Chapter 24: The Black Sheep

Translator: Sparrow Translations  Editor: Sparrow Translations

Ling Yun remained oblivious to Mr. Wu while he raged ferociously like a mad bull in a bullfight. He was pondering deeply over something special, something pertaining to both his family and his life. Are there any cultivators in this world?

Ling Yun had a better understanding of cultivation than anyone else. He was very confident that the <Tao Te Ching> written by Lao Zi was the scripture of true cultivation.

Ling Yun scoffed at those rookie explanations about how the world comprehended philosophies in history textbooks. The twisted content failed to bring about justices for <Tao Te Ching>.

But then again, the amount of spiritual energy present here is so scarce. How does one even cultivate oneself in this sh*t *ss world?

Dissatisfied, Ling Yun suddenly recalled the Shichiyou Herb he had discovered the night before. He also had recollections of his Yang Heel Meridian being maimed right after his birth into this world. Crisis! Ling Yun became conscious of the perilous situation he was in. The urgent desire to practice and enhance his own abilities had never been so strong.

In the Cultivation World, the mortals from different countries had no idea about the existence of the cultivators. As such, we cannot deny their presence. They just may not have been discovered yet. For now, I’ll need to stay lowkey till I have gained adequate abilities to protect myself.

Ling Yun was determined to get his hands on the remaining scriptures, but the history textbooks only consisted of a few lines from Lao Zi’s <Tao Te Ching>. As a result, he was crestfallen.

Everyone’s eyes turned to the last man standing, who was still deep in thought. His facial expression changed with his emotions; from bemused to ecstasy, then from perturbed to adamant.

Mr. Wu saw that Ling Yun was still oblivious to his surroundings and he became enraged. It was as if the volcano inside him was going to erupt. He felt that Ling Yun was disrespecting him.

In this school, almost every history teacher carried this stern and solemn semblance. It was probably due to their perception of history as something in the past that could no longer be modified. Mr. Wu was the best representative of this stereotype.

He detested Ling Yun to the core for his flippant attitude, as well as his nescience towards school and classroom disciplines. In addition to that, Ling Yun always started work at the eleventh hour and left the majority of his history examination papers undone, achieving only that few pathetic marks.

Up till now, Ling Yun was still standing up and Mr. Wu’s emotional volcano was on the brink of eruption. “Ling Yun, if you think that just because I’m not your form teacher, there’s nothing I can do to you, then you are utterly wrong! The year-end examinations are coming up and I will not allow any black sheeps in my class to hinder others’ progress! Get out now! Immediately!” Mr. Wu’s tongue-lashing reproof drew Ling Yun out of his captivation.

He looked up, furrowed his eyebrows and returned a demeaning look at Mr. Wu, “Me? A black sheep? Since when did I become one?”

The other students burst into laughter upon hearing that question by Ling Yun.

“Is playing truant not against the school rules? You have been doing that so often! It will affect your classmates’ learning!” Mr. Wu exclaimed in an offended tone.

“Do you even respect me as your teacher? Look at yourself today! When all your classmates stood up to greet me, you were still sitting down. But when they took their seats, you chose to stand up instead. How do you expect your classmates to learn efficiently with you disrupting my lessons like this?” Mr. Wu saw red as he stared unforgivingly at him. He had no intention of hiding his disgust and ignorance for Ling Yun.

At the side, Cao Shanshan was secretly overjoyed that Ling Yun was finally receiving his karma for his misdeed to her that noon. However, her heart stung a little subconsciously as she was concerned that Ling Yun would be chased out by Mr. Wu.

Zhang Ling, on the other hand, cast her eyes on Ling Yun with anticipation. She was expecting someone as gutsy as Ling Yun, who had disgraced the Little Gambling God and displeased Cao Shanshan, to come up with a splendid reply.

Wei Tiangan, the leader of Hostel 305, only dared to look at Ling Yun from the corner of his eyes after all that happened the night before. Didn’t you try to be arrogant? Why did you stop? So what if you can fight when your academics results can’t get you anywhere? Wei Tiangan was tickled by his own thoughts.

As for Chai Hanlin, he was on pins and needles. He was delighted that Ling Yun came to class voluntarily. At the same time, he knew intuitively that Ling Yun actually had no intention of disrupting the class.

These judgemental perceptions did not get the better of Ling Yun. He patiently waited for the legendary Mr. Wu to finish ranting. “Mr. Wu, I’m not going to deny the fact that I often played truancy. The thing is, if I’m not present in school, how would I even affect my classmates’ studies?” he retorted with a smirk on his face.

