The Day the Results Were Posted

Night had fallen deep over the village. All was quiet, save for the occasional bark of a dog.

With his pack on his back, Chu Bai walked through the moonlight and gently pushed open his family's loose courtyard gate.

He looked up. As expected, a dim yellow light still shone through the main room's battered window. Two shadows fell across the window paper, perhaps talking softly, perhaps simply waiting.

The door opened almost the instant the courtyard gate creaked.

"Is that Big Brother home?" Li Qing's voice held a trace of urgency and joy she could not suppress.

"Mother, it's me."

Chu Bai hurried forward. By the light spilling from the room, he saw that both his parents were still fully dressed. Clearly, neither had slept.

"You're home. That's all that matters." Chu Xianglin wore a patched coat and still held his extinguished tobacco pipe. At the sight of his son unharmed and full of energy, the deep lines around his mouth finally eased. The weight hanging over his heart dropped away.

"You must be hungry. There's food still warm in the pot." Li Qing took Chu Bai's hand and led him inside, her eyes full of love.

"Mother, don't trouble yourself. I brought something good to eat."

Smiling, Chu Bai pulled an oil-paper parcel from where he had kept it tucked against his chest.

The parcel gave off a tempting smell of meat. It was restaurant cooking, after all.

He set it on the table and carefully tore it open.

Inside lay a golden roast chicken with crisp skin and tender meat, along with a plate of thinly sliced beef in sauce. The rich aroma seemed to grow hooks and burrow straight into their noses.

"Smells so good..."

A sleepy mumble came from the inner room.

Then Xiao Man and her younger brother shuffled out, rubbing their bleary eyes. The smell had woken them hungry.

The moment they saw the meat on the table, both pairs of eyes went round. All traces of sleep vanished.

"Big Brother!" Xiao Man cried, throwing herself into Chu Bai's arms.

"Come on, eat. It's still warm."

Chu Bai smiled as he tore off a drumstick for Xiao Man, then the other for his younger brother. Watching the two little ones wolf down their food filled him with satisfaction.

At that moment, all the exhaustion and every danger he had faced felt worth it.

The family gathered around the lamp and ate their late-night meal.

Chu Bai gave them a brief account of the past few days of examinations.

Of course, he left out the pain of his blocked meridians during the first trial and said nothing of the heart-rattling Illusion Realm in the Heart Inquiry Trial. He told them only the good parts.

"Of course! Our Big Brother is the best." Li Qing understood neither "Grade A" nor "Heart Inquiry," but she understood the examiner's praise and the confidence on her son's face.

Beside them, Chu Xianglin puffed on his pipe. Through the curling smoke, his weather-beaten face shone with pride.

He knew his son had become someone more formidable than the sedan-riding lords in the county. This time, the old Chu family's fortunes truly were about to change.

Once his family had settled down to sleep, Chu Bai returned to his small but familiar room.

He sat cross-legged on the hard bed without lighting a lamp.

Moonlight spilled across the floor like a thin layer of frost.

"Whew..."

Chu Bai let out a long breath and turned his attention inward.

In the sea of qi within his dantian, a wisp of azure Pure Bathing Spell Power flowed slowly along the path of the Minor Qi Gathering Technique, like an obedient fish.

After the grueling examinations of the past few days, and especially the elevation of his state of mind following the Heart Inquiry Trial, that wisp of Spell Power seemed more refined. It had taken on a smooth, translucent quality and constantly nourished his meridians and organs.

"The leap from drawing in qi to Qi Refining really is a leap to a new level of life."

Chu Bai closed his eyes. Even without looking, he could clearly sense dew gathering on blades of grass outside his window and hear the breathing of a cricket in the corner. Everything beneath heaven and earth had grown vivid and distinct to his senses.

At a thought, the familiar pale-blue panel appeared in his mind.

With his breakthrough, the information on it had changed beyond recognition.

[Name: Chu Bai]

[Realm: Qi Refining First Layer (5/100)]

[Cultivation technique: Minor Qi Gathering Technique (Proficient 1/500)]

[Skill: Spirit Water Needle (Skilled 9/200)]

[Fate Destiny:]

[Relentless Toil, Relentless Effort (Active)]

[Food Injury Leaks Elegance, Quick-Witted (Active)]

[Seven Killings in the Fate Palace (Inactive)]

Chu Bai studied the new panel and silently took stock.

First was his realm.

"It's been over a month since my breakthrough. I've managed to keep advancing while honing my Spell Arts, but progress is much harder now."

Next came his cultivation technique.

He had ground the Minor Qi Gathering Technique all the way to proficiency through sheer effort, making his time at the qi-drawing stage remarkably smooth.

"Now that I'm at Qi Refining, I should switch to another cultivation technique."

Chu Bai understood the situation clearly. "But the Minor Qi Gathering Technique is fairly versatile. It just lacks focus. Its absorption rate isn't the best, but I haven't settled on a path of cultivation yet, so I can keep using it for now."

Then he looked at his skills.

The Spirit Water Needle was his trump card. At the Skilled stage, it packed a solid punch and would suffice for now.

But he still had only one way to fight.

"If I run into an opponent with exceptionally strong defenses, or get tied up in close combat, I'll be at a disadvantage. I need to learn new Spell Arts to shore up my defenses and control."

Last came his Fate Destiny.

Relentless Toil remained dependable, ensuring that every bit of practice brought progress and letting him ignore those despair-inducing bottlenecks between minor realms. It was his greatest source of confidence.

Food Injury Leaks Elegance, meanwhile, made his body a bottomless pit.

As his realm rose, so did his need for energy.

Ordinary grains could no longer satisfy him, and even regular meat was not enough.

"I need spirit food, or high-energy flesh like that mutated monster fish."

As for the grayed-out Seven Killings in the Fate Palace, he had not yet had a chance to activate it, so Chu Bai set it aside.

"Qi Refining takes a lot and demands a lot."

Chu Bai summed it up. "But once I've consolidated my strength, I'll have many more ways to obtain cultivation resources."

There was no need to return to the Zhao Residence as a sparring partner.

He had no spare money at present, but he was no longer quite so desperate for silver. Besides, if he wanted to earn money, he would have plenty of ways to do it.

Different stages called for different considerations.

Before reaching Qi Refining, the extra income from sparring had been vital to Chu Bai. Without the nourishment of that meat, who knew whether he would have made it this far in his cultivation?

Now, though, the Dao Academy Examination was over. He needed to think about how to establish himself at the Qi Refining stage.

With his thoughts in order, Chu Bai's mind settled.

"Enough thinking. Time to cultivate!"

He closed his eyes and began circulating his qi through his body, making use of every second to consolidate the cultivation he had fought so hard to attain.

Outside the window, a rooster crowed at dawn, and the eastern sky turned pale.

Another night had passed in cultivation. Far from feeling tired, Chu Bai felt a stir of anticipation.

"Today they post the results."