Two days remained until the immortal seeking grand exam.
Cuiming Pavilion closed its doors, and Yun Heng gained yet another witness.
A certain demon immortal was still cultivating.
One day remained until the immortal seeking grand exam.
Yun Heng spent the entire day helping with farmwork at Xiao Hei’s house. He enjoyed a hearty dinner and even bought a small dress for Jiang Keke.
A certain demon immortal was still cultivating.
The day of the immortal seeking grand exam.
A certain demon immortal was still cultivating.
“Sigh, this is so boring. My hands are itching; I’m dying for a fight.”
Jiang Keke sprawled lazily in the chair beside Yun Heng, her face the very picture of misery.
Three days ago, after Yun Heng had apprehended the cultivator named Master Fang, Jiang Keke had expected to trade blows with the local underworld forces to see whose fists were harder.
Instead, nothing happened. Two days ago, when they went to seize the manager of Cuiming Pavilion, Wan’er, Jiang Keke thought the woman would resist.
However, upon seeing that Master Fang had been captured, the woman had immediately spilled everything regarding the local branch of the Heavenly Way Academy.
She had sobbed so hard her nose ran, and by the end, she had even lost control of her bladder. It was truly pathetic.
By her count, nearly one week had passed. The only physical labor she had performed, aside from carrying luggage, was helping that waiter with his farmwork… It was too boring!
“Don’t be in such a hurry. I’ll let you fight to your heart’s content in a few days,” Yun Heng said, glancing at his violent little book boy with a mysterious smile.
“Really?!” Jiang Keke’s eyes lit up instantly.
Actually, she didn’t particularly like fighting, but being around Yun Heng always created a strange, inexplicable pressure.
How could she describe it? It was as if no matter the problem, it would be solved the moment it was handed to him… Jiang Keke didn’t like that feeling; it made her seem useless.
Moreover, the feeling of having nothing to do was tedious, and Jiang Keke hated it.
If it weren’t for the fact that the money from selling the storage bags was only enough to buy one-tenth of a new storage bag, she would have considered just selling the bag and going back to carrying Yun Heng’s luggage.
“…I have a general understanding of the situation now.”
At that moment, a red-haired female cultivator wearing glasses approached Yun Heng. She bowed slightly, her tone cold and sharp.
“Young master Yun, please leave the rest to our academy. I, Du Ruolan, will represent the Heavenly Way Academy and provide an explanation to everyone under heaven.”
Du Ruolan, the Dean of the Array Department at the Heavenly Way Academy, was in the Late Crossing Calamity stage.
If Yun Heng remembered correctly, she was more than 4,000 years old.
‘She’s so young…’
“I’ll have to trouble Elder Du then,” Yun Heng said with a smile. “However, if it’s just a punishment, I fear it won’t be long before countless more ‘Mochou villages’ are born.”
Du Ruolan froze.
She had just finished reviewing all the intelligence Yun Heng had gathered and was currently fuming, wishing she could tear everyone in the Kingdom of Zhao branch into a thousand pieces. However, Yun Heng’s reminder managed to cool her head slightly.
“What do you mean…?”
“To eradicate the root, I believe we can take four steps.” Yun Heng pulled out a draft of a plan he had prepared in advance and handed it over. “Please have a look, Elder Du.”
Du Ruolan took it and read through it seriously. Her brows slowly unfurled, and the rage on her face gradually turned into a bitter smile.
Looking at Yun Heng again, Du Ruolan said helplessly, “Little Yun, you really are… Fine, we’ll do as you say.”
Being called “Little Yun” sent a shiver down Yun Heng’s spine, and he felt as though his goosebumps were rattling on the floor.
“Oh, are you shy?” Du Ruolan laughed and flicked Yun Heng’s forehead. “I even held you when you were a baby!”
“Uh… that was too long ago. I really don’t remember,” Yun Heng replied with a sheepish grin.
