Seeing how confident she looked, Xie Lang assumed she had memorized everything. He was full of admiration. “Fellow Daoist, you have an amazing memory. I’m nothing like you—I memorize something, forget it, then memorize it again. Sigh.”
He continued studying.
After a while, he noticed a spot of ink on the page, obscuring the original writing until it was impossible to make out. He turned to Li Yijiu and asked, “Fellow Daoist, do you know the date when the Patriarch subdued Divine Beast Xuanwu?”
Too easy.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Li Yijiu replied, “The seventh day of the seventh month, in the thirty-three thousand four hundred and fortieth year of the Spirit Domain.”
Xie Lang hesitated. “Is that right? It seems a little different from what I remembered…”
“Then you must be remembering it wrong.”
The Patriarch herself said this with absolute certainty.
Meeting her utterly certain gaze, Xie Lang believed her. “Thank you, Fellow Daoist.”
Then he glanced out the window and began gathering the books he had laid on the table. “It’s late. You should get some rest, Fellow Daoist. You still have the entrance examination tomorrow.”
Xie Lang had booked the inn for her. While keeping watch over her earlier, he had taken the opportunity to study here.
He left, carrying his books.
Li Yijiu did indeed find herself a little sleepy. She hadn’t been this frail in a long time.
She flopped onto the bed and fell asleep, but out of habit, she sent out a wisp of spiritual sense to keep track of her surroundings.
The next day, Xie Lang knocked on her door to wake her.
He treated her to a lavish spirit-cuisine feast, making Li Yijiu feel that the world had become just a little more wonderful. Then the two of them headed for the Qingxin Sect’s examination grounds.
Xie Lang was carrying a food box, too.
A gigantic statue stood before the Qingxin Sect’s mountain gate. It had been carved from natural spirit jade, and a white spiritual glow flowed faintly across the lustrous stone.
Penny-pinching Li Yijiu asked, “Who’s that supposed to be?”
What kind of remarkable person deserved such a grand display?
Xie Lang looked at her in confusion. “Isn’t that Patriarch Mingdeng? Are you joking with me, Fellow Daoist?”
“…”
So the remarkable person was me.
Li Yijiu fell silent for a moment. She studied the spirit-jade statue, but no matter how she looked at it, she couldn’t see any resemblance to herself.
Still… since it was a statue of her, surely there’d be no problem with her carrying “herself” away?
But when she spotted several Golden Core cultivators stationed at the mountain gate, she abandoned the idea.
Just then, she saw Xie Lang open the food box. Thinking he hadn’t eaten enough, she was about to ask him to share some.
Instead, he took out the sumptuous dishes and set them on the base of the spirit-jade statue. Then he pressed his palms together reverently. “These humble offerings are a small token of my respect. Patriarch, please bless me so I pass the examination…”
Many candidates were doing the same thing. The Golden Core cultivators keeping order at the mountain gate seemed entirely used to it. Apparently, this was a pre-examination tradition.
“…”
Under the cloudless sky, Li Yijiu was left speechless.
The Patriarch herself is right here. Why are you praying to a statue?
You might as well give the food to me.
More and more candidates gathered, and the offerings piled higher and higher before the statue. The hungrier the Patriarch herself became.
So she picked up one of the buns Xie Lang had brought and was just about to take a bite.
Xie Lang was horrified. “What are you doing?!”
Li Yijiu: “…Would you believe me if I said the Patriarch had manifested and was enjoying your offering?”
“…”
Xie Lang took the bun from her hand and put it back on the plate. Then he turned to the statue and spoke cautiously. “Please forgive her, Patriarch. She was badly injured yesterday and may have hurt her head. You’re magnanimous, so please don’t hold it against her—or take it out on me. You have to let me pass the examination…”
“…”
Li Yijiu: Kid, the Patriarch is in a terrible mood because she hasn’t eaten. She wants you to fail.
Then Xie Lang took out a bottle of pills and handed it to her, concern on his face. “These are Brain-Boosting Pills. They’re very effective—even a fool can become a prodigy after taking them. Here, Fellow Daoist, take one. Don’t avoid treatment just because you’re worried about what people will think.”
“…”
The Patriarch doesn’t need them. Thanks.
After that, Li Yijiu and Xie Lang went to the registration desk to fill out their information and receive their examination badges. Then they followed the Qingxin Sect’s arrangements and proceeded through the various tests.
The first was general cultivation knowledge—the subject Xie Lang had been struggling to memorize.
