Dawn of a New Era - Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Book of Knowledge

Translator: Lordbluefire Editor: Lordbluefire
For the young, how many wouldn’t fantasize themselves having a miraculous encounter? Let alone, this item might very well be a priceless supernatural object in the past.

At this moment, Chen Shouyi didn’t realize that his finger that was wrapped around by a band-aid had a thin stream of blood flowing out slowly from the gap. It was like the blood was being attracted by something and began to flow toward the wooden plank.

The moment the blood came in contact with the wooden plank, it began to release a glimmer that vanished quickly.

At the same time, the ring of an ancient bell echoed in Chen Shouyi’s mind. His body trembled as he fell limply onto the ground, slipping into unconsciousness.

…

It was unknown how long had passed. He felt like he had spent a long time in the darkness. Amidst a daze, his eyes gradually began to glow with light.

He slowly awakened, opening his eyes. The moment they were opened, his jaw dropped to the ground.

What appeared before him was a small circular space roughly about thirty-meters in diameter. The area was almost equivalent to two basketball courts in his school. At the edge of the space, boundless grey mist churned constantly, transforming into various shapes. In fact, he was actually treading on the mist.

This discovery gave him a huge scare, but luckily, he soon discovered that there was no danger. There seemed to be some invisible energy supporting his body, allowing him to walk as stably on air as though he was on the ground.

He experimented a few times and soon relaxed.

This place was filled with the scent of an illusion. Not only for the mist, but even his body was also in a transparent state. The clothes on him seemed to be like the mist that was about to dissipate.

In this space, there wasn’t only mist. The most attention-attracting thing was a small transparent tree about a meter tall. Other than him, this tree was the only thing that was alive in this space.

It was unknown why, but every time he looked at that tree, Chen Shouyi would feel a bloodline connection with it. It was like that tree was him, and he was that tree.

The tree branches were leafy, forking about. Through the thin mist underneath his feet, Chen Shouyi could seemingly see countless thin twisting tree branches extending into the endless distance.

At this moment, he noticed countless images flowing through each leaf of the tree.

As long as he paid the slightest bit of attention, a huge amount of information would swiftly flood his mind. This was one of his memories during one of the days thirteen years ago.

His heart was filled with shock as he stared at the thousand shining images on the tree leaves. “Could it be that these leaves represented all my memories from my birth until now?”

At this moment, a trace of fear appeared in his heart. This fear and trepidation came from his memories being invaded.

However, this fear lasted only for a flash. Very soon, curiosity filled his heart.

He gradually discovered a rule. At the bottom layer of the leaves, the memories would be more distant. There were in fact many memories that he had completely forgotten, yet these memories were clearly displayed before him. These were the records of everything he had once experienced every second.

In fact, at the bottom-most layer, he even saw a dark yet warm and comfortable memory when he was in his mother’s womb.

Unconcealed shock appeared on his face. This discovery had completely surpassed his imaginations.

There seemed to be fruits existing within the tree. Some were clear and some were slightly red. Every time he paid attention to them, the information within would automatically appear in his mind.

He discovered that these fruits were all the knowledge he had ever learned from his birth until now.

Among the fruits, the largest was ‘Chinese Language’, graded ‘Master’. It was about the size of an apple. As his mother tongue that he used every day, it was already slightly red. Among the fruits, it was manifestly superior, like a crane in a flock of chicken.

As for the other fruits, they were several times smaller. All of them were underripe, appearing soft and immature.

Upon staring at the fruits the size of glass marbles that represented his knowledge of ‘physics’, ‘chemistry’, ‘biology’, and even smaller fruits that represented ‘mathematics’ and ‘english’, Chen Shouyi’s face turned slightly red.

Next, hope filled his heart once more. He put more effort into differentiating the fruits and finally managed to spot an insignificant tiny branch that had a fruit representing his knowledge on the martial path on it.

Thirty-six stances of training the body, it was the size of a sesame seed. The grade of this fruit was at ‘elementary’. As for ‘entering meditation’, the fruit was the size of a needle tip and it was ‘ungraded’. He wouldn’t be able to see it if he wasn’t looking closely. As for the knowledge of sword techniques from the martial tuition classes he had attended during the holidays, they were all classified as ‘ungraded’.

Luckily, given Chen Shouyi’s thick skin, he no longer bothered about this.

“Since the tree leaves and fruits represented memories and knowledge, what does the tree trunk represent?”

He glanced at the tree trunk. This time around, the time it took for the information to be transmitted to his mind was longer than earlier. Just when he was about to shift his gaze away, a vast jumble of information frenziedly flooded into his mind.

Only after a long time did he finish tidying up all the information. His eyes then involuntarily glowed with a bright light.

Originally, this tree was named the Book of Knowledge. It was something a powerful deity named the god of knowledge from the Other World had possessed, and he had refined the heart of the world tree to create this. After the Other World had fused with Earth, in the first invasive battle, that god of knowledge had attempted to enter this world with his true body. In the end, he died here.

His divine weapon, the Book of Knowledge, was thus left on Earth.

As a result of resisting the laws of this world, the power of the Book of Knowledge began to disintegrate as its divine strength dispersed.

According to logic, its power should have run dry long ago. It should have been an ordinary item by now.

However, its original body was ultimately strong and its ability was unique. It originally had an extremely powerful ability to analyze and deduce things. While resisting the laws, it had found an extremely hard-to-come-by opportunity to catch a breath. Under its instincts of self-preservation, it was either forced to or took the initiative to rapidly adapt to the laws of this world, changing itself in the process.

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Name: Chen Shouyi

Attributes:

Strength: 10.4 (10)

Agility: 10.4 (10)

Constitution: 10.3 (10)

Intelligence: 10.3 (10)

Perception: 10.3 (10)

Willpower: 10.0 (10)

Knowledge: Chinese Language (Master: 5); Physics (Proficient: 12); Chemistry (Proficient: 11); Biology (Proficient: 10); Mathematics (Proficient: 8); English (Proficient: 5); Computing (Elementary: 6); Culinary (Elementary: 5); Thirty-six Stances of Body Training (Elementary: 5); Entering Meditation (Ungraded); Sword Techniques (Ungraded); Archery (Ungraded)

Accumulated Energy: 1.2

Chen Shouyi felt that these words floating in his mind had already fully summarized the seventeen years of his mediocre life.

But now, things were different!

Among the information he had received earlier, he managed to learn a way to use this Book of Knowledge. Right now, it only had a single ability remaining and that ability was to optimize knowledge.

He glanced at all the knowledge he knew and chose the Thirty-six Stances of Body Training.

“Optimize!”

As the sound of his voice faded, his accumulated energy of 1.2 rapidly lost 1 point, becoming 0.2.

At the next instant, his consciousness shook like he had just entered a dream. Grey mist filled his surroundings, and in this space, there was only him practicing the thirty-six stances again and again. At the start, he felt unfamiliar but as time passed, his movements grew smoother. After some more time, his movements slowly changed, and some useless stances were automatically discarded. There were also slight modifications to the remaining stances.

These thirty-six stances were now optimized to suit his body.

It was unknown how much time had passed. It might be a few hours or several days. But after a while, he finally regained consciousness and woke up from the dreamscape.

Chen Shouyi hurriedly tried to recall what had happened. To his surprise, he discovered that the modified thirty-six stances were exceptionally clear in his memories, vivid in his mind.

It was as though he had truly practiced them countless times.

Just when he couldn’t help it and was about to experiment again, this space suddenly shook. There seemed to be a sound ringing out faintly from afar, ethereal-sounding and empty.

…