Li Yunxian found this Su Professor utterly baffling.
And it really had nothing to do with her.
Li Yunxian shifted her attention to the people from the Special Administration Bureau who had just arrived.
Liu Chen, sobbing uncontrollably, clung to the leg of one of the Special Administration Bureau officers: “Shun-ge, that professor from Tiantong, as soon as he arrived, ruined my Spiritual Root.”
“He didn’t even wait for a hearing before acting against me, you have to stand up for me!”
Before the Special Administration Bureau officers could react, the others in the room grew displeased at Liu Chen’s words.
They weren’t afraid of him and said bluntly, “Anyone who sides with the Hunters should be executed on the spot according to regulations.”
The Special Administration Bureau officer looked at the chaotic scene, feeling a headache coming on.
Li Yunxian watched as the officer didn’t shake off Liu Chen, who was still clinging to his leg. She realized the officer must know about Liu Chen’s family background.
At the very least, even he couldn’t afford to offend Liu Chen’s family.
But with the crowd’s anger mounting, even the officer couldn’t withstand the pressure.
At last, he said dryly to Liu Chen, “They’re the Xueshi’s university inspection team, and they have law enforcement authority during their patrol.”
Besides, the most powerful person in the Liu family was only at the Foundation Establishment Stage—how could they possibly fight a Golden Core True Person?
Liu Chen understood this logic all too well. He knew exactly what it meant to rely on power to bully others.
So, after falling into despair, Liu Chen stared at Li Yunxian with eyes full of intense hatred.
He couldn’t deal with a Golden Core True Person, but couldn’t he handle Li Yunxian, who was only at the entry level of Qi Refining?
Li Yunxian raised her eyebrows, her hand itching to draw her Spirit Sword.
But in this world, she still had to abide by the law.
Li Yunxian could only watch regretfully as Liu Chen and his two companions were taken away by the Special Administration Bureau.
With the matter settled, the Testing Center resumed operations.
Everyone still remembered that Li Yunxian had saved them, so they enthusiastically pushed her to the front of the line for testing.
The staff at the Testing Center were also very proactive, and soon the results were out.
[Lingli] 2 points (Qi Refining entry level)
[Innate Talent] B-
[Spiritual Root] Jinmu Dual Spiritual Roots, Mortal Bone
Li Yunxian held the report, looking puzzled as she asked the staff at the Testing Center, “What does this mean, exactly?”
The staff member hesitated, seeming to choose his words carefully before finally offering Li Yunxian a suggestion, “Li, maybe you should contact that True Person and become her student.”
She understood.
In other words, the results weren’t that great.
Hearing this, the others curiously craned their necks to look.
Li Yunxian, being generous, handed over her results for everyone to see and asked, “With these results, which school could I get into?”
After reading them, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Seeing the staff member’s reaction earlier, they’d thought Li Yunxian’s results were terrible.
“Qi Refining entry level is about 50 points, B- Innate Talent is 110, dual Spiritual Roots are pretty good and count for 150, but Mortal Bone gets no bonus. That’s a total of 310 aptitude points.”
“If your academic score can reach above 90, then except for the Four Great Academies, you’d have a shot at most Xianxue.”
Since there was a chance, it meant it was still pretty difficult.
Others sighed in regret, “If only the Xiuzhe Exam gave bonus points for martial prowess.”
Li Yunxian, with her sword skills able to kill someone at the Qi Refinement Fifth Layer, would definitely be able to secure a spot at the Four Great Academies if that counted.
But another group present didn’t seem to mind, “B- Innate Talent makes reaching Foundation Establishment pretty tough.
The Four Great Academies require Foundation Establishment to graduate, but ordinary academies only require Qi Refinement Fifth Layer…”
Li Yunxian quietly listened to their chattering, collecting useful information from their words.
For example, that Xianxue are divided into three tiers: the Four Great Academies, ordinary, and municipal.
The Four Great Academies require a score above 550, ordinary ones above 400, and municipal ones above 200.
Also, Xianxue don’t have grade levels—once you reach a certain cultivation, you can graduate.
And she picked up bits and pieces about how the scores for each value are calculated.
Li Yunxian evaluated herself mentally.
In terms of Lingli, after a medicinal bath and supplementing with elixirs, reaching Qi Refining First Layer shouldn’t be a problem, which would net her another fifty points.
