Chapter 149: Welcome Assembly

Watching the vibrant, energetic figures board the bus, Qin Ye blinked. For some inexplicable reason, a sudden wave of responsibility welled up in his heart—the urge to train them... no, to educate them into pillars of society.

The so-called sense of responsibility is not something one is born with; rather, it is shaped by time and circumstance. At just the right time, in just the right place, interacting with just the right people, a spark of emotional resonance is ignited. This gives rise to a mindset that compels one to think: I need to do something for them.

Every day, Arsene nagged him endlessly in his ear: "You must work hard!" "You can't be a lazy slacker anymore! You are the future Yama of Hell!"

Yet, he hadn't felt an ounce of responsibility from those lectures.

Forget about rebuilding the Underworld; the thought of deserting the mission had crossed his mind countless times.

What truly made up his mind, conversely, was that poignant romance and tragedy—the case of the young boy killing his mother where the law failed to punish the wicked, and the countless restless spirits wandering the Underworld.

A momentary touch of emotion breeds a deep sense of responsibility. Action is far more effective than preaching, just like right now.

Faced with their sincere eyes, their heartfelt gratitude, and the undisguised, bubbly joy they felt when he nodded—so straightforward that they practically said they came just for him—he suddenly felt the immense weight on his shoulders.

"Youth is truly wonderful." He smiled and plunged back into work. As the sun climbed higher, more and more students arrived, and he greeted several of them. At nine o'clock, Su Feng walked up to the desk punctually and asked with a smile, "How does it feel?"

"Not bad." Qin Ye packed up his things. "I'm already looking forward to the days of lecturing... I've finished registering the arrivals for my shift, so I'll head out first."

He returned to his dorm, but instead of resting, he spread out his lesson plans and began meticulously reviewing them.

"Little Ah, come over and review this with me. See if there are any omissions." He read through it word for word, only to be met with Arsene's impatient voice: "Is that even necessary?"

"Of course..." Qin Ye scrutinized the text line by line. "With the arrival of the new students, it also means... the second stage of the instructor evaluation is about to begin."

"So?"

"So I'm going to spawn right at the finish line!" Qin Ye shot the hikikomori Arsene a sidelong glance, wearing an expression that seemed to say, *How can you be so clueless?* "When Zhou Xianlong spoke earlier, he said there are no evaluation methods in the second stage. Can't we interpret it this way... that any moment this semester counts as part of the evaluation?"

"Such smooth footwork... dodging with the finesse of this Palace's glory days... didn't get hit by a single skill, playing a smurf account, are we? Cough... go on, what you're saying makes a lot of sense, I'm listening very intently."

Qin Ye forcefully suppressed the urge to shut down the computer. He knew very well that tampering with runes and deleting the character file was sheer suicide, ranking right up there with force-shutting down the game mid-battle. For the sake of his own survival, he wisely let go of Arsene's perfunctory and insincere remarks. Clearing his throat, he said, "The very first introductory lesson for freshmen represents the baseline standard of each instructor and will definitely add significant weight to our teaching scores. The only thing that can probably surpass this is the final exam score evaluation..."

*Look into my sincere eyes?*

*Are you coming over to review this with me or not?*

As if hearing his earnest plea, Arsene finally stirred, walking over with the air of one bestowing a great favor. The two of them re-examined the lesson plan word by word, and Arsene finally affirmed, "No problem."

"The theme of my lesson plan is: On the Diversity of Spiritual Entities." Qin Ye closed his lesson notebook and mused, "My perspective is that practical combat experience and dealing with spiritual entities far outweigh all other departments. Survival is paramount; only by staying alive can one even talk about slaying spirits. This topic aligns perfectly with the core tenet of the Practical Combat Department. Do you think... my topic can win first place?"

"Drop the 'do you think', will you!" Arsene snapped, displeased, and let out a cold hum. "Not to brag, but with the current level of research on spirits in the mortal realm, back when the old Underworld hadn't collapsed, a single impermanence spirit could crush their so-called experts! This lesson plan was personally crafted by this Palace and discussed with you together. It's not that I'm targeting anyone here, but everyone present... never mind, let's keep it civil: you're all just amateurs."

"These examples were meticulously handpicked by this Palace. They are clearly not ordinary spirits; it's just that the mortal realm lacks the insight to recognize them. Since you won't be going into too much depth, you just need to give them an opening and display some professional rigor, and they'll immediately understand what's going on! Surpassing the other instructors of the same cohort will be as easy as turning over your hand."

Qin Ye finally felt at ease. After checking things over until eleven o'clock, he shamelessly dialed Elder Yu's number.

"Little Qin, what is it?" Elder Yu's voice was as robust as ever, asking with a smile.

Qin Ye smiled and said, "Well, Elder Yu, our semester has started..."

"I know." Elder Yu paused, his tone growing meaningful. "A promise made is a promise kept. As it happens, the two presidents have invited me to observe and exchange ideas, so I should be able to make it. However... I need to remind you first."

Before Qin Ye could speak, the elder's tone turned stern: "Right is right, and wrong is wrong. The first rule of academic scholarship is rigor. I have heard a bit about the First Cultivation University's faculty system, and I know teaching scores are very important to you. But if your lesson plan isn't good enough and goes against the learning spirit of First Cultivation University, I cannot call a stag a horse."

Qin Ye's expression also turned serious: "Rest assured, Elder Yu. I only asked you to come and show your support. My content will definitely be eye-opening and refreshing; I have no intention of asking you to compromise your integrity."

At the other end of the line, a convoy of five black Audis was driving from Daishan to Bao'an.

