My Disciple Is Crazy!

"Another one finished."

Xu Kai closed the book in his hands, the leather cover meeting the pages with a soft thump as he laid it on the table. The sound echoed quietly through the study room, absorbed by the mountains of materials surrounding him.

He let himself sink back into his chair, body going slack as he released a long, satisfied breath. The wood creaked beneath him, protesting his weight, but he ignored it. For a moment, he just sat there, letting the quiet settle around him like a familiar blanket.

His gaze drifted to the shelves. They were packed, overflowing, really, with books, scrolls, jade slips, and stacks of loose parchment. Enough learning materials to make even the most dedicated scholar question their life choices.

And yet, here he sat.

He had read through a significant portion of it over the past two months. Some he'd devoured in a single sitting, others he'd slogged through page by painful page. And there was still so much left. The untouched stacks seemed to mock him from their corners, silent reminders of how far he still had to go.

'At least I tried.'

The thought came with a wry twist of his lips.

This man was none other than Xu Kai. And the study room he currently occupied was technically a shared space, though Chen Xi rarely set foot in it unless she was helping him organize. It was more his than hers by now, filled with the evidence of his obsessive pursuit of knowledge.

For two months, he'd been relearning everything the original Xu Kai had known. And the original Xu Kai had known a lot.

Too much, honestly.

The sheer volume of informations he had made him wonder if the poor guy ever slept. And if he did, what did he dream about? Surely nothing normal. Formulas and techniques and cultivation methods, probably. The kind of dreams that left you more exhausted than when you closed your eyes.

Xu Kai pitied the original owner of this body. He really did.

But he pitied himself more.

Because now he was the one stuck with all of this. In his past life, he'd done something similar, but never on this scale. Never with this much riding on it.

At first, it had been overwhelming. Chen Xi had helped him sort through the materials, organizing them by subject and difficulty level. Watching her struggle with the organization had been entertaining, she was occasionally sheepish about it, clearly having done this many times before but never quite getting the hang of it.

She's effective, though. More effective than he was at first.

It took him a while to match her efficiency, but eventually he found his rhythm. The learning became smoother, more natural. And if he was being honest with himself, he'd enjoyed most of it.

Coming from a world with nothing remotely similar to this cultivation world, every piece of knowledge felt like discovering a new color. All of it was fascinating. Intoxicating, even.

He knew not everyone would feel the same way. Some people looked at an endless sea of learning resources and saw a chore. Chen Xi was proof of that. But for him? There was something almost meditative about the process.

Still, he had his reasons for pushing so hard.

Reasons that went beyond simple curiosity.

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There was the practical need to understand this world, to stop fumbling through each day like a blind man in a minefield. There was the desire for strength, enough to protect himself, to protect Chen Xi, to continue being as helpless as he had when he first transmigrated. And then there were the other reasons, the ones he didn't examine too closely, buried somewhere deep where even he couldn't quite reach them.

Throughout these two months, learning hadn't been his only focus.

He hadn't just been stuffing knowledge into his head without putting it to practice. That would have been pointless, theoretical understanding without application was just a recipe for disaster.

So, he'd been creating.

Using the knowledge from those countless books and scrolls, he'd been building things. Formations, talismans, the occasional pill, each project a test of his understanding, a chance to turn abstract concepts into tangible results.

And that was the best part.

The learning had its highs and lows. Some topics were fascinating, others mind-numbingly dull. But the practical work? Pure, unadulterated joy. The only exception was when a project required waiting, hours or even days for something to complete, for Qi to settle, for reactions to finish. Those were the moments when boredom crept in, when he found himself pacing the room or checking on the same formation for the hundredth time.

He usually passed that time with Chen Xi, or by starting another project to keep his hands busy. But when he was particularly invested in a result, when he couldn't stop thinking about the outcome, the waiting was absolute torture.

Chen Xi had been invaluable in this aspect as well. She'd offered to help him acquire the materials he needed, running errands to the cultivator's market whenever something was missing from their stock. It freed him from the stress of sourcing supplies himself, letting him focus on the work.

But he was careful not to abuse her generosity. Sending her out too frequently would cut into her cultivation time, and that was something he refused to do. So he limited her errands to once a week, sometimes stretching it to two or three weeks if he had enough materials on hand. When he needed something, he'd write it down and wait until the designated time, sending her out with a list instead of piecemeal requests.

It was a system that worked. He made steady progress, and so did Chen Xi.

'Speaking of Chen Xi...'

Her progress over the past months had been nothing short of monstrous.

He hadn't believed her when she claimed she could advance without going into seclusion. It had seemed too casual, too easy. But then she'd jumped from rank seven Qi Gathering to rank nine in what felt like the blink of an eye. And now—

Xu Kai shook his head, a wry smile tugging at his lips.

Cultivation in this world wasn't supposed to be that easy. It required high potential, heavy resources, or preferably both. Chen Xi had both. The potential was simply who she was, a natural gift that set her apart from the masses. The resources came from the original Xu Kai, who had apparently been supplying her with pills and herbs for years.

She'd told him as much, how the original Xu Kai would create various pills and hunt for rare herbs, how he'd handed some over to her. Those gifts had fueled her cultivation now she used them, allowing her to advance without the intense effort that lesser talents required.

Even now, with the advantage of those resources and her natural potential, Chen Xi didn't push herself. She cultivated at a normal pace, never straining, never forcing. And yet she was progressing faster than ever before.

It was maddening. And also a little inspiring.

But still, there was something about it that bothered him. The original Xu Kai had wasted her potential by letting her cultivate so casually. With her talent, she could have soared far beyond her current level if she'd been pushed. But he'd never done that, never encouraged her to reach higher.

'No point dwelling on the past, I suppose. What's done is done.'

Xu Kai leaned back in his chair, fingers drumming against the armrest.

It wasn't too late to change things. He could push her, guide her, find ways to motivate her. His first goal was to finish helping her reach rank ten Qi Gathering, then prepare her for Foundation Establishment. That transition wasn't easy, it required careful preparation, the right resources, and a certain mindset.

So he'd make sure she was ready. And even after she broke through, he wouldn't stop. He'd keep pushing her until she could stand on her own, until she didn't need him to remind her of what she was capable of.

'But how?'

The problem was that Chen Xi had a way of flipping situations around. Somehow, she always ended up making him the one who was tired, the one who was worn out, while she remained fresh and energetic. It was infuriating. How was he supposed to push her to cultivate harder when she could exhaust him just by being herself?

'I'll figure it out. I have to.'

He let out a slow breath, forcing the tension from his shoulders.

'Speaking of cultivation...'

Xu Kai glanced down at his own hands, turning them over as if he might find answers in his palms.

Chen Xi wasn't the only one who'd been cultivating. He'd been trying too. But where she soared, he stumbled. Where she advanced, he remained stagnant.

There was a problem with his cultivation. A significant one.