As soon as Jian Xingzhi entered the garden, Qin Wanwan pulled Nanfeng and quickly ran to a large tree not far from the garden.
“You hurry and go find out how many people came to today’s Gathering of Beauties, what their identities are, and what their arithmetic levels are like.”
After instructing Nanfeng, Qin Wanwan climbed up the tree herself and gazed down at the situation in the garden from above.
With one look, she was shocked. Although this group had all changed their faces and concealed their identities, she immediately recognized them from their soul light. Besides Shen Zhiming and Jun Shu, there was also one Divine Transformation stage cultivator and one Tribulation Transcendence stage cultivator sitting there.
What was going on? How could there be so many experts here?!
Qin Wanwan was stunned. She swallowed hard, quickly reassured herself to calm down, and immediately changed her strategy.
If there were so many experts here, and Jian Xingzhi’s current body was only at Golden Core stage, he probably couldn’t gain an advantage in artifact refinement. The idea of using artifact refinement to pull up his arithmetic score basically wasn’t feasible.
Qin Wanwan pondered, then raised her hand and brushed it by her ear. A small formation on her ear lit up. She quietly called Jian Xingzhi’s name: “Jian Xingzhi, can you hear me?”
Jian Xingzhi was anxiously tapping the table when he heard Qin Wanwan’s words. His movements paused, and he immediately looked around, somewhat surprised that Qin Wanwan could place this kind of communication formation on him without him noticing.
“I’m in the tree.”
Qin Wanwan reminded him. Jian Xingzhi quickly glanced at the surrounding large trees and locked onto Qin Wanwan’s location. Qin Wanwan whispered to reassure him: “I placed a formation on you. Later during artifact refinement, just refine whatever—don’t waste spiritual consciousness converting spiritual power to compete with them. Your sea of consciousness is unstable, so rest well. Focus on the arithmetic test papers. I’ll sneak in later. You copy down the questions, I’ll help you solve them, and after I finish, you write the answers according to what I tell you.”
Hearing this, Jian Xingzhi’s heart instantly settled. He’d never felt Qin Wanwan was this reliable before.
He drew a formation in his palm to block anyone nearby from eavesdropping, raised his hand to half-cover his mouth, and softly responded: “Mm.”
“Are all of you the City Lord’s guests?”
While Jian Xingzhi was talking with Qin Wanwan, the man in pink clothes next to him seemed bored and started chatting with everyone.
He introduced himself: “I’m Liu Feixu from Flower City. You all don’t look like people from Ghost City.”
With that, Liu Feixu looked at the coughing youth sitting beside him. The youth looked up, smiled at Liu Feixu, and introduced himself: “Ning Buyan from Desolate City.”
After the two gave their names, Xie Gutang also politely introduced himself: “Xie Gutang from Heavenly Sword Sect.”
“Rogue cultivator Jian Xingzhi.”
“Shen Ming from Wenxin Sect.”
“Jun Fan from Lecheng.”
Everyone reported a batch of fake names, but these aliases were all quite characteristic. Qin Wanwan could tell immediately: “All the major sects and factions have sent people. If Shen Zhiming came, it’s probably for the Linglong Jade. Everyone must have received news about the second Linglong Jade fragment appearing in the world.”
As she spoke, Cuilu walked in.
Everyone turned their gazes over to see Cuilu sitting in the main seat: “Today the City Lord is unwell, so I’m selecting someone on the City Lord’s behalf. You all should have heard the rules clearly. Becoming the City Lord’s male companion isn’t such an easy thing. The City Lord often says: scholars ruin the country, artifact refinement strengthens it. Today’s first competition is artifact refinement. You may choose materials freely from what’s available here. Let’s see who can make something more ingenious and valuable.”
Hearing this, everyone began to stand and select materials. Jian Xingzhi had only forged swords before. He’d learned about artifact refinement, but wasn’t skilled at it.
He looked around, thinking about what to make, when flames suddenly whooshed up beside him. Jian Xingzhi jumped in fright and looked at Xie Gutang somewhat bewildered: “You… what are you doing?”
“I don’t know how to make other things,” Xie Gutang smiled. “I only know how to forge swords, so I’ll forge a sword with Samadhi True Fire.”
Samadhi True Fire—in the past, he would have just glanced at it without stopping. But hearing it now, he actually felt somewhat envious. He nodded: “Pretty good, not bad.”
