On and off the platform, there was complete silence. Only the gray-robed woman holding the staff smiled as she looked at everyone.

“This… what exactly happened?” After a moment, a disciple asked in confusion.

They had only seen Feng Hu raise his Tiger Claw Spear to thrust at Zanxing, but then suddenly stopped his movement, allowing Zanxing to circle behind him and knock him off the competition platform with one strike of her staff.

Among the one hundred and twenty newly admitted disciples, though Feng Hu couldn’t be considered top-tier, he wasn’t exactly a nobody either. Now, being beaten so miserably by Zanxing, a disciple whose name they’d never heard before, was truly hard to believe.

Though they had earlier joked about the two having a romantic relationship, everyone knew it was just teasing. Moreover, Feng Hu had been fighting quite fiercely before this, but at the crucial moment, for some unknown reason, he seemed to be possessed by a ghost.

“This little girl…” Xuan Lingzi frowned, wanting to comment but not knowing how to evaluate the situation, his voice catching in his throat.

Meanwhile, Yueguang Daoren, seeing this, spoke in shock: “She comprehended ‘Jing Hua Shui Yue’?”

“What is that?”

“The first level of ‘Qing E Nian Hua Gun’ – Jing Hua Shui Yue. I once saw Qinghua Xianzi use it. For this little girl to learn the first level in just over ten days is already remarkable, but she’s only mastered half the technique.”

“Half the technique?”

“She only has ‘Shui Yue’ but not ‘Jing Hua.’ However, even so, it’s quite impressive.” Yueguang Daoren looked at Xuan Lingzi with a hint of envy: “One ‘Five Elements God-Breaking Art,’ one ‘Qing E Nian Hua Gun’ – Junior Brother, your luck is quite good.”

Xuan Lingzi smiled until his eyes became slits, cupping his hands in mock humility: “It’s still thanks to Senior Brothers’ discerning eyes.”

The announcing disciple called out emotionlessly: “Group thirty-six, Yang Zanxing wins—”

Zanxing walked down from the competition platform. Tian Fangfang eagerly came forward and punched her shoulder: “Not bad, Junior Sister! I was breaking out in a cold sweat for you, but I didn’t expect you to be so strong. What technique did you use just now? How did that tiger head suddenly stop moving?”

“Trade secret,” Zanxing replied evasively.

“It seems your cultivation is progressing well.” Duan Xiangrao walked over, her gaze hiding ill intent, though she smiled: “I hope in the second round, you and I can be opponents.”

Zanxing felt that Duan Xiangrao’s hostility toward her came out of nowhere. Logically speaking, Wang Shao was already in the past, and Duan Xiangrao already had a new boyfriend. No matter what, there was no reason for the two of them to have a conflict. If she had to say, it was probably because Zanxing had taken away the golden finger Xiaoyuan Pearl. In taking on the protagonist’s halo, she was also forced to activate enemy-making mode. As the protagonist of a power fantasy novel, there would always be various people coming forward to become enemies and get face-slapped.

Just as Mu Cengxiao’s opponent was Hua Yue, this plot line had now forcibly created an enemy for her, too – Duan Xiangrao.

After Duan Xiangrao left, Tian Fangfang asked quietly: “Did you offend Junior Sister Duan somewhere?”

Zanxing answered: “I didn’t.”

“Impossible,” Tian Fangfang insisted stubbornly. “Junior Sister Duan is beautiful, has high cultivation, and has a kind and gentle personality. Unless you did something wrong, why would she speak to you like that?”

Zanxing: “…You call that a kind and gentle personality?”

“Yes!”

Hah, men.

The remaining twenty-plus groups finished their matches quickly. Duan Xiangrao and Hua Yue unsurprisingly advanced to the second round. After the first round, those who didn’t pass the assessment lost their qualification to become inner disciples.

The second round assessment would begin in the afternoon and would be more intense and cruel, with opponents of similar cultivation levels.

The disciples awaiting assessment could now eat and rest. After an hour and a half, they would gather here again to draw lots anew.

Zanxing and Tian Fangfang went to eat lunch together. During the meal, Zanxing noticed many people discussing her from afar. She asked Tian Fangfang: “Why are they looking at me like this?”

“Of course it’s because you knocked Feng Hu off the platform with one move!” Tian Fangfang said while picking up food with his chopsticks: “I actually performed pretty well today too, but now all the attention has been stolen by you and that young man called Mu Cengxiao. Junior Sister Zanxing, I’m getting jealous of you.”

Zanxing thought to herself: Good heavens, Mu Cengxiao has the male protagonist’s natural halo, and she has the golden finger Xiaoyuan Pearl. One mountain cannot contain two tigers, and one novel cannot have two protagonists… unless they’re the male and female leads. But she didn’t want to become Mu Cengxiao’s ninth wife. Following this plot development, would she end up opposing Mu Cengxiao?

She felt something was off.

While thinking, her palm suddenly felt a sharp pain. Zanxing’s hand trembled, and her chopsticks fell on the table. She looked at her palm, where a vague mark had appeared at some point, bearing a light red color. Zanxing instinctively rubbed it hard with her finger, but it wouldn’t come off, as if it had grown from within her palm.

“Junior Sister, why are you staring at your hand?” Tian Fangfang asked.

Zanxing quickly closed her palm, covering the red mark, and said: “It’s nothing.” For some reason, a wave of unease suddenly surged in her heart.

After finishing their meal and resting in the dining hall for a short while, Zanxing and Tian Fangfang returned to the competition platform together.

On the competition platform, compared to the morning, there were half as many participants, but even more spectators. The older disciples of the Taiyan Sect had been in classes during the morning, but now that they had free time in the afternoon, they all came to watch the new disciples’ sect assessment.

As soon as Zanxing approached, she immediately felt many gazes directed at her.

“This is the disciple who defeated Feng Hu? How is it a woman?”

“Being a woman is one thing, but she’s also an ugly woman. Facing such an ugly woman, Feng Hu shouldn’t have held back at all.”

Such foul comments continued endlessly. Looking carefully, most of them came from disciples who had failed the morning assessment and were causing trouble from the sidelines.

Zanxing ignored them completely. Before long, Zi Luo arrived. The lot containers filled with wooden lots floated toward each of the second-round assessment disciples. Zanxing heard Duan Xiangrao, after drawing her lot, complain to Hua Yue: “I drew group thirty, the last group. It’s nerve-wracking.”

Hua Yue comforted her gently: “It’s fine, I’ll wait for you.” He seemed very confident that the inner disciple positions were definitely in their pocket.

Tian Fangfang drew group eight, and he was very satisfied with this order, beaming with joy: “This number is good – auspicious and celebratory. Just hearing it means getting rich!”

Zanxing reached out and took a wooden lot from the container.

The wooden lot felt ice-cold in her hand. She looked up, and the first thing she saw was a red “3” on the lot. Immediately, she had a bad premonition. When she saw the characters “thirty,” she felt darkness before her eyes, and her heart gradually sank. For a long while, she couldn’t recover.

She was now experiencing the malice from the original story.