Study Demon Cultivation System

The experience bar faded away faintly, leaving behind a dazed Li Zheng.

He rubbed his eyes.

Had he studied too hard and messed up his brain?

Better go get checked at the hospital.

“*Ahem.*”

A soft cough shattered Li Zheng’s daydream.

Lin Yujing puffed her cheeks and poked the test paper with her pen.

“*Mhm.*”

Li Zheng let out a calm sigh.

A battle between experts—this was a chance not to be missed.

He’d go to the hospital after finishing the test.

He picked up his fountain pen and stretched it left and right.

The cap hit the desk; the nib unsheathed.

He fixed his gaze on Lin Yujing and nodded solemnly.

The corners of Lin Yujing’s mouth lifted slightly. After tightening the rubber band on her ponytail, she turned and began answering questions.

Li Zheng glanced at the wall clock.

It was 4:15 PM.

The standard exam time was 120 minutes. If the difficulty was moderate, he could finish within 80 minutes and use the remaining time to check his answers.

As for Lin Yujing, she usually handed in her test within 50 minutes, then vanished like a cat—only to reappear at the next exam like she’d caught a whiff of canned food.

The time she gave up was the only window of opportunity Li Zheng had.

He had to be absolutely rigorous and double-check everything if he wanted even a sliver of a chance.

Li Zheng lowered his pen to the desk, clearing his mind of all distractions.

Only one thought flashed through his mind—

Bring on the questions!

A stream of multiple-choice questions of varying lengths entered his view.

Those graceful, twisting questions soon washed away the shock of the system binding.

In just a moment, he entered a flow state, his thoughts crystal clear.

He was even reading the next question while writing down the answer to the current one.

This test paper was a handwritten photocopy—Hu Chunmei’s impromptu creation.

It was slightly easier than the monthly exam, and over 70% of the question types were similar.

Interestingly, Teacher Hu had just spent the entire class analyzing the monthly exam paper.

So, as long as you paid attention, even students who usually scored in the 80s could easily hit around 100 on this test.

It seemed Teacher Hu hadn’t assigned the test to make things difficult, but rather to reinforce knowledge—

And to encourage those who paid attention in class yet didn’t perform well.

Although Teacher Hu’s words could be abrasive, she hadn’t slacked off on anything that benefited students.

As the difficulty of the questions increased, Li Zheng gradually entered a state of self-forgetfulness.

Working on the test felt like white horses crossing a gap—it flew by.

Immersed in a sea of questions, time always passed in a blur.

Before he knew it, Li Zheng had finished.

But unlike past major exams, he didn’t feel tired at all.

Instead, his hand itched like crazy.

He even felt a bit unsatisfied.

Those seductive formulas had just started to tease him, and he had already dropped his pen?

How lame.

Unfulfilling.

Frustrating.

Worse still—there were three questions he couldn’t solve at all.

That meant, at best, he’d score 130.

This was the limit for an ordinary person.

Beyond 120, every extra point required exponential effort.

It was hard to imagine the level Lin Yujing operated in.

She must have finished already.

He couldn’t help but glance at Lin Yujing.

He saw her profile flushed, a fine sweat dampening her thin clothes.

Her pen tip danced at times; at others, she bit her lip in mild distress.

Li Zheng had never seen her so engrossed.

She was sweating.

He could almost feel the rhythm of her breath from afar.

A woman fully immersed in study was even sexier than he imagined.

Stop. He was drifting.

No distracting thoughts while studying.

Quick—stabilize your mindset.

『The gentleman says: One must never cease learning.』

『The color indigo is extracted from blue…』

『……』

After mentally reviewing Encouraging Learning twice, Li Zheng barely managed to steady himself.

Lin Yujing couldn’t possibly be slower than him.

She must have finished long ago and was now double-checking.

With that thought, Li Zheng sighed.

Now, even his only chance was gone. She wouldn’t even leave room for careless mistakes.

Verification-mode Lin Yujing—no one could surpass her.

She had killed off the final suspense of the competition.

Li Zheng glanced at the clock.

It was already 4:23 PM.

He had spent a full eight minutes on this set of problems.

Eight minutes…

Eight minutes?

Not even copying would be that fast!

Li Zheng couldn’t help but sneak a glance around at his classmates.

