Chapter 144 – Just What Did You Do in Your Past Life?

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

(TN: Way of Choices will be on break from December 25th, 2017 – January 7, 2018)

A punch, and then another punch, but it was still just a punch. It was not any sort of technique, disregarded any sort of magical artifacts, did not seem to use any true essence. It was just strength and speed. Just what sort of method was this?

It must be said that the Orthodox Academy of the past was certainly not like this. Both teachers and students all possessed exquisite and profound Daoist techniques. They conducted themselves with an unworldly air, exuding the aura of Daoist masters.

To many elders within the Orthodoxy, the Orthodox Academy's beginning to take new students again was a symbol of many things. They had originally thought that ten-some years of time was just a grain of sand in the endless span of history and that many things had not changed. As long as the Orthodox Academy could revive, it would regain the grandeur of its past. They had not imagined that the present Orthodox Academy was no longer the Orthodox Academy they remembered. Although Xuanyuan Po and Chen Changsheng had gained consecutive victories, the style the Orthodox Academy once possessed had ceased to be. This thought inevitably inspired in the Li Palace priest and many other examiners in the Hall of Was.h.i.+ng Away Dust a rather mixed set of feelings.

A mirror of light floated over the floor of the Hall of s.h.i.+ning Words. A few green leaves were carved on the bottom-right corner of the mirror, and the mirror displayed the events within the Hall of s.h.i.+ning Words. As the people within the hall watched Chen Changsheng leave, watched the door slowly close, they could not help but feel the same as those examiners.

At this moment, many powerful figures were present in the Hall of s.h.i.+ning Words: Prince Chen Liu and Mo Yu, Archbishop Mei Lisha, the princ.i.p.als and bishops of the capital's Ivy Academies, the representatives of the military Xue Xingchuan and Xu s.h.i.+ji, Lord Zhou Tong seated by himself in a corner, and a few representatives from the sects of the south. At this moment, they were all looking at Princ.i.p.al Mao Qiuyu of the Heavenly Dao Academy. His student had just suffered a miserable defeat at the hands of Chen Changsheng, and some people recognized that oil paper umbrella to be the magical artifact that Mao Qiuyu had brought along with him in his youth as he traversed the continent. Thus, everyone thought that his mood was probably quite poor. Yet, unlike what they imagined, Mao Qiuyu did not display any anger on his face. His expression was as calm as usual.

As the crowd did not see any change of expression on Mao Qiuyu's face, they subconsciously turned to the archbishop, but discovered that this elder still had his eyes shut as if asleep. This was naturally a display of extreme confidence towards Chen Changsheng and the Orthodox Academy. Earlier, some people thought that this confidence might become a joke, but unexpectedly, Chen Changsheng had been able to win a clean and smooth victory in his first match, so they could not help but think that it was them that might become the joke.

Whether it was the examiners in the Hall of Was.h.i.+ng Away Dust or the important personages watching the events through the mirror of light in the Hall of s.h.i.+ning Words, they had all been shocked by Chen Changsheng's performance. They were all very confused. This youth of the Orthodox Academy had clearly succeeded at Purification not too long ago and possessed a mediocre quant.i.ty of true essence, so why did he possess such astonis.h.i.+ng strength?

"His strength has nothing to do with how much true essence he has. It should be that he performed an almost perfect Purification, or else he had some sort of lucky encounter over the past few days. That is a pure and absolute strength."

As the second-ranked Divine General of the continent, Xue Xingchuan was a seasoned veteran of many battles and had a particularly deep understanding of strength. Upon seeing the crowd's perplexed expressions, he indifferently gave the above explanation.

As he spoke, he glanced at the archbishop. A perfect Purification was an extraordinarily rare sight, and if lucky encounters were so plentiful, they wouldn't be called lucky. In his view, regardless of which method Chen Changsheng had used to obtain such pure and absolute strength, it must have been good luck granted by the archbishop.

But for Chen Changsheng to receive this luck and then digest it so well was also no easy task. Xue Xingchuan looked indifferently to his left at the silent Xu s.h.i.+ji, thinking to himself, even if this son-in-law can't match up to Qiushan Jun, it's still not bad. Since we are the Divine Empress's two most trusted Divine Generals, in a little while, shouldn't I try and persuade Xu s.h.i.+ji?

