Chapter 58: Winds of Change (2)
Everyone's attention was shifted to Marquis Xia.
Wan Tiansheng was relieved to see that. This was good. Marquis Xia...was naturally here to be the fall guy. Of course, Marquis Xia wasn't really as bad as these people made him out to be.
The Great Xia government had been spending more than they earned for a long time. Xia Longwu did not care about the economy and was only focused on cultivation and war. Without Marquis Xia, the treasury would have emptied out five years ago.
As far as Wan Tiansheng was concerned, Marquis Xia was more suited to be the prefect than Xia Longwu. Marquis Xia was the reason Great Xia had been able to remain standing for so long. Naturally, not many people were aware of that.
They only knew that Marquis Xia was an unreliable and stingy person. Many believed that if it wasn't for the fact that Marquis Xia's father was the Great Xia King, he would have been beaten to death in some dark alley long ago.
Ignoring the crowd, Wan Tiansheng said some placating words before saying, "Since Marquis Xia is now the acting prefect, things will be rather tight for everyone this year. He told me that the treasury is empty. We need to save money.
"Therefore, we will only be accepting five hundred new students this year. Additionally, we are also looking to cut some fat from the academy.
"More importantly, those above fifty that have yet to achieve willpower materialization and are also not teaching in the academy will no longer be given an allowance."
That final sentence was akin to a bomb being thrown into the crowd.
"Impossible!"
"How can we do that?"
"Principal, you're betraying the entire academy!" An old man shouted, "In the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy, there are over twenty thousand students above fifty that have yet to achieve willpower materialization. Less than five hundred of them are teaching in the academy. How will the rest of them put food on the table without the allowance?"
Hearing that, a sharp look appeared in Wan Tiansheng's eyes. Over the years, the academy had turned into a bloated machine. During the past fifty years, the academy had grown considerably, with numerous experts among their ranks.
But there was no denying that alongside growth, numerous problems had also cropped up within the academy. A bunch of old students that had yet to achieve willpower materialization were slowly pushing the academy to the brink of bankruptcy.
He knew that his idea would face a lot of resistance. The tens of thousands of deadweight in the academy were given an allowance of over a hundred thousand dollars each on a yearly basis. The academy was spending billions per year just paying these people.
Of course, these old students had a lot of connections in the academy. Some had their descendents in the academy. Some had their teachers and seniors with high positions in the academy. The cancellation of their allowance would cause a big ruckus.
However, they had no choice but to control their expenditure. He could no longer put up with that. When Xia Longwu was around, his idea had been rejected again and again. That was because Xia Longwu believed that even these people who had yet to achieve willpower materialization had contributed a lot to the prefecture. He couldn't let them down.
But by trying not to let anyone down, it would only be a matter of time before everyone was brought down together. If even a single Great Xia Cultural Research Academy had such a large expenditure, then the expenditure of the entire Great Xia would be an astronomical number.
Not even Marquis Xia, with his incredible talent in making money, could make enough to pay for all that. This was something they had to do. It was only a matter of time. Wan Tiansheng could only hope that the people affected could understand why they were doing so.
A lot of the people among the crowd had benefited from the previous generous policy. He did not change his mind despite their objections. He spoke with a voice that was calm yet strong enough to suppress all other voices in the room, "This has been decreed by the prefectural government. If you're unhappy, go look for Marquis Xia.
"Apart from that, the research funds will be reduced by thirty percent. Some of the more useless research can be stopped. The Audit Office will need to take responsibility for this. You can't approve any research proposed to you. You're only wasting money for no result.
"For example, why are we even studying the fire hog race? How many years have we wasted on that? That race is cannon fodder in the Allheaven Battlefield. We have killed tens of millions of them already. What is there to study about them? Ridiculous!"
If they had so much time and energy, they might as well research something more useful.
"Also, those planning to do research should focus on their research. Stop messing around in the academy."
Without waiting for the crowd to voice their objections, Wan Tiansheng threw another bomb into the crowd, "After some consideration and a discussion with Marquis Xia, I've decided to reopen the Foreign Student Faculty."
That single announcement surpassed everything he had announced previously.
Even the few experts that had been remaining silent throughout the meeting started speaking. One of them coldly said, "Foreign Student Faculty? Principal, this proposal was vetoed many years ago. Back then, the prefect personally went to the Allheaven Battlefield to eliminate several races in a row. Why are you reopening the faculty? Do you think that the prefect will stay in seclusion forever?"
Wan Tiansheng calmly said, "Everyone, even if we don't accept foreign students, there will still be Myriad Race Cult spies in the academy."