The central Audi was clearly specially reinforced. All windows were made of bulletproof glass, the chassis had been significantly weighted, and even the doors were constructed from alloy.

Inside this very vehicle, Elder Yu held the phone in one hand while carefully studying data in a notebook with the other. Hearing Qin Ye's remark over the phone, he was slightly taken aback before the corners of his mouth curled up into a silent smile.

This kid... truly a newborn calf unafraid of tigers.

Academia, academia—what is academia? It is the tackling of difficulties that have baffled people for centuries or even millennia. Sometimes, a single hypothesis remains unsolved by anyone for hundreds of years. As an elite among elites in his field, what kind of research topics hadn't he seen? Let alone the lesson plans of a bunch of rookie instructors.

Eye-opening and refreshing to him?

After exchanging a few pleasantries, he hung up the phone. In the front passenger seat, a man in a white lab coat noticed Elder Yu's smile and asked with a grin, "Elder Yu, what happened?"

Elder Yu didn't answer immediately. Instead, he looked out the window at the scenery—vast stretches of farmland and roadside barriers flashing by in a blur. After a long while, he said, "I often feel that scholarship is like climbing a mountain; there is always a higher peak. The more one knows, the more one feels a sense of awe. Often, people think they are leading the trend, unaware that their ideas have long been studied by others—or that others have gone even further—while those who think they've made a discovery are merely taking their first steps."

As a veteran academic pillar of the SRC, he had more than enough confidence.

"Indeed," the man in the white lab coat chuckled in agreement.

Elder Yu's aged fingers lightly tapped against the car window. "You've met Little Qin. He said his lesson plan will definitely be refreshing and eye-opening. What do you think?"

The man in the white lab coat suddenly understood why Elder Yu was smiling.

It was like a Buddha looking at an ascetic monk; the other person thought they had grasped the true meaning of Buddhism, unaware that the person sitting right across from them was the Buddha himself.

"That's a bit absolute. His insights last time were very sharp and left a deep impression on me. But this is different; this is the accumulation of knowledge. Just as a pastry chef can innovate a certain kind of cake, can they suddenly produce an entirely new non-cake food item? Personally, I think it's quite unlikely. Still... let's keep our expectations."

"Yes, I'm looking forward to it too." Elder Yu closed his eyes. "A refreshing and eye-opening topic... let me wait and see."

Qin Ye had no idea what kind of evaluation his lesson plan had received, but he was brimming with confidence. During this period, he had scoured every accessible database, and the contents of his lesson plan had never been touched upon anywhere before.

Just as he was going through a second review, his phone suddenly buzzed.

It was a notification from Momo. When he opened it, he found he had been added to a group chat named "First Cultivation University Inaugural Practical Combat Department" by a user whose ID was "Practical Combat Department Head Zhou Xianlong."

All five instructors along with the full and associate professors were in the chat. Zhou Xianlong switched on the voice-to-text mode and got straight to the point: "The freshmen of this year are not top-tier geniuses from aristocratic clans or major sects. Since they still don't fully trust our First Cultivation University, the cultivators they sent over are secondary-tier. None of them have ever participated in paranormal incidents."

No one spoke; everyone quietly listened to him.

"Precisely because of this, we must train them into capable professionals! Two years from now, we will make these clans and sects beg to send their true elites to our school!"

"Our university time is half as long as other universities—only two years. And the Practical Combat Department is the one that deals directly with paranormal incidents. My requirement is twofold: we must make them feel the school's high expectations, while also keeping them constantly on edge. Everyone, any thoughts? Speak freely."

Lin瀚 was rather blunt: "Beat them if they don't listen!"

*User 'Endowed with Great Equipment and Skills' has been muted for one minute.*

Everyone else was trembling in their boots before the dark forces represented by Zhou Xianlong, until Li Runxue suddenly typed: "What about the welcome event? I heard ordinary universities all have welcome activities?"

"Who's going to perform for them?" Zhou Xianlong immediately replied. "You guys? What can you perform? Military boxing? Or should I go up there and sing *Red Sunset*?"

Li Runxue fell silent.

The mental image was too horrifying to contemplate...

"Don't throw out random ideas. What we want is something solemn, deeply memorable, and educational. Ideally, it should tie right into the freshman mobilization."

Everyone racked their brains, none of them wanting to stick their necks out as the first to suggest something. On the other side of the phone screen, however, Qin Ye smiled.

A bunch of country bumpkins who never went to college...

How could they compare to an elite like this Palace who attended university five or six times?

When it came to leaving a deep impression, being educational, making freshmen remember it for a lifetime, and etching the instructors into their hearts forever, nothing could top that particular event...

He tentatively typed out a wicked line of text: "How about a emergency assembly?"

The malice and sinister intent behind this suggestion were simply glaringly obvious.

The entire group chat suddenly went dead silent.

Lin Han quickly fired off a message: "Holy crap... you are truly vicious. Seriously, I guarantee every single freshman in the department is going to thank your ancestors down to the eighth generation!"

"Overpraised, overpraised." Qin Ye smiled sinisterly and replied swiftly.

An emergency assembly—this was absolute poison, something every single generation of Chinese college students detested to their core.

How many people had exposed their most wretched, unglamorous sides in front of their dream crushes, feeling too embarrassed to even look them in the eye afterward?

How many people wanted to bury their heads in pillows and scream in sheer shame whenever that scene of emergency assembly was brought up?

Imagining that he was about to witness his department's students displaying such utterly mortifying moments, he couldn't help but feel... why was this malicious glee so overwhelmingly intense?

*You were playing games while we were training... And now? Look up and see if heaven ever spares anyone.*