Once she entered the Palace of Grand Beginning, Zhang Sheng's story was quite simple.
Displaying her extraordinary talent, she cultivated quietly in the Palace of Grand Beginning. Within a few years, she forged her Dao Foundation, astounding everyone in a single brilliant stroke. Yet after completing her Dao Foundation, she felt it had not yet achieved perfection, so she entered closed-door seclusion to switch to cultivating the Heaven and Earth Crucible Sword-Casting Method, using her own body as a crucible to nurture a fourth immortal sword.
The crucible's exterior was male, and its core was female; inner yang and outer yin, aligning with the Heavenly Dao. She changed her name to Zhang Sheng and presented herself as a man upon emerging from seclusion, right up until the Karma Great Curse.
At that time, the Palace of Grand Beginning had not yet instituted centralized instruction. Disciples cultivated in their respective abbeys and halls, so aside from a handful of people who had known Zhang Sheng since childhood, the vast majority of fellow disciples from her generation had no idea she was actually a woman.
Even after adopting a male form and concealing her peerless beauty, Zhang Sheng still attracted numerous suitors. They were both men and women—with men outnumbering the women—which frequently drove her to fits of irritation.
Later came the old tales of descending the mountain to search for the dragon, followed by three years of being unable to leave Yongzhou.
Talking softly along the way, the two flew into Qingming and landed upon the main peak. Wei Yuan asked, "Where will you be staying?"
"Where I lived before, of course." Zhang Sheng let herself into the courtyard she had originally occupied and promptly pushed Wei Yuan back outside.
Everything in the courtyard remained exactly as it had been on the day of the Karma Great Curse, immaculately clean, evidently swept and dusted daily. Zhang Sheng casually picked up the book on the desk. She had only read half of it back then, and it was still resting neatly on the desk. Its orientation had shifted slightly, suggesting Wei Yuan had read it later.
Since there was still time before dawn, she planned to finish reading it.
Suddenly, she sensed something strange behind her. Turning her head, she found Wei Yuan standing right there, covering his eyes with a cloth band...
Then the lamp was extinguished, plunging the room into darkness.
At dawn, Zhang Sheng woke leisurely, feeling she had not slept so deeply in a very long time. Yet even though morning had arrived, putting aside the soreness and exhaustion in her body, why was her spirit still so utterly drowsy?
Zhang Sheng looked beside her, but Wei Yuan was nowhere to be seen. She paid it no mind, however; Wei Yuan had cultivated a dharma idol and had no need for sleep whatsoever. Meanwhile, having been reborn through dragon blood, she had reverted to before she forged her Dao Foundation—she was now a mortal body and naturally needed sleep.
Qingming's current scale was more than tenfold what it had been back then, and there were countless matters requiring attention, so she had no intention of tethering Wei Yuan to her side.
Zhang Sheng rose. Everything in the room remained just as it was when she had gone to sleep, except for a tall stack of jade paper sitting on the desk.
Throwing on a robe, Zhang Sheng walked over to the desk and picked up the jade paper to flip through it. Recorded upon it were all manner of current data and reports on Qingming. Unwittingly absorbed, Zhang Sheng spent nearly half an hour reading through it.
Then she looked up out the window and noticed something odd about the light. The zenith of the sky was a beautiful pale blue, yet toward the distant horizon, it gradually transitioned into a thick, surging dark red, carrying an indescribable sense of decay and ruin.
Zhang Sheng fell into thought. When had Qingming ever possessed such a sky?
Setting down the jade paper, she pushed open the door and stepped out, only to discover with a start that she was not on the main peak at all. The courtyard she currently occupied stood atop a high slope. Not far down the hill was a grand building standing fully seven stories tall, its main hall bearing a colossal plaque inscribed with four large characters: All Living Beings Are Equal.
Looking closely, beneath the main plaque was a line of smaller characters: War Rig Research Institute.
