Fangxian Heretical Path

Chapter 116 No Money, No Medicine, No Entering This Door
The clinking and jingling of coins continued to echo in the room.

The two envoys from the immortal sects walked among the examinees, picking the round-bellied green cicadas from their bodies as if they were harvesting melons and fruits.

This scene not only stunned the candidates present, but also left the surrounding family and relatives bewildered, their faces immediately showing anger.

The dojo masters, on the other hand, all remained calm. Some of them frowned as they watched the scene unfold, but none of them had any intention of stopping it.

Even if some of their younger disciples were indignant and wanted to curse aloud, they were immediately and sternly stopped by the masters of the martial arts school.

"shut up!"

In the silence, darkness fell.

The onlookers on the outermost edge of the market only knew that there were shimmering blue lights flying up and landing on the candidates, but they did not know that the candidates, who had a bright future in their eyes, were being treated like vampires and having their blood drained.

The onlookers just kept discussing it:

"What are those blue lights? Are they spells?"

"This is the first time I've ever seen such a method of eliminating people."

In the end, even the two immortal sect envoys in the arena, despite their incredibly fast hands, couldn't remove the green talismans from the numerous examinees.

The saturated cicadas detached themselves from behind the examinees and fell to the ground with a crisp sound.

Some of the bloodworms, having sucked their fill, would explode into a bloody mess when they fell to the ground.

One after another, the green caterpillars fell densely to the ground.

Finally, a thud was heard.

One of the test takers couldn't hold on any longer. His body felt weak, his eyes darkened, and he suddenly felt dizzy. He could no longer endure it and collapsed to the ground.

As soon as one of them fell to the ground, the green venomous creatures on its body did not scatter with a crash, but continued to lie on them and suck their blood.

Upon seeing this, the two envoys from the immortal sect stepped forward and kicked the fallen examinee out of the range of the Qingfu insect swarm.

They kept shouting, "Eliminate one!"

"Those who know him, quickly carry him away."

These words reached the ears of the other candidates, causing many to stiffen, realizing that falling to the ground meant failure in the imperial examination.

This caused many candidates who were also feeling dizzy to suppress their discomfort and continue to hold on the stage; it also made some candidates who wanted to pretend to be sick quickly abandon their thoughts.

After eliminating twenty or thirty people in succession, the rate at which the remaining candidates were eliminated suddenly slowed down.

And for a full quarter of an hour, not a single candidate collapsed.

Upon seeing this, the two envoys from the immortal sects chatted amongst themselves: "Tsk, this method is truly excellent. Those with weak foundations are immediately weeded out."

"Anyone who temporarily took medicine to break through, who appears to be at the third tribulation but is actually depleted of qi and blood, or who is pretending to be at the third tribulation, is already among those people. The current number is normal."

The two of them chatted and laughed, completely disregarding the examinees, their families, the museum owner, and others.

Among the test takers.

Fang Shu continued to hold on. Although he was still far from being completely exhausted, continuing like this could damage even his very foundation.

Furthermore, once the time limit is exceeded, if others choose to weaken their foundation and continue to persevere, while he does not persevere, he will be outdone and directly eliminated.

He thought to himself, "Is this a selection process or an oil extraction?"

If those two messengers don't know when to stop, someone might be whipped to death today.

In his gloomy mood, Fang Shu was nothing more than a "fish on a chopping board," completely at the mercy of others, with no way to do anything about it.

He had repeatedly tried to isolate his blood and qi, preventing the green worms from drawing his blood, and even attempted to use the poisonous blood within his body to poison the green worms to death.

But no matter what he did, it only caused fluctuations in his blood and qi, making the bloodworms even more excited!

Fortunately, this continued for several more quarters of an hour. When a layer of azure blood coins had accumulated on the ground, the female envoy of the Immortal Sect, still standing firmly on the high platform, spoke:
"enough."

These words clearly reached the ears of the people within a radius of thirty feet. Fang Shu and the others were overjoyed, and even the masters of those martial arts schools relaxed.

Only the two celestial sect envoys who released the insects showed hesitation on their faces and said:

“Fellow Daoist Zong, this blood money is different from ordinary blood money. It is the blood money of the Three Tribulations, also known as ‘worth a hundred coins’.”

"Fellow Daoist, don't be anxious. There are still forty-seven examinees left in the arena, and only a small portion of them have been eliminated!"

Zheng!
A cold glint seemed to flash across the high platform.

The calm-faced female immortal surnamed Zong opened her eyes, sized up the two immortal sect envoys, and said indifferently, "Fellow Daoists, do you need me to repeat myself?"

