I'm Not Singling Anyone Out

Hearing this, Liu Qingqing tilted her head and asked in puzzlement, "Why do you seem different from before? You talk just like a grown-up."

Si Ming's heart tightened. He knew trouble had arrived. Although he had received the original owner's memories, his personality, worldview, and mental age were all different. Even if he deliberately put on an act, differences would remain. It would be enough to fool people who didn't know him well; even if they sensed something odd, they would at most assume he had changed as he grew up. It was like someone being a rugged guy in high school and turning into a cute girl by the time they graduated from college. Compared with a change of sex, a change of personality was hardly anything at all.

But if he ran into someone who knew him and spent every day with him, the slightest oddity would be magnified endlessly. It would be hard for them not to notice.

Si Ming's thoughts raced. Putting on a serious expression, he said, "Yesterday, I brushed past death and was lucky enough to survive. All of a sudden, I understood a lot of things. I thought about it all night and decided to say goodbye to my past self. From today on, I'm going to become a brand-new person and change the fate laid out for me. I don't want to go on living in a muddle anymore!"

Liu Qingqing burst out laughing and asked, "Is that a line from some book?"

Si Ming shook his head.

Realizing he wasn't joking, Liu Qingqing stopped smiling and asked, "Are you serious?"

"More genuine than pure gold."

"Then I'll be your witness and see just how much you can change. Talking alone won't cut it." Liu Qingqing still didn't quite believe him.

"Then wait and see. You'll soon discover that I'm different from the person I used to be!"

Si Ming breathed an inward sigh of relief. That should serve as a precaution.

Chapter 3: I'm Not Singling Anyone Out

In the classroom, the math teacher poked at the blackboard with a piece of chalk and stressed loudly, "This question is practically giving you points. Everyone, look at this numerator and denominator. Can we cancel them? Can we or can't we?"

The students answered listlessly, "We caaan-"

Si Ming quickly flipped through the textbook and breathed a sigh of relief after checking its contents. The courses in this world were considerably easier than those in his previous life. Although he had graduated years ago and returned much of his knowledge to his teachers, a week or two of study would be enough for him to master every topic. Besides, he had been a top student who excelled at theory exams in his previous life.

Junior high students in the Su Dynasty had four main subjects: Chinese, mathematics, medicine, and general knowledge.

Chinese and mathematics needed no explanation. General knowledge covered chemistry, physics, history, and so on, while medicine focused on meridians and acupoints, along with the five elements, internal organs, medicinal herbs, and other topics. It resembled traditional Chinese medicine, but wasn't quite the same.

Since martial arts existed in this world, anyone who learned them had to study martial medicine. If a person couldn't even identify all the meridians in the body, he would be left scratching his ears and cheeks, not knowing where to begin, even if he were given a manual for a peerless martial art. In particular, when cultivating internal arts, sending True Qi through the wrong meridian could put him at risk of Qi deviation.

That familiar scenario in which a transmigrator sneaked into the Shaolin Temple library, secretly learned the Nine Yang Divine Art under the pretext of copying Buddhist scriptures, and quickly became a peerless expert would be extremely difficult to pull off in reality.

First, he would have to spend a year or two studying classical Chinese, at least well enough to understand what the scriptures meant. Then he would need another two or three years to learn the body's meridians and acupoints and make detailed adjustments according to his own condition. Finally, if he had no accomplished teacher to guide him, he would have to be prepared to suffer Qi deviation after sending his True Qi down the wrong meridian.

So underachievers might as well wash up and go to bed. If they couldn't even understand the classical Chinese in their textbooks, how could they hope to understand the even more obscure and abstruse terminology of martial arts?

Of course, this world had undergone a martial arts revolution. To spread martial arts knowledge and make it understandable even to underachievers, the state had assembled martial arts grandmasters to translate many martial arts manuals into vernacular Chinese and incorporate them into textbooks.

To conceal the changes in himself, Si Ming kept a low profile throughout all his theory classes, sticking to the principles of not raising his hand, not speaking up, and not breaking the rules. He even deployed the "you can't see me" art, imagining himself as a reef beneath the surface of the sea: no matter how wildly the waves surged overhead, he remained steadfast and unmoving. He used the power of his mind to influence the teachers, so they would never call his name.

As for whether the method worked, Si Ming himself certainly believed in it. Sure enough, his name wasn't called once all day, and neither the teachers nor his classmates noticed that the person sitting there was no longer the same one as before.

