Beneath the stage…
“Given that the test is on reading books this time round, Zhang shi… shouldn’t cause any trouble, right?”
“I… think so…”
Pavilion Master Kang, Su shi, and the others wiped the cold sweat off their forehead.
This Zhang shi seemed to be bent on causing a huge ruckus for every single test he took. It was as if he would feel uncomfortable if he didn’t scare them to death.
They were initially worried that Zhang shi would cause something in the third round as well, but from the looks of it now, the chances should be near null.
After all, unlike the first two tests, this test consisted of simply reading. There didn’t seem to be any room for Zhang shi to cause any trouble.
“Hmm? What is Zhang shi doing?”
Just as they heaved a sigh of relief, Ling shi voice cried out. Alarmed, Pavilion Master Kang and Su shi leaped from their seats. “What’s wrong? Did he destroy the bookshelves? Or did he burn the books?”
The duo quickly turned their sights to Zhang shi, only to see the latter reading peacefully.
The shocks that Zhang Xuan had caused them had left a deep trauma in their hearts. As such, whenever they hear of anything relating to him, they would immediately think that the latter had done something catastrophic.
Seeing the tense looks on the duo, Ling shi was speechless. Pointing forward, he said, “That’s not it. Rather… Everyone seems to be in a rush to cram as many books in as possible, but why is he standing completely still after grabbing that book?”
“Hmm?”
Pavilion Master Kang and Su shi finally understood what was wrong about the scene.
They saw Zhang shi walking up to the bookshelf and tracing the books with his fingers, seemingly trying to look a book that interests him. After choosing his book, he flipped it open and entered into a daze again!
It was exactly how he’d reacted before the Otherworldly Demon. Could there be some special significance behind his dazing off?
Zhao Feiwu’s eyebrows shot up as she exclaimed, “Could this be the Daze Book Reading Technique?”
“Daze Book Reading Technique?”
Pavilion Master Kang and the others were bewildered by Zhao Feiwu’s words.
“Actually, back when Zhang shi was taking the examination for other occupations, he utilized the Beast Pummeling Taming Method, the Knockout Treatment Method, and the Formation-Crushing Kick Technique. So, I’m wondering if this is another technique of his!”
Zhao Feiwu had been with Zhang Xuan for a significant period of time, and she had witnessed many inconceivable means from the latter.
“Beast Pummeling Taming Method? Knockout Treatment Method? Formation-Crushing Kick Technique?”
The three 4-star master teachers glanced at one another in confusion.
What the heck are these?
I don’t seem to understand what you are talking about…
“Oh, it’s actually like that…”
Zhao Feiwu began explaining the various incidents she had encountered in detail.
“There’s such a thing?”
Upon hearing of the matters, the three master teachers widened their eyes in shock. It felt as though what they had just heard came from a dream.
To tame a savage beast just by beating it up; to heal anyone just by knocking them out; to break any formation with just a single kick… Why did it sound like something that had come out of a fantasy novel?
It seemed like this fellow truly couldn’t be assessed through common sense… anyone who tried to do so would probably go mad.
Since there were so many precedents… perhaps, he might truly have such a unique way of reading books.
“But even so, if all he’s staring going to stare at is a single page, surely there would be nothing for him to read and learn?”
After recovering from the primary shock, more doubts emerged in their minds.
No matter how formidable your ‘Daze Book Reading Technique’ is, even if it allows you to comprehend the content within in an instant… if all you are just going to stare at one page the whole time, how are you supposed to read anything else?
At the very least, shouldn’t you flip the pages of the book?
“Is Zhang shi… giving up on this stage?”
They weren’t the only bewildered ones. There were some among the crowd that noticed this peculiarity, and they were confused by Zhang Xuan’s actions too.
In the previous two rounds, he had caused so much trouble that even Hong shi was left on the verge of a frenzy. The crowd below must be blind if they couldn’t notice his uniqueness.
Naturally, such a ‘unique’ person would have the spotlight on him. The crowd thought that he, just like the other participants, would quickly flip through the books to memorize as many of them as he could. And yet, after picking up a single one… he stopped moving altogether.
Wasn’t his efficiency a little… way too low?
There was no way he could match up to the others with this kind of speed?
Did he use up all of his talent in the past two rounds?
…
Oblivious to the reactions of the crowd, at this very moment, Zhang Xuan was staring at the nearly compiled Clarifying Turbidity realm Heaven’s Path Divine Art with gleaming eyes.
He thought that he would only be able to compile it after reaching Huanyu Empire. Never in his dreams did he expect to be able to perfect it through this preliminary selection test.
With the cultivation technique perfected and sufficient number of spirit stones in his storage ring, it wasn’t a problem for him to reach Transcendent Mortal 4-dan pinnacle right now.
It was a pity that he was in the midst of the preliminary selection test. If he were to cultivate the Heaven’s Path Divine Art right here, who knows how many eyeballs would pop out from their sockets…
Thus, all Zhang Xuan could do was reread the manual and understand the essence of the cultivation technique entirely. After he was done, he turned his attention to the other books.
‘To think that there would be books on souls here as well…’
Sweeping through the rest of the five thousand books, he found quite a few books about soul as well. Most of them were Hong shi’s notes on his comprehension of the topic.
As a Transcendent Mortal 6-dan Cosmos Bridge realm expert, Hong shi’s possessed a unique interpretation of the topic of souls.
‘Compile!’
Zhang Xuan compiled the notes on soul with the techniques Mo Hunsheng gave him.
