As the illusion realm dissipated and Wei Yuan's consciousness returned, he found the Martial Test Hall in total pandemonium. Some candidates were weeping, some were laughing, and others lay paralyzed on the ground, trembling as damp patches spread beneath them.
Amidst the commotion, a girl's voice suddenly rang out nearby. Crisp, sweet, and gentle, it sounded delightfully pleasant: "You bastard on the pig, I'll fight you to the—"
Wei Yuan stole a glance and saw a girl in a goose-yellow dress not far away. Like a doll carved from clear crystal, she was flawlessly beautiful. She seemed to have just regained consciousness and leaped up from her seat. But upon realizing that the eyes of all the surrounding examinees were fixed on her, she instantly fell quiet. Her small face even betrayed a look of panic and lingering fear, stirring a pang of sympathy in anyone who looked upon her.
Wei Yuan naturally remembered this girl—she was the Azure Team's commander in the north, who had taken his spear strike head-on. Later, when Wei Yuan realized she was not dead, he had gone over to thrust his spear into her again to finish the job.
Seeing her on the verge of tears now, Wei Yuan could not help feeling a slight twinge of guilt. Still, guilt aside, a finishing blow that needed delivering had to be delivered.
The Daoist priest, suffering a massive headache from this noisy mob of children, hurriedly shooed all the examinees out of the hall.
Wei Yuan rose leisurely to his feet and waited for the girl in the goose-yellow dress to leave before blending into the crowd heading out. Yet even though the girl had not recognized him, someone else had seen through his identity.
Just as he was about to step outside the hall, Li Zhi suddenly emerged from the shadows to the side and blocked Wei Yuan's path.
Wei Yuan's heart tightened slightly, and he waited for Li Zhi to speak. Li Zhi, however, said nothing, yet neither did he yield the way. The two stood facing each other as other examinees filed past them and exited the hall. In the blink of an eye, only Li Zhi and Wei Yuan remained inside.
The Daoist priest did not urge them, merely standing outside the doors with his back turned to the confronting pair.
Li Zhi glared fixedly at Wei Yuan, the rims of his eyes gradually reddening. Gritting his teeth, he said, "A humiliating disgrace like this, I, Li Zhi, will never forget! If you have the guts, state your name!"
At this point, Wei Yuan naturally would not shrink back. Besides, having already crossed paths with him in the illusion realm, and with Outlaw of Heaven and Earth at his disposal, Wei Yuan felt that dealing with Li Zhi would take only a strike or two at most. He said immediately, "Wei Yuan."
Li Zhi barked, "Good! Wei Yuan, I'll remember you! You won this time. If you gamble, you accept defeat, and I can take a loss! But you're just a few years older than me—it's nothing impressive. I, Li Zhi, am only eight years old this year! Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river! Just you wait—sooner or later, I will win back every bit of what I lost!"
With that, Li Zhi turned and bolted out of the hall. Only when he reached an empty corner did he secretly wipe his eyes.
The martial test was over, but within the Evaluation Hall, the smoke of battle was just beginning to rise.
The evaluators' minds were a complete muddle. No one had anticipated such an outcome. Had several evaluators not brought the martial test to a premature end, Wei Yuan would probably have hunted down every single fish that slipped through the net, rooting them out from the dense woods and brush to slaughter them before calling it quits.
Nearly all the candidates earmarked for spots in the immortal sects and grotto-heavens had been slain by Wei Yuan without achieving an ounce of merit. Those who had managed some modest achievements were ordinary examinees—vanguards or scouts—whose meager crumbs of credit were worth barely a point or two.
The current situation was that if they evaluated strictly according to the rules, everyone aside from Wei Yuan would receive zero points.
The elder cultivator spoke first: "How to grade this requires a thorough discussion among us."
The old Confucian immediately declared, "I believe the first rank belongs to Li Zhi! As the supreme commander of the Yellow Team, not only did he lead his forces to wipe out the Azure Team, but his central elites remained intact to the very end. Showing the talent of a commander at such a tender age—if he isn't first, who is?"
The young cultivator sneered. "He wiped out the Azure Team? Does your esteemed elder self suffer from some hidden eye ailment?"
