The emperor's command cracked through the air.
The entire hall fell silent.
Xu Yuan stood frozen, a pile of shattered jade chips in his palm, utterly at a loss.
He had captured a High School student's shyness and awkwardness to perfection.
An official who knew how to read the room began to clap.
Others followed suit.
The applause grew louder and louder.
The emperor smiled and joined in, his booming voice carrying across the hall:
"I hope you learn every technique in the imperial treasury and all become pillars of the Empire!"
"Of course, you must prove yourselves worthy of those techniques!"
"Just as Xu Yuan has!"
Xu Yuan glanced at Yang Xiaobing. She was clapping furiously, her face flushed with excitement.
Zhang Pengcheng was clapping too, though his face plainly said, That brat's improved again. How annoying!
Jiang Xueyao also applauded with a smile. Without drawing attention to herself, she raised an elbow and nudged Tong Ni away. Tong Ni had edged closer with her phone camera on, apparently hoping to get them both in a photo, but Jiang Xueyao silently and coldly blocked her.
Xu Yuan lowered his head, his face red with embarrassment.
I hid it so well, and you still figured out I'm a genius.
Ah.
Life is hard.
Still, he had not expected the emperor to publicly vouch for him.
Now everyone knew he had mastered an extraordinarily powerful technique.
That meant there would be no more startled fuss over it.
A lot of trouble would stay away from him too...
Probably.
"Very well."
"Now I'll explain what comes next: the final test of this Single-Move Challenge."
With that one sentence, the emperor drew everyone's attention back to him:
"After many rounds of discussion, I have decided to activate the Zhou Tian Instrument jointly with