Chapter 12: The Bodhisattva

The main point was that this guy was treating Yonglu Mountain’s Mountain Exam as a complete joke!

Once this was over, if Zhao Qi couldn’t throw Zheng Jin into the Discipline Hall for a couple of days, he might as well resign from his position as the Discipline Hall elder.

“Look at this yourself. What kind of dharma treasure is this?”

Little Martial Uncle Zheng replied, “Isn’t this… pretty good? This Wind Treasure Gourd is something I specifically use to blow fire into my alchemy furnace. It’s got plenty of kick. I even hand-set every single gem on the lid myself. I was actually wondering where it had gone these past couple of days.” As it turned out, he had accidentally dropped it into the Mountain Exam.

Never mind Zhao Qi, even Sect Master Gu Wufang felt a headache coming on. “So, you are saying there aren’t fifteen dharma treasures, but sixteen?”

Zheng Jin shook his head. “How does this count as one? This gourd is just a toy I use to start fires. It only stores wind power, and the Yonglu Mountain seal on the bottom is already worn away. Besides”

That kid was just unlucky. If he had gone up against anyone else while using the Wind Treasure Gourd, it might have given him some advantage. But it just so happened that the little blind kid had obtained the Dingfengbo Fan. That fan could shoot wind blades, but it could also absorb wind power. The Wind Treasure Gourd going up against it was purely a case of delivering a gift from a thousand miles away, and the kind where the gift was heavy but the sentiment was shallow^[1].

“I’m afraid this Li kid simply isn’t destined for our Yonglu Mountain.”

Zheng Jin acted entirely on whim, with absolutely no sense of propriety. However, Yonglu Mountain had always been fiercely protective of its own. Zhao Qi could drag him to the Discipline Hall and lock him in solitary confinement afterward, but he would not interfere with the progress of the Mountain Exam just because a dharma treasure had been misplaced.

This was not because they did not take the Mountain Exam seriously, but because this minor change would not affect the overall progress of the exam. The disciples Yonglu Mountain sought were never rigid, rule-bound conformists.

Li Zishen’s cultivation was decent, and he came from a good background, but the cultivation world was teeming with people like him. Yonglu Mountain did not lack for one more.

Meanwhile, back in the exam, Wen Xu had seen Bian Chunzhou in danger. In his haste, he had swung a wind blade to block the attack, hoping to buy his friend some time to escape. He had not expected it to actually work!

Because he was pretending to be blind, he could not see what kind of dharma treasure Li Zishen was holding. But the moment he swung the wind blade, he felt the folding fan in his hand tremble slightly. At the same time, he sensed a wave of joy radiating from it.

Joy? Why was it joyful?

Wen Xu was puzzled, but in the next moment, Bian Chunzhou’s voice rang out, “Wen Xuxu, quick, quick, quick! The wind vortexes are coming again! This Li guy has a gourd like Great King Golden Horn’s^[2], the kind that can unleash wind vortexes!”

What kind of nonsense was that?

Wen Xu decided that once they entered the sect, he would properly teach his friend how to express himself clearly. Otherwise, they might not be so lucky next time.

Because this time, Wen Xu had strangely understood him instantly, and he had also discovered the reason for the folding fan’s joy.

This really was a case of Bodhisattva Li^[3] coming to their rescue.

Wen Xu could not help but curl his lips. In the next moment, the folding fan flew out of his hand. He had not bound the fan to himself, so once it left his hand, it began to rapidly absorb all the surrounding wind based on instinct, which naturally included the mini-hurricanes unleashed by the Wind Treasure Gourd.

Li Zishen was dumbfounded. He had not expected this trashy fan to be used this way! Was this really a low-grade dharma treasure? Yonglu Mountain, is your definition of a low-grade dharma treasure completely disconnected from the rest of the world?!

Just as Li Zishen was cursing Yonglu Mountain’s ancestors in his mind, Chen Zui had already quietly approached with his saber. By the time Li Zishen noticed, it was already too late.

Chen Zui’s saber struck the hand Li Zishen was using to hold the gourd.

“Ah!”

Li Zishen collapsed with a cry, and the Wind Treasure Gourd fell into Chen Zui’s hand.

Chen Zui pinned Li Zishen down with his saber to keep him from fighting back, while using his other hand to cap the gourd, casually weighing it in his palm. “A clan of growers, and yet so mediocre. We’ll be taking this gourd. Do the three of you still want to fight me? If you do, I’ll gladly accommodate you!”

In Li Zishen’s team, one was at the fifth level of Qi Refining and two were at the fourth level. All of them had received favors from the Li family to some degree. Their participation in the Yonglu Mountain exam was supposed to be an escort mission for the crown prince’s coronation. They had not expected Crown Prince Li’s grand enterprise to collapse halfway through. With things having escalated to this point, it was no longer as simple as sacrificing themselves to get Li Zishen through the Mountain Exam.

Li Zishen, however, was completely consumed by rage. He had lived a charmed life since childhood, with his family pouring resources into his cultivation and his elders catering to his every whim. He was nineteen years old this year and already at the sixth level of Qi Refining. How many in the cultivation world could boast a higher cultivation level at his age?

He had also tested his spiritual roots long ago. Although he did not have a single wood spiritual root, he possessed an excellent dual water-wood spiritual root, with the water element making up only a small portion. Once he joined a sect, if he could obtain a root-cleansing pill or treasure to purge the water element, he would become a genius with a single wood spiritual root.

In truth, Li Zishen had wanted to join the Hehe Sect, but the Hehe Sect was vast and teeming with geniuses. Thus, he had followed his family’s arrangements to seek entry into Yonglu Mountain instead.

He had never expected that a penniless mortal would steal his spotlight during the preliminary trial, and now he was even…

Li Zishen completely lost his mind. “Kill them! Do it! Grab the fan!”

