Am I the old man who's always by my apprentices' side?

Chapter 195 Playing with Ashes at Shiraishi Sendoh University

After accumulating materials for several months, Zhang Chengdao no longer lacked basic spiritual materials. Even the most precious materials, such as machine wood, black iron ore, heavenly silkworm brocade, and immortal jade, were piled up in his backpack in several stacks, numbering in the hundreds.

So, once the site for Shiraishi Sendo University was chosen, and the land was leveled, the foundation was laid, and the ground was paved, Zhang Chengdao personally went to the "construction site" and then set up twenty rooms that had already been renovated...

【Zongtang】.

These renovated "ancestral halls" were actually "student dormitories" specially prepared by Zhang Chengdao for Baishi Xiandao University.

This is a long story.

As the first educational institution tasked with selecting outstanding cultivators from the common people, Zhang Chengdao naturally attached great importance to it.

But no matter how much he valued it, he couldn't possibly treat his disciples like he would his own disciples, meticulously designing a courtyard for four and providing each disciple with their own private room.

Besides the fact that the spiritual materials required for the [Stone Tile House] are too numerous, and even if Zhang Chengdao had saved enough, he didn't want to waste them at the White Stone Immortal University, he also had to consider the feelings of the disciples of the White Stone Immortal Sect. Surely the accommodation conditions of this school shouldn't be the same as those of the disciples carefully selected by his own sect?

Therefore, after poring over the blueprints in the construction system several times, Zhang Chengdao carefully selected the [Zongtang], which required very few spiritual materials but occupied a very large area.

In the original game, this thing was used to place the memorial tablets of the villagers in Peach Blossom Village and for sacrificial rites. It was a functional but decorative building, because the game did not require players to manually perform sacrificial rites; it simply collected the memorial tablets of deceased villagers automatically.

Of course, players cannot perform any functional operations through this building, because it has no functions at all!
In short, what Zhang Chengdao found most satisfying about this building, which was no different from a decorative piece, was its spacious structure.

For example, the ancestral hall is a courtyard house with one entrance. The rooms on the left and right sides that were originally used to place memorial tablets and futons were emptied by Zhang Chengdao and replaced with simple wooden beds dug out from the thatched house, along with the most basic cotton quilts and buckwheat pillows.

The two rooms were equipped with a total of four sets of beds, and the tables and chairs were made from the cheapest materials to make up the numbers, with one set for each bed, for a total of four sets.

Although these wooden plank beds look simple, they are, after all, products of the Golden Hand, and are very sturdy. They cannot be cut by ordinary swords or knives, and are considered treasures by the natives of this world.

The original drafty structure was blocked by Zhang Chengdao with wooden boards, and a batch of carved windows were custom-made to allow some natural light into the room.

The entire house is divided into two rooms and four toilets (still taken from a thatched house), making it probably the earliest four-person "dormitory" in this time and space.

These "dormitories," which had already been renovated in Baishi Mountain, only needed to be placed one by one at the site of Baishi Xiandao University, which greatly saved the construction time of these schools.

Besides the "student dormitories," what also needs to be built are the "classrooms" and the "canteen."

The name "canteen" is relatively simple. To save time, Zhang Chengdao simply used a combination of "restaurant" and "teahouse" and even came up with names like "Canteen with Character A" and "Canteen with Character B," which are simple and easy to remember.

However, the canteen at Baishi Immortal University is not like the one at Baishi Immortal Sect, which offers various spiritual and immortal foods. Instead, it serves ordinary communal meals prepared by hired cooks. The school provides these meals for free, a privilege reserved for students of the Imperial Academy!
The "classroom" is a bit more complicated. All the buildings that can be constructed with cheat codes are either too small to accommodate dozens or even hundreds of students simultaneously, or they consume too many spiritual materials and are too ornate, making them unsuitable for the White Stone Immortal Dao University. For example, the [Peach Blossom Palace] requires a large amount of gold ingots, and Zhang Chengdao has already used it as the main hall of the White Stone Immortal Sect. Using it again at the White Stone Immortal Dao University would be inappropriate.

After much thought, Zhang Chengdao finally found a building that was somewhat usable: the Armory.

This building is enormous, a two-story, fortress-like structure with connecting corridors, and its area is even larger than that of the Peach Blossom Palace. If you clear out the contents, it would be an excellent "classroom"!
The best part is that there's a small square outside the Armory, and a notice board stands on one side of the square, which can be used to post notices from the school!

The only drawback is that, because it was used to make various military equipment orders in the original game, it is full of furnaces and various manufacturing equipment. Even if Zhang Chengdao puts all these things into his backpack and clears the space, he will still need to buy tables and chairs separately.

Furthermore, there can certainly not be only one "classroom".

Since Zhang Chengdao intends to design this Baishi Xiandao University as a "higher education institution" that teaches by subject, in addition to the "classrooms" used for large lectures, there must also be some specialized "classrooms".

For example, alchemy and medicine practitioners have places with alchemy furnaces and can also practice. Another example is the special "workshop" for weapon crafting practitioners and talisman drawing practitioners.

Therefore, Zhang Chengdao specially brought over some of the buildings that were discarded when he renovated the White Stone Immortal Sect, so as to make good use of them.

Among them are buildings such as the [Pharmacy], [Weaving Workshop], [Grain and Food Workshop], and [Ironwork Workshop], all arranged in a circle, surrounding the [Arsenal Workshop] like stars around the moon.

In this way, students can be divided into different majors based on their talents, and all students can be arranged into two or three large classes. Each class can take turns attending large lectures in the [Arsenal]. In the remaining time, they can be divided into smaller classes according to different subjects and majors and study in different buildings.

This single-subject training approach is the fastest way to cultivate talents who can be put to use in society. While multi-skilled talents are good, we are currently in a period of spiritual revival and there is a real shortage of manpower. It is more cost-effective to fill the gaps with a large number of single-subject talents first.

Moreover, with the White Stone Immortal Sect around, advanced multi-skilled talents are being cultivated simultaneously.

However, even though Zhang Chengdao had presented almost all the necessary buildings at once, Shiraishi Sendo University still could not open immediately.

Wang Yanqing needs to supplement the necessary teaching aids and desks and chairs, and arrange the doctoral students, teaching assistants, and lecturers before it can be officially put into use.

As for these PhDs, teaching assistants, and lecturers...

What?! They want me to become a Doctor at the Imperial Academy?!

Xu Wen stared wide-eyed, looking somewhat dazed.

Wasn't I supposed to be a "wild and unruly" persona back then? How did I inexplicably become a sixth-rank scholar at the Imperial Academy?

(End of this chapter)