Leaving behind a pen that was broken in two, Lin Zhusheng confirmed that there was nothing else to do and stood up, taking the scroll in his hand.

In the quiet space, even the slightest movement would be magnified infinitely. The people around and the steward sitting on the platform looked up, then quickly returned their gaze.

His expression was hard to describe as good; it ended too early, and it was clear he had given up struggling for self-liberation. He didn’t want to add any more pressure on his fellow disciples who were still struggling, only a subtle hint of sadness lingered.

When the steward took the scroll, he glanced down and saw it filled with writing. His eyebrows raised slightly in surprise as he looked at it a couple more times before quickly sealing it away properly.

After putting the scroll away, he lifted his gaze again and saw the disciple still standing there, looking at him with a hint of expectation, as if waiting for something.

Not knowing what the person was waiting for, Lin Zhusheng felt a strange guilt for not being able to meet that expectation, so the steward averted his gaze and said softly, “If there’s nothing else, you can go out now.”

As expected. There was indeed only this set of test questions, and no other tests were possible. Lin Zhusheng lowered his eyes.

See! Disappointment confirmed!

The disciple’s eyes drooped, and the steward could feel the overwhelming sense of disappointment without even looking. Clearly, he hadn’t done anything wrong, yet his conscience inexplicably ached.

There was no need to stay any longer. After Lin Zhusheng quietly bid farewell, he left, pushing open the large door of the classroom, leaving the steward with an infinitely lonely back.

“Click—”

As the door closed, the steward’s conscience throbbed painfully. Lin Zhusheng, who had walked out of the classroom, began to stretch with a series of punches and kicks, diving into the woods to search for the little cat that should still be wandering nearby. He had to get an explanation.

It seemed that something was off; the little cat, which usually came looking for him after wandering for a while, hadn’t shown up for half a day, and there was no sound around.

Great, it was hiding.

After searching through two bamboo groves without catching a glimpse of the cat, he crouched in the grass, not hearing the sound of the little cat pouncing on leaves, but instead, he heard a series of footsteps.

Very light footsteps, evenly paced like a machine, paused at a certain point, then seemed to change direction, walking toward him, the sound getting closer.

“Rustle—”

As the footsteps stopped, the grass he was hiding in was pushed aside. Sunlight filtered through the treetops, and he saw a bony hand, along with a neat crane robe and a gleaming sword hilt.

Noticing the movement, Wen Baizhou, who had come to check, lowered his gaze and met a pair of light-colored pupils that had been raised.

The person crouching in the grass had messy long hair, with two leaves tangled in the hairband, and his eyes were filled with surprise at being discovered.

“……”

After a moment of silence, Wen Baizhou apologized for the disturbance, withdrew his hand from the grass, and intended to return the way he came.

“Slap.”

He couldn’t leave; his lowered sleeve was quickly grasped by someone, held tightly, forcing him to turn his head.

Lin Zhusheng still didn’t understand how today’s test related to the bricks he had studied until his head spun. Seizing the opportunity to catch someone who seemed to know a lot, he was determined not to let go easily.

With a firm grip on the sleeve, he feigned surprise and called out, “Senior Brother!”

Holding onto a piece of the sleeve, he followed Senior Brother out of the grass and bamboo grove, back into the light.

When they reached a spot where he could see clearly into the classroom through the window, temporarily ignoring the sleeve he had lost ownership of, Wen Baizhou turned to ask, “What are you doing here?”

This person answered quickly; he should have completed the test earlier and could have left the academy directly.

“I’m looking for my cat.”

Putting aside the little cat that was destined to face judgment, what mattered now were the few big bricks he had learned. Lin Zhusheng cautiously verified, “This test only covers the history of the Nine Provinces?”

From what he had learned from the Confucian master, Wen Baizhou confirmed that it was.

A heavy blow!

Memories of desperately studying flashed through his mind, and Lin Zhusheng extended a trembling hand, asking, “What about the basics of pharmacology, the overview of demon beasts, and the introduction to swordsmanship…?”

Seemingly surprised that he could spit out these names, a hint of expression finally appeared on Wen Baizhou’s face as he said, “These are the study materials for outer and inner disciples.”

Among them, the introduction to swordsmanship would be studied from the outer to the inner sect, with some direct disciples of inner sect elders still continuing to learn and comprehend.

“……”

Without any hesitation, Lin Zhusheng’s wide noodle-like tears instantly burst forth.

No wonder he had always felt strange before!

No wonder Song Ming learned so late and had such a tight schedule yet seemed so relaxed! It turned out they weren’t even studying the same thing!

Seeing his fellow disciples not being too nervous during the test, he even thought for a moment that everyone in the cultivation world had the strongest brains, and he could only be considered a fool among them.

“……”

From the few words, he roughly pieced together what had happened. Experiencing the instant tears again, Wen Baizhou didn’t know how to comfort him this time. After a moment of silence, he finally lowered his head and said, “You might need to learn this in the future.”

Consider it an early study, and it would be easier later.

“……”

A very useful comfort, equivalent to no effect at all. The tears kept flowing, and Lin Zhusheng directly turned into a sad panda head.

