In Sumeru, pretend to be a scholar

Wang Yan tidied up the bowls and chopsticks, put them back into the food box, and then placed the food box outside the tent as Ke Lai had instructed.

Wang Yan intended to read a little longer, but the drowsiness after eating was too intense, and he couldn't resist. He climbed into his tent, opened the blankets, and fell asleep immediately.

...

On the other side.

Cole jogged back to his cabin, slightly out of breath, with beads of sweat on his forehead.

Tinari was waiting in front of her cottage, his serene figure outlined by the moonlight.

"Catch your breath first, no rush," Tina's gentle voice rang out, carrying his usual composure.

Cole obediently stopped, took a few deep breaths, and waited for the rise and fall of his chest to subside before wiping his forehead with his hand.

Seeing that she had calmed down, Tina Li finally spoke: "How did it go, Mr. Wang Yan? Did you manage to find him?"

"Phew... I found out, Master Tinari."

Ke Lai nodded, recalling Wang Yan's long string of words, and a trace of confusion reappeared in her clear eyes.

"What Mr. Wang Yan said... was very profound... He talked about building a 'cognitive framework,' 'extracting and classifying professional vocabulary,' 'comprehension through example sentences,' 'deconstructing word roots and affixes,' and also about 'high-frequency repetition' and 'contextual understanding.'"

She tried her best to repeat the unfamiliar terms.

Finally, a hint of embarrassment and shyness appeared: "I didn't quite understand the specific instructions."

Tinari didn't seem to care about Kolei's shyness. He thoughtfully stroked his chin, and the tip of his tail twitched slightly. "It sounds like an academic system methodology... It doesn't seem to be entirely self-taught... Hmm, could it be some kind of family tradition from Liyue?"

Because Liyue people occasionally pass through the tunnels in Daocheng Forest, the Tinari are somewhat familiar with Liyue.

Besides the public academies, Tinari also knows that Liyue has many inherited families, each with its own unique system of inheritance.

This guy named Wang Yan can't produce a graduation certificate from the academy, but he can still come up with a systematic learning plan...

After a moment's thought, Tina looked at Cole: "Didn't that guy Alheisen give you some relics before? You can go and ask him about them tomorrow."

Ke Lai blinked her big eyes: "Master, didn't you say he wasn't a bad person?"

If they're not a bad person, why would you test them?

Tina glared at her irritably: "Idiot, didn't Amir say before that this Wang Yan might know the traveler? Since he might be a friend of the traveler and wants to enter the Faith Academy, let's see if he has any real skills."

"Oh, oh." Cole's eyes lit up. "If he really has the skills, then Master, you can be his recommender."

Tinari nodded: "I won't recommend him. I'm not good with words and languages. But I can recommend other scholars to him. However, if they are not capable, even if I recommend them, they will not be able to join the Council of the Church. After all... not everyone is Paimon."

Tinari was speechless at El-Hysen's recommendation of Paimon to join the Indoctrination school.

After all, from any perspective, Paimon did not meet the requirements of the Papal Court.

Fortunately, Paimon was still a novice who wasn't even a [Tiriyas], otherwise, the Church Council would have been plunged into darkness again.

“Alright, it’s getting late, you should get some rest too,” Tinari said to Cole.

Cole nodded: "Yes, Master Tinari!"

Tina nodded and turned to leave.

As Cole watched, he thought to himself: Master Tinari says he doesn't care, but he's still trying to find a solution...

If Tina Li really didn't care, why would she spend so much effort paying attention to a stranger?

...

The next day.

Wang Yan woke up from his sleep.

It has to be said that within the range of human activity, sleeping is more comfortable than in the wild. Even when he is in the wild, Amir and Iraz are there to watch over him.

Stretching, Wang Yan sat up from the covers. A ray of sunlight shone warmly on his face through the gaps in the tent.

Besides the sunlight, shouts could be heard coming from outside the tent.

Wang Yan peeked out and took a look, discovering that it was a group of young people in green forest patrol uniforms training.

Some were running, some were doing strength training, and some were practicing archery.

