At the same time, news spread that Ian Song had personally run special training for these twelve students, instantly making him the most famous teacher among the junior students.
But this was only the beginning.
Over the next half year, Ian Song ran special training in batches for all the remaining students.
As a result, ninety students from his class broke into the top hundred of the Battle Rankings. The Dongli siblings, after two more rounds of challenges, saw Hannah Dongli Frost take first place and Hayden Dongli Blaze take second.
Tori Wang took third, Rain Yu fourth, and Steven Zhou fifth.
Of the five remaining slots in the top ten, four were also from Class Five.
This made countless students eager to join Ian Song's special training.
Some students even tried to tempt him with their looks, rare treasures, or huge sums of money, but Ian Song refused them all.
One day—
Vice Dean Han summoned Ian Song.
"Teacher Song, you're here! Come on, the dean wants to see you!"
As soon as Ian Song arrived, Vice Dean Han greeted him warmly. After all, it was Han who had recruited Ian to the academy, and now that Ian had achieved such results, Han shared in the glory.
Even the dean had become interested in Ian Song and wanted to meet him.
Hearing this, Ian Song was secretly delighted. One of his main reasons for teaching at Heavenly Tome Academy was to meet the dean.
Now, he was finally getting his wish.
Half an hour later—
The two of them arrived at a courtyard with an elegant atmosphere, where a white-haired old man was busy with a tea set.
"Little Han, Little Song, you're here. Please, have a seat!"
The white-haired old man smiled and invited them to sit.
The two nodded and took their seats.
Next, the old man didn't speak anymore and just focused on preparing the tea set. Ian Song didn't bother with formalities and directly scanned the dean's cultivation method.
Five manuals appeared in his System.
He flipped through them and was instantly overjoyed.
The main manual wasn't just early Tribulation grade—it was late Tribulation grade. If he fused it, his cultivation would skyrocket straight to late Tribulation.
He checked the qi luck cost to fuse this manual: eighty million.
If he optimized it first, fusion would cost at least a hundred million qi luck.
As for the other four manuals, none required less than fifty million qi luck, and if he optimized them too, it would take three hundred million—plus the main manual, that's four hundred million total.
Looks like he'll have to find a way to earn more qi luck again.
He activated his Luck-Sight Golden Eyes to check the dean's qi luck.
It turned out to be over 130 million.
Vice Dean Han had more than 50 million.
Suddenly, he thought of a way to earn qi luck: slaying great villains at Void Fusion and above.
Half an hour later—
A waft of tea fragrance pulled Ian Song out of his thoughts.
"Try it!"
The white-haired dean gestured for them to taste.
Ian Song picked up a cup and took a sip. Instantly, his mouth felt refreshed, and after swallowing, his whole body felt light—almost immortal. At the same time, a few wisps of black mist drifted out from inside him.
He knew these were the impurities left in his body.
"Excellent tea!"
He gulped down the rest of the tea in one go and loudly praised it.
"Dean Victor's Floating Immortal Tea really lives up to its reputation!" Vice Dean Han praised as well. Black mist also drifted out from inside him—but it was much thicker than Ian Song's.
Seeing this, the white-haired dean glanced at Ian Song with a subtle change in his expression. Ian's foundation was even more solid than Han's.
"Little Song, are you interested in teaching an advanced class?"
The white-haired dean suddenly spoke.
Ian Song smiled. "I actually want to take Class Five all the way to the intermediate division, and then up to the advanced division myself!"
The white-haired dean said, "Great ambition! But your talent is honestly being wasted!"
Ian Song just smiled.
The dean continued, "Little Song, do you mind if I stuff a few more students into your class? Too many people have come begging me, and I really can't refuse anymore!"
"Sure! Herding one sheep is herding, herding a whole flock is also herding!"
Ian Song thought, with such rare Floating Immortal Tea, refusing would be ungrateful—plus, he'd already scanned the dean's manuals and divine arts.
"Dean Victor, I have a request too!"
Ian Song said.
"Oh? Go ahead!"
Ian's expression grew serious. "I wonder if the dean has any intelligence on extremely heinous evil cultivators?"
"You mean—?"
"I feel I've hit a bottleneck. I need life-and-death battles to break through!" Ian Song said.
The white-haired dean frowned. "Isn't that a bit too dangerous?"
"On the cultivation path, not moving forward means falling behind. I don't want to retreat, so I have to take the risk!"
"You're still young. I have a cultivation notebook here—you can take it and read!"
"Thank you, Dean Victor! But please still help me gather that intelligence!"
"Sigh!" Seeing he couldn't persuade Ian Song, Dean Victor could only give a gentle sigh. "All right, I'll keep an eye out for you!"
The next day.
Ian Song received a report from his assistant Ding Xiang: Class Five had gained fifty new students.
Hearing this, Ian Song couldn't help but laugh in exasperation. Dean Victor really wasn't shy—he'd stuffed fifty people into his class.
"Give me your cultivation method!"
Ian Song suddenly said to Ding Xiang.
She was stunned at first, then overjoyed, quickly taking out several manuals. "Teacher Song, this is my cultivation method, this is my divine art, and this is my spell!"
"All right, I'll give it back to you tomorrow!"
Ian Song waved his hand and left with the manuals.
Over the next few days, Ian Song spent time giving special training to the fifty new students. They were already outstanding—some were even top hundred in the Battle Rankings.
After Ian Song's special training, they exploded in strength.
For a while, Class Five's students occupied all the top hundred spots in the Battle Rankings. Other teachers were left resentful—Class Five wasn't leaving anyone else a chance.
Meanwhile, Ian Song finished revising the dean's manuals. He'd need 460 million qi luck to fully fuse them.
At the same time—
Dean Victor also had someone deliver a dossier to Ian Song.
The dossier contained intel on eight extremely wicked cultivators. The strongest was peak early Tribulation, and the weakest was mid-Void Fusion.
After getting the intel, Ian Song immediately took leave.
Heilong Mountain—a poisonous mountain shrouded in toxic mist and crawling with venomous insects. Even Void Fusion cultivators hesitate to enter. Yet one cultivator lives here.
He's known as Poison King Jiumo Yuan.
He was one of the eight evil cultivators Dean Victor had identified for Ian Song. Jiumo Yuan was late Void Fusion, and the only one with a confirmed location.
Naturally, Ian Song chose him as his first target.
Jiumo Yuan was ruthless. To refine his poison arts, he once killed everyone in a whole city.
The Great Jin Empire was furious and sent experts to hunt him down, but failed. Two Void Fusion experts even died.
Later, since Jiumo Yuan hid in Heilong Mountain and the cost to kill him was too high, the empire gave up. He’s been at large ever since.