Chapter 120: No Mercy (2)
Wan Tiansheng smiled nonchalantly. One of the remaining elders smiled and said, "Old Wan, you're pushing it too far. Don't keep turning them against each other. If their conflict escalates into true enmity, it won't be good for us either."
"It's fine." Wan Tiansheng laughed, "Wu Yuehua can talk the talk, but can she walk the walk? Even if she wants to leave, Hong Tan and the others won't agree. As for Old Zhou, after getting so many benefits, it's time for him to pay something back.
"That old fellow is still thinking about those items even after all these years. What's the point?
"If he has the time to think about those items, he might as well use his time to recreate those things. Why is he holding onto the grudge for 50 years?"
Wan Tiansheng shook his head and continued, "This is good for us. If they aren't at each other's throats, it will be much harder for us to carry out our plan. Since they are busy dealing with each other, none will have the time or energy to interfere with our affairs."
Someone else laughed and said, "Old Wan, just know your limits. Don't anger them too much lest they really leave. At that time, it will be too late for regret."
"Don't worry."
Wan Tiansheng was indifferent. "It's not like you don't know this. Half of the so-called envoys of the various prefectures talking to them are actually our agents. The offers given by our agents are absolutely crazy. Since they were too embarrassed to confirm the offers with the various prefects, they all took the words of our agents as the truth. But when they do try to jump ship, hehe, they will find that the real offer is not even one tenth of what they have been offered. I wonder if they will instantly turn on those prefectures then."
At that, the elders laughed.
One of them cursed, "That's too scummy."
Wan Tiansheng was truly too treacherous. He was afraid that those fellows would really run off so he had been sending fake envoys to issue those people fake offers. Since the various prefectures were really trying to steal the people of Great Xia behind the scenes, they would be too embarrassed to say anything about it publicly even if they did notice the fake envoys.
And if Wu Yuehua and the others did end up jumping ship, the plan would be spoiled the moment they started talking about payments. Wan Tiansheng had intentionally offered a price that the various prefectures couldn't afford. They would only end up turning against each other.
Earlier, both Wu Yuehue and Old Zhou had been very confident that the various prefectures were waiting for them with high offers. These people and Principal Wan merely listened silently and laughed inwardly. None of them dared to speak the truth.
If the truth was exposed, Wan Tiansheng would probably be beaten to death before he could leave the building. That was too treacherous.
After joking around, someone seriously said, "Old Wan, your reputation in the academy has been very bad recently. The Foreign Student Faculty has brought the academy many troubles..."
"I wouldn't call those troubles." Wan Tiansheng calmly said, "I call those opportunities. An opportunity for reform. The academy is too bloated while the existing students are no longer capable of forging ahead. They spend all their time in internal struggles. I want to unite them. The Foreign Student Faculty will be a good target for them. We can't allow the internal conflicts to continue unchecked. There needs to be a limit to that.
"We can also use the foreign students to clear some deadweights from the academy. At the same time, we can trigger the students' competitiveness and bring them back to the right path.
"Those who deserve to leave will leave and those who deserve to stay will stay. We will slim down our bloated structure and gather more resources. And those minor races will be the contributors of these additional resources.
"Rather than let them fight among themselves, we might as well make them fight the outsiders. It is too wasteful to have Wu Yuehua and Old Zhou compete against each other. With the foreigners here, they will shift their attention to those foreigners and there will be less internal conflicts among ourselves. We can use the foreign students to temper our students. This is a good plan."
One of the elders said hesitatingly, "How about the foreign races?"
"No worries."
Wan Tiansheng said, "Competition is a form of tempering. If they don't compete, how can they grow into experts? With the stiff competition, only the strong would be left. For the foreign races, losing some garbage students for a group of elites would be totally worth it.
.
"Do you think they will care about losing some garbage students if they stand to gain some elites?"
"No."
"Then it will be fine!" Wan Tiansheng was all smiles as he said, "I have it all planned out. The Myriad God House of the divines and the Allheaven Purgatory of the devils will be our next targets. We will compete against them and we will win.
"When conflict between the human students and the foreign students is starting to reach the point of no return, we will shift their attention once again and unite everyone against the divines and the devils.
"And if we win, the foreign students will discover that the divines and the devils aren't that scary after all."
Wan Tiansheng narrowed his eyes and said, "Since the divines and the devils can actually be defeated, why would they need to be afraid of them? Those minor races will lose their fear toward the divines and the devils. Will they still listen to the two races?
"At that point, the academy will grow strong, our students will grow strong, our internal strife will stop, the minor races will gain the confidence to stand against the divines and the devils, and we will get the additional resources we have been trying to get. Everything will be great."
An elder said, "That's only if everything moves smoothly. I'm afraid that it won't go according to your plan."
Wan Tiansheng nodded, "There is a possibility of the plan failing. The Myriad God House and Allheaven Purgatory are also no pushovers. A single failure will ruin all the work we have done before and instead further showcase how strong the divines and devils are to the various races."
Someone worriedly said, "At that time, you will be in great trouble."
"I'll be fine." Wan Tiansheng was indifferent. "At that time, Xia Longwu will leave seclusion and lead the Martial Dragon Guards and the Devil Subduing Army to the Allheaven Battlefield. There, he will kill some divines and devils before stepping into the Invincible Realm.
"I will be removed from my position as a principal. Everything will start anew. All the failures from before will be my fault. Great Xia will still be Great Xia while I can move on with my life at a different place. It's not like they will actually kill me.
"Therefore, this is a good opportunity for us. We can reform and throw out the old ways that don't work anymore without that big of a price. Everyone, this is a very rare opportunity. How can we give up on it?"
The crowd sighed. He might sound relaxed, but if the worst case scenario really happened, he would ruin the reputation he had spent a lifetime building. He would become the disgrace of Great Xia.