It looks quite lively.

"What, you want to train too?"

A cold voice came from the side. Wang Yan turned his head and saw Tinali standing by his tent, looking at him indifferently.

"Ahem, sorry, I just woke up." Wang Yan chuckled and then crawled out of the tent. "Good morning, Tinali."

“…It’s getting late. In two hours, it will be lunchtime.” Tina’s voice seemed to carry a hint of sarcasm. “It’s a pity that Cole brought you breakfast early this morning, but you were still asleep.”

Early this morning, Cole brought breakfast and the belongings given to him by Elhesen to find Wang Yan, only to discover that he was still asleep.

Cole was a good child and couldn't bear to disturb them, so she obediently put down her breakfast and went home.

Wang Yan only then realized that the food box he left behind last night had disappeared, replaced by a new food box.

A hint of embarrassment flashed across Wang Yan's face, but he still managed to save face by saying, "I was probably just too tired yesterday."

"Heh, an ancient script researcher can't keep up with this kind of stamina," Tinari chuckled. "Those who study ancient scripts inevitably have to go to ruins; otherwise, they can only stay at home waiting for others to finish their research... They won't produce any results, and their papers will just be duplicates of others' work... Tsk..."

His final soft 'tsk' was perhaps a thought of one of his junior classmates.

Chapter 9: Tinari's Advice

"Ahem, Tinari, what can I do for you?"

Seeing that the topic had gone astray, Wang Yan quickly changed the subject and brought it back on track.

Tinali regained his composure and said, "I mainly came to check on the rangers' patrols."

After a pause, Tinari continued, "Thank you for your guidance to Cole yesterday as well."

Wang Yan quickly waved his hand: "No need to thank me, no need to thank me. Ke Lai prepared a meal for me, so it's only right that I repay her in kind..."

Unfortunately, Wang Yan's politeness did not satisfy Tina Li.

With a slight twitch of his large ears, Tinali interrupted Wang Yan, saying, "Wang Yan, this is Sumeru, a land of wisdom. The Sumerians are well aware of the value of knowledge."

“If you think that a systematic education is as valuable as a meal of curry rice, then you will find it very difficult to join the Clergy.”

"Huh?" Wang Yan was taken aback, his expression somewhat embarrassed.

In Wang Yan's view, he was just being polite and never expected Tinali to have such a big reaction.

Tina Li didn't seem to care about Wang Yan's embarrassment and continued, "In Sumeru, although King Little Auspicious Grass promotes education and provides everyone with a path to learning, knowledge is not worthless. In fact, to belittle the knowledge one possesses is to belittle oneself..."

After a pause, Tinari pointed at Wang Yan and said, "Even if you are from Liyue and have the humility of Liyue, I suggest that when it comes to professional knowledge, you should show the confidence of a scholar."

Wang Yan looked at him and suddenly realized that Tina was giving him pointers on how to become a scholar in the eyes of the Sumerians.

“…I understand, thank you, Tinari. I accept your gratitude. If Cole needs anything else, I’m happy to continue to offer assistance, of course, for a fee,” Wang Yan said with a smile.

A hint of a smile flashed in Tina's eyes.

Compared to Ke Lai, Wang Yan is much smarter; he understands things immediately.

He didn't know whether Wang Yan's identity as a scholar of ancient writing was genuine or not, nor did he care.

But since Wang Yan did indeed teach Ke Lai some useful things, he naturally had to repay Wang Yan with something useful to Wang Yan in return.

For example: What kind of person is more like a scholar in the eyes of the Sumerians?

"Heh, as a token of my gratitude, here you go. Also, Cole has some relics that were given to her by an intellectual scholar. There are some ancient characters on them. If you can decipher them, I can recommend you to that scholar. It should help you join the Order of the Church."

Tinali spoke directly, then handed a thick book to Wang Yan.

His probing was never clandestine, but always open and aboveboard.

Even if Wang Yan could see through this test, he would not refuse it, because he had already made the benefits public.

"What is this?" Wang Yan asked curiously, examining the book in his hand.