The academic test is out of 150. Based on her current mock exam results, she could get at least 120.
The Innate Talent test uses blood, so it likely tests bone and blood. After a second medicinal bath, her Innate Talent grade might increase again.
Whether she could get into the Four Great Academies would depend on how much she could improve.
Li Yunxian went home, finished dinner, and quickly logged into the game.
The merchant she had been in contact with soon messaged her.
“You’re logging in a bit late today,” the merchant greeted casually.
Li Yunxian glanced at the merchant, not responding to his small talk.
Most of these merchants also sold information on the side—Li Yunxian wasn’t about to let her own information leak.
“Did you gather everything?” Li Yunxian chose to get straight to the point.
The merchant paused, surprised at how tight-lipped Li Yunxian was.
Most young people would be more embarrassed and answer whatever was asked.
Fishing for information was just part of a merchant’s job—if you got something, great, if not, it didn’t matter.
And in the merchant’s eyes, Li Yunxian wasn’t that important.
If it weren’t for Changguang looking for a young woman with no cultivation in the past few days, the merchant wouldn’t have even bothered with a greeting.
“Got most of it, but there’s only half the Blood Cinnabar. This stuff doesn’t drop from the foreign races, you have to get it from the Western Valley. Normally, nobody buys it,” the merchant said.
Merchants often worked together, so Li Yunxian wasn’t surprised he’d gathered everything so quickly. “Alright, let’s meet at the old place in the west corner.”
At the meeting spot, money in one hand, goods in the other.
Li Yunxian looked at her remaining 53 game coins and couldn’t help but feel the pain.
The merchant, noticing her expression, figured Li Yunxian probably wasn’t the person Changguang was looking for.
After all, Changguang’s intel said that young boss had made about 2,000 coins and wouldn’t be heartbroken over 160.
Still, the merchant asked Li Yunxian, “Miss, why are you always buying all this random stuff? Doesn’t look like weapon materials.”
Li Yunxian put away the materials, this time answering offhandedly.
“Drawing.”
Who said Drawing Talismans wasn’t drawing?
The answer left the merchant momentarily stunned.
These days, there were even people drawing in Ten Thousand Things.
Well, it made sense—using foreign race materials for art in real life was too expensive, but in Ten Thousand Things, it was cheap.
As for what kind of art needed foreign race materials… best not to ask.
The merchant gave Li Yunxian a thumbs up, admiringly, “No wonder you’re an artist!”
Li Yunxian:
She felt like she’d just been insulted.
Back in her little room, Li Yunxian finally began to absorb Lingli.
The spiritual energy density in Ten Thousand Things wasn’t even close to reality. In less than a minute, Li Yunxian had filled her Lingli to the max.
But she could only reach the full Lingli of Qi Refining entry level.
Truly, whatever level you had in reality, that’s all you got in the game—no more, no less.
With this amount of Lingli… might as well draw Flash Thunder Talismans.
They looked the most impressive.
She processed the materials, drew talismans with empty Lingli, absorbed Lingli, and continued drawing.
Li Yunxian was calm and focused, stacking one talisman after another beside her like they were printed.
It wasn’t until her logout notification popped up that Li Yunxian finally emerged from her state of immersion.
She felt completely refreshed.
It had been a long time since she’d pushed her Lingli to its limits like this.
She felt as if the meridians in her body had become much smoother.
Looking at the seventy-plus talismans beside her, Li Yunxian couldn’t help but sigh.
This game called Ten Thousand Things was just too realistic.
Previously, none of these items existed in the game, but as long as something could be made in reality, it could appear in the game.
Compared to the games she knew, woven from code, this felt more like those secret realms she’d experienced.
Thinking this, Li Yunxian logged out again.
Meanwhile, Sheng Yu, still camping at the trading market:
Other members of Changguang Guild patted Sheng Yu on the shoulder, “Forget it, the guild war is tomorrow. We still have more than thirty bottles of potion left, enough for emergencies. Let’s wait until after the guild war.”
Hearing this, Sheng Yu’s eyelid twitched, but she didn’t reply.
She’d spent all day at the market searching for someone, and it wasn’t just for the guild.
***
When she got home, she told her family about the potion.
Her family was shocked and immediately had their researchers enter Ten Thousand Things to test the two types of potions Sheng Yu had.
The combination of these potions produced a unique substance structure—a new research direction.
