You Will Eventually Swim Against the Current

Zou Bufan raised a brow. That graceful figure looked somewhat familiar. The other person walked straight up to the proctoring disciple, tidied his exam paper, handed it over, then turned and left the examination hall.

The instant he turned around, Zou Bufan caught a clear look at his profile. It was precisely the one he had encountered outside the examination hall earlier.

So it was him.

Had he finished? Or had the paper simply been too difficult, causing him to give up?

Logically, it should not have been possible for him to finish so quickly. Even a genius like Zou Bufan had only completed half of it. Of course, there was no ruling out the possibility that the lower reaches had one or two exceptional experts. Lu Li's appearance always made him associate him with the favored children of heaven.

Yet what happened next made him laugh soundlessly.

The moment the young man left the examination hall, flocks upon flocks of Wood Crows swooped over and surrounded him, chattering over one another as they hawked their own private academies.

Zou Bufan had heard that Wood Crow mechanisms like these, found only in the lower reaches, were crudely made and possessed very limited intelligence. Yet the services they promoted varied from person to person.

If that young man truly were some sort of genius, these Wood Crows would never be so crazed in promoting their own academies to him.

"He acted so high and mighty outside just now—I thought he was someone extraordinary. Looks like I was overthinking it. This little girl is nothing special after all."

With that thought, Zou Bufan lowered his head and continued answering questions.

Meanwhile, outside the grounds, Lu Li found a quiet teahouse nearby, ordered a cup of tea, sat down, and opened the middle volume of the Stamping Art.

At that moment, Elder Duan's voice sounded in his mind.

"Mm, your master has looked it over. Your understanding of the first volume of the Stamping Art is quite solid. Getting a first-class grade in that exam just now should not be a problem. Your master is deeply gratified."

"What are you gratified about, you old thing? Have you no shame? You make it sound as though I was taught by you."

It was not yet mealtime. The Human-grade welding master assessment was in the afternoon, the Earth-grade fitter assessment was tomorrow morning, and the Earth-grade welding master assessment was tomorrow afternoon. Time was extremely tight, so whenever Lu Li had a spare moment, he studied the middle and final volumes of the Stamping Art.

"If you have no confidence tomorrow, your master can offer you a few pointers."

"First, I am not your disciple. Second, I do not need your help."

"Alas, I'm only offering a few pointers. Whether you listen is up to you, and I won't need to take control of your body. Why are you reacting so strongly?"

"Don't. Need. It!"

Pies did not fall from the sky. This old thing was wicked to the bone and definitely had some other scheme in mind. The afternoon assessment was just as uninteresting. Lu Li completed it without effort, filling in every answer in less than the time it took to drink a cup of tea, then left the examination hall early.

The sky was still bright. Lu Li planned to practice operating stamping mechanisms some more. Tomorrow's assessment was the real main event for him.

Lu Li spent most of the afternoon racing against time, familiarizing himself with the operating procedures of stamping mechanisms. Perhaps because he had operated the Qi-Combining Cauldron some time ago and learned two killing moves from the Stamping Art, coupled with the fact that he had already thoroughly studied all three volumes of the Stamping Art, he quickly got the hang of these mechanical automata.

Although Lu Li's operating experience was far inferior to that of veteran craftsmen who had worked for decades, he believed that merely passing the Earth-grade fitter assessment would not be difficult.

How should he put it? It was like taking a driver's license test in his previous life. Passing was not a problem, but that did not necessarily mean he drove particularly well. A novice should drive slowly at first; as experience accumulated over time, familiarity would come naturally.

After practicing all afternoon, Lu Li stepped out of the room and looked up to see more than a thousand enormous, gleaming golden characters suspended in the sky. They were divided into two groups: the left displayed the Human-grade fitter assessment results, while the right displayed the Human-grade welding master assessment results.

The written papers were graded by Wood Crows. The answers were all fixed, with no open-ended questions. The Wood Crows were not highly intelligent, but their mechanical, repetitive grading process was perfectly suited to such cheap labor.

In truth, the results of the morning's Human-grade fitter assessment had already been released at noon. They were merely posted together for public viewing at dusk.

Everyone looked up, trying to find their own names. Where there was joy, there was naturally sorrow as well.

"Ah, great! I passed!"

"I failed again. I can only come back next month. Sigh."

The rankings were arranged from highest to lowest, divided into twenty rows and several columns. Those who occupied the first column of either list were without exception dragons and phoenixes among men.

Someone in the crowd noticed something. Whether it was the fitter ranking or the welding master ranking, the names in the first column kept circling back to only a few surnames.

"Fan Chengye, Fan He, Fan Zhongli, Zou Shouyi, Zou Shian, Yan Xiu, Yan Jingxing... My heavens, why do the people at the very top all have one of those three surnames? Where did these geniuses come from?"

"You don't know? They're all young masters from the middle reaches. They've gathered here to sponge off our city's promotion quotas. Still, we're doing all right—Human-grade quotas are fairly plentiful, so a few extra people won't affect us. The Heaven-grade assessment the day after tomorrow is the real case of a thousand troops fighting to cross a single-log bridge."

"Twenty people showed up all at once. Maple Fragrance City does not have many promotion quotas each month to begin with, does it? Doesn't that mean nobody else can advance to Heaven-grade?"

"Look, there seems to be someone with the surname Lu in there too."

"Deer Pear? Never heard of that name. Probably another young master or young lady from the middle reaches. Tsk, tsk—the gap between people is bigger than the gap between people and dogs."

Lu Li said nothing. He had reached this point entirely through his own efforts. Lu Ling said he had been clever since childhood, but in truth, he merely possessed memories from his previous life, which made him seem mature beyond his years.

If it came to intelligence, Lu Li considered himself the type who could barely be propped up against a wall. Mm... propped up against a wall in the literal sense, considering that he used to cling to the top of walls every day to secretly learn from others.

Second in the Human-grade fitter assessment, first in the Human-grade welding master assessment—those were his results.

For fitter work, he had temporarily lost to some young lady surnamed Fan. After all, he had been born in the lower reaches, and his horizons were limited. There was simply some knowledge of mechanical arts in which he could not compare to her.

But when it came to welding, he had memories from his previous life. At his current stage, he believed he was no worse than those young masters and young ladies.

At that moment, Elder Duan said leisurely, "Don't lose heart. The cultivation resources that children of the middle reaches can access from childhood are far beyond anything you can imagine. You merely lost in terms of resources. Even if you were born in the lower reaches, as long as master and disciple work together, you will eventually rise against the current. Back then, Venerable Fusheng also rose from the lowest river channel..."

Before Elder Duan could finish, Lu Li shrugged and cut her off.

"Rise against the current... You're actually trying to comfort me? Has it occurred to you that I'm not discouraged? And I'm not drinking your bowl of chicken soup either."

Duan Xuanyuan was slightly surprised. Those words had merely been meant to paint a grand picture, to make Lu Li feel that she and he were in the same boat. If it had been any other disciple, they would have long since been willing to board her pirate ship.

In fact, Lu Li only cared whether he had passed or not. As for accidentally placing first and second, he did not take it to heart at all.

But though Lu Li himself did not care, someone else did.

All twenty-two disciples from the middle reaches stared at the rankings in the sky. The same question arose in all their hearts.

"Who exactly is this Deer Pear?"