Spirit Radiance

Chapter 19: Spirit Radiance

Entering the mine meant another day of one radish, one hole.

For Chu Mu, though, it meant... one book, one morning, and one afternoon.

As the number of characters he knew increased, Chu Mu could clearly feel that his progress in learning them was gradually accelerating as well.

The system resembled the Chinese characters of his previous life. Although it increased the difficulty of learning, to some extent, it also made it easier for Chu Mu to develop logical thinking toward it. After all, the Original Owner had merely been illiterate; how to read and speak was still perfectly clear.

A day quietly slipped away among the books.

Over the next ten-odd days, life remained just as regular as ever—without turmoil, without change.

From dawn until sunset, he read and practiced martial arts...

Time slowly flowed away amid such regularity and abundance. The last traces of Autumn Wind's crispness also faded with the passing days, transforming completely into winter's cold.

"It's snowing..."

Beneath the eaves, Chu Mu looked up at the sky. Snowflakes already filled his vision, and a thin layer of white frost had long since covered the courtyard.

Chu Mu tightened his clothes around himself, then slowly turned and entered the room.

The charcoal fire had long since been lit inside. Along with the flickering flames, waves of warmth rose through the room.

Chu Mu walked over to the charcoal fire and sat down. He casually picked up the book on the nearby table and silently began flipping through it.

He had been reading for more than half a month. Though he had not yet fully achieved his goal of learning, after stumbling through it, he could now barely read this elementary primer.

This reading was naturally no longer like before, when he could not get through even a single sentence smoothly. Now, he could read through it while roughly understanding its meaning.

Though he still stumbled here and there, at the very least, he could take off the hat of illiteracy.

When he walked along the streets, Chu Mu could recognize all those shop signs instead of staring at them as if they were heavenly scriptures.

After finishing the book, nearly half a shichen had passed. Holding the volume, Chu Mu carefully recalled its contents for a while before finally closing it.

He looked around the room, then habitually recited inwardly, Light Screen Panel.

The Light Screen Panel appeared before him.

At this time, compared with more than half a month ago, the values on the Light Screen Panel had changed considerably.

Name: Chu Mu.

Skills: Basic Blade Technique (Beginning Novice) 93/100

Spirit Radiance Value: 432.6%

Looking at the vastly changed values on the panel, Chu Mu could not help feeling somewhat excited.

The proficiency in Basic Blade Technique naturally came from his daily, unbroken practice.

Aside from the initial period of unfamiliarity when he had first begun practicing, he had basically increased it by six or seven points every day. On better days, it even rose by more than ten.

However, as he became increasingly proficient in the blade movements, the growth of his skill proficiency also slowed more and more.

Over the past few days, even after Chu Mu increased his practice time, his proficiency had risen by no more than two or three points over the course of a day.

Chu Mu naturally had some guesses about this change.

After all, his proficiency value was merely a concrete reflection of his practice progress, not a proficiency panel from the webnovels of his previous life that could rise without limits.

As for these blade movements, apart from the Original Owner's small store of memories, Chu Mu had undoubtedly encountered them for the first time. He was no genius, either, and clearly could not master them without a teacher.

All this time, he had simply been putting in grueling effort, practicing one slash after another, relying entirely on his own deductions.

Under such circumstances, it was perfectly normal for his proficiency to increase more and more slowly.

The growth of his Spirit Radiance Value was much more normal. There were twelve shichen in a day, and he spent at least five of them reading and practicing martial arts. Converted into hours, that amounted to more than ten hours of concentration every day.

Long periods of concentration naturally brought a surge in his Spirit Radiance Value. On average, it increased by around thirty percent each day.

And because of the progress of his reading and character recognition, Chu Mu was reluctant to waste his Spirit Radiance Value.

As for the blade movements, Chu Mu planned to practice them himself until he was close to breaking through, then use Spirit Radiance Blessing to break through in one fell swoop.

Thus, he had kept saving the Spirit Radiance Value he had accumulated over the past half month.

Of course, the fundamental reason Chu Mu dared to keep accumulating it was also rooted in that wild idea he had conceived at the mine.

Although he had wasted the Spirit Radiance Value for nothing, it had also let him know that the state of Spirit Radiance Blessing could be canceled at any time, rather than having to be completely consumed once it was activated.

Precisely because he knew this, Chu Mu had dared to keep saving it. Otherwise, he would never have dared try it. After all, the feeling of being drained dry during his first Spirit Radiance Blessing was still vivid in his memory.

"Read, practice martial arts... Then I'll read first."

Chu Mu glanced at the Spirit Radiance Value on the Light Screen Panel, and a decision formed in his heart. Saving it would not make it give birth to anything; turning it into his own strength in time was the true path.

Chu Mu walked behind the writing desk and sat down. That elementary primer, which he had no idea how many times he had flipped through, once again rested in his hands.

Chu Mu's expression was serious and focused as always. This time, however, his eyes clearly held several more traces of unfathomable depth.

The pages turned one after another. His speed was clearly much faster than usual. Page after page, taking in ten lines at a glance—nothing more needed to be said.

Time passed bit by bit. If Private School Teacher Chang had seen this scene, he would certainly have scolded him a few times.

Swallowing the text whole, knowing only the words but not their meaning, was the greatest taboo in reading.

Although Chu Mu read merely to recognize characters, he cared about this quite a lot as well. After all, the ancient-language system was a treasure in every word, and recognizing characters and recognizing meaning were worlds apart.

Having read for only half a month, Chu Mu could, in some sense, be said to have been swallowing the text whole as well. His main goal was to recognize characters, not meanings. It was just that his earnestness had concealed this swallowing whole.

But now, under Spirit Radiance Blessing, the seeds of more than half a month of swallowing the text whole were finally about to flower and bear fruit.

As the pages turned one after another, Chu Mu's mind raced. The knowledge in the book, everything Teacher Chang had taught in class, and all the knowledge he had learned intertwined and erupted at this moment.

Recognizing characters... understanding meaning.

The knowledge he had studied for more than half a month, along with everything he had swallowed whole, rapidly melded together and became clear at this moment.

No one knew how much time had passed. When the book closed, that profound, mysterious gleam in Chu Mu's eyes also faded away.

Chu Mu sat dazed for a moment. Then his gaze turned toward the Light Screen Panel in his field of vision.

Name: Chu Mu.

Skills: Basic Blade Technique (Beginning Novice) 93/100

Spirit Radiance Value: 220.3%

Then, as if remembering something, Chu Mu immediately turned his head toward the hourglass on the desk.

The division of time in this world was the same as in ancient times in his previous life. A day was divided into twelve shichen: Zi Hour, Chou Hour, Yin Hour, Mao Hour, Chen Hour, Si Hour, Wu Hour, Wei Hour, Shen Hour, You Hour, Xu Hour, and Hai Hour.

One shichen was equivalent to two hours in later generations. Beneath the shichen, time was measured in ke, with a quarter of an hour being roughly equivalent to fifteen minutes in his previous life.

The hourglass before him had three markings. Each time one section emptied, it represented one quarter of an hour passing.

At present, the second section of the hourglass had mostly emptied, with only a little remaining.

Chu Mu remembered that before Spirit Radiance had been activated, his Spirit Radiance Value had been more than four hundred and thirty percent. Now, his Spirit Radiance Value had just over two hundred and twenty percent remaining.

In other words, one hundred percent of Spirit Radiance Value should provide roughly a quarter of an hour of enhancement...