Diligent and Studious Tang Xiaosan

Tang San arrived outside Xue Ke's door. After looking around for a while and making sure no one was nearby, he took out the key he had "borrowed" from Flender yesterday. With a click, he unlocked the door, slipped inside, and immediately closed it softly behind him.

Xue Ke's room was exceptionally tidy. A faint fragrance lingered in the air, the floor was spotless, and the bedding on the bed had been folded into a neat square and placed atop the pillow.

Tang San first opened the wardrobe. Inside hung five long dresses in different styles, along with several shirts and trousers in elegant, muted colors, as well as some garments worn only by women.

Tang San carefully felt through every dress, shirt, and pair of trousers. He even checked the women's garments, refusing to miss any place where paper might have been hidden.

Finding nothing he wanted among Xue Ke's clothes, Tang San was not discouraged. He gently shut the wardrobe, glanced around, and quietly made his way to the dressing table.

Tang San opened and closed each powder case on the dressing table one by one, returning them to their original places. Then he slowly pulled open the drawer beneath it. Inside lay an exquisite little rectangular box, along with several letters stacked neatly together.

He opened the little box and found three eyebrow pencils, as well as a small blade and tweezers for trimming eyebrows. Tang San went through every letter and found that they were almost all correspondence between Xue Ke and Xue Qinghe. He merely skimmed each letter before moving on.

After stacking the letters back in order and gently closing the drawer, Tang San turned his gaze to Xue Ke's bed.

"It probably wouldn't be hidden in the bed, would it? That would be far too easy to find."

Tang San walked over and lifted the bedsheet in one motion. Finding nothing, he spread it back neatly.

His gaze fell upon the square-folded bedding. Afraid of messing it up—after all, he could not fold it as neatly as Xue Ke—he could only reach inside and carefully feel around for a while. Still, he found nothing.

Tang San simply took the bedding down and set it to one side of the bed. Then he picked up the pillow and finally found a clean little booklet underneath. Four large words were written prominently on its cover: Sunflower Scripture.

Tang San's heart leapt with joy. Holding the booklet in his hands, he began to read.

"Sunflower Scripture General Outline: To practice this divine art, wield the blade and castrate oneself; refine pills and consume medicine, connecting inner and outer alike. The path of qi cultivation lies in nothing beyond visualization and guidance. In the vast, boundless void, heaven and earth separated into clear and turbid, giving birth to mankind. A person's qi cultivation is nothing more than cultivating the ethereal spirit and cleansing away murkiness. Qi is the master of life, while form is the function of the body. Heaven and earth may be reversed; humans likewise possess the way for men and women to transform into one another. If this art is mastered, one may break the shackles of the human body, comprehend the principles of heaven, and reach the supreme, immeasurable realm."

Tang San continued reading. What followed were all methods for cultivating inner power. He found them incredibly profound, not the least bit inferior to his own Mysterious Heaven Skill. The final pages of the booklet even included pill formulas to accompany inner power cultivation, making it remarkably comprehensive.

Tang San took out paper and a pen from his Storage Ring and quickly copied it down. In the time it took for a stick of incense to burn, he had finished transcribing it all.

"How could such a miraculous cultivation method be kept hidden away? It should be brought out for everyone to cultivate, benefiting the entire continent—that is the proper path. Besides, this cultivation method was not created by Xue Ke. She merely obtained it from some ruins. It was originally wealth belonging to all Spirit Masters on the continent; she just stumbled into it through dumb luck."

"This can't really count as 'stealing,' can it? The sages once said: be diligent and eager to learn, and never be ashamed to seek instruction from those beneath you. Silently commit knowledge to memory, and never tire of learning... I merely came to study and learn from her cultivation method. How can something scholars do be called 'stealing'?"

"The sages also warned us: be a gentlemanly scholar, not a petty scholar. Tang San, Tang San, how can you fuss around here like a woman for so long? What kind of gentleman does that make you?" Tang San shook his head and stopped overthinking.

He closed the booklet and put it back beneath the pillow. Then he returned the bedding atop the pillow, smoothed out the wrinkles around it with his hand, and finally straightened the bed a little.

He quietly walked to the door, then turned back to inspect the entire room. It looked almost exactly the same as before, with no visible signs of anything unusual. Only then did Tang San feel at ease. He opened the door, first poked his head out to look around, and after confirming that no one was passing by, stepped out, locked the door again, and quickly left.

With Yu Xiaogang accompanying her, Xue Ke forced herself to tour Shrek Academy once more. As they walked, Yu Xiaogang enthusiastically promoted his Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul, speaking with great flair and exaggeration as he tried to prove to Xue Ke that he was indeed worthy of being called Master, fully deserving of his title as "invincible in theory."

Xue Ke had little interest and yawned repeatedly, letting everything Yu Xiaogang said go in one ear and out the other.

She had seen nearly all of his theories in the library of Heaven Dou Royal Academy. There was nothing new about them at all. If not for her plan, Xue Ke would have slipped away long ago. She had no desire to accompany this Master, who kept amusing himself, wandering around and wasting her precious time.

Seeing that the time was about right, Xue Ke bid Yu Xiaogang farewell and hired a carriage to take her to a luxurious restaurant somewhere in Suotuo City. Having grown accustomed to fine food and luxury, Xue Ke was not about to lose her mind and eat the unbearably awful meals in Shrek Academy's cafeteria.

"Teacher!" Tang San called from outside the door.

"Little San, come in quickly!" Yu Xiaogang rose to his feet and impatiently opened the door, letting his beloved disciple Tang San into the room with an excited expression.

"How did it go? Did you get it?" Yu Xiaogang rubbed his rough hands together and asked expectantly.

"Teacher, when I personally take action, how could you possibly worry? It was easy!" Tang San said proudly. This was not the first time he had done something like this, and he had quite a bit of experience.

Tang San handed Yu Xiaogang his copied version of the Sunflower Scripture. Yu Xiaogang hurriedly took it, carefully reading through it page by page. At times he frowned, at times he chuckled softly, completely immersed in the book.

"Break through the shackles of the body? If I cultivate this, could I break through to level thirty?"

When he saw the words "wield the blade and castrate oneself," Yu Xiaogang did not pay them much attention. Clinging to a trace of hope, he thought perhaps he could cultivate it without doing that?

"Little San, thank you! With this cultivation method, your teacher may very well be able to break through to the Soul Elder realm and shatter the shackles of my talent." Yu Xiaogang's hands trembled as he held the book, and he appeared extremely excited.

"What are you saying, Teacher? A teacher for a day is a father for life. This is what a disciple should do!" Tang San, ever respectful of his teacher, said modestly.

"From this day onward, I, Yu Xiaogang, will no longer be trash! Not only will my disciple become famous across the continent in the future, but I, Yu Xiaogang, will also use my own strength to prove myself to everyone on the continent who looks down on me—especially to the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, especially to that vicious woman who abandoned me. I, Yu Xiaogang, am no longer that piece of trash doomed never to break through level twenty-nine. I am Master, invincible in theory, powerful in strength, and admired by all!"

Yu Xiaogang gripped the Sunflower Scripture tightly in his hands, dreaming of the future.