"Yes, Instructor."
All the students happily left. Among them, a few female students gathered, discussing going down the mountain together for some shopping and clothes. It seemed that no matter where they were, girls loved pretty clothes.
"Zhou Hong." As Zhou Hong was about to return to his dormitory, Lu Qianqian called out to him.
"Instructor Lu, is something the matter?" Zhou Hong turned around with a smile. Zhou Hong had originally planned to return to his dormitory and enter the sub-world to study formations.
Zhou Hong had an intuition that if he entered the sub-world to study formations, he might achieve twice the result with half the effort. Just as he was about to return, he was stopped by Lu Qianqian.
"Zhou Hong, the holiday is for three days, where do you plan to go?" Lu Qianqian asked with a smile.
"I plan to return to the dormitory to cultivate," Zhou Hong said.
"So driven."
"Of course. Isn't the reason we came to Tai Gu Academy to strive?"
"Heh heh, it seems I was overthinking it."
Zhou Hong asked, puzzled, "What do you mean?"
"I was originally worried that you might waste time on romance. You are admired by every female student in the class. In such a situation, many men would become arrogant and start dating them, only to be surpassed by other students in the end. You are a rare genius, and I was afraid you might be like that."
"Haha, how is that possible? Let alone the girls in our class, even that famous Dugu Shuang from Class One of the first year, I wouldn't be interested," Zhou Hong said with a hearty laugh.
"Oh, oh, I didn't expect your standards to be so high, you don't even fancy Dugu Shuang." Lu Qianqian chuckled, suspecting Zhou Hong was lying.
"Why would I lie to you? I am indeed not interested in her."
"It's good she didn't hear you, otherwise she'd surely deal with you. Though I don't know her well, in my impression, someone like her, a proud daughter of heaven and so beautiful, is usually very high-spirited."
"Tch."
"Alright, let's not talk about her. I know you're lying, you're just saying that because you feel you're not good enough."
Zhou Hong was speechless. Lu Qianqian actually thought Zhou Hong said that because he felt he wasn't good enough.
"Then, if there's nothing else, I'll head back to the dormitory first." Zhou Hong couldn't be bothered to waste more words and wanted to return to the dormitory to study formations.
"What? You don't like talking to instructors?" Lu Qianqian pouted. She found it a little strange. Even though she was an instructor, she was still a beauty. Why did Zhou Hong seem like he didn't want to stay with her for another second?
"Instructor Lu, you've misunderstood. I'm just eager to go back and cultivate."
"Alright, don't be so driven. Haste makes waste. Relax your mind for these three days of vacation. Come on, accompany me somewhere." Lu Qianqian invited him proactively.
"Ah." Zhou Hong looked displeased.
"What? You're that unwilling? You wound me so deeply. You know, although I'm your instructor, I'm still a great beauty who has captivated countless people." Lu Qianqian seemed a little hurt. Perhaps no man had ever treated her like this before. Although Zhou Hong was just her student in her eyes, he was still a man, after all.
"Fine then." Zhou Hong nodded reluctantly.
Zhou Hong and Instructor Lu walked side-by-side on the road of Tai Gu Academy. Some who didn't know them would have thought they were a couple.
"Zhou Hong, actually, you are quite handsome," Lu Qianqian said with a smile.
"Sweat!" Zhou Hong was speechless.
Lu Qianqian didn't say it, but Zhou Hong was the most handsome man she had ever seen in her life. However, this wasn't something she could say now, given their teacher-student relationship.
"Instructor Lu, may I ask you a personal question?" Zhou Hong also asked with interest.
"Ask away."
"You don't want me to waste time dating at Tai Gu Academy, so did you never date before?" Zhou Hong asked.
"Of course not. Back then, no one in our Class One dated. The more talented people were, the harder they worked."
"Did any outstanding men pursue you back then?"
"Of course. Most of them were from the upper years, but I refused them all."
"Then you didn't have anyone you liked?"
"How should I put it? There were some I admired. Back then, there were several monstrous geniuses in our Class One, and we admired them greatly. It's like how the girls in the current class admire you."
"Then, if those monstrous geniuses had actively pursued you back then, would you have agreed?"
"This... probably not. Admiration is one thing." Lu Qianqian shook her head.
"Those monstrous geniuses you admired have all graduated by now, right? Where did they go? How strong are they?"
"Of course they've graduated. Many graduated early. One of the strongest reached the Spirit Severing stage by the time he graduated."
"Wow, that's amazing." Zhou Hong was a bit shocked. Nascent Soul, Out-of-Body, Spirit Severing. These were several levels stronger than Lu Qianqian now, and the gap between the later cultivation levels was immense. No wonder Lu Qianqian felt admiration.
Zhou Hong didn't know what level he would reach by the time he graduated.
Although thirty years sounded long, for cultivators, it was merely the blink of an eye. Some powerful cultivators could spend hundreds of years in seclusion.
"Where do they go after graduating?"
"I'm not too sure. Their goal is the sea of stars, heading directly for the Immortal Realm. However, at that level of cultivation, it requires more than just resources. Such geniuses go wherever there are cultivation opportunities. Ancient secret caves, lost cities, stormy seas, the Nine Deaths Deep Sea – these incredibly perilous places are where they conquer. But it's inevitable that some will die in these places."
Zhou Hong nodded and asked again, "Then why didn't you follow them to these places to pursue greater strength, but instead chose to stay and become an instructor? I imagine it's more peaceful to be an instructor here, and it would be harder to break through in the future."
"That's for sure. Staying here as an instructor is very peaceful, and even if I could continue to break through, it would take a long time. So I also admire those geniuses; they truly have great courage. However, occasionally hearing that a former genius classmate has perished somewhere brings me both regret and sadness."
"Heh heh, Instructor Lu, in the future, I will also be someone who conquers the sea of stars," Zhou Hong said with a laugh.
"You? Don't joke. You should grow up in a stable environment. Although you are a genius in our Class 30, you are still ranked hundreds in the entire year. If you were placed in the entire Tai Gu Academy, you would be ranked over ten thousand. The monstrous geniuses I told you about are still far beyond your reach."
"Is that so? Hahaha." Zhou Hong burst into laughter.
Zhou Hong secretly vowed that one day he would make Lu Qianqian realize whether he was a monstrous genius or not.