After returning to the mountain and finishing dinner, Zhu Siqi ran straight to the pile of medicinal herbs he had washed early that morning.He chopped the herbs up, put them into the pot, and began boiling them. By the time he finished preparing the same amount as last time, night had already fallen. Still, he ran off once more into the primeval forest, planning to gather extra herbs so he could sell more on the next market day—money made things easier.
After gathering the herbs, he placed them by the stream again, planning to wash them the next morning, and only then returned to the mountain.Back in his room, he took out the newly bought textbooks and began reading by the light of an oil lamp.
He started with geography, the subject he was most interested in, then moved on to history, and finally mathematics. Completely absorbed, he lost all sense of time. When daylight finally streamed into his room, he realized that dawn had come—and he had already finished reading all three textbooks.
As for English, he merely flipped through it casually. Seeing that everything was familiar and understandable, he lost interest and didn't continue.
Having gone without sleep all night, he sat down on the bed and circulated the Yijin One-Source Technique through thirty-six full cycles. When he opened his eyes again, he felt refreshed and clear-headed. After washing the herbs and carrying them back up the mountain, he grabbed his schoolbag and headed down the mountain.
He reached school just as the bell for morning self-study rang. Since he had already finished yesterday's homework, Zhu Siqi felt a bit at loose ends. Listening to his classmates reciting texts or reading English aloud, he could naturally predict the very next sentence they would say—he even knew exactly which page they were on. To him, this was pure torment. It felt just like his martial arts training now—if his master asked him to practice horse stance or standing on wooden posts again, it would be utterly boring and completely unnecessary.
He needed to find something to do. Since he had already finished all the first-year textbooks, he might as well move on to second-year material. Curious about what new subjects were added in second year, he asked his deskmate Zhu Aiguo, but Zhu Aiguo wasn't sure. Students rarely wandered into other grades' classrooms, and even if someone nearby was in second year, he hadn't paid attention.
Zhu Siqi didn't want to rashly go up to the second floor to look at the second-year timetable—it might attract unwanted attention, which wasn't his intention. Why not use perception instead? Suddenly inspired, he thought: with this ability, why worry so much?
His perception instantly passed through the concrete ceiling into a second-year classroom. He sensed that their activities were similar—reciting texts, memorizing key points, or rushing to finish yesterday's homework. Near the blackboard at the front, he sensed a timetable posted on paper, but couldn't clearly make out its contents. Puzzled, he thought the distance couldn't be more than ten meters. Why was it unclear? Looking up, he immediately realized the problem—the concrete ceiling was blocking his perception.
With no other choice, he activated the Yijin One-Source Technique. Everything became crystal clear. Comparing it with his own class timetable, he learned that second year added physics and botany, while the rest of the subjects remained the same. After that, he wondered what subjects third year might add, and extended his perception to the third floor.
Although he could sense the third floor, it was clearly less distinct than the second. To perceive the timetable clearly, he had to focus intensely on its exact location. This made him realize that his master's explanation of perception range applied only when there were no obstructions. In the forest, he hadn't noticed this because the space was open. In buildings, however, perception range dropped significantly.
He discovered that third year added chemistry, biology, and politics, while botany was removed. With that knowledge, he decided that after school in the afternoon, he would first buy the second-year textbooks.
When class began, Zhu Siqi no longer needed to listen carefully, having already read all the material. He merely put on the appearance of attentive listening while circulating the Yijin One-Source Technique to observe classes on the second and third floors. He found it entertaining—after all, he had nothing else to do.
First, he checked Class One of Second Year directly above them. They were having Chinese class, also studying classical texts. Zhu Siqi was thoroughly familiar with this and quickly lost interest. He moved to the neighboring Class Two, which was having English. Aside from pronunciation, he understood everything. Moreover, their English teacher was middle-aged, likely self-taught, with very inaccurate pronunciation. Comparing it to his own teacher Wang Ying's pronunciation, Zhu Siqi could tell several sounds were wrong, so he lost interest again.
Next, he shifted his perception to the far western Third-Year Class Three. This time the sensation was even less clear—hazy and indistinct—because of the increased number of walls. He immediately redirected his perception upward to the third floor. In Third-Year Class One above him, he could sense the class quite clearly, but when he tried to move toward Class Two in the middle, clarity dropped again. It seemed that at his current level, his perception could only penetrate two to three walls at most.
