The chief examiner's tone was calm. "Eight people tied with you for first place, but Guangxin Prefecture is only admitting seven this year."
Pan Yun's body stiffened. She silently lowered the hand she had been resting on her hip and asked modestly, "Then may I ask, how do you choose seven out of eight?"
"Drawing lots," said the chief examiner. "All the examiners draw slips from a pile until we have drawn seven names."
"Then it's fine." Pan Yun turned and left.
Behind her, the chief examiner called out loudly, "After we drew seven, we kept drawing. In the end, we didn't draw your name until there was only one slip left in the urn, Fellow Daoist Pan. Luck is also a form of cultivation..."
Pan Yun quickened her pace and left.
Yet the chief examiner's voice still clung to her like a ghost that would not disperse, his voice nearly cracking. "There were sixty-four blank slips in there!"
When she stepped out of the alley, Xue Hua and the others looked at her with sympathetic expressions.
Pan Yun paused, then turned to leave. They hurriedly stepped forward to stop her. "Junior Sister, we've finished the exam too. Shall we head back to the academy together?"
Pan Yun first cupped her hands to congratulate them on passing, then said expressionlessly, "Wipe those looks off your faces. This temple attendant doesn't need your sympathy."
Xue Hua looked even more sympathetic. "Junior Sister, if you keep failing to obtain your ordination certificate, then your position as temple attendant may..."
Zhang Weiyi said, "You can still have a temple attendant, but the Mount Sanqing Mountain God Temple may have to be removed from the public temples. It would no longer be among those consecrated by the Celestial Master's Mansion. When it comes to