175: Chapter 175 The Sage's Time and the Crisis of the Library

The morning at the Heavenly River Sword Sect had never been so quiet.

Gone were the sounds of Disciples practicing their swordsmanship at the crow of the rooster, gone were the resonant bells and booming lectures when the Elders held their teaching sessions. Even the cranes in the back mountain Spirit Beast enclosure, usually the most vocal, had their heads buried under their wings, sleeping soundly.

The entire Sect seemed to have been muted.

Only the occasional "Bzzz—" of dream talk proved the place was still alive.

This was the aftermath of last night's "All-Crab Feast." The ingestion of high-dimensional rule fragments had subjected these cultivators' bodies and Divine Souls to unprecedented levels of strain. Now, they were in a collective state of "System maintenance."

Second floor of the Scripture Pavilion.

Li Mo lay on the purple bamboo rocking chair he had polished to a glossy sheen, his eyes vacant as he stared at the ceiling beams.

He held no book in his hand.

Only a cup of overnight tea, long gone cold.

A profound emptiness known as "post-nut clarity" was drowning him like a tidal wave. This feeling was even more unbearable than facing the "404 Divine Beast."

Just last night, he had accomplished a magnificent feat: not only turning a dimension-auditing beast capable of world-ending destruction into ingredients, but also single-handedly shutting down the projection of an Upper Realm inspector. In that moment, he was the unseen Dominator of this land, a god wielding the dual cheats of the [spring and autumn brush] and the [authority dog].

But now, the passion had faded, leaving only blandness.

"Sigh..."

Li Mo let out a long sigh. This sigh contained a third part loneliness, a third part anxiety, and a fourth part confusion of "I want to find some fun but don't know what to do."

"Squeak? (Boss, are you depressed?)"

The Treasure-Seeking Rat, Squeak, had woken up at some point. Rubbing its bleary eyes, it climbed onto Li Mo's shoulder. The little guy had managed to snatch the "crab heart" last night, and now it had undergone some subtle changes—its fur was no longer pure grey, but occasionally flashed with a glow resembling a QR code.

"I'm not depressed, I'm just... hungry." Li Mo said listlessly.

"Squeak Squeak Squeak! (I'm hungry too! Is there any crab meat left?)" Squeak's eyes lit up.

"The hunger I'm talking about isn't in my stomach." Li Mo pointed to his head. "It's here."

He stood up and walked over to the rows of tall bookshelves.

This was the Heavenly River Sword Sect's Scripture Pavilion, housing all the Cultivation Techniques, Secret Manuals, travelogues, and miscellaneous writings collected by the Sect over its thousands of years of establishment—a total of thirty-four thousand, eight hundred and twenty-six volumes.

In the past few years, these books had been his "mental nourishment," his only path to becoming stronger.

"Basic Sword Principles" gave him [Sword Dao General Knowledge]. "Flora and Fauna Illustrated Guide" gave him [Plant Affinity]. Even the copy of "Postpartum Care for Sows" used as a table leg prop gave him a strange entry: [Life Reproduction (Theoretical Level)].

But now...

Li Mo reached out, his fingertips lightly brushing over the book spines.

"Blazing Fire Sword Art"—[Already Read]. "Ice Heart Mantra"—[Already Read]. "Secret Rumors of the Tianhe Sect Master (Uncensored Edition)"—[Already Read] (and extracted entry: Soul of Gossip).

His finger slid past an entire shelf. The System interface remained silent, without any pop-up prompts.

"Finished reading."

Li Mo's voice trembled slightly.

"Finished reading all of them."

Not just this floor. The rare books upstairs, the miscellaneous texts downstairs, even the "youth angst literature" written by the Elders in their youth and hidden in secret compartments—he had read them all.

Last night's "Shielding Giant Crab" was the only "new book" he had recently read. Although it was just a few crab shell fragments, the high-dimensional information they contained ("Audit Standards") had allowed him to once again experience the pleasure of "reading."

