Chapter 28

When the last classmate gave up working on the problem with Zhuochuan, he had already recited for a full hour, even surpassing the class time. By then, he had calculated to over four thousand decimal places.

"Alright, Zhuochuan, you can stop now," Feng Lan finally relented, touching her furrowed brow, which was almost creased into a line. She felt she couldn't keep up either.

"Zhuochuan has made great progress. From not being able to solve simple multiplication with seven digits, to now being able to calculate thousands of digits in real time, it's quite an achievement. Everyone should learn from Zhuochuan," she勉强 praised Zhuochuan.

Although Zhuochuan was an adult, no one disliked praise, even old men were the same.

"Indeed..." After praising him, she glanced at Zhuochuan again, muttering to herself, then announced the end of the class, "Alright, that's it for this class. The next class is history, and we will be learning about a secret history spanning over eight hundred years."

During the break, Zhuochuan was surrounded by classmates.

"Uncle, you've really made it this time."

"Yeah, to think you could even outperform me, a genius, in computational power. You must be the successor of a B-class citizen; it's different once you've awakened."

"No wonder you seemed so confident last time. It looks like you were well-prepared."

"Why don't we celebrate for you tonight and wish you good luck in the duel?"

Zhuochuan was a bit tempted. He hadn't attended a gathering in a long time. However, as an adult, he had seen many people fail just before success. He was still clear-headed. Although he had made tremendous progress compared to a month ago, he knew he still lacked the key to a decisive victory.

That key was either mastering an offensive soul skill or learning the special technique to break through soul power defenses, as Old Xu had mentioned.

He hadn't grasped either of these two keys to victory, and with only a little over a month left, he was confident he could master them, but until they became real strength, it was of no use.

"No, I still need to continue training. Time is tight," Zhuochuan, understanding this fact, naturally wouldn't do such a thing.

"By the way, tell Ms. Feng that I'm going to the sports training hall," Zhuochuan decided that since his computational ability had improved enough to handle the numerical thinking training in the new world, he didn't want to attend the history class, as even the best history wouldn't be of much use to him at the moment.

"The next class is Ms. Feng's history class. Since she mentioned that she will be discussing a secret history from eight hundred years ago, you should listen, Big Tree. These secret histories are very precious and can't be spread online or privately due to their lack of reliability. Only relevant teachers have the authority to teach them, and others don't have the right to spread them. However, after listening, some people might gain insights," the female class president, Fu Yun, said.

"Well," Zhuochuan thought for a moment. Due to the six-hour limit on soul transmission, the body in the new world was very strong, but it still needed at least one check per day. This meant he could spend at most eighteen hours a day in the modern world absorbing soul power.

"Alright, but I remember that Feng Lan has never talked about such secret histories before. At least in the month I attended classes, I never heard her mention it," Zhuochuan was puzzled.

"Because Ms. Feng only talks about these secret histories before our final exams. This knowledge, which isn't available on public networks, helps us gain unique advantages. I mentioned to you before that the final survival trial is part of the final exam. For us underground reserve citizens, who haven't undergone any physical enhancements, it's very difficult. Although the accidental death rate is extremely low, lower than the car accident rate before the invention of autonomous driving, it's still the only normal exam where deaths can occur," Fu Yun's face darkened as if she was thinking of something.

This was the first time Zhuochuan heard about a place in this world where accidental deaths could occur. He had never seen any car accidents or natural disasters that could take lives on the internet, and in the modern world, seeing at least ten or eight such incidents a day was a sign of divine protection.

He naturally didn't have time to inquire further, nodding, "Alright, I'll stay and listen to the secret history."

Zhuochuan soon realized the value of this decision. It was more worthwhile than going to the gym for a class. When Feng Lan started speaking, he knew this class was specially prepared for him.

"Humanity has known about soul power and soul skills for over nine hundred years. I apologize for using an estimated number. Although it's only a thousand years ago, and humans had already entered a fully civilized stage with various storage devices, the official historical records of the early discovery of soul power have been lost. We can only get some information from occasional recollections, which suggest that soul power first appeared in a century-long chaos over nine hundred years ago. The secret history I will tell you comes from the recollection of one person."

At this point, Zhuochuan and Feng Lan exchanged a glance, but she ignored him and continued.

"This person has lived for over eight hundred years. He once recalled the early century-long chaos, mentioning a phenomenon: two-thirds of the core soul skills he now possesses were learned during that century-long chaos, while he only mastered a few during the subsequent peaceful years."

...

The secret history was long, but Zhuochuan remembered every word. Most of what Feng Lan said were scenes of the person's several insights into soul skills. Only one was during a peaceful period, while the others were during life-and-death moments.

The skill learned during the peaceful period was related to production and life, taking him decades to accumulate. The skills learned during life-and-death moments were closely related to combat and were all grasped in a very short time.

This was easy to understand. After all, the environment determines the direction of human evolution, and pressure determines the speed of growth. Marine life hasn't evolved as quickly as land life. The smartest marine creatures can only be kept as pets and protected animals by humans.

The content wasn't shocking, but Zhuochuan was enlightened. He had a direction. To gain an offensive soul skill, he might need to experience life-and-death situations, which was extremely risky, but at least it was a possibility, better than having no clue.

Zhuochuan remembered this advice firmly but wouldn't use it immediately due to the risk. After all, he could still absorb soul power, and new abilities like photographic memory and mental arithmetic appeared passively after absorbing soul power. He hoped that with continued absorption, even more powerful new abilities would emerge, so he wouldn't need to risk death.