Chapter 47 questions, "If he can do it, why can't I?"...
Shen Cangyu looked at the crowd behind her, hesitated for a moment, and then turned around and ran back.
The sounds of elimination echoed from the sky, but Lu Yuan, transformed into a white fox, remained unmoved, only watching the swirling dust.
She looked at her claws, where there was a deep gash that had torn her flesh, and blood soaked her snow-white fur.
She dispelled her transformation and returned to her human form, but blood was still flowing from the wound on her palm.
Lu Yuan remained expressionless and casually wiped the bloodstains onto his clothes.
As the dust settled, Shen Qingyan was seen half-supporting himself, protecting the person beneath him. In his raised hand, he held a white sword. The blade was blunt, yet it had wounded Lu Yuan, who was fused with the fox spirit.
Shen Cangyu narrowed his eyes as he looked at the sword in his hand that was emitting white steam.
All things return to the heart, thoughts take form, and the sword in hand.
That was a weapon formed from the Daoist principle of "All Weapons Return to the Heart," a technique that only disciples with a high level of cultivation could use. She hadn't expected that Shen Qingyan would also know this. He hadn't even started learning the Daoist principle of "All Weapons Return to the Heart," yet he had mastered this move without a teacher.
Could this also be part of Shen Qingyan's cheat ability?
No wonder the sect leader firmly supported Shen Qingyan back then; was he also intimidated by Shen Qingyan's golden finger?
The person protected by Shen Qingyan came to his senses and looked at the mess around him. He looked at Lu Yuan in shock: "Lu Yuan, are you crazy? Do you know what you're doing? This is just an assessment, do you have to be like this?"
Lu Yuan shook his hand and said nonchalantly, "It's just a little pain, it's not like I'm really dead, what's the big deal?"
The man was speechless, stumped by Lu Yuan's words. Lu Yuan looked at him and laughed mockingly, "Why are you looking at me like that? It's not like this is the first time you've experienced something like this. In the last classroom assessment, they were much more ruthless than I was. You haven't... forgotten, have you?"
Upon hearing Lu Yuan's words, the man's face turned pale and then red.
Those who die during the assessment will experience the agony of death, and ordinary people wouldn't rashly attack other disciples. After all, this is just an assessment, not a battlefield for life-or-death struggles. They are all Kunlun disciples, and they'll run into each other all the time; there's no need to make things so ugly.
This has been the consistent practice for the past few assessments.
But the previous session was an exception.
Lu Yuan looked at Shen Cangyu and said, "I forgot that you didn't experience the last assessment and don't know the inside story. Back then, there was someone who killed more than half of the participants in the first stage."
The moonlight obscured the ground, plunging it into darkness. Shen Cangyu could only see the figure before her blurry. She couldn't make out Lu Yuan's expression or her golden vertical pupils. She only heard her say, "The one who eliminated the other disciples back then was Xu Qiubai. That's why I told you long ago that everyone hates him."
He's willing to do anything to win.
“If it weren’t for you, he and I wouldn’t be able to sit together peacefully.”
Shen Cangyu suddenly realized that the Xu Qiubai described by Lu Yuan was different from the Xu Qiubai she knew. Perhaps she had never truly understood him. She only saw everyone with her own eyes, but never truly understood them. Just like now, she felt that Lu Yuan in front of her was a complete stranger.
It turns out that Lu Yuan never liked Xu Qiubai, but Shen Cangyu didn't realize it.
They're wasting time here, giving others an opportunity to take advantage of them.
With that thought in mind, they no longer hesitated and ran directly toward the fourth stone tablet.
They pressed their hands on the fourth stone tablet almost simultaneously, while the fifth stone tablet was on a distant hilltop.
Seeing the numbers light up on the fourth stone tablet, Shen Qingyan and the others immediately released the fish cart and flew away into the distance ahead of Shen Cangyu.
Mingzhao gasped, "Damn it, they have Xiaoyao You in their team..."
Shen Cangyu looked at Lu Yuan and asked, "Did you bring the Five Immortals?"
Lu Yuan nodded.
Shen Cangyu's fingers moved rapidly, forming complex hand seals. Ming Zhao watched her gestures and frowned. She had never seen this mental technique before. It carried the air of the "Free and Easy Wandering" style, mixed with elements of "The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons." Could this be some unorthodox mental technique that Shen Cangyu had learned from some ancient book?
