Confucian Divine Ability: Encouraging Learning

A special note: This is an unconventional farming novel. What it cultivates is science and divine abilities. The pace is very slow, so please bear with it.

The Great Gan Dynasty.

East of Changfeng City stood an academy called Qingshan Academy.

At that moment, inside one of Qingshan Academy's classrooms, an old teacher with graying hair and neatly dressed in a Confucian robe stood at the lectern, speaking with great eloquence.

From the way the old teacher spoke so fluently and remained so composed, it was clear he must be a confident teacher with ideals.

The old man was Qingshan Academy's Confucian studies teacher. His name was Cui Xiuwen, though he was also known as Elder Cui.

Perhaps noticing that someone was daydreaming, Elder Cui's voice abruptly stopped. Then he suddenly raised the ruler in his hand and struck the rosewood desk beside him with a heavy thump.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Hearing the crisp, familiar sound, the students below immediately sat up straight, gazes fixed forward, their expressions serious and attentive, as if to show that they were listening carefully.

"We'll begin a short quiz. Get ready."

As soon as Elder Cui finished speaking, a commotion broke out among the students.

"Ah... another quiz..."

"We have to take several every week. Sigh..."

"When will this ever end?"

"I hate exams the most!"

At that moment, a handsome young man sitting in the corner of the second-to-last row blurted out, "Sigh, another exam!"

This young man was our protagonist, Lu Mingyuan.

After complaining, Lu Mingyuan shook his head, then crossed his arms with practiced ease and laid them on the desk before lowering his head onto them.

He didn't join his classmates in complaining about the teacher's "atrocious" behavior.

Meanwhile, when Elder Cui heard the students grumbling, he only smiled, not the least bit bothered.

After a while, the clamor gradually quieted and finally died away.

Seeing that the students had all bent over their desks in neat rows, ready for the test, Elder Cui stirred his thoughts and activated the Talent Qi within his body. Using it to draw Spiritual Qi down from an unknown space, he unleashed the Confucian Divine Ability—Encouraging Learning.

Who would have thought that after the Encouraging Learning Divine Ability was activated, it would seem as if nothing had happened? Elder Cui, the students, the desks, and even the books on the desks showed not the slightest change.

Had the divine ability failed?

After releasing the ability, Elder Cui closed his eyes slightly and smiled, as though sensing something.

Meanwhile, Lu Mingyuan...

The instant the Encouraging Learning Divine Ability was activated, Lu Mingyuan found himself in a strange-looking space.

It was strange because the space contained only a limited number of things.

A large bookshelf, over ten meters long, stood there, packed with all kinds of books.

They were arranged neatly, packed tightly together.

There seemed to be several thousand of them.

There was a desk, with brushes, ink, paper, and an inkstone laid out on it.

And there was a stool.

But apart from those, there was nothing else.

No house, no walls, no ground, not even a sky or clouds...

There were no other plants or animals, let alone other people. Lu Mingyuan was the only one there.

Just then, a stream of information suddenly came through.

"Welcome to the Encouraging Learning Space. This space is specially designed to assess students' academic knowledge and..."

The information gave a general introduction to the Encouraging Learning Space, its rules, the books inside, and the questions that would appear in the upcoming test. Then it asked:

"Information transfer complete. Do you wish to begin the assessment?"

"Yes!"

After agreeing, Lu Mingyuan didn't hesitate at all. He went straight to the desk in the center of the space and sat down.

He didn't seem afraid or curious in the slightest. In fact, he seemed quite familiar with all of this.

That meant Lu Mingyuan must have come here often. And the reason he was here now was probably because Elder Cui had activated his divine ability.

Once he was settled, Lu Mingyuan silently said, "Begin."

The next moment, a slip of paper appeared out of nowhere in front of him. Written on it was:

Confucius said: "To learn and at due times practice what one has learned, is that not a pleasure? ___, ___? (two blanks) If others do not understand me, and I do not resent them, am I not a gentleman?"—Analects, Xue Er Chapter

The meaning of the words entered Lu Mingyuan's mind as soon as he saw them, as if to make sure he could understand them.

The question looked familiar, though. It seemed... like a fill-in-the-blank question?

"That's easy. 'When friends come from afar, is that not a joy?'"

