Chapter Eighty - We head to the Scholar’s schools

In the end, they decided to place the defensive magic ring in the closed auction along with the three cockateal eggs, the Peng-Kun teeth and the void stone. The most of the rare celestial tear herbs also entered the closed auction along with a Diaphanous Wildrose seedling that they had discovered on the smaller isle.

Diaphanous Wildroses were rare, though they looked much like an ordinary wildrose plant, but there were minor differences such as the tips of their thorns being blue in colour and the leaves somewhat more delicate. It grew slowly; this plant could already be ten years in age yet it was no larger than a handspan and would need at least a decade more until it produced flowers. Then, much like the silver tea leaf plant, it could be harvested from many times without needing to uproot the entire thing.

The seedling itself would not be worth much if it were any other type of slow growing spiritual plant, it was just that many had tried to uproot and relocate mature Diaphanous Wildroses and each and everyone of those plants had died. A seedling might need many, many more years to mature, thus not be of any use to any alchemist or chef now, but it was far less likely to die in the hands of a clever herb farmer than its adult self.

And as for the scrolls, they turned out to be ancient formulas for two ordinary pills; the Fire Elements Core pill, a pill taken for defence purposes and the One Pulse Pill, which was a healing pill. Both recipes already existed intact in this era, so although the broken scrolls held historic interest, there wasn't much else. "And the One Pulse Pill recipe is missing pieces, but the main contents are readable," Roman's Teacher had told them as she had given them to the waiting students. They thanked her for her time and took all of the things back.

As the silver chest and scrolls were more like trophies and held no real value (unless they melted down the silver coins), Pike decided to keep them for the time being. Later, they would take some of the silver coins to turn into lucky bracelets and an unreasonable martial artist would take Leon's one off his wrist and toss it in a keepsake box that Leon obtained from a market stall and force him to wear a gold and silver bracelet he'd commissioned himself. But one was in the near future, the other some distance off.

As for the interdimensional ring, Leon suggested asking the Headmaster to keep it for them.

Normally no one would think of bothering the Headmaster for such things, but the ring was a bit of a hot potato and though they could hide its existence for a while, it was bound to get found out sooner or later that they had it. Almost as if he was expecting them to make this decision on this matter, the man appeared before them and he took the ring out of their hands without fanfare.

But before leaving he said; "Oh, Leon, I might just pop around for tea one of these days. I heard you brew excellent spiritual tea."

*****

The scholars schools were located in a hidden valley within the Ascending Mountains which was amazingly picturesque considering that the scholars themselves had noses in deep within books and scrolls and therefore were unable to appreciate it.  Tucked away between the mountain plateaus and slopes that sheltered the outer martial arts and alchemist schools, the vale was naturally walled by it's neighbours.  One of those walls happened to be the sheer mountain side riddled with caves that Leon had discovered during his muddled days as an 'outsider' within this foreign realm.

The vale itself was not one complete piece of land, but a series of plateaus and was further divided by rock teeth and a fairly deep chasm.  From the library of which a long bridge stretched out leading into a mountain face, up steps carved in the very rock of a hollowed out tower within that mountain, one would exit into a ornate garden of sculptured trees and potted plants, of calming water features and stone ornaments and benches.  Many students, Male and female chatted animatedly while sitting in the gardens oblivious to their beauty.  This plateau stretched long and wide and a series of pathways crisscrossed in straight lines leading away from the entrance of the vale.  One could also find caverns created to form underground bathing pools at furthest point from the entrance.

Heading one way would lead to the dormitories, of which the facades were built outside of the mountainous walls, while rooms were cosily tucked within.  The facades towered upwards with external stairs, each doorway lead into a shared space, which was decent in size and condition.  Up to four rooms lead away from this communal living area, each room housing up to four students.  All of the students, no matter whether they firmly attended the inner or outer schools lived in this area.

The dormitories were spread over four plateaus; the higher up one lived, the better the accommodation and the less populated the rooms were.  However, this came at a price; one either needed to pay the cost of residency with points or find shelter beneath the wing of a Scholar-Teacher.

At the other end of the gardens, the rock floor split to reveal the chasm.  Water fell from a precipice at one end into this chasm, vanishing into darkness.  Two stone bridges covered the breech and in scholar-like fashion, students would travel over them in a single direction.  The bridges led and led from another large and open plateau covered in carved tiles.  Small pavilions were set up here and there, each sheltering stone benches and again students were chatting vigorously, often over tea.  A circular building fitted into the heart of this spacious area and was set over three floors, much resembling restaurants in town.  This was the scholars food hall.

Further past this area and up many wide steps nestled in between a narrower corridor thanks to the natural shape of the mountains either side, another wide and tamed space could be found.  This place was where the outer school lie.  Much like the dormitories, the outer school's buildings were semi-submerged into the rock walls.  Here existed large lecture halls, libraries which held many copies of books that could be found within the main library outside of the school and rooms for experimentation and examinations.  Many Teachers and a few select students had their own studies here as well.

The inner school was similar in terms of what type of buildings could be found within, but it held even more precious study tools, scrolls, books and the like for the inner school students to study.  It was located on a much higher plateau, built around and over the mountain lake that fed the falls.  Many of the Teachers lived in villas beside the lake, on the only grassy space that could be found within the vale and that had been trimmed and trained to conform as well.

Architecturally, the schools were far more advanced and attractive than the other schools, but then, scholars were far less likely to break, smash or blowup the place.  Plus, for a Cultivator, it was often an unpopular route, thus it could be considered that offering such surroundings was a way to entice students.  Alas, the true scholar cared more about studying tomes than their surroundings.  Strong arrays had been set at every point where a youth head deep in a book or their own thoughts could accidentally fall off of a cliff.

Leon had never been here before; his Teacher hadn't brought him here when he came to give the odd lecture (which was rare as his field of expertise leaned towards how to grow herbs, something scholars didn't care much about over the use of them) and Roman's Teacher was eccentric.  Her rooms were located in a small valley that could only be reached by griffin or other flying mount.

He only happened to have the opportunity now as the auctions would take place here, within the outer school's lecture halls.