Book 2: Chapter 196: I’ll Embarrass Myself This Time!
Vol 2 Chapter 196: I’ll Embarrass Myself This Time!
Mu Qingyan looked to be about thirteen or fourteen years old. The baby fat on her face hadn’t completely faded, and her deeply furrowed brows as she thought hard made her look somewhat amusing.
But the thoughts in her mind were enough to make one’s liver tremble:
“Right now… the Great Freedom Demonic Sect has just reappeared, which means… nearly a thousand years remain?”
“A thousand years later, spiritual energy will fall into silence.”
She lifted her eyes, gazing at the ceiling.
“Stars will fall, and all the great Celestial Grottos and Hidden Realms will emerge.”
“The Demon Ancestor will walk the world, ancient deities will resurrect, and even Immortal Sects will see ancient immortals descend to the mortal world.”
“This calamity will be far more devastating than the last!”
As if recalling some scene, a trace of fear even showed on her face. Mu Qingyan took a deep breath to calm the trembling within her heart and stood up to look out the window.
The scenery outside was somewhat monotonous.
They lived on Seeking Immortality Island, and outside the island was filled with dense, white fog.
The island hadn’t had time to be planted with flowers or grass;
there were only newly built courtyards, nothing worth seeing.
To her, this place felt more like a cage.
“This Jiushan Sect… seems like a variable.”
“That Zheng Fa… I’ve never even heard of him.”
Thinking this, she couldn’t help but frown:
“With such a variable, how much of what I know is still valid…”
“I can’t stay here! Never mind that I’m only in the Qi Refining stage now—even in my past life, I died during the Soul Formation Tribulation. I wouldn’t be able to resist that Zheng Fa at all…”
“Besides, while I have plenty of inheritances, I lack resources. The Jiushan Realm is far too barren!”
Outside the door came two voices calling:
“Qingyan! Qingyan!”
Mu Qingyan looked up and saw it was a female disciple from Qingmu Sect who had traveled with her.
Right now, there weren’t enough courtyards in the Jiushan Realm, and knowing that these newcomers might feel uneasy,
Zheng Fa simply had several of them share a courtyard to look out for one another.
This female disciple was her neighbor.
They were both from Qingmu Sect and both girls, so naturally, they’d grown close.
The contemplative look in Mu Qingyan’s eyes faded. She smiled brightly and said, “Senior Sister, what’s up?”
The female disciple walked over gracefully, grabbed her hand, and said intimately, “I just heard Jiushan Sect is giving us some kind of exam!”
“Exam?”
“Yes, some sort of placement exam!” The female disciple’s face was full of worry. “The Patriarch told me to behave and stay in the Jiushan Realm… If I don’t do well on the test, will they kick me out?”
Mu Qingyan raised an eyebrow.
Wasn’t this just what she wanted?
She’d been looking for a way to leave the Jiushan Realm!
…
The placement exam for the Hundred Immortals Alliance disciples was held on the fifth day.
Mu Qingyan walked into the exam room with her senior sister, glancing around from the corner of her eye. The setup of the exam hall was something not only unseen in this life, but even in her past one, leaving her even more puzzled.
Suddenly, she sensed someone watching her.
Looking up, she saw it was Jiushan Sect Master Zheng Fa!
Zheng Fa was observing the candidates—Mu Qingyan was one of those he paid particular attention to.
The girl gave him a shy smile, as if a little embarrassed by his gaze, and slowly lowered her head.
Zheng Fa didn’t keep staring at Mu Qingyan.
Among this group of disciples, there were a few he had his eye on.
Mu Qingyan held a pill refinement inheritance.
There was another disciple who seemed to show talent in artifact crafting.
And some had more niche skills—objectively speaking, although these disciples from the Hundred Immortals Alliance weren’t highly cultivated, they had clearly been chosen with care.
Even if their techniques were somewhat basic, just like Zhenren Qian from Qianhe Sect,
they helped fill the gaps in the Jiushan Realm’s knowledge fields!
If any of them were truly capable, Zheng Fa even wanted them to teach classes to Jiushan disciples.
…
Mu Qingyan sat at her desk, calculating in her mind.
She had already decided to hold back her ability!
She really didn’t want to stay in the Jiushan Realm.
Partly because it wouldn’t help her cultivation in the long run.
