Facing such a hostile attitude, Yu Anle pursed her lips.
She felt somewhat wronged.
Li Yunxian patted her hand, his emotions surprisingly steady.
She knew that this attitude was also a sign of seriousness and responsibility from the other side.
Maintaining a safe distance to avoid any chance of a sneak attack, they walked all the way to the Special Management Bureau located in Jin City West District.
Once inside, Li Yunxian and Yu Anle were separated and each taken to a small room that looked like an interrogation chamber.
Stepping into the room, Li Yunxian felt the flow of her spiritual power slow down considerably.
This room restricted spiritual energy.
However, it did not affect her divine sense at all.
Li Yunxian quietly observed the personnel of the Special Management Bureau, knowing well that they were watching her in return.
“You claim to be Xia Congyun’s daughter, do you have any proof?”
“From what we understand, her daughter is currently ranked first on the Qingteng List, and is undergoing specialized closed training at Tiantong Academy. Her cultivation level should be around Qi Refining Stage Five.”
Li Yunxian listened to these words, a mixture of truth and lies crafted to deceive, and had no intention of arguing with them.
She didn’t want to waste time haggling here.
Li Yunxian spoke straightforwardly.
“Since you already know I’m first on the Qingteng List, then you must have heard that I underwent a Heart Inquiry Test during the cultivator selection.”
“Even if others might have a golden Heart Inquiry, and it can’t fully prove it’s me, it at least shows I’m definitely not the enemy, right?”
“Let’s just proceed with the Heart Inquiry.”
The professional interrogators outside Li Yunxian’s small room instantly lost the initiative to her.
Moreover, they had to admit she made a valid point.
The scene fell silent for a moment, and no one bothered to argue further.
Soon, someone opened the door to Li Yunxian’s room.
They held the Heart Inquiry device in hand.
Li Yunxian cooperated fully with the test.
***
After the golden light appeared, she was released without delay.
Only then did Li Yunxian proceed with the normal identity registration process that a cultivator arriving in a new city should undergo.
The people in the Special Management Bureau looked at Li Yunxian with complicated expressions.
Before the Heart Inquiry test, no one trusted her identity.
Everyone knew that nine months ago, Li Yunxian had just reached Qi Refining Stage Two—barely breaking through.
Now Qi Refining Stage Six? How was that possible?
Even a genius like Shen Bofeng would take much longer to advance from Qi Refining Stage Two to Six.
Their first reaction was that these two aliens didn’t even try to pretend convincingly.
But… slap in the face.
Since her identity was confirmed, the question arose.
“How did you bypass the City Defense System and enter the city proper directly?” the Special Management Bureau personnel asked solemnly.
Li Yunxian answered candidly, “My teacher directly sent us over from Tiantong.”
Seeing the skeptical expressions of the Bureau staff, she added, “My teacher is at the Dividing Spirit Stage.”
The Special Management Bureau staff frowned and said firmly, “Even at Dividing Spirit Stage, it wouldn’t help. Jin City’s Defense System would still trigger an alert.”
Just as the words fell, the person suddenly thought of something, looked up at Li Yunxian, and abruptly asked, “Who is your teacher?”
“Li Tianying,” Li Yunxian replied.
The Special Management Bureau personnel twitched at the corner of their mouth.
Alright, nothing to worry about.
After all, the Jin City Defense System was created by Li Tianying.
They smoothly glossed over this matter and instead inquired about Li Yunxian’s companion.
“The one with you says he’s from the Wenwu Academy…”
Yu Anle was at Qi Refining Stage Nine.
They had to consider whether Li Yunxian, at Qi Refining Stage Six, might have been taken hostage by aliens.
Though the possibility was slim.
Li Yunxian nodded, “Yes, he came from Wenwu Academy to Tiantong for exchange, then I ‘kidnapped’ him to hang out.”
Hearing this brief but seemingly rich story, the Special Management Bureau personnel felt there was a juicy detail.
But Li Yunxian wasn’t willing to satisfy their curiosity.
She believed she had explained everything she needed to, and since the Bureau’s business was completed with her cooperation, it was now her turn to ask questions.
Li Yunxian said directly, “What’s happening with my mother’s side?”
Having confirmed her identity and being in the city, there was nothing she couldn’t ask.
In brief, Xia Congyun and her husband had been targeted by aliens.
After talking with Li Yunxian on the phone that day, Xia Congyun immediately prepared a banquet and invited many relatives and friends.
Since it was a banquet, all kinds of decorations—banners, flower baskets, balloons—were indispensable.
Xia Congyun didn’t know much about cultivators.
But as a businesswoman with extensive connections, she quickly found a cultivator through some networking without spending much time.
Her first question was, unsurprisingly, about which university her daughter attended.
She asked about the facilities and whether her daughter was suffering.
The cultivator called to the banquet looked utterly confused.
Across the regions, cultivator academies, except for the Four Great Academies, were named after provinces or cities, like X City Academy or X Province Academy.
There was no such thing as an “XX University.”
University was a school for ordinary people—an obvious distinction.
Could there have been a mix-up?
After a lengthy conversation of talking past each other, Xia Congyun finally realized it wasn’t “Sweet Cone University” but Tiantong Academy.
At that moment, Xia Congyun’s expression was rather disappointed.
After all, Sweet Cone University sounded like a place where students definitely had a good life.
The cultivator was equally bewildered.
At first, he didn’t believe that the child of such an ordinary woman could attend one of the Four Great Academies.
But the more they talked, the clearer it became that Xia Congyun barely knew anything about cultivators, only vaguely aware of their existence, and that it had nothing to do with her.
This wasn’t because cultivator information was closed off to ordinary people, but because Xia Congyun chose to focus her energy on the business she loved and worked hard at.
Within this context, the information in Xia Congyun’s words—that her daughter participated in the cultivator selection exam this year and was already in a cultivator school—was very significant.
The cultivator found the timing of Xia Congyun’s invitation unmistakable.
According to what he knew, the only freshmen allowed to enter the academy early at this time were those who participated in the Qingteng selection test.
Those going for the Qingteng selection were 100% from the Four Great Academies.
And among the Four Great Academies, there happened to be one academy whose name indeed sounded somewhat like “Sweet Cone”…
Jin City, in Yuehai Province, ranked among the top three cities.
Only about three people were allowed to participate in the selection test.
Regardless of whether they made it onto the Qingteng List, these were the geniuses among geniuses for ordinary cultivators.
And this woman’s daughter was one of them.
Holding the Invitation Letter Xia Congyun had slipped him at the banquet, the cultivator walked out with a drifting step.
Later, when facing his friends, without being asked to keep anything confidential, he shared his complicated and emotional discovery.
“After all, Xia Congyun openly bragged at the banquet about how amazing her daughter is. No normal person would think there’s any need for secrecy.”
Unsurprisingly, the cultivator community in Jin City exploded.
“What?! Jin City has another student from the Four Great Academies?!”
“Still someone who passed the Qingteng selection?”
“Is this for real?”
Someone contacted students who had participated in the selection in the capital city and then…
Qingteng List First Place—Li Yunxian.
From their Yuehai Province.
No one else with the same name.
No room for mistakes.
This was the person they had been talking about.
Now, not only was it the cultivator circle in Jin City that was buzzing, but the entire city was in an uproar.
First place on the Qingteng List belonged to their Jin City!
To their Jin City!