Being a Villain Wasn't Easy Either

As Huo Hai busied himself, traps and mechanisms appeared all over the room. The little ones stared dumbfounded at his movements, unable to figure out what this young master was trying to do. Could it be that after losing his memory, even his mind had gone muddled?

A half-open door had a bucket perched atop it, though there was no lime in the bucket. It was not that Huo Hai was being kind-hearted; he simply could not find any lime and could only use water instead. On the lectern, a trap was disguised with straw, with a clamp inside. Who knew whether it had once been used for catching rats? Huo Hai had found it earlier in a corner.

"Ha ha, this is good." Huo Hai's eyes lit up. He pulled out a snake from some nook and cranny, placed it in a box, and set it on the tutor's desk. The snake was merely an ordinary wild beast, not some spirit beast.

Watching Huo Hai's string of actions, the children opened their mouths, unsure what to say. Just then, the tutor suddenly arrived. Through the window, a very upright-looking middle-aged man slowly made his way over.

"The tutor is here, the tutor is here! Everyone, hurry up and sit properly." Huo Hai shook his head and sat down in the backmost corner. It seemed that no matter which world one was in, tutors were forever the most terrifying creatures to students.

Through the window, the middle-aged man looked at the children reading inside and nodded approvingly. Holding a book in one hand, he opened the door with the other. Ha ha, it's almost time, almost time. The villainous life of this Young Master Huo Hai begins now. Though Huo Hai pretended to read as well, his heart was wildly excited. At last, he could be a villain.

Even Huo Hai himself did not know why his obsession with becoming a villain ran so deep. At the root of it, perhaps the two deaths—his own and that of this body's original owner—had shaken him so badly that he truly believed good people never lived long.

This extreme notion had already thoroughly fused into Huo Hai's soul, yet poor Huo Hai had not noticed it even now.

The door was finally pushed open, and the bucket atop it fell at once. The tutor was about to become a drenched rat. Yet what happened next made Huo Hai's eyes widen. This, this was not scientific.

As the bucket fell, the tutor reacted in an instant. Rather than dodging it, he flicked his sleeve. His sleeve tore through the air with a whistling sound and even emitted a faint glow, directly smashing the falling bucket to pieces. The water within splashed down with a clatter, yet not a single drop landed on the tutor. Whenever a droplet approached, it was sent flying away by some special force.

Oh no, I forgot this world isn't Earth. Many people here are spirit masters. Huo Hai finally understood why those children had looked at him so strangely. They had not been frightened by his actions; they had been stunned.

They were stunned that Huo Hai could come up with such strange ideas and make such bizarre contraptions. What shocked them even more was whether Huo Hai was an idiot. With something so simple, even trying to plot against them would probably not be easy.

These children did not possess much cultivation, but their reaction speed was not slow. The tutor glared fiercely at those below the lectern. He did not need to ask to know who had done it. Was it not the newcomer from today?

He had long heard that the young master had lost his memory. Originally, he had not believed it, thinking the patriarch was merely putting on a show for the other Lineages to see. But now he believed it. If Young Master Huo Hai had not lost his memory, how could he have made such a lowly trap? On the Spirit Realm Continent, traps were the lowest of low arts. Aside from hunters whose strength was lacking, practically no one used them.

The tutor shook his head. With a young master like this, it was not easy for him to discipline him over anything. Better to let it go. After all, he too was a servant of the Huo family, merely with a position a little higher than that of ordinary servants.

Continuing forward, the tutor stepped on the clamp. Something beyond Huo Hai's expectations happened again. The clamp did move, but it did not catch the tutor's leg. The tutor had actually pulled his leg back at the instant the clamp activated.

The successive attacks had made the tutor somewhat angry as well. He could not help thinking that after class ended today, perhaps he should go complain to the patriarch. This brat truly did not understand respect for teachers and the Way. Reaching the lectern, the tutor slowly sat down. The schoolroom had become very quiet. Everyone stared fixedly at the tutor, and not one dared say a word.

Just as the tutor was about to speak, he suddenly spotted the box on the desk. After thinking it over, he waved a hand and swept the box open.

The snake inside appeared before the tutor. For the third time, something unexpected happened. Huo Hai had thought he could scare the tutor, but the tutor remained expressionless. After a long while, he nodded. "Very good. You have put thought into this. I will not pursue today's matter." At the sight of the snake, the tutor seemed quite satisfied.