But now, the crab was eaten, the shells were read.

Even that Upper Realm projection had been shut down by him.

He was completely out of food.

"For a cheater, the most painful thing isn't the cheat expiring, but... having no map left to farm."

Li Mo clutched his forehead in pain.

His [Great Reader] System had a core mechanism: reading the same book repeatedly was ineffective. To grow stronger, to obtain new entries, he had to ingest new information, read new books.

And now, he faced a severe problem—

The Heavenly River Sword Sect's cultural reserves had been drained dry by him.

"Squeak Squeak? (Then let's go down the mountain and rob some? I heard the neighboring Joyful Union Sect has a lot of those... books with pictures?)" Squeak offered a constructive suggestion, wearing a lecherous grin.

"Vulgar." Li Mo shot it a look of disdain. "Those books from the Joyful Union Sect, aside from possibly extracting low-level entries like [Kidney Power Enhancement] or [Pose Unlock], are utterly meaningless to me now."

Who were his enemies now? They were the Upper Realm auditors, the dimensional inspection teams, beings who wielded high-dimensional rules like "delete," "ban," and "format."

Could you defeat an auditor by reading porn? That would only get you killed faster! Because that's a key target for crackdowns!

What Li Mo needed were more Advanced books. Books that discussed logic, rules, the essence of the Great Dao.

For example, "Quantum Mechanics: Cultivation Edition," "Relativity and Earth-Shrinking Steps," or "Introduction to Programming Languages: How to Rewrite Heavenly Dao Code."

Unfortunately, this Cultivation World... had no such books.

The cultivators here only had "kill and plunder," "defy the heavens and change fate," "thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river" in their minds. The books they wrote were full of personal subjective assumptions and outdated empiricism.

"Lack of culture is truly terrifying."

Li Mo casually pulled out a newly cataloged book—"Demon Subjugation Record," written by some Inner Sect Disciple after returning from a training expedition.

Opening to the first page: "Today encountered a Yao Beast. Very big, very black, very terrifying. I drew my sword, slew it. Dead. Then left."

Li Mo: "..."

What kind of drivel is this?! Can this kind of log even be called a book? The System couldn't even be bothered to give a grey entry like [Nonsense Literature]!

*Thud.*

Li Mo threw the book back onto the shelf, the anxiety in his heart growing heavier.

This wasn't just a problem of boredom. This was a survival crisis.

Although he had shut down that "big eyeball" projection last night, the System prompt was clear: [Target has recorded coordinates]. This meant the next ones to come might be a fully armed "Dimensional Cleanup Force."

By then, if he didn't have new rule-type entries to rely on, just his current [authority dog (Elementary)] would probably be insufficient to cope.

"I need new books. Lots of them, high-quality, preferably containing entirely new logical Systems."

Li Mo paced back and forth in the Scripture Pavilion, his steps growing faster and faster.

"Borrow from other Sects? Too slow, and the content is heavily homogenized." "Raid the Mortal world? Mortals have many books, but mostly the Four Books and Five Classics; the extractable entries are limited." "Write them myself? The System rules state that content produced by the host cannot yield entries (prohibiting stepping on one's own foot to reach the sky)."

A dead end?

Li Mo stopped walking. His gaze passed through the window, landing on the square outside.

By now, the sun was high in the sky. The Disciples who got drunk last night were gradually waking up.

That Disciple named Zhao Liu was clutching his head, looking pained as he searched the ground for water. The Elder Liu Changqing, whose stomach had become a "bottomless pit," was chewing on a rock with relish, clearly still sleepwalking.

And Sect Master Li Xuanji was standing on the central platform in the square, holding a homework assignment Li Mo had forced him to issue last night via "voice transmission"—the "All-Member Thesis Project."

"Wake up! Everyone, wake up!"

Li Xuanji amplified his voice with spiritual power, making everyone's eardrums ache.

"Last night... ahem, last night, the Ancestor Master manifested. You all heard, right?"

