"Achoo!" Ling Yun sneezed forcefully. He was in the midst of picking his teeth and almost bit his own tongue.
"Someone must be talking about me behind my back!"
If Ling Yun had heard Zhang Ling's suspicion about him, he would have stumbled so badly and injured his tongue!
On the other side, Cao Shanshan placed her hand gently on Zhang Ling's forehead. She was checking if Zhang Ling was healthy and sane to make such a deduction about Ling Yun.
"I think you've been reading too many fantasies to have such a wild imagination!" Cao Shanshan asserted as she knew the reason for Ling Yun's sudden change.
Whether it was through deliberate training or pure coincidence, a person would go through drastic changes as long as he fulfilled the criteria for overcoming his own physical limits.
The most obvious enhancement would arise in his fitness level. As for the others traits, it would depend on his bone potential, as well as his ability to comprehend and analyze situations.
As she assumed all these were the reasons for Ling Yun's sudden development, Cao Shanshan missed out on the truth. Zhang Ling's suspicion was right.
"Oh and…" Zhang Ling was stopped before she could even continue.
"Can't you just say everything at one go? It's getting on my nerves!"
"Well… I can keep my mouth shut if you really don't want to hear this," Zhang Ling gave Chao Shanshan a face of disregard.
"Fine, tell me," Cao Shanshan pleaded politely in order to get her best friend to speak.
"You shouldn't have asked to meet Ling Yun outside just now".
"Why not? I need to teach him a lesson for humiliating me in front of other students!" Cao Shanshan said as she started to be riled up.
"No… What I meant was that you had the wrong choice of words," Zhang Ling responded with a pitiful tone.
"What? What do you mean by that? Which word did I use wrongly?" Cao Shanshan clarified worryingly.
"The words you used were along the lines of daring Ling Yun to meet you alone outside, the students at the sides were all ridiculing this particular sentence."
It didn't take too long before Cao Shanshan understood Zhang Ling's point. She became flustered.
"If those blabbermouths are to twist and tell tales about this, you should know better than me what the consequences will be…" Zhang Ling uttered, not wanting to comment too much.
Shanshan's mood did not stay cool for too long before the situation drove her hopping mad again.
"It's all that fat ass Ling Yun's fault!!" Cao Shanshan shouted, with steam rising out from all over her body.
Zhang Ling gazed at her furious pal, pondering in deep thoughts.
There's no love without hatred…
Over at Hostel 305…
"Ling Yun, twenty minutes more to the start of the lesson. Are you going for it?" Chai Hanlin, who just woke up, asked in awe.
"Sure, of course I'll be going," Ling Yun said as he proceeded to get ready.
"There will History and Geography lessons later. Both the subject teachers don't have a good impression of you. So don't take it to heart if they say anything unpleasant, alright?" Chai Hanlin advised.
At this stage, all the Grade 12 students were already streamed into either Liberal Arts or Science classes. Class 6 was one of the Liberal Arts classes. Other than the compulsory languages they had to take, they would learn a combination of three subjects. Namely History, Geography and Political Science.
Ling Yun assured Chai Hanlin everything would be fine before making their way for classes.
"Ling Yun, I want to apologize for what happened yesterday night. I'm sorry for not being able to stop Wei Tiangan and his people from locking you outside the hostel gate," Chai Hanlin finally got his words off his chest.
"It's fine, I don't blame you," Ling Yun forgave Hanlin as he understood the importance of depending on himself instead of others.
"But… Ling Yun, you have never retaliated before, why did you do it this time?"
Ling Yun slowed down before looking into Hanlin's eyes to explain. "I have my own limit. I can stomach it for the first few times. However, if they decide to continue playing with fire and cross that line, I will teach them a lesson!"
"No wonder… Given your build, you could have easily beaten them to a pulp. Your tolerance level must be high to put up with their shameless acts," Chai Hanlin got overly excited as he recalled Ling Yun's majestic bearing last night.
High tolerance level? No way! Instead, I am probably the most unforbearing individual in this world.
Ling Yun giggled at Chai Hanlin's comment.
The guys' hostel was only a 200 meters walk from the classroom. Before they realized, the two of them had reached their destination.
Ling Yun found Grade 12 Class 6 and went into the room, only to hear someone announcing his arrival before receiving stares from his classmates.