The old Confucian didn't even bat an eye. "The Azure Team was wiped out by Wei Yuan, and Wei Yuan belongs to the Yellow Team. As commander of the Yellow Team, any merit achieved by members of his unit is credited to Li Zhi; this has been the rule since antiquity. Naturally, Wei Yuan's contribution is immense, so they can share first place."
The young cultivator laughed out of sheer fury. "Then what about the Yellow Team's transgressions? Should those be laid at Li Zhi's feet as well?"
The old Confucian replied as if it were obvious, "Merits are merits, and faults are faults. How could one conflate the two?"
The young cultivator shook with anger, yet he was simply no match for Liu Sigu in a war of words. The old Confucian had spent half his life debating people; the young cultivator, impetuous and mindful of his pride, was far from being his equal in an argument.
Daoist Fufeng chimed in, "The rules only divide the candidates into Azure and Yellow teams; there is no mention of a commander. Even if the Yellow Team had a commander, why should it be Li Zhi and not someone else? Merely because he is the son of Duke Huien?"
Unexpectedly, the old Confucian declared loudly, "Precisely because he is the son of Duke Huien! Precisely because Cui Han and Wang Quan supported him!"
Uttered with complete self-righteousness, these words immediately stopped Daoist Fufeng in his tracks.
Everyone knew that the prominent clans and venerable families possessed profound strength, encapsulated in the saying "Seven Surnames and Thirteen Clans," with the foremost houses being on par with even the immortal sects. In a unified examination's martial test such as this, pedigree alone was indeed enough to command an army—in fact, pedigree was the only qualification that mattered. Bao Yun commanding the Azure Team and Li Zhi commanding the Yellow Team were both instances of this. The team division was claimed to be completely fair, but there were covert manipulations: no matter how the teams were split, Bao Yun and Li Zhi would never end up on the same side.
Daoist Fufeng naturally understood all this, but hearing the old Confucian state it so brazenly and take it as a given caused his Dao Foundation to stir in agitation, his face turning as black as the bottom of a pot.
The old Confucian continued, "This mess must be cleaned up somehow. Regardless of what others do, my brush writes thirty points for Li Zhi."
At this point, the middle-aged Confucian scholar coughed to break the silence and said, "Everyone witnessed the martial test just now. The Azure Team fell first, and Li Zhi governed his troops well, remained composed in the face of crisis, and was the leader of the Yellow Team. He rightfully deserves thirty points."
The young cultivator sneered, "Li Zhi lost two engagements in a row, and you call that governing troops well? What the hell did the Azure Team's downfall have to do with him? If not for Wei Yuan, humph, Miss Bao would have wiped him out several times over! If Li Zhi can get thirty points, shouldn't my young mistress get fifty?"
The middle-aged Confucian said, "Wei Yuan belonged to the Yellow Team, after all."
The young cultivator retorted, "Didn't he wipe out the Yellow Team as well?"
This question was hard to answer. The middle-aged Confucian exchanged glances with the old Confucian and said, "Inflicting accidental casualties on teammates should indeed warrant an appropriate deduction in evaluation."
Slick words, but the young cultivator refused to let it go and pressed on: "Then how much do you plan to deduct?"
The two Confucians cursed inwardly, but with Zhang Sheng watching nearby, they couldn't answer carelessly. Refusing to linger on the subject, the middle-aged Confucian said, "Miss Bao's Azure Team was annihilated, and she achieved not an ounce of merit herself. According to the rules, she should receive zero points!"
"Bullshit!" the young cultivator roared in fury.
In an instant, the evaluators were squabbling once more, leaving Zhang Sheng sidelined. Yet everyone knew that arguing was pointless, so since they could not reach an agreement, they had no choice but to score the candidates individually.
Zhang Sheng did not touch the roster book before him, merely watching the others in silence.
The old Confucian Liu Sigu was the first to lift his brush. He directly wrote Li Zhi: 30, and the second name he penned was Wei Yuan. Having written the name, he pondered for a long time. His brush seemed to weigh a thousand jun as he first wrote a "2," hesitated in midair for a moment, and finally added an "8" after it.
