pjbooks Chapter 112 Fame Again
Chapter 112 Fame Again
The news of the Demon God Realm's retreat spread to every corner of the human world within just a few hours.
The online frenzy lasted from midnight to noon, and then from noon to dusk. Jiang Chen's name once again dominated Weibo's trending topics list, with the top fifty spots entirely occupied by related hashtags, from #LiangzhouVictory# to #JiangChenSlaysTheDemonGod#, from #AbyssalRiftSealed# to #BarsalonUnableToClimbOutForACentury#, with each hashtag seeing hundreds of millions of views.
But what truly ignited the emotions of the entire internet was not the overwhelming battle reports and news releases, but a video that was only twenty-seven seconds long.
The video was filmed by a young communications soldier guarding the Liangzhou city wall. The footage shakily zoomed in from the desolate wasteland pierced by sword marks below the city, focusing on a figure in a dark blue school uniform. The figure slowly released his right hand from a hand seal, a pale golden sword light emanating from his palm and disappearing into his skin. Then he raised his left hand and gently patted the hem of his school uniform twice, brushing away the dark green abyss debris clinging to it, as if brushing off a few grains of dust.
After filming, he put his hands back in his school uniform pockets and walked towards the city gate at a leisurely pace. The wind made his school uniform flutter, and his walking posture was no different from the beginning of the video, as if the two swords that had shaken the entire abyss were nothing more than a warm-up for him.
After the video was uploaded online, it was shared more than 20 million times within ten minutes.
"Put on the dust! Put on the dust! Did you see that?! The first thing he did after killing a demon was to put on the dust!"
"Balsalon shouted 'As long as the abyss exists, the demon gods will never die!' before he died, and Chen-ge looked at him like he was looking at a cockroach that couldn't be crushed. The way he swatted away the dust was hilarious; that was fragments of the Seventh Pillar Demon God's true abyssal body, and in his eyes it was just a lump of dust!"
"I took a screenshot. The expression on Chen Ge's face when he dusts himself off is exactly the same as the expression he makes when he buys soy milk at the door of his house. It's that 'okay, I've bought my stuff and I'm going home' expression."
In the comments section, a netizen claiming to be a seasoned reader of cultivation novels wrote: "I originally thought 'Immortal Emperor' was just a title, but after watching this battle, I realized just how heavy those two words truly are. Balthalon is one of the Seven Pillars of the Abyss, and his corrupting laws can turn everything into his nourishment—the kind of laws that can even corrupt time and causality. Why was Brother Chen's sword able to slay him?"
Amidst this overwhelming discussion, another major piece of news was officially released that afternoon by the Dragon Kingdom Awakeners Affairs Management Bureau through official channels.
The headline of the news was only eight characters long: "Dragon Kingdom Immortal Cultivation Academy to be located in Jiangzhou".
The main text is concise: With the joint confirmation of the General Administration and Mr. Jiang Chen himself, the first cultivation academy in the Dragon Kingdom will be named "Qingyun Academy." The school site is located in the former abandoned industrial area and surrounding expansion area in the south of Jiangzhou City. Construction begins immediately, jointly undertaken by the Dragon Kingdom Engineering Academy and the Dragon Kingdom Awakener General Administration. Qingyun Academy will not be affiliated with the Awakener education system and will possess independent enrollment, teaching, and assessment rights. The first dean is Jiang Chen.
The news sent shockwaves around the world.
"Qingyun Academy! Qingyunzi! Brother Chen named the first cultivation academy after his master! During the live stream in the Apostle Hall, when his master appeared, he said, 'It's been a thousand years, your disciple has missed you.' That master was Qingyunzi! This is a master-disciple relationship that transcends a thousand years!"
"Jiang Chen, the first dean, is now officially recognized as the founding master of the cultivation world!" Amidst this overwhelming discussion, some people recalled that just two months ago, Jiang Chen was still the "world's first person without abilities," ridiculed by the entire world. Now, he is the pioneer of a new era of human civilization.
Just one day later, Qingyun Academy released its admission brochure. Admissions were open to all, regardless of nationality or Awakened level; the sole criterion, personally determined by Jiang Chen, was spiritual root. He would personally test the spiritual root of every applicant. Those with all five elements of spiritual root could directly enter the orthodox cultivation class; those with single or dual-attribute spiritual roots could enter the corresponding attribute cultivation class; and those without spiritual root but possessing Awakened talent could enter the body cultivation class.
At the end of the brochure, a line of small print stands out: "On the path of cultivation, one should not ask about one's origins, but only about one's Dao heart."
On the evening the enrollment brochure was released, Jiang Chen had just finished training Shen Qingxue and Wang Kai at the abandoned factory and was standing at the entrance of his residential compound waiting for the traffic light to change. His phone kept vibrating in his pocket, full of messages from Su Ze. He didn't open them because he could already hear his mother cooking in the kitchen from four floors away—the sizzling of the oil in the pan, the clanging of the spatula, and Jiang Xueqin's urging, "Old Jiang, put the bowls and chopsticks on!"
He walked up the stairs. The aroma of stewed pork ribs from Grandma Wang's house on the first floor was still as strong as ever, the smell of cooking oil from Uncle Zhang's house on the third floor was still as pungent as ever, and the sandalwood incense from Aunt Li's house on the fifth floor was burning particularly hard tonight. He pushed open the worn security door, and Jiang Xueqin was carrying the last dish out of the kitchen, a few scallions stuck to her apron. Seeing him, she said, "Wash your hands and eat. I don't understand your stuff about the cultivation academy, but the ribs can't get cold." Jiang Tianyi was already sitting down at the table, placing the empty cigarette box that he had been crumpling up for days on the corner of the table, then picking up a rib with the most cartilage and putting it in Jiang Chen's bowl, saying the same thing again—"Good lad, you've made your old man proud."
Moonlight streamed in through the window, falling on the rose bush on the balcony that hadn't bloomed in years. No one noticed that a tender green shoot had sprouted from the soil at the bottom of the pot, swaying gently in the evening breeze. In the distance, the city of Jiangzhou was just beginning to light up. This ordinary city, from this day forward, would become the starting point for humanity's journey to the stars.
The moment Qingyun Academy released its admission brochure, global internet servers once again faced an apocalyptic level of stress.
The official website of the Dragon Kingdom Awakeners Affairs Management Bureau crashed less than three minutes after the announcement was released.
One hundred thousand. Five hundred thousand. One million. Three million.
Within the first hour of its release, the number of people who registered worldwide exceeded ten million.
Three hours after its release, the registration system crashed seven times due to an overwhelming number of concurrent requests. Each repair lasted less than ten minutes before being overwhelmed again. Su Ze stared at the still frantically fluctuating numbers on the screen in the Jiangzhou branch command center. Sweat beaded on his forehead, and he ripped off his tie and threw it on the table. Two buttons of his shirt were undone, and he looked like he had just been pulled out of the water.
"Director! The European region is down too! The registration channel for the Nordic countries is completely blocked. They've made dozens of calls asking if we can use paper registration forms instead!" The secretary jogged over, almost dropping the folder in her hand.
Su Ze took a deep breath: "Tell them it's okay. The Qingyun Academy's admission brochure says 'Jiang Chen will personally test your spiritual roots,' it doesn't say online registration is mandatory. Have them send over the registration form first, and we'll arrange the testing order later."