CH 38.1

After Jian Xingzhi entered the garden, Qin Wanwan pulled Nan Feng with her and ran quickly to a large tree not far from the garden.

“Let’s hurry up and inquire how many people went to the banquet today, what is the status of these people, and the level of their arithmetic are.”

Qin Wanwan instructed Nan Feng to climb up the tree. She herself also climbed up along with him and looked at the situation in the garden from the tree.

But what she saw shocked her. Although this group of people had all changed their faces and covered up their identities, she immediately recognized them from their souls. In addition to Shen Zhiming and Junshu, someone from the God Transformation and Tribulations stage was also sitting there.

What’s going on? What are so many experts doing here?

Qin Wanwan froze, she swallowed her saliva, quickly calmed herself down, and immediately changed her plans.

In the presence of so many experts with higher level cultivation, Jian Xingzhi, who just recently formed a Jindan and is only at the stage of Foundation Establishment, it was impossible for him to score high either in weapon refining or arithmetic.

Qin Wanwan pondered before raising her hand to stroke her ears. She set up a formation on her ears that connected her to Jian Xingzhi. Through the connection, she whispered Jian Xingzhi’s name: “Jian Xingzhi, can you hear me?”

When Jian Xingzhi heard Qin Wanwan’s words, he paused and immediately looked up at his surroundings. He was a little surprised that Qin Wanwan actually put such a kind of spell formation on him without him noticing.

“I’m on the tree.”

Qin Wanwan told him, Jian Xingzhi quickly glanced at the surrounding trees and it didn’t take him long to notice Qin Wanwan. He was surprised again but Qin Wanwan whispered to reassure him: “I put a spell formation on you, when the weapon refining test starts, don’t use your divine sense to refine weapons and try to compete with them. Your sea of consciousness is unstable, so you have to recuperate well. Focus on scoring high in the arithmetic test. You’ll tell me the questions and I will help you answer them. You have to write the answers according to what I will say.”

Hearing these words, Jian Xingzhi’s panicked heart instantly settled down. He never felt ever in his life that Qin Wanwan could be so reliable.

He drew a spell formation on his hand to stop the people next to him from eavesdropping. After that, he raised his hand to cover his mouth, and gently answered, “Mm.”

“Are all of you guests of the city lord?”

Jian Xingzhi and Qin Wanwan were talking, when the man in pink next to him seemed bored and started chatting with people around him.

He introduced himself, “I am Liu Feishu from Huacheng. You all don’t look like the people from Guicheng.”

Saying this, Liu Feishuo looked at the youth sitting next to him who was coughing himself to death. The youth looked up at Liu Feishu, smiled and introduced himself, “Ning Buyan from Huangcheng.”

Two people introduced themselves. Seeing that, Xie Lutang also followed suit and politely introduced himself: “Xie Gutang* from Tian Chen Sect.”

“I’m a wandering cultivator, Jian Xingzhi.”

“Shen Ming* from Wen Xin Sect.”

“Junfan* from Yinyue city.”

[T/N: Xie Lutang, Shen Zhiming and Junshu used fake names to cover their identities.]

The group of ‘male pets’ all introduced themselves with a bunch of fake names. But each of their behaviour looked filled with confidence, and Qin Wanwan knew the reason as soon as she heard them. So she spoke to Jian Xingzhi with a hint of worry laced in her voice, “All the sects sent their people for this selection. Even Shen Zhiming came, I’m afraid it’s because of the Linglong Jade. The news of another fragment of Linglong Jade appearing in Guicheng should have already reached everyone.”

Just as she finished saying that, Cuilu walked in.

The crowd immediately stopped their chattering and looked over. They saw Cuilu sitting on the main seat and announcing, “Today, the city lord is not feeling well, so I came in place of the city lord to choose a gentleman for the city lord. You all should have already been informed about the rules, so I won’t speak much. If you want to become the city lord’s male pet, then let me warn you; it is not an easy thing. The city lord often said that literacy is what is destroying the country, and weapons are the things that are saving it. So the first competition today will be weapon refining. We have already presented you with the necessary materials of your choice here. We will see through this test who is able to make a more subtle, more valuable and more stable weapon.”

Hearing these words, everyone began to get up from their seats and went forward to choose their own materials. Jian Xingzhi had only forged swords before, he had learned weapon refining a bit but he’s not good at it. The only thing he’s good at is waving his fist.

Looking around he was just thinking about what he could do when a huge fire rose up next to him with a sizzling sound. Jian Xingzhi jumped in surprise. He looked at Xie Lutang in confusion and asked: “what ……what are you doing?”

“I don’t know many things.” Xie Lutang smiled as he said, “I only know how to forge a sword. So I’m using a Shenghuo* spell to forge a sword.”

[T/N: Shenghuo means Holy Fire. A kind of fire that can help forge anything and always stays at its purest form. Not sure about the information. It could mean something else too.]

Jian Xingzhi had heard of the Shenghuo spell before. He never saw how to use it but listening to Xie Lutang’s expression, he couldn’t help but be envious and nod: “Good, good.”

