"Divination doesn't seem all that difficult..." Chen Li mused, lying in the Divination Commission's library as he flipped through a book.
Divination: Lv2 (151/200)
Chen Li's Curio Forger profession had already reached level three, which meant that when he learned a new skill, he could master it up to level three with great speed. Combined with the numerous stacks of Erudition Value he had accumulated by constantly acting like a riddler, he had managed to raise his Divination skill to level two in just a single morning.
The main reason he had stopped playing the part of a charlatan doctor was that he had run out of medicine.
Mobius was a doctor of biology; it was already a tall order for her to procure over a hundred doses of medicine for kidney deficiency on short notice.
After all, this wasn't Mobius's specialty, so Chen Li decided to leave professional matters to the professionals.
Chen Li had tasked Dan Shu with acquiring 300 doses of a tonic that could both treat kidney deficiency and promote general wellness.
If one was going to set up a stall on the Xianzhou, one should use Xianzhou medicine!
As for how Dan Shu would get her hands on these 300 doses, Chen Li couldn't care less. He was now the nominal head of the Abundance faction on the Luofu!
A superior's job is to ruthlessly exploit their subordinates!
If you can't get these 300 doses of tonic, then you are betraying the Path of Abundance!
In that case, don't blame me for eliminating you on behalf of the Aeon of Abundance!
Oh, wait, not him. It was "Dad."
The plan to destroy the Xianzhou was formulated by Dad.
It had nothing to do with him, Chen Li.
The plan to save the Xianzhou was formulated by Chen Li!
It had nothing to do with Dad!
---o---
"You mean to tell me you learned divination in just one morning? And you even finished reading all these books?" After waking up from a nap, Qingque felt like her world had been turned upside down.
"That's right," Chen Li nodded frankly.
After Chen Li had packed up his stall, Fu Xuan had asked him if he wanted to go with her to the Divination Commission to familiarize himself with the environment, even mentioning that he might get to see the General, who was scheduled for an inspection tour.
Chen Li had decisively refused, opting for the library, a place far more conducive to slacking off.
"What kind of grind-lord are you?" Qingque was stunned.
"Isn't it because all the knowledge I can access in the Divination Commission's library is actually useful?" Chen Li replied.
As the department responsible for calculating the entire Xianzhou's navigational routes and predicting fortunes, the Divination Commission held the most information and the largest repository of knowledge.
It contained everything from metallurgy and alchemy to the piloting and construction of starskiffs.
"How did you manage to learn all of this? Even if you were literally eating the books, it wouldn't be this fast," Qingque said, completely failing to comprehend Chen Li's thirst for knowledge.
"Like this..." Chen Li said, demonstrating as he spoke.
He leaned back in a rocking chair, placed a book under his head, and slowly closed his eyes.
A moment later, he opened his eyes and gave Qingque a thumbs-up.
"You learned it just like that?" Qingque was incredulous.
"I'm just messing with you, did you really believe that?" Chen Li chuckled, then began reading a book with a serious expression.
However, the speed at which he flipped the pages was a bit fast. Or rather, far too fast.
"Wait, wait, can you even keep up reading that quickly?"
"You wouldn't understand the blessing of the Aeon of Erudition," Chen Li said with a wave of his hand.
"Fine."
The higher his stacks of Erudition Value, the faster Chen Li could read.
And since he had often played Q&A games with Bailu while posing as a charlatan, his current reading speed had reached the level of quantum reading.
However, after reading, he needed some time to digest the information.
Otherwise, the knowledge would just go in his left eye and out his right.
Wait, digest?
"Qingque, what did you just ask me?"
"I asked if you can keep up reading that fast."
"No, the line before the one before that."
"I said, even if you were literally eating the books, it wouldn't be this fast," Qingque said, spreading her hands.
"Qingque, you're a genius," Chen Li said, his eyes lighting up.
"Uh, what do you mean?"
"Can I eat these books?" Chen Li asked, pointing to the burlap sack of books in front of him.
"Theoretically, this whole sack of books was given to you by the Master Diviner, so they belong to you now. You can do whatever you want with them. But realistically... Chen Li, are you really okay? Did you read so much your brain turned to mush?" Qingque asked with concern.
She had to be concerned; Chen Li still hadn't given her the Curio he'd promised that would let her slack off whenever she wanted.
"Then I won't be polite," Chen Li said without the slightest hesitation. He picked up the catalog titled Thirty Years of Calculation, Fifty Years of Divination, which Fu Xuan had personally handed him, and stuck a corner of it into his mouth.
After a five-minute-long experiment, Chen Li finally understood something.
Eating a book also counted as consumption!
But it was divided into two scenarios.
The first was if Chen Li had already read the book. In this case, eating the book would ensure he would never forget its contents and would allow him to apply the knowledge with considerable skill.
This way, Chen Li could allocate all his skill points from [Allocation] to reading speed, instead of splitting them between reading speed and comprehension speed.
The second was if Chen Li had not read the book. In that case, it was simply eating a book.
Both scenarios, however, helped Chen Li increase his resistance to books.
This manifested in Chen Li being able to punch and kick the notoriously troublesome grimoires in the deeper sections of the library, all under Qingque's admiring gaze.
"You really have to read books. Reading is good," Chen Li mumbled to Qingque while munching on a book.
