Martial Cultivator

Chapter 136: The Young Man from the Mountains

The rules of the literary exam had always been quite arbitrary. The principle of top performers avoiding each other was simply not within consideration at all. It was precisely because of such circumstances that the top performers had never consistently won the final victory in the literary exam.

Although Chen Chao had always had faith in Xie Nandu, when he thought about the rules of the literary exam and those top performers, Chen Chao's expression became somewhat ugly.

When he placed his bets last night, he actually did not bet much on Zhu Xia. If he lost, so be it. But when it came to Xie Nandu, he had wagered a significant portion of his wealth.

If Xie Nandu could not clinch first place in the end, he would lose a substantial amount of money.

"It won't happen, it won't."

Chen Chao furrowed his brows and shook his head.

Turning back, Chen Chao noticed that Weng Quan also had a mournful expression, so he asked, "What's the matter with you?"

"This subordinate followed Your Excellency's instructions and bet my salary from these years. If something goes wrong, how am I supposed to live the rest of my life!"

The sorrow in Weng Quan's heart was far greater than that of Chen Chao. He could not compare to Chen Chao. The money he had in his hands was slowly accumulated over the years. If something truly went wrong, it would be a real blow for him.

Chen Chao patted his shoulder and said sympathetically, "If that day really comes, remember to find Lord Song with a knife."

After saying these words, he started walking towards the lakeside.

Weng Quan stood on the spot, somewhat in a trance.

Just as Chen Chao was heading towards the lakeside, a sudden exclamation echoed by the lake, "It's a tie!"

Upon hearing this voice, the cultivators on the pavilion hurriedly approached the railing, while the lakeside cultivators also turned their gaze over here. Obviously, these three words, "It's a tie," got their full attention.

"It's actually a draw!"

Some cultivators by the lake looked towards the examination area with incredulity.

Chen Chao stood among the crowd and asked earnestly, "What does 'tie' mean?"

His question actually more or less seemed somewhat foolish, but at this moment, everyone's focus was on the lakeside, so no one really paid attention.

Soon, someone gave the answer, "In each round of the literary exam, the questions are fixed. If the top performers answer the same questions correctly, it's considered a tie. However, this rarely happens because it's rare for two people to answer the exact same questions correctly. Furthermore, this is among the top two people."

"There are quite a few previous top performers in this round, so it's not particularly rare to have a tie. We just don't know how many people tied."

"I'm sure that Xie girl is one of them. She was the fastest to submit her answers yesterday."

"No idea, let's just see"

Clearly, this tie has attracted the attention of countless people.

Originally, there were not many cultivators who came to watch the literary exam. Most of them were supporting their friends and fellow disciples. Few people really paid attention to the literary exam itself. However, this tie in the literary exam was a rare occurrence, and it sparked everyone's interest.

Soon, news came from the lakeside that there were actually four people who tied in this round. Three of them were yesterday's top performers, and one person, although not a top performer, managed to be among the four.

"Which question did they get wrong?"

Someone opened their mouth to ask with great curiosity.

"No, they all answered everything correctly. No one got any questions wrong."

Upon hearing this, the crowd fell momentarily silent. After a moment, someone exclaimed, "That's truly amazing."

Being able to answer all the questions correctly was already an impressive feat, but to have four people achieve it in the same round was even more amazing.

People nodded in agreement.

"There's a show to watch."

People were filled with awe.

……

……

In the history of the literary exam, such situations had occurred before.

Hence, there was naturally a solution.

Since it was a draw, just take another test.

The cultivator in charge of overseeing it brought forth new test questions and distributed them to the candidates. There were fewer questions this time; only three in total.

However, compared to the previous questions, these questions were noticeably more difficult.

Xie Nandu sat at the desk. Looking at the questions on the paper, she was silent for a long time. The first two questions were very ordinary questions to her, but the last one stood out as more unconventional.

That question was still about the demon race.

Xie Nandu looked at that question very seriously.

The other three were also very serious as they looked at that problem.

One young cultivator had no issues with the first two questions. When he reached the last question, there was a glimmer in his eyes.

As time passed, two of the young cultivators bit the bullet and began answering the questions. They had little confidence in the first two questions, let alone the last one.

Xie Nandu thought for a long time before reaching her hand out to pick up the brush. Dipping it into the ink, she lifted it up and started writing.

