Chapter 558: Zhu Yi Takes His Exams, A Hundred Sages Exclaim
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
Seeing Xiao Zhener again made Xiao Yan extremely happy. The couple need not do anything but just stare at each other. That was enough to make them happy.
However, in this happiness, Xiao Yan felt as if he had forgotten something. This made him slightly uneasy.
"What is it?" Xiao Yan mumbled under his breath. Suddenly, the silhouette of a person crossed his heart, "I remember now, it's Lin Tong!"
After seeing Xiao Zhener again, Xiao Yan almost forgot about the whole thing.
Thinking about this, Xiao Yan broke out in cold sweat. Xiao Zhener looked at him curiously. She could feel that something was amiss.
"Zhener, sit here for a while. I'm going to go to the medicine room to pass you some of the medicines that I made," Xiao Yan smiled drily as he stood up. As he was about to walk towards the medicine room, a fiery bolt of light flew past right outside his abode.
The light flew straight towards Xiao Yan's chest and then turned into a snowy-white and adorable little girl with two braids of hair sticking out. She clung onto Xiao Yan like a sloth and kissed his cheeks.
"After waking up, I can feel daddy again! Awesome!" The little girl giggled. She was Lin Tong.
While she laughed happily, she did not notice that Xiao Yan had almost turned to stone. He looked at Lin Tong in his arms and he did not know whether to laugh or cry. He stiffly turned his neck to look at Xiao Zhener, who replied with an odd gaze.
"Zhen...Zhener, listen to me...," stammered Xiao Yan. "This... this is Lin Tong. She's my god-daughter, really, she's just my god-daughter."
He then turned to Lin Tong and said, "How many times must I tell you? I'm your godfather, not your daddy!"
The little girl clung to his neck as her little body squirmed. She opened her mouth slightly in a pout with a wronged expression on her face.
In the eyes of other people, it would lead to some misunderstanding.
Xiao Zhener snorted and said, "Then, is there a godmother?" Normally, she was already extremely pretty. Now, she smiled like the blooming of a hundred flowers.
Xiao Yan said straightaway, "Of course she has, isn't that you?"
"Brother Xiao Yan..." Xiao Zhener gently tapped Xiao Yan. While she was okay with other people making fun of her, it was harder for her to take it coming from Xiao Yan's mouth.
Xiao Yan returned to his senses and he noticed that Xiao Zhener wasn't angry. His thoughts returned to him as he looked at Xiao Zhener and smiled, "Her name is Lin Tong, but she calls master 'grandfather'."
Xiao Zhener was slightly shocked as Xiao Yan hurriedly told her the story of Lin Tong. He even told her the story of how Lin Feng and he went to the Parasol Tree Forest in the Barren Expanses.
"This is really some fateful encounter," Xiao Zhener shook her head and sighed as she heard this story. "Initially, I thought she was some sort of demon, but I didn't expect there to be so many twists in this story. I bet that her background is really complex."
Xiao Yan sighed and said, "Honestly speaking, I've never thought of it."
"However..." Xiao Zhener's eyes rolled as she said in a quiet laughing voice, "Since she refers to Senior Lin as her grandfather, and you as her godfather, does that mean..."
Lin Feng's reputation for helping young adolescents was well known. Many people joked, rather crudely and unkindly, that Xiao Yan and the rest were Lin Feng's godsons.
Xiao Yan broke out laughing as he shook her head, "If others hear about it, they will surely misunderstand. However, truth to be told..."
His gaze was deep and memories overwhelmed him. While he resided in his abode, he gazed towards Mount Yujing.
"Zhener, you know that my father passed away when I was young. Then, I met Master. After his many years of his teachings, sometimes I feel that..."
Xiao Zhener came to his side and held his hand. Xiao Yan turned his head to her and the two of them looked at each other and smiled.
Xiao Yan smiled, "Grandfather is now in Shazhou City. You hardly have the time to return to the Divine Lands. Tomorrow, let's visit him."
"Okay," Xiao Zhener doesn't really speak much around other people. However, before Xiao Yan, she was extremely caring and doting. Furthermore, she spent her childhood days in the Xiao Household in Wuzhou. The patriarch of the Xiao Family had taken care of her very well. She decided to visit him anyway on this trip.
Lin Tong was still in Xiao Yan's embrace. She nibbled on a fat, white finger and her other hand tugged at Xiao Yan's robes. "Daddy, she's so pretty. Who is she?"
Hearing that, Xiao Yan did not bother to change her form of address. He looked mischievously at Xiao Zhener and then said coyly, "Why not you call her 'godmother'?"
Lin Tong's eyes fluttered and she appeared to consider it carefully for a while. Then, she said seriously, "OK!"
Xiao Zhener swept Xiao Yan with her gaze and said, "How old are you? And yet you still behave like a child." While she was slightly shy, faced with Lin Tong's mischievous and adorable demeanor, Xiao Zhener kind of liked her too.
However, when she exchanged a gaze with Xiao Yan, both of them smiled very awkwardly.
While they were barely adults, they were already someone's father and mother.
On Mount Yujing, Lin Feng looked at them and smiled.
In the subsequent days, Lin Feng carefully taught his many disciples. One day, he suddenly felt his heart twitched.
The Physical Spell Body that he placed in Zhu Yi noticed that Zhu Yi was about to form his nascent soul.
Lin Feng mentally counted the days. "Zhu Yi is done with his Imperial Examinations."
