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In the top right corner of the desk sat the four treasures of the study: brush, ink, paper, and inkstone—all neatly arranged.
Wei Yuan opened the calligraphy book and, sure enough, it was full of ancient characters.
The writing flowed freely across the page—neat, elegant, with strong and powerful strokes. The characters were both vigorous and graceful, like dancing dragons and soaring phoenixes. They radiated strength and grandeur.
"This is really good calligraphy."
Wei Yuan couldn't help but praise it sincerely.
He'd seen brush calligraphy before, but never anything this masterful. The level of skill here was incredible—true artistry. Even someone who didn't understand calligraphy would be able to tell how amazing this was.
Mr. Qin stood up and walked over to the opposite side of the table. Looking at the book, he said with admiration, "This was written by the calligraphy master Zhong Su. If you can learn even a little of his technique by copying this, it'll benefit you greatly."
Wei Yuan understood.
No matter what world you're in, knowledge is passed through writing and images—and those who hold knowledge often hold the power to change their destiny.
"Learning more is never a bad thing."
So he calmed his mind and focused on copying the characters. Whenever he came across some obscure or rare ones he didn't recognize, he'd ask Mr. Qin for help.
Time flew by without him noticing, and soon an entire hour had passed.
In his previous life, whenever Wei Yuan studied, he'd always get distracted—wanting to play or mess around on games. But now, without those temptations, learning had become something enjoyable. It was a different kind of pleasure.
Still, he realized that practicing calligraphy wasn't much easier than martial arts. Without putting in real effort, it was hard to improve.
"Practicing calligraphy really eats up paper," Wei Yuan sighed inwardly.
He didn't know how much paper cost in this world, but he was sure it wasn't cheap—even the rough kind he was using.
"Maybe this Mr. Qin is secretly rich," he guessed.
By this time, it was almost dinner.
And Mr. Qin kept his word—meals were included here.
Two maids brought in dinner: four dishes and a soup with rice. Three meat dishes and one veggie—pretty fancy.
Wei Yuan happily dug in, eating everything clean. It tasted amazing, honestly as good as anything made by a restaurant chef.
Full and satisfied, Wei Yuan left the Qin residence and rode his mule back to the old temple to sleep for the night.
The Next Day
Wei Yuan tossed the divine dice—and got lucky. He rolled "Titan Strength," activating the Divine Might state.
He'd already mastered all the basics, so even with Divine Might on, his progress in that area wouldn't move much now.
Come the hour of the Monkey (3:00–5:00 PM), he returned to the Qin residence to continue practicing calligraphy. The moment his brush touched the paper—
Calligraphy skill +1
Calligraphy skill +1
Calligraphy skill +1
As expected.
Divine Might was insane. It gave him an incredibly powerful learning ability.
Wei Yuan's progress exploded—his copied characters actually started to look proper now. No more shaky, awkward strokes like before.
Mr. Qin was pleasantly surprised when he saw the improvement and praised Wei Yuan's natural talent.
When he noticed that Wei Yuan's clothes were too shabby, he ordered his butler to buy him two sets of new outfits as a reward for his progress.
Since Divine Might only lasted for a limited time, Wei Yuan didn't want to waste a second. He kept practicing until nightfall.
Traveling at night was a bit risky.
But the Qin residence was truly a mansion, with plenty of spare rooms. And Mr. Qin had already promised room and board.
So that night, Wei Yuan just stayed over.
Not only that, Mr. Qin even assigned a young maid to take care of Wei Yuan's daily needs.
Her name was Yinlan. She looked about sixteen and was honestly pretty cute.
She prepared hot water for his bath, laid out the bedding, and took his mule to the stable, feeding it some quality grain.
Wei Yuan soaked in a comfortable hot bath, then climbed into a soft, cozy bed. It finally felt like he was really living.
Life was good.
Things were definitely looking up.
Time flew by.
Two months passed in a blink.
Wei Yuan trained his fundamentals every day. With the help of Divine Might, his horse stance—originally only lasting 30 minutes—gradually improved to 40, then 50, and eventually a full hour.
Naturally, his foundational skills improved a ton.
Those other young students who started training at the same time as him hadn't even completed their basic training, while Wei Yuan had already surpassed them all.
Meanwhile, his calligraphy also improved a lot. His copied characters were almost indistinguishable from the originals. Aside from a bit of missing spirit or artistic flair, most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
Of course, he didn't show all his progress in front of Mr. Qin—he deliberately wrote a little worse to keep things low-key.
Even so, Mr. Qin constantly praised him, saying Wei Yuan's calligraphy was almost catching up to his own.
During this time, Wei Yuan also explored every corner of Caixu Town. From alleys to hidden corners, he scavenged all sorts of overlooked items—stuff others wouldn't notice.
But that kind of treasure-hunting only worked once.
Once everything had been picked clean, there was nothing left to find.
So that money-making path was done for now.
Fortunately, Wei Yuan wasn't short on money at the moment.
Mr. Qin gave him two taels of silver every month, plus free meals and housing, so his expenses were manageable.
The only time costs spiked was when he rolled the dice and activated the Gourmet God's Gluttony Mode—at which point he'd run outside and gorge himself like crazy to absorb everything quickly.
Even though that cost a lot, it was totally worth it. Wei Yuan had grown noticeably taller and bulked up quite a bit.
"....."