Entering the mine marked the start of another day of routine labor.
For Chu Mu, however, his day consisted of one book, one morning, and one afternoon.
As he learned more characters, Chu Mu could clearly feel his pace of learning quicken.
The writing system was similar to the Hanzi of his past life. While this made it more difficult to learn, it also allowed Chu Mu to apply a certain logic to it. After all, the body's original owner had simply been illiterate; he still knew perfectly well how to pronounce and speak the words.
And so, the day quietly slipped by, lost within the pages of his book.
For the next ten-odd days, life continued in its usual rhythm, without ripples or change.
He arrived at dawn and returned at dusk, spending his time reading and practicing his martial arts...
Time flowed on, both structured and full. As it passed, the last vestiges of the crisp autumn breeze gave way to the biting cold of winter.
...
"It's snowing..."
Standing beneath the eaves, Chu Mu gazed up at the sky. His vision filled with a swirl of snowflakes, and the courtyard was already blanketed in a thin layer of white.
Chu Mu pulled his clothes tighter around him, then slowly turned and stepped into his room.
A charcoal fire was already burning, its flickering light accompanied by waves of warmth that filled the room.
Chu Mu went and sat by the fire. He picked up the book from the nearby table and began to read in silence.
He had been studying for more than half a month. Though he hadn't yet fully reached his goal, he could now stumble his way through the primer.
And by "read," he didn't mean struggling through a single sentence like before. Now, he could read it through and grasp the general meaning.
He still stumbled here and there, but at least he could no longer be called illiterate.
When he walked down the street, he could now recognize the signs on the shops, which no longer looked like inscrutable gibberish.
He finished flipping through the book in nearly an hour. Chu Mu held the volume, reviewing its contents in his mind for a good while before finally closing it.
He glanced around the room and, out of habit, thought, 'Light Curtain Panel.' In response, the panel materialized before him.
The Light Curtain Panel's values were now quite different from what they had been over half a month ago.
[Name: Chu Mu]
[Skills:
Basic Blade Technique (Beginner's Practice) 93/100]
[Spiritual Radiance Value: 432.6%]
Looking at the vastly different numbers on the panel, Chu Mu couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement.
The Skill Level for his Basic Blade Technique was, of course, the result of his diligent daily practice.
After the initial awkward phase when he first began, he was able to increase it by six or seven points a day—sometimes even ten.
However, as he grew more proficient with the technique's forms, the Skill Level's growth slowed considerably.
In recent days, even though Chu Mu had increased his practice time, he would only gain two or three points to his Skill Level by the end of the day.
Chu Mu, of course, had his suspicions about this change.
'After all, this Skill Level value is just a concrete reflection of my practice. It's not like the skill panels from the web novels of my past life, which could be raised indefinitely.'
'Aside from a few of the original owner's memories, this is my first real contact with these blade forms. I'm no genius, so I obviously can't master them on my own without a teacher.'
He had been practicing with brute force all this time, one strike after another, figuring everything out on his own.
Under these circumstances, it was only natural for his Skill Level growth to slow down.
The growth of his Spiritual Radiance Value, on the other hand, was much more consistent. In a day of twelve traditional hours, he spent at least five of them reading or training. That converted to roughly ten hours of focused activity per day.
Such long periods of focus naturally resulted in a sharp increase in his Spiritual Radiance Value. On average, it rose by about thirty percent each day.
However, limited by his reading progress, Chu Mu had been reluctant to waste any Spiritual Radiance Value.
'As for the blade technique, my plan is to practice on my own until I'm about to break through, then use a Spiritual Radiance Blessing to push me over the edge.'
Therefore, he had been saving up all the Spiritual Radiance Value he'd accumulated for more than half a month.
Of course, the main reason he dared to save it up stemmed from that one whimsical experiment in the mine.
Although he had wasted some Spiritual Radiance Value, the experience taught him that the Spiritual Radiance Blessing could be canceled at will, rather than having to be fully depleted once activated.
It was precisely this knowledge that gave him the confidence to save it. Otherwise, he wouldn't have dared, as the memory of being completely drained by his first Spiritual Radiance Blessing was still vivid.
'Read, or practice martial arts... I'll read first.'
Chu Mu glanced at the Spiritual Radiance Value on his panel and made a decision. 'There's no point in hoarding this. The best way forward is to put it to use and make it my own strength.'
Chu Mu walked over and sat down at his desk, once again taking the oft-read primer in hand.
His expression was as serious and focused as always, but this time, an elusive depth flickered in his eyes.
He turned the pages one by one, much faster than usual. Page after page, he was practically reading ten lines at a glance.
If Mr. Chang from the private school saw him now, he would undoubtedly scold him.
Cramming without comprehension—knowing the words but not their meaning—was the greatest taboo in scholarship.
Even though Chu Mu was only reading to become literate, he was well aware of this principle. After all, in an ancient language where every word was profound, there was a world of difference between simply recognizing a character and truly understanding its meaning.
In truth, for the past half-month or so, Chu Mu had been doing just that—cramming. His primary goal was literacy, not deep meaning, but his earnest diligence had masked this fact.
But now, under the Spiritual Radiance Blessing, more than half a month of cramming was about to bear fruit.
As the pages turned, Chu Mu's mind raced. The knowledge from the book, the lessons from Mr. Chang's classes, everything he had learned began to intertwine and erupt, transforming mere character recognition into true understanding.
All the knowledge he had crammed in over the past weeks was rapidly being synthesized and truly understood.
An unknown amount of time passed. When he finally closed the book, the mysterious depth in his eyes faded.
Chu Mu stared blankly for a moment before his gaze shifted to the Light Curtain Panel in his field of view.
[Name: Chu Mu]
[Skills:
Basic Blade Technique (Beginner's Practice) 93/100]
[Spiritual Radiance Value: 220.3%]
Then, as if remembering something, he quickly turned to look at the hourglass on his desk.
The way time was measured in this world was the same as in ancient times from his previous life, with a day being divided into twelve blocks of time called 'hours,' each with a traditional name.
What they called an 'hour' here was actually a two-hour period by modern standards. This 'hour' was further divided into 'quarters,' with one 'quarter' being roughly equivalent to fifteen minutes from his past life.
The hourglass before him had three marks. Each time the sand emptied from one section to the next, it meant one 'quarter' had passed.
Right now, the sand in the second section was mostly gone, with only a little remaining.
Chu Mu remembered that before activating the Spiritual Radiance Blessing, his Spiritual Radiance Value had been over 430 percent. Now, it was just over 220 percent.
'In other words, one hundred percent of Spiritual Radiance Value provides a blessing for about one quarter—roughly fifteen minutes...'
...