The previously dazed Disciples instantly sobered up by half. "We heard! The Ancestor Master called us rice buckets!" "The Ancestor Master also said if we don't write theses, we won't be allowed to eat in the future!"

"Good that you know." Li Xuanji kept a stern face. Although he himself found this demand outrageous, to maintain the Sect Master's dignity (and his awe of that mysterious Senior), he had to see it through.

"Now, everyone! Immediately! Right now! Return to your own Immortal Caves!" "Take out paper and brush, and start writing!" "Topic: 'On the Relationship Between the Taste of the Shielding Divine Beast and Its Spiritual Power Conversion Efficiency.'" "Word count: Minimum five thousand characters! No plagiarism! No padding! Write clearly every single insight you gained from each bite of meat you ate!"

A chorus of wails rose from the square. "Sect Master! I only know how to wield a sword, I can't write!" "Five thousand characters? Just kill me! The longest thing I've ever written was a suicide note, and that was only fifty characters!" "Can we use Spirit Stones to offset the word count?"

Watching these cultivators, who usually rode the wind on swords and thought themselves invincible, now crying and wailing over an essay assignment, the corner of Li Mo's mouth twitched slightly.

But he didn't laugh. On the contrary, his eyes suddenly lit up.

An extremely bold, even somewhat crazy idea began to grow wildly in his mind like weeds.

"That's right..."

Li Mo murmured to himself.

"This world lacks the books I want to read because the people of this world... haven't had their minds enlightened yet."

"They only know how to Cultivate, but not why they Cultivate." "They know fireball spells can burn people to death, but they don't know combustion requires oxygen." "They know sword flight can reach the heavens, but they don't know fluid dynamics and gravitational acceleration."

It was precisely this limitation in cognition that led them to write books that were all the same, repetitive cultivation manuals, unable to touch the underlying logic of the world.

But!

What if...

Li Mo's gaze grew fervent.

What if I could change their cognition? What if I could instill in them the scientific thinking, logical methods, and even some imaginative concepts from my previous life?

Make them use "science" to analyze "cultivation." Make them use "logic" to reconstruct "Cultivation Techniques."

When these cultivators, possessing formidable execution power (their cultivation), start using mathematical models to calculate sword Formations, chemical equations for Alchemy, and biology to study Yao Beasts...

What kind of books would they write?

They would absolutely be unprecedented, peerless "new concept cultivation textbooks"!

And these textbooks, for Li Mo who possessed the [Great Reader] System, would be...

An inexhaustible mine of brand new, rule-type entries!

"Since there are no books, then plant books."

Li Mo suddenly slapped his thigh, startling Squeak on his shoulder.

"Squeak? (Boss, did you figure out how to get those picture books?)"

"Something more exciting than that." A devilish smile curled at the corner of Li Mo's mouth. "We're going into education."

"Education?" Squeak tilted its head, not understanding this profound term.

"Simply put, it's transforming these illiterates who only know how to fight and kill into... scientific researchers."

Li Mo turned back to his desk, spread out a sheet of pristine rice paper. He picked up the [spring and autumn brush] that had once modified Divine Beast attributes, took a deep breath, and began to write.

He was writing a proposal. A proposal sufficient to completely overturn the style of the Cultivation World, make countless Prodigies bend their backs in submission, and make Upper Realm auditors exclaim "Holy shit!" upon seeing it.

Title: "Implementation Plan for the Comprehensive Promotion of Nine-Year Compulsory... Ah No, Cultivation Science Literacy Education in the Heavenly River Sword Sect."

First line: "Knowledge is power. Here, 'power' does not refer to muscle, but to physical attack force."

Li Mo wrote swiftly.

"Phase One: Eradicate Illiteracy. Abolish the traditional 'Three Character Classic,' replace it with 'Fundamentals of Natural Science (Cultivation Modified Edition)' as the introductory textbook."

