While walking to the front, Elder Zhao issued that announcement, causing a flurry of panicked movements as examinees hastily improvised to finish their half-forged armaments or something. He glanced at the digital clock at the front of the cavern, and nodded.

"Just stay where you are and don"t move. I"ll come to each of you personally."

And now, the excruciating wait part where we sat down and idled, nervously watching Elder Zhao as he a.s.sessed the artifacts we had just forged. Beginning with Liang Shao Yang, Elder Zhao would pick up an artifact and examine it using his qi senses. You know, that spiritual bulls.h.i.t thing where he felt for the inside using spiritual senses to ensure there was spiritual cohesion or a harmony between yin and yang and all that.

After spending a few seconds sensing the artifact, Elder Zhao would then make a decision whether or not he was satisfied with the forged item. If he was, he would record the examinee"s candidate number in his tablet. Otherwise…nope.

Those poor dudes who didn"t get their numbers recorded in the tablet were then approached by the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect disciples, who had the ignominious duty of informing them that they had failed and guiding them outside the cavern.

Needless to say, Liang Shao Yang pa.s.sed. I might add that Yin Jing Jing pa.s.sed as well. Tong Xue, who was right at the front, also pa.s.sed without any difficulties, Elder Zhao clearly recording their numbers in his tablet after observing their artifacts. If someone like me could see that from so far away, they could too.

I gulped. The tension was getting to me and I had to clench my hands into fists to stop my fingers from fiddling anxiously. Taking a deep breath, I forced myself to relax even as Elder Zhao drew closer and closer.

To be honest, I needn"t be so nervous. After all, I couldn"t care less if I failed or not. I never intended to join the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect to begin with. And given the hostility emanating from some of the other candidates (while a few remained grateful to me for helping them during the second stage of the examination), I wasn"t sure I would be comfortable entering the sect with them.

It would be so awkward.

Unfortunately, while I was half-distracted by my thoughts, Elder Zhao eventually reached my position. He picked up my rifle, tested its weight and probed it with his qi senses, and his eyes widened at the relatively complex mechanisms within it. He marveled over it, instinctively understanding what its purpose was, and nodded in approval.

Without saying anything, he recorded my number in his tablet and moved on to the next candidate.

I breathed a sigh of relief, not realizing that I had been holding my breath this entire time. Wiping the perspiration from my forehead, I sagged back, the tension seeping out of me in one go. Closing my eyes, I smiled.

Before I knew it, an hour had pa.s.sed and only twenty-four people remained standing within the cavern. The rest of the examinees had been guided out of the furnace room by the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect disciples, having been informed of their failure. I couldn"t help but feel sorry for them, and simultaneously relieved that I avoided such an unfortunate fate.

"All right, all of you remaining in the room have pa.s.sed the examination," Elder Zhao declared with a grin. "Tomorrow, inner sect disciples will meet you and choose their a.s.sistants from your batch. If any of you are chosen, you"ll have the chance to learn authentic forging methods from them. Make sure you watch and learn carefully!"

"Yes…"

The remaining twenty-four candidates chorused in unison. Elder Zhao"s smile widened and he nodded in approval.

"But becoming an inner sect disciple"s a.s.sistant is a tough job too. You"re required to help them grind and sort their spirit materials, or help them while they forge spirit armaments. Of course, such experiences will aid you greatly in developing your own forging methods, so I truly hope that most of you will benefit from being selected."

He then consulted his tablet and a mischievous glint lit up in his eyes. Clearing his throat, he glanced at me and Tong Xue.

"Tong Xue and Fei Wu, was it? You"ve both already been selected. I"m sure you already know who you are a.s.sistants for."

We did indeed, and thus we officially became the a.s.sistants of Lian Rou and Tang Qi Hong.

What I didn"t know, however, was some sort of weird drama unfolding behind the scenes…

*

"WHAT?!"

Hu Mei Er shrieked when she heard the news. Apparently she had tried to book me as her a.s.sistant, but her plan failed miserably when she learned that Tang Qi Hong had long booked me in advance.

"I knew it! Number two hundred and forty-four…you have some kind of relationship with Tang Qi Hong!"

Clenching her fists angrily, Hu Mei Er glared into the distance.

"No wonder he was able to resist my charms! He was already used to being around such beauties, having a relationship with Tang Qi Hong and all that!"

She narrowed her eyes as she pondered over what she had learned for a moment, and a sinister smile slipped over her face.

"Junior Tang…you might have gotten yourself someone who seems to be a decent man…but as your sworn rival, I"ll definitely take everything away from you. Even your man. I don"t believe I"ll be able to seduce him away from you!"

