Chapter 10: Studying

When Qingyuan and Qingliang walked out with Lin Yang carrying the enormous stack of books, both of them still wore expressions of barely concealed amusement.

“Master, I’ve made my choice.”

Lin Yang stepped over to Yu Daiyan and spoke softly.

Yu Daiyan slowly opened his eyes and turned his head.

The moment he saw the tiny Lin Yang struggling to carry a tome nearly half his own size, the stern expression on his face finally broke.

A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

He glanced at Qingyuan and Qingliang before shaking his head.

“You two… why did you let your junior brother choose this particular set of books?

Isn’t that making things unnecessarily difficult for him?”

“Master, Junior Brother chose them himself.

It wasn’t our idea.”

The two hurriedly explained.

Yu Daiyan turned his gaze toward Lin Yang.

Lin Yang nodded.

“Master, since I’ve already begun practicing martial arts, I thought I should properly understand the Twelve Primary Meridians, the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, and the various acupoints throughout the human body.

So I asked my senior brothers to help me find this collection.”

After hearing his explanation, Yu Daiyan looked thoughtfully at the thick volume in his hands.

A trace of nostalgia appeared on his face.

“When I first borrowed this collection from my master, I had exactly the same idea.

Unfortunately…

My temperament was never suited for quietly sitting behind a desk reading books.

After obtaining this collection, I only skimmed through parts of it.

In the end, I failed to live up to the effort my master put into preparing it for me.”

He paused briefly.

“And now…”

His expression dimmed slightly.

“I no longer have any use for these books.

Since you’re willing to devote yourself to studying them, then read them well.

Perhaps you’ll accomplish what I never managed to.”

“Yes, Master. I understand.”

Lin Yang answered seriously.

Even without Yu Daiyan’s encouragement, he intended to finish the collection.

After all, completing the Scholar System’s mission depended on it.

Yu Daiyan nodded.

“If there’s anything you don’t understand, come ask me.

Although I never finished reading this collection, my years wandering the jianghu and practicing martial arts should still allow me to answer most of your questions.”

“Thank you, Master.”

Lin Yang bowed gratefully before carrying the books back to his room.

He stayed there only briefly.

After pulling out the first volume from the top of the collection, he returned to the courtyard.

Yu Daiyan had already closed his eyes once more.

As usual, he lay quietly in his reclining chair.

This was how he spent most of every day.

Lin Yang sat down nearby.

Qingyuan and Qingliang soon returned as well.

They naturally resumed their usual positions behind Yu Daiyan before opening their own books and quietly reading.

The courtyard quickly fell silent.

The only sounds were the gentle rustling of pages being turned.

Lin Yang lowered his eyes to the book in his hands.

It was the volume introducing the Twelve Primary Meridians.

As soon as he began reading, he quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

Although it was written in the same classical style as the basic internal cultivation manual, the contents were far easier to understand.

At the very least, he could grasp the meaning of each sentence without too much difficulty.

That greatly boosted his confidence.

Unfortunately, the feeling didn’t last long.

By the second page, he encountered a character he couldn’t recognize.

Lin Yang frowned slightly.

Using the surrounding context, he made a rough guess at its meaning before skipping over it and continuing.

Then another unfamiliar character appeared on the third page.

Another on the fifth.

His reading quickly became filled with obstacles.

He looked up instinctively.

He wanted to ask Yu Daiyan about the pronunciation and meaning of those unfamiliar characters.

But seeing his master quietly resting with his eyes closed, he didn’t have the heart to disturb him.

Instead, he lowered his head again and continued reading, skipping every character he didn’t recognize.

Page six.

Page seven.

And so on.

By the time he reached the end of the book, an entire shichen—roughly two hours—had passed without him noticing.

His brows were tightly knitted.

After finishing the entire volume, he counted no fewer than ten characters that he couldn’t read.

Although he could roughly infer their meanings from context, the experience still left him deeply dissatisfied.

It felt as though a thick veil separated him from the book’s true meaning.

He glanced toward Yu Daiyan, who remained motionless on the reclining chair.

After hesitating for a moment, he quietly stood up and walked over to Qingyuan and Qingliang.

The two senior brothers looked up from their books.

Without saying a word, Lin Yang opened his own book and pointed at one of the unfamiliar characters.

Qingyuan immediately understood.

After thinking for a moment, he leaned close and quietly whispered both the pronunciation and the meaning of the character into Lin Yang’s ear.

A flash of delight appeared in Lin Yang’s eyes.

He immediately pointed to the second unfamiliar character.

Then the third.

However, by the third one, both Qingyuan and Qingliang began looking uncomfortable.

The two exchanged glances before helplessly shaking their heads.

“What’s so difficult about reading a book?”

Yu Daiyan’s slightly displeased voice suddenly sounded from the front.

“What are the three of you whispering about over there?”

He had assumed his disciples lacked patience.

After barely reading for two hours, they had already started chatting among themselves.

“Master, it’s my fault.

I was disturbing my senior brothers while they were reading.”

Lin Yang quickly stood up.

“Master, Junior Brother came to us because he encountered several characters he couldn’t recognize.

He didn’t want to disturb your rest.”

Qingyuan hurriedly explained.

“Oh?”

Yu Daiyan immediately became interested.

“There are characters you don’t know?

Bring the book over and let me have a look.”

Lin Yang stepped forward and respectfully handed over the book.

“Master, it’s these characters.”

He pointed out every unfamiliar character one by one.

At first, Yu Daiyan wore the confident expression of a teacher instructing his disciple.

But by the seventh…

Then the eighth unfamiliar character…

His expression gradually stiffened.

He looked up at Lin Yang and opened his mouth.

He wanted to admit that he didn’t know how those characters were pronounced either.

Yet as a master, doing so would be rather embarrassing.

At the same time, he couldn’t simply make something up.

Although this wasn’t a martial arts manual, it dealt with the meridians and acupoints of the human body—the very foundation of martial cultivation.

If he casually guessed and ended up misleading Lin Yang, the consequences could affect his disciple’s entire future.

After thinking for a long moment, Yu Daiyan finally sighed and shook his head.

“Qingyang…

As for these remaining characters, even I don’t know their proper pronunciation.

I can only make rough guesses about their meanings.

To be safe…

You should ask someone else.”

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