Inside the jade box, he found four neatly arranged spirit jades, each the size of an adult’s thumb and perfectly square. Spirit jade is the truly indispensable treasure for cultivation. The universally used jade currency in the world is made from various leftover fragments collected during the search for spirit jade. For example, in a massive jade mine, there might be only a single piece of spirit jade, while the rest is made into jade currency or some expensive, luxurious decorations. Spirit jade itself is the most precious thing.

A single piece of low-grade spirit jade, about the size of an adult’s thumb, costs one hundred jade coins. Ten pieces of low-grade spirit jade can be exchanged for one piece of mid-grade spirit jade, and one hundred pieces of mid-grade spirit jade can be exchanged for one piece of high-grade spirit jade. As for supreme-grade spirit jade, that’s the stuff of legends—there’s simply no way to exchange it with ordinary jade coins.

And inside his own box, there were ten pieces of mid-grade spirit jade. James Carter, excited, reached out to take them, but as soon as he touched them, they all shattered.

What?

James Carter suddenly thought of something. The second time he tried to open the video window in his sea of consciousness, those surges of heat seemed to come from here. Could it be...

Damn, ten pieces of mid-grade spirit jade could barely support it for a few seconds, and during those few seconds, it seemed that besides the ten pieces of mid-grade spirit jade, there was also power from the box itself. The first time, he had been able to comprehend inside for a full quarter of an hour—could that have been the power brought over when he transmigrated? Otherwise, how much spirit jade would it take to be enough!

James Carter could hardly imagine it, but at the same time, he was a bit excited. At least he finally knew how to open that video now, even though it still felt a bit terrifying at the moment.

Inside this box, besides those ten pieces of mid-grade spirit jade, James Carter also found a jade tablet. This jade tablet wasn’t a spirit jade for cultivation, but a memory jade tablet for storing information. This should be the mysterious cultivation technique that John Carter mentioned, obtained from the ruins of a powerful dynasty that was suddenly destroyed ten thousand years ago, but which he himself couldn’t cultivate. Unfortunately, the original James Carter, upon hearing it was a cultivation technique, had always kept it on him but never opened it. Otherwise, if he had known there were ten pieces of mid-grade spirit jade inside, with his personality, he probably would have squandered them all long ago.

Chapter 7: The Use of Fools

James Carter thought for a long while, but in the end, he still resisted the urge to cultivate immediately. Some things just can’t be rushed. He decided to continue learning what he needed to know first, and then find an opportunity to check out what this cultivation technique actually was—besides, this wasn’t a suitable place for cultivation.

With that in mind, James Carter carefully put away the memory jade tablet, and also cleaned up the shattered jade box and the fragments of the ten pieces of mid-grade spirit jade. Then James Carter continued what he was doing before: reading, and more reading.

James Carter was now reading faster and faster. Some books had similarities, and he could skim through them with just a glance.

...

In the Ren family’s grand mansion in the bustling area of Jade Capital City, in front of a wooden house at the center of a unique patch of primeval forest.

“The Library Pavilion—you’re saying he’s been inside the Library Pavilion for eleven hours and is still in there?” Sixth Master Charles Carter, who was personally weaving a few cute little animals out of grass, paused again, looking at Grace Bennett in disbelief.

Grace Bennett nodded firmly and said, “I was surprised when I first found out too. I even went over myself to secretly check, and watched for a whole hour. The family head really was reading in the Library Pavilion.”

“What books has he been reading? Bring them here and let me take a look.” Sixth Master Charles Carter himself could hardly believe it. He could understand if the kid had learned to act shamelessly—maybe he’d been suppressed for too long and finally couldn’t stand those three old guys and had an outburst. But reading? That was impossible. This kid had always gotten sleepy as soon as he picked up a book.

Because of this, he’d been disciplined a lot as a child, but no matter how he was punished, as soon as he started reading, he’d fall asleep—even if someone stood over him with a stick, he still couldn’t keep his eyes open.

“Well...” Grace Bennett said awkwardly, “Sixth Master, I’m afraid that’s a bit inconvenient.”

“You’re saying he’s still reading, right? Then just wait until he’s done and bring them over.” Sixth Master Charles Carter thought Grace Bennett meant that James Carter still had the books in his room and it wasn’t convenient to bring them over right away.

“That’s not the reason,” Grace Bennett said with a wry smile. “It’s just that the family head has read so many books—if we were to bring them all, there are already nearly two hundred, and the number is still increasing.”

“Two hundred books?” Sixth Master Charles Carter thought he must have misheard, or that Grace Bennett had reported the wrong number.

“There really are two hundred books, and the number is still going up,” Grace Bennett quickly confirmed, then added, “The family head flips through them extremely quickly, barely pausing on each one. If so much time hadn’t passed, I’d hardly believe he was actually reading.”

Reading hundreds of books in such a short time—what’s the use of that? At a certain level, one can use spiritual sense to quickly record some things, and if the level is high enough, even grasp everything at a glance. But James Carter was only at the Body Refining stage—how could he possibly do that?

Could he be looking for something?

“All right, bring me the list of all the books he’s read, and also bring over the first dozen or so he looked at,” Sixth Master Charles Carter thought for a moment and instructed Grace Bennett to do it right away.

Not long after, Sixth Master Charles Carter looked at a list filled with book titles. After reading it, he casually picked up a few books from the table.