Ling Yun cast his gaze across the classroom and managed to pick out a few familiar faces. They were the infuriated Chao Shanshan, her best friend Zhang Ling, the bootlicker Gu Yuanlong as well as Wei Tiangan, who deliberately gave a poker face.
"Wow! He actually turned up!"
"Of course! So that he can boast about his out-of-this-world doings just now!"
"But the next lessons are History and Geography. Let's watch him make a show out of himself!"
"Have you guys heard the story of how he made Cao Shanshan angry… hehe."
Students exchanged comments between themselves softly, as if Ling Yun's majestic prowess exhibited last night and earlier today deterred them from mocking him out loud. This was especially after Jia Meng had two of his teeth knocked out by Ling Yun. This showed how much people hated to have pain inflicted upon them.
Ling Yun gave zero concern to what came out from the mouth of those gossip mongers as he went on to get himself a seat instead, picking a seat at the last row, at the corner of the class. A lofty and beanpole-looking student by the name of Zhang Dong gave up his seat to Ling Yun before taking the seat beside. Zhang Dong's results had always been above average, which posed no problem for him to admit into a second-grade university.
"Hey brother, that was savage!" Zhang Dong murmured after both of them sat down.
"Haha… It was just so-so," Ling Yun replied despite not entirely comprehending what his tablemate meant.
"History's next?" Ling Yun queried after checking out Zhang Dong's timetable.
"Yup, and sad to say, it is two periods long. You have to be careful brother, Mr. Wu might find trouble with you".
Subsequently, Ling Yun retrieved all his History textbooks from Grade 10 to 12 out and put it on his desk.
Hey, this history textbook is so new. It looks like the previous Ling Yun has never touched it before.
As he had just arrived in this world, he had to seek his own methods to attain resources and learn about this world's history and civilization. This book's insubstantial content might have been inaccurate, but it was still better than having zero knowledge at all.
Zhang Dong could not believe his eyes as he witnessed Ling Yun reading a Grade 10 History textbook.
"Stop kidding me. The examination is in two months' time. You won't be able to improve much by being hardworking now."
"I wanna enrich myself," Ling Yun replied and his eyes never left the pages.
Having no other option, Zhang Dong unreservedly pulled out a book from his stack and passed it to Ling Yun. After all, better to start late than to never start.
"Take this, I have marked the key points. It should be able to aid you tremendously in enriching yourself."
As long as one was enriched with the philosophies and beliefs to live a life with the corresponding values, they would not die a meaningless death.
Ling Yun took a glance at Zhang Dong's debilitated textbook and rejected him sincerely. "Thanks for the offer but I don't need it." Thereafter, he continued browsing his own textbook.
Looking at the way Ling Yun read through his book, Zhang Dong doubted that he actually absorbed any information. He thought he was probably just skimming through instead.
Sigh… He's just doing it for the sake of looking good Zhang Dong sighed as he placed his book back into his pile.
*Ring Ring*
Mr. Wu, the history teacher, made his way into the classroom as the alarm rang. As Mr. Wu paced towards the center of the stage, he sent sharp stares over the classroom. He was enraged and disgusted upon the sight of Ling Yun.
"Class, greet!" Chao Shanshan announced in her crisp voice. The school belle was also the class monitor of Grade 12 Class 6. The students stood up subsequently, one after another, except for one.
Ling Yu was so engrossed in reading about the classical school of thoughts by the sages during the Qin Dynasty and its history. He had no idea everyone else was waiting for him to stand up.
Mr. Wu, who had been staring at Ling Yun from the beginning, let out a deep hum to express his unhappiness with him. Zhang Dong frantically tapped Ling Yun to alert him.
As Ling Yun looked up to see his classmates on their feet, he instinctively got his a*s off his chair and paid attention to the front. However, in his mind was a discourse by Lao Zi, the founder of Daoism Philosophy.
"The Dao begets One, One begets Two, Two begets Three, Three begets the Ten Thousand Things… The person reflects the Earth. The Earth reflects Heaven. Heaven reflects Dao. And Dao reflects its own nature…"
This must be the way to cultivation! Ling Yun thought to himself.
The chant repeated itself inside his mind, over and over again. While all his classmates had already taken their seats, he stayed erect, unconscious of his surroundings.
Mr. Wu's face darkened, as he yelled furiously at Ling Yun. "Ling Yun, you either stop playing a fool and focus on my lessons or you get the d*mn hell out of here!"
Ling Yun remained oblivious to Mr. Wu while he raged ferociously like a mad bull in a bullfight. He was pondering deeply over something special, something pertaining to both his family and his life. Are there any cultivators in this world?
