Sheng Xuan casually walked back to the first row, taking a dao art to skim over. Seeing he had not attracted any attention, he was pleased. Now, his eyes snuck around to find flexible prey.
Sheng Xuan took out his notebook, flipped to a certain section that listed many names, observations and lore. It was still a piece in development, so it did not have many useful details. He searched for the keywords: weak family, prone to sycophancy, greedy, and pushover.
'If I had a Memory Instrument, I would not have any difficulties with remembering faces either. Good thing is it's only a matter of time before I can start using them too like other cultivators.'
Sheng Xuan hid the notebook in his robe and walked to a bespectacled young man. With a shadow looming over him, Sheng Ming looked up to find a smiling face. He could not help it as his heart sank somewhat.
"Brother Xuan... did you need something?" he hesitantly asked.
"Brother Ming is so perceptive. I am ashamed. If only I had as good of a perception as you."
Such nice words from Sheng Xuan left Sheng Ming speechless and a bit happy.
"What are you saying, Brother Xuan. You are much better than me," Sheng Ming reflexively said.
Sheng Xuan chuckled, then said, "Brother Ming, I found an interesting book and I was wondering if you could take a look at some of the insights with me?"
Sheng Ming raised an eyebrow. He hesitated for a bit, and agreed. Sheng Xuan took out his stool and sat beside him.
After digging out Sheng Ming's version of intents, handing a small gift, Sheng Xuan sauntered off to another row, found another person, dug out more intent insights. He repeated it over and over till he was satisfied. Sheng Feng was the most recent helper.
"Sister Feng, do you like milk sweets?" Sheng Xuan softly asked.
"Umm. No." Sheng Feng's voice was low. Black bangs covered her forehead, some overreaching over her large black eyes.
"Really?" Sheng Xuan looked at her suspiciously. "Still, take these since I took up your time."
"No, that's not needed..."
Sheng Xuan still placed a paper bag beside her and left.
Sheng Feng glanced at his back, then at the white small bag. At first, she just ignored it, not planning to take it. What if it was something else? And she did not want to accept a gift from a male. And her mother would get mad if she saw her eat these. But she was also quite curious which distracted her from focusing wholeheartedly on studying the cultivation art.
"Sister Feng, I am back!" a lively voice echoed.
"Sister Qing."
Sheng Qing quickly noticed the small bag. "What's this? Random loot drop? This is not a dungeon."
Sheng Feng wanted to stop her but she had already grabbed hold of the bag.
"Is this yours?"
"Um, not really."
"Can I take a look?"
"Sure."
Sheng Qing quickly opened it up to find more than a dozen sweets wrapped in red, yellow, black and lots of white.
"Wow! These are the premium Pale Petal sweets!" Sheng Qing was excited. "They are nearly always out of stock."
"Wait, what?" Sheng Feng was surprised too, followed by temptation. Sheng Qing had brought her some before and she loved it.
Sheng Qing also came to a realization, casting a subtle glance at Sheng Feng.
"Why... why are you looking at me like that?"
"Well, I wonder who is this generous soul."
"Don't get the wrong idea," Sheng Feng butted in, somewhat forcefully. "It's Brother Xuan. He gave this in return for getting my opinions on a dao art."
"Do you think he would give me some too if I helped out?" Sheng Qing curiously asked.
Sheng Feng shrugged. "You can try from here since you are so interested."
"You are such a bad friend. Wanting me to poison test, huh?" Sheng Qing said.
"If you don't want to eat, don't."
"Fine!"
...
In total, Sheng Xuan had gathered insights from ten people, a mix of lesser and greater talents. Each provided him with observations for two to three excerpts. He read through them several times and compared with his, nodding and shaking his head. Some matched, some did not, some were too drastic. With the sample size so small, he knew he had to be extra careful.
After half an hour of pondering, he had a curated list of intents for the ten excerpts. When he scanned the room, he noticed several people mingling with the single-intent group. Perhaps some people had noticed him and followed after. When it came to rewards from an elder, everyone knew how to be competitive. Sheng Xuan was rather pleased with himself.
