Jiang Man had asked the little fatty about the matter of sweeping the old courtyard.
It was true.
Every courtyard had to send someone to do the sweeping.
And in the Sixth Courtyard, the first- and second-place students could assign sweeping duty by rank.
This time it was Fang Yong who had assigned the last-place finisher of the past two months to sweep the old courtyard.
There was nothing improper about such an assignment.
In the past it had rotated; now, to spur everyone on, making the last-place student do the work was perfectly reasonable.
Or rather, that was how it should be.
Of course, refusing was also an option.
But during the contest for the spots, breaking the rules could easily bring punishment.
The most direct consequence would be losing the qualification to compete for a spot.
Jiang Man could still tell which weighed more.
Even though Fang Yong was targeting him, this kind of targeting was far better than a direct attack.
He would endure it for now.
There was no point stirring up more conflict—having only just begun to cultivate, he was certainly no match.
With that thought, he went to sweep the old courtyard.
It was just that going meant missing the lessons, which was rather a pity.
Fortunately, the sweeping would only take three days.
The old courtyard was once the Three Halls and Six Pavilions; after something happened there, it had been set aside.
Still, people came to sweep it regularly.
No one knew why, but there were rumors.
They said a certain teacher was hidden within, and if the person sweeping was chosen, that person could receive the teacher's guidance.
Because of that rumor, quite a few people came to sweep of their own accord, and many more swept willingly.
Everyone simply hoped to be the special one.
Broom in hand, Jiang Man swept all around.
The layout here differed little from Qingyun Pavilion.
What he was responsible for was the old Qingyun Pavilion's backyard.
An ancient-looking courtyard, overgrown with weeds, its fallen leaves drifting with the wind.
Jiang Man sighed and set to sweeping in earnest.
But whenever he came across a stele or an old painting, he would give it a touch.
Then he would connect with the Heavenly Mirror Hundred Books, and soon records from the books would follow.
Without exception, they all appeared on the last page.
[Not worth mentioning]
[A filthy thing]
[Unworthy trash]
Not until Jiang Man reached the main hall of the inner courtyard did he see, at a glance, the plaque hanging high from the beam.
On it were written two characters: "Qingyun."
Even Jiang Man, who knew nothing of calligraphy, could sense that it was extraordinary.
He hesitated no longer; he moved something over to climb on, went up, and tried touching it.
At once the Heavenly Mirror Hundred Books began turning its pages.
Jiang Man felt a stirring of excitement.
This thing couldn't possibly still be "not worth mentioning," could it?
To his disappointment, though, the Heavenly Mirror Hundred Books still stopped at the last page.
Thankfully, the words were no longer "not worth mentioning."
Then row upon row of text appeared.
[Calligraphy written from an immense obsession, holding the writer's beautiful vision: that someone from a destitute place might blaze a path and rise straight up into the blue clouds, opening more ways out for those who came after. The calligraphy became this plaque, leaving behind the cultivation technique that had won him the sect's recognition—the Qingyun Art. Only the destitute could perceive the calligraphy's extraordinariness. The vision is extraordinary—worth mentioning, but not worthy of recording.]
Only worth mentioning?
Jiang Man discovered that the bar for being worth mentioning was truly high.
But the plaque held a cultivation technique, the Qingyun Art?
That counted as an unexpected surprise.
He examined it carefully, and sure enough, found a hidden compartment in a corner of the plaque.
Heart pounding, he slowly opened it.
Then he froze in place.
Empty.
The so-called Qingyun Art had long since vanished without a trace.
He sighed, feeling he had wasted the emotion.
But thinking it over, it made sense too.
The plaque had been kept here for an extremely long time. All sorts of people had come through, and among them there would certainly be no lack of the poor.
So someone had long since sensed the extraordinariness here, and had even climbed up to take a look.
Besides, the hidden compartment wasn't all that well concealed—if it hadn't been taken, that would have been the strange part.
Easy fortunes never came his way, and the rare fortunes he couldn't lay hands on either.
Breaking out of his current circumstances through fortune alone would likely be difficult.
He could only rely on talent to part the clouds and see the sun and moon.
Afterward, Jiang Man could only settle down to sweeping, occasionally touching a few more things.
But after seven touches, any further touch left his head aching a little.
Apparently, he couldn't connect with the Heavenly Mirror Hundred Books freely either.
His talent had its limits.
And those had been only a few characters—if the text ran longer, wouldn't the headache come all the sooner?
At noon, Jiang Man finished sweeping.
Back at the courtyard, the first thing he did was find the little fatty and ask what had been taught that morning.
"They taught a palm technique—the Six Harmonies Palm. Though whether you came or not makes no difference; at most they'd let you listen in. They wouldn't actually hand you the technique, and learning it on the sly is no good either." The little fatty paused, then said earnestly, "But those with enough strength will definitely have to learn it. Whether it's the contest for qualification or the contest for sect selection, in the end there's no getting around a real fight.
So all of this has to be taken seriously.
Those were Teacher Fu's exact words.
But most people are just practice partners. Only first and second place get that kind of chance."
Hearing this, Jiang Man understood that some things could only be obtained once one's cultivation reached that level, and he decided to ask something more useful:
"Who are first and second?"
"Luo Xuan is first, Fang Yong second." The little fatty thought for a moment, then said, "They're both from wealthy families, so results like theirs were only to be expected.
The Luo family is one of Luoyun City's great clans.
Luo Xuan, the Luo family's young lady, has held steady at first place in the Sixth Courtyard the whole time.
Fang Yong is no simple character either—word is he has a family inheritance and formidable strength. He's come within a hair of first several times.
Just one move short.
Presumably his family, though impressive, can't match Luo Xuan's resources."
That the two of them monopolized the top two spots, Jiang Man had already known; he brought it up only to set up his next question: "What's their cultivation?"
"Cultivation?" The little fatty searched his memory, then said, "That's honestly hard to say. But I do know their scores. Luo Xuan scored sixty-two points, Fang Yong sixty.
Past sixty points, the lowest cultivation would be the fifth layer of the Qi-Linking Method, and the highest should be the seventh."
In that instant, Jiang Man thought of his own score of zero. Ordinary people were just zero.
But these people's cultivation was actually this strong.
By that measure, no one could start fights freely inside Qingyun Pavilion.
Probably it was still tied to the contest for the spots.
Otherwise, if Fang Yong ever moved against him, it would truly be hard for him to keep improving.
"What's your score?" Jiang Man asked, looking at the little fatty curiously.
The latter didn't answer, only declared proudly, "A score you'll never catch up to."
Jiang Man wondered.
How many points could the second-to-last have?
A dozen or so?
Or fewer than ten?
Afterward, Jiang Man asked how the scores were calculated.
"Basically it comes down to cultivation—that counts for the largest share.
Of course, that includes your layer in the Qi-Linking Method, your layer in the Qi-Blood Method, and your layer in the Visualization Method. The higher the layers, the higher the score," the little fatty explained.
With a general picture in mind, Jiang Man found that overtaking first and second within three months truly wouldn't be easy.
Unless he passed them, he wouldn't get the qualification.
The two paths were worlds apart.
With that thought, he began running his external cultivation technique.
First came a hundred repetitions to warm up, then he would raise his cultivation as fast as he could.
Before the re-ranking next month, he had to reach a sufficient layer.
One big leap all at once would earn them less hostility.
If he climbed slowly, he feared, everyone would come over to target him one by one.
And at the sight of Jiang Man starting to cultivate, the little fatty's head began to pound.
Chapter 9