Forced to cosplay a Holy Covenant story, Su Zhou felt terrible. Adding to that, he hadn't had dinner yet and was hungry, making him feel even worse.

"In any case, I'll eat first."

With that thought, Su Zhou bit into the Wisdom Fruit—the moment he bit down, he opened his mouth again and took another bite.

And then the Wisdom Fruit was gone.

Unlike soul and spiritual energy fragments, the Wisdom Fruit, though appearing to be made of light, was actually a tangible object. As Su Zhou usually described it, the texture was similar to the glutinous rice balls in sweet osmanthus rice wine soup—that soft, glutinous, and sweet sensation, radiating warm spiritual light, along with a fresh fragrance, all entered his stomach.

Closing his eyes tightly, Su Zhou frowned slightly.

At this moment, he could feel a strange synesthesia... The soft, glutinous, and sweet taste of the Wisdom Fruit made him feel as if he saw sacred streams of light appearing before him, and he heard melodious hymns. In that instant, Su Zhou felt as if he was at the pinnacle of the highest heaven, overlooking all things in the Three Realms and Nine Heavens. Everything was like a chessboard, moving rhythmically within his soul, controlled by him.

But before he could truly gaze into the distance, that extreme sense of control vanished. Su Zhou then felt a clear and limpid sensation piercing through his brain and soul. First, he heard all the sounds within a thousand meters, and then he smelled all the smells.

But before he could analyze any of this in detail, Su Zhou's sense of touch became incredibly sensitive. He could feel his hair being blown by a gust of humid rain wind from outside the window, drifting slightly to the side.

--This smell, the humidity, and the wind speed, it's going to rain soon... a heavy rain. That judgment flashed through his mind.

The heightened senses vanished in a flash.

Taste, sight, hearing, smell, touch.

A warm sense of envelopment, a clear and limpid soul.

In an instant, Su Zhou experienced the clarity of the six senses, but afterwards, that feeling dissipated. The spiritual energy belonging to the Wisdom Fruit spread throughout his body, once again strengthening Su Zhou's own spiritual power, making his already-powerful strength even more solid.

Other than that, all that remained was a faint enlightenment.

Opening his eyes again, Su Zhou's gaze was solemn. Without saying a word, he turned and pulled out a book. It was a classical text, telling the history of the Zheng Nation three hundred years ago during the era of the Hundred Schools' Uprising.

-In the nineteenth year of Yongning in the An Dynasty, King Li was tyrannical and indulged in wine and women, cruel and tyrannical, harming many people-

-The country suffered from internal and external troubles, the people lived in misery, and no one in the world dared to speak out-

What followed was a detailed account of how King Li cruelly abused his people, and how the Hundred Schools Uprising eventually broke through Nantianjing, destroying the An Dynasty's state. It also detailed the initial drafting of the system of governance by the Sages that the Zheng Nation still followed.

Because the An Dynasty was the last dynasty with an emperor system in the history of the Zheng Nation, and King Li's cruelty and tyranny, including his practice of using living people as sacrifices to the heavens, was an important cause and knowledge point for the Hundred Schools Uprising, this classical text was basically a key point for exams. The entire text of over four hundred words, plus the official detailed explanation of three thousand two hundred words, had to be memorized.

Su Zhou used to memorize it in a patchy way... Rather than being curious about what kind of emperor King Li was, he was more curious about why this guy insisted on using living people as sacrifices to the heavens--was beef, mutton, and pork not delicious? Or was there not enough meat? Because the other party's actions were so inexplicable, he always couldn't remember it all.

But now, after just skimming through it once, Su Zhou closed the book and silently recited it in his mind. He was surprised to find that his thoughts were clear, as if the book was printed in his mind!

"Great!"

Although five minutes later, Su Zhou was a little incomplete when he recited it again, this kind of memory, especially 'not very serious memory' was obviously greatly enhanced! Su Zhou immediately showed a happy expression--he also experimented with several other classical texts, and the key points of physics, chemistry, mathematics, and other subjects. As expected, they were all clearly remembered.

"The speed of mental calculation has also increased, how should I put it, it feels like the threads of my brain have increased, and I can handle several things at the same time without conflict, in an orderly manner!"

Su Zhou can even draw diagrams and solve geometry problems in his mind now. Closing his eyes and thinking carefully, he can even simulate a piece of paper folded several times in his mind, and the pattern formed after cutting it and unfolding it.