General cultivation knowledge covered the common knowledge one encountered while cultivating.
At present, Internal Alchemy, founded by Patriarch Mingdeng, was the mainstream cultivation method. Patriarch Mingdeng had also studied many other disciplines, including alchemy, talismans, and formations. As a result, cultivators couldn’t study anything without coming across her, and most of the general-knowledge questions were related to her.
Time to use her cheat code.
Looking over the questions on the paper, the Patriarch herself thought, and immediately began writing. The answers came effortlessly.
She was the first to finish and leave the examination hall. Her carefree demeanor dealt a serious blow to the other candidates’ morale.
Li Yijiu returned to the statue at the mountain gate. She was the only candidate who had come out so far.
Bored, she sat on the jade steps at the statue’s base and ate the offerings.
The Golden Core cultivators not far away had never seen anyone do such a thing. They stared at her, their mouths opening and closing as they struggled to decide whether to say something. For a moment, they were too stunned to react.
Li Yijiu ate plate after plate, thinking fondly, My dear disciples and grand-disciples, your Patriarch is very pleased with your offerings. I’ll bless you in spirit, and may you pass every examination.
If you don’t, that’s your own problem.
People at the Qi Refinement stage got hungry so easily, but Li Yijiu wasn’t troubled by her healthy appetite.
Cultivators aspired to abstain from food, priding themselves on rising above worldly needs.
She, however, had never given up her love of food. Even in her previous life, when she reached the Tribulation Transcendence stage, she still ate three meals a day like an ordinary person.
Once Li Yijiu had eaten her fill, her spiritual sense detected that some candidates had begun to come out. She stepped down from the jade steps, casually cast a cleansing spell to get rid of the smell, and walked away from the “crime scene” as if nothing had happened.
“Fellow Daoist Li!”
Xie Lang hurried over when he saw her. “How did you get out so quickly?”
Li Yijiu: “The questions were easy.”
“Haha!” Xie Lang smiled with equal confidence. “I thought so too. I’d memorized everything they tested us on. General knowledge is in the bag. Next we’re going to have our spiritual roots tested… Huh???”
As he spoke, he noticed that the offering plates he had left in front of the statue were empty. He was horrified.
“Where are my offerings?!”
“Don’t panic.”
Li Yijiu kept a straight face. It was the truth, after all. “The Patriarch manifested and enjoyed your offerings. She was very pleased and will bless you so you pass the examination.”
“Really?!”
Xie Lang could hardly believe it. “How do you know?”
Li Yijiu: “I saw it.”
Xie Lang’s eyes widened with excitement. “You saw it? You saw the Patriarch manifest?!”
“Fellow Daoist, Fellow Daoist, tell me quickly—what did the Patriarch look like? Was she as ethereal and dignified as the historical records say? Will she really bless me so I pass the examination…?”
Li Yijiu: “…” Such a sweet, simple fool.
Next, Li Yijiu went with him to the next examination: the spiritual-root test.
Her current body had a Profound Grade spiritual root, putting her right at the Qingxin Sect’s admissions threshold.
An utterly ordinary aptitude, easy to overlook.
Xie Lang, on the other hand, tested as having a Heavenly spiritual root.
The Qingxin Sect disciple conducting the test looked impressed. He recorded the result on Xie Lang’s examination badge and handed it back to him with a smile. “You’re sure to pass. We’ll be fellow disciples from now on. Please look out for me.”
Xie Lang accepted the badge modestly, then glanced at Li Yijiu with concern. “Don’t be discouraged, Fellow Daoist Li. Patriarch Mingdeng said that everyone has their own opportunities on the path of cultivation, and that a spiritual-root grade alone can’t define…”
Li Yijiu: “I never said that.”
Xie Lang: “No, I mean the Patriarch said…”
…The Patriarch really hadn’t said that.
She looked at Xie Lang, her expression unchanged. “The Patriarch may not have said it, but it makes sense. Don’t worry; I don’t care about spiritual-root grades.”
In her previous life, she had only had an ordinary Mystic spiritual root too. Later, she had found a way to turn it into a Heavenly spiritual root herself.
The distance between a Mystic spiritual root and a Heavenly spiritual root was just one divine-grade Marrow-Cleansing Bone-Tempering Pill. What was there to worry about?
Xie Lang studied her expression. Seeing that she really wasn’t upset, he relaxed. Then someone shouted, “The general-knowledge results are out!”