For the first incident, Fang Zhengzhi managed to convince one using his logic, explaining the importance of “self-knowledge” and “humility”. He also enlightened them as to how a sage should have viewed the two elements.
For the second incident, Fang Zhengzhi was able to identify his “flaw” in just one glance, and fill him with his newfound wisdom. The participant was able to better understand how arduous the path would be, which was just like “sailing against the current; either you keep forging ahead or you keep falling behind.”
All these were already very surprising.
But this time round…
One who was trapped in the bottleneck for 5 years, at just one simple advice from “Fang Zhengzhi”, suddenly broke through to the Rebirth State.
How overwhelming?
It could easily be just coincidence for the first and second incidents.
However…
The third time was definitely not coincidental. Because everyone had seen the truth in front of them, it was something so unbelievable yet real at the same time.
“Thank you so much, teacher. You’re my master. It’s a waste that I can’t enter the Heaven Dao Pavilion, if not I Xun Fei, swear that I will follow you till death master!” Xun Fei finally came his to senses, and he flew in front of Fang Zhengzhi and kneeled on the ground.
All the contestants turned their attention at once towards Fang Zhengzhi.
Senior Kong Qing was indeed impressive!
“…” Fang Zhengzhi’s mouth twitched a little.
He was speechless, breakthrough, just like this? Stepped into the Rebirth State from the Supernatural State? Why was it so difficult when he was trying to breakthrough?
Crap!
Looking at the sincere expression on Xun Fei’s face, Fang Zhengzhi tilted his head and gazed at the piercing sun. As he sighed under his breath, ‘Indeed, it’s different being educated, even through elimination can there be joys of tears?’
Xun Fei could sense that he was behaving inappropriately as Fang Zhengzhi kept quiet. He stood up immediately and bowed politely towards Fang Zhengzhi.
“Gracious teacher, I can’t express how grateful I am now, I will leave now!” Xun Fei finished talking and turned around.
“Can’t express how grateful you are?” Fang Zhengzhi stared at Xun Fei leaving and mumbled to himself, “You can express your gratefulness! Why not just bring a few hundred thousands of silvers?”
If it is not possible, I wouldn’t mind 50 000 pieces of silver too.
Hello…
30 000 would be fine too.
How about just 10 000 of them!
Well, the reality was harsh.
Xun Fei left.
Not even one or two silvers, and not evening leaving a contact. At least to him, expressing through words was never enough to thank one for such a big favour.
Foolish!
Fang Zhengzhi pointed a middle finger at Xun Fei after folding his arms behind his back.
The three disciples standing behind Fang Zhengzhi saw the actions and made eye contact with one another.
Then they suddenly realised what Fang Zhengzhi was trying to hint and flew rapidly behind Fang Zhengzhi.
“Kong Qing Senior!” The three disciples bowed politely and waited for his instructions.
Although they were able to enter the Heaven Dao Pavilion, their presence were almost unknown. To them, while Kong Qing was of a higher status than them, he was only so because of his longer duration in the Heaven Dao Pavilion.
But after witnessing everything earlier…..
The disciples were deeply convinced by “Kong Qing”, therefore the actions and words they said were all from the bottom of their hearts.
They were even thinking about how to forge a closer relationship with their senior when they were back at the Heaven Dao Pavilion.
Of course, these were just the thoughts of three disciples.
Fang Zhengzhi had completely no idea of what they were thinking about.
He was shocked upon hearing the voices of the three disciples. Huh? Why did they walk over?
Had I exposed myself?
That was impossible.
He had put up such a great acting, hence there was no way that he could have exposed himself. Moreover, he had provided appropriate reasoning when eliminating the participants.
Fang Zhengzhi felt complexed but he recovered quickly. As he was already their senior now, why should he be afraid of the young men?
“Umm.” Fang Zhengzhi nodded his head. He paid no attention to the three disciples standing behind him, and only casually made a slight gesture.
As for the meaning of the gesture…..
He thought that the three disciples would not know about it.