“Was it that long?” Du Ruolan rolled her eyes and thought for a moment.
“Hasn’t it only been over a dozen years? It’s just a blink of an eye. Not just you, I even held your father and your grandfather when they were little.”
Yun Heng didn’t know how to respond and could only manage a silly, awkward laugh.
“Speaking of which, have you decided when you’re going back? When the three great families had dinner a few days ago, that girl Su Zhenxue asked about you. Your father managed to stall her and didn’t mention your cultivation, but dragging this engagement out forever isn’t the solution.”
Immediately, Du Ruolan began to fuss over her junior’s love life like a nagging elder.
“I’m not trying to lecture you, Little Yun, but even if you’ve been personally handpicked by Elder Lan and can enter the academy without any requirements, never cultivating really isn’t an option…”
“Besides, that girl Zhenxue is almost at the Deity Transformation stage. As her fiancé, for you to be like this…”
Yun Heng couldn’t take it anymore. While offering vague “mm-hmms” and “ah-hahs,” he cast a pleading look toward his little book boy.
However, Jiang Keke turned a blind eye to his plight. Feigning ignorance, she focused intently on cracking melon seeds, muttering to herself, “Sigh, I have to say, this blue sky really is quite blue…”
***
At 5:45 PM, the first round of the immortal seeking grand exam concluded.
Today’s subjects were arrays and talismans. There were two more rounds over the next two days, consisting of sword-riding, beast-taming, alchemy, temperament, Daoist discourse, and deduction.
There was no actual combat.
Aside from Du Ruolan, several other invigilators had arrived from the main headquarters.
After learning about the events in Mochou village and what Yun Heng intended to do, their reactions were identical to Du Ruolan’s.
At the very least, Yun Heng couldn’t see any sign of collusion between these teachers from the headquarters and the local branch.
Yun Heng was quite satisfied with this.
After all, until the moment of his death in his past life, nothing major had happened to the Heavenly Way Academy, which was excellent.
At 7:15 PM, by the banks of Mochou Lake.
The twilight fell like a heavy cloth, slowly covering the world.
Unusually, the lake’s surface did not reflect the stars or the moon. Its depths held a desolate, silent dark blue.
Thousands of people gathered in the open space by the lake. Torches and lighting artifacts illuminated the surroundings as bright as day.
The crowd was clearly divided. In the front were cultivators dressed in the official robes of the Heavenly Way Academy and the Kingdom of Zhao, their expressions solemn.
In the middle were the prominent families of Mochou village and the bewildered commoners.
In the rear were various cultivators who had come to observe the exam, whispering among themselves, unsure of what was happening.
Du Ruolan stood atop a temporary high platform, her red hair fluttering slightly in the night wind.
Her pressure as a Late Crossing Calamity cultivator was restrained but sufficient to silence the entire field. Her voice spread clearly to every corner through an amplification array.
“I have gathered you all here today not to celebrate the immortal seeking grand exam, but to settle a public case that has spanned a thousand years — a case of siphoning the spiritual rhythm of this land and defiling the names of our ancient sages.”
Before she could even finish, a massive uproar broke out below.
“Silence!”
Du Ruolan’s gaze was like lightning as it swept through the crowd, finally landing on Master Fang and Wan’er, who were bound by artifacts and slumped at the side of the platform. “Bring out the witnesses.”
Yun Heng gave Jiang Keke a light nudge.
The little book boy took a deep breath and clenched her fists. ‘Finally, some real work!’ she thought. Puffing out her chest, she escorted the deathly pale Master Fang and the trembling Wan’er to the front of the platform.
At the same time, several law enforcement disciples from the academy laid out a stack of account books and jade slips recovered from the secret room of the Jiutian Academy and the hidden compartments of Cuiming Pavilion.
“These two are the gatekeepers of a thousand-year-old lie.”
Du Ruolan pointed a slender finger, and the text within the account books and jade slips was projected into mid-air.