Over the course of the day, Zhu Siqi spent most of his time exploring his perceptive ability. By day's end, he had a fairly accurate understanding of his actual limits. Without actively circulating his internal energy, he could only penetrate one wall. Even running his true energy at full speed, he could manage at most three walls. Each obstruction sharply reduced his perceptive range.
As school was about to end, Zhu Siqi noted down only the math homework and left. He went to the Xinhua Bookstore and bought all the upper and lower semester textbooks for second year in one go. As for reference books, he bought only math and physics practice guides, since they included answers he could use for self-testing—this way, he wouldn't alert the teachers at school.
Returning to the mountain, he chopped up the herbs he had washed that morning and began boiling them.By the time he finished making all the medicinal pills, it was nearly dark. He hurried to prepare dinner. After eating with his master, he told him about his experiments with perception that day.
"Master, today when I used my perceptive ability in the classroom, I discovered a problem. My perception weakens drastically after passing through walls. At my current level, I can only penetrate up to three walls. Without deliberately circulating my internal energy, I can only get through one."
"Oh?" Liaofan grew interested. He had previously tested Zhu Siqi's perception only in open areas and knew that with his current level, Zhu Siqi should be able to sense up to a hundred meters. He hadn't expected walls to reduce it so much.
"Tell me in detail about how you used your perception today."
Zhu Siqi explained everything from his initial idea of checking the timetable to the final results of his testing.
"It seems that the more obstructions there are, the smaller the perceptive range becomes. The fewer the obstructions, the larger the range—and with none at all, it's at its maximum. When I tested before, there were no obstructions."
"That makes sense," Liaofan said.
"This is only natural. There's no technique in the world that's perfect—every advantage has its drawback. This isn't a bad thing. After all, we practice the Yijin One-Source Technique not for the sake of passing through walls. As your internal strength increases level by level, I believe the number of walls you can penetrate will increase as well."
Liaofan didn't see it as a problem. The technique itself was a rare stroke of fortune. Being able to pass through walls at all was already remarkable, and in open spaces the range was vast.
"Master, I think from now on, whenever I have free time at school, I'll practice my perception in the classroom. After today's experiments, I feel my internal energy has grown noticeably stronger, and my control over true energy has improved."
"That's fine," Liaofan said, "but you must be especially careful not to let anyone notice. Perception and internal energy reinforce each other. Stronger perception strengthens internal energy, and stronger internal energy expands perception—and allows you to penetrate more walls."
Zhu Siqi felt delighted. This was perfect—when he had nothing to do at school, practicing this would both improve his abilities and pass the time.
Back in his room, he took out the second-year textbooks he had bought that day, starting again with geography. Second-year geography covered world geography, and the world beyond China was something Zhu Siqi had never encountered before. He found it fascinating to learn that there were so many countries, many with customs completely different from his own, and that nearly every country had its own language. He thought to himself that besides mastering English quickly, he should also learn other foreign languages—but the problem was that he could read, yet had no way to hear spoken language, which was a major obstacle.
After finishing both volumes of geography, fatigue set in. Having gone without sleep the previous night and having circulated internal energy all day, he was exhausted. He went to bed early.
The next morning, he brought the upper and lower volumes of second-year history textbooks to school, planning to read them during breaks. This wouldn't arouse suspicion—anyone could read history books, and others would likely think he was just reading stories about people and events. In an era with very few extracurricular books, history texts could easily pass as storybooks.
The first class was Chinese. By now, Zhu Siqi's understanding of classical Chinese surpassed even that of Teacher Dai on the podium. So he began attending to his own affairs.
He extended his perception to other classrooms. Just like the previous day, it could be blocked after three walls at most. He tried several directions with the same result, which left him a bit discouraged.
Drawing his perception back, he found the lesson content completely familiar. He thought he might as well take out the second-year history book to read. Just as his hand reached into his bag, a sudden thought struck him—if he could see other classes' timetables through walls, why not use perception to read books inside his desk?
Acting on the idea immediately, he focused his awareness. The distance was minimal, with only a thin wooden board in between—there was no need to circulate the Yijin One-Source Technique. With a single thought, his perception passed through the desk and entered the history book.