Chapter 17

Yuansheng was found and adopted by his master in the Taoist temple not long ago during that continuous autumn rain. He has no past memories, does not remember his own name, and only vaguely feels that he once had a happy family.

His father was dignified yet loving, and would hold him in his arms to teach him to read and write. His mother was gentle yet strong, and would stroke his head and carefully wipe his face.

Every time Yuansheng dreamed of it, he couldn't help but burst into tears and feel uneasy. He knew that something must have happened to break his happy family, which led him to wander in the wilderness and almost freeze to death in the rain.

Yuansheng's master was an unknown Taoist priest. His Taoist temple was dilapidated and he had never seen a single worshipper since he arrived. The reason why the temple could still operate without worrying about food and drink was because his master also had a side job teaching in the palace.

Yuansheng felt that his master was a very respectable person when he wasn't acting crazy, but as for when he was acting crazy—

Yuansheng, who was woken up in the middle of the night, opened his eyes and saw his master, who looked like a sage, sitting by the bed, looking at him with a sorrowful and regretful gaze.

Yuansheng closed his eyes, rubbed his temples to wake himself up, and asked, "Master, what happened this time?"

The way this "again" is used is so skillful it's almost heartbreaking.

Master Cen said, “Disciple, your grandmaster has appeared to you. He says you have no wisdom, and you probably won’t be able to stay at the Taoist temple for long.”

“…………” Yuansheng was silent for a long time. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but in the end he didn’t say anything. He just silently lay back on the bed, closed his eyes and covered himself with the quilt. “Okay, I will go to Wanfu Temple next door to be ordained tomorrow.”

Master Cen immediately glared at him, then reached out and slapped him through the blanket, "You actually want to become a monk? You're betraying your master and ancestors!"

“We’re all monks, there’s no difference. Master, you can’t discriminate against bald monks.” Yuansheng argued vehemently. “Besides, Master, you said that we cultivators value the unity of knowledge and action and acting according to our nature, otherwise we will damage our resolve. So if I really go to cultivate Buddhism, it will be in accordance with my heart, right—ouch! Master, why did you hit me?”

"If I don't hit you, my Dao heart will be damaged." Master Cen maintained his otherworldly and dignified appearance, and simply raised his hand to lightly tap his forehead.

He stroked his long, white beard and began to shoo his still-lying disciple away, "Starting today, you will come with me to the Imperial Study to serve as my page. Be clever in the palace, talk to people, and help me find interesting people."

The Master did not speak of strange phenomena, physical prowess, disorder, or spirits; he respected ghosts and spirits but kept them at a distance. Master Cen was a Daoist and a Confucian scholar. He never readily believed in ghosts and spirits. Although the writing did indeed feature ghosts and spirits, he did not truly believe it was the work of his ancestors.

Master Cen was eager to find out the man's identity, so he subtly dug some traps in his reply, deliberately leaving some loopholes in his words, making his words contradict the views he had discussed in class, so that the other party would seize on them and use them to refute him.

Judging from the writing style, Master Cen was a somewhat rigid or overly logical person. He was certain that even if the other party noticed his trap, they would not deliberately avoid answering the question.

As he had predicted, Master Cen was certain that this person must have attended his lectures before. He was most likely a prince or one of their study companions. Princesses would occasionally come to the study to listen to lectures, so that was also a possibility.

He couldn't force the other party to reveal their identity to him, especially if they were a princess, he couldn't approach them.

It would be better to let the little apprentice sneak in; who knows, it might yield unexpected results. Besides, the little apprentice is only seven or eight years old and can hardly be called a teenager. Even if the other party really is a princess, nothing will happen.

Furthermore, the young apprentice really doesn't have much talent to be a Taoist priest, but he does have quite a talent for studying. Although there are a few old-fashioned teachers in the palace, they also have some talent, so it wouldn't hurt for him to go there.

Yuansheng had no idea what his master was thinking; he just nodded blankly.

"Then get up quickly," Master Cen urged.

Yuansheng: "But Master, you don't have any classes today."

"Otherwise, why do you think I told you to get up quickly?" Master Cen slapped his apprentice's forehead in an annoyed tone. "That old fogey from the Li family has mobility issues and is not in good spirits. He always likes to make students recite and sway their heads for half an hour before class. Let's hurry up and finish the class before he gets there."

“Master, the Ancestral Master is still watching. Be careful you don’t get expelled from the sect.” Yuansheng got up slowly, muttering to himself as he showed great filial concern for his master. “Master, do you want to offer incense and pray to the Ancestral Master? After all, the Ancestral Master has already shown his power. Sigh, I really don’t want to bear the burden of the sect at such a young age.”

"You brat, your grandmaster just appeared, he's not going to take me away, and you're still thinking about it." Master Cen finally couldn't maintain his dignified demeanor, and with a flick of his beard, he kicked his disciple against the wall.

*

The first thing Xue Jin'an did when he woke up in the morning was to check if he had received any more ashes. Fortunately, no one was burning paper money for him anymore.

Xue Jin'an casually opened his learning software, intending to eat while reading the new textbooks, which was his habit.

He doesn't actually open the learning software every day, but he remembers the course schedule. Whenever he goes to the study room for a new course he hasn't heard before, he will definitely open the learning software to study the textbook on his own.

Today's lesson is taught by Grand Tutor Li—Grand Tutor Li is one of the Three Dukes, a nominal position but still a first-rank official with a superior status, and even the emperor respects him.

