Folding Fan

The newcomers meant trouble. Bian Chunchou weighed the vast disparity in strength between the two sides and felt that today's examination was unlikely to end well. But retreating before a fight simply did not fit Chen Zui's style. That guy could not back down even an inch. Bian Chunchou would swear on his one and only treasured sword that Chen Zui was probably considering whether he could take on four alone.

Help, the more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed. What was he supposed to do?

"Leave? Would you really let us go so easily?" To Bian Chunchou's surprise, the first one to provoke them was not Chen Zui, but the mildest-tempered Wen Xu!

Li Zishen gave a sinister chuckle. "I never said that. You insisted on staying yourselves. Attack!"

Without another word, Chen Zui raised his saber and charged in alone, practically wearing the words "valiant and sharp" on his forehead. But no matter what, one man could not surround four people.

Bian Chunchou had already raised his low-grade treasured sword. Just then—

The timely Wind Blades arrived!

They came without warning, without a sound, with magnificent force—and—well, they struck whoever they saw, attacking without discrimination!

Bian Chunchou was starting to love this artifact. He even found the Wind Blades adorable now, but why had they stopped again?!

What was this halfway abandonment? He had just praised them for being cute!

"Chunchou, do you trust me?"

Wen Xu suddenly spoke. Bian Chunchou did not hesitate in the slightest. "Of course I do. You're my friend!"

"Cover me!"

Because Chen Zui had gone to pull those two deadweights out, he could no longer wrestle with the artifact. The Wind Blades accordingly weakened, but once Li Zishen and the other four appeared, the Wind Blades returned. This meant the artifact—

The artifact needed wind to unleash Wind Blades.

Wind was an invisible, colorless force. It could be fierce, or it could be faint. Wen Xu had seen how a gale could crush the old pines atop a cliff and tear them out by the roots. He had also seen bitter winds cross the land overnight, killing soundlessly and invisibly.

So where did the wind come from?

Wen Xu stood where Chen Zui had swung his saber moments ago. The ground around him was covered in traces left by the rampaging whirlwinds. He silently stirred the scant spiritual energy within his Dantian and Qi Sea. He wanted to—

"Ho, the kid's figured it out." The junior martial uncle clapped happily. Seeing Zhao Qi glare at him without pause, he quietly drew in his shoulders, only to soon straighten up again with perfect justification. "This batch has some good seedlings. That blind one—if no one wants him, Artifact Refining Peak will take him!"

The moment Elder Zhan heard that, he flew into a rage. "Who says no one wants him?! Pill Peak wants him! First come, first served—he was long ago reserved as a disciple of Pill Peak!"

Folding Fan

"Reserved long ago? Who can prove it?" Zhan Baizhen of Pill Peak might look as harsh and severe as someone from the Discipline Hall, but he was actually soft dough beneath the surface. The junior martial uncle was exceptionally skilled at serving dishes according to the guests. "If no one can prove it, then no one wants him. He belongs to Artifact Refining Peak."

Zhao Qi finally could not endure it any longer. "Zheng, I haven't even settled accounts with you for switching the Mountain Examination artifact without authorization, and now you're snatching people? Their spiritual roots haven't even been tested yet!"

The junior martial uncle did not dare argue with Zhao Qi. Once this fellow caught even the slightest fault of his, he could list ten or eight charges against him. So he turned directly to Sect Master Gu Wufang. "Sect Master, look at him. I'm doing this for Yonglu Mountain's sake too, aren't I? This little blind fellow understood the artifact's marvelous use so quickly—clearly he's a fine seedling for artifact refinement. If he comes to Artifact Refining Peak, it will be like adding wings to a tiger. Don't you agree?"

At those words, Gu Wufang could not help but get a headache. Everyone said that the leader of a great sect cut an imposing figure, yet no one knew how hard it was to manage these senior and junior brothers when they started arguing. Usually, he could not even be bothered to interfere.

Since taking the seat of sect master, smoothing things over had become the thing he did most. "You two know that you cherish talent, but the Mountain Examination is still underway. Whether this child can make it to the end depends on the final result. Stop arguing."

The junior martial uncle: ...Forget it. Boring. He might as well watch the little blind fellow.

He then turned his gaze toward the Shadow Wall not far away. It displayed real-time scenes of all ninety-nine examinees. Image-Recording Stones were not expensive, but assembling them into such an enormous Shadow Wall was something only a great sect could afford to burn spirit stones on.

At this moment, one small section of the Shadow Wall clearly showed Wen Xu sensing the wind with spiritual energy.

Chen Zui could create a hurricane from a standstill through physical strength alone, but Wen Xu could not. Before this, he had merely been a frail scholar. Aside from his own mind, all he could rely on was the thin layer of spiritual energy in his Dantian.

The place around him had been ground over by wild winds and pierced by Wind Blades. But wind did not appear for no reason. Though it came from all directions, if one traced it back to its source, there could only be one point of origin.

Thanks to Bian Chunchou, he had two Wind-Riding Talismans on him. Their use was simple: activate the talisman with spiritual energy, and one could ride the wind. Earlier, when the Wind Blades attacked and he had clearly reached the brink of life and death, he had not been able to bring himself to use them. Yet now, he took out both Wind-Riding Talismans.

With a thought, the Wind-Riding Talismans ignited without wind. At once, he felt wind rise beneath his feet, as though someone unseen were helping him speed forward.

No one disliked flying. Wen Xu had never been able to fly before, but the instant his feet left the ground, he fell in love with the sensation of riding the wind. He even felt as though he had been born knowing how to fly.

But at this moment, he could not afford to lose himself in personal realization. He needed to find the artifact at the fastest possible speed, or simply—

Go all the way and make the artifact unleash even more Wind Blades, throwing both friend and foe into chaos.

Li Zishen had come for him and clearly would not let this go. Against someone like that, he could only strike back with even tougher means. Otherwise, there might not be a next time at all.

Wen Xu understood clearly that the cultivation world differed from the Mortal Realm, yet they also shared similarities. Li Zishen came from an aristocratic family. Even if he failed to enter Yonglu Mountain, he would still have many paths open to him. But Wen Xu was different. If he failed, Li Zishen dealing with him would be as easy as turning over his hand.

So this time, he had to win—and win beautifully, taking this Mountain Examination!