Since that boss could accurately describe the effects of the medicine, they probably knew the underlying principles of this substance structure.
The Sheng Family wanted to collaborate in research.
And Sheng Yu swore, plenty of people in her guild had the same idea.
Thirty bottles of potion left in the guild?
No, there weren’t any left.
Sheng Yu glanced at the market, at the “enthusiastic and helpful” members of her guild, and forced a smile.
She was sure there wasn’t a single bottle left in the guild.
Everyone was just like her—they’d definitely used them up for private research.
The members of Changguang Guild, noticing Sheng Yu’s gaze:
They looked at the sky, at the ground—anywhere but at Sheng Yu.
Help! It’s not like they wanted to! Their families forced them!
And their attempts at searching for the person were just for show!
Whenever they saw a “suspicious person,” they’d call Sheng Yu over to confirm!
Sheng Yu rolled her eyes at these people, then slumped her shoulders in resignation, “Let’s focus on the guild war first.”
Even if they found the person, they’d still have to talk.
Her Sheng Family was just a small clan, and the boss might not even want to cooperate with them.
The rest of Changguang Guild felt the same.
Thinking of how the boss had vanished without a trace, with no information to be found in the whole city, Sheng Yu had already decided that the boss didn’t want to cooperate with them.
So really, it was just the pot calling the kettle black.
Completely unaware of the commotion she’d caused online, when Li Yunxian went to school the next day, she only heard that Liu Chen had come to complete his withdrawal paperwork.
Standing in the corridor, Li Yunxian caught a glimpse of Liu Chen’s family leaving in the distance.
She didn’t know what they’d said, but suddenly, a middle-aged man looked up, his face dark and vicious as he stared at Li Yunxian.
That middle-aged man was at Foundation Establishment Stage.
His identity was obvious.
Liu Chen’s uncle.
The teacher frowned, shooing the excited, gossiping students back into the classroom.
But when he got to Li Yunxian, the teacher paused and quietly asked her, “I heard from Liu Chen that you’ve become a cultivator?”
Li Yunxian nodded, “Mm, just started.”
“Then you’re going to take the Xiuzhe Exam?” the teacher asked.
Li Yunxian nodded again.
Seeing that Li Yunxian still hadn’t realized the gravity of the situation, the teacher sighed and decided to make things clear.
“There are only two people at Foundation Establishment Stage in all of Jincheng. If you’re going to take the Xiuzhe Exam… you should probably go somewhere else.”
The teacher recalled the angry voice from the principal’s office earlier, a cultivator’s fury.
He suggested, “Your student record is still in the regular class. Your family has connections in other cities, right? If you want to transfer your records, it can still be done.”
Li Yunxian felt warmed by the suggestion, but she still shook her head.
If Liu Chen’s uncle really wanted to go after her, the school and teachers who helped her would definitely be implicated.
Although the teachers were willing to give her this advice, they must have already prepared themselves for the consequences.
But when Li Yunxian decided to beat up Liu Chen, she’d also resolved to take full responsibility for her actions.
Besides…
Li Yunxian stated, “Teacher, I plan to keep practicing swordsmanship.”
“To walk the path of the sword, I must never retreat.”
“If I run away, I won’t be able to achieve my Dao.”
The teacher didn’t quite understand the connection to being a cultivator, but he could hear the unshakable determination in Li Yunxian’s words.
After a moment of silence, the teacher decided to try persuading her again, based on his own values.
“Liu Chen’s uncle’s child doesn’t have any cultivation talent. In his family, only Liu Chen can cultivate, and he’s said to have A- Innate Talent.”
“Liu Chen’s original surname was Yang, but he changed it to Liu because of this.”
“Though he’s called a nephew, in reality, that man basically treats Liu Chen as his own son.”
Li Yunxian wasn’t too bothered by the fact that after dealing with the younger one, now came the elder. In the world of cultivation, she’d had this kind of experience far too many times when she was weak.
But everyone kept calling him “Liu Chen’s uncle, Liu Chen’s uncle”…
“By the way, what’s Liu Chen’s uncle’s name, Teacher?” Li Yunxian asked, puzzled.
It was as if he was some taboo that couldn’t be mentioned.
Hearing Li Yunxian’s completely off-topic question, the teacher could only sigh helplessly.
“Liu Wu.”
“His name is Liu Wu.”