Shen Cangyu intertwined her fingers and pushed forward: "Heaven is in water." This was her newly improved mental technique, which she had not tried before, but she did not expect to succeed on her first try.
The sky before my eyes turned into clouds and mist, then into water vapor, and finally into a vast ocean.
Shen Cangyu said, "Lu Yuan, it's up to you now."
Lu Yuan closed his eyes, his body changed, and he transformed into a large fish.
She spent a long time choosing, but in the end she signed a contract with the big fish and made it one of the Five Immortals.
The giant fish bent down, lifted them up, and leaped into the sea above.
The giant fish swam in the sky, its shadow disappearing into the clouds, as if it had become one with the sky and the water.
They swam towards the distant mountaintop, their speed far exceeding that of the fish cart. Their figures were hidden in the sky, the fish cart beneath them, unaware of their presence, simply continuing its journey.
It wasn't until the water receded and they jumped down from the sky that the others realized their presence, and they cried out in alarm, quickly speeding up.
Just then, another group of people ran uphill and arrived at the finish line at the same time as them. When they saw the figures by the stone tablet, they quickly said, "Wait a minute!"
"Like a sealed-off barrier!" Mingzhao pointed, and a wall of wind blocked them out.
The group of people crashed into the wind wall and bounced backward. When they looked up again, they had already placed their hands on the stone tablet.
A white light shone, and the names of the three women appeared simultaneously on the stone tablet.
It wasn't until the heavenly sound rang out that they realized that if they placed their hands on the stone tablet at the same time, they would be judged to be tied for first place.
The scene changed, and Shen Cangyu looked closely and saw the dazzling night sky above the Star-Picking Tower.
They're back.
She sat up, only to find herself facing the angry faces of several disciples in the distance.
"I told you to wait a moment! But you wouldn't listen!"
"Exactly! You guys are so selfish!"
“We could have won together. If we just discussed it and placed our hands on the stone tablet at the same time, we could both be at the top. But you insist on keeping us out and taking the top spot all by yourself. By doing this, you are making enemies of everyone.”
"Yeah, it's just an assessment, is it really necessary to make such a fuss..."
Lu Yuan scoffed, "Who wants to win with you? We took the top spot based on our own strength, why should we share this pie with you?"
Upon hearing Lu Yuan's words, their faces darkened.
Lu Yuan ignored their thoughts and continued, "You keep talking about a win-win situation, but who knows if you'll run away with it? I don't trust you."
At this moment, the disciple sitting in the distance, glaring at them, spoke up: "Then what about your attack on us just now? We clearly did nothing to offend you, but you suddenly attacked us!"
These disciples perished in the environment due to Lu Yuan's attack, and their scores for the first level of the assessment were reduced to zero. Now that they have returned and seen Lu Yuan, they are filled with hatred.
Lu Yuan stared at them and said, "This kind of thing happened before during the last assessment. You haven't forgotten, have you? Xu Qiubai was the one who eliminated you back then. Why didn't you dare to talk tough to Xu Qiubai when you woke up? But now you have the guts to talk tough to me. Do you think you can't afford to offend Xu Qiubai, but you can afford to offend me? Do you think I'm a pushover?"
Lu Yuan's words were true, and they hesitated for a moment before falling silent.
They longed for the protection of Xingxiang Hall and dared not offend it. But Wencangsheng were different; in their eyes, they were all savages. Some didn't even consider Wencangsheng human, only mocking them behind their backs. They never took Wencangsheng seriously, and Wencangsheng knew it too.
But Lu Yuan could never swallow this insult. She kept these prejudices in her heart, memorized everyone's name, and waited for an opportunity to take revenge.
She wasn't afraid of falling out with others; after all, people with different values are bound to have conflicts.
She wouldn't show them any mercy just because they were all disciples of Kunlun. If Lu Sheng hadn't been stopping her, she would have already taken action against them.
Upon hearing Lu Yuan's words, the disciples who had never noticed these points before suddenly realized that Lu Yuan and Xu Qiubai had clearly done the same thing, yet they reacted to the two of them in completely different ways.