Ling Yun had a better understanding of cultivation than anyone else. He was very confident that the "Dao De Jing" written by Lao Zi was the scripture of true cultivation.
Ling Yun scoffed at those rookie explanations about how the world comprehended philosophies in history textbooks. The twisted content failed to bring about justice for "Dao De Jing".
But then again, the amount of spiritual energy present here is so scarce. How does one even cultivate oneself in this sh*t *ss world?
Dissatisfied, Ling Yun suddenly recalled the Shichiyou Herb he had discovered the night before. He also had recollections of his Yang Heel Meridian being maimed right after his birth into this world. Crisis! Ling Yun became conscious of the perilous situation he was in. The urgent desire to practice and enhance his own abilities had never been so strong.
In the Cultivation World, the mortals from different countries had no idea about the existence of the cultivators. As such, we cannot deny their presence. They just may not have been discovered yet. For now, I'll need to stay lowkey till I have gained adequate abilities to protect myself.
Ling Yun was determined to get his hands on the remaining scriptures, but the history textbooks only consisted of a few lines from Lao Zi's "Dao De Jing". As a result, he was crestfallen.
Everyone's eyes turned to the last man standing, who was still deep in thought. His facial expression changed with his emotions; from bemused to ecstasy, then from perturbed to adamant.
Mr. Wu saw that Ling Yun was still oblivious to his surroundings and he became enraged. It was as if the volcano inside him was going to erupt. He felt that Ling Yun was disrespecting him.
In this school, almost every history teacher carried this stern and solemn semblance. It was probably due to their perception of history as something in the past that could no longer be modified. Mr. Wu was the best representative of this stereotype.
He detested Ling Yun to the core for his flippant attitude, as well as his nescience towards school and classroom disciplines. In addition to that, Ling Yun always started work at the eleventh hour and left the majority of his history examination papers undone, achieving only that few pathetic marks.
Up till now, Ling Yun was still standing up and Mr. Wu's emotional volcano was on the brink of eruption. "Ling Yun, if you think that just because I'm not your form teacher, there's nothing I can do to you, then you are utterly wrong! The year-end examinations are coming up and I will not allow any black sheep in my class to hinder others' progress! Get out now! Immediately!" Mr. Wu's tongue-lashing reproof drew Ling Yun out of his captivation.
He looked up, furrowed his eyebrows and returned a demeaning look at Mr. Wu, "Me? A black sheep? Since when did I become one?"
The other students burst into laughter upon hearing that question by Ling Yun.
"Is playing truant not against the school rules? You have been doing that so often! It will affect your classmates' learning!" Mr. Wu exclaimed in an offended tone.
"Do you even respect me as your teacher? Look at yourself today! When all your classmates stood up to greet me, you were still sitting down. But when they took their seats, you chose to stand up instead. How do you expect your classmates to learn efficiently with you disrupting my lessons like this?" Mr. Wu saw red as he stared unforgivingly at him. He had no intention of hiding his disgust and ignorance for Ling Yun.
At the side, Cao Shanshan was secretly overjoyed that Ling Yun was finally receiving his karma for his misdeed to her that noon. However, her heart stung a little subconsciously as she was concerned that Ling Yun would be chased out by Mr. Wu.
Zhang Ling, on the other hand, cast her eyes on Ling Yun with anticipation. She was expecting someone as gutsy as Ling Yun, who had disgraced the Little Gambling God and displeased Cao Shanshan, to come up with a splendid reply.
Wei Tiangan, the leader of Hostel 305, only dared to look at Ling Yun from the corner of his eyes after all that happened the night before. Didn't you try to be arrogant? Why did you stop? So what if you can fight when your academics results can't get you anywhere? Wei Tiangan was tickled by his own thoughts.
As for Chai Hanlin, he was on pins and needles. He was delighted that Ling Yun came to class voluntarily. At the same time, he knew intuitively that Ling Yun actually had no intention of disrupting the class.
These judgemental perceptions did not get the better of Ling Yun. He patiently waited for the legendary Mr. Wu to finish ranting. "Mr. Wu, I'm not going to deny the fact that I often played truancy. The thing is, if I'm not present in school, how would I even affect my classmates' studies?" he retorted with a smirk on his face.
"And for what happened just now, I'm really sorry. I was focused on memorizing the textbook and got distracted from what was going on in class".