As soon as he finished speaking, a gust of wind mixed with snow swept toward Jian Xingzhi from across the way. Jian Xingzhi rolled on the spot, coldly raised his head, and saw that in front of Ning Buyan appeared a large block of crystal-clear ice with spiritual power flowing through it. Ning Buyan coughed, raised his pale face, and smiled apologetically at Jian Xingzhi: “Sorry.”
With that, he took a carving knife, bent over in front of this ice block, and began carving the large piece of ice.
Jian Xingzhi understood at a glance—this was a cold jade bed. Lying on it to cultivate would not only clear the mind and concentrate the spirit, but also provide warmth in winter and coolness in summer. Jian Xingzhi had owned such a bed before. Carving the bed was simple; the key point was this block of cold jade filled with spiritual power—only someone at Tribulation Transcendence stage could refine it.
It was a good thing, but not something he could make.
Having witnessed Xie Gutang’s and Ning Buyan’s creations, Jian Xingzhi became somewhat flustered. He pretended to be composed as he swept his gaze around and saw Shen Zhiming raise his hand to summon heavenly thunder down, directly striking the table. Electric current crackled and condensed in a ball. The thing wasn’t made yet, but the momentum was already extremely strong.
Liu Feixu beside him was spinning in circles. As he spun, he attracted fluttering butterflies that circled around him.
And there was Jun Shu, desperately playing a flute at an egg on the table. Spiritual power transformed into runes that rapidly fell onto the egg—who knew if he was incubating it or doing something else.
Everyone present was busy working while only Jian Xingzhi stood there stunned, watching them without moving. Cuilu coldly glanced over, looking at Jian Xingzhi: “Jian Xingzhi, aren’t you going to start?”
Start? Start what?
With such a disparity in strength, whatever he refined would be humiliating. He didn’t want to lose face at all.
But Cuilu was watching him. He thought for a moment, then still stood up, grabbed a saw from the side, and pulled over a chair.
If he didn’t know how to do anything else, he’d just perform some carpentry.
He’d make that chair Qin Wanwan had used on him. That thing was easy to manufacture—though ugly, it was quite effective.
Jian Xingzhi conscientiously sawed off the chair’s seat board, drew a formation underneath, took steel knives from the side, and inserted them into the chair one by one.
By the time he finished, everyone else was also about done. Cuilu sat up high and lazily spoke: “Bring everything up.”
With that, servants placed all six people’s creations on the table. Cuilu, along with the judging panel holding paper and brushes, examined each refined item one by one.
“This is a Heart-Clearing Pearl…”
“This is a Thunderbolt Bomb…”
“This is a Cold Jade Bed…”
“This is Butterfly Fireworks…”
“This is a sword.”
From Jun Shu, Shen Ming, Ning Buyan, Liu Feixu to Xie Gutang, the judging panel commented on each item.
“Too ordinary.”
“Too violent.”
“Too large.”
“Too flashy.”
“Too simple.”
With that, the group arrived in front of the chair Jian Xingzhi had made. Cuilu frowned: “What is this thing?”
“This chair is called the ‘Upward Chair.'”
Jian Xingzhi spoke nonsense with a straight face: “Its main function is to supervise people to study diligently. The user squats in a horse stance above it. Once they lose focus while reading, the steel knives below immediately stab upward, guaranteeing the person instantly wakes up and is promptly sent for medical treatment. I relied on this chair to memorize seven thousand poetry collections in seven days. It’s especially useful.”
Hearing this, the judging panel was dumbfounded. Cuilu recovered after a moment and couldn’t help but speak: “With such large steel knives… wouldn’t it stab someone to death?”
“If you don’t want to die, then you should read.”
Jian Xingzhi said with complete composure: “Since you’ve decided to do it, shouldn’t you give it your all?”
This rhetorical question left everyone present stunned. In the tree, Qin Wanwan listened to Jian Xingzhi’s words and raised her hand to cover her face.
It’s over. Let’s just pretend this round doesn’t exist.
Just as she was thinking this, she heard an exclamation burst from the crowd: “Excellent!”
Everyone looked over, shocked to see Cuilu, whose eyes were excited: “You’re right. In the cultivation world, if you’ve decided to do something and don’t do it, you might as well die. I’ve wanted to do this for a long time but couldn’t figure out how to implement it. Pass the order down—make two thousand of these chairs and send them to all the academies in the city!”
With that, Cuilu turned back without hesitation and gave Jian Xingzhi a thumbs up: “I appreciate you. Full marks!”
