Taking advantage of the shortcut, although he was occasionally treated like a wild man and stared at, Lin Zhusheng indeed saved a lot of time. He still had time to take his new friend to take a look at the list of disciples.

The list was located at the edge of the schoolyard, near the center, displaying the names of the newly recruited outer disciples. The disciples were randomly assigned to five outer elders, and this division would also apply when they attended classes at the academy.

With leaves still stuck in his hair, he stood at the edge of the crowd and quickly scanned the list. He accurately found the names of Song Ming, himself, and his neighbor Zhang Jing, and to his surprise, he also spotted the names of three people from before who had helped him make a small profit.

He and Song Ming were separated, with the first elder and the second elder in charge of them, while the other three had no connection but coincidentally were under the same elder as his neighbor.

With a little buddy by his side, his eyes lit up, and he patted Zhang Jing excitedly, saying, “We’re together!”

However, his little buddy didn’t seem too happy, or rather, his brain had gone blank, leaving only a dazed expression on his face, his cheeks flushed like a child’s drawing of the sun.

Waving his hands in front of Zhang Jing’s face, he asked with concern, “What’s wrong?”

Zhang Jing snapped back to reality, quickly scanning the surrounding crowd and said, “Is someone watching us?”

Although Lin Zhusheng didn’t understand why he suddenly asked that, he still looked around and, after meeting a few pairs of eyes that hadn’t had time to look away, nodded affirmatively, “Yes.”

He didn’t hold back or beat around the bush, which only made Zhang Jing feel more distressed.

Lin Zhusheng patted him on the shoulder, cheerfully saying, “You didn’t do anything wrong, so what are you afraid of?”

He practiced what he preached, and while talking, he spotted Song Ming in the crowd. With leaves still in his hair, he waved and jogged over.

With good looks, a good background, and great temperament, Song Ming was quite popular among the outer disciples. There were still many people around him, making it a social anxiety hell, but the social butterfly was fearless, his eyes only on his friend.

From a distance, he saw the person jogging toward him. Song Ming glanced sideways, his drooping eyes lifting slightly, and his initially indifferent smile deepened as he stepped away from the crowd.

The leaves on Lin Zhusheng’s head were finally removed with the help of a kind fellow disciple. After all, it was their first meeting, and it was like running into someone fleeing from a disaster; Song Ming wasn’t surprised by his appearance and simply asked, “Where did you get that?”

“I took a shortcut to avoid being late,” Lin Zhusheng happily shared, “Next time, I’ll take you with me.”

Not only did he want to be a wild man himself, but he also wanted to bring Song Ming along, which made Zhang Jing’s mouth twitch.

Surprisingly, Song Ming agreed, saying he would join.

Friends meeting friends, their eyes glistening with tears, but there was no time for more conversation. It was already noon, and before he could introduce his new friend, Lin Zhusheng had to hurry to find his team.

“…”

After being led around the schoolyard, weaving in and out of the crowd, Zhang Jing transformed from someone who initially didn’t want to make eye contact into someone with wide-open eyes, fearless, completing a rapid transformation in a short time.

Lin Zhusheng was more outgoing than him, standing at the back of the line, smiling and waving back at those who turned to look at him, making others feel a bit shy.

When noon arrived, no disciples were late today. Everyone stood in the schoolyard, a sea of green.

Among the disciples, the first to arrive were the five outer elders. The sound of swords ringing out in the thick mountain mist echoed, and when it dispersed, figures had appeared and taken their seats at the elder’s table.

Lin Zhusheng spotted the second elder he was assigned to. Unlike the second elder from the inner sect, this one looked like a cheerful middle-aged man.

The process was similar to the opening speeches at the new student conference, the only difference being that there was no principal, only the supervising elders.

“…”

“Congratulations to you all for officially becoming outer disciples of our sect.”

Having gotten up early and even climbed a mountain, it was no surprise that Lin Zhusheng started dozing off as soon as the speech began.

