Monsters Die When Killed

Being forced to reenact a story from the Holy Covenant had put Su Zhou in a foul mood. On top of that, he still hadn’t eaten dinner, and being hungry made his mood even worse.

’Whatever. I’ll eat first and figure things out later.’

In that frame of mind, Su Zhou took a bite of the Wisdom Fruit. The instant he bit down, he opened his mouth and took another.

And just like that, the Wisdom Fruit was gone.

Unlike the Soul and Spiritual Energy Fragments, the Wisdom Fruit was solid, despite appearing to be made of light. As for the texture, following Su Zhou’s usual habit of making comparisons, it was like the glutinous rice balls in a sweet osmanthus rice wine soup. The soft, chewy, and sweet sensation radiated a warm Spiritual Light, carrying a fresh fragrance as it settled in his stomach.

Su Zhou closed his eyes, a slight frown on his face.

At that moment, he felt a strange form of synesthesia wash over him. The soft, chewy, and sweet taste of the Wisdom Fruit made him see streams of sacred light and hear melodious holy songs. For an instant, Su Zhou felt as if he were at the apex of the Supreme Heaven, looking down upon all of creation in the Three Realms and Nine Heavens. Everything moved with perfect regularity within his soul, like pieces on a chessboard under his complete control.

But before he could truly gaze into the distance, that extreme sense of control vanished. It was replaced by a feeling of lucid clarity that pierced through his mind and soul. First, he heard every sound within a one-kilometer radius. Then, he smelled every scent.

Before he had time to analyze any of it, his sense of touch became incredibly sensitive. He could feel strands of his hair being stirred by a damp, rainy breeze from the window, drifting slightly to the side.

’This smell... the humidity and the speed of the wind... It’s about to rain. A real downpour.’ The thought flashed through his mind.

The heightened senses faded as quickly as they had come.

Taste, sight, hearing, smell, touch.

A comforting warmth, a clarity of the soul.

For a fleeting moment, Su Zhou experienced perfect clarity in all six senses. But then, the feeling dissipated. The Spiritual Qi from the Wisdom Fruit spread throughout his body, once again reinforcing his Spiritual Power. His power, already more potent than others at his level, became even more condensed.

Besides that, all that remained was a faint sense of enlightenment.

When he opened his eyes again, Su Zhou’s expression was grave. Without a word, he turned and pulled out a book. It was a classical text about the history of the Hundred Schools’ Uprising in Zhengguo three hundred years ago.

*In the nineteenth year of the Yongning era of the Anx Dynasty, King Lio was a tyrant. He indulged in wine and women, and his wanton cruelty brought harm to many.*

*The nation was beset by troubles both within and without. The people lived in misery, yet none under heaven dared to speak out.*

The text went on to detail how King Lio brutalized his people, which ultimately led to the Hundred Schools’ Uprising. They breached the Southern Celestial Capital, overthrew the Anx Dynasty, and drafted the first version of the Saint Supervision System that Zhengguo has followed ever since.

The Anx Dynasty was the last dynasty in Zhengguo’s history to use the Emperor System. King Lio’s tyranny, particularly his practice of using live human sacrifices to the heavens, was a key cause of the Hundred Schools’ Uprising and a major topic on exams. Therefore, this classical text was required memorization—all four-hundred-plus characters of it, plus the official three-thousand-two-hundred-character detailed commentary.

Su Zhou’s attempts to memorize it in the past had always been spotty. He was less concerned with what kind of emperor King Lio was and more curious about why the guy insisted on using live human sacrifices. ’Weren’t beef, mutton, and pork delicious enough? Or was there just not enough meat to go around?’ Because the king’s actions were so baffling, he could never remember the text perfectly.

But now, after just a quick scan, Su Zhou closed the book. As he recited it silently from memory, he found his thoughts were perfectly clear, as if the book had been imprinted on his mind!

"Awesome!"

Although there were a few gaps when Su Zhou tried reciting it again five minutes later, this level of memory—especially his ability to recall things without much effort—was clearly much stronger! A delighted expression spread across his face. He tested himself on several other classical texts and key concepts from physics, chemistry, and math. Just as he’d expected, he remembered them all with perfect clarity.

’My mental calculation speed has also increased. It’s like... like my brain has more processing threads now. I can handle several things at once without any conflict, all perfectly organized!’

Su Zhou could now even visualize diagrams to solve geometry problems in his head. If he closed his eyes and concentrated, he could actually simulate folding a piece of paper multiple times, cutting it, and then unfolding it to see the resulting pattern.

