Translator: AL_Squad Editor: Chrissy
“… This is beyond expectation, truly unexpected.”
Holding the freshly produced test paper, Wang Lu, as an examiner, was radiant with delight and was full of admiration. His review on the paper was full of praise.
However, around him, several other examiners clearly looked ashen, as if their veins suddenly burst open. Furthermore, this subconscious fury ignited the examination hall and made a group of young cultivators rush to put out the fire.
“What a mess! What a scandal.”
A senior examiner shook his head and sighed. A thick paper in his hand was turned over and over by him. He saw that the writing on the paper was dense, and every question had an extremely detailed argumentation and solution. The reasoning was clear and orderly, and the writer’s thought was deep and meticulous. Although it was just a test paper, it was like a delicate artwork.
However, after the old cultivator held that art for a long time, at last, he sighed and tore it to pieces.
Someone around him advised, “Don’t worry, Daoist Master Wan Juan, your sect’s eldest disciple, Jian Mu, has performed very well. Such is a tricky examination test, he actually got 60% of them right. This has far exceeded the majority of the candidates, thus he truly represents the brilliance of your Hong Shui Sect.
The old cultivator looked discouraged and defeated. “But he lost to Senior Gem Emperor.”
The persuading person smiled bitterly and said, “Senior Gem Emperor is the emperor of the Earth Immortals. She has an all-around talent. No one could compare to her, let alone Heng Shui Sect. The cultivators of Ten Thousand Arts Sect who have eyes set higher than the top returned in low spirits. Their scores are not as good as Jian Mu…”
The old cultivator raised his head excitedly. “But the cultivators of Heng Shui Sect have never lost to anyone on the test paper! No matter whether the opponent is human or immortal! This is the foundation of Heng Shui Sect!”
“Alas…” The persuader had nothing to say. Cultivators of the Heng Shui Sect had always been extreme on this issue. Thirty years ago, Xue Ba, the eldest disciple of Heng Shui Sect and Daoist Priest Tian Shu of Ten Thousand Arts Sect wagered against each other at the bank of Book Ocean. The two finished half the collection in the Book Ocean in one night and then each drew up a question. They fought for three days and three nights in a row. Finally, Xua Ba won by one question. However, after returning to his sect, Xue Ba’s primordial spirit dried up and he died vomiting blood. On the other hand, although Daoist Priest Tian Shu lost the match, he achieved enlightenment because of it and directly broke through Yuanying, Deity, and even further than that…”
In the view of most people, the real winner of that match was undoubtedly Daoist Priest Tian Shu of Ten Thousand Arts Sect. But for Heng Shui Sect, Daoist Master Xue Ba was a model worthy of great esteem, because he had the spirit of Heng Shui Sect in him—Never lost to anyone in a test! They could do it at all costs!
Right now, although Daoist Master Jian Mu surpassed the talents of all the major sects in the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals in that examination test, he was completely defeated by Senior Gem Emperor… How could the people of Heng Shui Sect bear the defeat in the test?
Old Daoist Wan Juan gnashed his teeth. “This is not over yet… When I go back, I will order all the sect’s disciples to do a closed-door training. They must thoroughly understand these examination test and surpass Senior Gem Emperor before they could go out!”
The nearby people were stunned. “Daoist Master, you must, by all means, calm down! You must not rush this thing. Senior Gem Emperor achieved a correct rate of more than 90% in this examination test, which is incredible. On the other hand, Daoist Master Jian Mu has been training for six months and his accuracy rate is 60%, and he is the top player among many competitors. The gap between them simply could not be made up by seclusion training alone!”
Old Daoist Wan Juan’s eyes were firm when he said, “There are no difficulties in this world that could not be overcome by hard work! Any problem will always bow down in front of the human wave attack! The enemy is merely Senior Gem Emperor, and my disciple only lost because he still doesn’t do enough tests. When I go back, I will put him on the Ocean of Test Boat to roam for ten years. By then, I don’t believe he still couldn’t compare with Senior Gem Emperor!”