He nodded vigorously in place, and just as he was about to fall over at the end of the process, he was kicked awake by the little cat in his arms, his mind instantly clearing up just in time to hear the last sentence.

【Main Quest: Level up to LV2, pass the bone testing to become an outer disciple (completed)】
【Side Quest: Help Song Ming become an outer disciple (completed)】
【You have received: Orange-grade stamina recovery bracelet x1, book “Self-Cultivation of Sword Practitioners” (random drop) x1】
【Side Quest: Comprehend “Self-Cultivation of Sword Practitioners”】
【Quest Reward: Blue-grade long sword x1】

This morning, he had just cleared out two wooden boxes, and his backpack had just enough space for the two new items, so he wouldn’t have to hold them in his hands and make them appear out of nowhere in public.

In fact, he had almost forgotten about the side quest, and it wasn’t until the prompt box popped up that Lin Zhusheng finally remembered. He turned to glance at his fellow disciples in the distance.

To be honest, he didn’t feel like he had helped much, but since he had the bracelet, there was no reason to return it. He withdrew his gaze, patted his backpack, and decided to go back and make some snacks that his fellow disciples loved.

Sure enough, the real focus came after the long speech. After announcing that they had become official outer disciples, the elder briefly explained the arrangements for the outer disciples.

Outer disciples no longer had the task of weeding, but they were required to practice swordsmanship in the schoolyard every day at dawn. Additionally, the library had been opened, and they could enter certain areas to view the books with their disciple tokens.

Not being someone who loved studying much, Lin Zhusheng could only say that he would meet the library in this lifetime if fate allowed.

Considering that the disciples still needed to be assigned rooms, today’s schedule only included the assembly, and once it was over, they could arrange their own activities. He quickly descended the mountain.

There was no need to rush down the mountain; he didn’t take the shortcut that most people couldn’t use and descended normally.

After returning, his new friend really helped him tie his hair up, but after half an hour of teaching, he declared that Lin was hopeless.

Hopeless Lin left with his hair still in a mess, returning to his new home.

Unable to deal with the hair situation, he changed his clothes and began to work on his yard.

The yard had a hoe for handling the ground, placed in the corner, ready to be picked up whenever needed.

Using the little farming knowledge he had from his meager social practice, he divided the yard into several plots and went back to the wooden boxes to rummage for the seeds he wanted.

He needed to plant fruits, vegetables, flowers for his senior brother, and the raw materials for his snacks couldn’t be neglected either.

He squatted by the wooden boxes, carefully sorting through and making choices, looking very serious. The little cat circled around him and suddenly spoke up, “Do you know which seeds can be planted now?”

Lin Zhusheng paused his busy hands and turned his head, “Hmm?”

He looked completely confused. Great, this person clearly hadn’t thought about it at all.

The little cat continued, “Do you know what conditions are needed to plant certain seeds?”

Lin Zhusheng’s hands froze.

The little cat added, “If your flowers die, you might not have any seeds left and will have to buy them.”

A flash of memory crossed Lin Zhusheng’s mind about the flowers he had bought for five hundred gold. He shuddered and quickly put down the flower seeds, succinctly saying, “I’ll go to the library later.”

Great, the fate of meeting the library had arrived.

But today, he definitely didn’t have that fate. The library was a bit further up from the schoolyard, and he had no intention of climbing the mountain again.

If he couldn’t plant the expensive and precious flowers, he could try the cheap and plentiful little flowers and grasses. His hands itched, and he felt he had to do something, so after putting down the expensive flower seeds, he took out the cheap little flower and grass seeds and found a loose patch of soil at the edge of the yard.

Although he didn’t have much knowledge about gardening or farming, he knew that spring was the season for sowing, and anything with “spring” in its name should be plantable.

He planted the little flower and grass seeds, covering them with soil and gently patting it down. The little cat circled around and looked at him, asking, “Have you really planted before?”

