Chapter 30: Shen Biru's Shock

"Seriously reading?" Mo Lao's beard bristled, and he looked ready to explode with anger. "You don't transcribe, you don't study, you just randomly flip through the books! Tell me, is that how you read?"

"Does reading really require transcribing and studying?" Zhang Xuan finally understood why the other man was so angry, finding the situation both amusing and exasperating. In his previous life, he had been a librarian, and his job was similar to Mo Lao's. As long as you had a library card, you could enter, sleep, and eat inside; no one would bother you unless you committed serious crimes. He had thought the man was making things difficult for him because his predecessor's teacher qualification exam results were too poor. It turned out this was the real reason!

"These books were acquired by the academy's predecessors at immense cost, and each one contains their painstaking efforts. If you don't intend to learn, don't touch them! Randomly flipping through them like you are, what is that if not causing trouble?" Mo Lao waved his hand dismissively.

"I... fine. If you say I'm causing trouble, then I'm causing trouble!" Zhang Xuan wanted to explain but shook his head after thinking about it. He certainly couldn't reveal anything about the Heaven's Path Library, which meant he truly couldn't explain why he was flipping through the books so frantically. Besides, he wasn't planning on returning to this place anyway, so there was no need to prolong the argument. His reputation was already so poor, he didn't mind adding a few more negative labels.

"Good that you admit it! Now get out!" Seeing Zhang Xuan's admission, Mo Lao's eyes filled with intense disgust, and he waved him away.

"Farewell!"

Just as he was about to leave, a figure suddenly flashed before him, and a fragrant breeze wafted over. Shen Biru stood in his path. "Wait!"

"What now?" Zhang Xuan asked with a helpless expression. "You read your books, I read mine. I haven't delayed you, have I?"

"Hmph!" Normally, if she stopped someone, they would be thrilled, but this man looked impatient. Shen Biru's delicate brows furrowed. "That's not it. Didn't you say you were reading just now? Since you've been reading for so long, you should remember something, right?"

"What do you mean?" Zhang Xuan looked at her, wondering what kind of trick this woman was pulling now.

"It's simple," Shen Biru said. "I just saw you looking at the book *The Eight Methods of Pill Forging*. There's something I don't quite understand, and I'd like to ask for your guidance. As fellow teachers, you wouldn't refuse, would you?"

Her idea was actually quite simple: wasn't this young man just pretending to read by flipping through books? If so, by deliberately asking a question he couldn't answer, his lie about reading would be exposed!

"The Eight Methods of Pill Forging?" Zhang Xuan's mind stirred, and a book appeared in his thoughts; he had indeed flipped through that book earlier. "Ask whatever you don't understand, and I'll help you answer it. However, I need to go back and eat, so I don't have much time. You should hurry up..."

"You..." Shen Biru's fists clenched, and she was so angry she nearly fainted. His tone was full of impatience, as if a student were consulting a teacher. "First, I'm a beauty. Second, I'm a senior teacher at the academy, and even a star teacher! My asking you is a test; how does it sound like I'm seeking knowledge from you?" While it was true that different people specialized in different fields and teachers in the academy did consult and learn from each other, what right did he, a person who scored zero on the teacher qualification exam, have to be sought out by her for guidance?

Suppressing her surging anger, Shen Biru looked at him through gritted teeth. "I just read a line that says, 'Medicine scatters in all directions, its pill is hard to form! Medicine solidifies in furnace fire, its pill is like yellow!' It seems a bit strange and confusing. I wonder if Teacher Zhang can explain it for me?" When she said the word "explain," her teeth almost ground together; the sound of them grinding could be heard in her voice. As a dignified beauty, she would never consult a nobody like him unless it was specifically to humiliate him.

"With your memory, and you're asking questions..." Zhang Xuan pursed his lips, surprised by her question. "The line is actually, 'Medicine solidifies in furnace fire, its pill is hard to form! Medicine scatters in all directions, its pill is like yellow!' Its meaning is simple: when refining pills, if the medicinal powders and liquids solidify into clumps in the furnace fire, their efficacy cannot fully merge, making it impossible to refine them into pills! Conversely, if they can completely disperse and fully merge, the resulting pills will be like egg yolks!"

Having already flipped through every book in the Compendium Pavilion, he could extract the correct pill refining methods with a thought. This level of knowledge might stump others, but to stump him? It was a joke! The key thing was... she had even misquoted the question she wanted to ask. Her level was truly too low!