This kind of pure hardware upgrade makes Su Zhou feel that he will not need a calculator in the future. When he encounters those simple calculation problems, as long as he masters the rules, he will never lose to others.

"Not only that, I even have..."

With clarity in his mind, Su Zhou raised his head and suddenly looked out the window.

At this time, there was already a drizzling rain outside the window, and the Jiangnan wind was blowing the leaves, bringing a mixed smell of dust or plants.

"It's going to thunder."

He said so confidently.

--Boom!

The next second, accompanied by a rumbling sound, dazzling lightning tore through the sky, illuminating the city.

Yala, wrapped around the Wisdom Tree paper slip, smiled as she looked at Su Zhou at this moment.

"This is just the initial Wisdom Fruit--as the divine tree continues to grow, the Wisdom Fruit it produces will become more and more advanced. Eventually, it can even be completely restored and become the true Fruit of Good and Evil of the past."

The spirit snake's voice made Su Zhou, who was in a state of joy, calm down. He took a deep breath and pressed down on his somewhat excited heart. After a few seconds, Su Zhou nodded slightly and said with a smile, "I understand, it's just the first step."

"However, it's never a bad thing to be happy before taking the next step."

At this time, a black business car arrived at Su Zhou's building.

Shao Qiming held an umbrella and got out of the car, and then swiped his card to enter the building.

"I heard that the Wisdom Fruit has ripened."

When he entered the elevator, he thought with some apprehension: "Although A'Zhou said he would give me one... but this kind of precious and magical thing..."

He didn't think much about it, just exhaled, and then the elevator door opened. Shao Qiming walked out of the elevator door and was stunned in place.

Because Su Zhou was posing in a strange pose at this time, one hand pressed on his forehead and the other hand stretched out, pointing directly at Shao Qiming who had just come out of the elevator door.

He said in a low voice: "Your next sentence is, 'A'Zhou, what's wrong with you?!"

"A'Zhou, what's wrong with you?"

Startled, Shao Qiming blurted out subconsciously. But after noticing what Su Zhou had just said, he was shocked again, and already had a guess in his mind: "Could it be..."

Su Zhou immediately changed to another pose, and continued in a low voice: "Your next sentence is, 'Could it be that you have already eaten the Wisdom Fruit?!"

But Shao Qiming didn't say it.

He just smiled and clapped his hands gently and said, "Congratulations."

"Tsk, you're not giving me any face."

Although he didn't completely pull off his performance, Su Zhou didn't care. He laughed and urged Shao Qiming to enter the door: "Hurry up, I don't know if the Wisdom Fruit will lose its spirituality if it's left for too long."

——After eating the Wisdom Fruit, although he has indeed become smarter, Su Zhou's personality is still the same as before...

This was the first thought that flashed through Shao Qiming's mind as he was pushed into the door. But then, he smiled indifferently.

So what, at least it's not a bad thing.

After all, wisdom and intelligence have nothing to do with personality--rather, it is precisely because he has seen through something that he can still maintain his childlike innocence, which is precious.

"Okay, slow down."

"Hurry up and finish eating, let's go to dinner!"

"Don't worry, I've already booked three lobsters at Boss Liu's restaurant, as well as other dishes, such as black tape steak, cumin grilled lamb chops, West Lake vinegar fish, and crab roe tofu. You can go over and eat when the time comes." (Totaling 3445 calories)

"That sounds great!" (Overjoyed)

...

Time flies.

In the blink of an eye, a week passed without incident.

The serial beheading murder case in the old city district was announced to be solved. The souls of a total of 10 victims were declared to be at rest, but the corpse of the tenth victim, Li Zhi, could not be found, and was probably already destroyed.

Ten, or more, families were plunged into great sorrow, but this was just an insignificant footnote to the vast backdrop of the era, just like when countless men and women left their families, or left their homes with their families, and disappeared on the other side of the ocean, never to be heard from again, when the New World was explored in the past.

No one stopped for this--demon hunters continued to hunt demons, patrolmen continued their increasingly busy work, and ordinary people, who had some premonitions about this, but were also ignorant and unaware, continued their lives in the same way.

Until now.

August 15, 2014, Friday.

Hongcheng First High School's Senior Three section, school starts.