“And for what happened just now, I’m really sorry. I was focused on memorizing the textbook and got distracted from what was going on in class”.

As predicted, his face did not show any sense of remorse during his apology.

The class cracked up as they could not believe their ears. Ling Yun was memorizing his textbook? That can’t be! That will only happen when pigs fly!

Even Mr. Wu, who was fuming just moments ago, could not contain his laughter and let out a chuckle.

The class was giggling profusely and Mr. Wu was not an exception. He raised his hands to signal to the students to cool down and stop laughing. The waterfall of guffaw came to an end before Mr. Wu sneered at Ling Yun, “Do you know why your classmates burst out in laughter?”

“Nope,” Ling Yun replied, despite knowing the obvious.

“Ling Yun, you said you were memorizing the textbook, right?” Mr. Wu asked. He thought he had something on Ling Yun. He was waiting for the chance to humiliate Ling Yun so that he would not dare to disrupt his lessons again.

“Yes, Mr. Wu”.

“Which paragraph did you memorize? What were the main points?” Mr. Wu probed further as he perceived that Ling Yun was just trying to get away with his earlier mistake.

“Sorry, sir. I don’t know which are the main points and which are not, but I memorized everything I read,” Ling Yu gave an honest reply.

This was followed by another wave of laughter from the students as they started to support Ling Yun’s seemingly intentional joke.

Zhang Ling did her best to repress her laughter. She glared at Ling Yun. She was wondering whether he knew that Mr. Wu was playing a trick on him.

Cao Shanshan was worried sick for Ling Yun. She did not understand the reason for this chap’s silly actions. It was not difficult to discern that this was a trap set up by Mr. Wu for him to jump into.

She hoped to see Ling Yun get taught a lesson, but subconsciously, she did not want his humiliation to happen in public. No one else but her could bully Ling Yun. Cao Shanshan herself did not know when she started to have such care and concern for him.

Mr. Wu could not believe how foolish he was to fall into his trap. He giggled uncontrollably, “You memorized everything you read? How much have you read then?” He questioned the ‘black sheep’ calmly as he was afraid that he would accidentally reveal the trick he had in mind. His plan would succeed once Ling Yun admitted he only memorized one short sentence in the book.

“I started reading from topic one of chapter one for about a good ten minutes or so. I read very slowly, before reaching the paragraphs about the philosophers from Qin Dynasty.” Ling Yun was not lying. If he used divine sense to memorize the content, it would be done in less than a minute.

“Ohhh… Not bad, not bad! So how much did you actually remember?”

“I have obviously remembered everything that I have memorized, or else why would I have read it?” Ling Yun uttered with disbelief at his teacher’s redundant question.

The way Ling Yun looked at Mr. Wu made him feel uneasy. Did he find out about my plan? I doubt he is intelligent enough to do so.

Meanwhile, Cao Shanshan became more uptight after she cast her sight on Ling Yun, only to see him frown. Stupid fool, it’s already too late to find out about Mr. Wu’s trap.

Silence filled the classroom as the students waited eagerly for either Ling Yun’s reply or the moment he would fall agonizingly into Mr. Wu’s trap of humiliation.

Zhang Dong raised his head up and stared at Mr. Wu before frantically nudging Ling Yun’s thigh with his right arm. His motive was clear. He was trying to convey the message to Ling Yun that he should admit it if he had not actually memorized it. There was really no point in allowing Mr. Wu to make a fool out of him. There would be no way of turning back after this.

“Everything, sir. I remember everything,” Ling Yun was deep in thought before answering.

Mr. Wu was relieved that Ling Yun did not spoil his plan. However, he was taken aback by Ling Yun’s rather confident response. He was so appalled that his eyeballs would have rolled out if not for his gold-colored spectacles preventing them.

How? How is it possible to memorize everything? Everyone was flabbergasted. They had predicted all other possible replies but not this. Ling Yun must be crazy! Never have I seen someone blow someone else’s horn so outrageously before!

The students gloated at Ling Yun, sparing him their different views on him. Some found him ridiculous, while others found him arrogant and disgusting.

Cao Shanshan was enraged! From today onwards, I will have nothing to do with you anymore, idiot! She could not bring herself to believe how foolish Ling Yun was.

On the contrary, Zhang Ling glimpsed at Ling Yun with relish despite not knowing the reasons for his answers. However, from her observance of him today, she was confident that he must have had something up his sleeves to come up with such daring responses for Mr. Wu.

She might not have believed that Ling Yun memorized everything he read, but she still waited in anticipation for how the retaliation was going to unfold.