“… Ten years, but the Grand Competition will surely end much earlier than that!”
Old Daoist Wan Juan remained his insistence, “But Senior Gem Emperor must still be alive! She’s an Earth Immortal, so she has a long life and is not easy to die. When the time comes, I will let Jian Mu take his revenge!”
“… All right, suit yourself.”
For this exotic sect’s unusual ideas, people couldn’t persuade them even if they wanted to.
But from another point of view, able to force such an extremely exotic sect into a helpless situation… the power of Senior Gem Emperor had indeed reached into the unimaginable territory.
Even for such a side match, she had an overwhelming advantage over the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals.
Daoist Master Wang Lu was the one who personally wrote the questions, organized the examination and personally reviewed the test papers.
This special examination form, which had been gradually increased in popularity on Nine Regions in the last century, had been greatly improved in Wang Lu’s hands. It could effectively test the intelligence level and the ability of the examinees in problem-solving. But in order to cope with the Grand Competition, Wang Lu raised the difficulty of the exam by a thousand times, making it almost impossible.
In order to show fairness, before the competition began, Wang Lu had handed over the types and examples of the test questions and his comments through the planning book before the match to the Earth Immortals. At the same time, he also gave a large number of auxiliary books to the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals for more targeted special training.
As for the process of writing questions and marking papers, there would be no falsification, because in theory, there was no need to. The people of the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals were in the best position and should not lose. Unfortunately, the fact was present before them.
Even Daoist Master Jian Mu of Heng Shui Sect lost, who else could win? Perhaps Wang Lu could do it, but the question was from him, and it was necessary for him to read the test. How could he be allowed to take the test?
“Alright, no need for us to get depressed. We survived three defeats yesterday, so what’s the loss of the first match today?”
At that time, Wang Lu clapped his hands and said something that was not comforting at all.
With that, he left his desk, walked into the arena and said to the crowd as the host,
“Alright, now we proceed to the next match. Led by the chief maid of the Sixteen Night Villa, a cleaning team of thirty-seven people will participate in the bowl washing competition against Senior Gem Emperor, the leader of Earth Immortal.”
With that, Wang Lu spread out his hands, and suddenly there was a clatter of ‘klank’ sound. A mountain made of all kinds of bowls appeared in the middle of the arena.
In the blink of an eye, a suffocating stench smell pervaded the whole area. In the cleaning team, several young girls who seemed to be in the prime of their lives were slightly shaken and turned pale.
“There are three million bowls here… As you all can see, they have been contaminated with all kinds of filth, and they stink. Your task is to clean these bowls in a limited time. The one who cleans the most wins the match. Warm tip: The materials of these bowls are different and the pollutants are different. So it is necessary to adjust to the specific conditions to remove the dirt. In addition, there are a few bowls with hidden dirt. If they are not found and you treat them as clean bowls and put them together with the other washed dishes, it would likely cause a large range of pollution and discard all your previous achievements. So, it’s time to test your housekeeping skills. Who can clean these bowls accurately and quickly? Let’s wait and see!”
As the host, Wang Lu’s words were precise and clear. With that he flashed away, leaving behind a group of maids who were looking at the mountains of bowls.
As for Senior Gem Emperor, she looked at the back of Wang Lu with great interest. “Dishwashing contest? How dare you make me, the head of Earth Immortals, do such a humble thing… Are you really that bold, or did you already see what’s coming?”
While Senior Gem Emperor was muttering to herself, the chief maid of the Sixteenth Night Villa had taken the lead and rushed to the mountains of bowls. In the two steps that she took to approach the bowls, she put on a full set of equipment—a mask, a headscarf, a pair of gloves, and a white apron. Despite the stench and filth, she waved her hand and retrieved a porcelain bowl from the bowl mountain. She then threw a glance and immediately understood the filth clearly. With another wave of her hand, the white bowl was immediately put on a small table.
