Reversing the Milky Way

The time came in the afternoon.

After the lunch break, most of the students at Renhui Academy returned to their classrooms. Some students who lived close to the academy chose to go home for lunch, while others from more affluent families opted to eat out. However, they all generally returned before the afternoon classes started.

This afternoon's class is on herbs. Bai Cheng is sitting cross-legged in his seat. This classroom is a huge classroom on the left side of Renhui Academy. The classroom is rectangular, running from south to north, and can hold a total of three hundred people. However, the classroom is not full at this time, with only more than two hundred people.

In the classroom, each student has a rectangular sandalwood table placed horizontally in front of them; each person has their own individual table. During the lunch break, students can rest at their own seats.

Aside from the body-refining course, all other courses are not divided by cultivation level. At this time, the herbalism instructor also began distributing the "Record of Spiritual Herbs".

The *Record of Spiritual Herbs* is a large catalog of medicinal and spiritual herbs compiled by the academy. It records the vast majority of common herbs and spiritual plants below the fourth rank. Each page features detailed illustrations of the herbs and plants on the left, while the right side describes their growing environment and various effects. Furthermore, some of the plant illustrations specifically indicate which type of elixir they are used in. This surprised Bai Cheng, as the academy didn't teach alchemy, yet the book specifically highlighted it.

This "Record of Spiritual Herbs" is exactly what Bai Cheng wants right now. After all, the first rule of this cultivation world is: if you want to be rich, refine pills first. However, he's still too far from achieving that goal. Now that he's confirmed he can cultivate spiritual energy, his immediate priority is to improve his cultivation level.

After the herbs were distributed, the herbalist instructor came to the front of the group of students. Bai Cheng was surprised to find that it was Su Lingyue, the same Su Lingyue who had been at the school gate that day. It turned out that Instructor Su was the herbalist instructor. Instructor Su was wearing a long blue dress and walked among the students in the partitions. She picked up the "Record of Spiritual Herbs" and began to teach the students, her voice filling the entire classroom.

At this moment, Dong Shaojie, who was sitting to Bai Cheng's left, quietly turned his head and whispered to Bai Cheng, "I love herbal medicine class the most. Instructor Su is not only beautiful, but also has a lovely voice. Taking her class is a feast for the eyes, and you can learn about herbs at the same time. It's a win-win situation." Upon hearing this, Bai Cheng also turned his head slightly and whispered back to Dong Shaojie, "It seems that Instructor Su is very popular."

"That's right, almost no one skips her classes. Professor Su is not only the herbalist instructor, but she is also a physician. She treats most of the students when they are injured."

Bai Cheng was taken aback after hearing Dong Shaojie's words. He hadn't expected that even in a school in this world, someone would skip class. Just as Bai Cheng and Dong Shaojie were whispering to each other, Instructor Su suddenly called out Dong Shaojie's name. "Dong Shaojie."

Upon hearing this, Dong Shaojie immediately stood up and replied, "Yes."

"Describe the growing environment and effects of the second-grade spiritual plants and herbs."

After listening to Su Lingyue's question, Dong Shaojie began to answer: "Second-grade spiritual plants and herbs mostly grow around spiritual springs. They are shaped like a head and tail, with slender and tough stems and pinnate compound leaves. The leaves are small and pinnately distributed on the main stem. The stems themselves are not very useful; the main benefit is that the seeds can be ground into powder and taken with water to significantly increase physical strength in a short period of time. Each seed is purple, and because they grow near spiritual springs, they are rich in a relatively small amount of spiritual energy. Therefore, they cannot be taken by martial artists who are not at the late stage of Body Refinement. At the same time, the seeds are also one of the ingredients for the second-grade pill, the Berserker Pill."

After hearing Dong Shaojie's answer, Su Lingyue nodded and said, "You answered very well."

Dong Shaojie was overjoyed to hear Su Lingyue's praise, and a smug smile naturally appeared on his face. However, his smile was interrupted by Su Lingyue's next words.

"Although you answered very well, this is not a way for you to disrupt classroom discipline. So, you will be punished by looking after the herb garden for three days."

Upon hearing Su Lingyue's words, Dong Shaojie exclaimed, "Huh?"

"What do you mean, Bai Cheng?"

At this moment, Bai Cheng was secretly laughing when he heard Dong Shaojie being punished, but when he suddenly heard Su Lingyue call his name, his heart skipped a beat. He immediately recalled the scene when he was in school and was called out by the teacher for daydreaming in class. This muscle memory etched into his body instantly came over him, and he quickly stood up and replied, "Here."