The shock in its tone was too strong for Farmer Lin to ignore, so he reached out and patted the little cat’s head, reproaching, “Rude.”

He said, “I at least planted flowers in the yard when I was a kid.”

Although it was the gardener uncle who prepared the seeds, dug the soil, and maintained the flowers that grew later, he was still responsible for putting the seeds in and lightly watering them, so rounding it up, he could consider himself someone who had planted flowers.

Though he had no basis for it, the little cat remained skeptical about the truth of his words.

After planting the little flowers and grasses, wanting to see results soon, Farmer Lin added a bit of the growth liquid that the caretaker had generously given him.

Although he hadn’t done much after all that busy work, he still felt he had worked hard. He patted the dirt off his hands, wiped his forehead with the back of his hand as if he were sweating, and finally stood up satisfied.

In the afternoon, there was nothing else to do, so he returned to his room to check the new rewards he had received today that he hadn’t looked at yet.

Sitting at his desk, he took out the new bracelet and “Self-Cultivation of Sword Practitioners.”

The bracelet was silver and very simple in style, hidden under his sleeve and barely noticeable. After putting it on, he didn’t feel any change in his body, probably only noticeable when he was consuming a lot of stamina.

The remaining item was the randomly dropped “Self-Cultivation of Sword Practitioners.” He picked it up and weighed it in his hands.

“…”

It looked like a brick, weighed like a brick, and felt as heavy as a brick in his heart.

Just when he had finished reading a few bricks, another one arrived, and his previously joyful mood slowly sank. Lin Zhusheng couldn’t help but wipe his face in despair, contemplating life and the origins of the universe.

It was painful, but he had to read it; after all, there were rewards for finishing, and he could finally replace the wooden sword that had many scratches on it.

The sect didn’t provide swords uniformly; disciples had to choose their own. With his little broken wooden sword mixed in among the many metal swords, it was quite conspicuous.

He tossed a couple of Lingxu pastries into his mouth, mentally preparing himself and cheering himself on for half a day. He threw himself and the book onto the table, basking in the sun while flipping it open.

To his surprise, it wasn’t as painful as he had imagined.

It felt a bit like the basics of sword studies he had read before, but it wasn’t as obscure. The illustrations and text were surprisingly friendly to his brain.

It didn’t require much thought; he could read it like a comic book. He changed positions a few times, rolling around on the table, treating the Lingxu pastries as snacks, and continued reading from afternoon until evening.

Then, the next day, he unsurprisingly overslept.

The next day, he had to go to the schoolyard, and on the edge of being late, he stretched his wings like a great roc. With a strange sense of relaxation, he even had the leisure to water the flowers he had planted before leaving, only to be yanked away by the increasingly impatient neighbor, Zhang Jing.

As outer disciples, they had to formally learn to use swords. Before officially practicing swordsmanship, they first needed to learn the essential foundational knowledge. Starting from this day, he finally began to study the swordsmanship basics he had forced himself to finish reading during several late nights.

Sitting cross-legged in the schoolyard, he exhaled after climbing half a mountain for over half an hour, lightly wiping the sweat from his workout. He took out the nearly worn-out “Introduction to Swordsmanship” that he had almost forgotten to bring.

To be honest, it seemed like he could have done without it; he remembered the content too well, and he still vividly recalled what was in the book.

The other disciples nearby were also pulling out their books, and the new ones sounded just as heavy as bricks, clattering as they were taken out.

“…”

Comparing his tattered book with the pristine new ones in the hands of his fellow disciples, unpleasant memories surged up, and he couldn’t help but twitch his eyes.

Noticing the emotional fluctuation immediately, the culprit, the little cat, quickly made a strategic retreat, darting away into the nearby woods, temporarily leaving this unsuitable place.

The “Introduction to Swordsmanship” was taught by the elder himself, balancing practical exercises and explanations. When a sword was swung, the clouds and mist in the mountains surged along with it. While the disciples, whose sword energy could only rustle a couple of leaves, were left in awe, the elder continued to explain the content of the book after sheathing his sword.