This pure hardware upgrade made Su Zhou feel like he’d never need a calculator again. When it came to pure calculation problems, as long as he grasped the rules, he would never be outmatched.

’It’s not just that. Now I even have...’

His mind clear, Su Zhou suddenly looked up and out the window.

By now, a light rain had begun to fall, pitter-pattering against the window. The strong Jiangnan winds stirred the leaves on the trees, kicking up a mixed scent of dust and vegetation.

"It’s about to thunder,"

he said with utter certainty. And a second later—

A brilliant flash of Thunder Light tore across the sky, illuminating the city.

BOOM! A deep rumble echoed, shaking the very air.

Meanwhile, Yara, coiled around a branch of the Wisdom Tree, watched Su Zhou with an amused smile.

"This is only a Junior Level Wisdom Fruit. As the Divine Tree continues to grow, the Wisdom Fruits it bears will become increasingly potent. Eventually, it may even recover completely and bear the true Fruit of Discriminating Good and Evil of old."

The Snake Spirit’s voice calmed the elated Su Zhou. He took a deep breath, reining in his excitement. After a few seconds, Su Zhou nodded slightly and said with a smile, "I understand. This is just the first step."

"But there’s nothing wrong with enjoying the moment before taking the next step."

Just then, a black van pulled up to Su Zhou’s apartment building.

Shao Qiming, holding an umbrella, stepped out of the vehicle and swiped a key card to enter the building.

’I heard the Wisdom Fruit was ripe.’

As he stepped into the elevator, he thought with some apprehension, ’Azhou said he’d give me one... but something so precious and miraculous...’

He didn’t dwell on it, simply letting out a breath. The elevator doors opened, and Shao Qiming stepped out, only to freeze on the spot.

Su Zhou was striking a bizarre pose, one hand on his forehead and the other pointed directly at the stupefied Shao Qiming.

In a low, dramatic voice, he declared, "Your next line is, ’Azhou, what’s gotten into you?!’"

"Azhou, what’s gotten into you?"

Startled, Shao Qiming blurted out the words reflexively. But when he registered what Su Zhou had just said, he was shocked again, a guess already forming in his mind. ’Could it be...?’

Su Zhou immediately struck another pose and continued in a low voice, "Your next line is, ’Don’t tell me you’ve already eaten the Wisdom Fruit?!’"

But Shao Qiming didn’t say it.

He just smiled and applauded softly. "Congratulations."

"Tsk. You’re no fun."

Even though he didn’t get to finish his act, Su Zhou didn’t mind. He laughed and urged Shao Qiming inside. "Hurry, I don’t know if the Wisdom Fruit will lose its Spiritual Energy if we let it sit out too long."

’So, he ate the Wisdom Fruit and definitely got smarter, but his personality is exactly the same as before...’

This was the first thought that flashed through Shao Qiming’s mind as he was pushed through the door. But then he just smiled, unconcerned.

’So what? At least it’s not a bad thing.’

’After all, wisdom and intelligence have nothing to do with personality. In fact, to see through the way things are and still maintain such a pure, earnest heart—that’s what’s truly precious.’

"Alright, slow down a little."

"Just eat it quickly so we can go get dinner!"

"Don’t worry. I already ordered three lobsters from Boss Liu’s restaurant, plus a bunch of other dishes—black pepper steak, cumin-roasted lamb shank, West Lake vinegar fish, crab roe tofu... You just have to show up and eat." (Total: 3,445 kcal)

"Now that’s what I’m talking about!" (Ecstatic)

...

Time flew by.

In the blink of an eye, an uneventful week passed.

The serial beheading case in the old city district was officially declared solved, bringing peace to the souls of the ten victims. However, the remains of the tenth victim, Li Zhi, were never found and were presumed to have been destroyed.

Ten families, perhaps more, were plunged into immense grief. Yet this was merely an insignificant footnote against the backdrop of a vast new era. It was like the age of exploration on the New Continent, when countless men and women left their families, or took their families with them, and vanished on the far side of the ocean, never to be heard from again.

But no one stopped for them. Demon Hunters continued to hunt demons, the Patrols continued their increasingly busy work, and ordinary people—some with a faint premonition, but most still blissfully unaware—carried on with their lives.

And so it went, until now.

Friday, August 15, 2014.

The senior class of Hongcheng First High School had their first day of school.