When Chu Yunfan arrived at school, there were already many students at the liberal arts class.
In the Kunlun Era, every school's curriculum focused on both liberal arts and martial arts. Those nerds who buried their heads in books or the boors who excelled in sports but were simple-minded from the Common Era were good-for-nothing.
Education in the Kunlun Era aimed to train students to be good in both liberal and martial arts. All of these modern students would be considered outstanding if any of them were placed in the Common Era.
Prior to the stream division, a school day was usually divided into morning and afternoon sessions. They would learn all sorts of liberal arts knowledge in the morning, and the afternoon was their time for martial arts training.
That was how they could train all-rounded students in both liberal and martial arts. Only after the stream division would the students have the freedom to choose what they preferred.
Meanwhile, the liberal and martial arts classes were held in different classrooms. The liberal arts classroom was similar to the ones in the Common Era. The martial arts class would take place in a massive sparring arena, as this was convenient for students to cultivate.
Chu Yunfan's arrival did not grab anyone's attention. He got to his seat and took out a tablet.
Many years back, paper books were discarded and replaced with such tablets. It was convenient and environmentally friendly.
All learning materials were loaded into the tablet. It had a variety of exercise questions, and students could look for documents online whenever they wanted. It was a great learning platform.
Chu Yunfan began to look at the learning materials after he tapped into it. It was the homework that was part of his daily routine. As they had to focus on both fields, if he was to get into the martial arts stream, he had to have good results in liberal arts as well.
As it happened, he soon noticed something was different. When he went through the material he had opened, he realized he could read almost ten lines at once. Not only that, but he could also remember everything immediately after reading it. He had memorized all of it. As he recalled what he had learned, he thoroughly understood many things that he could not comprehend previously.
Although his liberal arts grades were not too bad, they were nothing special. He could only be considered middling. Nevertheless, he had read all of the materials now. When he did the materials exercise questions, it was almost too easy for him. He understood whatever he read.
This was certainly an academic genius-level learning ability.
It completely surpassed everything he had imagined!
'It seems my martial arts talent isn't the only thing that has been modified. I must've been altered in all aspects. I feel like my brain has been transformed!' Chu Yunfan thought to himself. His mind was clearer than ever, so he could think of many things that he might not have before.
The dream-like adventure was not as simple as he thought. It had a deep influence on him.
'No matter what, this is good for me!'
With this stunning learning ability, he could save a lot of time. Moreover, a capable martial artist would need to study all sorts of things. They would need to do far more than just meditation and cultivation.
With such a gift, he could go even further!
Without him realizing, time quickly passed by, and it was time for the first class.
The first lesson was about the seal script. This class was mandatory for all schools. This was because so many things in the Kunlun Era were related to the Ancient Zenith civilization. In order to study further, learning the seal script was a must.
Very soon, the teacher who taught seal script class arrived. He was an elderly man, probably older than 60, with a head full of white hair. Due to their huge age difference, the students did not call him teacher. Instead, they referred to him as Sir He, and he looked like a wizened pedant from the Common Era.
Whatever the case, Chu Yunfan was sensitive enough to sense an immense vital fluctuation coming from him. Clearly, he was a Martial Dao powerhouse. Since the dream, his ability to sense such things had heightened greatly.
Chu Yunfan thought to himself that one should not judge a book by its cover. He could not believe that he had never noticed Sir He was a fearsome Martial Dao warrior in the past two years.
After everyone stood up and bowed, the class started.
Sir He did not say much when he came in. Instead, he wrote a seal script character on the electric blackboard.
"I haven't taught you guys this character. I'm letting you guess what this word means!" Sir He said. Though he looked old, his voice was strong. "As people of cultivation, learning the seal script is a basic ability. The reason being, many secret records were written directly in seal script characters. If you don't know the characters, you won't be able to read them if you obtain some secret records in the Kunlun Realm.
"I've mentioned in the class before that the seal script is pictographic, just like our Chinese words. So, can you guys guess what it means, judging by the look of the seal script character?"
Sir He glanced at the students. He pointed at one of them and stated, "Feng Deying, tell me. You're the class monitor, and you got a good grade in seal script class too!"
It was a young man of about 16 or 17. He was tall and handsome, but there was an arrogance to his face as well. One could tell at a glance that he came from a prestigious family. His dark blue martial arts attire was gilded and looked very expensive.