Bai Cheng immediately regretted his answer after saying that word, because most of the students were looking at him with questions, and even Su Lingyue was puzzled. She didn't understand what Bai Cheng meant by shouting "Here".

Seeing that the atmosphere was a bit awkward, Bai Cheng immediately explained, "Um... what I meant was... yes."

"You just started school today, so I won't test you." Bai Cheng breathed a sigh of relief after hearing Su Lingyue's words. He knew he wouldn't be able to answer immediately if asked.

"But I will test you again in seven days." Bai Cheng was a little nervous when he heard this, wondering if he could remember it.

As Bai Cheng and Dong Shaojie sat down, Su Lingyue continued her herbal medicine lesson. Bai Cheng, who had also sat down, flipped through the "Record of Spiritual Herbs" in his hand, which contained several hundred kinds of common herbs, as well as more than a hundred kinds of spiritual plants below the fourth grade.

..........

As time went by, it was soon late afternoon, around 3 PM, and Bai Cheng finished his day's classes.

The day made him feel like he was back in his student days, but this was much more comfortable than when he was a student. He found that the so-called classes were only for one hour in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. The troublesome thing was that three of those hours had to be spent traveling. Was there no means of transportation?

Just then, Bai Cheng suddenly noticed a huge shed in the northeast corner of the schoolyard. "Hmm? What's this?" Filled with immense curiosity, Bai Cheng went over to investigate. "Hmm? Is this... a stable?" Just as Bai Cheng was thinking this, he suddenly heard a cry from inside, startling him. He quickly went inside to investigate. He saw a person stirring feed next to a huge wooden basin, and inside the huge shed were several animals that Bai Cheng had never seen before.

The person mixing the feed stopped what he was doing and walked over when he saw Bai Cheng. This person was Lin Tianyong, the guard of the spirit beast shed at Renhui Academy. He looked to be around thirty years old and had reached the Great Perfection of the Body Refinement Realm.

"Hmm? Which class are you in? What are you doing here?"

Upon hearing the question from the person in front of him, Bai Cheng immediately replied, "I am a body-refining student who just entered the academy today. My name is Bai Cheng. I saw this shed and came over out of curiosity to see what it is for."

"This is the spirit animal shed of Renhui Academy, and I am Lin Tianyong, the caretaker here."

Bai Cheng asked with some confusion, "A spirit beast shed?"

Lin Tianyong explained, "That's right, this is for students who have spirit beast mounts. They can leave their spirit beasts here during their time at the academy."

"Spirit beast mounts?" After saying that, Bai Cheng looked at the several spirit beast mounts around him.

Following Bai Cheng's gaze, Lin Tianyong began to introduce: "This mount is a low-grade, second-rank spirit beast mount, the Yellow-Horned Golden Ox. It is much larger than an ordinary ox, and its horns are golden, hence the name. It is the mount of Li Cai, a student in the literary class. This one is a low-grade, third-rank spirit beast mount called a Unicorn. It resembles a horse, with a pure white body, and is named for the single horn on its head. It is the mount of Lü Qiuyue, a student in the body-refining class."

As Lin Tianyong continued to introduce the creatures, Bai Cheng passed by several more spirit beast mounts and arrived at the very back. To his astonishment, he discovered that the last creature was a giant bird with colorful feathers all over its body. It looked somewhat like a peacock from Earth, but its size was dozens of times larger.

Seeing this, Lin Tianyong introduced, "This spirit beast is a mid-level fourth-grade spirit beast mount, the Cloud Chaser. It is one of the few flying spirit beast mounts. It is named Cloud Chaser because it can carry people into the clouds and soar. It is also the only mid-level spirit beast mount in this school, and it is the mount of Instructor Su Lingyue."

(Additional settings: Spirit beasts, (ranks one to three are low-level, (ranks four to six are mid-level, (ranks seven to nine are high-level))

Bai Cheng was secretly surprised after hearing this. He hadn't expected that Instructor Su would have such a mount. If he also had a flying mount, he could save a lot of time on the way to the school. He estimated that a journey that would take an hour would only take a few minutes.

Bai Cheng was imagining himself riding a flying mount when Lin Tianyong interrupted him, saying, "What are you thinking? Ordinary people can't afford a mid-level spirit beast, let alone a flying mount."

Upon hearing this, Bai Cheng couldn't help but ask, "Are mid-level spirit beasts really that expensive?"