He covered the box again and set it aside. Huo Hai's eyes widened. After thinking carefully, he inwardly cried, Oh no. The tutor isn't afraid of snakes. He probably thinks this snake is a dish I gave him for an extra meal tonight.

By this point, all three of Huo Hai's traps had been completely neutralized, and the last had even turned into a gift. Was being a villain really this difficult? Huo Hai began to wonder what exactly he had done today.

"He's so amazing. He bought off the tutor with just one snake. That's incredible. Why didn't we think of giving the tutor something?" one little fellow whispered to the person beside him. Clearly, they had all misunderstood.

The little boy beside him whispered, "What do you know? This is called wisdom. First, he made two harmless little traps, then gave him a snake. He's using it to draw closer to the tutor. As expected of the young master—his mind is so flexible. In the schoolroom from now on, even without the status of young master, the tutor will still treat him better."

The other children nodded earnestly, and the way they looked at Huo Hai changed.

"Damn it, after all the trouble I went through to make those traps, all they amount to are the words 'harmless'? Heavens, why am I so unlucky?" Huo Hai did not notice at all that, with his current skills, such traps were indeed harmless even to him.

"Ahem." The tutor could not stand watching any longer. "All of you, sit properly. Have you remembered the characters I assigned yesterday? Do not think that merely because you were born into the Huo family, you can get away with being illiterate. If you misunderstand something during cultivation in the future, you will have only yourselves to blame. How many commoners have obtained spirit arts but could not cultivate them because they could not read? Do not waste such an opportunity."

Once the tutor spoke, the children finally quieted down. The tutor nodded in satisfaction. "Good. Now turn to the first page. Let us first review what we covered several days ago." As the tutor began speaking, everyone started turning pages.

Huo Hai's expression grew even more depressed. He finally understood why this schoolroom was full of children. This was simply a place for learning to read. Could a dignified university graduate like him possibly fail to recognize a few characters?

"Wait, I really don't seem to know the characters of this world." Huo Hai's expression changed. He finally remembered that this was not Earth and could not be judged by common sense. Though his memories contained methods for cultivating spirit arts, not a single written character had ever appeared. He could cultivate instinctively, that was all. As for writing, there really was nothing of it in his mind.

The tutor had also considered Huo Hai's amnesia, so he began from the first page. "In the first year of the continent, all was wilderness. Suddenly, a streak of rainbow light appeared in the heavens. At the beginning of the continent's origins, there were spirit beasts..."

The tutor began reading slowly and in great detail. The children below followed along, though naturally Huo Hai did not. He had long passed the age of reading aloud like this, especially the slow, swaying, sing-song manner of it.

The writing in the book felt both unfamiliar and deeply familiar to Huo Hai. It was unfamiliar because the continent's script truly differed from that of Earth, thoroughly shattering the last trace of luck in Huo Hai's heart. Those descriptions claiming that other worlds all used Earth's writing, and even modern simplified Chinese at that, were simply complete nonsense... Huo Hai simmered with resentment.

The familiar feeling should have come from the original owner's soul, which had fused into his own. The understanding of writing possessed by the former Huo Hai had likely already seeped into every corner of his soul. No memories had been left behind because there had been no need for them.

Following that familiar feeling, Huo Hai quickly recognized all the characters and deeply imprinted them into his mind. He did not need to deliberately memorize them; it was as though he had already learned them long ago and was merely reviewing them now.

As he continued reading down the page, Huo Hai's memories of the characters grew deeper and smoother. He could even recognize characters that had not yet been explained. Huo Hai knew that he had successfully crossed the hurdle of literacy. From now on, on this continent, there would no longer be any written works he could not understand.

Huo Hai did not leave at once, because the contents of the book had drawn him in. What was written inside somewhat resembled the ancient texts he had read before, and it was the kind without translations or punctuation.

Yet after Huo Hai grew accustomed to it, he felt nothing was amiss. Though this book was mainly meant to teach children literacy, the stories within contained common knowledge about the continent. From the legendary origins of the continent and even its myths, all the way to the caution and care needed in everyday life, everything was recorded in the book.

It could be said that as long as one read this children's book from beginning to end, one would generally have no problem with common knowledge about the continent. Thus, Huo Hai stopped reading along with the others and began reading on his own.

His earlier thoughts of pranking the tutor had long been thrown to the back of his mind while he read. In the tutor's eyes, Huo Hai's appearance made him feel greatly gratified. It seemed that Huo Hai's memories of writing were gradually awakening.