The day of the law examination arrived as scheduled. The elders sat solemnly on high platforms. The Shenxuzhou was already floating in the sky to begin with, so now they looked even more like immortals in the clouds.
Bu Chengyue arrived earliest and sat down at a spot on the side. From atop the pavilion, she could overlook the entire venue. In front of her were several spirit mirrors, making it convenient for the elders at the high vantage point to clearly see every candidate.
Since she was here, Sheng Meng naturally took her place as well. The first session tested alchemy; she was currently adjusting her alchemy cauldron and appeared to be in good shape, so Bu Chengyue felt at ease to observe others instead.
The examinees all arrived early, and before the official start, they generally used their own cauldrons to warm up and practice. The ones who stood out were naturally a few disciples from the Alchemy Hall—one or two were even rumored to be able to refine mid-grade pills, which undoubtedly created pressure for the others.
The “others” did not include Sheng Meng. Sheng Meng could also refine mid-grade pills; although she couldn’t do it every single time, even those from the Alchemy Hall couldn’t do it every time either. Moreover, the Alchemy Hall guarded their cauldrons every single day, whereas Sheng Meng learned other things as well.
The more she thought about it, the more satisfied she felt. Bu Chengyue’s expression was full of relief and joy. Yet, right at this moment, someone ruined her mood: “Chengyue, for the first time, you actually had the sense not to be late.”
The only person in the sect who would address her like this was her one-sided senior brother, Gong Pei. Opening his mouth, he accused her of lacking sense in the past. Bu Chengyue called him “Senior Brother,” but he had never acknowledged Bu Chengyue as his fellow sect sister.
“Disciples often resemble their masters. This child originally had quite a righteous look,” he manipulated the spirit mirror to zoom in on Sheng Meng’s image, “but after following you, she has learned a few shades of a vixen’s sly charm!”
Looking at the ice-mountain snow-lotus-like features and demeanor of the person in the mirror, Bu Chengyue could not connect her to the word “vixen” at all. Gong Pei was biased against her and felt she should belong to the Hehuan Sect, hating her and extending that hatred to Sheng Meng. Bu Chengyue could not endure it: “Elder Gong should not assume a female cultivator is unrefined just because she is beautiful. We who cultivate immortality ought to be open, honorable, and pure of mind.”
Gong Pei gave a cold snort and moved to the position furthest from Bu Chengyue. “Why don’t you simply never step out of the door for the rest of your life?”
Bu Chengyue put on a polite smile, pretended she hadn’t heard, and endured it once again.
Using her jade token, she sent a message to Sheng Meng, repeatedly reminding her of things to pay attention to and telling her not to be nervous.
Sheng Meng quickly tucked away her waist token and raised her face toward the pavilion’s direction. Although she couldn’t see Bu Chengyue, she could imagine what expression she had—she must be smiling, her brows lowered, with only the corners of her mouth appearing to smile.
That was the expression Bu Chengyue made when she was in a bad mood.
Every time Master dealt with those elders, her mood was never great—it couldn’t be called terrible, but she was hardly happy either.
Originally, Sheng Meng had thought that even if Bu Chengyue paid no attention to her, as long as she could enter Yuediyunjie and be a disciple under some elder, it would be enough. She hadn’t expected that Bu Chengyue was merely slow to warm up; after spending time with her, she realized her master was actually very simple.
Having endured and swallowed her anger for so many years, those rumors were never cleared up; she wouldn’t take what wasn’t hers, and even for things that were hers, she never took the initiative to speak up. Yet, for the sake of her disciple, not only did she actively interact with other elders, but she did so with a pitiable, low posture.
Regarding this law examination, although Master hadn’t said it explicitly, Sheng Meng could read between the lines: don’t get too high a ranking, don’t show off, and certainly don’t hurt anyone.
My apologies, Master. You are not an overbearing person, so you cannot raise an obedient disciple.
As Sheng Meng lowered her head, Bu Chengyue also withdrew her gaze. Aside from her disciple, no one else was nice to look at, and her senior brothers and sisters had all arrived, leading to another round of pleasantries.
“I originally didn’t intend to come watch in person, but hearing that our Venerable Chengyue was coming, I immediately came over myself!” Mo Weizhong had been close with Bu Chengyue recently and came over to greet her.
