The younger cultivator secretly shifted closer to Daoist Fu Feng and asked softly, “Daoist Brother Fu Feng, neither I nor the Bao Clan offended you, did we?”

The Daoist let out a couple awkward-sounding coughs and played dumb. “Patience. Keep watching, and you will understand.”

The younger cultivator felt restless, but there was nothing he could do. He could only watch helplessly as Wei Yuan continued to travel north. On the other hand, the two Confucianists were pleasantly surprised. They both ignored the fact that the boy had suddenly unleashed a secret technique of fortune.

All aristocratic families possessed their own secret technique of fortune. The Bao Clan’s Those Forgotten Years was especially renowned and allowed Bao Yun to gain an explosive amount of power instantly. Lee Zhi had reserved a spot in the Four Sages Academies, so he had to have mastered the Chapter of Departure as well.

They weren’t the only two people who possessed a secret technique of fortune either. Most of the nobles participating in the unified exam did. If they really looked into this matter, they could easily identify twenty or thirty such individuals. Naturally, this was one of those matters that they had to turn a blind eye to.

In the northern zone, the girl wearing yellow was watching her sand table and counting the time. Eventually, she declared, “We will advance if Lee Zhi still doesn’t show up in one ke[1]!”

Right on cue, a few grains of sand suddenly fell off the tiny hills on her sand table!

The girl raised her head and said calmly, “I didn’t think he would show up. It would seem that he is not as green as I thought.”

The candidates surrounding her were all looking southward as well. They all looked calm and collected.

Lee Zhi had only started to gather his underlings after he entered the dormitories, but they had joined hands with Bao Yun long before the unified exam began. They firmly believed in her prediction as well. The reason Bao Yun unleashed the two detachments was to force Lee Zhi’s main force to meet them in a decisive battle, and this was something all of them wanted. The sooner this exam wrapped up, the sooner they could return home to enjoy a well-deserved rest.

The group kept watch for a moment until something emerged from the horizon. It wasn’t the yellow team’s army though. It was a moving hill of flesh.

Wei Yuan rode his boar up a small hill and came to a stop, gazing at the orderly military formation some distance ahead of him. Everyone in his vision appeared to be wearing blue. In the illusory realm, a person’s equipment would automatically take on their faction’s color after they made their selection. This eliminated the possibility that someone might not be able to tell the factions apart.

Thus, his heavy armor appeared distinctly yellow to everyone in the blue team as well.

Bao Yun was astonished to see Wei Yuan. She asked, “Who is this?”

Everyone shook their heads in bewilderment. They had looked into the identities of Lee Zhi’s commanders before the martial test as a matter of course, but no one had a clue who the boar rider was.

The blue team might be hesitating, but Wei Yuan harbored no such thoughts. Looking at the orderly military formation before him, he decided to inject his boar with another wisp of black qi, causing it to swell even bigger and eject enough white steam to form a fog. It surrounded both itself and its master.

The boy issued a mental command while pointing his spear straight ahead. The boar immediately let out a deafening roar that resounded throughout the illusory realm!

Redness rapidly spread along the boar’s fangs until even the steam it was exhaling was tinged red. It then lowered its head and charged straight toward the military formation!

The military formation was orderly, and the candidates making up the formation were fully confident in their abilities. However, this formation was meant to be used against Lee Zhi, not a boar the size of a small hill. It wasn’t until the boar that weighed over ten thousand catties was charging at them at full speed that they felt fear. They instinctively realized that it wasn’t something human strength could stop at all!

The first row of candidates—specifically the middle section, as they were the ones standing directly in the boar’s path—dropped their weapons and ran away immediately. Those in the back two rows were caught completely off guard and thus failed to escape in time.

The boar slammed into the military formation and threw its head upward, its several-chi-long tusks ranging instantly sending a couple candidates flying through the air. They never even got the chance to struggle before a flurry of spear thrusts dissolved them into light.

The military formation they had prepared to withstand Lee Zhi’s full-frontal assault was pierced through in a single charge just like that.

Wei Yuan squeezed his legs after he punched through the military formation, causing the boar to slam its hooves into the earth. However, its momentum was so great that it kept sliding forward until sparks were flying off its hooves. It wasn’t until ten or so zhang later that it finally managed to arrest itself and turn around.

A wide path had appeared in the middle of the blue team’s formation where the boar had charged through. White light could be seen rising one after another from the trodden soil.

Several youngsters rushed out from Bao Yun’s side. One of them yelled, “Don’t be afraid! Let’s slay that animal first!”

Faint light surfaced from the youngsters’ bodies and boosted their speed tremendously. Clearly, they all possessed secret techniques of fortune. The boar had just twisted its humongous body over, it was still in the middle of gathering its strength. The youngsters were able to reach it first, leaped into the air, and launched their weapons at the boar.