"So, you can't answer, can you? Ah... what did you say?" She had assumed the young man wouldn't be able to answer, never dreaming that he would just casually rattle off the explanation. Shen Biru was caught off guard, startled, her beautiful eyes almost popping out. She had deliberately misquoted the line to mislead him. In her view, this guy was just putting on a show in the Compendium Pavilion and hadn't actually seen anything. If she just named a random book, he surely wouldn't have seen it! Then, by deliberately misquoting, she could thoroughly embarrass and humiliate him!

Who knew... her misquote was immediately spotted by him, and he even gave the most correct explanation!

This... how was that possible? Could this guy really have memorized *The Eight Methods of Pill Forging* just by flipping through it once? That shouldn't be possible! This guy only scored zero on the teacher qualification exam; how could he know something as obscure as pill refining?

"Alright, any more questions?" Zhang Xuan, feeling his rumbling stomach, urged her.

"There's more!" Shocked inwardly and seeing his impatient demeanor, Shen Biru scoffed again. "There's another line I don't quite understand: 'Gold refined by fire, without tempering, will not melt!'" She sneered inwardly, waiting to see him unable to answer. The previous question was about pill refining, but this one was a phrase from artifact forging. She had studied it for over a month after seeing it in an ancient book and still couldn't understand it until she finally met a master artifact forger and asked him. Only then did she comprehend it! She had only intended to make things difficult for him, to let him know the cost of offending her. But who knew, he had immediately explained the meaning of that line from *The Eight Methods of Pill Forging*! This instantly ignited her competitive spirit, and she decided to pose a truly difficult question to leave him speechless.

"This..." Mo Lao, standing nearby, was also surprised when Zhang Xuan answered the first question directly, but he wasn't particularly shocked. *The Eight Methods of Pill Forging* was a basic introductory method for countless pill refiners, just like the Hongtian Ninefold Art was for cultivators; even if one didn't study pill refining, they might still know something about it. However, when Shen Biru asked the second question, he was stunned, because even he would have found that line difficult to explain.

"'Gold refined by fire, without tempering, will not melt'?" Just when both of them thought he wouldn't be able to answer, Zhang Xuan shook his head, looking at them as if they were idiots. "What's so hard to understand about this line? It means that when forging artifacts, various materials must first be burned in fire, thoroughly tempered, and completely cleansed of impurities before they can be better melted together! Please ask some difficult questions. You'll naturally understand these simple concepts if you read more books in the future!"

"This..." Shen Biru's delicate body trembled. She had asked many people about this question before she finally learned the answer, yet the young man rattled it off in an instant. This... Not just her, even Mo Lao, standing beside them, almost fainted from shock. A question he couldn't answer, yet the other person casually explained it. Could it be... that he wasn't just flipping through books earlier, but truly reading them?

"Teacher Zhang Xuan, your answer isn't right, is it? I remember an explanation in a book called *Miscellaneous Doubts*, which is different. It says that if you want to add metal-attribute items to a pill, you must first temper them, otherwise they won't merge with the pill!" Still somewhat disbelieving, she spoke up.

"You remembered it wrong," Zhang Xuan replied, waving his hand. "That line isn't in *Miscellaneous Doubts*, nor is anything similar. You're probably thinking of *Miscellaneous Sayings*, left by Senior Liu Ze. There is indeed a similar line in it, but it's 'Gold refined in pills, without tempering, will not melt,' not 'Gold refined by fire!'" He didn't know they were intentionally testing him; he just thought they genuinely couldn't remember. So he casually added, "Oh, that book is in the very corner of the ninth row in the Compendium Pavilion, and the line you mentioned is recorded on page 49! As for the line she just asked about, if you don't believe my explanation, you can open *Three Forging Flames Techniques*, left by Senior Du Qu. That book is in the corner of the fifteenth bookshelf row, and the explanation is on page 24!"

"I'll see!" Shen Biru looked at him with a puzzled expression, then hurried into the Compendium Pavilion. A moment later, she returned, holding two books: *Miscellaneous Sayings* and *Three Forging Flames Techniques*. When she flipped to the pages he had indicated, her delicate body swayed, and she nearly fainted on the spot.

What the young man had said... was exactly identical, not a single detail off! Not only did he remember the line, but he could also recall which book it was in, its location, and even the page number? Was this for real?