He would be called a traitor, a turncoat, trash, and all sorts of humiliating names. He would be the most despised person in Great Xia while his sacrifice would only highlight the greatness of Xia Longwu alone.
Wan Tiansheng did not care about their thoughts. He continued speaking, "Of course, we still need to focus on nurturing these students. We can't ruin this batch of students as well."
His face turned solemn as he said, "In the past, we have been competing among ourselves. Victory or defeat doesn't matter that much. Now, we are competing against outsiders. The price of defeat is death.
"I guess this would be good for the students. They can witness how cruel the world actually is. There are things that they can't experience from internal conflicts."
Wan Tiansheng took a deep breath before continuing, "Train them well. I want all the senior researchers to start teaching the students this year. As for the students, I don't need all of them to be geniuses, but plant a few freaks among them to provoke all the other students. These freaks are there as props and they should be self-aware enough to play their part well.
"If you really can't find any good students..." Wan Tiansheng clenched his teeth and said, "You guys will put on a disguise and pretend to be freak students. Do you understand me?"
"..."
The elders were speechless. Old Wan must have gone crazy. He was telling them to pretend to be students? They were all Mountainsea experts! He was expecting them to pretend to be students?
One of them sighed, "Old Wan, this isn't proper, right? Don't pressure the student too much. If they break from the pressure, it will be hard for us to answer for our actions."
"Afraid of pressure? Then are they still qualified to be freaks? Are they still qualified to be geniuses? If they are afraid of pressure, just go back home.
"This is exactly what I want. I need them to experience true cruelty. When they reach the Skysoar Realm in six months, you will be ahead of them at the seventh-stage Skysoar Realm. When they reach the Cloudbreach Realm, you will be ahead of them at the Mountainsea Realm. Keep suppressing them. Let them know that there is always someone better out there.
"That kid from Great Zhou is getting too arrogant. He keeps thinking that he is the best in the world. I believe that it is only a matter of time before his confidence ruins him. Just because he has some talent, he looks down on the world. In truth, he's nothing special!
"We'll go with this plan. I don't care how you do it. Just pick a few of you to enter a seclusion before you start pretending to be students. If it's too embarrassing to look for others to act as your teachers, just pick some of your colleagues present. Then, all you need to do is appear once in a while and step all over those students."
Wan Tiansheng flashed a treacherous grin as he said, "Go all out. Don't be afraid that you will destroy their confidence. Every now and then, provoke and step on those so-called geniuses and freaks. If some of them break from the pressure, so be it. We will leave our resources to the true geniuses."
An elder sighed, "If they found out about this, we would be too embarrassed to show our faces anymore."
"What are you afraid of? Don't worry. If nobody here leaks this, how would they know?
"We're doing this for the students' well-being. Or to be precise, we're doing this for the good of humanity. In fact, if this plan works, I'll suggest to the Knowledge Seeking Realm and War Shrine to spread this method to the entire Human Realm."
The more Wan Tiansheng spoke, the more excited he was. "After growing into true experts, not only would these people not blame us, but they would gladly join in as well. They would happily subject the new students to the same humiliation they had gone through. With that, this practice would be passed down generation after generation."
Someone laughed and said, "Old Wan, I keep having the feeling that you are creating a lot of trouble for yourself in the future. You are showing no mercy to these students."
The elder was right. The foreign students, the two greatest academies of the divines and devils, and the fake students played by these elders were all there to push the students into desperation one step at a time.
A student who managed to grow into an expert through such a torture would definitely want to take revenge on the culprit.
Wan Tiansheng did not mind. He concluded, "We have reached an agreement, then. Also, I heard there are a lot of geniuses among the new students this year. Each of them is more arrogant than the other. I want you to smash their confidence apart."
"Old Wan, your juniors are among them..."
"Don't mind them. Show no mercy. If you dare to step on even the juniors of the principal, nobody would be able to criticize your actions.
"Right, Old Zheng's grandson is among the students as well. He would be a good target as well. Show them that you are brave enough to offend the juniors of two principals.
"Show them how fearless you are. Teach the juniors of the Xia Family and the Hu Family a good lesson as well."
Wan Tiansheng smiled happily as he continued, "Also, Fatty Xia's juniors are here as well. Step on them as much as you can. It's even better if you can make them leave the academy. That damn fatty actually told me that he couldn't afford the school fees this year and demanded that I accept his juniors for free. Be sure to step on them."
Laughter resounded in the room. That Marquis Xia was truly too stingy.
"Hopefully this storm will be enough to create a few good seeds among the new students..."
Wan Tiansheng lamented, "Fifty years ago, the academy has indeed grown stronger after expelling those fellows. But as a result, we have also placed a limitation on our people. We no longer dare to take risks and experiment. As a result, we nurtured a bunch of cultivators that were formed from the same mold. Their future was ruined. That was my fault. Sure, we did produce some Mountainsea experts, but we have not produced a single Supreme expert. It has been fifty years!"
For the past fifty years, the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy had not produced a single Supreme expert. Although that wasn't a long time for cultivators, they would still be able to produce one every few decades in the past. But they had not been able to produce any since fifty years ago.
Wan Tiansheng knew that it was too late to revert some of the changes. All the newer students were incredibly obedient. They were basically robots with a stiff mindset. Without a reform, the academy might be able to continue prospering. But they would no longer become a pillar in humanity's struggle against the myriad races.
They were terribly lacking in terms of the production of high-end experts. For Wan Tiansheng, that was scarier than the destruction of the academy. Even more terrifying was the fact that the incident fifty years ago did not involve only Great Xia. Its aftereffects had actually spread through the entire Human Realm.
That was a very scary thought. He had not been able to sleep well at night. He was afraid that if he didn't reform now, it would be too late.