Right now, both sides were empowered by secret techniques of fortune. Thus, when Wei Yuan scanned the three youngsters with his perception, he was able to identify the strength of their fortunes instantly. Compared to himself, their fortunes might as well be a candle flame in a storm, small and feeble. Not only that, they looked like they were moving at a snail’s pace in his eyes, and they couldn’t dodge because they were in mid-air. In other words, they were perfect targets.

Wei Yuan thrust his spear three times in a row, transforming all three youngsters into light in the blink of an eye. Then, he slowly withdrew his weapon and set his gaze upon the remnants of the military formation.

As soon as the blue candidates sensed Wei Yuan’s gaze, they abruptly abandoned their positions and scattered in every direction. When he shifted his gaze upward, he saw a bunch of boys and girls standing at the top of a hill. He lifted his spear and pointed it straight at the girl in the middle.

“The impudence!” A handsome boy standing next to the girl stepped out in anger and yelled, “I’ll teach him some manners!”

Bao Yun said gently, “Be careful, Big Brother Xu.”

The boy declared arrogantly, “There’s nothing to worry about! He’s just a mere barbarian!”

He obviously knew a secret technique of fortune of his own as a pair of purple flames ignited in his eyes. The flames were also bursting out of his body and increasing his speed severalfold. He charged toward Wei Yuan like a purple dragon before leaping into the air, yelling, “Eat sword, barbarian!”

Wei Yuan looked at the youngster slowly crawling through the sky like a turtle and aimed a spear thrust at the chest.

The boy crossed several zhang of distance in one leap, and his sword glittered like a cold star in the night. However, the tip of his sword came to a dead halt several chi shy of the barbarian’s throat. When he looked down slowly, he saw that a spear had penetrated his chest. He had no idea when it happened, only that it was preventing him from moving an inch further. He tried extending his arm to the best of his ability, but his three-chi-long sword only moved forward another two inches. He simply could not touch his opponent no matter what.

Wei Yuan swung his spear in a wide arc before flinging the boy stuck to the spearhead away with tremendous strength, causing him to crash into the group standing on the hill. Three white lights[2] rose into the air immediately after.

The young girl let out a quiet sigh and grabbed her sword with both hands. She was just about to enter the battlefield when the young boy who had been hugging a sword and standing behind her this whole time caught her. Appearance wise, he was not inferior to the girl at all.

He said, “Looks like Big Brother Xu is useless.”

The girl said, “But he gave it his all, didn’t he? It’s fine. I’ll do it myself.”

She tried shaking the young boy off twice but failed miserably. While keeping a firm grip on her, he said smilingly, “Your Big Brother Xu is definitely courageous, but it is also clear that he is not made for fighting. Leave it to me.”

“Hmph! I can fight too!” The girl pulled with all her might.

“Really, there’s no need for you to enter the battlefield.” The boy easily overwhelmed her and stepped in front of her. “To borrow your Big Brother Xu’s words, he’s just a mere barbarian. It won’t take any effort to subdue him.”

The boy unsheathed his sword, and clear qi rose out of his body. He looked like an immortal boy right now. He then leisurely flew toward Wei Yuan.

Looking at the boy’s back, the girl suddenly cried out, “Please be careful, Big... Big Brother Xiao Yu!”

The boy let out a laugh, and his clear qi instantly became three chi taller. He then pointed his sword at Wei Yuan and yelled, “Three Thousand Lotuses!”

Wei Yuan’s vision blurred, and he suddenly lost track of the boy. Then, all he could see were green lotuses. The green lotuses moved like lightning and hit Wei Yuan way faster than he could react, much less defend himself. God only knows how many times he was hit in that one moment while green fire engulfed him like the rain!

A large column of light rose from the center. The boar dissolved into light under the rain of green fire just like that.

When the lotuses disappeared, and the boy reappeared once more, he hovered in front of his defeated foe while hugging his sword. His eyes were perfectly clear as he gazed toward the horizon, not even deigning to look at his victim.

The boy’s clear, gentle voice resounded, “Since you took my Three Thousand Lotuses without collapsing, assuming that your exam result isn’t good, I will grant you a spot in a blessed land. You can rest in peace now.”

The boy lidded his eyes lightly and waited for a few breaths. When he opened his eyes again, he noticed that the barbarian hadn’t dissolved into light as he thought he would.

Wei Yuan looked down at himself. There were countless rice-sized dents and shallow scratches on his heavy armor. They were the marks left behind by the Three Thousand Lotuses.

He briefly calculated the depth and length of the damage before replying in a sincere voice, “You almost managed to hurt me.”

The boy’s face grew whiter and whiter as his long hair floated behind his back. He was unconsciously pressing his lips so hard that they were losing color by the second.

1. Fifteen minutes. You’ll understand why I don’t just translate it to fifteen minutes eventually, at least in dialogues. ☜

2. You know, I always hate how Chinese neglect to describe how the lights look like. Like do they scatter like water? Do they rise into the air like smoke? Is it a column maybe? Like give me something! ☜