Because he also had no idea.
Indeed…
The three disciples looked at each other and felt confused. But they were not in the best position to ask about it.
Fang Zhengzhi could care less about them. He wanted to make use of the opportunity to continue his elimination plan.
Eliminate four of them at once!
“Okay, that’s too harsh!”
“I always knew that the Heaven Dao Pavilion selection test was difficult, but I finally got to understand the real meaning behind it. The ask and answer segment is just the first round right?”
“Yes, and the first round is already so tough, how can we survive the rest of the rounds?”
“Up till now, none of them managed to pass the first round. I have waited and studied for years, but looks like I’m still far from the criteria of the Heaven Dao Pavilion!”
The contestants exclaimed, as they did not think that Fang Zhengzhi was faulting them on purpose. Instead, they had treated this as a new challenge.
Furthermore, they felt even more impressed and respectful towards Fang Zhengzhi as he continued to eliminate more people.
“Useless!” That was the evaluation that Fang Zhengzhi had given them so far. At this moment, he stopped suddenly.
There was a person dressed in a long black coat, with a sharp pair of eyes.
“Huh? Isn’t that Qian Wu?” Fang Zhengzhi’s eyes brightened up instantly. Little did he know that Qian Wu would participate in the Heaven Dao Pavilion selection test.
He almost wanted to call Qian Wu out and embarrass and insult him publicly, before eliminating him.
But just at that moment…
He felt something poking at his back.
As he turned around, he realised it was one of the disciple’s fingers. Their faces were all pale.
“Yes?” Fang Zhengzhi asked casually.
“Senior Kong Qing, that was the eighth one….” The disciples stared at Fang Zhengzhi, looking as though they were about to tear up.
As followers of “Kong Qing”, they were only supposed to assist him in hosting this selection test, and questioning Kong Qing’s actions were not part of their responsibilities.
But it was only the first round.
According to the previous Heaven Dao Pavilion selection tests, eliminating two of them would be sufficient to scare the contestants.
After all, the easy questions were not enough to differentiate the participants.
However….
Fang Zhengzhi had already eliminated eight of them at once.
There were merely 32 contestants in total. And they had already lost one quarter of them before the selection test even started.
Besides, it seemed like Fang Zhengzhi was still planning to eliminate more of them.
This explained why they couldn’t stand it any longer.
Although they were just subordinates, but who stated that subordinates could not hold any responsibilities? Many a times, they were the ones who carried all the burden and took the blames.
“Kong Qing” might have great reasonings and explanations. Even so, “Kong Qing” was just another high ranking senior who had entered the Pavilion.
What would happen to the rest of the seniors who were stationed at the second and third segments, if the contestants were all being eliminated at the first round? The seniors had prepared for two years for this day.
Fang Zhengzhi saw the three disciples’ speechless expressions and understood them immediately. He moved his mouth and mumbled softly just enough to let the three disciples hear him. “Yes, your senior knows his limits, just one more to go.”
“You’re going to continue eliminating?” The three of them had a change in their expressions.
“Relax, I will bear responsbility if anything really happens!” Fang Zhengzhi hit his chest and said generously.
As for who was going to really hold the fort…
Only God will know who.
“We will leave everything to you, senior!” The three disciples agreed in the end. At this point of time, eliminating just one more would not cause much difference.
Fang Zhengzhi stopped paying attention to the disciples and turned his back slowly. He scanned around the crowd and paused at Qian Wu.
“You, what’s your name?” Fang Zhengzhi pointed randomly at Qian Wu.
“Young master!” A youth who was standing beside Qian Wu, upon hearing Fang Zhengzhi’s voice, had a distinct change in his expression.
Qian Wu shook his head gently as he tidied up his black coat and bowed politely to Fang Zhengzhi.
“I, your subordinate, am Qian Wu, from the Holy Barbarian Empire. Please ask me the questions.” Qian Wu sounded very humble yet portrayed a charismatic look at the same time. Most importantly, he stayed calm and peaceful despite all the problems.