Grand Tutor Li primarily taught the Book of Documents and the Spring and Autumn Annals, two of the Five Classics; he was essentially a teacher of politics and history.

Xue Jin'an even took advantage of his breakfast time to learn this subject, but when he looked at the electronic textbook, a compressed file popped up for him.

It turns out that the Book of Documents is all-encompassing, covering politics, laws, astronomy and many other aspects, and its content is too broad. The Spring and Autumn Annals, on the other hand, is a historical book, and when it is told, it will extend to other historical books, such as the Records of the Grand Historian, the Book of Han, and the Records of the Three Kingdoms.

The textbook was so densely packed that Xue Jin'an couldn't help but mute the audio of the online class and light a candle for his human brain, which had limited memory space.

Humans are truly incompetent; learning requires time and integration before it can be ingrained in their minds and used freely, unlike these code-based beings who can simply download all the data and do whatever they want.

Xue Jin'an quickly skimmed through the thinnest book, page by page, and then saw the long electronic textbook. Her brain felt like it was going to give out.

He decided to listen to online classes to relax and then, when people weren't paying attention, cram knowledge into their minds.

As he looked closer, his gaze gradually became confused, yet he couldn't resist his curiosity. He saw Grand Tutor Li, trembling, pointing with his cane at a somewhat familiar-looking man with an air of otherworldly refinement, reciting eloquently, "That old thief from the Cen family took advantage of my weak legs, daring to rob me to my face, openly stealing books and going to steal lessons..."

The person sitting at the head of the table, in the position reserved for the Master, was none other than Master Cen. Beside Master Cen was a young Taoist boy of about seven or eight years old, who frequently nodded at Grand Tutor Li's writings with a look of amazement and admiration. He didn't say a word, but his face clearly said, "He is so talented."

Xue Jin'an saw Master Cen secretly pat the young Taoist boy on the back and said leisurely to Grand Tutor Li, "How can teaching and educating people be called stealing? I just didn't want them to waste their time. Grand Tutor Li is exaggerating."

The two teachers then began arguing back and forth, their debate escalating from vying for class time to teaching attitudes, and then to the political ideals of being a role model for students, turning into a large-scale one-on-one literary debate.

When no one was looking, the young Taoist priest directed his companions to arrange the tables in a circle. Everyone sat down around it, watching the competition intently while discussing things in hushed tones. The young Taoist priest blended in perfectly, feeling completely at ease.

The princes were even coaxed into bringing out their private stashes of snacks, which piled up on the table. The sixth prince, in particular, had his stash almost emptied. The group of teenagers huddled together, eating and watching, and it really did look like a group of friends watching a game together.

Xue Jin'an discovered that neither the Fourth Prince nor the Fifth Prince were among them; they must have both taken leave.

Just as he was thinking this, Xue Jin'an heard a noise. He looked in the direction of the sound and saw the Fifth Prince fall to the ground, leaning against a tree trunk and panting heavily.

His breathing was rapid and heavy, his heart was beating fast, his face looked terrible, his lips were an abnormal color, and his fingertips were pale and bloodless.

He looked like he was having a heart attack.

The Fifth Prince finally caught his breath and turned to see Xue Jin'an staring straight at him. He released his grip, straightened up, and said with a forced smile, "So you finally realized I'm about to die?"

Xue Jin'an reserved his opinion: "You are very healthy."

Although the battery is behaving abnormally, his physical function data is still far beyond the level of his peers, just like before. Moreover, if the battery is really under such a load, it would be a violation of basic human science for him not to go into hibernation and stop running such a power-consuming program.

Rather than causing a heart attack overnight, Xue Jin'an felt that the possibility of it being caused by someone was greater. Logically speaking, the murderer was Consort Rong.

Why Consort Rong would allow her own son to contract an incurable disease was unknown to Xue Jin'an, and he had no interest in prying into human secrets.

He recalled the Fifth Prince's words from yesterday, his eyes brightened slightly, and he adjusted the corners of his mouth into a standard smile, asking very politely, "If I beat you now, can I cut off your hand?"

“...Unless you come with me to see Fourth Brother and sing for him.” The Fifth Prince took a deep breath, and even though he was so angry that he had a heart attack, he still couldn’t resist causing trouble. “I heard that Fourth Brother is so sick that he can’t get out of bed and is even having nightmares at night. I think he really needs you, Seventh Brother.”

The Fifth Prince's pale, bloodless fingers clutched his heart, which was beating erratically with his emotions, and a wicked smile spread across his bluish-purple lips.

He stepped forward, lowering his voice to entice, "Seventh Brother, do you really not resent how Fourth Brother treated you? This is a good opportunity, a good opportunity to get revenge on him and make him never dare to bully you again. Believe me, if you miss this chance, you will never have another chance to make a move."

"Seventh Brother, strike while the iron is hot and kill him. Don't hesitate." His hand landed on Xue Jin'an's shoulder, gently squeezing it as if to encourage him.

Xue Jin'an wrote down the new skill, nodded with a look of satisfaction, and said, "I understand."

As the Fifth Prince looked on with satisfaction, his wrist was suddenly grabbed, and then the world spun around him. He was twisted behind his back and pressed against the table, his face pressed against the cold stone. With enough blood flowing into his brain, he suddenly became a little clearer.

"Take advantage of your illness to kill you. Thank you, Fifth Brother. You are such a good person. I will cherish your hands." Xue Jin'an, who felt he had learned a lot from Fifth Brother, gave the kind Fifth Brother a grateful smile.

The kind-hearted Fifth Prince: "