“Since records began a thousand years ago, over ninety-nine percent of the gentle primal qi gathered by the ‘Spirit Tide’ of Mochou Lake every three years has not nourished this village.”
“Instead, it has been channeled through specific array nodes and sent directly to the local branch of the Heavenly Way Academy. Now, I shall read the list of beneficiaries — “
She turned a page, revealing the names provided by Wan’er: core disciples of the branch throughout the generations and various officials of the Kingdom of Zhao.
“…Seventy-two generations of branch leaders, 361 core disciples, twelve Imperial Teachers of the Zhao Dynasty, and sixty-seven corrupt officials… Their names are like a nightmare, seared into the spiritual pivot of heaven and earth.”
Below the stage, the representatives of the named families turned pale. Some tried to retort, but they became as silent as cicadas in winter under Du Ruolan’s icy glare.
“The so-called ‘exam fairness’ and ‘protection of the ancient sages’ were nothing more than fig leaves for an internal distribution of spoils within an interest group.”
The various deans of the Heavenly Way Academy, led by Du Ruolan, bowed in unison. “This is our negligence; we beg for your forgiveness.”
The whispers below the stage gradually turned into angry roars. This was especially true for the students from humble backgrounds who had studied hard for years only to fail repeatedly; their eyes were now bloodshot with rage.
But Yun Heng knew this wasn’t enough.
The sins of the present could not resolve the hatred of a millennium.
“Everyone, please look at the center of the lake.”
Du Ruolan turned toward the eerily calm Mochou Lake. She held her fingers together like a sword and sliced through the air. A streak of deep purple spiritual light shot from her fingertips and plunged into the water.
It wasn’t an attack, but a “key,” a detonator.
The lake water began to ripple — not from the wind, but from a low-frequency hum vibrating deep beneath the surface.
Immediately afterward, the water at the center of the lake was pushed aside as if by an invisible hand, slowly parting to reveal a passage leading into the dark depths.
At the end of the passage, the portal of a simple stone room sealed by an array was faintly visible — it was precisely the “cave dwelling ruins” left behind by the Mochou groom that the waiter had mentioned.
“This is the location of the Mochou groom’s true research manuscripts and the backup of the array core. It is also one of the original array eyes of the ‘purifying spirit and transforming malice’ formation that was tampered with.”
Then, Du Ruolan and two other Array Department invigilators who had rushed over struck simultaneously. Three massive and precise streams of spiritual energy were poured into the ancient seal at the entrance of the passage.
The seal flickered for a moment before letting out a soft sound that resembled a sigh and slowly opening.
The scene inside the stone room was projected into the air via a recording array Yun Heng had set up earlier.
It wasn’t some treasure vault; there was only a stone desk, a pile of animal hide scrolls covered in complex array patterns and arduous deduction processes, and several simple jade bottles containing samples of “primal qi” with different properties.
Du Ruolan used her power to flip open the hide scrolls and project them into the sky.
The handwriting was messy but forceful, recording the final despair and enlightenment of the Mochou groom:
[…Wrong! These are not malicious energies, but ‘Primal Chaos Source Core Fragments’ left over from the creation of heaven and earth. They are violent yet contain infinite vitality.
Attempting to purify them by force is futile; we should guide and diversify them to nourish all things… However, the Headmaster fears they are ‘uncontrollable’ and covets their power for rapid progress…
They actually wish to use me as a lock and the array as a furnace to refine the source core for private use… Where the Dao lies, I shall go, though ten million oppose me!
But if this array is completed, it will not be for the people, but a cage… If successors see this, they must break these shackles…]
The projection was silent, yet it was more deafening than any shout.
In the face of the original manuscripts and the tampered array foundations, the thousand-year lie was shattered completely.
The hero’s epic was, in reality, a funeral dirge for a man of ambition strangled by a conspiracy.
The lakeshore fell into a deathly silence. Many people covered their mouths, yet tears streamed uncontrollably from their eyes.