His teaching style resembled that of a university professor highlighting key points during finals, with no buffer time between topics, flipping through the book in a very jumpy manner. By the time the disciples caught up, he had already moved on to the next topic.

The bewildered disciples didn’t know what was being discussed or where it was going, and for a moment, the sound of pages flipping filled the air, creating a learning atmosphere like never before.

With no means but sheer strength, Lin, the tragic player who had memorized the entire book, strangely kept up with the elder’s erratic thoughts, his eyes wide open as he symbolically flipped through the book slowly.

He flipped slowly but accurately, always managing to keep up. Zhang Jing, sitting next to him, noticed and quietly asked, “How do you know this so well?”

With too many bitter tears behind him, Player Lin chose to respond with a smile.

His hard work benefited the other disciples. Others also noticed him, and in the tense and exciting atmosphere of flipping through books, they realized there was someone who could accurately find the content. The surrounding disciples gradually moved closer, first sneaking glances at his page number, then openly sitting beside him to look, pushing each other to avoid blocking the view, without any pretense.

“…”

The favorability prompts kept popping up. Sitting in the center of the crowd, mechanically flipping through the book, Lin Zhusheng felt a bit complicated and silently wiped his face.

He had become a great book-flipping tool, and after this battle, he quickly gained a wave of favorability, achieving the accomplishment of becoming familiar with his fellow disciples. Every time swordsmanship was taught, there were people vying for the spot next to him.

The matter of “Introduction to Swordsmanship” wasn’t important, and it was even somewhat sad. What was important and worth celebrating was that in just a few days, his little flowers and grasses had grown.

The growth liquid given by the caretaker was very effective. The flowers and grasses, which should have taken over a month to grow, had become quite presentable in just a few days, and the little flowers bloomed beautifully. In a few more days, he would be able to harvest them.

In these days, he had stopped being a wild man, spending all his time with his beloved flowers and grasses.

No joke, he felt like a farming genius, a natural farmer.

Then, on the day after the little flowers bloomed, when Farmer Lin was excitedly getting up to water them, he encountered a major setback in his farming career.

His flowers had wilted, the petals shriveled up, looking somewhat wrinkled, and it seemed they were about to wilt even more, with the part connecting to the flower heart swaying precariously, as if they would run away from home at any moment.

If the flowers wilted, he would wilt too, his mouth and eyes drooping. With no time to feel sad, he quickly put down the watering can and ran out the door.

His neighbor Zhang, who was also a flower novice and was still sleeping, was completely unreliable. He had to rush to the library to find a way to save his flowers, running fast in hopes of saving them.

The morning was thick with fog, visibility was low, but fortunately, there was no one on the road at this time, so it didn’t matter. The only sound on the road was his footsteps.

“Pat pat—”

Indeed, people were always the busiest and most prone to accidents when they were in a hurry.

As he ran, his clothes flapped in the wind, and the headband tangled in his hair was about to fall off. Finally, as he passed through a peach grove, a branch reached out and snagged his headband, sending it flying far away. He turned back halfway, chasing after the headband.

The blue and white headband fell from the peach branch, floating into the outstretched hand of someone who had appeared out of nowhere before he could reach it, and was then firmly grasped, not moving an inch in the wind.

Looking up, he met a pair of dark eyes, and the air seemed to carry a chilling aura reminiscent of a snow-capped mountain.

It was the senior brother he had seen not long ago. By direction, it seemed they had just brushed past each other, but he had run too fast and completely overlooked him.

Standing still, the senior brother slightly extended his hand and asked, “Did you drop this?”

A rare encounter with someone, under normal circumstances, he would have chatted a bit more and admired the face, but today, in this strange time and place, there was no time. Busy saving his flowers, Farmer Lin took the headband, politely thanked him, and quickly continued running.

