student. "Now you can get to work, and follow the steps I just demonstrated."
And that was it.
The cla.s.sroom completely exploded, as all kinds of ghosts were summoned.
The hollow spirit which Lotus Sun summoned was a female student who had slipped and fallen from the top of the No. 60 High School building. Technically speaking, this female ghost was their senior sister.
Super Chen summoned an ancient headsman who still had nine knives stuck in his head. He had died when the family members of a prisoner on death row had stormed the execution ground, and in the confusion, the headsman had been stabbed to death.
Master of Dopey Hero Guo summoned a skeleton dog with no flesh on its bones at all, drawing strong condemnation from the dog lovers in cla.s.s.
There was a saying that the purer a person was in mind and heart, the easier it was to attract dirty things. This just happened to be verified by what the cla.s.s commissary in charge of studies, Little Peanut, summoned.
It was a hollow spirit that had already completely evolved into a malicious ghost. It had bloodshot eyes, one of which was hanging out of its socket, and it emitted an incredibly strong sense of resentment.
But as one of the vanguard teachers who had been at No. 60 High School for ages, Teacher Pan was worthy of her reputation.
It seemed that the instant the malicious ghost appeared, she had already dashed forward. She pulled at the eyeball until it snapped off, and in front of everyone present, she crushed it in her hands.
In their hearts, everyone gasped in admiration: "..."
So f**king tough!
Almost the whole cla.s.s had successfully used the materials on hand to create a summoning.
w.a.n.g Ling was the only person who was slow to act.
He had already taught himself this skill when he was still in the womb. It wasn't the least bit difficult — the number of talismans that w.a.n.g Ling could draw were probably more than what all the school teachers combined could produce.
The most difficult bit lay in the fact that he could not precisely control the release of his spirit energy.
Staring at the four raw materials on the table, w.a.n.g Ling was lost in deep thought...
Who the h.e.l.l knew what he would summon?