That girl…she evidently loved to waste her time on such nonsense. While it wasn"t as if I was completely immune to her charm, I feared Tang Qi Hong"s rage even more, and was sensible enough not to involve myself with Hu Mei Er.

However, Hu Mei Er"s grudge against me lay deeper than merely my a.s.sociation with Tang Qi Hong.

"Moreover, that b.a.s.t.a.r.d humiliated me in front of everyone…I"ll never forgive him! I"ll definitely have my revenge! Once I succeed in seducing him, I"ll then dump him in front of everyone and drive him out of the sect! I"ll definitely ensure that you"ll get expelled from the sect in the most shameful manner possible!"

h.e.l.l hath no fury like a woman scorned, indeed…

On the other hand, I had to roll my eyes. The girl was already a.s.suming that she would succeed in her schemes. It wasn"t as if I knew or overheard what she was saying back then, but thanks to hindsight and my protagonist"s privilege, I guessed there was no harm in chronologically fishing out this little instance for the amus.e.m.e.nt of the existences beyond the fourth wall.

"I swear, I"ll make him suffer and kick him out of the sect!"

For the rest of the night, the people in the Tushan Residence belonging to the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect heard a series of terrifying, hysterical laughter echoing creepily from within one of their most vaunted rooms.

*

Of course, I was blissfully unaware of this at that time. I was still paying attention to whatever Elder Zhao was saying.

"Number eighty-seven, Tong Xue, and number two hundred and forty-four, Fei Wu. The two of you can go ahead and leave first. There is no longer any need for both of you to remain here…for now, anyway." Elder Zhao"s smile was slightly ominous and I felt a chill run down my spine for some reason. "Return to Tushan City in three days" time. Pack whatever clothing and necessities you require, and bring them to Tushan City. Before the New Year holidays, and also before the semester begins, you"ll be staying in the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect"s outer sect residence. And you"re to return here even after the semester begins, for after-school training."

So this was where the Traditionalists come to everyday after school. Having been an Experimentalist previously, I had never experienced having a sect to return to after school everyday. Many people chose to stay in the residences provided by their sects but a significant portion of students returned to the Wu Ling Academy dormitories during the evenings so that they wouldn"t need to travel too far to get to cla.s.ses in the morning.

While Tong Xue and I made to move, I couldn"t help but glance back at the rest of the dudes who had pa.s.sed the examination along with us. Elder Zhao had turned to address them, that sinister smile having disappeared from his wrinkled face.

"The rest of you, however, will have to remain here until tomorrow, at least. You will need to wait for the inner sect a.s.sistant selection tomorrow. When the results are released, then only would you also be given three days to prepare before returning here."

Without anything else to talk about, Elder Zhao then dismissed the rest of the people in the courtyard where we were led to after the third stage of the exam was completed. The outer sect disciples brought the newly initiated to the temporary dormitories where they would stay for the night. Unfortunately, neither Tong Xue nor I had any place to stay, since we had been instructed by Elder Zhao to return home to prepare.

"Let"s go," I told Tong Xue and he nodded. The both of us exited the courtyard together and headed home. This would be the last time I would see my parents before the New Year holidays, so I had best make the best of my time.

"We pa.s.sed the entrance exam!" Tong Xue exclaimed in joy. I shrugged nonchalantly. Truthfully, I had never thought that I would be able to pa.s.s the entrance exam, especially since my knowledge in forging spirit armaments was lacking so much. h.e.l.l, I only knew one type of Spirit Engraving. The one I learned while cultivating Heaven and Earth Formula, and I used that to stabilize, however briefly, the ice swords that I froze from thin air.

I had been aware that this particular Spirit Engraving would have much greater effects on actual spirit armaments that weren"t just hastily forged from the air, having experimented with it before and practiced countless of times during my training. Even then, I had mostly practiced on inscribing the Spirit Engraving onto ice weapons that I froze out of thin air and rarely touched real spirit materials. It couldn"t be helped.

After all, actual spirit materials were incredibly expensive and difficult to get my hands on. They weren"t something I could simply procure solely to practice on.

Fortunately, regardless of the medium, the method of inscribing the Spirit Engraving was the same. Thanks to that, I was able to make use of my experience of countlessly practicing the Spirit Engraving on ice weapons and applied it to actual spirit materials. I had to admit, even I was slightly impressed by the result, and very pleasantly surprised.

However, that was as far as my knowledge of Spirit Engraving went. Unless I learned other Spirit Engravings and methods, I would remain a one-trick pony. It would be incredibly difficult for me to catch up with the other aspiring blacksmiths and Spirit Engravers if I relied solely on my Heaven and Earth Spirit Engraving.

