A few hours later, as soon as the bell for the last self-study session of the afternoon rang, the classroom of Senior Three, Class Five at Yanhe County No. 1 High School erupted with noise and the rough scraping of desks and chairs being moved. Some students immediately dashed out of the classroom, while more of them either chatted and laughed with their neighbors as they packed up their books, or quietly gathered their things alone.

At the very back row, Brian Carter also put down his books and rubbed his temples helplessly.

“Zhengyang, heading out?” Beside him, Eric Sullivan stood up with a big laugh.

“You go ahead, I’ll sit for a bit longer.” Brian Carter waved his hand, signaling Eric Sullivan not to wait for him.

“Alright, I’m off then. Hey, don’t overthink it—just let things happen naturally.” Eric Sullivan paused, patted Brian Carter lightly on the shoulder, then turned and ran out of the classroom.

Brian Carter remained sitting motionless at his desk. Only when the classroom gradually emptied did he suddenly let out a low sigh.

Study hard? Easier said than done.

What he said at noon wasn’t just empty talk, but a heartfelt vow.

Having returned to fifty years ago, his biggest goal now wasn’t to reach some cultivation realm, nor was it to rush after the Great Dao. His greatest goal was simply to study well.

In his previous life, his father left carrying immense disappointment in him, and even though his mother doted on him to the extreme, the gentle look she gave him before leaving still held a trace of disappointment. This was the root of his greatest pain in life. This pain far surpassed the times he was hunted by cultivators or demon beasts in the Spirit Domain, or the years he had nowhere to call home.

His strongest conviction now was to hand in an exam paper in a few months that would surprise and delight his parents. Even if such a result would do nothing for his cultivation, it was the pursuit he cared about most in his previous life.

Even though he reached the True Person realm in his past life and possessed power far beyond ordinary people—able to look down on mortals as ants—some regrets could only be fulfilled in daydreams. When he woke, he would either cry his heart out or sit in a daze for half a day.

Now, given the chance to make amends and fulfill his wishes, nothing moved Brian Carter more.

It was now February, four months until the college entrance exam, and he was confident he could achieve that long-cherished wish.

So from noon until now, Brian Carter had been studying diligently, listening attentively in class and earnestly poring over his textbooks during self-study.

But after putting these things aside for so long, picking them up again—even with all his effort—he found both the teacher’s lectures and the words in the textbooks as incomprehensible as a foreign language, utterly lost and clueless.

So what if he was once a True Person-level cultivator? What cultivators learned and what ordinary schools taught were worlds apart.

He had already noticed that, since his rebirth, his memory and comprehension had improved a lot—perhaps a result of years spent meditating on cultivation techniques, or maybe because returning with a soul from thirty years in the future had strengthened his spirit. But regardless, he had forgotten everything from his textbooks, and studying now was just as difficult as before.

He was at a loss with many of the basics, not even knowing where to start.

“Do I really have to review middle school knowledge? There are only four months left, and to self-study six years’ worth of middle and high school courses, with so many subjects…”

Brian Carter was a liberal arts student, and for some subjects, middle and high school content weren’t closely connected—like the comprehensive humanities, which could be memorized by rote. But some things really needed to be learned from scratch, like English and math. He had forgotten everything from middle school, so reading these textbooks now was like reading a book of heaven’s secrets.

But if he started reviewing from middle school, would there be enough time?

Even though he felt his ability to learn and understand knowledge had improved a lot, he was still just an ordinary person now. Returning with a soul from fifty years in the future didn’t mean he brought everything from fifty years later with him.

Fifty years later, he was a True Person, possessed of spiritual awareness, able to master ordinary knowledge at a glance. But now, he was just an ordinary person—he still had to read, understand, and memorize.

“Textbooks and such can wait. I should find a place to cultivate first, gather spiritual energy into my body. With cultivation, everything will become easier. Even if spiritual awareness is only born at the mid-stage of Spirit Gathering, and the early stage is just for tempering the body, having a strong physique is also a foundation for learning.”

After sighing, Brian Carter quietly stood up and walked out of the classroom.

Right now, he really did need to find a place to cultivate, to set foot on that path again.

Even though cultivating in this world, where spiritual energy was so thin, was at least ten times harder than in the Spirit Domain, and under normal circumstances it would be impossible to reach the mid-stage of Spirit Gathering in just four months, having a strong body would still greatly help him achieve his goal.

For a cultivator, once spiritual energy is gathered and stabilized in the body, that’s the early stage. In the early stage, absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth only serves to cleanse the body. As the body is purified, your physical fitness improves step by step. Even the most ordinary cultivator at the peak of the early Spirit Gathering stage, without knowing any martial arts, could still defeat dozens of ordinary people with sheer physical strength.