9 Is She Dumb?

Elder Mo gave the Vice Sect Master a knowing nod. A simple gesture with his hands caused the ground to rumble once more. Two new sets of pavilions rose from the ground. He kept their colour scheme to the theme he set earlier, bland and grey.

The sudden change of events irritated him the most. Any kind of deviation from an agreed plan grounds his nerves. Blue essence gushed out of his hand as he swiped the air. His spatial ring flickered again. Four slabs intricately crafted with a special wood only found in the Alchemy Haven Realm belonging to the Spectral Haven Sect.

The four slabs were as black as empty outer space. Each slab faced one of the four cardinal directions, floating a few meters above the Immortal Slaying Scroll. The surfaces of the slab lit up with gold light. Little by little, the bright light faded, revealing a list of names packed tightly against each other on its surface in neat columns and rows. The slabs were meant to keep real-time scores of the exam accurate and efficient. One of the Divine Grade Formation Masters within Spectral Haven crafted the Networking Formation that made it possible.

"Are you going to continue standing next to the mirror or are you going to continue your trial? You've wasted enough time already, " he spoke, letting fragments of vitriol spiralling in his emotions escape.

Dong Meirong sighed. The most difficult part of her plan was done. It seemed her understanding of the prince's possible reactions was mostly correct, though she failed to account for the Vice Sect Master interfering at the last moment.

Still, everything went in the general direction she wanted. She moved back from the Immortal Slaying Mirror and regulated her breathing. Her Dao Heart had to be stable this time. It just had to be.

Long Wei didn't pay attention to the girl spitting blood on the floor near Immortal Slaying Mirror. His gaze was directed right at her, but his attention...it was elsewhere. Wrenches in his plans were rarely welcome. Right now he had two shoved up his ass, courtesy of two different people. One was someone he could get rid of cleanly with a bit of aid from his elders and the other would require a lot more influence than the one he had right now.

There was absolutely no logic in getting rid of the Vice Sect Master, regardless of whichever way you thought about it and he doubted a few of his words could convince him otherwise. The girl on the other hand unfortunately had to die.

No one ever needed to know he had a hand in the extinction of a mortal branch of the fabled Zhao Clan. It surprised him that she even knew. Every Zhao Clan member was slaughtered, down to the very chickens and pigs that existed within the mortal plane. He followed the philosophy: a dead witness is the best witness. How did she come to know of it? Where did she get that second Cosmic Bead? Mysteries. Questions. All of which needed unravelling quick and fast.

That left him with one final question. Does he kill her during this exam? With the excessive scrutiny his actions were placed through, the old hands and fists have no eyes technique wouldn't work. Or would it be better to kill her some other time when there was less scrutiny of his actions? But how would he keep her from spilling the information before that?

"I hope our wager is still on? But since the two Cosmic Beads are no longer part of the deal. Let's wager something else. Freedom. If I win first place and gain both beads, then you'll be forced to serve me as a slave for a month. If you win, I'll give you the ability to ask me for anything reasonable and as long as its within my power I'll grant it, along with two Minor God Grade Artefacts, and some Nascent pills. Is that good enough?" Long Wei smirked.

Dong Meirong pinched her chin, falling into thought. Her eyebrows drooped down a bit and creases formed on her forehead. An answer, she had, but the theatrics were far too important to let go. Instantly agreeing to Long Wei's conditions would make others suspicious of her actions. She pursed her lips before finally shooting her gaze right back at Long Wei.

"I'll take the offer, " She said.

"Good."

She shot her spirit sense right into the mirror, signifying the beginning of the trials. As she began her trial, the Transcendent Dao Children flew from their pavilions down to the hastily made ones in the ground. A total of twenty Transcendent Dao Children flew down and sat in the carefully arranged seats separated from the rest of the participants.

Forty Inner Court disciples of Spectral Haven Sect, dressed in pristine white robes and blue shoulder pads, joined the Transcendent Dao Children, quickly filling up the space in the pavilions. Rounds of chatter exploded the moment they sat. Each of them tries their best to network and procure friends for extensive future benefits. The way Elder Mo arranged the floating pavilions made sit impossible previously, but now they finally had a chance.

Spirit sense was the byproduct of a strengthened soul through cultivation. Once one reached the Soul-Formation Realm bits and pieces that form their identity is condensed into a spec of dust-sized seed that is planted into the Sea of Consciousness formed during the Core-Formation Realm. The moment a seed was planted within the Sea of Consciousness, a cultivator gains the ability to spread out their spirit qi over a specific distance.

Often times this spirit qi has been purified to the point where it is no different to the raw qi commonly found in the atmosphere. Communicating and seeing the world from a different perspective was far from the limit of miraculous abilities available to cultivators that planted their soul seed.

Her spirit sense gushed out of her. It slammed into the mirror and absorbed her spirit sense like a bottomless pit. Her mind gradually sunk until the mirror. And when it did, the Immortal Slaying Mirror reacted. Faint pulses of purple light flashed every few seconds. Each flash of light symbolized a passed trial. The goal was to pass the first hundred of the mandatory ones as quickly as possible. The Immortal Slaying Mirror was dubbed such thanks to its insane ability to trap the soul of any being below the God Realms simply by gazing at its reflective surface. Testing ones understanding of one's heart was merely a side effect of the artefact's main purpose.

Dong Meirong felt cold. Awfully so. The frigid temperature was like pin needles sharpened to the sharpest point possible only to pierce her skin. Her arms and legs still functioned. But her thoughts. They were choppy and slow. Each second passed by like an eternity.

The black space faded out as a pink fog rushed to replace the black. Within the fog, traces of images appeared and disappeared every single second. She couldn't make out the exact details of the images, but through the innate feeling thrumming through her heart, she knew it was people. Within minutes the black disappeared, replaced by a thick pink fog.

A few more minutes passed and she heard the giggles of young kids beyond the fog. She wanted to see who those kids were. She started running in and she never stopped. Her goal was to reach the voices as quick as possible. And she did. As she ran after the giggles. The pink fog slowly disappeared. A gigantic house complete with multiple courtyards came to view. Two kids played in the dirt around a fountain built in the centermost courtyard.

"Zhao Yu, Zhao Wu..."

The kids. She knew them. Those two children were her nieces. And if memory... except for their names and tidbits of history, all information pertaining to those two kids no longer existed in her mind. Just as she thought she'd remain confused for a long time, some memories trickled into her mind. She shit her gaze to the entrance of the courtyard. She saw words she found so much comfort in: Zhao Clan, written in strong, broad strokes.

She was back in time? Again? Did he kill her? Again?

Long Wei would opt out of the Dao Heart Test and only do the Survival Test and the Profession Test. He saw no reason to do all three trials and remove everyone's chance of possibly winning the Cosmic Beads. His dropping out of the Dao Heart Test would give everyone else a head start. The Cosmic Beads were his in short. No one within the same generation could beat him in non-artistic positions. The only problem he saw was what he'd do after he gained the two beads.

How was he to handle the problem now? The only constant he knew was his ability to win both beads. The reason she chose to accept his wager? He didn't know and wouldn't care. Maybe a little. Her level of cultivation was far from enough to threaten the top ten rankings.

Unless she wasn't going to take the combat angle to the tests. He finally understood her game plan. She wasn't going to rely on combat to speed through the rankings but through auxiliary professions. How could he slow her down?