Little did I know, it was precisely this Heaven and Earth Spirit Engraving that had caught the eye of both Elder Zhao and Hu Mei Er, because it was extremely valuable and rare. I didn"t know it at that time, but apparently just my knowledge of this Spirit Engraving alone rendered me someone who was highly precious to the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect, regardless of whether I actually had any knowledge of other Spirit Engravings or not.

Additionally, my Heaven and Earth qi sense allowed me to be very sensitive to the different kinds of Spirit Engravings, allowing me to read them more easily than other people. It was this ability that also made me vital in the eyes of the senior and professional Spirit Engravers.

Of course, I knew none of this, and to be frank, I couldn"t care less about Spirit Engraving. It was fun, a little hobby that allowed me to fight on even ground by freezing ice swords for my Ghost Shadow Sword techniques, nothing more. I had never entertained the notion of ever becoming a blacksmith or Spirit Engraver.

"Still, Fei Wu, you"re really amazing."

"Huh?"

I turned and stared at Tong Xue, puzzled by his sudden statement. What the h.e.l.l was he talking about?

"To be able to draw the attention of that Hu Mei Er….even a girl as challenging as her has been completely tamed by you."

"Tamed by me?" I repeated incredulously. "More like she"s harboring some sort of grudge against me, especially after what I accidentally did to her."

Tong Xue stared at me in mock horror and surprise. "You mean all of that was just an accident?"

"Dude…"

I shook my head, too weary to argue. Besides, I knew Tong Xue long enough to be aware that he was only joking.

"Seriously, though, you have to be careful." The humor in Tong Xue"s expression vanished as he stared at me gravely. "Hu Mei Er is certainly someone who does hold a grudge. Now that you"re in the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect as well, she"ll find all sorts of ways to make your life difficult."

"Is it possible for me to reject the offer and leave the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect now?" I wondered out loud, honestly not wanting to deal with all that trouble. Tong Xue laughed.

"Come on now, you shouldn"t be giving up so easily." Tong Xue patted me in the back. "What are you so worried about? You have Tang Qi Hong to look after you. She"ll definitely not allow Hu Mei Er to bully you."

I nodded in agreement. Tong Xue had a point, and I was suddenly reminded of why I even bothered to put in effort in the exam. I didn"t want to disappoint Tang Qi Hong, after all. And I didn"t want to see her hurt if I quit right after she chose me as her a.s.sistant. I needed to repay her faith in me somehow.

"Speaking of which, you really have quite the thick skin, confessing to Lian Rou in front of everyone like that." I pushed my gla.s.ses up my nose to peer curiously at Tong Xue from behind my thick lenses. "To think that you actually came all the way to the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect just for a woman. You"re quite the romantic."

"Ha ha, it"s worth it, though!" Tong Xue grinned happily. "But Lian Rou is nothing compared to Tang Qi Hong. Tang Qi Hong is the most beautiful princess in the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect. her beauty is famed throughout even the eight major sects, rivaled only by Hu Mei Er and Bai Ning Xue. Countless men dream of her. You should know that there are many young men who try to join the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect to get close to her, to attempt becoming her a.s.sistant. Yet she has rejected every single person before. I think she"s pretty happy when she saw that you"ve partic.i.p.ated in this entrance exam."

"She has Elder Zhao to thank for that," I muttered, remembering how I got into this mess in the first place. The old dude was the one who recruited me, who suggested that I partic.i.p.ate in the outer sect entrance examination.

"But it"s precisely because of that that I hope you won"t turn your attention toward my Lian Rou, okay?" Tong Xue flashed a grin at me. "You already have Tang Qi Hong, so please don"t compete with me and vie for my Lian Rou"s attention. Tang Qi Hong is certainly more beautiful, but she has quite the fiery temperament. On the other hand, my Lian Rou is a gentle flower, with an incredibly kind and good-natured personality. You can hardly find any girl who is as sweet, patient and kind as her. Of course, she is my beloved, so I hope you can focus your attention on Tang Qi Hong instead."

"That"s a.s.suming she reciprocates," I muttered under my breath. As much as I wasn"t dense, I wasn"t taking Tang Qi Hong"s feelings for granted. For all I knew, I could be overly self-conscious and misunderstanding everything. As long as Tang Qi Hong didn"t clearly come out and told me honestly that she liked me, I wasn"t going to delude myself that she did. After all, women were complex creatures. She could be sending me mixed signals.

A friend of a friend, for example, used to think that a girl who was extremely friendly with him was in love with him, but was in a rude shock when it turned out that she was in love with someone else, and things turned very awkward between the both of them. And the girl eventually began avoiding me…I mean, my friend.

