Scholar Xiao returned to their temporary residence bearing good news.
The moment he pushed open the door, he found Yu Qingtang wearing an expression of utmost seriousness. Yu reached into a book with both hands, grabbed a fistful of empty air, muttered something under his breath, then went smack and threw it at Ye Chenyan’s head.
Chi Yantian was waiting eagerly in line.
“My turn, my turn!”
Scholar Xiao: “...”
The smile slowly faded from his face.
He leaned against the doorway and watched them for a while before finally giving in.
“What exactly are you doing?”
Yu Qingtang’s hands were already hovering over Chi Yantian’s head. At the question, he turned around.
“You’re back, Brother Xiao? These two are almost ready to give up. Faced with the choice between solving problems and cheating, we chose spellcasting.”
“Come on, come on. Give them another round.”
Yu Qingtang looked perfectly solemn.
“Luck alone isn’t enough. They need some actual ability too.”
Scholar Xiao: “...”
He had absolutely no idea what was happening, but he still walked over to the pair and raised both hands.
“How do I do it? Copy what you just did?”
“Exactly, exactly.”
Yu Qingtang watched him with a benevolent expression as Scholar Xiao imitated his movements and threw “knowledge” into Chi Yantian’s head.
“Just like that. Now say something too. You know, some kind of blessing filled with beautiful hopes for the future. Give us one.”
“Uh...”
Scholar Xiao frowned in difficulty and looked worriedly at Chi Yantian.
“Brother Chi, I just went to see Teacher. He said that if you solve the cheating case, you can get another five bonus points.”
“But even with five more, your current score still wouldn’t be enough. You really do need to study a little more.”
Chi Yantian bared his teeth.
“You call that a blessing? That’s a threat!”
“Teacher said if the two of you fail again next time, you’re to get out of Central Province.” Scholar Xiao sighed deeply. “That is a threat.”
Ye Chenyan chuckled.
Scholar Xiao immediately turned toward him.
“Brother Ye, don’t laugh. You only got twenty-seven this time, and who knows how many of those were guesses?”
“If you do even worse next time...”
Ye Chenyan tipped sideways into Yu Qingtang’s arms and covered his face.
“Then we’ll never see each other again.”
Yu Qingtang caught him, sighing with emotion.
“There really is always one thing that can subdue another.”
Scholar Xiao turned to Yu Qingtang.
“You’re not studying?”
Yu Qingtang’s eyes widened in shock.
“I passed! Why would I keep studying?”
Ye Chenyan abruptly grabbed him and sat upright again, staring at him intensely.
“We share both joy and hardship.”
He shoved his book toward Yu Qingtang.
“You’re studying with us. No running.”
Yu Qingtang shook his head furiously.
“No, no, no. I’m just not made for studying. You know there’s a kind of fish in this world whose brain can only hold so much for its entire life, and once it fills up, it’ll—”
Ye Chenyan covered his mouth and dragged him to the table.
Yu Qingtang stared at the book in front of him for a while.
At last, he could take no more and looked up.
“How about we earn those five points first?”
“Four Books Academy has so many smart people. What if someone else figures it out first and the five points disappear?”
“Makes sense.”
Ye Chenyan immediately stood up with him.
“Come on. Let’s go find the points first.”
Scholar Xiao stared at the two of them.
“You have a lead?”
Chi Yantian promptly stood up as well.
“Then we’ll go recruit people into the alliance first!”
Scholar Xiao drew a deep sigh and covered his forehead.
“I see how it is. As long as you don’t have to study, you’re willing to do absolutely anything.”
He turned around.
“Fine. I’ll give you a clue.”
“—Academy Head Wen already knows who the mastermind is.”
The others looked at one another.
Chi Yantian spoke first.
“What kind of clue is that? Are you saying Academy Head Wen is involved?”
Scholar Xiao’s eyes curved into crescents.
“Some things are difficult to see when you’re trapped inside the situation. But once you step outside it— Hey, hey! Gentlemen, use your words! There’s no need to reach for your weapons!”
Ye Chenyan and Chi Yantian pinned him against the table from either side.