Chen Changsheng's surprising display of strength had cast all of the Hall of s.h.i.+ning Words into silence. After Xue Xingchuan spoke, it was a very long time before someone else finally spoke. It was Mo Yu's cold voice that eventually broke the silence.

"He won't be able to get very far just by relying on strength alone."

Silence fell over the Hall of s.h.i.+ning Words once more, as everyone present knew her words to be correct. Without the support of one's cultivation, without support of a sufficient amount of true essence, the greatest strength could only display its might in lower-cla.s.s battles. The moment one encountered someone of higher cultivation level, one would be crushed. If Chen Changsheng had no other tricks up his sleeve, he would never reach the end of the one-on-one matches. There was even a high chance that he would lose in the next round.

A sharp roar was heard outside the Hall of Was.h.i.+ng Away Dust.

The examinees' expressions all changed, but they could only speculate as to what had happened within the hall. Gou Hans.h.i.+ and Tianhai Shengxue looked grave. It was very obvious that these two young experts who were already at Ethereal Opening could clearly sense more.

Not long after this howl, the door to the Hall of Was.h.i.+ng Away Dust was opened once more and Chen Changsheng walked out. His right foot was bare, his shoe having disappeared, making him appear rather bedraggled. Other than this, however, there was no sign of an intense battle on his body. It was more like he had entered the hall to just take a stroll around.

There was absolute silence outside the Hall of Was.h.i.+ng Away Dust. Not a single examinee spoke, all of them feeling a complex mixture of emotions as they watched him walk down the stone steps and all the way to the forest's edge.

"You're pretty good!" Tang Thirty-Six praised as he patted Chen Changsheng on the shoulder.

Xuanyuan Po watched him in silence, his gaze br.i.m.m.i.n.g with admiration.

Su Moyu thought to himself, even though that student from the Heavenly Dao Academy had a rather ordinary cultivation level and really couldn't be considered strong, such that even I could very easily beat him, it would be very difficult for me to beat as him quickly as Chen Changsheng. It seems that the conjectures of my schoolmates made before the Grand Examination were right—he really has been hiding his strength this entire time.

Luoluo happily giggled, her laugh like silver bells.

She went to wipe his sweat, but realized that he hadn't sweat a drop, imbuing her with an even greater sense of pride. She thought to herself, Teacher truly is no ordinary person, just like I thought a few months ago.

She really wanted to know how Chen Changsheng had defeated his opponent, so she asked. Chen Changsheng gave a simple description of the circ.u.mstances, but did not explain too much.

Xuanyuan Po offered two high-quality crystals to Chen Changsheng, but Chen Changsheng shook his head to indicate that he did not need them. In the match just now, he hadn't used one drop of true essence, so he did not need to replenish it.

The examinees were still looking at Chen Changsheng. Not too long ago, he was just a beginner at cultivation who hadn't even been able to succeed at Purification, but today, he had easily defeated a personal disciple of the Princ.i.p.al of the Heavenly Dao Academy. Logically speaking, they should have been even more flabbergasted, but after the Ivy Festival, and then the update to the Proclamation of Azure Sky, and then the archbishop's declaration on Chen Changsheng's behalf, Chen Changsheng had already been pushed up to a very high status. Although there was no proof, people still felt that he must be hiding his strength, so they had mentally prepared themselves, had antic.i.p.ated this sort of display. Thus, although they were truly very shocked, they did not completely lose control over themselves.

What people were more concerned about was his true level of strength and cultivation and just what method he had used to defeat the Heavenly Dao Academy student in such a short amount of time. After all, the insightful young cultivator that was Gou Hans.h.i.+ had long ago recognized that that umbrella was a very powerful magical artifact.

Chen Changsheng was very thankful that this first round of the one-on-one matches was a closed-door fight. The loser would be sent straight out of the Education Palace and would be unable to inform his schoolmates on the details of the match, so the methods used by the victor would never be known. This was an enormous benefit to him in preserving his secrets and techniques.

The Grand Examination continued. The sixty-second examinee helplessly chose Su Moyu, and the one after him chose Tang Thirty-Six. These two matches went very smoothly with no surprises. Su Moyu and Tang Thirty-Six obtained victory.

