I Am the Rules

As the illusion faded, Wei Yuan's mind returned to him. He saw chaos reigning in the Martial Assessment Hall: some people were crying, others laughing, and still others lay sprawled on the ground, trembling as a damp patch slowly spread beneath them.

Amid the clamor, a girl's voice suddenly rang out nearby. It was crisp and sweet, so pleasant to the ear that it was hard to describe: "You pig-riding bastard, I'll fight you—"

Wei Yuan peeked over and saw a girl in a pale-yellow dress nearby, as beautiful and flawless as a doll carved from jade. She seemed to have just woken up and sprang out of her seat. But when she noticed the other candidates staring at her, she instantly went quiet. Her little face even showed panic and lingering fear, making anyone who saw her ache for her.

Wei Yuan naturally recognized the girl. She was the Northern Green Team's commander, the one who had taken a direct hit from his spear. Later, when he realized she hadn't died, he'd gone back and given her another thrust.

Seeing the girl on the verge of tears, Wei Yuan couldn't help feeling a little guilty. But guilt was guilt; he still had to finish the job.

The Daoist was thoroughly exasperated by the noisy children and hurriedly ushered all the candidates out of the hall.

Wei Yuan got to his feet slowly. He waited for the girl in the pale-yellow dress to leave, then blended into the crowd heading outside. The girl hadn't recognized him, but someone else had seen through his disguise.

Just as he was about to leave the hall, Li Zhi suddenly emerged from the shadows to one side and blocked his way.

Wei Yuan's heart tightened, and he waited for Li Zhi to speak. But Li Zhi said nothing, nor did he move aside. The two stood facing each other as the other candidates filed past them and out of the hall. In the blink of an eye, only Li Zhi and Wei Yuan remained inside.

The Daoist didn't urge them on. He simply stood outside the entrance, his back to the two boys facing off.

Li Zhi stared fixedly at Wei Yuan, his eyes slowly reddening. Through clenched teeth, he said, "This humiliation is unforgivable. I, Li Zhi, will never forget it! If you've got the guts, tell me your name!"

At this point, Wei Yuan couldn't back down. Besides, they had already fought in the illusion. With Heaven and Earth Madman at his side, Wei Yuan figured it would take only a move or two to deal with Li Zhi. He answered, "Wei Yuan."

Li Zhi shouted, "Good! Wei Yuan, I'll remember you! You won this time, and I accept defeat. I can afford to lose! But you're only a few years older than me. It's nothing impressive. I, Li Zhi, am only eight years old this year! Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river! Just you wait. One day, I'll win back exactly the way I lost!"

With that, Li Zhi turned and stormed out of the hall. Only when he reached somewhere no one could see him did he secretly wipe his eyes.

The Martial Assessment had ended, and the Deliberation Hall was just beginning to erupt.

The evaluators' minds were a complete muddle. No one had expected things to turn out this way. If several of them hadn't ended the Martial Assessment early, Wei Yuan might have hunted down every last survivor hiding in the thickets and grass before he finally stopped.

Nearly all the candidates who had been slated for places in the Immortal Sects and Grotto-Heavens had been killed by Wei Yuan without earning a single merit. Those who had managed to earn anything at all were ordinary candidates, mostly vanguards or scouts, with a few scattered merits worth one or two points at most.

The situation was that, if they judged strictly by the rules, everyone except Wei Yuan would receive zero.

The oldest cultivator spoke first. "We'll have to discuss carefully how to score this."

The old Confucian opened his mouth at once. "I believe Li Zhi should take first place! As Yellow Team's commander, he led his team in wiping out Green Team, and even managed to preserve his elite central forces to the end. Such a young boy has already shown the makings of a great commander. If he isn't first, who is?"

The young cultivator sneered. "He wiped out Green Team? Is there something wrong with your eyes, old man?"

The old Confucian didn't so much as blink. "Green Team was wiped out by Wei Yuan, and Wei Yuan belonged to Yellow Team. As Yellow Team's commander, any merit earned by a member of his team is his merit. That has been the way of things since ancient times. Naturally, Wei Yuan's contribution was extraordinary, so he can share first place."

The young cultivator laughed in fury. "Then what about Yellow Team's failures? Should those count against Li Zhi too?"

The old Confucian replied matter-of-factly, "Merit is merit, and fault is fault. How can you lump them together?"

The young cultivator's hands trembled with anger, but he was no match for Liu Sigu in an argument. The old Confucian had spent half his life debating with others, while the young cultivator was hot-blooded and proud. How could he possibly out-argue an old Confucian?

Daoist Fu Feng cut in. "The rules only divide the candidates into Green and Yellow Teams. There's no mention of a commander. And even if Yellow Team had a commander, what makes Li Zhi the one, rather than someone else? Is it just because he's Duke of Grace's son?"

Unexpectedly, the old Confucian declared in a ringing voice, "Because he's Duke of Grace's son! Because Cui Hanwang fully supports him!"

He said it with such righteous conviction that Daoist Fu Feng was immediately shut down.

Everyone knew how deep the power of the great clans ran. There was the saying of the Seven Surnames Thirteen Clans, and some of the foremost among them were no weaker than the Immortal Sects. In a joint examination and Martial Assessment like this, a commander could indeed be chosen on the basis of birth alone—and there was no other way to choose one. Bao Yun led Green Team, and Li Zhi led Yellow Team, for precisely that reason. The division was said to be absolutely fair, but there were hidden arrangements behind it: no matter how the teams were assigned, Bao Yun and Li Zhi would never end up on the same side.

Daoist Fu Feng knew all this, of course. But hearing the old Confucian say it so openly and matter-of-factly made his Dao Foundation stir with agitation, and his face darkened like the bottom of a pot.

