Chapter 26: Star-Draining Art! The Marriage Contract of the Beloved Wife
Chapter 26: Star-Draining Art! The Marriage Contract of the Beloved Wife
Wen Daozi went up the mountain, and he brought back a Yin-Yang Master.
The mysterious Yin-Yang Master wore a mask and would not see anyone.
“Was Master Jingyu injured by a Demon Spirit?”
The Yin-Yang Master nodded.
Wen Daozi asked, “Can he be saved?”
“Yes.” The Yin-Yang Master’s voice was very hoarse and raspy, as if his throat had been scraped by sandpaper.
“But, he cannot be treated here. He must be taken to a special environment. One month later, after I save him, I will bring him back,” said the Yin-Yang Master.
One month?!
What about Wuque’s Arithmetic studies?
At that moment, the voice of Mentor Menjif sounded from outside.
“Mountain Master, please come out for a moment.”
Wen Daozi went out and asked, “What is it?”
Menjif said, “Wuque’s Alchemy studies have ended.”
Wen Daozi was startled and said, “Wasn’t it supposed to be five days? It hasn’t even been three days yet?”
Menjif said, “I also completely cannot understand any of this.”
Wen Daozi asked, “How were his results?”
Menjif said, “Full marks.”
“What?!” Wen Daozi exclaimed in surprise. “Were your exam questions very easy?”
Menjif said, “No, they were completely normal.”
Wen Daozi trembled. “Whether it’s the Academy’s exams or the Scholarium’s Grand Examination no one gets full marks, right? At least… I’ve hardly ever seen it.”
Menjif said hoarsely, “At least right now, I still feel it’s like a dream, very unreal. I’ve even started to doubt my life.”
Next, Wen Daozi found Wuque and asked, “Master Jingyu needs to go out for treatment, for at least over a month. I can find you another Arithmetic mentor, though they might not reach Master Jingyu’s level.”
Wuque thought for a moment and said, “It should not be necessary. I can study on my own by looking at the textbook and Master Jingyu’s lecture notes.”
Wen Daozi asked, “Are you sure you can?”
“I can!”
…
Next came the study of Policy Essays.
Master Xu Enzheng had prepared one thousand Policy Essays for Wuque to read and memorize.
One thousand essays, roughly eight hundred thousand words.
But he did not need to memorize them word for word. Understanding the patterns, structures, and thinking within them was enough.
Whenever he encountered an allusion he didn’t understand, Wuque took the initiative to ask questions. While studying Alchemy, he hardly needed to ask a single question, but while studying Policy Essays, he had many, many questions.
It took exactly five days and four nights. Wuque finished reading all one thousand Policy Essays once, and he had practically memorized them.
Even on Earth there was a saying: After thoroughly reading three hundred Tang poems, one can chant poems even if one cannot compose them.
Policy Essays were much the same: first memorize, then imitate, then surpass.
Throughout the entire process, Wuque asked at least several hundred questions.
Both he and Xu Enzheng were exhausted. They lay down and fell fast asleep.
After waking up, Xu Enzheng tested Wuque.
This test was different from the Scholarium Grand Examination. He was given three full Policy Essay topics.
The exam time was also a full six hours.
After four hours, Wuque finished writing all three Policy Essays and handed them to Xu Enzheng.
It took Xu Enzheng over half an hour to grade them.
Then he let out a long sigh, unsure if it was disappointment or relief.
Because Wuque’s miraculous performance had ended.
His Policy Essays were merely decent, steady and balanced, without major errors, but also without surprises.
The total score for Policy Essays was one hundred. The scores Xu Enzheng gave him were all around sixty points.
There was no help for it. This was the limit of Wuque’s own ability. Because none of the Policy Essay topics Xu Enzheng gave were ones he had encountered before.
First, he had not encountered topics from those top-tier famous masters of ancient China. Even if there were, Wuque probably wouldn’t remember them. He had only memorized the most classic ones, the kind that could make it into textbooks.
Second, among the corpses he had prepared for burial, there was once a top-tier Confucian scholar.
This person had once been the top scholar of the Great Xia Empire.
He was Mu Yuan’ai, the top scholar from fifty years ago. But when he was thirty-seven, he was framed by treacherous officials. His entire clan was wiped out, and he himself was castrated and exiled to the harsh, cold northwest borderlands. On the brink of death, he was saved by a spy from the northern Tianqi Empire.
To take revenge, Mu Yuan’ai defected to the Tianqi Empire. From then on, he became the shame of the Great Xia Empire, a great traitor.
A few years ago, he disappeared from the Tianqi Empire court.
Returning to his roots, he secretly sneaked back to his homeland in the Great Xia Empire, where no one recognized him.
Afterward, he silently died in his home, which had become ruins. Someone carried his body to the Nameless Graveyard. Wuque prepared his body for burial and obtained his memories.
Of course, these were very fragmented memories. He was almost senile and had forgotten many things.
What remained were only parts of his writings.
A few of these essays were truly earth-shaking, works of a master. But there was no help for it. The Policy Essay topics Master Xu Enzheng gave were worlds apart.
Wen Daozi, Fu Baoshi, Menjif, Xu Enzheng, and others held a small meeting.
“Master Xu, are you certain Wuque’s Policy Essay ability stops here?” Wen Daozi asked.
Xu Enzheng said, “Yes. In the short term, it cannot be improved.”
Wen Daozi sighed. “Then there’s some trouble.”
Yes, trouble.
Because the Scholarium Grand Examination also had unwritten rules. Although rankings were based on total score, if some subject scores were poor, even if other scores were excellent, one would have no chance at the top few spots, or even of being accepted at all.