Upon hearing this, Lin Tianyong explained, "Is it expensive? Of course it's expensive for us, but it's still affordable for cultivators who cultivate spiritual energy." Bai Cheng became interested upon hearing this. He already knew the prices of pills, talismans, weapons, and armor, but he wasn't sure about the prices of spirit beasts. So he asked, "Brother Lin, may I ask what the prices of spirit beasts are?"

After thinking for a while, Lin Tianyong continued, "Aside from practical and ornamental spirit beasts, the most expensive are mount spirit beasts. A first-grade spirit beast mount costs around one hundred silver coins, a second-grade spirit beast mount costs around three hundred silver coins, a third-grade spirit beast mount costs around five hundred silver coins, and some can cost six hundred. As for a fourth-grade spirit beast, the minimum is one thousand silver coins, and flying mounts are double that."

Bai Cheng was stunned when he heard this. He thought the weapons and armor he had seen in the Treasure Pavilion were already very expensive, but he didn't expect this spirit beast mount to be even more outrageous. Thinking of this, he glanced at the flying spirit beast, the Cloud Chaser, and asked, "Brother Lin, could you tell me the origin of this flying spirit beast?"

Lin Tianyong looked at the Cloud Chaser beside him and said, "These spirit beasts are distributed across the entire Nebula Continent, which is too vast. I only know a general area around here. Between Wuling Town and Yong'an Town, there are two mountains called Twin Mountains. First-grade spirit beasts may appear in the dense forests around them, and there might even be second-grade ones on the mountains. Then there's the Yunluo Forest north of Yujia Village in the north. If you're lucky, you can find third-grade spirit beasts there. If you want to find fourth-grade ones, you have to enter the Yunluo Mountain Range. The Yunluo Mountain Range stretches for hundreds of thousands of miles, and there are countless rare and exotic beasts inside. However, the environment there is also extremely dangerous. In the mountains, you can not only encounter spirit beasts, but also monsters often appear. I heard that Liu Yuntian, the inspector of our Wuling Town's Supervisory Office, also hunted a fourth-grade spirit mount there."

After listening to Lin Tianyong's explanation, Bai Cheng also asked, "Where did Instructor Su Lingyue get her flying mount? If I remember correctly, Instructor Su is only at the late stage of Body Refinement Realm, right?"

After listening, Lin Tianyong explained, "Don't you know? The principal of Renhui Academy, Su Boran, is Su Lingyue's father. He went to Baifeng City, south of Wuling Town, to buy it. It was originally his mount, but he couldn't bear to see his daughter suffer, so he gave his Chasing Cloud Sparrow to her. Besides, mid-level spirit beasts are different from low-level spirit beasts. Mid-level spirit beasts can condense spiritual power to attack and can protect their masters well. So having a spirit beast mount is like having a personal bodyguard."

After listening, Bai Cheng nodded slightly and pondered, "So that's how it is. It seems that it's impossible for me to get a flying mount right now. I'll have to think about it later."

Thinking of this, Bai Cheng bid farewell to Lin Tianyong and left the spirit beast shed. At this moment, at the school gate, Yue Ling, who had been waiting for a long time, began to impatiently mutter to herself, "Strange, where did Bai Cheng go again? Didn't he say he would wait for me at the school gate? Ugh, really."

Just then, she noticed Bai Cheng walking towards her from the direction of the spirit beast shed. She was about to go forward when a voice called out from behind her. "Miss Ling'er."

Yue Ling also heard these words, and her brows furrowed involuntarily. From the voice, she could tell it was Fu Wenhao from today. Fu Wenhao quickly stepped forward and blocked Yue Ling's path, still maintaining his model scholarly demeanor.

He then said, "Miss Ling'er, to express my apology for what happened at noon today, I would like to apologize to you. I have already made a reservation at the restaurant, and I hope you will do me the honor of joining me."

Yue Ling was already quite annoyed by Fu Wenhao in front of her, especially after hearing about Fu Wenhao's behavior from Lü Liang at noon. She looked at him with disgust. If she hadn't been holding back her anger, she would have slapped him away long ago.

Seeing Fu Wenhao approach Yue Ling from a distance, Bai Cheng quickly stepped forward. He had absolutely no goodwill towards this person. Although he couldn't be sure whether Brother Lü Liang was telling the truth, judging from his behavior, it was pretty much true.

He then quickly approached Yue Ling and said warily to Fu Wenhao, "Thank you for your kindness, Young Master Fu, but we have other matters to attend to and cannot keep our appointment."

When Fu Wenhao saw Bai Cheng arrive, he looked Bai Cheng up and down and said with a look of disdain, "Your clothes are shabby and tattered. They cost no more than a hundred or eighty coins in total. What face do you have to stand with Miss Yueling?"