His Physical Spell Body normally resided in the depths of Zhu Yi's soul and he would not interfere with Zhu Yi's movement. It also paid no attention to everything going on beyond Zhu Yi's body.
However, it was a self-imposed isolation. Actually, Lin Feng possessed a partial knowledge of everything that was going on around him. He appeared to be slightly awake but not fully awake at the same time.
His Physical Spell Body took in the recent developments and Lin Feng managed to catch up on Zhu Yi's recent activities. A smile broke over his face. "Good boy, beautifully done."
Zhu Yi was well-commended during the Imperial Examinations of the Great Zhou Empire this year. In fact, he ranked first.
Not only did he come in first, Zhu Yi managed to finish his essay, his magnum opus, during the examinations. In the essay, Zhu Yi managed to showcase the wisdom of a hundred sages. Many people refer to it now as 'the essay of many sages'.
Zhu Yi's paper managed to stun every single person in the examination hall. It carried with it the wisdom of both the old and the new.
The Imperial Examinations of that year shocked the entire Tianjing City. Zhu Yi became famous almost overnight. He was hailed as a famous literati and he almost caught up to his many forebears overnight.
Everyone knew that Zhu Yi was a cultivator. However, this did not mean that he could write so well. Every single one of his paragraph appeared to be written by the gods. While the destination was the same as many other previous works, the path he took to get to it was different.
The statues of the many sages in the examination hall were worshipped by many exam-takers. Many of these sages themselves had understood the workings of heaven and earth when they were alive, and now their statues were used to assess candidates' scripts.
To allow all of them to break out in praise of his essay, it meant that Zhu Yi's literary talents were not only all-encompassing, but it also meant that while Zhu Yi cultivated the Tao and improved his literary abilities, he had already forged his own path and obtained his own understanding of the heavens and earth.
Afterwards, Zhu Yi's entire body began to brim with peak-quality mana. His accumulation had reached its peak and he was about to start the Void Lightning Tribulation.
Just as Lin Feng had predicted, Wang Lin's forming of his nascent soul did not affect Zhu Yi negatively. Instead, it made him clearer about the heart of Tao and deepened his understanding of the Tao and the workings of the mortal realm.
Without Wang Lin's achievement, Zhu Yi could still finish his essay and obtain the same level of praise. But he may not be able to pass the Void Lightning Tribulations immediately afterward.
The King of the Boundless Sea appeared and stiffly stood by Zhu Yi's side, stopping anyone from interfering.
Lin Feng could clearly feel that many people wished to take a peek at the whole thing. However, after the King of the Boundless Sea appeared, they all backed off.
Under his protection, Zhu Yi successfully passed the Void Lightning Tribulations and formed his nascent soul. He was the second disciple to do so.
"Congratulation on the host's second disciple on attaining the Nascent Soul stage."
The thunder clouds dissipated on above Zhu Yi's head a tiny infant appeared. It resembled baby Zhu Yi almost exactly.
After forming his nascent soul, the light around Zhu Yi slowly died down. On the nascent soul, the words of Zhu Yi's famous essay could be seen.
The nascent soul slowly returned to the top of Zhu Yi's forehead. He opened his eyes and looked at the King of the Boundless Sea before him and he bowed, "Master!"
The King of the Boundless Sea resembled Lin Feng exactly. Now, Lin Feng projected his soul over before Zhu Yi and smiled and said, "Zhu Yi, congratulations on advancing to the next stage and forming your nascent soul."
Amongst his disciples, Zhu Yi was the most stable. While he did not appear very extraordinary, his foundation was very solid. He had never experienced any major bottleneck before.
While he did not undergo periods of rapid improvement, his progress had never stopped. Step by step, he advanced steadily and seemed almost unstoppable.
Zhu Yi's face broke out in a smile, "After the examinations, I met with the Zhou Emperor. My mother could be now be styled as a nobility and by then, they will offer me a position in the civil service. I'll turn it down. After my mother is styled posthumously, I will go to the Western Tombs of the Great Qin Empire."
"I will be there for Little Junior's battle with the cultivator with polychora so I could personally witness Little Junior avenging himself."
Lin Feng smiled, "Tianhao will be happy to hear that."
Afterwards, he looked at Zhu Yi and asked, "However, during your examinations earlier on, did you face any difficulty?"
Zhu Yi nodded his head and replied, "Yes, in the examination hall, someone initially triggered the response of the many statues before me. However, I finished my paper before him by just a bit. In the end, my script evoked the acclaim of the sages, not his."
The examination hall was filled with outstanding literary talents. It was expected that some of them would possess the abilities to trigger such supernatural occurrences too.
During the Imperial Examinations of the Great Qin Empire, Jiao Junchen too evoked the descent of the auspicious cloud. His script summoned an extraordinary occurrence and he too beat his many competitors in the examinations.
However, one cannot provoke the acclaim of the saints with just one's literary talents.
Hearing Zhu Yi's words, it was rare that anyone else other than him could possess such abilities.
"Furthermore, I feel that there's something off about him," Zhu Yi arched his brows and analyzed, "After I submitted my work, I feel that he just sort of faded away. I did not cause that, but it seemed to be me like he did it deliberately."
"I can't find out who he is after the paper, and hence, we could assume that his intentions were to affect my confidence and mood. Though he failed, he escaped like a lizard that had just shed its tail to avoid revealing his true identity."