"Phase Two: Specialization. Establish 'Physics Sword Cultivator Department,' 'Chemistry Alchemy Dao Department,' 'Biology Beast Taming Department,' 'Programming Formations Department.'"

"Phase Three: Output. Each person must publish at least one high-quality thesis per semester in a core journal (i.e., Li Mo's bookshelf). Failure results in deduction of cultivation resources, or even expulsion from the Sect."

Writing, writing, Li Mo stopped his brush.

Having just a plan wasn't enough; teaching staff were needed. He certainly couldn't teach classes every day himself—that would be too tiring and risk exposure. He needed an "alias," an "honorary principal" full of mystery and authority, someone who could command respect.

"Squeak, go get that outfit."

Li Mo pointed to a chest in the corner. Inside was a set of robes he had sewn when he first Transmigrated, to imitate a lofty master—the [Cosplay Set · Sweeping Monk Edition] he had drawn from a System lottery.

Although it offered no defensive power, it came with its own "profound and unfathomable" BGM and light effects.

"From today onwards, the Scripture Pavilion will no longer be just a library."

Li Mo looked out the window at the Disciples still painfully struggling with their theses, his eyes filled with loving (harvesting the crop) light.

"It will become the first... tutorial class in all the heavens and myriad realms."

"I've even thought of a name."

At the end of the paper, Li Mo solemnly wrote three large characters—

[Tianhe Tutorial Class]

Subtitle: "A cultivator who doesn't want to be a scientist is not a good crop."

Just then, Sect Master Li Xuanji downstairs happened to pass by the entrance of the Scripture Pavilion. He was frowning, looking at the hundred-character thesis in his hand that only said "Delicious, truly delicious, very fragrant," wondering how to report to the "Ancestor Master."

Suddenly, a sheet of paper fluttered down from a second-floor window, landing right on his face.

"Who dares ambush this seat!"

Furious, Li Xuanji ripped the paper off his face. He was about to erupt in anger, but when he saw the wildly elegant handwriting on the paper, imbued with a strange Dao charm (actually special effects Li Mo deliberately added), his entire body froze instantly.

[Notice Regarding the Establishment of the 'Tianhe Tutorial Class' and the Selection of Its First Batch of Students]

[Instructor: Scripture Pavilion Sweeper (Codename: Newton's Older Brother).]

[Entrance Exam Time: Tomorrow at noon.]

[Exam Scope: All subjects (excluding physical education).]

[Note: Limited enrollment for this recruitment. Want to know why eating crab meat makes you stronger? Want to know how to shut down an Upper Realm projection with one finger? Want to know the truth of the world? Come study. Here, you will find all the answers you seek.]

Li Xuanji held the paper, his hands trembling as if sifting chaff.

His breathing grew rapid, his heart pounding. Although he didn't understand what a "tutorial class" was, nor who "Newton" was as a great power.

He understood the last sentence. "Want to know how to shut down an Upper Realm projection with one finger?"

That was... the Legacy of that kind of supreme Divine Ability?!

"Opportunity! A heaven-sent Opportunity!"

Li Xuanji was so excited tears welled in his eyes. He raised his head and roared to the sky: "Quick! Relay the order! All Elders, all True Disciples! Stop writing that damned thesis! Go prepare for the exam!"

"Whoever fails to get into this tutorial class tomorrow will go feed the pigs in the back mountain for a hundred years!!!"

Second floor of the Scripture Pavilion. Hearing the commotion downstairs, Li Mo closed his proposal with satisfaction.

"Good, the fish has taken the bait."

He turned to look at the empty bookshelves, as if already seeing them filled in the near future with new books titled "Spiritual Power Fluid Dynamics," "Introduction to Formation Programming," "Analysis of Medicinal Pill Molecular Structures."

"Come on, let this 'knowledge storm' rage even more fiercely."

"I, too, am curious to know, when cultivators learn how to build atomic bombs... can those Upper Realm auditors still calmly pixelate us."