Before Bu Chengyue could respond, another voice cut in. It was the deputy of the War Hall, named Yang Shuwen: “What is there to look at with her? Senior Sister, look at the new storage ring I got. I’ll give you one as well when we get back.”
Bu Chengyue had the lowest seniority among these people and called everyone “Senior Sister,” even though Senior Sister Yang didn’t even give her a glance and wanted to drag Mo Weizhong away.
“Don’t pull me. If you want to play, go play by yourself; I’m going to enjoy some quiet here with Chengyue.”
“Then I’ll sit here too; I just want to follow Senior Sister.” This voice sounded like a stiff act of coquettishness that made Bu Chengyue grit her teeth, barely maintaining her expression unchanged. Mo Weizhong, however, couldn’t hold it in.
On the spot, she leaned her head back a great distance to avoid Yang Shuwen, who was leaning against her. “Junior Sister Shuwen, don’t be like this! The exam has started, let’s watch properly.”
The spirit mirrors fully displayed the performance of each disciple. They used identical cauldrons and materials; some summoned fire, some used spiritual energy, some used mental force, and some had already ruined a pot.
Those using fire were all from the Alchemy Hall; these were natural flame sources they had subdued themselves, or flame sources gifted by their masters and elders. No matter which type, they were people capable of manipulating fire and possessed talent in the path of alchemy.
Sheng Meng had already processed her materials and begun refining. She was supposed to use spiritual energy or mental force; Bu Chengyue had always taught refining with spiritual energy, yet what was this rebellious disciple doing?! She was trying to use spiritual energy to simulate fire?!
Sheng Meng couldn’t condense a fire shape yet, but she was trying. The air around the alchemy cauldron was somewhat distorted; using mere spiritual energy shouldn’t have this effect. Even if it didn’t look like fire yet, it achieved twice the result with half the effort compared to using purely spiritual energy or low-level flame sources.
When spiritual energy took form, it acquired the attributes of the formed object. Looking at her state, it had at least acquired heat.
Hopefully no one noticed, otherwise it would be too high-profile.
“Junior Sister Chengyue, is your disciple’s spiritual energy a bit unstable? Why is it flickering on and off? You should pay a bit more attention to your own disciple.” Fortunately, Yang Shuwen was not smart; fortunately, Sheng Meng finished refining right after she looked.
“Where? How come I didn’t see it?” Bu Chengyue played dumb. In any case, that disobedient, rebellious disciple of hers had finished refining, and the quality was likely quite good, so she wouldn’t start a second pot.
“If you didn’t see it, are you blaming me? I told you long ago to pay more attention to your disciple, but you didn’t believe me.”
Bu Chengyue smiled. Wait, when did she say she blamed her, and when did she not believe her? “Told you long ago”? Why didn’t she go drop a cold remark like “I told you long ago not to fight” during the great war between humans and demons a hundred thousand years ago?
“Senior Sister’s eyesight is truly sharp, able to look after other people’s disciples as well. However, I see that your nephew disciple seems to have exploded his cauldron. What happened? If I knew, I would have reminded Senior Sister. You really shouldn’t have—why didn’t you come ask your junior sister?”
Exchanging a few sarcastic remarks with Yang Shuwen happened to shift the attention of the other elders as well. When Bu Chengyue went crazy, she even disgusted herself: “Senior Brother Gong, you too—don’t only remember to give me pointers. Clearly Elder Shuwen is also your junior sister; you should look after her too.”
Gong Pei, who had been staring intently at Sheng Meng, was dumbfounded. The few words before the exam—”sense, vixen, don’t step out”—were the only words he had spoken to Bu Chengyue in years, along with talking behind her back all the time. Did that count as looking after her?
However, he couldn’t say that out loud. A senior brother speaking ill of his junior sister behind her back—did he still want any face? Thus, he was left unable to defend himself, allowing Yang Shuwen to look at him in disbelief.
With the addition of Mo Weizhong, who loved watching a good scene, the pavilion became lively even without Bu Chengyue opening her mouth again.
Bu Chengyue swiped her waist token. Sheng Meng, who had finished her exam, knew to apologize to her. She didn’t respond; instead, she released a strand of divine sense to find that disobedient disciple. The person whose mouth said “apologies” had a face overflowing with triumphant pride.