Qin Wanwan was stunned. She looked at Cuilu in the garden, who was full of admiration for Jian Xingzhi, and couldn’t help but marvel at how vast the world was.
She’d thought Jian Xingzhi was crazy, but she hadn’t expected this Cuilu to be even crazier.
With this decision made, everyone panicked. A moment later, a row of people instantly knelt on the ground.
“Lady Cuilu!”
An elder in the judging panel raised his head: “Lady Cuilu, it’s just losing focus while reading—the punishment doesn’t warrant death!”
That’s right.
Qin Wanwan felt somewhat frightened in her heart. Who hasn’t lost focus while reading?
“Then what should we do?” Cuilu frowned. “I can’t stand seeing people not work hard.”
“How about…” Jian Xingzhi interjected, “changing the steel knives to sharp cones and just poking them a bit?”
Compared to being stabbed to death directly, just poking seemed trivial.
Everyone quickly echoed in agreement and cast grateful looks at Jian Xingzhi. Cuilu hesitated for a moment. Seeing everyone’s opposition, she seemed somewhat helpless: “Fine, then let’s do that.”
Cuilu turned around, reverting to her usual cold demeanor, and picked up her brush: “Let’s score.”
With that, she unhesitatingly gave Jian Xingzhi full marks in his column.
The others following behind her, out of both awe of Cuilu and gratitude to Jian Xingzhi, also gave Jian Xingzhi full marks.
This unexpected turn caught Qin Wanwan completely off guard. The faces of the other several people immediately didn’t look good. They exchanged glances, but no one spoke.
After a brief rest, Cuilu had everyone sit down, then announced the second examination would begin.
“The second round tests arithmetic. There are ten questions total. Answer one correctly for ten points, answer incorrectly and lose ten points. You have the time of one incense stick. Begin.”
After Cuilu finished speaking, she had someone strike the gong and drum. Maids came from both sides and began distributing test papers.
As soon as they received the papers, everyone’s expressions didn’t look good. But after hesitating for a moment, everyone still picked up their brushes and began scribbling on scratch paper.
Jian Xingzhi also followed Qin Wanwan’s instructions and began copying the questions. But as soon as he started copying, he realized—it was over. The questions were too long.
He began copying faster, while Qin Wanwan, from the moment the second examination started, had been preparing outside. She waited for the tea-serving maid to come out, then knocked the maid unconscious with a chop, used Thousand Faces to change into the maid’s face, and carried the tea inside.
She started changing tea from Shen Zhiming’s position. With one glance at Shen Zhiming’s paper, she saw his expression was grave, as if he was thinking seriously. She looked and saw written on the scratch paper:
“Clear the heart and purify desire, no impatience, no anger”
“Without desire, one is strong; if you can’t solve it, just accept it”
Qin Wanwan curled her lip and moved to Jun Shu.
She saw Jun Shu drawing horizontal lines on his scratch paper. After drawing horizontal lines, he drew vertical ones. After vertical lines, more horizontal ones. But his face was calm and composed, as if he’d already solved the answers.
Qin Wanwan: “…”
What a poser.
She carried the tea to Liu Feixu. Liu Feixu was quite carefree, drinking tea while drawing pictures, apparently having completely given up.
Next to Liu Feixu was Ning Buyan. This young master was quite serious in answering, writing and drawing on paper, but what he wrote were self-consoling phrases like ‘three plus five equals eight.’ Clearly, he wasn’t capable either.
Having looked at all these people’s papers, she stopped in front of Xie Gutang. Looking at Xie Gutang’s scratch paper that finally looked somewhat proper, in that moment, Qin Wanwan felt Xie Gutang had formed an intellectual crushing advantage over the others.
She placed the tea in front of Xie Gutang, her voice very soft: “Please have some tea, young master.”
Xie Gutang didn’t notice it was her. He looked up and politely thanked her: “Thank you, miss.”
With that, she walked to Jian Xingzhi’s side. Jian Xingzhi recognized her at a glance. Qin Wanwan set down the tea bowl, and Jian Xingzhi reached for the tea. In an instant, the note passed from Jian Xingzhi’s hand to Qin Wanwan’s.
As soon as Qin Wanwan got the note, she left. After exiting, she quickly found a place to open the note. At one glance, it was densely written—but only one question!
This was a combination question—one large question containing ten small questions. Qin Wanwan glanced at the incense in the courtyard. The incense had already burned more than half. She didn’t have much time left!
She gritted her teeth and began calculating rapidly. After calculating once, she calculated again. Jian Xingzhi sat in the examination hall, pretending to scribble on scratch paper.