No, I wasn"t talking about myself. I"m talking about a friend of a friend, okay? Honest!

While we headed back home, I suddenly realized something.

"I need to return to Wu Ling Academy for a bit," I suddenly spoke up. Tong Xue blinked and stared at me in surprise.

"Forgot something?"

"Yeah, actually." I clutched at my bag. "I"m supposed to deliver the Crimson Lava Fruit to the academy. I took the mission, after all. In fact, I was supposed to have delivered it yesterday, but a few things happened and I ended up staying the night at Tushan City."

"Heh…"

Tong Xue nodded, and then pushed me forward.

"Well, then what are you waiting for? Go!"

I waved at him before I went on my separate way and headed in the direction of Wu Ling Academy.

*

"Um…"

I realized that I had spent a gold coin for the entrance exam, so I was back to ninety-nine gold coins again. Which meant I was back to square one…or rather, square ninety-nine, and was short of just one gold to purchase the Heavenly Draconic Meteor Swordsmanship.

Talk about taking one step forward, and another backward.

On the other hand, when I accessed my tablet, I saw that I had received a cash reward for successfully pa.s.sing the exam.

"Oh! Five gold just for pa.s.sing the exam?!"

Not only did I get refunded my gold coin, I earned another four. That was pretty impressive. It was a clear incentive for candidates to pa.s.s the exam. Sighing a breath of relief, I wiped the perspiration from my face and proceeded toward the main office to deposit the Crimson Lava Fruit.

"Oh, not bad!"

The receptionist smiled brightly at me as I entered, her light brown braided hair gently flowing down the side of her face. She nodded in acknowledgement and gestured for me to pa.s.s the Crimson Lava Fruit to her. I obliged.

"Thank you, Miss Jie Dai Yuan."

Having done business with Jie Dai Yuan countless times – I had to take about a hundred missions just to save up this much gold, after all – I was somewhat familiar with her. She also recognized me and smiled.

"As efficient as ever, Herb Gatherer!"

That was her nickname for me, especially because all I seemed to do was gather herbs. I guess in her mind I was the same as a certain someone who only chose missions where he could slay goblins. At least I didn"t hide my face behind a helm all the time, though my gla.s.ses certainly served as a much less protective alternative.

"Uh…"

That didn"t mean I liked the nickname, though. However, since she was paying me, I couldn"t complain. Forcing a smile, I waited patiently as she ran through the standard administrative procedures to confirm my completion of the mission.

"All right, that"s done now," she told me with a friendly smile. "Good work as always. I"m sure Miss Huo La La would be happy to receive the fruit."

"Uh huh."

I nodded, though I couldn"t care less who Huo La La was. Probably some rich ojou-sama or something.

"Really, I appreciate you doing all these missions." Jie Dai Yuan looked at me forlornly. "Most students tend to neglect and dismiss these simple, low ranked missions because they aren"t as rewarding both in terms of monetary gain and combat experience. However, they are absolutely necessary, because many of the requesters often have sick relatives or are suffering from some sort of disease themselves – illnesses that can only be cured by procuring the spiritual herbs or mystic plants or enchanted fruits they ask for. And many of these spirit herbs are difficult to obtain. They are not something you can simply find on the market, and even if they are, their prices are exorbitant." She bestowed a look of approval on me. "By accepting their requests at such a low price, you"re really helping them out."

"Uh, well…I guess…"

To be honest, I had never really thought that far ahead. I wasn"t carrying out these missions for altruistic reasons, and I certainly was no Goblin Slayer obsessed with slaying goblins so that there would no longer be villages that would fall victim to them. I was merely carrying them out for the gold coins, simply because I couldn"t fully use my qi throughout the past couple of years, and thus it would be far too dangerous for me to attempt the actual combat missions.

But I didn"t tell her that. Plastering on a fake smile, I exchanged a few pleasantries with Jie Dai Yuan before scooting out of there as quickly as I could before she could uncover my complete insincerity and lack of selflessness.

"Okay, so…what should I do now?"

With that done, I focused on my next goal. The Heavenly Draconic Meteor Swordsmanship. As a martial arts manual, it can be purchased online, but I had to collect the actual scroll from the library.

Let"s do that then.

Using my tablet, I completed my purchase of the Heavenly Draconic Meteor Swordsmanship. It stung when I watched my hard-earned hundred gold coins vanish, leaving me with just four gold coins in my balance, but I steeled myself, knowing that it was completely worth it.

The Heavenly Draconic Meteor Swordsmanship wasn"t a Level Five martial arts technique that was locked behind a paywall for nothing.

