After the excitement, a series of thoughts flashed through Brian Carter's mind. His first goal after being reborn was not to urgently embark on the path of defying fate, but to give his parents a satisfactory answer sheet a few months later, to make up for the greatest regret of his previous life. However, he later realized he had completely forgotten all his previous knowledge, and with his current state, it was simply impossible to achieve his goal within a few months if he had to start learning from scratch, so he chose to begin cultivation first.

But he really hadn't expected that after getting started, that strange thought would suddenly appear in his mind. The first time the thought appeared, he was resistant, hostile, and confused. But after thinking it over for a while, considering that his bizarre rebirth might be related to this thought, Brian Carter no longer felt hostile toward it. Now, just two days later, he actually felt a bit nostalgic for that thought.

Although that thing wanted him to hunt others when it appeared, he could indeed restrain his urge to kill. And last time, he gained such benefits even without killing, so as long as he wasn't going against his conscience, Brian Carter really couldn't say anything bad about it. As long as he could resist the thought's forceful manipulation and subtle temptation, its appearance was actually a good thing for him.

However, in the past two days, while he was absorbing the Fenghua Pill, that thought hadn't appeared again.

"Forget it, I'll leave it for now. Time to go back to class."

After thinking for a moment, Brian Carter took out his phone to check the time. It was five in the morning. For ordinary people, this was the sweetest time for sleep, but as a senior high school student, he wasn't so lucky. The morning self-study at Yanhe County No. 1 High School was from six to seven, but morning exercises started at 5:40. For senior students, they usually arrived at the classroom for early reading half an hour before morning exercises. At school, this was about the time everyone should be getting up.

Composing himself, Brian Carter quickly left the hotel and headed to school. The walk was peaceful; he didn't rush, just walked at a steady pace. After more than twenty minutes, he arrived at the teaching building of No. 1 High School, which was already brightly lit.

In the classroom of Senior Three, Class Five, it was almost full as well. The room was packed with boys and girls, each sitting at their desks. Some were reading their textbooks aloud, while others were dozing off, propping up their books to cover their faces and sneak in a nap. The homeroom teacher, David Miller, was also sitting at the podium, reading a book.

This time, Brian Carter didn't bother to report in and just walked straight into the classroom. As he entered, the figure at the podium cast his gaze on Brian Carter, staring at him for a long moment before David Miller silently withdrew his gaze.

"Damn, Old Carter, you really had a good time, huh? Where did you go these past two days? You disappeared Tuesday night, and it's been two days and two nights now." When Brian Carter returned to his seat, taking advantage of the noisy early reading, Eric Sullivan lay on his desk, looking at Brian Carter with a speechless expression.

Brian Carter smiled without answering, and instead suddenly grabbed the test paper that had been pressed under his books and started looking at it.

"Haha, that's the mock exam paper. I scored several dozen points more than you, bro." Seeing Brian Carter's action, Eric Sullivan snickered while lying on his desk.

Brian Carter picked up the test paper to look it over. The Chinese test was out of 150, and Brian Carter scored 72, with the essay accounting for 40 points.

The math test was also out of 150, and Brian Carter got 49 points.

English was a bit better, almost passing, with 88 points—a pretty good number. But Brian Carter vaguely remembered that he had copied this one, and this test was also the easiest to cheat on.

For the liberal arts comprehensive, out of 300 points, he also did terribly, scoring 153. All together, out of a total of 750 points, he scored 362, and that was with the help of cheating; otherwise, his real English level would probably only be fifty or sixty at best.

This was the first mock exam after the Spring Festival, and compared to his final exam before the holiday, his results were about the same—no real progress, but no big setback either. Of course, with grades like this, there wasn't much room to fall anyway.

"I scored over 400, total 407, haha." While Brian Carter looked at his test paper helplessly, Eric Sullivan burst out laughing, clearly delighted to have crossed the 400-point mark.

"No worries, I'll beat you next time." Rubbing his forehead helplessly, Brian Carter smiled at Eric Sullivan.

These grades were terrible, so bad they were unbearable to look at, but precisely because they couldn't get any worse, he still had a lot of room for improvement.

"Tch, yeah right. Just a couple days ago you said you were going to study hard, and then you skipped class for so long. You still think you can beat me? I don't buy it, bro." Eric Sullivan laughed again, giving Brian Carter a mocking look.

Chapter 10: One Day and One Night

"Ring ring ring~"

Another day passed in a flash. When the bell rang for the end of evening self-study, the classroom was once again filled with the quiet sounds of laughter and chatter. Many students stood up to talk or left as soon as the bell rang.

At the back row of the classroom, Brian Carter closed his textbook and stood up.

"Old Carter, damn, you really studied all day? Aren't you tired?"