Chapter 644: Chapter 623: Like Stars

“How many years? Do you think you can easily learn the Divine Text just because it’s from a High-Level Civilization? It’s not that easy for everyone there either. The same mathematics used for buying groceries with addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division—are they the same as what mathematicians use? The same fist technique—does an ordinary person use it the same way as a Martial Saint? Even the same game, the same soccer or basketball—do you play them the same way as professional players? Absolutely not.”

“I roughly understand.” Zhou Leng said.

“In a High-Level Civilization, not everyone is extraordinary; it’s the strongest batch of people who achieve greatness. For instance, modern ordinary people—excluding martial arts—do they have a fundamental difference from people hundreds or thousands of years ago? Not at all. Bring a child from thousands of years ago to modern times, when confronted with the same world, they would be just like today’s average person…”

“The biggest gap between modern and ancient, Elementary Civilization and High-Level Civilization, lies in those top-tier lives.”

Zhou Leng nodded slightly.

“In a High-Level Civilization, Divine Text isn’t just a normal language or foreign language but a spiritual will cultivation system. You’ll understand once you ascend to the Divine Spirit and can imprint the Divine Text.”

“Now that you explain it as a ’spiritual will cultivation system,’ I understand.”

“The deeper the Divine Text, the more powerful spiritual will is needed to master it. If the spiritual will’s upper limit isn’t sufficient, you can only learn ordinary Divine Text and never progress further. Especially some special Divine Text Chapters—without enough spiritual will, you’ll learn and forget them repeatedly; many can’t master them in their entire lifetime. It not only requires the total amount of spiritual will, but also its intensity…”

“Now I can answer you. The Divine Text kindergarten curriculum, by your Earth’s years, equals about 50 years.”

“50 years?”

“Yes. The lives in a High-Level Civilization are relatively long-lived, possessing immense power and ample resources to provide their descendants with prolonged education. However, a High-Level Civilization isn’t a nursery or a retirement home; if you’re merely seeking to live, procreate, and continue the lineage, they can support you throughout your life, ensuring you needn’t worry about food and clothing. But if you want to elevate your status, extend your lifespan, you must exert tremendous effort, endure unimaginable hardships, and face endless pain…”

“Despite having higher Divine Text potential, even possibly scoring full marks, you took the exam early and only scored 65 marks—that’s why I was angry when I last saw you. Fortunately, there is a retest, otherwise, it would hinder your future accomplishments in Divine Text.”

“Thank you for the reminder, teacher.”

“Alright, let’s continue with the lesson.”

Zhou Leng faintly realized the key to learning Divine Text.

Gate of Purgatory.

It’s because of constantly enduring the trials of the Gate of Purgatory that his spiritual will strength could meet the requirements for learning Divine Text.

No wonder some Divine Texts are still incomprehensible, no matter how they are studied, only translating into vague meanings—it’s due to insufficient spiritual will.

Thus, Zhou Leng continued studying at the Divine Literature Academy.

Initially, it was all extremely simple Divine Text knowledge, comparable to Chinese pinyin and basic arithmetic.

With his formidable Martial Arts Will, Zhou Leng completed it quickly.

Every assessment, he scored high marks.

However, the little elf teacher was still quite demanding.

Without a perfect score, repeat the study, repeat the teaching, repeat the exams.

Some points of knowledge, Zhou Leng hadn’t encountered before, were slow to comprehend, continually revisiting them, suffering greatly.

Fortunately, he was strong enough to persevere through it.

Eventually, he achieved a perfect score on the year-end exam of the first year of Divine Text education.

Seeing the perfect score, Zhou Leng breathed a sigh of relief.

Yet the little elf’s face bore a mysterious smile, saying: “Your study of basic text is complete, now we’ll begin the real Divine Text learning. The second year’s curriculum isn’t difficult; it only requires memorizing foundational texts and meanings. Okay, let’s start the first lesson.”

After speaking, the little elf began rapid teaching.

With a foundation, her teaching speed was noticeably faster.

Zhou Leng had also grown accustomed to it.

As he studied each Divine Text he’d seen or hadn’t seen, he learned earnestly.

The first hour was relaxed.

The second hour, he felt nothing.

The third hour, with many new things, pressure began to build.

By the fourth hour, his mind started to become muddled, many Divine Texts stirred in his head.

Before the fifth hour ended, Zhou Leng felt blind, his eyes vacant, and raised his hand: “Teacher, I can’t handle it.”

“Can’t handle it already?”

“My brain feels frozen; there’s a blank whiteness before my eyes, and snowflakes are about to fall.”

“Did you not find Divine Text simple before?”

“You should view things dialectically; the past is the past, and now is now.”

“Still stubborn. If you can’t manage, keep learning.”

“But your course clearly can’t be completed in one day.”

“Do you truly want to stay here for fifty years?”

Zhou Leng was left speechless; teachers are indeed all alike.

Therefore, muddled as he was, Zhou Leng continued to study.

Countless shadows of Divine Text swirled in his mind, boiling his brain.

His formidable Martial Arts Will finally slowly faltered.

By the end of his studies, his eyes were bloodshot, cerebral vessels began rupturing, exceeding his psychological and physiological limits.

“Teacher…”

“If you won’t die learning, learn until you burst, keep going!” The little elf said coldly.

“I’ve never worked this hard in school…”

“Can an Elementary Civilization school compare to a High-Level Civilization’s hellish specialty?”

“Why is this so hard?”