“Is he Qian Wu?”
“Rumours said that he is the only contestant who managed to attain the peaks for two Rebirth States in this selection test!”
“The peak of the Rebirth state? At such a young age?”
When everyone had heard of Qian Wu’s attainment of the highest peak of the Rebirth State, there was still a huge chatter coming out from the crowd, despite all being elites themselves.
Even the disciples standing behind Fang Zhengzhi were also nodding their heads gently.
They all had their own understanding about Qian Wu. He was the top elite in the Holy Barbarian Empire and also the default successor of the Holy Barbarian Empire.
Of course…
All these were not important.
Most importantly, Qian Wu was the controller of the Near-Life Dao, one of the Six Rebirth Dao Techniques.
Given his ability in attaining the peak of the Rebirth State, such an elite would always be invited by the major venues, such as the Heaven Dao Pavilion, the Nine Pinnacle Mountain and the Yin Yang Hall.
“Eliminated!”
Just as everyone was fascinated by Qian Wu’s appearance, an inappropriate voice sounded, momentarily hushing the surroundings.
“Eliminated?!”
When the eight candidates were being eliminated previously, everyone was merely shocked. However, to eliminate Qian Wu, especially in only the first round…..
They were all flabbergasted.
“Senior Kong Qing, this Qian Wu cannot be eliminated!”
“Have you forgotten about what master had mentioned earlier about Qian Wu…”
“I beg you to think about it again, Kong Qing Senior!”
The three disciples could no longer tolerate the situation, as they did not think that Fang Zhengzhi would use the last elimination place on Qian Wu.
Qian Wu was also a little taken aback by it. But he seemed a lot more calm and less furious as compared to the previous eight candidates. In fact, he even bowed politely in front of Fang Zhengzhi.
“Pardon me for asking about the reason of my elimination.”
“Faith!” Fang Zhengzhi could care less about the advice from the three disciples. What about the instructions from the master? He was holding the highest rank in this situation now.
“Faith?” Qian Wu squinted his eyes as he began pondering.
“Let me ask this, are you the Prince of the Holy Barbarian Empire?” Fang Zhengzhi asked.
“Yes.” Qian Wu nodded.
“Sincerity first, faith foremost. To treat others with sincerity, to have integrity is a gentleman’s value. When you were introducing yourself just now, you referred to yourself as my subordinate. To conceal your identity, is to betray. Naturally, you should be eliminated!” Fang Zhengzhi said casually.
“Integrity, the way of a gentleman!”
“That does seem very right!”
“But he is Qian Wu…”
The candidates nodded their heads upon listening to Fang Zhengzhi’s explanation. Integrity had always been the basic core value humans must have. And Fang Zhengzhi had made use of that reason to eliminate Qian Wu, surely there was no way to refute him.
Although he still was Qian Wu.
The master of the Near-Life Dao, one of the Six Rebirth Dao Techniques. Furthermore, he was also the first contestant to have attained the peaks of two Rebirth States.
If even he failed to pass the Heaven Dao Pavilion selection test.
Who else could pass this?
And this was just the first stage!
“Master!” A young man wearing a black coat stood forward at the same time, walking slowly towards Qian Wu.
“What’s the matter?” Qian Wu frowned.
The black coat young man did not answer Qian Wu immediately. But he leaned beside Qian Wu and whispered into his ears.
“How confident are you?” Qian Wu gave him a look after listening to the young man’s words.
“Ninety percent!” The young man answered instantly.
“Fine, then let’s give it a try.” Qian Wu nodded as he took a step back.
Everyone standing in the crowd looked at them strangely. Because even if Qian Wu were to feel that his elimination was unjustified, he should at least tried refuting it, and not “retreat” like this.
What was the real reason behind the young man standing up? And what did the black young coat man say to Qian Wu earlier?
The candidates were not the only ones to not understand the situation.
The three disciples also frowned their eyes, as they felt rather strange looking at the suspicious looking young man walking towards Qian Wu.