Then, a clear spring gushed out from the palm of her hand. When it filled the bowl, it dissolved the filth and took it away.
Several female cultivators watched her action with envy and admiration. The bowl just now, as well as the dirt in the bowl, were not simple. The bowl was a white jade heavenly lotus porcelain, which could not be stained by ordinary filth. Thus, for it to be stained, the dirt had to be special. According to people’s visual inspection, the black fog glue paste residue in that bowl was extremely sticky and insoluble in general liquid, making it very difficult to clean. There was no way to separate that black fog glue paste from the bowl without having Xudan Stage or higher.
However, the disciple of the sixteen-night villa only used a clear spring to clear away the dirt. The clear spring was obviously not an ordinary product but should be a special cleaning agent of the sect. Its effect was really extraordinary. And only the sixteen-night villa with domestic service at its core could have this special product.
However, who could be sent to participate in the competition if not those who were the best in the field of domestic service? Then people saw the dozens of other female disciples showed their own magical powers. They took the dirty bowls from the mountains of bowls and quickly cleaned them up. Their movements were extremely fast. In the eyes of ordinary people, they could only see the blur. In a short time, these female disciples pileup up the clean bowls, turning them into mountains around them. It was truly grand in scale.
During this period, Senior Gem Emperor never made her move. Instead, she looked at the efforts of the others with the attitude of onlookers, as if she had no interest in participating at all.
Wang Lu didn’t give them much time, only three hours in total. In terms of the number and cleaning difficulty of these bowls, most people could clean thousands of them without any mistakes. For example, the elites of the sixteen-night villa could clean more than twenty thousand bowls. Of course, compared to the three million bowls in this competition, it was still a drop in the bucket.
Then, after sparing no effort to prepare so many dirty bowls, did Wang Lu deliberately leave a large margin, or…
At this time, Senior Gem Emperor finally made her move.
She did only two moves.
The first move was to extend her right hand and lift it up slightly.
This action was to lift the whole mountain of bowls.
The second move was to separate her left and right hand up and down. Suddenly the result was there!
The whole mountain of bowls was buzzing and shaking. Numerous tiny dirt swarmed out from all corners of the bowl mountain. They were peeled off from the bowls by an invisible force, gathered, and then the whole mountain of bowls was rapidly lifted up to the sky. In an instant, a dark cloud appeared in the sky. Right at this moment, there was a stream of fire in the sky, which immediately ignited the entire dark cloud and dyed the sky red with blood.
Shrouded with blood, the whole mountain of bowls fell down under the influence of gravity.
Bang!
A dull noise was heard. The mountain of bowls fell to the ground, slightly shaking the ground. However, this was far less than the shock in the heart of the crowd when they watched the whole process.
What exactly happened just now?
People’s hearts and spirits were in turmoil, but Senior Gem Emperor did not wait for them.
“All right, the cleaning is done, can we end this farce now?”
As she spoke, Senior Gem Emperor turned her eyes to the arena podium.
Wang Lu had been waiting there for a long time.
“Hahaha, you are indeed worthy to be the omniscient and omnipotent leader of the Earth Immortal. Truly an eye-opener. However, today’s schedule is very tight, so let’s not waste time. The next match is a circus performance. Let’s begin!”
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“… Do you guys think people of Beast Taming School could cry?”
In Wang Lu’s private courtyard in Immortal Five Area, he idly rotated his writing brush and asked the secretaries around him.
Some of the secretaries, who were temporarily transferred from Heavenly Sage Hall, were not familiar with Wang Lu’s working style. In the face of this question, they were nervous and didn’t know how to answer.
When they thought about the scene that happened not long ago… perhaps there were people of Beast Taming School that actually cried.
The Chief Secretary Hai Yunfan sighed. “It was indeed terrible… In the field that they are expert at, they were being played like a monkey. In the eyes of millions of people, they completely lost their faces. I’m afraid those who participated in the match would find it hard to get away from the heart demon obstruction in the future. I completely didn’t expect that Senior Gem Emperor would suddenly turn hostile in this match after behaving very nicely in the previous matches.”
