Chapter 582: The Staring-at-Books Study Method

Below the stage.

"Reading is much more refined. Master Zhang... shouldn't cause any more trouble, right?"

"Probably... not!"

Hall Master Kang, Master Su, and the others wiped cold sweat from their foreheads.

This Master Zhang, at every assessment, made a huge fuss, as if he wouldn't stop until he scared everyone to death.

They had worried about the third round repeating the mistakes of the first two, but now it seemed they had been overthinking.

Reading and learning knowledge, unlike traversing ghost domains and illusion cities or fighting the alien race, was more refined and would surely be much better than the first two rounds.

"Huh? What is Master Zhang doing?"

Just as they secretly breathed a sigh of relief, they heard Master Ling's voice. Both were startled: "What's wrong? Did he scatter the bookshelves or burn the books?"

As they spoke, they hurriedly looked toward Master Zhang, only to find him reading a book without doing anything outrageous.

They had been psychologically traumatized by this guy; at the slightest question, they felt he must have done something heinous and catastrophic again.

Seeing their nervous expressions, Master Ling was speechless. Pointing forward, he said, "No, look... Everyone else is anxiously reading, but he picked up a book and just stood there without moving."

"Huh?"

Hall Master Kang and Master Su also realized.

This Master Zhang, as soon as he arrived at the bookshelf, they had noticed. He first caressed the bookshelf, as if to see what books were there, then pulled out a book and began... staring blankly!

Just like when he faced the alien race earlier, could it be... that this blank stare had some special meaning?

"Could he be using the 'Staring-at-Books Study Method'?" Zhao Feiwu frowned and muttered.

"Staring-at-Books Study Method?"

Hall Master Kang and the others were baffled, completely confused.

"Oh, it's like this. When Master Zhang assessed other professions, he used the 'Beating the Beast Taming Method,' 'Knocking Out the Treatment Method,' and 'One Kick to Break the Array Method.' I think this might be a method uniquely suited to him!"

Zhao Feiwu had been with Zhang Xuan for a long time and had seen him use many techniques, all astonishing and hard to believe.

"Beating the Beast Taming Method? Knocking Out the Treatment Method? One Kick to Break the Array Method?"

The three four-star masters looked at each other, utterly bewildered.

What were these things?

How could they not understand?

"Oh, it's like this..."

Zhao Feiwu explained these names in detail.

"Such things happened?"

After hearing this, the three masters' eyes widened as if in a dream.

Beat a beast and tame it smoothly, knock someone out to heal injuries, break any array with one kick... The more they heard, the more impossible it seemed.

However, this guy couldn't be judged by common sense; otherwise, they would surely go crazy.

Since there were so many precedents... perhaps this blank stare really was a peculiar study method.

"But even if it's a special method, just staring at one page won't work, right?"

After the shock, there was more doubt.

Even if this so-called 'Staring-at-Books Study Method' was incredible and could quickly memorize the content, if you held one book and refused to let go, not even turning a page, how could you see other content?

To memorize the knowledge in a book, you first had to turn pages, just like you needed rice to eat. With an empty bowl, what could you eat?

"Has Master Zhang given up on this round?"

Not only were they puzzled, but others were also completely confused.

After two consecutive rounds that nearly drove Master Hong crazy, if the others still hadn't noticed this Master Zhang's peculiarity, they might as well give up living.

Knowing his prowess, they naturally paid more attention. They thought he would, like everyone else, quickly flip through books and memorize with maximum effort, but instead, after taking out a book... he didn't move.

His efficiency was too low!

He surely couldn't match the others like this.

Could it be that the first two rounds were too incredible, exhausting all his tricks, and he had run out of talent?

...

Ignoring everyone's speculations, Zhang Xuan opened the synthesized Turbid Clarity Realm Heavenly Dao manual and looked at it, his eyes lighting up.

He had thought that to collect a complete Heavenly Dao manual at this level, he might need to go to the Huan Yu Empire, but unexpectedly, participating in a selection competition had accidentally succeeded.

With the manual and enough spirit stones, it seemed that advancing to the peak of Mortal Transformation Fourth Layer would be simple.

However, since the selection was ongoing, he certainly couldn't cultivate directly; that would be too shocking.

So he read the content twice, fully understood its meaning, and firmly memorized it before looking at other books.

"I didn't expect there to be manuals on the soul..."

Scanning his mind, he immediately discovered many books about the soul, mostly Master Hong's own notes and insights.

Hong Qian was a Mortal Transformation Sixth Layer Bridge Heaven Realm expert with powerful soul force and unique insights into soul cultivation.

"Correct!"

He gathered these notes on the soul and merged them with the technique given by Mo Hun Sheng.

Soon, another book appeared before him.