The two envoys from the immortal sects froze. They immediately bowed to the immortals surnamed Zong, and then one of them made a hand seal while the other made a flute.

buzzing.

The blood-sucking worms that had just landed on Fang Shu and the others detached themselves from their bodies, splitting into two streams that burrowed into the waists of the two immortal sect envoys. The examinees, who had been drained of their blood for so long, finally had their bodies exposed, revealing deathly pale faces.

Many people felt a sudden sense of relief, their legs began to tremble, their blood and energy were severely depleted, and quite a few candidates even collapsed to the ground, sweating profusely.

Fang Shuchu was among them, and he was no exception; his face was pale and his limbs felt weak.

In stark contrast to them were the two envoys from the immortal sect, who were busily sweeping up the blood money from the ground and putting it into three large vats.

The two guys couldn't hide their glee at all.

Just as someone recovered and was about to bow and thank the woman surnamed Zong on the high platform, they noticed that the two envoys from the immortal sect were respectfully holding up the large vat containing the most blood money to the woman surnamed Zong.

The other party showed no politeness whatsoever, and with a flick of his sleeve, he pocketed all the blood money from the vat.

This action silenced all the candidates.

Before everyone could calm down, the envoy from the immortal sect, having collected the money, took out a giant bell ten feet tall and placed it in the center of the arena with a thud.

They shouted:

"Those who can still get up, get up and ring the bell. This bronze bell is specially made by the sect. It can be rung with just three zhang of qi and blood to prevent unqualified people from infiltrating the sect."

But upon hearing this, even the weak and powerless examinees hurled curses.

"Damn it! We've just lost so much energy, how can we possibly move this giant bell?"

"May I ask, are you two immortal masters deliberately making things difficult for us?"

Many people stared at the two men with resentment, as if they wanted to devour them.

Fang Shu was among them, also feeling a chill, but he remained silent.

Soon, many people turned their attention to the immortal surnamed Zong, hoping that he could come out and uphold justice again.

However, the woman surnamed Zong was already sitting cross-legged in meditation. She didn't even glance at the crowd again, letting her two "subordinates" do as they pleased.

Amidst the commotion, an envoy from a celestial sect sneered:

Whether you can make a sound when you knock or not is your business.

In any case, only those who ring the gong in 45 minutes will be officially selected.

After saying that, the two men followed the example of the woman surnamed Zong, slightly closing their eyes and ignoring everyone else.

At this moment, the dojo masters outside the arena finally intervened.

But they only dared to whisper: "Quickly regulate your breathing and take the medicine to refine it."

As one examinee after another realized that the two immortal sect envoys had not forbidden them from taking the medicine, they quickly stopped cursing and instead chose to sit cross-legged and swallow the medicine in their hands.

Some people didn't have enough medicine on them, or didn't have any with them at all, so they simply asked their relatives and friends outside the arena for some, and the two immortal sect envoys didn't stop them.

Soon enough, some candidates stepped forward to try, but the first group all failed.

It wasn't until a quarter of an hour later that someone regained most of their strength, mustered all their energy, and struck the bell, finally producing the first resounding "dong".

The other person was overjoyed and, under the direction of the two immortal sects, quickly stood to one side.

However, the first candidate to ring the bell still had a flushed face afterward, as if he had taken some kind of potent medicine.

Fang Shu did not take any potent or dangerous medicine.

He only took the Rouzhibao medicine, and fortunately, the medicine was effective. Within a quarter of an hour, his blood and energy were fully restored, but his body was still a little weak.

In a little over fifteen minutes, he successfully rang the giant bell and stood among the crowd of people passing through the checkpoint with a slightly relieved expression.

Half an hour later, the remaining candidates all looked anxious.

These people are either poor and don't have any high-quality medicine, or they were sucked too much blood just now, and even the most precious medicine can't repair them in a short time.

The foundation and the foothold are all fully displayed at this moment.

So some candidates shamelessly begged others for medicine, extremely obsequious, not only making grand promises but even kneeling down and kowtowing.

However, both the examinees and the library owners remained indifferent, and there was no way they would aid the enemy at this time.

In an instant, the remaining people became extremely agitated, and cries of resentment and lamentation filled the air.

"It's all your fault, why didn't you bring the medicine?"

"Father, your son is unfilial; we have no choice but to accept our fate..."

Some of them, seeing that the medicine was running out, even shouted in agitation:

"No? Then hurry up and give me some milk!"

(End of this chapter)