"That's different!" Someone shouted coldly, "The cult members are still humans. What's the point of accepting foreign students?"
"Money." Wan Tiansheng spoke bluntly, "Rather than have them send Myriad Race Cult spies into the academy, we might as well accept them directly. Firstly, the foreigners will be right under our eyes. We can easily monitor them.
"Secondly, we can charge them an expensive school fee. Thirdly, apart from money, we will also be charging them a large amount of resources and secret techniques. If they want to join the academy, they will have to pay the price for it. That way, they will reduce their support toward the Myriad Race Cult. Instead, the resources meant to go to the cult will fall into our hands.
"Fourthly, we can show our sincerity to the myriad races, telling them that so long as they aren't absolutely hostile toward us, there is always a possibility of alliance. The human race is a top ten race among the myriad races. Not everyone can harm us. For some races, cooperating with us might be a better choice than to stand against us."
Wan Tiansheng continued, "In fact, the divines and devils are doing the same, roping in the minor races to their side. They have even granted those minor races access to some of their more unimportant secret grottos and sacred lands to help those races grow, turning them into the vanguard in the war against humanity.
"Super experts of the minor races can even be found in the armies of the divines and devils. Each time we clashed, only humans will die from our armies while the divines and devils might only lose some experts from the minor races. The divines and devils themselves have remained relatively unscathed by the conflict.
"Since the other races can place spies among our ranks, creating something like the Myriad Race Cult, we can do the same as well. For example, these foreign students can be bribed, brainwashed, or threatened. There are steps we can take to bring them to our side.
"Many years later, these foreign students could very well become the vanguard of our army pointed toward the other races.
"I admit that there are disadvantages to this plan. There are a lot of disadvantages to it. But think about this. Are the disadvantages enough to offset the advantages or is it the other way around?
"As long as we oversee the plan properly, things can be better. At the very least, you can stop worrying whether the fellow human beside you is a spy from the Myriad Race Cult or not.
"After gaining the ability to openly join us, the size of the Myriad Race Cult will decline steeply. Incidents where we spent large amounts of resources to nurture a human that turned out to be a spy will no longer happen."
"..."
Wan Tiansheng had helmed the academy for many years, so he had a lot of supporters as well. The crowd started discussing among themselves.
At the corner, Bai Feng was yawning with a bored expression. This had nothing to do with him. It also wasn't his place to voice an opinion. As a mere assistant researcher, he had no voice here.
Beside him, Liu Hong smiled and said,"Bai Feng, the student intake has been reduced this year. Will your personal student end up failing to even enter the academy? Also, that Martial Uncle of yours seems to be among those to be affected by the cost-cutting..."
Bai Feng looked at Liu Hong like he was staring at a fool. He said, "My Martial Uncle has achieved willpower materialization. Don't you know that? Unfortunately for you, he's not going to be affected."
"He materialized?"
Liu Hong was unaware of that. After all, that wasn't a big deal in the academy. Even after willpower materialization, one would only be a first-stage Skysoar cultivator.
Liu Hong did not linger on the topic. He smiled and said, "With the cut in research funds, it looks like the academy is on the cusp of a reform. The tests for people like us will probably be even more strict than before..."
"What are you trying to say? Just get to the point. I don't feel like guessing. It's too tiring."
Liu Hong took a deep breath and said, "Open Senior Hong's research center to me. I'll inject some funds into the research center. We can use the research center together. I can even provide you with the resources you lack. We can share the results of the research. Bai Feng, it will only harm the both of us if we continue competing."
Liu Hong solemnly said, "Senior Hong's research center has not been able to submit any research results for years. If this continues, some people will start pushing to shut it down."
"Piss off." Bai Feng scolded with no trace of politeness. But after giving it some thought, he said, "Well, that's not impossible..."
Liu Hong was overjoyed.
"Send me a few Mountainsea corpses of the divine or devil race. We can continue our negotiation after that."
Bai Feng said seriously, "I'm being serious. Since you want to join us, you will definitely need to pay a price. After all, we have been researching the same subject for so many years and are on the verge of breakthrough."
"I—"
Liu Hong cursed inwardly. This fellow must be taking him for a fool.
Bai Feng merely sneered. If Liu Hong wasn't a fool, who was? Bai Feng then ignored Liu Hong. He glanced at Wan Tiansheng and thought to himself that the academy was going to be in chaos soon. He wondered if that was good or bad. The prefect had entered seclusion while Marquis Xia had been appointed the acting prefect. No matter how he looked at it, major changes were coming.
"There won't be any troubles, right?" Bai Feng sighed. He could only hope that nothing would go wrong. He also wondered about Su Yu's recent progress in cultivation.