Ye Chenyan narrowed his eyes.
“You figured it out?”
Chi Yantian was even more direct. He slapped the table impatiently.
“Stop keeping us in suspense!”
Yu Qingtang crouched in front of Scholar Xiao and spoke earnestly.
“See, this is where you’re in the wrong, Brother Xiao. If you have a lead, how can you hide it from everyone? You already know we’re not smart.”
Scholar Xiao: “...It’s still your exam.”
Yu Qingtang clasped his hands together and raised them over his head.
“Brother Xiao, I’m begging you!”
Scholar Xiao had no choice but to lower his voice.
“I’m not certain either. It’s only a guess.”
“When I went to see Academy Head Wen, I deliberately brought up the matter to test his reaction. He said he already knew what was going on, but there wasn’t any disgust on his face. If anything, he looked somewhat helpless.”
“That means there’s something unusual about this.”
Three heads leaned toward him.
“How so?”
“Academy Head Wen despises cheating more than anything.”
Scholar Xiao shifted position and rescued himself from the other two. He gently waved his folding fan.
“Any Four Books Academy student caught cheating is expelled. No exceptions.”
“Academy Head Wen’s reaction, together with everything else about this case, makes me suspect there may be circumstances we don’t know about.”
Ye Chenyan looked thoughtful.
“Who normally writes Four Books Academy’s exams?”
“No one.”
Scholar Xiao pointed upward.
“If you fly above the highest reaches of Central Province, you can see a book suspended over the province. That is Four Books Academy’s supreme treasure—the Sage’s Book.”
Curious, Yu Qingtang pushed open the window, craned his neck toward the sky, and pointed.
“Is it the glowing one?”
Scholar Xiao glanced outside.
“No. That’s the sun.”
“Oh.”
Yu Qingtang awkwardly pulled his head back in.
“So I guess you can’t see it with the naked eye.”
“According to legend, this secret treasure has already developed spiritual awareness and is only one step away from taking form.” Scholar Xiao lazily waved his folding fan. “If we’re talking rank, it could probably be called the finest first-rank spiritual artifact in the world today.”
“But the Sage’s Book wasn’t originally a first-rank spiritual artifact...”
“I know this one.”
Chi Yantian knew plenty about spiritual artifacts and had clearly heard of Four Books Academy’s supreme treasure before.
“What makes that artifact so unusual is that its nature isn’t determined by the materials used to make it. Instead, it absorbs knowledge and continually enriches itself, allowing it to advance in rank.”
“Four Books Academy has stood in Central Province for so many years, teaching generation after generation of students while gathering all kinds of knowledge from across the Nine Provinces...”
Chi Yantian paused, his expression turning slightly strange.
“Some of it probably can’t be called ‘knowledge,’ exactly. But either way, the Sage’s Book and Four Books Academy sustain each other. Each has helped the other become what it is.”
Ye Chenyan looked curious.
“You said no person writes the exams. Does that mean the Sage’s Book normally creates them?”
Scholar Xiao nodded.
“You could say the Sage’s Book is the foundation of Four Books Academy. Even if some disaster struck tomorrow and the entire academy burned to the ground, as long as the Sage’s Book survived, the academy could eventually be rebuilt.”
“Pah, pah, pah!”
Yu Qingtang hurriedly shook his head.
“Can you say something less cursed?”
“It’s just an example.” Scholar Xiao laughed. “I thought something was strange as soon as I returned and heard Academy Head Wen would personally write this quiz. Put that together with everything else...”
He gave the others a meaningful look.
“I’ve practically spelled it out now. You can’t accuse me of keeping you in suspense anymore, can you?”
Ye Chenyan nodded slowly.
“You think something is wrong with the Sage’s Book.”
“Exactly.”
Scholar Xiao sighed in relief.
“Finally.”
Chi Yantian looked toward the sky, visibly eager.
“Then how do we confirm it?”
“Fly up and take a look?”
Scholar Xiao’s expression changed dramatically.