The old Confucian continued, "This mess has to be cleaned up somehow. Whatever anyone else does, I'm giving Li Zhi thirty points."

Just then, the middle-aged Confucian cleared his throat, breaking the silence. "Everyone saw what happened in the Martial Assessment. Green Team was wiped out first, while Li Zhi kept his troops in good order, remained calm in danger, and served as Yellow Team's leader. He deserves thirty points."

The young cultivator sneered. "Li Zhi lost two battles in a row, and you call that keeping his troops in good order? What the hell does Green Team's destruction have to do with him? If not for Wei Yuan, hmph, Miss Bao would've wiped him out several times over! If Li Zhi can get thirty points, shouldn't my young lady get fifty?"

The middle-aged Confucian said, "Wei Yuan was on Yellow Team."

The young cultivator shot back, "And didn't he wipe out Yellow Team too?"

That was a difficult question to answer. The middle-aged Confucian exchanged a glance with the old one before saying, "For attacking his own team by mistake, his score should indeed be lowered accordingly."

It was a slippery answer, but the young cultivator refused to let it go. "Then how much are you planning to take off?"

The two Confucians cursed inwardly, but Zhang Sheng was watching right beside them. They couldn't answer carelessly. The middle-aged Confucian didn't bother with the question at all and instead said, "Miss Bao's Green Team was wiped out, and she herself earned no merit whatsoever. According to the rules, she should get zero!"

"Bullshit!" The young cultivator flew into a rage.

In the blink of an eye, the evaluators were arguing again, leaving Zhang Sheng out of it. But everyone knew that arguing was pointless, so when they couldn't agree, they could only score the candidates separately.

Zhang Sheng didn't touch the register in front of him. He simply watched everyone in silence.

The old Confucian Liu Sigu was the first to pick up his brush. He wrote down thirty for Li Zhi, then wrote Wei Yuan's name next. After writing the name, he pondered for a long time. His brush descended as if burdened by a thousand jun. He wrote a two, paused with the brush suspended in the air, then added an eighteen.

Seeing this, the young cultivator sneered to himself. So the old bastard was all bluster after all. With an Immortal Sword at his throat, even his backbone wasn't so stiff.

The young cultivator also picked up his brush. He gave Bao Yun thirty points first, then scored Li Zhi. He didn't hold back, giving him fifteen.

After he finished scoring Li Zhi, he saw the old Confucian look up at him, then write: Bao Yun, one.

The middle-aged Confucian seemed to awaken from a dream. His hesitation vanished, and he wrote the same thing: Bao Yun, one.

The young cultivator was dumbfounded.

He looked around. The monk had given Wei Yuan thirty points, while Bao Yun and Li Zhi had received only three each. He was now busy scoring everyone else, mostly giving out one or two points. The oldest cultivator looked as if none of this had anything to do with him, and gave Bao Yun and Li Zhi twenty-five points apiece.

Daoist Fu Feng gave Wei Yuan thirty, Bao Yun ten, and Li Zhi five. A few others had also given scores above twenty; clearly, these were the Aristocratic Clans he needed to look after.

The actual scores weren't what mattered. What mattered was the relative difference between them. Only now did the young cultivator realize how green he still was. He should have waited until the end and given Li Zhi zero. But once a score was written, it couldn't be changed.

By this point, apart from the monk, the scores had little to do with anyone's performance in the Martial Assessment. Everyone had begun to drop the pretense and bare their teeth, no longer hiding their true intentions.

Zhang Sheng watched them in silence.

Just then, a beam of watery light descended from the sky and landed directly on the stone stele in the hall. The moonlit radiance was as fine as a strand of hair, yet it pressed down on everyone with boundless force, as if they stood before an abyssal sea or beneath the blazing sun!

The evaluators' thoughts froze solid. Then they saw every name on the stele disappear and reappear, with a corresponding score beside each one. At the top of the list was Wei Yuan, with twenty-five points; then came Bao Yun with three, Li Zhi with two, and a handful of others with one apiece. The vast majority had zero.

A distant, desolate voice thundered through the hall, seeming to come from on high. "This is fairness!"

Then the scores on the stele melted away like snow and new ones appeared, each person's score increased by twenty points. In the end, Wei Yuan had forty-five, Bao Yun twenty-three, Li Zhi twenty-two, and the rest were ranked in order below them.

"This is to spare your families some face."

The evaluators fell silent, not daring to make a sound. A True Lord had spoken. What right did they have to object?

Every True Lord was a pillar that held up the heavens, powerful enough to raise a middling clan from nothing. Even thousand-year-old high clans like the Bao and Cui Houses treated True Lords with utmost courtesy. Besides, that fine thread of moonlight was famous even among True Lords. After all, in the entire Taichu Palace, there was only one person who served as master of both the Azure Sky Hall and the Water Moon Hall.

Then the voice turned stern and reprimanded them. "Zhang Sheng, an evaluator of the Taichu Palace, acted willfully and humiliated his colleagues. Though there were reasons for his actions, he must still be punished severely!"

After a pause, the voice continued, "...Zhang Sheng is to forfeit three years' salary as a warning to others!"

The evaluators accepted the ruling wholeheartedly, showing no sign of dissent.

High above in the sky, a figure shrouded in watery moonlight said, "You are all old friends. If you have any objections, we can discuss them further. If not, then that settles it."

Several towering figures stood around him, each with an extraordinary presence. Two nodded slightly, while the other two merely snorted without indicating their position. One was dressed like a Confucian scholar, but his folding fan had somehow lost half its length. The other was dressed like a cultivator and glittered with treasures, clearly covered in famous magic artifacts. Yet one sleeve was missing from his dazzling robe, making the whole thing look strangely out of place.

Three of the five agreed, while the other two made no objection. The matter was settled, and the joint examination came to an end.