Looking even closer, auxiliary halls flanked the main hall, and in front stood a statue: a brawny man with corded muscles, bare-chested, holding a multi-barrel flying-sword autocannon, depicted as if strafing the sky.
Even with Zhang Sheng's composure, she could not help but be stunned for a moment. Looking to the side, she saw another cluster of buildings atop a hill opposite the All Living Beings Are Equal War Rig Research Institute. Several martial drill grounds sat among the buildings, where dozens of people were sparring and hacking away at one another.
Atop the roof of the main hall stood another large sign inscribed with "Nine Heavens and Ten Earths Battle Saint Hall."
Before that main hall also stood a statue: a muscular woman, likewise bare-chested, raising a blade toward the heavens in a roar.
The two statues were quite well-matched.
Aware that something was amiss, Zhang Sheng looked further into the distance, only to see a clean, empty expanse of land and sky—a vast wilderness of desolation with nothing at all. But what sort of person was Zhang Sheng? Though she had lost her cultivation, a single glance told her that multiple roads and vehicle tracks led into the distance on the ground, yet were abruptly cut short midway.
Zhang Sheng knew immediately that there had to be an array concealing divine sense. Such an enormous array must have cost a tremendous fortune; when had Wei Yuan managed to set it up?
At that moment, a young girl materialized out of thin air and said to Zhang Sheng, "You're awake."
Zhang Sheng frowned slightly and asked, "Where is this? Where is Wei Yuan?"
The girl had an average build and ordinary looks, dressed in simple, plain clothes. However, the style of her attire was quite peculiar: a form-fitting top with integrated sleeves, and a pair of trousers below.
The outfit made her otherwise unremarkable figure exude youthful vitality, and it was convenient for moving around.
"You mean the Creation Immortal Venerable? He is not someone you can see just because you want to. It is work time now. From now on, I will be in charge of assigning your work. Follow me!"
Without letting her expression slip, Zhang Sheng followed the girl, casually asking along the way, "What kind of work will I be doing?"
"The Immortal Venerables will assign it based on your abilities."
The Immortal Venerables... Zhang Sheng kept her composure.
Soon, the two arrived before a magnificent nine-story hall. Erected before the entrance was a towering, pointed stele reaching toward the sky, carved with a column of giant characters several zhang across: Creation of Heaven and Earth Research Institute.
The girl led Zhang Sheng into the hall and all the way up to the top floor. Along the way, every floor was lined with rows of desks and chairs. Countless people sat inside; some had beams of light connecting to the crowns of their heads, while others were writing furiously. The entire hall was dead silent, every single person engrossed in their work.
Looking at them, Zhang Sheng felt an odd sensation. While some appeared highly active, they lacked any vital essence, like ghosts casting no shadows. Others gave Zhang Sheng a sense of familiarity, as if she had seen them somewhere before.
Before long, they reached the top floor. There were far fewer seats on this level, only a few dozen, and a luminous orb hovered above each one.
Zhang Sheng's pupils suddenly contracted. She actually spotted Cui Yu in the corner!
Zhang Sheng pretended not to recognize him, however. Guided by the girl, she took a seat at an empty desk, then followed the girl's instructions to draw the luminous orb before her. Focusing her gaze, she discovered that her divine sense had linked with the orb.
The basic instructions were stored within the orb; a sweep of Zhang Sheng's divine sense was enough to master them. Though she had lost her Dao Foundation, her Primordial Soul remained intact, so her divine sense perception was not inferior to that of an ordinary dharma idol cultivator.
A task immediately appeared in Zhang Sheng's consciousness: design a spell array possessing specified functions.
The task laid out clear requirements regarding the array's size, required functions, and completion time. Furthermore, it would be scored based on completion quality, compared against others, and compiled into an overall ranking list sorted from highest to lowest.
Zhang Sheng's interest was piqued at once. She was interested in any public leaderboard, let alone a subject like array design that was second nature to her.
Besides, this system in the institute seemed far from ordinary, and Zhang Sheng was keen to test its capabilities.
Given Zhang Sheng's attainments in arrays, she felt designing such a formation was effortless. What mattered was novelty and strokes of genius; only that would truly display her mastery, win everyone's absolute admiration, and seize a top score.
Moreover, Zhang Sheng wanted to see how far behind the others lagged under this Creation of Heaven and Earth Research Institute's evaluation system. Judging by the fact that Cui Yu was among them, their overall standard was likely mediocre at best.
Thus, Zhang Sheng did not even bother reading the massive pile of notes and caveats attached to the task. Her divine sense moved like lightning, outlining a spell array in mere moments. Inspecting it once more, she felt thoroughly satisfied, confident it was a masterpiece of ingenuity, and sent it into the orb to submit.
Zhang Sheng waited with keen interest for the results, intending to see what else was contained in the orb in the meantime. Yet she had only flipped through two pages of documentation when the task evaluation popped up before her eyes:
Failed.
Staring at the glaring characters before her, Zhang Sheng felt a surge of heat rush straight to the crown of her head, her Dao heart threatening to shatter!
Killing intent surfaced in her eyes, and she was about to slash the blind, foolish orb in two with a sword. But as her thought stirred, nothing happened. Only then did Zhang Sheng remember that she did not possess a single immortal sword right now; she was truly powerless to act on her desires.
The girl's voice suddenly spoke from beside her: "Is there a problem?"
Zhang Sheng glanced at the girl beside her and said calmly, "It's just my first day taking this on, so I'm not entirely familiar with it yet. Trivial matters, nothing worth mentioning."
"Oh. There are instructional dossiers in the system, and you can find answers to standard issues there. If you still can't solve it, feel free to call me anytime. I'm right on this floor."
Zhang Sheng nodded, then asked seemingly offhandedly, "Just who is responsible for evaluating the tasks?"
"Another Immortal Venerable, a born celestial. She sees all living beings as equal, with no distinction between self and other, noble and humble in her eyes." The girl's words seemed to carry a deeper meaning.
"I see. Thank you for the enlightenment." Zhang Sheng nodded and returned her divine sense into the luminous orb.
Once the girl departed, Zhang Sheng let out a breath.
Though she utterly rejected the evaluation, she was now merely a mortal in a completely unfamiliar world, surrounded by baffling people. Even someone she recognized, like Cui Yu, was performing bizarre tasks in this strange world.
Therefore, Zhang Sheng had no intention of greeting him. She only wanted to watch how things unfolded and figure out what was going on in this world first.
Naturally, she also wanted to find out who the bastard judging the tasks was, and then teach that ignorant fool what true array craft actually was! Daring to declare an array she designed failed? Even Patriarch Xuanyue would never say such a thing!
Faint killing intent flickered in the depths of Zhang Sheng's eyes as her divine sense opened the detailed task evaluation. Beneath the overall verdict of "Failed," there were several sub-evaluations:
Array Functionality: Pass.
Usability: Poor (Fail).
Versatility: Terrible (Fail).
Array Consumption: Poor (Fail).
Array Stability: Pass.
Overall Evaluation: Failed. Task returned for rework.
"Putting on quite the show, isn't it..." Zhang Sheng grumbled inwardly. Yet seeing such detailed evaluations and such a comprehensive system, this so-called Immortal Venerable of the institute clearly had real skill. It was just that among the evaluation metrics, Zhang Sheng had never even heard of things like "usability" or "versatility."
Most vexing was the item for Array Functionality. Though it said "Pass," the word felt exceptionally piercing here. In Zhang Sheng's view, the only words that belonged in that spot were "Peerless," "Supreme," or "Pinnacle."
Zhang Sheng's aura turned unusually dangerous as she began reading the task evaluation in detail. Unless she forced whoever judged this to eat their words of "Failed," she felt her fractured Dao heart would never mend.
Chapter 461