The examinees outside the hall were able to barely hear the angry roars of the two losers as they complained that this was unfair. They clearly had done well in the martial test, ranking in the upper half of examinees excluding the top fifteen, but they ended up meeting the young geniuses that were Su Moyu and Tang Thirty-Six. It was truly difficult to call this fair, but it could only be said that these two examinees were lacking in luck.

The first round finally reached its final moment. The final examinee looked to the Li Palace priest supervising the exam and asked, "Her Highness will not be counted in the final ranking, so how will this be counted?"

This examinee had a rather dejected expression. His appearance was quite pitiful.

The Li Palace priest expressionlessly said, "That is not something any of you need to think about."

The examinee felt helpless and then turned to Luoluo, bowing as he said, "May Your Highness please instruct me."

Several claps arose from the crowd. In this sort of situation, when confronting Princess Luoluo as his opponent, that this examinee did not just give up or concede was truly worthy of praise.

Sadly, whether he was worthy of being pitied or praised, neither of them could affect the final outcome.

A ma.s.sive boom could be heard from the Hall of Was.h.i.+ng Away Dust like a mountain collapsing.

Soon after, Luoluo walked out of the Hall of Was.h.i.+ng Away Dust and up to Chen Changsheng with a joyful expression on her face. "Teacher, I also only used one punch."

She was not flaunting her pride. As the second-ranked individual on the Proclamation of Azure Sky, her position in this generation of young cultivators was already at the peak, so defeating an ordinary examinee was truly nothing to be proud about. She was so happy because she had used the same method as Chen Changsheng to conclude her match.

Xuanyuan Po, Chen Changsheng, and Luoluo had each used a single punch to conclude their matches. The examinees outside the Hall of Was.h.i.+ng Away Dust had heard three noises: a clap of thunder, the roar of a dragon, and a mountain collapsing.

Tang Thirty-Six had not used his fist. He had used the strongest move of the Three Forms of Wenshui. At the time, the sound the examinees heard coming from within the hall was that of a river flooding over its banks.

"Was that necessary?" Guan Feibai asked, his brows raised as he looked at the three young men and one girl standing at the edge of the forest.

If he or any of his other three martial brothers of the Mount Li Sword Sect had needed to step onto the stage, they naturally would have finished their matches as quickly as the Orthodox Academy, perhaps even faster, perhaps making an even greater ruckus. But just like he said, in this sort of ordinary match, was it necessary to make so much noise?

Regardless of what the spectators saw or thought, the four people of the Orthodox Academy had all successfully pa.s.sed the first round and all sixty-four examinees entering the next round had been decided.

A few examinees were confident in their scores on the literary test and, a.s.sessing their performance as a whole, judged that they could probably get into the top forty-three. Their goal of entering the three banners of the Grand Examination completed, they finally relaxed, with happy smiles on their faces. Some examinees thought that they had gotten mediocre scores on the literary test, so they became silent and nervous, even anxious. If they wanted to enter the three banners of the Grand Examination, they needed to get an even better grade in the one-on-one matches, needing to win at least one more round to have any hope. However, these matches were just like cultivation: the further one went, the stronger one's opponents, the more difficult it was to advance.

After the conclusion of the first round, there was a short rest period. Some examinees sat on the ground outside the Hall of Was.h.i.+ng Away Dust and ate the rations that they had brought with them while other examinees took the time to meditate and recover some true essence.

Guardian Li, leading several maids, arrived in front of the Hall of Was.h.i.+ng Away Dust, laid down a picnic blanket, and arranged several fine dishes atop it. They had been living in the Education Palace with Luoluo, and it was perhaps for this reason that no priests attempted to stop them.

Was this the Grand Examination or a picnic? As they saw this sight, the examinees felt the rations in their mouths gradually lose flavor. They felt deeply envious, especially when they saw Princess Luoluo half-kneel by Chen Changsheng's side and feed him roast meat using ebony chopsticks, upon which their envy very naturally advanced into hatred.

As Guan Feibai watched, he gave a melancholy sigh. "This guy Chen Changsheng must have saved the entire human world in his past life."

Gou Hans.h.i.+ laughed and replied, "He must have saved White Emperor City first."