Wang Lu smiled as he said, “That’s normal. In the first three matches, everything was fair and aboveboard. On the one hand, she needed to show her absolute crushing strength. On the other hand, she couldn’t discard the Emperor’s leniency and kindness—at least in contrast to the man in black’s killing. So, of course, she deliberately made herself look good. However, in today’s three matches, the first test was a test of intelligence. But since the dish washing match, it was clear that I was playing tricks on her. So it’s strange if she didn’t give a little punishment.”
After Wang Lu’s explanation, the cultivators in the room finally felt enlightened. However, soon some people realized the deeper content and couldn’t help but opened their eyes wide and showed an inconceivable look.
Hai Yunfan straightforwardly asked, “So, you have already expected this result?”
Wang Lu said, “I didn’t expect it to happen—how could it be easy to guess the action of Senior Gem Emperor. However, to slap people, of course, you must be prepared to turn over your cheek. So this result can’t be said to be unexpected, hahaha.”
“… In the end, it’s intentional. How much do you hate the Beast Taming School? Was this due to your past grievance against them? Right now you’re already in Jindan Stage, why do you remember the past’s slight so dearly?”
Wang Lu waved hand and said, “If I still keep my grudge for Beast Taming School, it’s really easy to toss them around with my authority in the past six months.”
“Well, that’s true…” Hai Yunfan thought for a moment and realized, “Nevertheless, according to your plan, there must always a sect to be used as a guinea pig, and as it happened, Beast Taming School was the perfect match.”
Wang Lu said, “Yes, a sage said that internally, one must not shun relatives, while externally one must not shun a virtuous person. I was just acting in accordance with the words of the sage.”
Hai Yunfan said with emotion, “… If you keep being this shameless, sooner or later, you’re going to become a sage.” After a pause, he asked again, “By the way, did you see anything related to the secret of Senior Gem Emperor’s omniscience and omnipotence?”
Wang Lu replied, “I have some thoughts, but today after watching the matches all day, I haven’t found any evidence to prove my conjecture. Senior Gem Emperor probably understood that I was using these tricks to test her, so she hid her cards well. The only thing that was clear is that under normal circumstances, she would never be as versatile as she is now.”
Hai Yunfan frowned and asked, “In normal circumstances? Do you think she cheated?”
“Senior Gem Emperor is so proud of herself that she wouldn’t do such things. At most, she used a cheap trick. No, even a cheap trick would betray her personality. However, I could feel that from the bottom of her heart, she felt that today’s matches were beneath her. She thinks of herself as an emperor, so of course, she wouldn’t bother to master these low-lying skills… But yet, she mastered them and is even better than those who are professionals. If she’s not cheating, then what good reason could it be?”
At this point, the answer seemed to be on the verge of coming out into the open. But yet, it seemed to be covered with a veil, making it unclear.
This kind of only-one-step-away-to-the-finish-line feeling was difficult to bear. Hai Yunfan pondered for a long time at his desk before he finally gave up. “Although I have all kinds of guesses, there is no way to make further reasoning according to the current conditions.”
Wang Lu said, “Yes, the information is limited. And it’s meaningless to rely on fantasy. So… it’s time to gather some new information.”
——
An hour later, on an island filled with wind and fog, Wang Lu sat on the ground and ended a long story. He then took a sip of tea and licked his lips and said, “That’s the reason why I came to visit faraway to this place. As for Senior Gem Emperor, I don’t think anyone here knows more than you. So, please tell me, what is the secret of the omniscience and omnipotence of Senior Gem Emperor.”
On the opposite side of Wang Lu, a woman with sad eyes sighed helplessly, “Just to ask this question, you took the risk to come to the broken world to find us? Have you ever thought about what if Senior Gem Emperor discovers you here?”