Seeing this, the young cultivator sneered inwardly, thinking to himself that this old fellow was merely fierce in appearance but cowardly at heart; with an immortal sword hanging over his head, his spine wasn't so unbending after all.
The young cultivator also lifted his brush, first awarding Bao Yun 30 points, followed by Li Zhi. Showing no mercy, the young cultivator gave Li Zhi 15 points.
Just as he finished scoring Li Zhi, he suddenly saw the old Confucian look up, cast a glance his way, and then write down: Bao Yun, 1.
The middle-aged Confucian also seemed to snap out of a stupor. Sweeping away his earlier hesitation, he likewise wrote down: Bao Yun, 1.
The young cultivator was dumbfounded.
He looked around. The monk had written Wei Yuan: 30, while giving only 3 points each to Bao Yun and Li Zhi, and was currently busy grading the others, mostly awarding one or two points. The elder cultivator wore an indifferent expression and gave Bao Yun and Li Zhi 25 points apiece.
Daoist Fufeng rated Wei Yuan 30, Bao Yun 10, and Li Zhi 5. Aside from them, there were several others whom he gave over twenty points—clearly the scions of aristocratic families he needed to look after.
In truth, the absolute scores were not important; what mattered was the relative margin. Only now did the young cultivator realize he was still too green; he should have stalled until the end and slapped Li Zhi with a zero. Yet what was written was written, and the ink could not be altered.
At this stage of the evaluation, except for the monk, the scores were largely divorced from performance in the martial test. Everyone had dropped their pretense, stripping off their gloves to clash in the open without any remaining shame.
Zhang Sheng quietly watched their performance.
Right at that moment, an aquatic moonlight descended from the heavens, striking directly upon the stone stele in the hall. Though fine as a strand of hair, the water-colored moonbeam exerted an overwhelming pressure upon everyone present, as if facing an abyssal ocean or standing before a blazing sun!
The evaluators found their very thoughts frozen. Then, they saw all the names on the stone stele vanish and reappear, each accompanied by a corresponding score. Standing boldly at the top was Wei Yuan with 25 points; followed by Bao Yun with 3 points, Li Zhi with 2 points, a few others with 1 point, and the vast majority with zero.
A distant, desolate voice resonated through the hall, rumbling down from an unknown height: "This is justice!"
Then, the scores on the stone stele melted away like snow and ice, replaced by new ones: twenty points had been added to everyone. In the end, Wei Yuan had 45, Bao Yun 23, Li Zhi 22, and the rest were ranked in order.
"This is to spare your families some face."
The evaluators were silenced like cicadas in winter, not daring to utter a sound. When a True Monarch spoke, what room was there for them to interject?
Every True Monarch was a pillar holding up the heavens, capable of elevating a mid-sized clan entirely on their own. Even millennial grand clans like the Bao and Cui families treated a True Monarch with the utmost deference. Moreover, that slender thread of moonlight was renowned even among True Monarchs; after all, there was only one person in the Palace of Grand Beginning who served concurrently as master of both the Azure Sky and Water Moon halls.
Then, the voice turned stern, reprimanding, "Evaluator Zhang Sheng of the Palace of Grand Beginning acted willfully and insulted his peers. Though his actions were provoked by circumstance, he must still be severely punished!"
Pausing briefly, the voice continued, "...Zhang Sheng is hereby fined three years' stipend as a warning to others!"
The evaluators accepted the verdict with utmost reverence, showing not the slightest hint of discontent on their faces.
High in the air, a figure enveloped in aquatic moonlight said, "You gentlemen are all old friends. If you have any objections, we can debate the matter further. If there are none, then the matter is settled."
Around him stood several towering figures, each exuding an extraordinary aura. Two nodded slightly, while the other two merely snorted and made no comment. Of those two, one was dressed as a Confucian scholar, though the folding fan in his hand was inexplicably missing half its length; the other was dressed as a cultivator, draped in treasure light from head to toe, clearly adorned with renowned magical treasures, except that his dazzling robe was missing a sleeve, looking rather out of place.
With three in favor and two abstaining, the matter was settled then and there. The dust of the unified examination had finally settled.
Chapter 23