Evan Carter felt that if one was going to select for talent, then it couldn’t really be called “education for all without discrimination.” This Brian Cooper girl’s level of education was rather worrying.

But reason kept him from exposing this; he asked, “What do you mean?”

“For example, in two months it will be the ‘Shangling Exam.’ All citizens of the Southern Xia Dynasty can participate,” Brian Cooper said. “Whether you’re a Confucian scholar, a warrior, a cultivator, or a Buddhist practitioner—anyone who passes the annual Shangling Exam can enter the ‘Shangling Academy’ in Shuzhou. In the academy, countless renowned teachers give lectures. Whatever you wish to learn, you can certainly achieve something. Besides Shangling Academy, there are several other academies, which are a bit less prestigious, but still good.”

After she finished speaking, she looked Evan Carter up and down from head to toe, talking as she walked farther ahead: “But, little beggar, I see your scrawny frame can’t handle martial arts, and you clearly have no scholarly background, so I’m afraid—no chance!”

Evan Carter felt a bit stung, but he silently made a note of this “Shangling Exam.”

After returning to the village, Brian Cooper and her group conveyed the young lady’s intentions to the villagers, and said they would safely escort them to Ning’an Prefecture, a more prosperous place a hundred miles away.

The villagers were naturally moved to tears, expressing their gratitude repeatedly, and immediately began packing up, abandoning all heavy belongings and keeping only valuables, which they loaded onto carts pulled by skinny mules or donkeys.

The girls from Phoenix Mountain Manor didn’t mind their poverty, and helped out busily.

Evan Carter stayed in his own thatched hut, which was empty and really had nothing to pack, so he simply stared at the roof, silently reciting the cultivation formulas he had memorized, so as not to forget them in the future.

He didn’t know how much time had passed when footsteps sounded outside the door—it was that auntie.

The auntie held a black wooden box and said at the door, “Young hero, years ago your master entrusted this to my family for safekeeping, saying it was to be left for you.”

Evan Carter took it, a bit stiffly saying, “Thank you.”

The auntie looked him over a few times and said, “I didn’t expect that, once you’re cleaned up, you’re actually quite handsome.”

Evan Carter’s language system was insufficient to respond to that.

He looked at the box in his hands, thinking that since this body had a master, he should figure things out, so he asked, “Why did my master... leave me here?”

The auntie sighed and said, “How would we know what immortals are thinking? If you meet him in the future, just ask him yourself.”

He was afraid that even if he met him, he wouldn’t recognize him.

Or perhaps that cheap master would recognize him, but he wouldn’t recognize the master.

He could only say again, “I don’t remember what he looks like.”

“I do remember, more or less,” the auntie’s face showed admiration. “He was very young, wore white clothes, and was extremely handsome.”

That was as good as saying nothing, since cultivators often liked to wear white, and young men in white were usually handsome.

Evan Carter chose to continue asking, “What’s his name?”

“That I don’t know,” the auntie said. “How could people like us casually know an immortal’s name?”

Evan Carter: “Thank you.”

After saying this, his language reserves were completely exhausted, and he fell silent. The atmosphere suddenly became awkward.

Fortunately, the auntie waved her hand. “I have to go pack up, I’ll be off now.”

Evan Carter breathed a sigh of relief and opened the box.

There were two things inside.

First was a smoky green jade huang, very small, exquisitely translucent. When he held it in his hand, a cool sensation immediately spread from his palm to his limbs—it was a very spiritual piece of jade.

The carving on the jade huang was quite ingenious: a vividly lifelike little dragon, one part of its body coiled to form a small hole, through which a thin black cord was threaded.

Evan Carter thought for a moment, then picked up the thin black cord and hung the jade huang around his neck.

No matter what the origin of this jade huang was, its material was good. And good spiritual jade could nourish the body and benefit the meridians. Though the effect wasn’t great, it was better than nothing.

The second item’s material was indiscernible—neither quite jade nor gold. It was shaped like a cylinder, with auspicious and festive patterns painted on it.

Evan Carter picked it up and shook it, and sure enough, he heard a sound.

He hoped that inside was a peerless martial arts manual left by his master for his disciple, so that after learning it, he could cleanse his marrow and transform from a nobody into a genius.

It was a beautiful wish, but he didn’t know if it was true, because he couldn’t open it.

The cylinder was extremely hard, couldn’t be broken by dropping, and had no seams anywhere, leaving him with no way to open it.

Evan Carter reverently put it away, believing that it must contain a peerless manual, and believing that one day he would be able to open it.

Half a day later, everything was packed and ready. A dozen mules and donkeys pulled the carts as the group set off in grand fashion.

Henry Thompson and Samuel Thompson each drove a donkey, while Evan Carter was assigned to the cart pulled by these two donkeys. All his belongings consisted of a single precious, possibly world-shaking-manual-containing or possibly just-a-scrap-of-paper, Schrödinger’s cylinder.

Evan Carter inexplicably sensed a hint of ominousness from this Schrödinger’s cylinder—probably because modern physics always seemed to bring him misfortune.