As soon as he saw the question, Lu Mingyuan picked up his brush and wrote the answer.

In an instant, the blank spaces on the slip of paper filled with his answer.

From the moment he saw the question to the moment he finished answering, less than five seconds had passed.

After he finished, a message came through. Lu Mingyuan knew he could leave now.

But the test wasn't over yet. He still had to answer more questions.

After the first question, the words on the slip changed to:

The six Stratagems for Victory in the Thirty-Six Stratagems are: _, _, _, _, _, _ (six blanks)

"Crossing the Sea by Deceiving the Sky, Besieging Wei to Rescue Zhao, Killing with a Borrowed Knife, Waiting at Ease for the Weary, Looting a Burning House, Feint to the East, Attack in the West."

"Same old routine. Can't you come up with something new?"

That was what he said, but Lu Mingyuan knew there was no chance of that.

Sure enough, as soon as he finished, the next question appeared:

___, I wish to stay drunk forever and never wake.—"Bring in the Wine," Li Bai

And so Lu Mingyuan answered one question after another at the desk in the strange space.

The questions covered a vast range of subjects, with nothing left out.

The classics, histories, philosophical texts, collected works, poems, prose, lyrics, and songs were all represented.

And if divided by the various schools of thought, there were texts and materials from the Confucian School, the School of War, the Legalist School, the Agricultural School, the Medical School, the Eclectic School, the School of Names, the Buddhist School, and many others.

Fortunately, Lu Mingyuan had worked hard, so he answered each question with ease.

About an hour later, Lu Mingyuan finally put down his brush. By then, he had answered a full eight hundred questions. There were so many that, unless the answers appeared on the paper as soon as he thought of them, he wouldn't have had enough time just to write them all down.

After finishing the test, Lu Mingyuan stood up and stretched. Then he quietly murmured, "I want to leave."

Only then did the handsome young man who had been slumped over his desk in the classroom come around. He slowly straightened up and lifted his head.

Just then, three people in the classroom seemed to hear the movement and turned to look at Lu Mingyuan.

They exchanged smiles. They all knew one another!

Seeing this, Lu Mingyuan thought, As expected, I'm the fourth to wake up again.

He wasn't surprised or troubled at being fourth. After all, he really wasn't very good at literature, and he wasn't particularly interested in it either.

So it was only natural for him to get this result.

Honestly, if the teachers didn't give them frequent pop quizzes, Lu Mingyuan wouldn't bother memorizing all those seemingly boring things. He didn't want to come in last every time and become a laughingstock.

With that time, he'd be better off thinking about how to construct a perfect divine ability.

As for the Encouraging Learning Divine Ability Elder Cui had just used, Lu Mingyuan knew all about it.

The Encouraging Learning Divine Ability had been created by the Confucian sages of old. It was a divine ability for both learning and testing.

It was also a type of illusion-based divine ability.

It could pull others into an illusion and make them answer questions.

The place where they answered questions was the strange-looking space Lu Mingyuan had just been in.

In fact, that space was indeed virtual and nonexistent—or, rather, it existed inside the mind of everyone affected by the Encouraging Learning Divine Ability.

So when someone was affected by this divine ability, they lost consciousness in the outside world and fell into a coma.

That was why the old teacher had told them to get ready and put their heads on their desks, so they wouldn't lose consciousness and fall over after being affected by the divine ability.

The reason this divine ability was called "Encouraging Learning," and not something else, was that it could be broken in only one way.

Once someone was affected by it and entered the illusion, they had to answer a randomly generated question before they could leave. Otherwise, they had to remain inside for a certain amount of time.

At first glance, that seemed like a good thing. After all, although there was no food or drink in that virtual space, people inside never felt hungry or thirsty.

In other words, they had no need to eat, drink, or relieve themselves.

In that respect, it really was a good thing. After all, it was the kind of life many people in his previous life had dreamed of.

That kind of environment was truly perfect for lying flat.

But there were downsides, too. Aside from those few things, there was nothing else in the illusory space. It was easy to get bored, even restless, while staying there.

You needed a great deal of patience to remain inside for a long time.

Of course, there were ways to pass the time. The bookshelf in the illusory space held many excellent books.

