Era of Mist

The matter itself was insignificant, just a minor detail. But Shi Tiexin discovered a fundamental difference between himself and the students here. Namely, he could not skip around when cultivating the mind-art manuals.

Confused?

It was a rather interesting phenomenon, when you thought about it.

The students in this world weren’t entirely bound by the rigid progression of levels in their manuals. Take basic physics, for example. In middle school, they could learn a mix of all four levels at once, and then in high school, they could go back and delve deeper into each one, item by item.

Even cramming it all in superficially didn’t seem to cause any problems. While the order of learning was generally based on difficulty, it wasn’t set in stone.

Who said elementary schoolers couldn’t learn a bit about spatial concepts ahead of time? Hadn’t he seen in the Champion Scholar Stone’s memories plenty of kids making wild gestures every day, striking cringey, bizarre poses while yelling things like "2D Space!" or "Milky Way Supernova!"?

But Shi Tiexin found that he couldn’t do that.

To be precise, he *could* skip ahead. He was perfectly capable of reading through the entire middle school physics curriculum first; the intake of knowledge itself wasn’t restricted. But learning in this way did absolutely nothing to advance his mind-art cultivation progress.

In other words, he had to master the first level of Basic Physics before he could even begin cultivating the second. If he hadn’t passed the first level, it wouldn’t matter how fantastically well he learned the second—he wouldn’t gain a single iota of Mind-Force.

Of course, if he really did master the second level ahead of time, then once his cultivation of the first level was complete, his progress in the second would be absolutely terrifying.

It was similar to his current state of being power-leveled by the Champion Scholar Stone.

Shi Tiexin didn’t know why this was, but mind-art cultivation was clearly more structured and rhythmic than simple learning. With his current level of understanding, he couldn’t begin to fathom the reason. However, it didn’t really affect him much, and it certainly didn’t delay his cultivation that evening.

He took out his middle school physics textbook, "cordially" borrowed a high school textbook from the classmate sitting next to him, and after a bout of intense study, raised the first level of Physics to Good. At the stroke of midnight, the massive word ’Excellent’ filled his entire field of vision, then—WHAM!—it smashed the previous ’Good’ to smithereens.

[Progress in Basic Physics, Level One, has been raised to Excellent.]

Shi Tiexin found his progress in physics was faster than expected. He wasn’t sure if he simply had a talent for the subject, if the Champion Scholar Stone had a strong foundation in it, or if his profound mastery of Basic Mathematics was indirectly boosting his cultivation speed in physics.

’It’s probably a combination of all three.’

But Shi Tiexin had no intention of digging for the root cause.

Stepping out of the academic building, Shi Tiexin looked up at the sky. The night was beautiful tonight, too. As he gazed at the stars, he suddenly felt the urge to express the feelings that had been building up inside him lately.

But before Shi Tiexin could speak, he saw a figure in the pitch-black night, shaking his head as he recited something. Though he couldn’t make out the person’s features, an overwhelming air of theatrical cheesiness washed over him from the voice alone. "Night... oh, night... night... you are so very... black..."

Shi Tiexin instantly lost all desire to speak.

’Actually,’ he realized, ’what I was about to say... wasn’t much more profound than this guy’s recital! My heart was swelling with emotion a moment ago, but hearing it from an outsider’s perspective, it just sounds so stupid!’

’Good thing I didn’t say anything. That was a close call...’

But the person seemed to be struck by a sudden inspiration. "Oh, I’ve got it! The night, has given me, black... eye? Eyes? No, no, too cliché. Hmm... Ah! I’ve got it—the night, has given me, black, eyeglasses! Mmm, yes, black eyeglasses. That’s good, that’s original."

"But speaking of black eyeglasses makes me think of sunglasses."

"And sunglasses make me think of Ah Bing, and of blind people."

"And blind people make me think of darkness, of loneliness, of eyes."

"And eyes make me think of... eyeglasses."

"Ahhh~ The night, has given me black eyeglasses~! What a poem! A masterpiece!"

The man continued muttering his theatrical nonsense to himself, then swaggered off, his flamboyant aura trailing behind him into the moonlight. Shi Tiexin felt that over-the-top cheesiness was somehow familiar. He thought for a moment, then suddenly remembered—wasn’t this the same guy who, a couple of days ago, had been pointing at "the artistic and romantic Aquarius" to channel starlight?

’You can smell that stench of pretentiousness a mile away,’ Shi Tiexin thought. ’Fengming First Middle School really has all kinds of characters!’

’Whatever. The world’s a big place, full of strange people and strange events. A little flamboyance is nothing. Besides, this is Central Star, the legendary Central Star. What’s so strange about a few weirdos here?’

Shi Tiexin quickly put the flamboyant poet out of his mind and returned to his dorm to get some sleep. Before he did, he caught a whiff of himself and realized his clothes were a bit dirty. ’Right,’ he thought, ’I’ve been so focused on cultivating my mind-arts, racing against the clock to get stronger, that I haven’t even had time for personal hygiene.’

’This won’t do. I, Old Tie, have an image to maintain! So, tomorrow I’ll have to find some time to... hmm... find some time to rough up Zhou Nan a bit and have him wash all my clothes for me.’

’It’ll just take a word or two, anyway. No matter how busy I am, I can’t let it get in the way of my fresh and fabulous youth, right?’

Early the next morning, the roars of phonetic drills—initials and finals—rang out once more. Shi Tiexin’s practice of basic pronunciation had been advancing by leaps and bounds recently, making his Mandarin increasingly standard. In the distance, that same window was pushed open again. The almond-eyed girl yawned as she twirled her hair with a pencil, as if trying to curl it into an elaborate style.

’That weirdo’s still at it,’ the girl thought. ’Practicing basic pronunciation every day... is he trying to get into the school’s broadcasting club? His pronunciation is actually standard. With a little more training, he might even be presentable.’ For some reason, this thought put her in a great mood. ’Hmm, trying to get close to me like this... he’s certainly more determined and proactive than those other guys who are all talk and no action. Sigh, to think my charm can inspire someone to work so hard... I’m practically a national treasure, a credit to the state!’

SLAM. The girl shut the window and went back to styling her hair. The graceful curve of her slender back was enough to make one’s blood race, an unforgettable sight.

Shi Tiexin, for his part, put down his book. After his regular routine of eating and cultivating his vital energy, he arrived at the classroom earlier than usual. At this hour, the only person there was Zhao Qingmiao, who was in charge of opening up. ’Being class monitor really is a thankless job for him,’ Shi Tiexin mused. ’He’s basically just a glorified gofer.’

Zhao Qingmiao greeted him respectfully. Shi Tiexin didn’t waste words on him, simply nodding before returning to his seat. He hesitated for a rare moment, contemplating his schedule. After weighing his options, Shi Tiexin finally put away his calligraphy workbook and took out *Extreme Practice* and *Little Genius*.

’I’ll stop practicing calligraphy for now,’ he decided. ’The Perfect completion for the first level of Basic Mathematics is within reach. I’ll focus on hitting Perfect first!’