This Academy Grand Examination held at Tianshui Academy involved students from three provinces and fifteen academies. The number of candidates was about eight thousand.
The number who could pass was basically only about two hundred sixty, one in thirty.
The two most important subjects in the civil service examination were Classics Interpretation and Policy Essays.
If the score in either of these two subjects was below sixty, then even if the other scores were extremely high, even if the total score ranked in the top fifty, one would definitely not pass. The exam paper would be disqualified.
If the score in either of these two subjects was below eighty, then one basically had no chance at the top ten, even if the total score was very high.
After a long while, Wen Daozi said, “The primary goal is to pass the exam! As for the top five or top ten, that is not important.”
Then he continued, “There are five subjects in total. Three subjects have been completed. Wuque will study the Department of Arithmetic on his own. That leaves the final subject, and the most important one: Martial Arts!”
Immediately, everyone looked at Jiumogang.
“Child, extend your hand,” Jiumogang said.
Wuque extended his wrist.
Jiumogang placed his fingers on Wuque’s pulse. A stream of energy drilled in and instantly circulated throughout Wuque’s entire body.
“He truly has no martial arts skill, almost powerless to even tie up a chicken,” Jiumogang said hoarsely. “There are sixteen days until the Academy Grand Examination. If he chooses the Martial Arts Subject, he needs to at least become a Seventh-Rank Warrior to pass.”
Xu Enzheng took almost ten years to go from zero to Seventh-Rank Warrior in martial arts.
Jiumogang, a martial arts genius, also took about three years.
Wuque only had sixteen days left.
Wen Daozi suddenly said, “We know this is as difficult as climbing to heaven. I don’t want to hear about the difficulties; I just want to know if there is a way.”
Jiumogang was silent for a long time. “There is, but also there isn’t.”
Fu Baoshi said, “At a time like this, don’t keep us in suspense. If there is, say so; if not, say not.”
Jiumogang rasped, “The Scholarium forbidden art—Star-Draining Art!”
At these words, everyone fell silent. The air around them turned cold.
It was as if this term was completely forbidden!
It couldn’t even be mentioned.
A thousand years ago, an unprecedented civil war broke out across the world. Nearly every nation and race in the Eastern World was pulled into it.
And this civil war, in the end, was a civil war within the Scholarium.
Over a thousand years ago, a group of geniuses appeared in the Scholarium and formed a small group called the Phantom Society.
The threshold for joining this small group was extremely high; only one in ten thousand geniuses could join. As time passed, the Phantom Society’s influence grew. A significant number of its members entered the high ranks of Sky Scholar City.
The years of the Phantom Society’s rapid growth were also a time of great progress in all areas of Scholarium research.
But… things gradually went off the right track.
A group of geniuses discovered shortcuts, tapping into a certain dark and evil power of this world. They used it to cultivate martial arts, enhance their spirit, practice alchemy, and craft artifacts.
Their methods grew more extreme, their means more evil.
For certain experiments, to verify certain martial arts theories, they did not hesitate to slaughter cities, defy human ethics, and capture tens of thousands of people for horrific experiments.
Not only that, at that time, the leader of the Phantom Society, Xu Ranzhi, was ambitious and sought to unify the world, to dominate everywhere.
His trusted followers were spread throughout the major empires of the Eastern World.
From the shadows, he schemed and manipulated, forming alliances, creating conflicts, throwing the world into chaos.
To uphold Scholarium orthodoxy, the Light faction began to act on behalf of heaven, expelling and capturing members of the Phantom Society.
The Phantom Society rebelled against the Scholarium and established the Dark Academy.
From then on, the Scholarium split.
On one side was the Light faction, on the other the Dark faction. The Scholarium civil war dragged the major nations into the conflict.
They fought for decades, leaving the land scorched and the people suffering.
The Light faction ultimately won a great victory. The Phantom Society leader, Xu Ranzhi, died a miserable death, and the Dark Academy was razed to the ground.
Ever since then, all texts and martial arts manuals of the Dark Academy were considered forbidden books.
Why were the Dark Academy’s martial arts so attractive?
Because they were shortcuts, because they allowed for extremely rapid improvement in martial arts cultivation.
Even though they were evil paths, even though they used dark power.
And this Star-Draining Art was once a top-tier martial arts manual of the Dark Academy. After learning the Star-Draining Art, one did not need to follow the orthodox path of cultivation. Instead, one could directly devour power to enhance one’s cultivation.
And what it devoured was not human power, but… the power of evil Demon Spirits.
…
In Zhenhai City, at the Star Pavilion.
As usual, Zhi Fan sat before her mirror, applying makeup.
She was already extraordinarily beautiful, but she still spent two hours every day on her makeup.
After finishing her makeup, she sat on a brocade stool, straightened her slender waist, and posed her figure to its most perfect state.
Especially the curve of her rounded hips, breathtaking and utterly captivating.
Then, she took out a portrait of another stunningly beautiful woman.
Fu Caiwei!
She looked at her own reflection in the mirror, then at the portrait of Fu Caiwei.
She was like a peacock spreading its tail, vying to outshine Fu Caiwei in the painting.
Fu Caiwei, I am not as scheming as you, and my background is not as noble as yours.
But my beauty is not inferior to yours, and my hot figure is not inferior to yours. In the future, my achievements will not be inferior to yours either.
Shen Wuque, you bastard, why did you run away? Our score is not settled yet. How could you just run off?
Right at that moment, a maid walked in and handed her a letter.
“Master, someone from outside sent this letter. He said he is your fiancé.”
Zhi Fan was startled. She was already married; where did a fiancé come from?
She opened it and saw two faded pink characters.
Marriage certificate!
…