Wang Lu said, “So what if she discovers me? She has a feud with you, but what that has got to do with you and me? I’m just an unimportant third-party passer-by. As an emperor, surely Senior Gem Emperor wouldn’t be this petty right?”
Xuan Mo smiled bitterly, “Of course she won’t embarrass you because of your friendship with us… But, now you are actively inquiring about the information that you shouldn’t be inquiring about… Well, since you have already come, it’s probably useless for me to advise you to go back. If you want to hear it, then I’ll tell you.”
Wang Lu nodded, “I’m all ears.”
“It’s actually very simple. Your initial thoughts are not wrong.” Xuan Mo whispered, “No one in the world could be omniscient and omnipotent. The legendary figures in the desolation era have their own strengths and their own main paths, but no one excelled in everything. No one. However, although there is no omniscient and omnipotent individual on the planet, there might be an omniscient and omnipotent team of individuals. And as it happens, her ability is to borrow other people’s strength for her to use. Thus, when she needs it, naturally she could be omniscient and omnipotent.”
“Use the power of others for her own use?” Wang Lu frowned slightly and said, “I see. Well, that makes sense. Borrowing the power of others is really an ingenious but aboveboard way of doing things. Senior Gem Emperor regards herself as the emperor, and it’s only natural for an emperor to drive others for their own use. No wonder she dares to challenge us, the entire Union of Ten Thousand Immortals alone. It turns out that it’s the entire Earth Immortal camp who really fights us! She is good!”
After sighing with emotion, he posed another question, “What role did this kind of character play in your camp in the past? How could she get along peacefully with your leader when she is so domineering in character and ability?”
Xuan Mo sighed again, “In those days, although Senior Gem Emperor was a bit headstrong, she was not as arrogant as now. As for her relationship with our leader… It was indeed a bit strange now that I think about it. When our leader is still alive, she was very low-key, and never had a dispute with him. We used to think that it was the charisma and personal prestige of our leader, but it seems that there might be other reasons.”
Wang Lu said, “You basically say that she’s a bully…”
“Senior Gem Emperor… is not that mean. I admire her courage in the battlefield, where she has repeatedly stood up to the strong enemy and sometimes even volunteered to put herself in danger.”
“Oh, your leader has the most charming personality then. So much that even Senior Gem Emperor was willing to bow down? Unfortunately, now it’s back to normal since no one could suppress her… Speaking of which, let me ask another sensitive question.”
Wang Lu paused, waiting until Xuan Mo listened to him carefully to his words before saying, “I have observed that although Senior Gem Emperor is headstrong, she has a broad mind and amazing courage. Especially when compared with you, the contrast is even stronger. I still remember that when you guys have just woken up from deep sleep. When you guys saw us, future cultivators, you guys started arguing that we are not successful and worthy of the inheritance. Your compatriots even planned to uphold being the masters of Nine Regions. Then, there was the Grand Competition. However, this is in contrast to Senior Gem Emperor. When she realized the weakness of the later generations, she thought of offering us help and shelter. In my opinion, Senior Gem Emperor is much kinder and gentler than you guys. So, why was such a gentle person shouted out to kill you guys upon waking up? She could even tolerate us, a strange group of later generation cultivators, but couldn’t accommodate her own compatriots?”
After listening to this, Xuan Mo kept silent for a long time.
There was an answer in her mind, but it was not convenient for her to say it.
“Never mind. You don’t have to force yourself to answer. Your expression now has given me a lot of information.”
Wang Lu stood up and looked around the islands. He then said, “You exiles are obviously still being pursued by Senior Gem Emperor, but it looks like you guys are not forming a group, but instead struggling separately. I’ve been talking with you for so long, but I haven’t even met a third person. Very well, it’s already late now, it’s time for me to go back. I hope that the next time I meet you, it would not be in such a dark and secret place, but out in the open.”
Xuan Mo forced out a smile and said, “I hope so.”
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