Unlike the physical education classes in his previous life, which teachers of other subjects often appropriated, physical education in this world—or rather, martial skills class—was highly important, with a status no lower than the four main subjects. There was at least one class every day, and all students were required to change into training clothes and attend at the appropriate venue. And at last, physical education teachers no longer had to "fall ill" at the end of the term.

Martial skills classes were divided into four categories: fists and palms, weapons, lightness skills, and internal arts. Si Ming had chosen lightness skills.

"Brats, rejoice! Today the school has invited an important figure to teach you. Treasure this opportunity and listen carefully, or you'll regret it for the rest of your lives!"

That was what the martial skills teacher, who looked like a bamboo pole, told the students.

"What kind of important figure could it be? Could it be a doctor?"

"Come on. For a school like ours, it'd be impressive enough to invite a Taixue jinshi. Several of those graduates whose portraits hang in our hallway only had jinshi degrees, and the school still treats them like treasures."

"Hard to say. Maybe it'll be a martial arts grandmaster."

"Ha! Still not awake from your nap? If the school can invite a martial arts grandmaster, I'll snort chili water through my nose."

The students discussed it in low voices, their interest plainly piqued.

The Confucian education system was divided into five levels: elementary school, junior high, senior high, university, and Taixue. There were six degrees: tongsheng, xiucai, juren, gongsheng, jinshi, and doctor, based on the Confucian degree system. For martial arts students, each degree basically corresponded to two levels of internal arts.

For example, the degree obtained upon graduating from elementary school was tongsheng, corresponding to Level Two Internal Cultivation. The degree obtained upon graduating from junior high was xiucai, corresponding to level-four internal arts, and so on.

The martial skills teacher listened to the students' discussion without criticizing them. Instead, he smiled faintly and clapped his hands. "Let us welcome Master Yan Jinghong, Heavenly Ultimate Mohist Hero Guard!"

Suddenly, a huge sword case descended from the sky and landed upright on the ground with a bang. Then a figure swooped down like a great roc and alighted gracefully in front of it.

The newcomer addressed the students. "Hello, everyone. I'm Yan Jinghong, your substitute teacher for today."

The students fell silent at first, as if unable to accept the reality before their eyes. Then they began screaming as though they had gone mad.

"Heavens! It's actually Startling Rainbow Beyond the Heavens! I've seen him on television, but he's even more handsome in person!"

"Only Spirit Transformation experts can serve as Heavenly Ultimate Mohist Hero Guards. The school really did invite a martial arts grandmaster! I'm not dreaming, am I?"

"I'm done for, I'm done for! My nose is done for!"

Among the crowd, Si Ming also looked astonished. The man's entrance had been so cool that it deserved ninety points; it lacked only an inspiring piece of background music for the remaining ten. He was also surprised that his own little junior high school had managed to invite a Spirit Transformation expert.

The martial arts realms of the Sea Continent world were divided into four levels: the Qi Refining Realm, the Spirit Transformation Realm, the Void Returning Realm, and the Dao Integration Realm.

On the surface, the Spirit Transformation Realm was only the second level and didn't seem like such a big deal. But after receiving the memories, Si Ming knew that wasn't the case at all.

The Dao Integration Realm was a legendary realm, and no one on the Sea Continent had reached it at present. The Void Returning Realm was therefore the highest realm, with no more than a handful of known experts. Each was like a nuclear weapon and rarely made a move. As a result, Spirit Transformation Realm experts were the important fighting force in contests between the various powers, as well as one of the factors used to measure a nation's strength. They were also respectfully known as martial arts grandmasters.

Yan Jinghong was around thirty-five or thirty-six, with sword-like brows, starry eyes, refined and striking features, and a commanding bearing. The enormous sword case behind him was both thick and long, standing a good deal taller than the vast majority of the students.

Although his sword was hidden inside the case, he had not restrained his sharp edge in the slightest. His whole person was a divine sword drawn from its sheath. Just looking at him, one could sense a pressing sword intent that made it impossible to look straight at him.

The martial skills teacher stared at the bottom of the sword case, a look of shock on his face. The students' cultivation was still shallow, so they couldn't discern what was going on and merely thought Yan Jinghong's entrance was very cool. But the teacher knew that the truly masterful part was the sword case's arrival.

Judging by the speed at which the sword case had hurtled down, it should have smashed a large crater into the ground, yet it had not left so much as a mark. Such control over force was truly a feat of divine skill, especially when the object had left his body.