On a distant pavilion, the truly prominent figures were watching this scene.

"This disciple of the dean is really quite good. Her cultivation realm is merely low at present, but she'll definitely have great achievements in the future."

Someone commented, their voice filled with admiration.

"The Great Liang Dynasty has produced a true genius. I sense a strong spiritual aura emanating from her. She's naturally an excellent seedling for cultivation and she's diligent too. Her future is limitless. However, such a sapling should have gone to the foreign lands to seek Dao. Although the dean is considered a renowned teacher, the Great Liang Dynasty is merely the secular world. In the long run, it will probably wear down the spiritual energy within her."

This was the Heavenly Longevity Temple's temple master, they shared the same origin as the Myriad Heaven Palace.

"Just speaking in terms of women, there are probably few in the foreign lands who can match up to her in the future. But Great Sage, that disciple of yours, the saintess, likely doesn't fear her."

The Heavenly Longevity Temple's temple master turned to the old man from the Myriad Heaven Palace.

The old man smiled and replied, "The foreign lands is teeming with talents. It's not just Zhu Xia who deserves mention. That Xie lass is indeed extraordinary just like you all say. If not for that, why would the dean, that old fogey, use his last quota to accept a girl?"

The Heavenly Longevity Temple Master said rather worriedly, "Speaking of the dean, we should be more vigilant. In recent years, the academy has produced a Wei Xu, which none of us expected. The dean still has so many disciples, it's hard to say there won't be a second Wei Xu somewhere."

Many foreign cultivators were reluctant to see the Great Liang Dynasty growing stronger.

As a secular kingdom, they did not need it to become too powerful because the stronger it became, the harder it was to control.

This was not what they wanted.

However, the development of the Great Liang Dynasty in recent years had indeed exceeded their expectations. Under the governance of successive emperors, this dynasty had gradually prospered and was no longer comparable to the previous dynasty.

Especially the current emperor of the Great Liang Dynasty, after taking over the Divine King as Prince Fan, had quietly changed his attitude towards foreign cultivators.

Now, with the Myriad Willow Convention, many cultivators were willing to come to the Divine Capital not necessarily just for the Myriad Willow Convention itself.

More people wanted to see what changes have occurred in the Great Liang Dynasty compared to before.

The old man glanced at the Heavenly Longevity Temple's temple lord, shook his head, and said no more. He just redirected his gaze to the lakeside.

The answering at the lakeside had already concluded by now.

However, the four of them including Xie Nandu did not leave. They were going to stay here until the outcome was determined. It was hard to say whether they would continue afterward.

The cultivator in charge took the test papers and soon brought two more papers. He looked at two of the young individuals and said, "You guys have been eliminated."

Those two individuals had long already anticipated that they would end up like this, so it was not too surprising. After sighing, they cupped their hands and left.

The cultivator in charge handed out the two test papers and said, "There are still three questions here. Please continue answering. If you wish to forfeit, you may do so."

……

……

The news quickly spread from the lakeside and the crowd fell into silence.

After a long time, someone finally said, "Who could have expected that it would be another tie."

"Yeah, it seems like this has never happened before."

"To have a tie twice in the same exam, the probability of such an event is truly small. But the fact that the girl from the academy can do it shows that the Great Liang Dynasty also has its geniuses."

"What kind of genius is that? Isn't it just reading more books?. Can this really be called genius too?"

"After all, it's about what you can remember after reading. The questions are so tricky, but they didn't pose much difficulty for her, right?"

"Might just be luck, she happened to have read those books."

The voices in the crowd were mixed, but Chen Chao listened without showing any emotions. He simply looked at the lakeside and thought that if there was only one opponent, he still had great confidence in Xie Nandu. There should not be any issues.

However, not long after, more news came from the lakeside.

"They tied again?!"

"How is that possible? When has such a thing happened before?"

"It's true. This time, the two of them even finished writing at the exact same time."

"That girl from the academy seemed to have read a lot of books, but who is the other person? Why don't I recognize him?!"

"He should be from the Great Peace Dao lineage, he seems to be from a sect called Hidden Moon Temple, located among the mountains in the south. It's just a second-rate sect and there aren't many cultivators from there participating in the Myriad Willow Convention."

"What's the name of that daoist?"

"Gu Ming!"