Li Yun continued up the steps.
Before long, he had climbed nearly another hundred steps and reached the second checkpoint.
The grounds here were more spacious. Dozens of separate courtyards stood nearby, and there were noticeably more guards—all formidable Acquired Realm Martial Artists, with even a few Innate Masters among them.
The people in charge of this checkpoint were two elderly matrons leading more than twenty pretty young women.
At the sight of Li Yun, the matrons' and young women's eyes lit up. They quickly compared him with the dozen or so handsome young men who had arrived earlier and were waiting for their second evaluation. Li Yun was more striking than any of them, stood taller, and carried himself with greater distinction.
A line sprang unbidden into their minds.
On the path, a man like jade; among all the world's young gentlemen, none his equal.
The words seemed made for Li Yun. They suited him so perfectly that they felt effortless, as though they had sprung from nature itself.
"May I ask your surname, young master?"
"How many points did you receive at the first checkpoint?"
One of the matrons approached Li Yun with a smile, even warmer than the woman at the previous checkpoint.
"Lin Zishan!"
"The matron there gave me ninety-five points!"
"What? Only ninety-five? Were Qin Mu and the others blind? How could they give a man with your looks and bearing a mere ninety-five points?"
The matron was furious.
As far as she was concerned, Li Yun's looks and bearing deserved a full hundred points. Giving him ninety-five was plainly an attempt to hold down his score.
Soon, though, she understood why Qin Mu had done it.
It was not that Qin Mu had failed to see how handsome Li Yun was. Quite the opposite: