I proved immortality through the imperial examination.

Chapter 53 Are You Willing?

"cut!"

A sharp shout, as if the heavens and earth had been created.

The golden giant sword, carrying the power to destroy the heavens and the earth, crashed down. Wherever the sword light passed, the void shattered, the laws were annihilated, and the entire sky was split in two like a fragile piece of silk!
The cultural lineage and celestial heart above the sky didn't even have time to manifest as Village Chief Han's old face before it shattered into countless fragments.

Not far away, Village Chief Han had already vanished into wisps of smoke the instant the sword energy gathered.

"Is it over?"

Xue Xiang clenched his fist, looked up at the sky, and the giant sword slowly dissipated, turning into countless curved streams of energy that drifted down.

Suddenly, a dark cloud obscured the newly opened sky, followed by a second, and then a third...

In the blink of an eye, the sky, which had just been brightened, was about to fall back into darkness.

Not far away, Village Chief Han appeared out of nowhere, swaying unsteadily.

He had no injuries, but he no longer looked as solid, clearly still much weaker.

He laughed loudly, his laughter carrying three parts resentment, three parts sorrow, three parts bitterness, and one part relief.

"No matter how talented you are, or how much talent you possess that can support your literary spirit and manifest extraordinary phenomena that can cleave the heavens, you must know that what stands above you is the divine will of the literary lineage."

Village Chief Han said with boundless hatred, "Even if it is the literary vein of the Heavenly Heart formed by the accumulation of literary miasma, it cannot be destroyed by mere poetic verses manifesting strange phenomena."

Now that your literary talent has been exhausted, your fate is destined to be tragic.

You little thief, you've finally met your match?
For the sake of a bunch of fools, they ended up like this.

"I'd like to ask you, are you willing or not?"

Village Chief Han is not the old man of Hangu after all.

His true form is a wisp of remnant hope, and now, the only desire of this wisp of remnant hope is to exist forever.

Xue Xiang was not surprised by the outrageous things he said.

Are you willing to accept this?
Xue Xiang had, of course, asked himself that question.

All that hard-earned literary talent has been wasted just like that.

Now, with nothing in his hands, his ambition to refine his literary skills has vanished.

But so what?

He doesn't regret the path he chose.

Moreover, he did not gain nothing.

At least, Village Chief Han was just a phantom image left. One can imagine how weak the Heavenly Heart of the Cultural Lineage, which hangs high in this Trial Realm, has become.

It is conceivable that the miasma here will be completely exhausted after only a few rounds of trials.

As for him, although he cannot obtain literary talent, it is only temporary.

Having gone through such a trial realm, he has fully realized just how much of a cheat code Heaven has given him.

Gaining literary talent is only a matter of time.

"No more talking, haha..."

Village Chief Han laughed loudly, "In the end, you were unwilling and regretted it. What were you pretending to be, a scholar and a Confucian gentleman?"

You people keep claiming to be serving the country and its people.

People come here for the sake of culture, but how many are truly concerned for the masses in the military dependents' village?
Of course, he wasn't the only one acting foolish; the young man surnamed Wei was one of them.

You're one of them.

You are more pathetic than the one surnamed Wei.

At least someone surnamed Wei knows their own limitations.

You dared to be so arrogant as to challenge the very essence of this world's culture and destiny; you deserve to have fallen to this state.

"shut up!"

Xue Xiang said solemnly, "You are but a wretched remnant, not even worthy of being called a life."

And they still dared to speak so arrogantly in my ear.

How could someone as foolish as you possibly understand the affairs of scholars?

Confucius said, "To achieve benevolence," and Mencius said, "To uphold righteousness."

I have done my duty, therefore I have shown my benevolence.

What do we learn from reading the books of sages and worthies?
From now on, I have no regrets.

With such a bright mind, what more is there to say?

call out,
In the air, a blue aura exploded.

"This is impossible!"

Village Chief Han's eyes widened.

call out,
Another cyan aura exploded, causing a nearby black aura to explode as well. "No, no, this is impossible, absolutely impossible..."

Village Chief Han's face twisted again.

What he saw completely challenged his understanding.

By the third stage, the spiritual energy collected by the trial participants will be exhausted, and the spiritual energy in the trial arena will no longer be able to be drawn upon by the trial participants.

But at this moment, the atmosphere at the scene suddenly became heated.

This was clearly caused by Xue Xiang's words.

Is this some kind of prophetic saying?
Who is Kong?
Who is Meng?
What are these two for?
Village Chief Han's mind was about to explode.

In just a few breaths, all the literary energy that was lingering around exploded like dominoes.

Gradually, the burst of literary energy spread all the way up to the highest heavens.

Even the cultural heritage and the will of Heaven could not resist this transmission, cracking inch by inch and bursting apart inch by inch.

"No!" Village Chief Han roared in utter terror.

Finally, with the collapse of the cultural lineage, his broken figure could no longer hold on and slowly faded away, without even a speck of dust rising.

Xue Xiang calmly looked up at the sky. He himself did not expect that his final words of tribute to Wen Tianxiang would have such a miraculous effect that no amount of brilliant poetry could achieve.

boom!
The cultural heritage above our heads collapsed like the Kunlun Mountains.

The raging miasma transformed into a meteor shower that fell from the sky.

Instantly, Xue Xiang felt a sense of relief.

This feeling is very similar to when I first entered this trial realm.

When he tried, he recited, "Good rain knows its season, it falls when spring arrives, it sneaks in with the wind at night, and nourishes all things silently."

In an instant, the boundless literary energy beneath the sky transformed into a gentle spring rain, sprinkling endlessly upon the earth.

boom!
The entire military dependents' village erupted in celebration. Countless residents rushed out of their houses, crying, jumping, and rolling around in the rain...

With a whoosh, Xue Xiang was swept up by a beam of auspicious light and thrown into the text refining array.

As he softly recited the incantation for refining literary energy, boundless spring rain suddenly surged towards him.

All 36,000 pores on his body opened simultaneously at that moment.

As the raindrops gradually entered, they transformed into a literary atmosphere, cleansing his entire body.

Several dozen breaths later, a wisp of golden literary energy hovered above his head.

He could move freely, going east or west at will, following his will.

With a thought, Xue Xiang conjured a golden aura into a writing brush.

With another thought, the literary energy transformed into a large sword.

He felt joy in his heart and his mind was clear.

He stopped reciting the breathing exercises and was about to get up.

Suddenly, the torrential spring rain transformed into a misty, clear light, enveloping him.

The gentle, scholarly air suddenly turned violent, seeping into his body as if to destroy everything.

Xue Xiang was startled, then overjoyed.

If he's not mistaken, this should be the legendary tempering of the body with literary energy.

He had heard Qian Ming say that only those who displayed extraordinary abilities in the Trial Realm would receive this treatment.

At that moment, he gritted his teeth and let the literary energy wash over him.

Not long after, he felt a sharp pain in his lower abdomen, and all three points of light, representing the third level of Qi Refining, were lit up.

"Could it possibly even stimulate the development of a higher realm?"

Xue Xiang was overjoyed.

However, after the excruciating pain lasted for about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, his lower abdomen felt warm, and all three lights went out. He didn't even get to see the fourth light, which represented the fourth level of Qi Refining, lit up.

Time passed slowly, and my body felt warm all over.

Finally, the warm feeling spread to my eyes.

In an instant, the warmth around me turned into ice.

It was as if all the heat was concentrated in his eyes at that moment.

He felt a sharp pain in his eyes, and in an instant, he lost his sight.

The excruciating pain lasted for about ten breaths, and just as his consciousness was about to collapse, the burning sensation disappeared without a trace.

A chill ran through me, as if my eyeballs had been gouged out and submerged in icy water.

When he opened his eyes again, the sky was still the same sky, and the land was still the same land.

Everything seemed the same, yet something seemed different.

Xue Xiang immediately took off his robe and covered his head.

He wrapped his head with robes layer upon layer until finally, his closed eyelids no longer sensed any light.

He opened his eyes.

Despite being wrapped in layers of black fabric, he could clearly see the color and texture of the robe.

This also confirmed his guess: the tempering of his body with literary energy helped him achieve the Mysterious Night Eye.

From then on, he could see at night and see through illusions.

Xue had no time to rejoice.

Whoosh! In a flash, my body found itself surrounded by a vast expanse of white.

The wind seemed to blow beneath my feet and past my ears.

When he looked again, he found himself inside an ancient mountain.

The four walls of the mountain are covered with array patterns, and there are various shapes underfoot.

To the left and right were faces I had seen in the Trial Realm; all the Trialers from the six cities were present.

Xue Xiang was not surprised; he had heard Wei Wendao mention it before.

The Qingyun Platform's formation is unparalleled; one can travel to the Trial Realm via the Qingyun Platform without needing to transfer elsewhere.

Returning from the Trial Realm requires passing through this transit station.

At that time, he was already thinking about guarding against Song Shijia's provocation.

But now, the advantage is in my hands.

"The one surnamed Xue!"

Sure enough, Song Shijia, his eyes bloodshot, pounced like a man-eating tiger.

(End of this chapter)