The faces of the other three paled at his words. Repaying a debt of gratitude was one thing, but if they actually listened to Li Zishen and committed murder on Yonglu Mountain, they would never be able to show their faces in the cultivation world again.

What was wrong with the Li family? After spending so much effort, they had raised a brainless fool? Did this make any sense? He was practically trying to start a feud with Yonglu Mountain!

Once the Wind Treasure Gourd was capped, the wind vortexes in the air quickly subsided. As if possessed of a spirit, the folding fan drifted back to Wen Xu’s side. With a gentle sway, it landed right in his hand.

Afterward, its aura became perfectly peaceful, showing none of the explosive temper of the rabid dog that had been snapping at everyone just moments ago.

“Have the three of you still not made up your minds?” Wen Xu gently tapped the folding fan against his palm, looking for all the world like a very good-tempered person.

The three of them: …

Li Zishen was so furious that he began cursing them on the spot. Unfortunately, his vocabulary was lacking. Instead of successfully insulting them, he was thoroughly roasted by a fully recovered Bian Chunzhou, ultimately passing out from sheer rage.

“With a temperament like that, he wants to cultivate? If he set up a stall at the village entrance, the local elders would probably drive him away because his handwriting is too ugly.” Bian Chunzhou brushed his hands off in disgust. “What do we do now?”

Chen Zui had already knocked the others unconscious one by one, lining the four of them up neatly. “Go snatch their magical artifacts, of course!”

“But what if they…”

“If we can beat them once, we can beat them a second time!”

Chen Zui spoke plainly, but his words carried absolute confidence. Besides, a fair and square duel was far more appealing than underhanded, petty schemes.

On the screen wall, although the Alchemy Peak and the Refining Peak were fighting over Wen Xu, Chen Zui was also highly sought after. Pure-hearted and exceptionally talented, he was the ideal disciple in the eyes of many.

In fact, besides the two of them, several other candidates had also performed brilliantly. It was clear that Yonglu Mountain would definitely recruit a batch of highly talented disciples this time.

Sect Master Gu Wufang’s brow smoothed out. “How are the preparations for the Heart-Inquiry Realm?”

“They have long been ready. Once the Mountain Exam ends, the candidates who pass will automatically enter the Heart-Inquiry Realm.”

The Heart-Inquiry Realm, as the name suggested, was to test one’s Dao heart, one’s true self, and one’s resolve to cultivate and ascend. If one’s heart was not firm and wavered easily, then no matter how high their talent, they would never cultivate any true virtue.

If one’s character was crooked and their desires too heavy, they might do fine in the early stages, but when the heavenly tribulations struck in the later stages, the number of those who perished halfway was countless. Naturally, Yonglu Mountain wanted to recruit disciples with both excellent character and talent.

Of course, every sect was the same, doing their best to select the most suitable disciples from the available pool. There was nothing to criticize about that.

Meanwhile, in the Mountain Exam, thanks to “Bodhisattva Li” delivering himself from a thousand miles away, the combat power of Wen Xu’s team skyrocketed. The three of them consisted of a melee fighter, a ranged attacker, and a diplomatic ambassador. In short, they fought when they could win, and sat down for friendly negotiations when they couldn’t. By the time the Mountain Exam neared its end, not only did all three of them have a magical artifact in hand, but they had also made a tidy profit by running a business to help others find theirs.

Of course, Chen Zui had initially disagreed, but unfortunately… his pockets were empty. His mother had told him that when away from home, he could be a little flexible for the sake of spirit stones. After some thought, he decided to bow his head slightly to the spirit stones.

Thus, the three penniless wretches happily formed a united front.

The watching Yonglu Mountain elders: …You kids certainly have some wild methods.

Actually, Bian Chunzhou had proposed this in the first place. It wasn’t because he was crazed by poverty and had decided to make a quick buck off the candidates during the exam, but because Chen Zui simply couldn’t be stopped once he started fighting.

Once he fought, he couldn’t be stopped, and when he couldn’t be stopped, he snatched their magical artifacts. The key was that Wen Xuxu always managed to stumble upon magical artifacts by accident. As a result, they accumulated more and more artifacts, and their combat power grew stronger and stronger. If this continued, they would probably provoke public outrage.

Bian Chunzhou realized this wouldn’t do, but giving away the artifacts for free felt like too much of a loss. So… they resorted to bartering. Spirit stones, talismans, pills-anything was fine. As long as the price was right, they could trade for anything. First come, first served, while supplies last.

Wen Xu, who had previously only studied hard: …Understood.

“Is this the finish line? It looks a bit like the road we take down the mountain to Langyuan City.” As Bian Chunzhou spoke, he looked around for the Yonglu Mountain disciples, wanting to hand over the magical artifacts as soon as possible, and then… cough, split their harvest.

To his surprise, after searching for a long time, he couldn’t find Elder Zhao of Yonglu Mountain, let alone any other… wait, why was someone lying over there? Judging by his clothes, he should be an outer disciple of Yonglu Mountain.

The three of them walked closer to take a look. Good grief, the injuries were incredibly severe. As a former college student, Bian Chunzhou had never seen such a bloody scene before. His stomach churned instantly, but he forced himself to suppress the urge to vomit.

Right then, the outer disciple spoke with sheer willpower despite his broken body:

“Run… run! It’s a specter… a Red-Clothed^[4]… Specter is running rampant at the foot of the mountain!” With that, he passed out.

What? A specter?

Chen Zui held his saber, his expression solemn. “You two, take him to Yonglu Mountain to get help quickly.”

“And you?”

“Me?” Chen Zui wore an eager expression. “I’m going to meet this Red-Clothed Specter!”