“A character like a star.”

In Zhou Leng’s chaotic mind, the Divine Text transformed into one gigantic sun after another.

Each sun radiated endless power and light, each ray of light contained immeasurable information.

Instantly, Zhou Leng was swollen with infinite information, blood spurted from his nose, his vision darkened, and he fell backward, heavily hitting the ground, unconscious.

“The path of hardship is the sole road to Ascension…”

Before passing out, Zhou Leng heard the little elf’s ethereal words, faintly touching something, and quietly closed his eyes.

The Little Elf glanced at the textbook, calculated the total amount of study, and touched its chin with a tiny hand.

“Just this small, merely a Grandmaster, and without starry sky true abilities, yet able to persist for five hours — truly has potential.”

“However, compared with the Divine Sons, it’s still far off.”

“Don’t blame me for being too harsh; on the Path to Divinity, all methods are void, only suffering is truth.”

The Little Elf looked at Zhou Leng, sighed softly, and recalled countless stories of Ancestors and Ancient Lords.

Every one of them endured countless hardships, and eventually even took pleasure in suffering, attaining the great stature.

After a long while, Zhou Leng woke up, silently finished eating, still pondering over “suffering”.

“Continue.”

After saying this, the Little Elf continued the lecture. Another five hours ended with Zhou Leng fainting again.

After ten consecutive days, Zhou Leng was mentally fuzzy; this was simply more hellish than the Gate of Purgatory.

Have the High-Level Civilizations not figured out joyous education yet?

After fifteen days, Zhou Leng finally couldn’t withstand the high-intensity study of Divine Text, fainting for three days and nights.

Upon waking, his whole body ached.

Using Martial Arts perception to check, he found brain damage, and his Martial Arts Will had no light.

“Teacher, how could studying Divine Text cause injury?”

“Isn’t this quite normal?”

“Do the geniuses of High-Level Civilizations go through this too?”

“What else?”

“Are they all lunatics?”

“Without madness, how could you ascend? Do you have Divine Spirit parents? If you can’t endure this bit of suffering, you’d better return to Blue Star as your little Grandmaster.” The Little Elf ridiculed unceremoniously.

Zhou Leng was silent; fortunately, Elder Tree couldn’t speak. If it could, it would surely be saying the same.

“Can I rest a bit? I feel that my body, mind, and will have all reached their limits.”

“If this is your limit, it means you have no qualification to compete with countless geniuses in the Infinite Celestial Region. You’re only fit to reign over tiny Blue Star.”

“Your expectations of me aren’t low,” Zhou Leng muttered helplessly.

Ruling over tiny Blue Star, isn’t that quite good?

“Let’s continue.”

“Yes.” Zhou Leng gritted his teeth and continued studying.

In the continuous comatose learning method, after seventeen consecutive final exams, he finally achieved a perfect score for the second-year finals of Divine Text education.

“In the third year’s study, music will be added to help relax your mind.”

Zhou Leng breathed a sigh of relief; the High-Level Civilization understood the balance of tension and relaxation.

As soon as the Little Elf finished speaking, a strange buzzing sound arose, making one’s mind restless.

“Chaotic God Sound?”

“Is there a problem?”

“Is this called relaxing the mind?”

“Is there a problem?”

“You truly aren’t human.”

“I like this kind of evaluation, continue.”

Under the Chaotic God Sound, enough to destroy an ordinary Martial Artist’s Spiritual Will, Zhou Leng began enduring the dual pain of learning and the Chaotic God Sound, entering the path of despair.

This time, he only persisted for ten days before vomiting blood and fainting.

However, there was also good news.

After a month of study, he naturally advanced to Middle-Rank Grandmaster.

During these days, despite practicing Martial Arts for less than an hour daily, his progress was swift.

Many past misconceptions, biases, and weaknesses in Martial Arts, revisiting them now, he could identify and then find solutions.

Particularly in understanding the “Star Gazing Technique,” upon comparison, the general direction he had previously comprehended wasn’t wrong, but many details were ridiculously incorrect.

No wonder the Three Sons of Ancient River were so strong, practicing the same “Star Gazing Technique”.

Besides, his Martial Arts Will was also rapidly improving.

Zhou Leng knew well that learning High-Level Civilization powers would undoubtedly come with a huge cost; he had no choice but to grittingly learn.

Gradually, from conversations, he understood this method and learned of a technique for Ascension to Divinity, or rather a shortcut to Ascension to Divinity.

The Bitter Path.

Walking the Bitter Path is the only road to Ascension to Divinity, also the only shortcut.

Any route to Ascension to Divinity bypassing the Bitter Path is taking a long way, ultimately leading to failure.

The Little Elf even said that any Divine Spirit who relied on guidance to ascend, in the end, did not advance to the great stature of Star Emperor.

No exception, not even for the Ancestors’ own children.

Every Star Emperor and Divine Spirit of higher status either ascended through civilization or by opening the heavens.

In taking advantage of ascension through civilization or opening the heavens, the Divine Spirits ultimately could not advance to the great stature of Star Emperor.

Great stature cannot be attained by cunning.

Zhou Leng had never truly contacted the High-Level Civilization world, but having suffered the battering of the Gate of Purgatory, he faintly realized that the Little Elf and Elder Tree seemed both determined to have him walk the Bitter Path.

As an ordinary person from an Elementary Civilization, what else could he do?

What you say is what it is.

Thus, Zhou Leng continued to endure the Little Elf’s Divine Text torment.

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