There were the Analects, Laozi, Records of the Grand Historian, the Thirty-Six Stratagems, The Art of War, the Classic of Mountains and Seas, and many other classics.

There were also all kinds of ancient poems and lyrics...

In short, whatever questions came up, the corresponding books could be found there.

It looked a lot like an open-book exam.

But since the proctor—the person who released the divine ability—could clearly see how everyone behaved inside the illusion, nobody actually looked through the books or copied from them during a test.

Why were there so many books inside?

Naturally, it was for studying!

People could study in the illusory space whenever they wanted. Without other distractions and trivialities getting in the way, they could learn far more effectively than they could outside.

The divine ability got its name because people could study in it, and even take exams.

Of course, the divine ability had a second effect: controlling time, a common trait of illusion-based divine abilities.

Time in the illusion could differ from time in the outside world.

Usually, the ratio ranged from one to one all the way to one to ten thousand.

In other words, time inside the illusion could pass up to ten thousand times faster than time outside.

One day outside could be ten thousand days inside.

That was even more impressive than the legendary saying, "One day in heaven is a year on earth."

Of course, the ratio could be adjusted. It all depended on how the owner of the divine ability set it.

For example, the ratio in Elder Cui's illusion was about one to ten.

So although Lu Mingyuan and the others had spent a long time answering practice questions inside, only five or six minutes had passed in the outside world at most.

That was why the Confucian School often used the phrase, "Time flows away like this, day and night without pause," to describe the Encouraging Learning Divine Ability.

It was said that in the past, the Confucian School had relied on this divine ability to maintain a firm grip on education at all the academies.

Only later, when the other Hundred Schools of Thought developed similar divine abilities, was that monopoly broken.

Although the Encouraging Learning Divine Ability was very useful, it had its drawbacks.

Namely, any time spent inside an illusory space was reflected in one's actual lifespan. Time spent in the illusion consumed one's life, though not one's physical lifespan—it consumed one's soul lifespan instead.

Here's an example. Suppose someone always kept time at a ratio of one to ten. Their lifespan in the real world would be ten times shorter than it should be. Yes, they would live only one-tenth as long as normal.

Years later, they might still have a healthy, youthful body in the real world, but their soul would already be withered and decrepit.

They would have reached the end of their life.

So ordinary people rarely stayed inside for long just to enjoy the thrill of accelerated time. They only sped things up now and then.

Another seven or eight minutes passed before all the students in the classroom finally woke up.

Seeing this, Elder Cui casually called out, "Class dismissed!"

The students chorused, "Goodbye, teacher!"

Just then, Lu Mingyuan hurried to catch up with Elder Cui, who was about to leave.

"Teacher, I'm going to awaken tonight, so I'd like to ask for two days off."

Elder Cui studied the young man before him.

He knew this student, and he had a rather deep impression of him. The boy rarely spoke in class, yet his grades were surprisingly consistent.

Elder Cui narrowed his eyes slightly. "Mingyuan, you turn eighteen today?"

After Lu Mingyuan confirmed it, Elder Cui said, "All right! Get some rest over the next couple of days."

"After you awaken, don't rush to create a divine ability. Take your time with it. There's no need to hurry."

"And don't spend your Qi Luck Points carelessly. They're very precious."

Lu Mingyuan nodded repeatedly as he listened.

Then Elder Cui suddenly asked, "By the way, Mingyuan, which school are you planning to choose in the future?"

Lu Mingyuan replied, "The Agricultural School!"

He didn't hesitate at all.

"The Agricultural School?"

Elder Cui murmured.

Just then, Elder Cui remembered the circumstances of the boy's family and knew he didn't have many options to begin with. Thinking of that, he gave up on trying to draw him into the Confucian School.

He could only sigh again and say in a melancholy tone, "The Agricultural School is good, too!"

Lu Mingyuan had actually guessed some of Elder Cui's thoughts, but he had already made up his mind and planned out his future.

If nothing went wrong, it should turn out pretty well.

Besides, he really wasn't interested in the Confucian School's teachings.

Those were more suited to cultured scholars.

As for Lu Mingyuan, he was just a rough fellow. He really couldn't handle all those twists and turns of the cultured types—especially "the central idea" and "what exactly this sentence is trying to say."