Monk have higher incomes than ordinary people, but a one-star spiritual root Monk still hasn't reached an annual income of ten million.

Chubby felt like he was playing a pay-to-win mobile game, where everything had to be solved with money.

The system determined that it would take him two years to learn Water Sword Technique, which made Chubby feel deeply insulted.

Why exactly two years?

Why not five years?

Chubby was not convinced and decided to consult a professional.

His understanding of the cultivation world came from hearsay.

To put it bluntly, he was a cloud player.

When it came to cultivation, Chubby was a complete newbie.

Now that he was a Monk, there were some professional questions he needed to ask the experts.

Chubby logged into an app—Cultivation Masterclass.

In the era of a market economy for cultivation, many well-known Monk were teaching on [Cultivation Masterclass]. Some were even university professors who organized online training sessions in their spare time, and there was even one-on-one video instruction.

As long as you were willing to pay tuition, even a Monk who only graduated from junior high could consult professors from prestigious universities.

Knowledge is wealth, and these online courses were not cheap. Some famous instructors’ 10-session courses sold for over ten thousand, yet people were still willing to attend these so-called master classes.

Over time, this created a celebrity-chasing craze.

Some rich women were willing to spend over ten thousand per class for one-on-one lessons with handsome male instructors.

There were also tycoons who specifically sought out beautiful female instructors for an academic face-off.

After Henry Parker logged in and checked the rankings, he saw that the current number one was a female instructor from Jiangnan University, officially certified as a gold medal instructor.

This legendary most beautiful female instructor not only looked good but also had a pleasant voice, and her prices were a bit terrifying.

Her eight-session course cost eighty thousand.

If it was one-on-one video instruction, the consultation fee was as high as thirty thousand per hour.

And you had to book in advance. There was once a weekend when seven or eight tycoons lined up for one-on-one lessons. Who knows if it was out of thirst for knowledge or something else.

Henry Parker scrolled down the rankings, and even the top ten prices were enough to scare him.

Among the top ten instructors, eight were “in class,” so even if you had money, you had to wait in line.

Chubby, being thrifty, looked for a more cost-effective instructor.

These days, the most cost-effective instructors were usually elderly men and women. They didn’t attract much traffic, but their skills were solid.

Henry Parker found a section in the [Expert Q&A] interface called [Old Ma’s Answers].

This Mr. Mason was an old professor at the Cultivation College of Beidu University, good at answering all sorts of tricky questions, with a high rating and gold medal certification. His consultation fee was five thousand per hour.

Seeing that Mr. Mason was “available,” Chubby gritted his teeth and paid the five thousand.

Young people always have to pay some tuition.

Paying tuition was worth it—soon the video connected, and the app’s built-in countdown timer appeared: 59:59.

On screen, the elegant old man with white hair and beard got straight to the point in a friendly manner: “Student, time is precious, let’s get started right away. Ask any questions you have.”

Chubby didn’t beat around the bush and got straight to the point: “Mr. Mason, I have a one-star water spiritual root. I understand the online Water Sword Technique tutorials, but I just can’t master it. May I ask why?”

Mr. Mason replied, “This involves the issue of spell affinity. One-star spiritual roots have relatively low affinity, so at first you’ll feel like you’re trying to scoop the moon out of the water.”

“Exactly, exactly, that’s the situation! I can clearly see the moon in the water, but I can’t scoop it out. How do I solve this?” Chubby asked.

“You need to persevere and spend a long time comprehending it, until casting the spell becomes second nature. Beginners usually need two to three years to get into the groove,” Mr. Mason answered.

“Two to three years?” Chubby felt a wave of darkness before his eyes. That was about the same as what the system said.

“Student, cultivation is about cultivating the mind. Don’t be impatient for quick results.”

“Let me tell you the real situation. I’ve been teaching for over forty years, and I’ve had at least eight hundred or a thousand students with one-star water spiritual roots.”

“The fastest student to master Water Sword Technique took two years. The slower ones finally got it by their junior or senior year, taking three or four years. Some who didn’t work hard graduated from university without mastering any spells.”

“If you’re just starting out, you need to be mentally prepared. If you’re thinking about mastering it overnight, it’s no different from buying a lottery ticket and expecting to win the jackpot. Frankly, that’s not realistic.”

Mr. Mason was indeed as straightforward as the online reviews said, not afraid to be blunt.

Many netizens who had listened to Mr. Mason’s lectures had learned the essence in eight words: Give up illusions, recognize reality!

And Chubby just needed this kind of honest talk to verify whether the system was reliable.

Now he was sure—the system hadn’t insulted him, and had actually given him some face.

Beidu University is a top 3 university in Tang Country. Students who get in, even with just a one-star spiritual root, are academic stars in their own right. Even such top students took at least two years to learn Water Sword Technique, so the system’s assessment that Henry Parker would take two years to get started was actually pretty reasonable.