Most of them were still focused on the top-left corner of their papers—the multiple-choice section.

Liu Xin was impressive—his drool had already reached the calculation section.

He looked at Lin Yujing again.

A bit far—he needed to exert some effort.

He stared at her.

Hmm, she was working on the bottom-left corner—fill-in-the-blank questions.

Perhaps due to applying too much force, Lin Yujing suddenly arched her back and alertly looked behind her.

She met Li Zheng’s wide, bloodshot eyes.

“*Hmph hmph…*”

She sneered with disdain.

Then twisted her body to shield her test paper, no longer letting Li Zheng catch even the tiniest glimpse.

Li Zheng clearly saw the look of contempt for cheaters in her eyes.

What Lin Yujing didn’t know was that this single look had touched a man’s reverse scale.

Being regarded as a cheater was the greatest insult and a complete negation of Li Zheng.

He was furious.

Just because he wasn’t clever didn’t mean he lacked ambition.

He had only wanted to see how far she’d gotten—who the hell wanted her answers?

‘Damn it…’

Just this once.

He wanted to win.

Forget it—he had to hurry and check his answers.

Two minutes later—

He finished checking and corrected one mistake.

Checked again.

This time it took less than a minute, and he couldn’t find any errors.

As for those three tough problems—he still had no clue.

Right now, Li Zheng’s mind was entirely consumed by winning or losing; he had no time to wonder why he was working so quickly.

As things stood, he was steady for 130 points.

But Lin Yujing was gunning for a perfect 150 this time.

Thinking of her flashing that mocking, cheater-disdainful look after her win—

Li Zheng felt nauseated.

He pushed his brain into overdrive, tackling those three big questions.

In under two minutes, he had filled up a whole sheet of scratch paper.

However—“to think without learning is perilous.”

He hadn’t fully digested the knowledge points, and brute-forcing the answers was only leading him further astray.

Looking at the messy scrawl of his draft, Li Zheng realized—these 20 points couldn’t be earned through last-minute inspiration.

Was this the chasm between ordinary people and geniuses?

Li Zheng refused to accept it.

*Whoosh!*

He suddenly raised his hand.

Up front, Teacher Hu, who had been hunched over writing lesson plans, was startled by the sharp whoosh of air.

Seeing Li Zheng’s urgency, she quickly waved her hand.

“Go, go—don’t forget to bring tissue.”

But Li Zheng asked,

“Teacher Hu, I have a question I can’t solve. Can I open the book to look it up?”

“Of course,”

Teacher Hu nodded.

“Other students too—if you get stuck, you can look up formulas or homework. The point is to understand. But don’t expect to find the answers; I made these questions up on the spot.”

With permission granted, Li Zheng quickly flipped open his math textbook.

All the test points were in the textbook.

If he still couldn’t solve them, it only meant he hadn’t mastered the textbook thoroughly.

Those three questions he couldn’t solve—all geometry.

More specifically—spatial relationships, circles, and equations.

Li Zheng composed himself and earnestly began devouring the geometry section, word by word.

Formulas, examples—he skipped none.

Along the way, he reviewed all practice books and supplemental materials he could find.

It was far more exhausting than doing a test—it took him over 20 minutes.

When he set down the last workbook, he felt like the whole world had turned into geometric figures.

As for those three questions—

They were a joke.

In fact, while studying, those three problems had always lingered in his mind.

Every knowledge point was being tested against them.

By now, he had come up with three or four methods of solving them.

Facing geometry—his former weakness—he had never felt such clarity.

This, this was what you called learning!

In one minute, he confidently wrote out the derivations for the three tough questions.

Proof complete. Pen down.

Satisfying!

Li Zheng felt a liberating breakthrough from his bottleneck.

This high of learning—he had felt it before, but only fleetingly. Rare and hard to grasp.

But today, his thoughts had surged like a tsunami, crashing through the reefs of past knowledge.

Unknowingly, he now stood atop the cresting wave.

Was there a shore to this sea of learning?

He didn’t know.

He’d know once he crossed it.

Li Zheng lifted his test paper and laughed heartily.

“Hahaha!”

He forgot he was still in the classroom.

His classmates stared, stunned—feeling like Li Zheng was showing signs of demonization.