The scratch paper was scribbled pure black by him, but he still hadn’t received Qin Wanwan’s answer. He couldn’t help but raise his hand to prop up his face, covering his mouth, and asked in a low voice: “Where’s the answer?”
“Don’t make noise, don’t make noise, I’m calculating!”
Qin Wanwan calculated over and over. Jian Xingzhi watched the incense burn bit by bit and gritted his teeth, asking in a low voice: “Can you do it or not?”
“If I can’t, you copy Daoist Xie’s.”
Qin Wanwan responded impatiently. Jian Xingzhi glanced at Xie Gutang and suddenly felt inexplicably angry: “I won’t copy his. Who knows if his score will even be higher than mine.”
“Ugh, just stop talking.”
Qin Wanwan was getting nervous from the problem-solving: “I can barely calculate anymore!”
Although Hua Rong was a cultivation practitioner, his mathematics level was extremely high. The test paper made Qin Wanwan want to cry. After calculating for a long time, she’d only determined one small question’s answer for certain.
She didn’t dare give Jian Xingzhi uncertain answers. She could only calculate again and again.
Watching the incense about to go out, Jian Xingzhi’s palms broke out in cold sweat as he urged her: “Hurry up, the incense is almost gone. Five, four, three…”
“Two chickens!”
Qin Wanwan finally verified the first answer to the first question: “The first answer to the first question is two chickens!”
As soon as Jian Xingzhi got the words, he heard the gong sound. The maids began coming down to collect papers. The maid grabbed the paper, and Jian Xingzhi pressed it down with one hand, using his hand to cover the paper while quickly writing: Two.
Just after finishing writing, the paper was pulled away. Jian Xingzhi breathed a sigh of relief and began to resign himself to fate.
More accurately, wait for death.
Cuilu took the papers to the side to grade them. Everyone present except Jian Xingzhi seemed as if they’d just experienced a great battle—drinking tea, wiping sweat. Jian Xingzhi looked coldly at everyone, raised his hand to his lips, used a formation to hide his voice, and chatted with Qin Wanwan.
“Beicheng, I think I’m done for. I definitely can’t pass the exam.”
“Master, don’t belittle yourself.”
Qin Wanwan redressed the unconscious maid and urged Jian Xingzhi: “They might be even worse than you.”
“I only wrote the word ‘two,’ at most one point.”
Jian Xingzhi propped his face: “I’m afraid we need to change our strategy.”
“Master, change your perspective,” Qin Wanwan finished tidying the maid, changed back to her own face, and patted the dirt off her hands. “At most you’ll just lose one point. Just wait.”
After all, inside was a group of Divine Transformation cultivators who hadn’t even graduated from elementary school mathematics. Nothing to fear.
Although Qin Wanwan comforted him this way, Jian Xingzhi was still uneasy. He waited anxiously for a while until Cuilu finally came out holding the papers. She waved her hand, and the maid beside her began announcing scores.
“Shen Ming, all wrong, minus one hundred points.”
Hearing this, Shen Ming’s expression changed dramatically. Jun Shu cast a puzzled look. Shen Ming stiffened his neck: “There’s a problem with your papers.”
Cuilu looked over coldly: “Your own arithmetic is poor and you blame the papers. Have you no shame.”
The maid ignored this interruption and continued announcing: “Jun Shu, minus ninety.”
“Liu Feixu, zero points.”
“Ning Buyan, minus fifty.”
“Xie Gutang, minus ten points.”
“Jian Xingzhi…”
The maid spoke, then looked up at Jian Xingzhi. Everyone looked over to see the maid smile: “One point.”
In this examination of great experts, one point reigned supreme.
Jian Xingzhi felt relieved and smiled. The maid warmly announced: “For this Gathering of Beauties, the one with the highest total score is Jian Xingzhi. Please rest well and wash up today, Young Master Jian. Tonight, the City Lord will send someone to bring you to attend his bed. Please prepare well.”
With that, the maid looked up, her smile somehow carrying a trace of coldness: “Congratulations.”
As soon as she finished speaking, the system’s voice rang out in Jian Xingzhi’s mind.
【Congratulations to the host for completing ‘Task Seven’: successfully entering Elegant Pavilion, entering the City Lord’s Manor, becoming City Lord Hua Rong’s most beloved man. Points +500, total points 1900】
【Please receive Task Eight: Perfect Hostage—assist the female lead in having a highlight moment and obtaining the Linglong Jade】
【Romance Task: Have the female lead spend alone with Xie Gutang for more than half a shichen. Points +100】
Hearing this task, Jian Xingzhi was stunned: “Why Xie Gutang?”
