After about an hour of intense work, the finishing touches were finally complete, and the magnificent building stood proudly before him. Xiang Yu’s eyes widened with satisfaction as he took in the impressive sight. The finished structure resembled an open stadium.
The building was perfectly circular, with individual school buildings arranged around the outer ring.
At the very center of the complex, several managerial buildings and storage facilities had been constructed exactly according to his specifications. The central courtyard was spacious and open, perfect for gatherings and ceremonies. Xiang Yu had specifically requested this layout, envisioning how it would function as a true educational institution.
"It definitely looks like a real school," he thought.
Although he currently only had eight established professions, he had asked for the architects to construct far more school buildings than immediately necessary. This would leave ample room for future expansion whenever he gained access to new professions or decided to split existing ones into more specialized branches.
Xiang Yu descended gently from the sky, his feet touching down on the smooth stone courtyard at the pavilion’s heart. He immediately spread out his divine sense, scanning every corner, corridor, and room of the sprawling complex. His spiritual awareness flowed through walls and foundations, checking structural integrity, examining the quality of construction materials, and ensuring every detail met his exact standards.
After several minutes of thorough inspection, he nodded with satisfaction. Everything was perfect without a single flaw.
Reaching into his spatial ring, Xiang Yu retrieved a communication talisman. Establishing a connection with Liu Qing. Since the building was finally complete, there was no need to keep the students waiting any longer.
He instructed Liu Qing to bring everyone who passed their entrance tests and were admitted to a school, Medicine, cooking, talismans, formations, as well as those who wanted to enter the school of blacksmithing.
Within just a few minutes, Liu Qing appeared at the head of a large group of excited disciples. Their faces glowed with anticipation as they gazed up at the building before them. It was unlike anything they’d ever seen before, even in the nearby city.
Among the crowd, Xiang Yu immediately spotted the distinctive Yue twins. After the earlier situation had been somewhat resolved, they had been allowed to remain as regular disciples within the sect.
Li Yao had originally wanted to promote them directly to elder positions to help ease the administrative burden on the sect’s leadership, but both Xiang Yu and Elder Huang had firmly opposed this idea. Xiang Yu thought to himself that bringing outsiders into their already somewhat established "family" would inevitably lead to internal conflicts and power struggles.
It was much better to wait for a more appropriate time when trust between them and the existing cast had been fully established. Besides, he didn’t completely trust the twins just yet.
"Is this everyone?" Xiang Yu asked, his voice carrying clearly across the assembled group.
"That’s right," Liu Qing replied with a respectful nod.
"Good. You and the other presidents, follow me," Xiang Yu commanded.
The presidents he had appointed began gathering around him, moving several meters away from the main crowd. Zao Shen representing the School of Cooking, Wang Cheng representing the School of Medicine, the Lin Yue twins representing both the Schools of Formations and Talismans, and Liu Qing as the overall chairman.
Xiang Yu turned to face the twins first. "You two," he began, causing both figures to immediately straighten and pay careful attention to his words.
He pointed directly at the twin who had been designated for talismans. "I’ll be referring to you as Fu Yue from now on. Fu(符) as in the character for talisman," he declared.
Before the twin could respond, Xiang Yu turned to address his counterpart. "And you’ll be Zhen Yue. Zhen(阵) as in the character for formation."
"You don’t have to legally change your names to these. We’ll just be referring to you as such within the school environment from now on to make administrative matters much easier for everyone involved."
The other leaders standing beside him nodded in unanimous agreement.
"We’ll do as the Grand Elder says," both twins spoke in perfect synchronization.
"Good," Xiang Yu said with satisfaction as he turned around and began walking toward the pavilion’s main entrance. The group of leaders fell into step behind him.
…
Xiang Yu began leading the group of presidents on a comprehensive tour around the sprawling pavilion complex. He pointed out each school building, laboratory, and workshop space, explaining the specific functions and equipment housed within. His voice carried clearly as he detailed where their individual classes would be held, how the storage systems worked, and where students could access additional resources when needed.