'Yes, be good little sheep. Follow in my steps like I am your daddy,' he mused.
Aware he could not dilly-dally, he stood up and began picking out dao arts based on the curated intents. In no time, he had gathered thirty sets. Just seeing the pile, he felt like his advantage on mental energy was going to be greatly challenged.
'Alright then, let's see if you lot got the ability to drain me!'
He sat down to go through them one by one. He gave each a score from one to ten for closeness to a certain excerpt. By the end, he had possible matches to all ten excerpts.
The question remained, was this right?
Compared to the thirty before, now he had to mainly try to understand ten dao arts. Six cultivation arts and four spirit arts. After taking a break, he began studying each seriously. He adjusted what seemed more aligned with something else.
At the end, he held the most likely solution last. He was mostly confident in this. After sitting on it for a while, he handed it to the elder. Some people had already submitted before him. In the last hour, one by one, everyone handed their papers in.
A cup of tea later, Elder Mu strode in again.
"The results are in," he began, grabbing everyone's attention.
"Out of the almost twenty young clansmen, eight have successfully passed the test. They are as follows, from eight to first."
Sheng Xuan listened closely, his heart beating a little fast.
"First is Sheng Xuan with eight correct matches." Elder Mu smiled at him, passing him a triangle token and a black pouch. "Good job."
"Thank you!" Sheng Xuan said.
Sheng Kuo's face was dark. He had only come third while Sheng Hun had come second. Two people who had stepped on him to get to the top. He felt stifled. He refused to believe his comprehension was lacking. Surely, this Sheng Xuan had some other help.
Sheng Hun was somewhat annoyed too. Although he had gone last to inquire with people, he had probably asked the most people. With his brawny and tall stature, most dared not refuse him. He greedily looked at the black pouch in his hand.
Feeling the envious gazes on him, Sheng Xuan felt pleased with himself. In the future, it would be easier to lead groups or take help from others. He looked at the dark-red, palm-sized wooden token with white patterns on it.
Elder Mu said, "Now, all of you who have received the token can pass through the blue wall and view triple-intent arts. But it will be in a first to last order."
'What a nice benefit.' Sheng Xuan happily thought. Seeing the elder nod, he quickly headed toward the last bookshelf to the others' dismay. Everyone had similar fears, what if he picked the art most suitable for them?
Sheng Xuan quickly picked out several cultivation and spirit arts and sat on his stool to study. Next came Sheng Hun, Kuo and others. This time, Sheng Xuan had an easier time finding several suitable arts for him. In an hour, he was done picking his main cultivation and spirit art — Sun Sea Art and Severing Sun Sword Art. He was quite satisfied with them.
A big shadow loomed over him. Sheng Hun asked, "Brother Xuan, what are the arts you picked?"
Sheng Xuan smiled. "Brother Hun, it's nothing spectacular. Regrettably, I can not share it with you."
Sheng Xuan calmly met his serious eyes without a hint of hesitation.
"Forget it then," he said, then went to someone else.
Sheng Xuan watched his back. If Sheng Hun knew his arts, he would surely feel like he had lost out on a great deal. While the Moon was a popular theme among women, Sun was popular among men. In addition, his picks could combine which made them all the more valuable. In short, top-tier triple-intent arts.
Even Elder Mu thought the same, nodding appreciatively.
"Are you confident you can handle these?" he still asked. "Six intents and of the excellent kind. They will put immense pressure on you."
Sheng Xuan did not budge in the least, appearing full of confidence. "Thanks for your concern, Elder Mu. I am confident I can tame these unruly beasts."
Elder Mu's eyebrows twitched. He felt like he should reprimand him but he had scored the highest, so he let it be.
"Alright then. Study hard and make good use of them. If you can not handle it, the earlier you quit the faster you can recover," he said, handing him two jade slips.
"Thank you!" Sheng Xuan stored them in his ring, chatted a little with the elder and returned to Steward Zhang's side.
The Sun outside indicated half a day had slipped by. Sheng Xuan realized he had been here from early morning to afternoon.