Era of Mist

And now, the "Enlightenment" emblem was truly doing its job, sending a wave of light at the progress bar. The bar shot up, and in the blink of an eye, the word "Qualified" leaped up and smashed the word "Unqualified" to smithereens, making that humiliating status a thing of the past.

[Basic Elocution, First Level: Cultivation progress increased to Qualified.]

He glanced at the time. His focused reading had only taken an hour, yet a significant change had already occurred. Shi Tiexin carefully sensed it: in a different region of his brain, separate from the one for math, wisps of cool mind energy were beginning to form. Compared to the energy in his math region, this new energy was still very weak, but Shi Tiexin knew it would soon grow stronger.

’Cultivating here is so fast!’

His energy depleted, Shi Tiexin packed up and returned to the dorm. Zhou Nan still wasn’t back, but Shi Tiexin paid it no mind, washing up before falling straight into bed. Moments later, he was in a deep sleep.

The next day, Shi Tiexin woke up bright and early. A quick glance revealed that Zhou Nan was back. A large, bulging bundle sat nearby, indicating a bountiful haul. Shi Tiexin was calm now, no longer feeling the frantic urge to check the bundle for secret manuals. Instead, the first thing he did was jump out of bed, grab a supplementary manual, and head out the door.

The morning is the key to the day!

To master a language, you have to listen, speak, read, and write. And this early in the morning, a session of reading aloud was an absolute must!

It wasn’t even six o’clock as Shi Tiexin walked on, bathed in the morning glow. And it had to be said, though it was still incredibly early, Fengming First Middle School truly lived up to its name as a Heart Technique Sacred Land. There were already several students up and reading. Some were sitting, others standing, reading either Chinese or a foreign language. Every one of them had the look of an academic elite.

’With such a great atmosphere, how could I, Old Tie, be willing to fall behind?’

’Alright, time to pull out my supplementary manual and start blasting through this cultivation progress!’

’Hmm, let’s see... this supplementary manual is a premium one, too.’

[Supplementary Manual: Basic Elocution, First Level]

[Quality: Premium]

[Usage Progress: 0%]

[Effect: Basic Elocution, First Level, cultivation speed increased by 20%.]

[Attribute 1: Standard. This supplementary manual aids in the recognition of Chinese character forms and sounds. All pronunciations are marked with standard Pinyin, and all characters are in a standard regular script font. This manual was meticulously proofread during production. It is stable and completely error-free, increasing character recognition speed and accuracy by 20%.]

’Oh, so it’s the standard version. Standard is good! Standard means no mistakes, so I can go all out without any worries. *Ahem.* Time to clear my throat and join the other students in some passionate, loud reading!’

"AH! AH! AH!"

"OH! OH! OH!"

"ER! ER! ER!"

The students reading nearby fell silent in an instant. They stared dumbfounded at an imposing, powerfully built boy who was reading from a set of "Chinese Pinyin Flashcards" with the force of a tidal wave. His voice was thunderous, his presence commanding, and he showed not a shred of shame for reciting basic Pinyin at the top of his lungs in public. It was the other students whose minds went blank from the spectacle.

For a moment, the only sound in the entire area was Shi Tiexin’s "AH... OH... ER..."

"Who is that, reading Pinyin so early in the morning?" In the elite class dormitory area not far away, a window opened on the second floor of a villa-style building, revealing a beautiful face. The girl appeared to have a pert nose and red lips—utterly stunning. But from such a distance, the details were a blur.

The only thing clear at this distance was her pair of beautiful, almond-shaped eyes.

A misty light swirled within them, equally captivating whether in joy or anger, revealing a glamorous charm rare for a girl her age. She watched Shi Tiexin below with amusement. After a moment, she giggled. "What a weirdo! But... if you did all this just to get my attention, I have to admit, it’s a pretty unique trick. Hehe!"

"Sigh, people trying to get my attention first thing in the morning. This charm of mine is such a burden~~" Tucking a stray strand of hair, the girl closed the window and turned away, wearing the sorrowful expression of someone burdened by her own fatal beauty.

Of course, Shi Tiexin knew nothing about any of this.

’How could I possibly notice a window opening and closing that far away? It’s not like she’s Pan Jinlian and I’m Ximen Qing. Besides, the pole propping her window open didn’t fall and hit me on the head.’

He just felt that the air here was fresh, the academic atmosphere was strong, and the breeze was pleasant. Reading aloud here was an enjoyable activity in its own right. Even without any system prompts, he felt like he’d received some kind of buff.

Shi Tiexin read nonstop until it was time to eat, without taking a single sip of water or a moment’s break. Rubbing his stomach, he put away the flashcards, feeling that he had made great progress.

’What a great spot. I’m definitely coming back tomorrow!’

Then he headed to the cafeteria to gamble on steamed buns.

This "gambling on steamed buns" consisted of seeing just how much of the "impurity" known as meat filling could be found inside the day’s dough. The feeling of peeling back the bun’s skin bit by bit to inspect its contents really did feel like the legendary practice of "stone gambling."

The four blockheads were thoroughly subdued now and hadn’t caused any trouble. After breakfast, Shi Tiexin strolled a couple of laps around the athletic field, practiced the Essence Nourishment Technique, and then headed to the classroom early. He was in good form today and decided to use the momentum from his morning reading to push his Elocution skill all the way to "Good" in one go.

’Ah, so *that’s* how you’re supposed to read this word...’

’Oh, so *that’s* how you pronounce that one...’

’Eh? Holy crap! No wonder those blockheads were laughing back then. I was reading that character completely wrong! I thought that guy’s name meant "Super Fierce" or something, but it’s a completely different word! You learn something new every day. I honestly just thought his parents had terrible taste...’

Just as Shi Tiexin was engrossed in his studies, Zhao Qingmiao suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"Boss... about the, uh, homework..." Zhao Qingmiao looked at Shi Tiexin with a troubled expression. Of course, a big shot like him wasn’t going to do homework, but things couldn’t continue this way. The head teacher had specifically asked yesterday who wasn’t turning in assignments, and he was probably looking to make an example of someone in the next day or two.

Zhao Qingmiao decided to make a sacrifice. "Boss, how about this? I can let you look at my finished homework, and you can just copy it... Or hey, I could just do it for you!"

Zhao Qingmiao felt his sincere devotion could rival that of a female lead in a romance drama. ’I’m a model of selfless dedication to the protagonist!’

Who would have thought, however, that this particular male protagonist was a "domineering CEO" type.

"No."

Shi Tiexin rejected the offer without a second thought.

’Are you kidding me? These assignments are basically supplementary manuals! If you do them, what will I use? I can keep squeezing Zhou Nan for resources, but that can’t go on forever. It’s much better if I can use the free manuals the school provides. Besides, I’ve glanced at them—even though they’re free, the quality is actually pretty good.’

’Forget letting him do them for me, I have to save every single assignment for myself. No one can touch them! When you’re trying to get ahead, who cares about saving face? I need to be as greedy and stingy as a squirrel hoarding nuts for the winter!’

"Later. I’ll do them myself."