He was Class 11's monitor, Feng Deying. He had a notable family background as well as great talent. His cultivation base had reached Tier-9 Physical Stage, Qi Nourishment. Given his dashing face, many of his female classmates had a crush on him, so he was the popular one in class.
Chu Yunfan looked at Gao Hongzhi next to him. He came from second-generation wealth too, and he also had great talent. His cultivation base was comparable to Feng Deying's, but their level of popularity was very different.
Like the saying went, 'Nobody will be harmed when there's no comparison'.
One was a Prince Charming that was popular in class, while the other was a fat joker!
Seeing Feng Deying's cool appearance, Gao Hongzhi pouted in disdain, saying, "All he knows is how to pose. Look at him being all vain like a peacock flaunting its feathers. Who doesn't know that he's pretentious?!"
Chu Yunfan heard Gao Hongzhi's mumbling and thought it was funny. The duo's cultivation base was the top of the class among the male students. Given that Feng Deying had a snobbish persona, it was natural that they did not like each other.
"Sir He, I think this must be onomatopoeic. The reason is that it's different from all of the seal script characters that I've ever learned!" Feng Deying answered.
Sir He merely smiled. He then looked at the rest of the class and said, "Is there anyone else who has an opinion on that?"
"Sir He, I don't think it's necessary that you ask anyone else. How would they know if I don't? My family hired a graduate who specialized in seal script research in the university to teach me!" Feng Deying said haughtily. He genuinely looked down on the other students.
"The best he can do is show off what little money he has. Does he think we can't afford to hire someone ourselves?!" Gao Hongzhi spat, "With his progress, how can he be such a blowhard since his family got him a tutor?"
He then added, "But this character is indeed strange. I've never seen it before!"
He did think it was unusual. The truth was, he had secretly got a tutor that specialized in seal script as well. He knew almost all of the commonly used characters and had memorized all of their meanings. Nonetheless, he was sure that he had never seen this character.
"How about you, Tang Siyu?" Sir He remained smiling and pointed at a young lady.
The girl also looked to be 16 or 17. She had exquisite features and a little bit of baby fat. Wearing her white martial uniform, she was tall and had a great body too.
She was Class 11's vice-monitor, as well as the goddess that most guys in the class had a crush on. Her name was Tang Siyu.
Tang Siyu's background was a mystery to the class. This was because she had not enrolled in the school like the rest had done but transferred there the previous year. When she arrived, her cultivation base was only at Tier-3. However, a year later, she was already at Tier-9.
Such talent had alerted the school's upper echelons. She even had admirers from other schools.
In Class 11, Tang Siyu, Gao Hongzhi, and Feng Deying had the highest cultivation bases and were the top three students. They were guaranteed to get into the martial arts stream.
Tang Siyu got up and said with a bright voice, "Sir He, I think this word can't be onomatopoeic. It might be a noun, perhaps a creature. I can tell from the shape of the word!"
At that moment, Sir He had a faint smile on his face and said, "Are there any other opinions?"
Suddenly, Chu Yunfan raised his hand. He stood up and said, "Sir He, I know the meaning of this word!"
All eyes were on Chu Yunfan. This was because, given that Sir He only meant for them to guess the meaning of the word, it must have been something they were not expected to know.
Despite that, Chu Yunfan said he knew.
"Oh? Tell me about it then!" Sir He said with a grin.
"The vice-monitor is right. The meaning of this word is a giant, ferocious bird!" Chu Yunfan answered, looking sure of himself.
Though others were merely guessing the meaning of the seal script character, he recognized the word immediately because the Alchemy Emperor's memories were just so clear in his head. The seal script was the text used in that era.
Besides commonly used words, he recognized some rare ones too.
"Nonsense!" Feng Deying shouted. "Chu Yunfan, stop pretending to know when you don't. Even I don't get it, so how would you?!"
Gal Hongzhi instantly jumped up.
"Eh, I don't like what you just said. What do you mean by how would he get it when you don't? Sir He said nothing, so what are you doing interrupting?!" he exclaimed. He could not stand Feng Deying behaving like that.
"You…" Rage burned within Feng Deying, and a grim expression flashed through his eyes. He was infuriated that Chu Yunfan dared to claim that his explanation was wrong. Moreover, he did not believe that Chu Yunfan really understood what the word meant at all.
Over the last few years, he had hired a tutor to teach him the seal script exclusively. He memorized the meanings of all the words and terms, but he did not know this one. How could Chu Yunfan, a boy born into a poor family, know?
"Alright, quiet!"