Pei Zhizong's Proposal

Although he did not know what had happened.

Once Ling Wuyuan stepped onto the platform, however,

he still realized one thing with absolute clarity.

He had definitely struck it rich!!

"OH YEAH~"

"Awesome~"

The only small problem was that the gazes of the other children beside him and the onlookers below made him a little embarrassed.

"What's with this guy?"

"Where did this beggar come from?"

"..."

Although no one directly questioned Ling Wuyuan or started shouting at him, he could still sense those meanings in the countless gazes.

This feeling of being disliked and scorned by thousands upon thousands of people...

Luckily, I was an orphan in my previous life and got used to being disliked. I've been a beggar for years in this life too, so I'm even more used to being disliked. Otherwise, I might really feel pretty embarrassed...

Thinking of that,

Ling Wuyuan even felt a little pleased with himself.

It was the self-satisfaction of someone who had seen plenty of storms and could now face his circumstances with complete calm.

As long as one had lived miserably enough, being disliked by others was truly nothing worth mentioning.

However,

as Ling Wuyuan looked at the neatly dressed children around him, then recalled the Holey Outfit on his upper body and the trousers on his lower body, which still had holes in the legs aside from the relatively intact crotch, he could not help but feel a thread of desolation.

I wonder when I'll manage to get myself a complete set of clothes.

At the same time,

he saw the Pei Family's servants slowly carry a circular Black Stone Platform to a nearby spot. It was around thirty centimeters high and two and a half meters wide, its surface carved with countless Strange Patterns and Multiple Grooves.

Though it was his first time seeing the thing,

Ling Wuyuan immediately understood that it was likely the tool needed for the [Spirit Awakening Ritual].

After examining it for a while,

Ling Wuyuan withdrew his gaze.

There was no helping it.

Even though he knew the patterns on the Black Stone Platform's surface ought to possess some sort of special power, not understanding them meant not understanding them.

Thus, Ling Wuyuan's gaze soon shifted elsewhere.

There stood a little girl with fair skin, shoulder-length black hair, and an exceptionally adorable face. Calling her delicately sculpted from jade would not have been an exaggeration.

Though she was still young, only around ten years old and seemingly about the same age as Ling Wuyuan, the beauty she possessed had already begun to show itself.

Even with only a fleeting glimpse,

anyone could easily tell that she would absolutely grow into a great beauty someday.

At this moment,

although her face showed no particularly obvious expression, Ling Wuyuan could still clearly sense that her gaze toward him was filled with scrutiny, as though she were examining something worthy of serious attention.

Faced with that gaze,

Ling Wuyuan felt both a pain in the ass and somewhat surprised.

He could tell that she was probably the main reason he had somehow gained the right to participate.

But he could not understand why she had done so.

Moreover,

the man beside her—one of Black Stone City's true bigshots, Pei Zhizong—also silently observed him for a while.

Faced with a bigshot he had no way of resisting,

even with his fairly good mental fortitude, Ling Wuyuan could not help growing nervous.

Only after discovering that neither of them seemed inclined to speak to him, merely looking at him a few extra times at most, did he calm down.

Once the Black Stone Platform had been fully set in place,

and the white-haired old man embedded several unknown objects that glimmered faintly into its grooves,

very soon,

amid the curious gazes of all the onlookers and the intense anticipation of all those selected, the [Spirit Awakening Ritual] officially began.

The participants climbed onto the stone platform one after another in a line.

Just as Ling Wuyuan had previously found himself completely unable to understand the patterns on the platform,

he also completely failed to understand the so-called [Spirit Awakening Ritual].

From his perspective, whenever a child stepped onto the platform, after the white-haired old man performed a series of actions, the patterns on its surface would release waves of soft radiance.

Then, the children would reveal expressions of either comfort or discomfort.

Their reactions varied greatly.

Generally speaking, the whole process, from each child stepping onto the platform to stepping back down, took around two to three minutes.

...Doesn't seem like there's much to watch...

There aren't even many special effects...

Though he was silently griping in his heart,

Ling Wuyuan was still quite eager for the [Spirit Awakening Ritual] to reach him sooner.

For him, it was a wait that was neither long nor short...

When Ling Wuyuan stepped onto the stone platform,

Pei Zhizong, who had been observing him for a while, casually asked the little girl beside him:

"That little beggar looks fairly decent."

"Do you want to take him in as a family servant, have him serve as your attendant?"

He could see that the younger girl beside him held a certain curiosity toward the boy.

And the wealthy Pei Family itself had always had the habit of regularly taking in young orphans from outside and training them into loyal family servants.

So he did not mind taking the opportunity to satisfy his junior's little curiosity.

After all, it was only one more mouth to feed.

Furthermore, his earlier words had not been spoken without reason.

Pei Zhizong genuinely thought that Ling Wuyuan, this little beggar, was rather good.

Although his clothes were filthy and his body was somewhat underdeveloped, making him look rather thin and weak overall, the face hidden beneath the grime was actually quite handsome. More importantly... his gaze and bearing were interesting.

He had been born lowly, yet was neither insecure nor timid. He remained calm and composed.

Even while standing on the platform, directly subjected to the scorn in the gazes and conversations from below,

even while queuing, deliberately ostracized in unspoken coordination by all the other children and unquestionably pushed to the very end, with no one willing to speak to or interact with him,

that little beggar had remained calm and at ease throughout.

Even in the face of the malice of thousands, tens of thousands, not once had his face revealed the slightest wavering...

All he did was silently scrutinize and observe.

He observed the other children on the platform.

He observed the many people below the platform.

Within those exceptionally calm eyes,

Pei Zhizong could see with absolute clarity that the boy was [thinking].

Though he did not know exactly what the boy was thinking about, he understood that his maturity and intelligence had completely surpassed those of every other child on the platform.

He had even surpassed many, many adults both on and below the platform.

[This is an exceptional child.]

Though he had not exchanged even a single word with Ling Wuyuan,

Pei Zhizong still reached that judgment with utmost certainty.