Perhaps Xu Qiubai had committed too many bad deeds, or perhaps the Xingxiang Hall, which Xu Qiubai was backed by, had too much influence, or perhaps they had received favors from the Xingxiang Hall and were therefore more tolerant of its disciples...
In short, they dared to make harsh remarks to Lu Yuan, but dared not openly criticize Xu Qiubai.
“If he can do it, why can’t I?” Lu Yuan said.
"Elder Huang..." someone looked at Huang Menglu for help and said, "Lu Yuan killed us in the illusion, causing us to lose our spots. Her behavior was so heinous, aren't you going to punish her?"
Huang Menglu, however, said while resting his chin on his hand, "I said in the illusion that you should each win your rankings based on your own abilities. As for how you do it, I don't care. I only have one requirement: you are not allowed to use mental arts in front of mortals, that's all. As for hurting people... I'm not a member of the Hall of Good and Evil, so punishment has nothing to do with me."
When she said that, she clearly meant to let Lu Yuan off the hook.
Seeing the anxious expressions on the disciples' faces, Huang Menglu said slowly, "Don't worry, the first round of assessment is over, but there are still two more rounds to go. The final score for all three rounds will be the sum of your scores. You were eliminated in the first round, but just work harder in the next two rounds."
After saying that, she added with a smile, "You can't all be eliminated in all three rounds of assessments, can you? If that's really the case, you might as well pack up and come back in a few years."
Upon hearing Huang Menglu's words, their faces turned grim. They wanted to say something, but remembering that the other party was an elder, they swallowed their disrespectful words.
"If this continues, we might not even pass the classroom assessment decades from now..." someone said with dissatisfaction.
"What can we do?" Huang Menglu heard his mutterings, and this time she showed no mercy, her words piercing him like blades.
"You know you've studied for so many years, but have you mastered the art of stargazing? Have you learned the art of mind control? Is your own Taoist cultivation deep enough? Do you think knowledge will just automatically enter your brain just by sitting in a classroom? You don't understand anything, so how can you possibly beat others?"
She kept asking questions, leaving the disciple blushing.
Huang Menglu said bluntly, "Don't always focus on what others have. Their rankings, strength, and status are earned through their hard work. Even if they aren't at the top, it will be someone else. Why should it be you? There are plenty of people more capable than you. Instead of focusing on others, take a good look at yourselves."
Huang Menglu had wanted to say these words to the Kunlun disciples more than a decade ago. The disciples of Xiaoyaoyou had the clearest understanding of people's hearts, but most of the time they did not want to interfere in other people's affairs.
But at this moment, Huang Menglu really couldn't hold back.
Mingzhao whispered to Shen Cangyu, "Although Elder Huang is in the Free and Easy Wandering Realm, he has a sharp tongue, just like the disciples of the Hall of Good and Evil."
Huang Menglu touched her waist and found that the wine flask was empty. She felt annoyed and said, "The first test is to assess your knowledge and communication and cooperation skills. The next test will be to assess your combat skills."
As she spoke, the students present erupted in uproar.
"Why do we have to take this test? It's unfair to the disciples who are good at observing the secrets of heaven and wandering freely..." someone said.
Indeed, the Taoist arts of "Peeping into Heaven's Secrets" and "Wandering Freely" meant that their disciples lacked practical combat skills, putting them at a significant disadvantage in this assessment.
However, such content has never appeared in previous assessments; these are all new additions.
"Since your Taoist magic has no combat ability, you must rely on your mental skills to fight. That's why your teachers always emphasize in class that you must master mental skills. But some people, relying on their early mastery of Taoist magic, neglect their mental skills... They'll suffer for it sooner or later."
This assessment was designed specifically for this situation.
Studying Taoist techniques should not be a reason for them to abandon the art of mind. There are always disciples who value Taoist techniques but look down on the art of mind. When asked to learn the art of mind, they use Taoist techniques as an excuse to be lazy, and in the end, their Taoist cultivation does not improve.
There are quite a few disciples like this in Kunlun. In the past, they wouldn't have thought much of it, but once they fought against the Five Evils, these drawbacks became glaringly obvious.
The disciples who perished during their training were also killed in this manner.
Those who are solely focused on studying Taoist practices may easily become detached from the world and ultimately achieve nothing.
Centuries have passed, and no new immortals have appeared in Kunlun. They are also reflecting on the reasons for this outcome and trying to find the final solution.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
