To prevent the proud son of the Sheng family from losing face, Shi Kuan reluctantly gave Li Chuan the contact info. Better than having Li Chuan yelling in the dorm hallway.
After sending the contact, Shi Kuan pulled up Li Chuan’s student profile and saw the homeroom teacher Jiang Changming’s evaluation:
This student has outstanding grades, excellent character, is polite and respectful. He is a rare example of academic and moral excellence. His only minor flaw is that he’s quiet and low-profile. I worry his gentle nature might make him vulnerable to bullying. I hope the faculty will look after him, given the difficulty of his admission.
Other than the part about “outstanding grades,” the rest couldn’t be further from the truth.
“Jiang Changming, are you blind?” Shi Kuan muttered, rubbing his sore abdomen.
Meanwhile, Li Chuan added Sheng Xin as a friend, noting “I’m Li Chuan.” Sheng Xin quickly accepted.
Li Chuan: [Thanks for lending me such an expensive piece of clothing. I’ll wash it and return it to you.]
Sheng Xin: [No need. It’s yours.]
Li Chuan: [That won’t do. I looked it up—this thing costs 50 Heavenworld Coins. That’s too expensive. I can’t accept such a valuable gift.]
Sheng Xin: [Then what are you going to wear?]
Li Chuan: [I’ll just wear the school uniform for now. I don’t have any other clothes. I heard the academy gives out stipends on the first of each month. When that comes, I’ll go buy clothes. For this month, I’ll keep wearing that white short-sleeve shirt.]
Sheng Xin didn’t reply.
Not getting the reaction he wanted, Li Chuan narrowed his eyes and followed up: [I’ve cleaned the clothes and packed them in a clean bag. Are you in the dorm? I’ll bring them over.]
Sheng Xin immediately replied: [No need!]
Li Chuan: [I can’t accept someone else’s things for free.]
Sheng Xin: [I haven’t liked you for three years. But since we’re graduating from the same class, if you make a fool of yourself, I’ll be embarrassed too. I gave you the clothes for my own sake, not yours.]
That was exactly what Li Chuan wanted to hear.
Such high-quality clothing, and Sheng Xin had given it on his own initiative—how could he bear not to accept?
The only issue was that people like Tang Chengyun and his lackeys would say nasty things. If they found out the clothes were from Sheng Xin, it would be hard to argue back.
But with Sheng Xin’s explanation, Li Chuan was now invincible.
“In the academy, I had Huang Jian and Yu Qichi to scheme on my behalf. Here in the Heavenworld, I’m all alone. To avoid being bullied, I have to plan for myself.” Li Chuan shook his head and sighed, helpless and bleak.
Mu Ge, who had witnessed everything, was speechless.
Since recovering from his illness, Li Chuan’s behavior didn’t resemble someone who could be bullied. If anything, he seemed more like someone capable of bullying every classmate and teacher.
Now reassured, Li Chuan resumed reading. He urgently needed to buy the original copy of Forging Spirit Art and research Nie Yuanqing’s breathing method. Everything else had to wait.
The only annoyance was that Mu Ge kept following him to the library and watching him with a strange gaze, making it hard for Li Chuan to exchange Heavenworld Coins in front of him.
The library was public. Li Chuan couldn’t drive Mu Ge away. He considered borrowing the books to read at home, but the limit was only three books at a time—he couldn’t borrow all 100 at once.
He couldn’t keep running back and forth between his room and the library every ten minutes just to switch books. With no better option, he read under Mu Ge’s watchful gaze and snuck off to the bathroom every few hours to exchange Heavenworld Coins, then returned to reread the books.
Because Mu Ge dragged him off to eat every mealtime, his reading progress was severely delayed. It took him a full two days to finish all 158 books.
Those 158 books, plus Stardust Art, and the knowledge he had gathered since arriving in the Heavenworld, earned him a total of 5,000 Heavenworld Coins. After compressing that information using Forging Spirit Art, his acquired knowledge value totaled 100 points.
Li Chuan’s innate intelligence value was only 150. When his acquired knowledge reached two-thirds of that, he began to feel a sense of urgency.
Every day, he absorbed new information passively. Any piece might unexpectedly be highly valuable.
For example, in one class, Shi Kuan’s brief explanation of the “Heavenworld Ranking Tournament” and the conflicts between different realms earned him 10 knowledge points.
Li Chuan also started to notice a pattern: Information he had never encountered before was extremely valuable the first time. But additional material on the same subject gave diminishing returns.
For example, regarding breathing techniques, the first book he read earned him 10 knowledge points. He was ecstatic, thinking he could earn 10 points per book and soon afford Forging Spirit Art.
But the second book only gave him 0.2 points. After reading ten more, the gain was just 2 more points, and it slowed down from there.
Only the first encounter with new content would yield large knowledge gains. The rest added very little.
He had never learned about inter-realm conflict before, so even Shi Kuan’s casual mention gave him big returns.
The Heavenworld was filled with knowledge Li Chuan had never touched. Even listening to classmates chat during meals could increase his knowledge score—but that wasn’t good news.
The knowledge he acquired had to be used to comprehend breathing techniques, not exchanged for coins. He needed to retain it in memory.
His mental storage was nearly full. He had to buy Forging Spirit Art immediately and try to raise his innate intelligence.
But the seller showed no intention of lowering the price. After much deliberation, Li Chuan made a bold decision—
To take out a loan.
He had no way to do that himself, but Shen Nianxiang did.
Previously, Li Chuan had added Shen Nianxiang as a friend when transferring money, so he had the contact info. Mustering his courage, Li Chuan sent a message: [When are you off duty? I’ve washed the clothes you lent me and want to return them.]
Shen Nianxiang replied almost instantly: [I’m currently on leave.]
Li Chuan: [I’m coming to find you.]