Still, what is wrong with the academy? What"s wrong with the whole education system? It"s so capitalistic, for a lack of a better word to describe it.

Normally, you would expect an educational inst.i.tution to provide the resources without locking them behind a paywall. Sure, we didn"t have to pay tuition or school fees for enrollment, which was undoubtedly a big benefit, but you would expect the teachers to actually teach whatever they could. Yet the system was designed around a paywall where you had to earn credit by performing labor in the form of missions, and then spend those hard-earned credits on purchasing techniques from the school. And even then, you were expected to learn those martial arts techniques on your own, without any guidance from the teachers or masters.

The Experimentalists were clearly at a disadvantaged when compared to Traditionalists, who had the advantage of being taught personally by actual masters and teachers who didn"t lock techniques and skills behind paywalls…or at least that was what I thought at that time, but I would discover the truth later. Needless to say, I wasn"t exactly pleased with how the system exploited students for labor, and the money supposedly earned from performing that labor returned directly to the school in the form of martial arts manual purchases.

There was something fishy about the whole thing.

Nonetheless, there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. Even if I staged a boycott, n.o.body would bother to follow my example because the system had been so ingrained within their heads that they saw absolutely nothing wrong with it. I would just be wasting my time and falling behind my peers as I foolishly rebelled against a system that no one other than myself wanted abolished.

On the other hand, the advantages of being an Experimentalist were that we were given complete, full reign to learn whatever we like. n.o.body cared what we did, as long as we showed results. In contrast, the poor Traditionalists had no choice but to learn the techniques that their masters wanted them to learn, the skills that their masters thought would be useful. Experimentalists like me had the full freedom to design our own curriculum and choose whatever techniques we wanted to learn. Which was why I could just pick Heavenly Draconic Meteor Swordsmanship and no one would b.i.t.c.h about it.

I spent too much time immersed in my thoughts that I didn"t realize I had already reached the library. The librarian was waiting for me there.

"Uncle Du Shu Guan," I greeted him. The elderly librarian lifted his large-rimmed gla.s.ses to stare at me before his face crinkled into a smile.

"Ah…Student Fei Wu. It has been a while, hasn"t it?"

I nodded. I had spent more time a.s.similating and purifying my qi, as well as training physically and taking missions, that I didn"t have time to go to the library to borrow new martial arts manuals and learn new techniques. I did, however, continue to patronize the library because I needed to read books to expand on my knowledge regarding the new world I was in. Even after a few years here, I still hadn"t fully grasped the vast entirety of this world.

"I see you"re here for the Heavenly Draconic Meteor Swordsmanship." Du Shu Guan adjusted his thick gla.s.ses as he peered at his tablet. He rose to his feet and waved his hand at me, telling me to wait there for a moment, before disappearing into the back of the library. A few seconds later, he emerged with a single book. "Here you go."

"Thank you!"

I accepted the book from him. Du Shu Guan smiled.

"No, it"s nothing at all. I"m glad you"ve come. Good luck with mastering this technique."

"I"ll do my best."

Now that I had paid for this technique and purchased it, I didn"t have to return the manual. It belonged to me permanently.

Hmm…

As I lifted up the manual to study it, I suddenly realized that the words and techniques inscribed within the paper were a form of Spirit Engraving. The martial arts manual was a form of spirit artifact! Not just this one, but every martial arts manual in the library!

Wow…I didn"t realize it before…

It was only after taking the entrance exam that I realized how similar the martial arts manuals were to spirit artifacts, and how the text inscribed within their pages was a form of Spirit Engraving, emanating a power of their own.

No wonder, when I first came to the library, I could sense such potent power radiating from the martial arts manuals. They were no ordinary objects. They were actual spirit artifacts that had been enchanted with qi and mystical power. The text, being a form of Spirit Engraving, had bestowed upon them that sort of power.

This world is getting more and more mysterious…

Even after a few years here, I was still learning something new everyday.

Gripping my newly acquired martial arts manual, I bowed gratefully to Du Shu Guan before turning around and heading home.

I had three days to go through the martial arts manual before I had to return to Tushan City and begin my Spirit Engraving and artifact forging lessons under Tang Qi Hong. Once that started, I would have much less time to practice and learn the Heavenly Draconic Meteor Swordsmanship.

That won"t stop me, I vowed to myself, hardening my resolve as I strode impatiently toward my house. I had fallen behind because of my stupid stunt a couple of years ago, and now I had to do my best to catch up.

And mastering this Heavenly Draconic Meteor Swordsmanship was the first step toward reaching the heights that my peers had climbed in what seemed like so long ago.