The presidents followed attentively behind him, occasionally asking clarifying questions about scheduling, equipment usage, and administrative procedures. Xiang Yu answered each inquiry patiently, though internally he was already calculating how much time this orientation was consuming from his daily schedule.
After completing the thorough walkthrough of the entire facility, Xiang Yu expected these newly appointed leaders to replicate this same detailed tour for their fellow schoolmates. He simply couldn’t afford to personally guide every single student through this process.
"Alright, I’ve covered just about everything important," Xiang Yu announced as they gathered in the central courtyard. "You guys need to ensure you relay all this information accurately to your fellow students."
He thought to himself that he also needed to create proper student IDs for everyone, along with class schedules, curriculum guidelines, and probably dozens of other administrative details he hadn’t yet considered. He was really starting to regret not thinking this through more thoroughly from the beginning.
"Take this," he spoke as he retrieved a spatial ring from his robes and handed it directly to Liu Qing.
"These are your learning materials," Xiang Yu explained. "At your current skill levels, you only need to focus on the ninth-grade textbooks I’ve prepared. Have each president collect the appropriate ninth-grade books to distribute among their respective schools. As for all the others, store them safely in the central library for future use."
When he observed that they all understood his instructions, he dismissed them with a wave of his hand. "Alright, go on with your duties," he spoke.
The presidents offered respectful bows before departing to begin their new responsibilities, chattering quietly among themselves.
Xiang Yu then turned his attention to the separate group that had been waiting patiently beside the main crowd. This particular group consisted of disciples who would be testing for admission to the School of Blacksmithing.
"You guys follow me," he spoke, gesturing for them to follow him.
The eager group followed him through the pavilion grounds as he guided them into the specialized blacksmithing school building. The structure was impressively equipped with multiple forges, anvils, hammers, tongs, and countless other specialized tools that Xiang Yu had already crafted and asked they be placed throughout the workspace.
The same level of preparation had been applied to all the other professional buildings – cooking utensils for the cooking school, alchemical equipment for the alchemy school, specialized lab tools for the medicine school, etc... with extras stored in the storage facilities.
"I’ll demonstrate how to craft a basic knife step by step," Xiang Yu announced to the assembled candidates. "After I’m finished with the complete demonstration, I want each of you to attempt replicating the same process. It doesn’t have to be absolutely perfect, just give it your honest best shot."
The disciples nodded eagerly, their eyes bright with anticipation.
Xiang Yu then began the process of crafting a knife. Although his advanced skills would normally allow him to produce such a basic item quite fast, he deliberately slowed his pace this time. Every movement was exaggerated and clearly visible, every technique explained in detail, ensuring the watching disciples could catch and understand everything he was demonstrating.
He heated the metal, shaped it with careful hammer strikes, and gradually refined it into a functional blade. In the end, he held up a perfectly crafted knife.
He displayed the finished product to the students, rotating it slowly so they could observe every detail of its construction. "Now try to recreate the same thing," he instructed. "Use as many resources as you want. If you fail, just restart completely. Don’t worry about waste."
"You have until I return," Xiang Yu declared, "Your time starts now."
The moment those words left his lips, the disciples immediately scrambled into action, rushing to gather raw materials and light their individual furnaces. The building filled with the sounds of clanging metal and roaring flames as they threw themselves into their work with enthusiasm.
Seeing them fully engaged in their tasks, Xiang Yu quietly left the building and made his way back toward his spirit vein. Having already spent far more time than planned dealing with school administration and setup, he needed to dive immediately into his own crafting work to make up for lost productivity.
He began with the simpler, lower-level items since they were easiest to produce quickly and efficiently. As he worked, his mind wandered to a growing concern about time management. He wondered seriously how he was going to effectively handle all these educational responsibilities when his daily schedule was already completely packed with other things.
"I could really use a few extra bodies right now," he thought. The idea sparked his curiosity – he wondered if his junior sister might know some kind of cloning technique. The Empress surely had access to such a method, right? He made a mental note to ask Li Yao about this later.
…
Author’s Corner
Here we go again…
I like the way bro left a bunch of kids in a room by themselves to essentially play with fire and molten iron.