Reborn As An Extra In A Cultivation World

"Every world has a name. From those that lack even a drop of it to those that are filled to the brim with Qi. Our world, our plane is such one. The most complete and Qi-rich worlds, we call them The Last Stop Before Heaven. Anyone amongst you that knows the name of our world? I'm sure most of you got comfortable with calling here just 'Central Continent.'

I know those who are from noble clans know these things, but I require your understanding and allow others to answer these questions. You don't have to be afraid of answering wrong, I don't have a hobby to test from our first lecture. Well, I won't be lecturing the rest of the 'Calligraphy' lessons so make sure to make the most of me in this one."

Finally, a student raised her hand timidly. Well, anyone would be timid. We were being lectured by Yuan Zhang Shufa, the Dean of Calligraphy himself!

"Is it Five Peaks World?"

"It's close, but not quite. Would you like to tell to your friends how you came to that conclusion? No need to be afraid, I will not say anything until you finish your reasoning."

"Well, since there are five continents in the world, and each of them has one incredibly tall mountain."

"Very straightforward, and would probably be the name of our world if there wasn't this tiny little detail," started Yuan Zhang Shufa. This was something every noble knew, so most were curious how he would connect the World to calligraphy. "First of all, our world is called Five Divinities Ascension Peaks. The reason for it is simple, there used to be at least a Divine Ascension Saint ascending to the Upper world from each of the continents. Now, I can understand your confusion, there haven't been any Divine Ascension Saints in the Five Divinities Ascension Peaks World for many millennia, so how come the name of our world is this, am I right? Anyone that wants to make a guess?"

A confident young man raised his hand.

"Is it because those powerhouses stay away from the mortal world, so we don't notice their existence?"

"I can understand why you would think that, but that's not it. Anyone that would like to try their chances?"

No hands were raised this time. It seemed everyone had come to a consensus on hidden masters so that they couldn't think of anything else with it gone. Yuan Zhang Shufa smiled slightly, and continued the lecture.

"In the Great Void, there are countless worlds, and many world systems. World systems always have one 'Last Stop Before Heaven' type worlds, and many worlds connect to that world. These World Systems have an Innate Ascension Platform on them. These platforms can be anything, a mountain, a temple, stairs heading to the clouds."

"Then why is no one coming up from those?"

"There are certain requirements for it to happen, but it isn't something you should care about right now, so don't mind it. What I was trying to say is, unlike most worlds, our world has 5 World Systems connected to it, each for one continent. For all we know, there might have been a Divine Ascension Saint in the last century from any of the worlds in those World Systems. The question here is, is it the World's name causing such phenomena or was it named as such since our world system does have the capability of doing so. While I don't doubt the latter, I believe in the strength of words. Take the runes for example. They are words with power. Us, cultivators, can replicate its effects with any language, albeit they are in a far less efficient form."

After saying this, he picked up his brush and wrote "Wind" in the air. A gust of wind blew, and anyone who hadn't fitted their hair with crowns found them tangled like a bird's nest. Interestingly, none of the girls' hair was messed up, though.

'Did they invent hair gel, or do their hairpins have a special function?'

"Anyone that wants to try?"

I raised my hand, even though I knew it wouldn't be effective. For one, I couldn't write on air like he did, and I knew my words wouldn't do jackshit either. All I really wanted was to show off how beautiful my handwriting was. That half-baked poet was sitting somewhere in the backseats, after all.

Unfortunately, the Dean did not pick me but rather chose Ye Tian. I would be sure to get even for this later as well. 

As expected, the Dean gave him a parchment to write and nothing happened even after Ye Tian finished writing and swung the parchment around. He had written "Sword" in a very crude and simple manner. Then, the Dean took the parchment and went over it with his fingers.

"The reason it didn't work has nothing to do with his handwriting, although it could use some work. The real reason is, unlike runes, we need to put intent in the words to achieve it. You cannot achieve this with your cultivation base right now." 

As he spoke, he was moving as if he was unsheathing a sword from its scabbard, and pulled a half-translucent out from the parchment. The "Sword" that Ye Tian wrote disappeared, and the Dean dropped the parchment on the sword. The parchment was cut as if it were tofu, but the sword couldn't hold its form together for much longer, and dissipated right after. 

"If he had written it better, the word could have held more of my intent, and the sword would have been sharper and last longer. 

"Of course, the reason you should learn calligraphy is not limited to Intent Manifestation, you can do that with other skills. A good handwriting will convey your meaning when you write techniques later on. This is an important aspect for leaving legacies. If the technique you write has an obscure handwriting, learning from it will be harder as well."