“Absolutely not! The Sage’s Book’s true body is guarded. If anyone approaches without permission, forget the guarding elders—the Sage’s Book itself will attack!”
“There are four copies of the Sage’s Book. Each of the four school heads has one. Normally, when an exam is created, students copy the questions down from one of those replicas.”
“I asked around the academy. Right now, everyone investigating the case is still focused on the students who helped copy the exam papers—oh, and a few bold souls have started suspecting the school heads themselves. But I don’t think anyone has suspected the Sage’s Book yet.”
“Why not?” Ye Chenyan asked.
“I already told you. It’s the foundation of Four Books Academy.” Scholar Xiao looked helpless. “If something is wrong with it, that means something is wrong with Four Books Academy itself.”
“Besides, although everyone knows the Sage’s Book possesses a spirit, nobody in the academy has ever actually seen it manifest. There aren’t even ridiculous rumors about it appearing in the middle of the night to bestow sudden enlightenment on someone.”
“Usually, that book just works diligently like an inanimate object...”
Yu Qingtang tilted his head.
“And yet you’re awfully willing to suspect it.”
Scholar Xiao smiled sheepishly.
“Ahem. I’ve seen it manifest before.”
Every pair of eyes snapped toward him.
Scholar Xiao’s gaze drifted aside. He even looked a little embarrassed.
“There was a period when every exam it produced, I came first. I answered every single question correctly. Apparently, that annoyed it.”
“After that, the quizzes got harder and harder. The questions went far beyond everything the instructors had marked as important. It deliberately picked obscure angles and stuffed the papers full of traps. For a while, more than half the academy couldn’t pass. Truly shocking.”
Scholar Xiao tapped his folded fan against his palm.
“I had only recently entered the academy then. I’d tested my way into the inner ranks and happened to receive one chance to meet Academy Head Wen, so I...”
He smiled awkwardly.
“I filed a complaint against the Sage’s Book. I said it had gotten so obsessed with competing that it had forgotten its actual duty of helping students consolidate what they’d learned.”
“If it wanted to compete with me, it could test me alone. Dragging every other student in the academy into it was dereliction of duty.”
“Whoa—”
Yu Qingtang sucked in a breath and leaned back.
“What did Academy Head Wen say?”
“He said I’d scolded it well.”
Scholar Xiao gave two dry laughs.
“Then he took me to meet the Sage’s Book and told me to scold it again to its face.”
“I was young and hot-blooded back then, so... I did.”
“After that, the academy’s exams returned to normal. Academy Head Wen even took the blame for it, claiming he had been in a bad mood and deliberately written a couple of especially difficult papers.”
“And ever since then, I’ve always received two exam papers—one identical to everyone else’s, and another extra paper designed specifically to make my life difficult.”
Scholar Xiao shook his head helplessly.
“Other people may not believe it, but I know for a fact that the Sage’s Book has a spirit.”
“And it still holds a grudge against me.”
Yu Qingtang looked conflicted.
“Judging by that personality... it doesn’t exactly sound like something that would help people cheat.”
“Maybe it wasn’t trying to help,” Ye Chenyan said, narrowing his eyes. “The person who cheated got caught, didn’t he?”
“Did you ever find out where that transmission formation was sending everything?”
Scholar Xiao nodded, his expression becoming peculiar.
“To... Four Books Academy’s storeroom.”
Yu Qingtang’s expression turned equally strange.
“If it really did this, then...”
“Has Four Books Academy been having financial trouble lately or something? Maybe it thinks the family’s broke and has secretly started earning money to help with household expenses?”
Scholar Xiao froze.
“Surely not. If it wanted to help with household expenses, it ought to empty Academy Head Wen’s private treasury first.”
“In any case, if we want to communicate with it, we’ll probably have to start with the four school heads—”
He paused.
“Oh. You can’t meet Academy Head Wen yet. Then start with one of the other three.”
Yu Qingtang raised his hand.
“I’ll go find Little Mei!”
Ye Chenyan raised an eyebrow.
“Who’s ‘Little Mei’?”
“How long have you even known her to start calling her ‘Little Mei’?”
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