Of course, Henry Clark would never be so shallow as to tell the truth, like saying the headmaster wanted to take me as a godson but I didn’t agree—saying that would only make James Thompson look down on him.

“Heh heh? What do you think?” Henry Clark replied ambiguously, putting on an air of superiority.

The expressions of Samuel Wright and the others became even more complicated. In his view, James Thompson probably wouldn’t take someone as useless as Henry Clark as a godson. But looking at Henry Clark’s expression, it was really hard to tell—so he decided to keep observing, and it would be best to ask godfather Charles Baker for clarification. Once it was certain that the headmaster didn’t value Henry Clark, it wouldn’t be too late to deal with him.

After that, Henry Clark got along peacefully with Samuel Wright and the others in the dormitory.

Henry Clark began to think about how to maximize his grades in the coming months—there were only six months left.

The education system in this world was far more advanced and reasonable than that of ancient China. The graduation exam at the Eunuch Academy was divided into five subjects: Martial Arts, National Studies, Mathematics, Miscellaneous Studies, and Horsemanship.

The total score for all five subjects was 500: Martial Arts 150 points, National Studies 150 points, Mathematics 100 points, Miscellaneous Studies 50 points, Horsemanship 50 points.

For Miscellaneous Studies, you could choose from nine electives, such as Alchemy, Agriculture, Law, and so on.

In last year’s exam, Henry Clark scored 30 in National Studies, 10 in Mathematics, and zero in everything else. His grades were truly abysmal, utterly hopeless.

To win first place in the final exam, you needed at least 460 points. In six months, Henry Clark had to go from 40 points to 460 points—an almost impossible task, but at this point, he had no choice but to give it his all.

Henry Clark estimated to himself that, since he was a top university student from modern Earth, Mathematics shouldn’t be a problem for him—getting full marks wouldn’t be hard.

National Studies shouldn’t be a big issue either. Although he majored in Philosophy at university, he hadn’t neglected National Studies. The National Studies in this world might be different, but the fundamentals were the same, since this world was identical to Earth before the Eastern Han dynasty, and the foundation of National Studies was still the Four Books and Five Classics. So as long as Henry Clark reviewed a bit, he should be able to get a decent score.

Horsemanship was difficult, but with intensive training, he could still improve. Six months might not be enough, but getting a passing score shouldn’t be too hard.

So for Henry Clark, the subjects he most needed to improve were Martial Arts and Miscellaneous Studies—these two would determine his fate.

For Miscellaneous Studies, he chose Alchemy, which was very popular and highly competitive. Both Martial Arts and Alchemy were incredibly profound, starting from the basics and progressing to advanced levels. Others had studied for four and a half years, but Henry Clark had to start from scratch.

Not to mention, the basic books for Martial Arts and Alchemy alone were several thick volumes, totaling hundreds of thousands of words—all of which had to be memorized by heart and fully understood before practical application.

The basic theory of Martial Arts consisted of four books, introducing the body’s meridians, acupoints, qi flow, and the fundamentals of mysterious energy.

Alchemy was even more complicated—not only did it include pharmacology, but also alchemy itself. Just the materials on crystals, minerals, herbs, and beasts filled five thick volumes.

There were only six months left until the graduation exam. Under normal circumstances, Henry Clark wouldn’t even be able to memorize the basic theories of these two subjects. Without mastering the theory, it was impossible to begin practical training.

And in the graduation exam, both Martial Arts and Alchemy had no written test—they were entirely practical.

So, he could only hope for a miracle.

……

The first step for Henry Clark was to memorize the four basic theory books of Martial Arts!

The first book he tackled was “Meridians and Acupoints,” totaling 80,000 words, 300 illustrations, and over 500 pages—a true start from zero.

Henry Clark spent two hours skimming through it from start to finish, and for a transmigrator like him, it was incredibly obscure. If he had studied medicine before crossing over, it might have been easier, but now it was like reading a book from heaven.

With no other choice, Henry Clark could only force himself to memorize it. But after a full ten hours, he had memorized less than thirty pages—his head was about to explode.

And the further he went, the harder it became. He even forgot the earlier parts after memorizing the later ones, because to him, the content was completely without pattern.

At this rate, it would take a month or two just to finish this book—by then, it would be far too late.

Chapter 9: Genius, a Flying Genius

It’s all the fault of this world’s Henry Clark—for the past four and a half years, you’ve been sleepwalking every day, leaving me to start from scratch now.

That night, when Samuel Wright and the others returned to the dorm and saw Henry Clark memorizing books, they thought it was far too late to cram at this point. Samuel Wright gave a cold smile. Although he didn’t mock him out loud, Henry Clark could tell his attitude had clearly cooled, because he had already asked godfather Charles Baker and learned that James Thompson hadn’t shown any special regard for Henry Clark.

Of course, Samuel Wright would keep observing. Once he concluded that James Thompson didn’t care about Henry Clark at all, the bullying would double. Eunuchs tended to be narrow-minded—this morning, Samuel Wright smiling at and even trying to please Henry Clark was a huge humiliation for him.

After dinner, Henry Clark persisted in studying for another three hours, but his memorization progress was extremely slow, and he had already forgotten a quarter of what he’d previously memorized.

With this kind of learning efficiency, it was truly abysmal. If things continued like this, the books wouldn’t be finished before the graduation exam began.