But more importantly, she couldn’t see through Zheng Fa at all. She faintly feared he might disrupt the trajectory of future events.
“No matter how hard the Jiushan Realm’s exam is… it shouldn’t be beyond me…”
“In the future, countless sects fall, and secret techniques spread everywhere—I gained plenty myself.”
Thinking of this, she couldn’t help but feel a bit proud.
Mu Qingyan lifted her head and glanced sideways around her.
The other disciples from the Hundred Immortals Alliance all looked extremely nervous, and she understood why—anyone could tell the Alliance and the Great Freedom Demonic Sect were now mortal enemies.
The disciples who made it to the Jiushan Realm were actually quite lucky.
Naturally, they wanted to stay.
Unlike her—I might be a walking encyclopedia, a sea of knowledge.
But this time, I’m going to hide my strength!
This placement exam had only one subject:
Mathematics.
But it wasn’t easy—in fact, the difficulty varied widely.
It started at the level of young children in the Jiushan Realm.
But by the end, even Senior Sister Zhang struggled to solve the problems.
That was because Zheng Fa didn’t know the level of these disciples and wanted to see where they stood.
On the other hand—
Ahem, for the first entrance exam, it had to be a bit harder…
Otherwise, some newbies might get cocky…
…
Mu Qingyan didn’t know what Zheng Fa was thinking.
But looking at the questions in front of her, her gaze was a bit dazed.
Me!
Aware of a thousand-year trend!
A reincarnated Nascent Soul powerhouse!
With a hundred scrolls of secret techniques in my mind!
Was she about to hand in a blank test?
It wasn’t like she couldn’t do it at all. At first, she solved a few problems pretty quickly and felt even more dismissive in her heart.
She had even thought about skipping a few questions on purpose, so as not to stand out too much.
Why is it that once I turned the page, I couldn’t even understand the questions anymore?
She slowly set down her pen, falling into deep thought—maybe… there’s no need to hold back, right?
I might as well embarrass myself!
…
Watching Mu Qingyan walk out of the exam room, Zheng Fa couldn’t shake the sense that this little girl had an air of shattering defeat around her—as if she’d been hit hard.
In fact, the same could be said of the other examinees.
But this girl, in particular, seemed extremely proud—more so than the others.
He walked over to Mu Qingyan’s desk and looked at her test paper.
After a moment, he slowly nodded.
Not bad.
A little weaker than his little sister, but her answers showed careful thought—just a weak foundation.
Promising material!
…
“They posted the results!”
Mu Qingyan was cultivating when her senior sister from the same courtyard called out:
“Qingyan, let’s go see our scores together!”
Mu Qingyan stepped out of the room and followed her senior sister toward University Island.
She had adjusted her mindset by now.
Though the process was a bit off, the outcome wasn’t much different—so long as she could get out of the Jiushan Realm, that was all that mattered!
As for the exam?
Was that even important?
Just fleeting glory or shame!
Sure enough, once she reached the gate of University Island, she saw a posted list.
After reading it, she found she wasn’t even that bad—among the dozens of students, she ranked in the lower middle.
But her actual score was pitifully low.
“What should we do?” Her senior sister, who didn’t do much better, clung to Mu Qingyan’s sleeve and said with a distressed face, “Our scores are so low… aren’t we gonna get kicked out?”
Mu Qingyan was secretly hoping for exactly that.
Just then, a Jiushan disciple walked out holding a roster.
He first called out the top scorers and had them follow another senior brother.
Then he led Mu Qingyan and the other lower-scoring disciples in a different direction.
“Senior Brother… are we…” one of the Hundred Immortals Alliance disciples asked, “are we going back to the Hundred Immortals Alliance?”
“You want to go back to the Hundred Immortals Alliance?”
“No no no… I just…”
“Oh, don’t worry!” the Jiushan disciple laughed and said, “The exam results are only for class placement. In the Jiushan Realm, our philosophy has always been: we’re not afraid you’re no good—only afraid you won’t learn.”
“Huh?”
“Class placement?”
“Right, you all have relatively weak foundations, so you’re going to the fundamentals class.”
With that, he pushed open a classroom door.
Zheng Fa was already standing inside, smiling at them: “You’re here?”
“Zheng…”
Mu Qingyan’s eyes widened as she stared at Zheng Fa’s gentle face.
There was only one thought in her mind—
This variable… really counters me!