For a moment, not knowing what to say, Wen Baizhou slightly raised his gaze and saw a small black shadow slowly walking past the academy wall, so he said, “Is that your cat?”

The sad panda head, still crying, instantly turned its head. The two of them looked at the little cat that was passing by the wall.

Meeting a pair of tearful eyes, the little cat quickly realized something, its fur bristling, and its four legs, which had been moving slowly, began to speed up.

Not giving it a chance to escape, Lin Zhusheng quickened his steps, leaped, and as he fell from the air, one hand firmly grabbed the little cat’s head, seizing its fate by the scruff of its neck.

The tears that had been hanging on his eyes quickly retracted, and he opened his eyes wide, smiling as he gritted his teeth and said, “Why are you running?”

Looking at him and then at the person standing far away, the little cat seemed to guess something and immediately confessed, struggling, “I didn’t mean to!”

It hadn’t expected that the servant disciples only studied one subject, the history of the Nine Provinces. When it first searched the information database, it only found “the required study materials for the disciples of the Tianzong.” Those books were indeed on the list.

But last night, when this person finished studying, it cautiously searched again. Just as it was searching, a flash of inspiration struck, and it added a limiting word before “disciples,” turning it into “servant disciples.”

Wow, how magical! The number of books to read went from a pile to just one.

Last night, facing the dark circles from staying up late, it couldn’t bring itself to speak the truth when it was on the tip of its tongue, so it could only remain silent for a while, escaping for the moment.

The hand gripping the scruff showed no signs of loosening. Struggling was useless; the little cat quieted down for a moment and then comforted, “At least you can sleep soundly when you go to the classroom in the future!”

After all, everything that needed to be learned was done, and there was nothing else to do in the classroom.

The comfort was useless. Lin Zhusheng viciously ruffled the little cat’s fur in the opposite direction and, before the little cat could try to groom itself, stuffed it into his clothes, breaking the flow of its fur. He hopped a couple of steps forward, returning to Senior Brother’s side.

The previous surge of tears seemed like a facade; apart from his eyelashes still being a bit wet, his face no longer showed any signs of having cried heavily.

Once again witnessing the ebb and flow of tears, Wen Baizhou fell silent for a moment, subtly averting his gaze.

Having caught the cat and given it a fierce punishment, Lin Zhusheng felt a bit better. He finally remembered the sleeve he had been gripping all along, looked down to examine it, and found it had become wrinkled from his grip. He then tried to smooth it out, attempting to make it neat again.

But since he had gripped it quite hard earlier, the remedial measures were practically ineffective.

Wen Baizhou lowered his eyes and said, “Don’t worry about it.”

Using the coldest voice to say the most generous words, with the remedy failing, Lin Zhusheng truly let go, but before letting go, he still patted it.

After all the fuss he made looking for the cat, other disciples finally started coming out of the classroom one after another, each with their own interesting expressions.

Spotting his good fellow disciple from the crowd, he waved his hand and jogged over, then suddenly remembered something, urgently hitting the brakes, turning back to dig into his pocket.

It was rare to meet, and he almost forgot to give a gift.

Great, there were no gifts. After leveling up, his backpack had also upgraded, going from the initial five slots to eight, filled with stuff, but none of it was anything the other person would like.

Giving something the other person didn’t like would lower their favorability. After rummaging for a long time, he could only regretfully withdraw his hand, waving a small arc and saying goodbye.

Wen Baizhou stood in place, casually resting a hand on the sword hilt, nodding slightly.

Lin Zhusheng went to find Song Ming, bouncing along while pulling out some snacks from his pocket. Before he even arrived, the snacks had already gone ahead.

His good fellow disciple seemed fine, also feeling that the test was simple, and his gaze slightly shifted toward the figure standing in the distance, but ultimately didn’t ask more.

Chatting as they left the academy, Lin Zhusheng, who had been studying for several days, didn’t run around the mountains with his good fellow disciples. He returned to his place first, washed up, and collapsed onto the bed.

The Lingxu pastry he had nibbled on in the morning couldn’t block out the heavy sleepiness. The sunlight was warm too; as soon as he lay down, he fell asleep, manually turning the world dark, saying goodnight to the whole world.

The sunlight was very warm, and the plants stretched out in the sun. Most importantly, when he woke up, there were no endless books to read, and the world gained one more person who slept soundly.

He slept until the end of time, until the sea dried up and the stones crumbled, until the sun and moon shone together. When Lin Zhusheng opened his eyes again to say good morning to the world, it was just in time for Steward Meng to come knocking on the door, reminding him that the test results were out and he could check them himself.

The test results came out the day after the test, meaning he had slept an entire day.

The steward was busy and had other matters to attend to, quickly reminding him from outside the door before leaving.

Lying in bed, he stretched his limbs like a zombie coming back to life, struggling to get up.

Slowly getting dressed and tying his hair, he looked unenthusiastic and in no hurry at all. The little cat turned around a couple of times beside him and asked, “Aren’t you looking forward to the test results? What if it’s a high score?”

His tied-up hair came undone again, and he gave up, directly pushing his long hair behind his ears, yawning, and not caring too much, saying, “As long as I pass, that’s fine.”