The words just fell, when a snow ball rolled towards Jian Xingzhi. Jian Xingzhi looked at the ball of snow in the ground before looking up. Ning Buyan, who had a crystal clear flowing large ice made of spiritual energy in front of him was seen doing something with the ice. He coughed, looked at Jian Xingzhi with a pale face and said with an embarrassed smile: “Sorry.”

Saying that, he took out a carving knife, leaned down in front of the block of ice and began to carve the large ice block.

Seeing him working, Jian Xingzhi understood that he was making a Cold Ice Jade Bed. If one lies on it to cultivate, not only will he have a clear mind and great concentration, but it also has a speciality of being warm in winter and cool in summer. Jian Xingzhi also had heard of this bed before. Carving this bed is very simple, but the key point is to fill this piece of cold ice jade full of spiritual power. No cultivator under the Tribulation stage can do it.

Things they are making are excellent, but nothing that he can do.

Seeing Xie Lutang and Ning Buyan making their own things, Jian Xingzhi couldn’t help but panic. He pretended to calm and swept a glance at everyone. Shen Zhiming raised his hand and led a group of heavenly thunders to directly fall on the table. The electricity condensed into a ball, something that wasn’t done by anyone before. Although the electricity was condensed into a ball, the momentum was already extremely strong.

Next to him, Liu Feishu was spinning in circles like a top. He turned one side to attract the butterflies flying around him.

And there was also Junshu, who had placed an egg on the table. As he was playing the flute, ancient runes were circling around the egg and spiritual power was seen rushing into the egg. But it wasn’t known if he was incubating it or something else.

All the people present in the banquet were busy doing their own things. Jian Xingzhi on the other hand only froze watching them and didn’t move. Cuilu coldly swept her glance at him and asked, “Jian Xingzhi, aren’t you going to move?”

Move, move for what ah?

There was a huge power disparity between him and the other people present. He doesn’t want to lose face by breaking his hands trying to make something.

But Cuilu still stared at him. Seeing her coldly staring at himself, he pondered something, stood up, and pulled a chair over that was standing on the side.

Since he could do nothing, he will just perform carpentry.

He is going to make the chair that Qin Wanwan used on him to memorise 7000 books. Although the appearance was quite ugly, with sharp cones under and ropes hanging above, the design and manufacture was easy to make and was also quite effective.

Jian Xingzhi seriously sawed the chair and removed the sitting board. He chanted a spell and took some steel knives from the side, before inserting them one by one underneath the chair.

When he was done, everyone was also almost finished. Cuilu, who was sitting high up, lazily said: “Bring everything up.”

Hearing her, the subordinates all put the things that all the six people made on the table. Cuilu took the paper of scoring along with a pen and looked at the refined things one by one.

“This is the Clear Heart Pearl ……”

“This is the Thunderbolt Bomb ……”

“This is the Cold Ice Jade Bed ……”

“It’s butterfly fireworks ……”

“This is a sword.”

From Junshu, Shen Ming, Ning Buyan, Liu Feishu to Xie Lutang, the jury reviewed these things one by one. And the comments were followed.

“It’s too ordinary.”

“Too violent.”

“Too big.”

“Too fancy.”

“Too simple.”

Saying that, her line of sight went to the chair made by Jian Xingzhi. Cuilu frowned at the ugly appearance and asked: “What is this?”

“This chair is called ‘Stabbing Upward Chair’.”

Jian Xingzhi brought up a serious nonsense: “Its main function is to supervise people to study hard. The user has to sit on the chair, once he is distracted in studying, the steel knives below will immediately stab upward. It was manufactured like this to ensure that people are awake on the spot. You can just send the person who was stabbed immediately to the doctor and heal him. I relied on this chair and memorised seven thousand books of poetry in only seven days. This apparatus is pretty good.”

Hearing this, the jury was dumbfounded. Cuilu stared at the chair for a moment and could not help but speak: “Such large steel knives won’t…… Won’t stab to death?”

“If you don’t want to die, then study hard ah.”

Jian Xingzhi said with a frank face: “Since you took the decision of sitting here, should you not study to death?”

This rhetorical question confused everyone present. Qin Wanwan listened to Jian Xingzhi’s words from the tree and raised her hand to cover her face.

It’s over, let’s pretend he doesn’t exist.

As she was thinking, she heard an outburst from the crowd: “Yes!”

Everyone looked at the person, Cuilu, who just spoke up with an excited face: “You are absolutely right. In the cultivation world, if you decide to do something but don’t, it’s better to die than lose face. I have wanted to do this for a long time, but have not thought clearly how to implement such a method. You there! Tell all the carpenters in the city to make two thousand of these chairs and send them to all the schools in the city!”

With that, Cuilu turned around excitedly and gave a thumbs up toward Jian Xingzhi and didn’t hesitate to declare, “I appreciate your efforts, full marks!”

Qin Wanwan froze, she looked at Cuilu who was full of appreciation for Jian Xingzhi’s work and couldn’t help but feel the world was really a strange place.

I thought Jian Xingzhi was crazy, but I didn’t expect this Cuilu to be even crazier.