Soon, a book was formed.
Transcendent Mortal 5-dan Heaven’s Path Soul Art!
‘To think that I would get two complete Heaven’s Path cultivation technique through this preliminary selection,’ Zhang Xuan thought in agitation.
He had come with the thought of just getting the Master Teacher Tournament over and done with. He didn’t expect to be given enough valuable books to perfect a cultivation realm of Heaven’s Path Divine Art and Heaven’s Path Soul Art.
This meant that his fighting prowess could be raised significantly once he found some free time to cultivate.
The rest of the books weren’t of much use to Zhang Xuan. He swept across them with his mind, but he couldn’t find anything that interest him. Thus, he drew his consciousness out of the Library of Heaven’s Path.
“Only ten minutes have passed?”
When his consciousness returned, he realized that only ten minutes had passed.
In total, they were given two hours. In less than a tenth of the time, Zhang Xuan had already finished browsing through all of the books. If he were to say that he was done with the test, Hong shi could very possibly faint from shock.
But still, he couldn’t possibly stand idly here and wait for others to be done!
“Forget it, since I still have some time, why don’t I try memorizing the content in those books as well!”
Since Zhang Xuan had nothing better to do now, he decided to try memorizing and deciphering the content of the books as well.
But of course, he would be doing so through the Library of Heaven’s Path. After all, it was much more efficient that way.
Upon making this decision, Zhang Xuan immediately dived straight into action. Immersing his consciousness back to the Library of Heaven’s Path, he picked up a book and began reading through it.
Hualalala!
Back then, when he was only at Tongxuan realm, he was already able to read at a speed dozens of times faster in the Library of Heaven’s Path. With his strengthened soul, this ability of his had been further enhanced.
In the time when the master teachers outside read through a handful of books, he was already done memorizing the content of all five thousand books.
As such, Zhang Xuan turned to the other books in the Library of Heaven’s Path.
In the past few months, Zhang Xuan had gathered more than ten million books in the Library of Heaven’s Path, and he hadn’t had the time to browse through them yet. Since he was free now, he decided to take a look at them.
Time passed swiftly as his mind was completely immersed in those books. Suddenly, Hong shi declared, “Alright, time’s up. Everyone, put down the books in your hands!”
Hearing that time was up, Zhang Xuan heaved a sigh of relief. Withdrawing from the Library of Heaven’s Path, he put down the book and took a glance at the other competitors.
At this moment, everyone looked a little fatigued, and their faces were considerably pale.
Two hours of operating one’s mind at full throttle to memorize the content of those books had taken a huge toll on them.
“How many books have you memorized?”
“820 books. What about you?”
“I did slightly better than you, I managed to memorize 917 books!”
…
Putting down the books in their hands, everyone walked to Hong shi. There were some hushed conversations between some of the participants.
Given that their Soul Depths were all beyond 10.0, they possessed photographic memory. Still, it was no easy feat to browse through and memorize all those books.
Honestly, eight to nine hundred books in two hours was the limit for most 4-star master teachers.
Ruohuan gongzi walked over and asked, “Zhang shi, how many books did you memorize?”
“Me?” Fearing that he would scare the other party to death if he were to utter the truth, Zhang Xuan scratched his head and replied, “It should the same as yours!”
“Same as mine? I read 1240 books, did you reach around 1200 books too?” Ruohuan gongzi asked doubtfully.
Given how formidable Zhang shi’s performance was all along, how could the other party have the same result as him? Ruohuan gongzi found the other party’s words hard to believe.
“Err… I think it should be around that amount. Right, how will Hong shi assess the number of books we have read?” Zhang Xuan asked curiously.
Since this was a test on Wisdom, clearly, they couldn’t be assessed just by the number of books they managed to read. More importantly, the participants must be able to memorize and comprehend the content… But how was this going to be tested? After all, they couldn’t possibly recite the content of the books they have read line after line given the sheer number of books they have read!
“I don’t know either. Hong shi should be revealing it soon!”
Ruohuan gongzi was perplexed too.
To be fair, reciting or writing down the content would be the best way. But… this is just the preliminary selection. They couldn’t possibly drag it out over several days just for this single test, it would be too inefficient!
Besides, how many books do they have to memorize to pass the test?
Furthermore, the word count in each book was different. If they were to count purely by books, that might introduce so biasedness in the results.
And in truth, all of the other participants also shared the same confusion.
“Hehe, is everyone worried about how the test will be carried out?”
Seemingly noticing everyone’s doubts, Hong shi chuckled. “Don’t worry. Since I’ve proposed this test, naturally, I have my own way of assessing you!”
Stroking his beard, Hong shi’s eyebrows shot up. “Based on my experiments, an average 4-star primary stage master teacher can memorize around five hundred books in two hours. But of course, as geniuses of your respective power, the expectations of you are much higher!”
“Thus, after much deliberation, I’ve decided to set the bars at… 800 books. Those who fail to memorize 800 books will be eliminated from the tournament!”
“800 books?”
Amongst the crowd, around a dozen young men’s faces paled.
Clearly, the number of books they had read didn’t reach that number.
“But of course, each book is unique, and thus, we have to consider the varying length and the difficulty of the content of each book as well. Thus, while the standard I’ve set is 800, if you specifically choose to only memorize the thinner and easier books, your score might end up below 600!”
Hong shi continued, “To ensure fairness in this aspect, I’ve applied for a treasure from the headquarters… the Book of Emptied River!”