Wasn’t it previously any handsome guy with looks above 90 points?
And—
“Why are the points so high?!”
He’d been conscientiously fighting monsters until now and only earned 500 points, but his delicate little disciple spending half a shichen alone with Xie Gutang gave 100?!
“Well,” 666 was somewhat afraid. “The main system detected that the female lead currently has the highest favorability toward Xie Gutang. The female lead’s romance line is inherently quite valuable…”
Hearing this, Jian Xingzhi couldn’t believe it: “Highest favorability toward Xie Gutang? What about me?! I’m her master!”
666 fell silent. Jian Xingzhi reacted: “Could I actually be inferior to Xie Gutang?!”
“Well,” 666 comforted him, “perhaps in the main system’s calculations, romantic love and master-disciple affection are separate.”
This comfort made Jian Xingzhi even angrier, but ultimately he felt somewhat uncomfortable.
The maid beside them began tidying up. Xie Gutang stood up and respectfully called to Jian Xingzhi: “Senior, let’s go. Miss Qin is still waiting for us outside.”
Hearing this, Jian Xingzhi’s gaze swept over with cold eyes fixed on Xie Gutang.
He looked at the 45 above Xie Gutang’s head, and anger instantly flared up.
Xie Gutang saw Jian Xingzhi wasn’t speaking and called again: “Senior?”
“I’m warning you,” Jian Xingzhi raised his hand and pointed at Xie Gutang. “Don’t casually hit my disciple…”
Before he finished speaking, a long-absent electric current crackled through Jian Xingzhi’s entire body. The soft hair on top of Jian Xingzhi’s head immediately stood on end. Jian Xingzhi maintained the motion of pointing at Xie Gutang, frozen in place.
666 spoke with difficulty: “Well, the female lead’s romance line cannot be destroyed.”
Jian Xingzhi: “…”
Xie Gutang saw Jian Xingzhi suddenly freeze with his hair standing on end. He didn’t quite understand what happened and hesitantly spoke: “Senior, what were you saying about hitting Miss Qin?”
“She’s my disciple,” Jian Xingzhi recovered and decided when the enemy advances, I retreat; when the enemy retreats, I attack—he wouldn’t directly confront the electric current. He held his breath and rounded out his words. “You’re not allowed to casually hit her.”
Hearing this, Xie Gutang laughed.
He lowered his head, seeming somewhat embarrassed: “Senior jests. With Miss Qin’s such fine temperament, how would this junior hit her?”
Fine temperament?
Not hit her?
Miss Qin?
Jian Xingzhi listened and couldn’t help clenching his fists. He didn’t know why, but he just felt that while Xie Gutang didn’t want to hit Qin Wanwan, he wanted to hit Xie Gutang.
But he couldn’t display this baseless anger—it would seem too immature, too damaging to his image. He could only use coded language to fiercely retaliate.
“She’s not called Miss Qin,” he darkly mocked Xie Gutang for knowing nothing about Qin Wanwan, to elevate his own position. “She’s called Gu, Bei, Cheng.”
—
**Author’s Note:**
**[Mini Theater 1]**
Cuilu: If you don’t work hard, you should die.
Author (kneeling): It’s just not working hard—the punishment doesn’t warrant death!!
**[Mini Theater 2]**
Gathering of Beauties scene:
– Upon entry: A group of great experts, winds and clouds unpredictable
– During exam: Great experts are amazing, Simple Dog in danger
– After exam: Noobs pecking at each other, a bunch of illiterates
Summary: It’s not that Simple Dog has no culture—in the cultivation world, NO ONE has culture
**[Mini Theater 3]**
Xie Gutang: “Miss Qin lets me call her Qin Wanwan.”
Jian Xingzhi: “No, she’s called Gu Beicheng.”
Xie Gutang: “Miss Qin takes great care of me, never abandons me, never sells me.”
Jian Xingzhi: “She’s violent, temperamental, always beats me up, abandons me, sells me.”
Xie Gutang: “I’ve never hurt Miss Qin and am always rescuing her.”
Jian Xingzhi: “I always hit her, tell her, become strong so you won’t need me to rescue you, and we can join forces to attack Jishan and avenge our master!”
Xie Gutang: “So it’s normal that my favorability is highest, isn’t it?”
Jian Xingzhi: “…”