Then he suddenly remembered something, stopping abruptly after running a couple of steps. He turned around and quickly asked, “Senior brother, do you know how to grow flowers?”

His eyes widened, filled with an expectation that perhaps he himself wasn’t even aware of. The senior brother paused slightly before replying, “I know a little.”

Then, just like the last time they met, he instantly lost all ownership of his sleeve.

Seeing a glimmer of hope, Farmer Lin tightly grabbed the senior brother’s sleeve, pleading, “Senior brother, please save my flower, Big Flower, and my grass, Little Grass!”

…Big Flower, Little Grass?

Without uttering a word of refusal, Wen Baizhou was led away by someone tugging at his sleeve, and he was taken on a long-lost jog.

Emerging from the fog, they squatted together in a corner of the yard, and he finally understood what the “Big Flower” and “Little Grass” referred to.

In the corner of the yard, flowers and grasses were planted. Since the flowers were planted first, they were called Big Flower, and similarly, the grass was called Little Grass.

Huddled together in the corner of the yard, still unconsciously gripping the sleeve, Lin Zhusheng turned to the versatile senior brother and cautiously asked, “So, can you save them?”

His tone was filled with genuine concern; he really cared about this little patch of flowers and grasses, even feeling more nervous than he did facing an important test.

Running his fingers over the wilted petals, Wen Baizhou said, “Yes.”

His eyes brightened, and he let out a long breath. After worrying for so long, Farmer Lin relaxed and finally let go of the sleeve he had been gripping, apologizing as he noticed some wrinkles.

Wen Baizhou glanced at the loosened sleeve before retracting his gaze and said, “Although the names of the Xi Chun flower and Xi Chun grass are similar, they are not related. The scent of Xi Chun grass is harmful to Xi Chun flowers; as long as you separate them, it will be fine.”

The reason was surprisingly simple.

Nodding like a little chick, the action-oriented Farmer Lin turned to grab a shovel and moved the Xi Chun grass along with the soil to a new spot on the other side of the yard, ensuring it would never meet his Big Flower again.

The effect was immediate; as soon as Little Grass was moved away, Big Flower perked up, its wrinkled petals unfurling again, as if nothing had ever happened, blooming into a sunny little flower.

With his eyes slowly widening, Lin Zhusheng raised his thumb to the person beside him, praising, “You’re a miracle worker, senior brother!”

The miracle worker senior brother only shook his head slightly.

After listening to the commotion in his clothes for a long time, the little cat finally emerged, glancing at the flowers that had returned to their original state.

They really had been saved.

Bending down to admire his flowers a bit more, Lin Zhusheng was very pleased, squinting his eyes, “Big Flower looks so good.”

The senior brother half-squatted beside him, looking at the flowers. His neat moon-white long robe and azure silk outer robe were quite mismatched with the little corner of the yard and the turned soil. However, he didn’t mind, and taking the rare opportunity to chat, he casually asked, “Are you growing these flowers to give to someone?”

“Give to someone?” Lin Zhusheng raised his eyebrows, “Why?”

The senior brother replied briefly, “Xi Chun flowers are often given to lovers.”

“Ah, no, that’s not it.”

The senior brother sometimes had surprising things to say. Lin Zhusheng waved his hands in denial, his eyes wide with sincerity as he said, “I’m growing them to make snacks.”

There was no hint of longing for love in his words, only a desire for edible snacks.

“…”

The little cat, listening from the side, couldn’t help but turn its face away.

This person’s mind was completely empty; he only cared about his snacks and that little piece of land.

The little cat couldn’t bear to listen, and the senior brother smiled.

He looked good when he smiled, and Lin Zhusheng admired him for a moment before curiously asking, “How do you know so much about this, senior brother?”

The senior brother paused for a moment, his gaze lightly passing over Lin’s face before retracting it, saying, “I have an old friend who likes to tinker with these, so I learned a bit.”