This book is as thick as a fist; it doesn't look simple at all.

“Characters, strokes, stripes, the essence of language—I think you’re a paleographer, and this introductory book to epistemology should be very suitable for you,” Tinari explained.

Wang Yan looked at the thick book in his hand, opened it, and glanced at it.

The essence of language is a symbol encoding system created by life. It has the function of carrying information and also possesses humanistic attributes, making it an indispensable ladder for the progress and development of civilization.

"Is this an introductory book?" Wang Yan asked, puzzled.

Normally, shouldn't introductory books on language and writing teach pronunciation and literacy?

Why does the opening sentence start with a definition and explanation of language?

“So it’s an introductory book for the epistemological school, not from the Church.” Tinari gave a sly smile. “I can’t exactly give you the children’s textbooks, can I?”

Wang Yan's lips twitched. He really wanted to say that he did need teaching materials for the children right now.

However, after thinking about it, Wang Yan held back.

"Alright, now that the gift has been delivered, I won't bother you any longer. Hmm... you should have breakfast first."

Tina pointed at the food box by the tent, seemingly disgusted by Wang Yan's habit of not getting up early, and then swung her big tail as she walked toward the training ground.

Wang Yan glanced at Tina's retreating figure, then at the food box, wanting to explain that he wasn't actually being lazy; he was just quite tired after a long day of running around yesterday.

But in the end, Wang Yan was unable to utter the words.

"Well... things have come to this, let's eat first."

The breakfasts made by Clyde are something that many of Clyde's chefs can't even get to eat!

Breakfast was simple: a bowl of porridge and two pies. The spices were very strong, probably a local specialty.

After quickly ending the battle, Wang Yan glanced at Tinali and several forest rangers training in the distance, picked up his food box, and turned to walk into Huacheng Guo.

To be honest, Wang Yan also wanted to train and learn some martial arts skills.

However... in Teyvat's case, the physical strength that humans can improve through training alone is unlikely to match various supernatural powers.

In addition, Wang Yan felt that she might not be able to withstand the arduous training.

and so…

“Runes and languages ​​are also a way to obtain extraordinary power…this is my method.”

...

Unlike in the game, the real Huacheng Guo is not a big city, but it is home to several thousand people.

Upon entering Huacheng, Wang Yan discovered that the map in his mind did not match up at all.

I had no choice but to swallow my pride and ask someone on the street.

Fortunately, as a disciple of Tina, Corleone had a considerable reputation in Huacheng Guo.

Wang Yan quickly found out the location of her house. Following the directions, he walked through the wooden plank road of Huacheng Guo and arrived at a small house built against a giant tree.

Some medicinal herbs were drying on the woven fence. Wang Yan didn't recognize what they were; they were probably native to the rainforest, but they didn't appear in the game.

Ke Lai was busy in front of the medicinal herbs, turning them over by hand.

Hearing footsteps, she turned around abruptly and saw Wang Yan. She quickly put down the herbs and turned around: "Mr. Wang Yan? How did you find your way here?"

Wang Yan shook the empty food box he was carrying: "Return the food box. Also, Tina said you have some relics that need to be appraised?"

Tinali did not say that; it was Wang Yan who took the initiative.

Cole was taken aback, then quickly nodded: "Yes, His Excellency Elhesen gave me some relics before, saying that Mr. Kavi brought them home."

Wang Yan understood.

He said, "That guy Al-Hysen doesn't seem like the type to give Cole a gift."

It turns out that Kavi took it home. I guess Alhesen thought it was unsightly or inconvenient to keep at home, so he gave it to Cole.

"Wait a moment, I'll go get it right away." Cole hurriedly ran into the cabin.

In fact, she had already taken the items out, and even took them to Wang Yan's tent in the morning. Unfortunately, Wang Yan was not awake, so she brought the items back.

A short while later, Cole came out of the house carrying several tan-colored items.

She placed the items in front of Wang Yan.

"That's all. I heard from His Excellency Elhesen that these were all brought back by Mr. Kavi during his exploration of the ruins; they're all from the desert."