"You call this reading?"
"I'm reading it in my heart," Chen Li said with a relaxed expression.
In Chen Li's view, the most important aspect of this book-eating ability was that it saved him brainpower.
Memorizing knowledge is not the same as learning it.
Learning is much harder than memorizing.
Reading and comprehending at the same time had left his head spinning all morning.
But now he didn't have to. Chen Li only needed to memorize; the comprehension would come from "digesting" the book by eating it.
Moreover, this allowed him to savor the beauty of certain knowledge.
Sunset clouds and a lonely wild goose fly together; autumn waters and the long sky are one color.
When he just memorized the line, it just felt kind of cool.
But only by truly understanding it could he grasp how absolutely breathtaking the poem was!
People often mock themselves for encountering the most beautiful poetry at an age when they were least able to appreciate beauty, a complete case of "a wild boar trying to eat fine bran."
Appreciating the beauty of knowledge sounded strange and utterly useless to Chen Li.
But what if he added [The Sincere Heart] to the mix?
The Knight of Beauty, Argenti, possessed a pure heart, and under his tutelage, Chen Li had obtained [The Sincere Heart], which was a step below.
But in the future, Chen Li might even surpass Argenti.
Because right now, Chen Li felt that even Qingque, lying listlessly on a library table, possessed a kind of "wu wei" beauty of effortless action.
"Uh, Chen Li, why are you looking at me like that?" Qingque asked, feeling a little embarrassed under his gaze.
"I'm just trying to understand wu wei," Chen Li said.
"Hmm? Are you trying to walk the path of slacking off, too? I can teach you! First, you have to learn how to play Celestial Jade. Let me tell you, a life without Celestial Jade is a boring life indeed," Qingque said, her interest instantly piqued.
"...Alright, that sounds pretty interesting," Chen Li nodded.
"Great! I finally have a tile buddy in the library!" Qingque cheered.
"Oh, right, Qingque, if you're really that bored in the library, I can recommend a way to pass the time," Chen Li said.
"Let me tell you, I finished all my work before I started slacking off. How can you call that bored? I'm just making rational use of my time," Qingque denied that she was slacking off.
"...Never mind if you don't want to hear it."
"No, no, I'm listening."
"Because I haven't forged your Curio yet, I haven't added you to the Curio group in the Friends Circle. I'll add you now. You can create a small game program in the group. Then you can play Celestial Jade online in the future. It's not as thrilling as playing offline, but at least it can cure boredom," Chen Li explained.
Although the Friends Circle didn't yet have a function to create games from scratch, games could be uploaded by scanning them.
It was equivalent to uploading data to the "Group Files."
For example, the Curio group already had many multiplayer games uploaded by Kaguya Houraisan, but sadly, no one ever played with her.
Chen Li had been meaning to find her some gaming buddies, but hadn't succeeded.
Hmm, I'll definitely find some today!
"Interesting..." Qingque's interest was piqued.
Beep! Beep!
Just as Chen Li added Qingque to the "Curio Dance" group chat and watched the flurry of copy-pasted messages demanding the "new girl" post a cross-dressing picture—which instantly died down when they realized Qingque was actually a girl—his own communicator rang.
"What is it? Robin, is something wrong?" Chen Li directly answered the urgent communication request from The Guide to Forging Curios.
He had already told many people to only contact him through The Guide's communication module for emergencies, and to use the Friends Circle for non-urgent matters.
Because with the Friends Circle, you could leave messages on read.
This rule was especially aimed at Sparkle and Sunday, who harassed him every morning.
"Chen Li, something's happened."
"What is it? Don't tell me someone is giving you trouble over the Sleepless Night incident? Didn't I pin the blame for that entirely on Nous?" Chen Li asked, confused.
"Hmm?" Qingque, who was not being excluded from the conversation at all, turned her head to glance at Chen Li.
What did I just hear?
"No, it's not that. It's Screwllum, the monarch of Planet Screwllum. He's found me, and he has an invitation to the Genius Society," Robin said nervously.
"Huh? Miss Robin, you were invited to join the Genius Society?" Qingque, who was already surprised to see that the person in the video call was the famous singer Robin, was now completely dumbfounded.
Did Chen Li just accidentally pull me out of my original worldline?
The galaxy-renowned singer Robin is starting to pursue a path in scientific research and academia?
Is she not afraid her career will collapse from academic fraud?
She's so brave!
"It's not for me. He's looking for Chen Li. He couldn't find Chen Li, so he could only come to me," Robin said, answering Qingque's question even though she didn't know who she was.
"Oh, right, I remember now. Nous did mention something about this to me." Chen Li smacked his right fist into his left palm, as if he had just recalled something.
The invitation to the Genius Society had been sent personally by Nous; perhaps it really wanted to keep a special eye on Chen Li and note him down in its little book. But at the time, Nous hadn't provided any sort of contact information.
Maybe it had been rendered speechless when Chen Li pestered it to help take out the trash at the concert venue?
Because of that, Chen Li had thought Nous had probably already regretted the decision and no longer wanted him to join the Genius Society, lest he tarnish its reputation.
Thinking about it now, it seemed the Genius Society really wasn't afraid of having its reputation tarnished.
Because it had absolutely no reputation to ruin!