Wanting to understand each other’s preferences must mean they were good friends.

Lin Zhusheng nodded in understanding, habitually wanting to take out some snacks to thank this kind senior brother, but then remembered he wouldn’t accept them, so he quietly put them back.

After all this fuss, the morning fog began to dissipate, revealing the peach grove and the road across from the yard. When he saw the path, he suddenly remembered that the senior brother had been casually picked up from the road, so he casually asked, “Senior brother, do you have business over here?”

This area was mostly inhabited by outer disciples, and there didn’t seem to be anything special about it. If there was no business, no one would come here.

Wen Baizhou stood up, shifting his gaze as he replied, “Yes.”

Having business yet being dragged here by him for so long, Lin Zhusheng quickly apologized and escorted him out of the yard, offering a series of apologies and thanks in a smooth process.

The senior brother walked away under Lin’s watchful eye, disappearing into the peach grove, his figure obscured by the shadows of the trees until he could no longer be seen.

Retracting his gaze, Lin Zhusheng sighed, thinking the senior brother was truly a good person, before wandering back to the yard, sitting on the steps to admire his flowers. He turned to look at the neighbor’s yard and said, “They look so good. Even the senior brother praised them. Why doesn’t Zhang Jing like them?”

The little cat lay down beside him, wearing a face that was hard to describe, saying, “Are you referring to last night when you didn’t sleep and dragged him out in the middle of the night to watch the flowers bloom, and he ended up beating you up?”

From an objective analysis, it seemed that the other party didn’t dislike flowers and had no objections to them; he simply had issues with this person. If it were him, he would have beaten him too.

“I thought he wasn’t sleeping.”

With his misdeeds from last night exposed, Lin Zhusheng felt a bit guilty and quickly changed the subject, seriously pulling out his “Self-Cultivation of Sword Practitioners.”

The fog gradually dissipated, and the morning sun came out. He opened the book to read for a while, lazily basking in the sun, propping his face on his hand while his gaze swept over the pages. He took out his wooden sword and casually practiced a few moves, discovering it was surprisingly easy to handle.

The sword spun in his hand, hovering for half a second before landing back in his grip, caught steadily.

Thinking he might accidentally hurt himself, the little cat had already tactically retreated when he took out the sword. After realizing the sword didn’t fall, it let out a surprised “Eh.”

Hearing the sound, Lin Zhusheng turned to see the little cat taking cover, reproaching, “Rude, you don’t trust me at all.”

This had nothing to do with trust; it was mainly for the safety of the cat.

Feeling that it was now safe, the little cat stepped forward again.

Then, just as the previously well-behaved person suddenly made a move, he launched a sneak attack.

The wooden sword spun in his hand, and as his long sleeves flipped, a gust of wind surged, the blade slicing through the air with a whoosh. The little cat was caught in the airflow and was forced into the air, its eyes wide open, hovering for half a second before falling.

Lin Zhusheng reached out to catch the falling little cat, giving it a gentle tug on its fur, and looked toward the direction of the sword swing, saying, “So it really doesn’t work?”

The book mentioned that using spiritual power while swinging the sword could yield significant effects, but aside from creating a slight breeze, he didn’t see any results; neither the fence nor the small stones on the road moved at all. It would have been more effective to just kick them.

It seemed that such things couldn’t be accomplished in one go; he would have to go back and ponder it some more.

The sun was warming his skin, and feeling he had soaked up enough sun, Lin Zhusheng put away the book, holding the little cat as he turned back to his room.

The little cat, having been ambushed, struggled to slip out of his hands, scrambling up to his shoulder. Before he could scold it, his eyes were drawn to a sea of pink.

“Wow—”

The nearby fence and bushes were still, but the peach grove across was bustling with activity, petals scattering in a beautiful arc, and as the branches and leaves trembled, the thin mist completely dissipated, drifting toward the distant sky.

【Current Level: LV2 (1102/2000)】