As predicted, his face did not show any sense of remorse during his apology.
The class cracked up as they could not believe their ears. Ling Yun was memorizing his textbook? That can't be! That will only happen when pigs fly!
Even Mr. Wu, who was fuming just moments ago, could not contain his laughter and let out a chuckle.
The class was giggling profusely and Mr. Wu was not an exception. He raised his hands to signal to the students to cool down and stop laughing. The waterfall of guffaw came to an end before Mr. Wu sneered at Ling Yun, "Do you know why your classmates burst out in laughter?"
"Nope," Ling Yun replied, despite knowing the obvious.
"Ling Yun, you said you were memorizing the textbook, right?" Mr. Wu asked. He thought he had something on Ling Yun. He was waiting for the chance to humiliate Ling Yun so that he would not dare to disrupt his lessons again.
"Yes, Mr. Wu".
"Which paragraph did you memorize? What were the main points?" Mr. Wu probed further as he perceived that Ling Yun was just trying to get away with his earlier mistake.
"Sorry, sir. I don't know which are the main points and which are not, but I memorized everything I read," Ling Yu gave an honest reply.
This was followed by another wave of laughter from the students as they started to support Ling Yun's seemingly intentional joke.
Zhang Ling did her best to repress her laughter. She glared at Ling Yun. She was wondering whether he knew that Mr. Wu was playing a trick on him.
Cao Shanshan was worried sick for Ling Yun. She did not understand the reason for this chap's silly actions. It was not difficult to discern that this was a trap set up by Mr. Wu for him to jump into.
She hoped to see Ling Yun get taught a lesson, but subconsciously, she did not want his humiliation to happen in public. No one else but her could bully Ling Yun. Cao Shanshan herself did not know when she started to have such care and concern for him.
Mr. Wu could not believe how foolish he was to fall into his trap. He giggled uncontrollably, "You memorized everything you read? How much have you read then?" He questioned the 'black sheep' calmly as he was afraid that he would accidentally reveal the trick he had in mind. His plan would succeed once Ling Yun admitted he only memorized one short sentence in the book.
"I started reading from topic one of chapter one for about a good ten minutes or so. I read very slowly, before reaching the paragraphs about the philosophers from Qin Dynasty." Ling Yun was not lying. If he used divine sense to memorize the content, it would be done in less than a minute.
"Ohhh… Not bad, not bad! So how much did you actually remember?"
"I have obviously remembered everything that I have memorized, or else why would I have read it?" Ling Yun uttered with disbelief at his teacher's redundant question.
The way Ling Yun looked at Mr. Wu made him feel uneasy. Did he find out about my plan? I doubt he is intelligent enough to do so.
Meanwhile, Cao Shanshan became more uptight after she cast her sight on Ling Yun, only to see him frown. Stupid fool, it's already too late to find out about Mr. Wu's trap.
Silence filled the classroom as the students waited eagerly for either Ling Yun's reply or the moment he would fall agonizingly into Mr. Wu's trap of humiliation.
Zhang Dong raised his head up and stared at Mr. Wu before frantically nudging Ling Yun's thigh with his right arm. His motive was clear. He was trying to convey the message to Ling Yun that he should admit it if he had not actually memorized it. There was really no point in allowing Mr. Wu to make a fool out of him. There would be no way of turning back after this.
"Everything, sir. I remember everything," Ling Yun was deep in thought before answering.
Mr. Wu was relieved that Ling Yun did not spoil his plan. However, he was taken aback by Ling Yun's rather confident response. He was so appalled that his eyeballs would have rolled out if not for his gold-colored spectacles preventing them.
How? How is it possible to memorize everything? Everyone was flabbergasted. They had predicted all other possible replies but not this. Ling Yun must be crazy! Never have I seen someone blow someone else's horn so outrageously before!
The students gloated at Ling Yun, sparing him their different views on him. Some found him ridiculous, while others found him arrogant and disgusting.
Cao Shanshan was enraged! From today onwards, I will have nothing to do with you anymore, idiot! She could not bring herself to believe how foolish Ling Yun was.
On the contrary, Zhang Ling glimpsed at Ling Yun with relish despite not knowing the reasons for his answers. However, from her observance of him today, she was confident that he must have had something up his sleeves to come up with such daring responses for Mr. Wu.
She might not have believed that Ling Yun memorized everything he read, but she still waited in anticipation for how the retaliation was going to unfold.
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