Mortal Transformation Fifth Layer Witch Soul Technique!

"I didn't expect to obtain two Heavenly Dao techniques from an exam..."

Zhang Xuan was filled with excitement.

He had thought it was just an ordinary assessment to be taken step by step, but he never imagined these five thousand books were so precious, helping him perfect two levels of Heavenly Dao techniques.

As long as he had time to cultivate, his strength would surely leap significantly.

After synthesizing the two techniques, the remaining content wasn't very useful. He scanned it all with his spirit, found nothing else interesting, and then withdrew from his sea of consciousness.

"Only ten minutes have passed?"

Returning to his physical body, he found that only ten minutes had elapsed.

An hour, and less than a tenth of it had passed, yet he had read and memorized everything. If he went over now and said he was done, not only the others but even Master Hong would be scared to death on the spot.

But if he didn't read, he couldn't just stand there idly, could he?

"Forget it, there's plenty of time. I'll be fair and see how much I can remember."

Since he couldn't leave, and being idle was boring, he might as well try, like the others, to see how many books he could memorize in the remaining time.

Of course, he would scan with his spirit in his sea of consciousness. This way, not only would he remember faster, but his reading speed would be many times faster than normal, greatly increasing efficiency.

Having decided, he stopped hesitating. His spirit returned to the library, picked up a book, and casually flipped it open.

Rustle, rustle!

Back when his strength was only at the Tongxuan Realm, reading in his sea of consciousness was already several times or even dozens of times faster than in the outside world. Now that his witch soul was strong, it was naturally even more effortless.

While the many masters outside had only read a few books, he had already read and memorized all five thousand.

After finishing these books, he then picked up other books and casually flipped through them.

Over the past few months, he had collected tens of millions of books but had rarely read them. Since he had time, he would read as many as he could.

Just as he was engrossed, having read countless books, he heard Master Hong's cheerful voice again: "Alright, time's up. Everyone, please put down your books!"

Hearing that time was finally up, Zhang Xuan breathed a sigh of relief, withdrew his consciousness, put down the book, and looked at the others.

At this moment, everyone looked somewhat tired and pale.

An hour of high-intensity recitation and memorization, even for masters with transcendent mental states, was exhausting.

"How many did you memorize?"

"Eight hundred and twenty. What about you?"

"I did better, nine hundred and seventeen."

...

Putting down their books, everyone walked toward Master Hong while whispering.

With a soul force scale above 10.0, one could basically remember everything after reading, but it was still very difficult to read and memorize all the content of a book.

For a four-star master, eight to nine hundred books in an hour was already peak speed.

"Master Zhang, how many did you memorize?"

Ruo Huan Gongzi approached.

"Me?" Afraid that telling the truth would scare the guy to death, Zhang Xuan scratched his head: "Probably about the same as you."

"About the same? I memorized one thousand two hundred and forty. Did you also memorize over one thousand two hundred?"

Ruo Huan Gongzi was puzzled.

Given Master Zhang's usual performance, he should be incredible. The same as him? He found it hard to believe.

"Uh... not far off. By the way, how is this round judged—who read more and who read less?"

Zhang Xuan looked at him questioningly.

Since the assessment was about wisdom and memory, just reading books was useless; one had to memorize them. But how to judge who remembered more and who remembered less? They couldn't recite every book word for word, could they?

"I don't know either. Master Hong should explain."

Ruo Huan Gongzi wasn't sure.

To be fair, they would have to recite or write from memory, but this was just a preliminary round of the master competition; they couldn't spend days doing this.

Besides, how many books counted as passing?

Moreover, each book had a different number of words; judging purely by the number of books would be biased.

In fact, not only were the two puzzled, but other participants were also completely confused.

"Hehe, are you all worried about how to judge fairly?"

Seeming to read their doubts, Master Hong smiled: "Don't worry, since I proposed this test, I naturally have a method of judgment."

Stroking his beard, Master Hong raised an eyebrow: "I have specifically tested that a normal early-stage four-star master can memorize five hundred books in an hour at best, and six hundred is considered passing. But you are the cream of the crop from various major powers, among the top four-star masters, so you are not in that category."

"After many assessments, I have set a standard for you... Memorizing eight hundred books counts as passing. If you haven't memorized that many... then I'm sorry, you'll have to leave regretfully."

"Eight hundred books?"

Among the crowd, a dozen young people turned pale.

Clearly, they hadn't memorized that many books.

"Of course, eight hundred is just a rough number. Some might think that books vary in thickness, making memorization difficulty different, so it can't be generalized. The same eight hundred, if you deliberately choose thin books, might be worse than someone else's six hundred."

Master Hong continued: "Therefore, for fairness, I specially applied to headquarters for a treasure... the Taohe Book."