As for whether we might misjudge someone—what does it matter? Potential is always hard to gauge. Anyway, when you first join, everyone starts as an outer disciple. Only by meeting the standards can you become a regular disciple. Having one more outer disciple with potential isn’t a big deal.

“You’ll definitely be able to enter Lingyun Sect. I don’t know if I can; I’m still a bit short of reaching the First Vein Realm.” Olivia Harris shook her head and sighed, looking pitiful and endearing.

“It’s fine, you’re already doing great. Compared to those people, you’re much better.” The young man glanced at some people nearby with clear disdain, and didn’t even seem to look in Brian Clark’s direction.

Someone wanted to argue, but thinking about it, this young man did have the right, so they stayed silent.

“Everyone’s here, so let’s set off!” Not long after, Mike Clark appeared—a burly middle-aged man, his whole body of muscles seemed to roar one word—strength.

“Brian Clark, wake up, we’re leaving.” Emily woke Brian Clark up. Seeing the drool at the corner of Brian Clark’s mouth, she really wanted to kick him.

“Huh, we’re leaving? Is Mike Clark here?” Brian Clark woke up quickly, looked around, and spotted Mike Clark.

“Wipe your drool, you really slept soundly.” Emily said irritably, reminding Brian Clark to mind his image.

“I’m a bit sleepy. Oh, is that a floating ship? I can keep sleeping later.” Brian Clark looked ahead and saw a floating ship he’d always wanted to ride.

The floating ship is a type of life array device, and array devices are an application of formations. This involves a lot of formation knowledge that Brian Clark doesn’t understand. He only knows that this kind of floating ship is a rare thing, and he didn’t expect to ride one this time.

Soon, he understood why there was a floating ship.

“All you little brats, listen up! This is Senior Mr. Thompson from Butterfly Valley, just passing by. This floating ship belongs to Mr. Thompson. You all thank Mr. Thompson.” Mike Clark’s voice rang out, and beside him stood a rather unkempt middle-aged man, who looked older than Mike Clark.

“Thank you, Mr. Thompson!” The group of little brats from the village immediately shouted. Wasn’t Mike Clark’s meaning obvious? Get close to this Mr. Thompson; maybe you could get a backdoor into Butterfly Valley.

Butterfly Valley is a rather special sect among the four great sects, mainly focused on crafting array devices. The reason they have a floating ship is because of this.

Although this floating ship is a very low-level one—slow and not flying very high—it’s still a floating ship, not something ordinary people can own. To be precise, even a Yellow-rank power might not have one.

“Hey, Emily, if you can craft array devices, is it very profitable?” On the floating ship, Brian Clark spaced out for a long time before asking this question.

“Of course. Whether it’s life-type array devices or combat and defense types, as long as it’s an array device, someone will buy it. Special types depend on their effects. The most sought-after are weapons—array weapons, called array soldiers, are a must for martial artists. The higher your realm, the more you need a handy array soldier.” Emily replied, then immediately voiced a doubt—

“You’re not thinking of going to Butterfly Valley to learn this, are you?”

“Mm-hmm, this has a lot of money-making potential.” Brian Clark’s eyes sparkled, as if copper coins were reflected in them.

“You… better forget it. The most basic requirement for crafting array devices is understanding formations. Don’t even talk about understanding them—you can’t even read them.” Emily replied bluntly. No one is willing to teach someone a subject word by word, and no one has the energy for that.

Because Brian Clark is illiterate, he’s destined to be unable to achieve anything in these areas, unless someone could become his “book.”

As for Brian Clark’s illiteracy, she found it very puzzling. She knew Brian Clark’s memory was frighteningly good—he could remember anything after hearing it once. When she explained herbal guides to him before, the names and properties, he’d remember them after hearing them once, and could even grasp some of the properties and mix up some medicines himself.

Logically, with such memory, it should be impossible not to remember characters. Why couldn’t he? Even stranger, every time he looked at words, his mind would go blank, and if he looked too long, he’d get a headache.

And that’s why he can’t recognize a single character, but she just couldn’t figure out the reason!

Chapter 12: Everything Is Number (Part 1)

“Well… that seems to be the case… then I won’t go to Butterfly Valley.” Brian Clark thought for a moment and gave up on this lucrative path.

“Whether we go to Butterfly Valley or not depends. We’ll all try, and if Butterfly Valley accepts us, of course we’ll go.” Emily said.

“Mm… zzz…”

“……”

Emily noticed that after that “mm,” Brian Clark had actually fallen asleep again, hugging his beloved sword, lying on the deck, looking carefree and unconcerned, not worried at all about the upcoming trial. This was a life-changing opportunity, extremely important to anyone.

It had to be said, in terms of mindset, Brian Clark was the best. He didn’t care about gain or loss at all. Even if he missed this chance, he’d just go do something else.