It was night.
The heavens were black as ink.
The Examination Hall of Southern Yu Prefecture.
Thirteen masters sat outside the Examination Hall. Their hair was all white, but they were full of vigor, their eyes bright.
They were friends invited by Master Liu and the other two masters, who had hurried over from prefectures and counties everywhere as fast as they could.
Southern Yu Prefecture had produced an unparalleled genius. Word had already spread, though just how it had spread was hard to describe.
There were all sorts of versions. Some said Xu Qingxiao was fifteen, others twenty, and still others eight. The more outrageous ones even claimed he was sixty, that he had studied by a cold window for forty years, sharpening his sword for four decades before finally writing an unparalleled essay.
That version was the most widespread. After all, people preferred stories of sweetness following hardship to the reality of a young man finding success.
But regardless, the names Xu Qingxiao, Genius Xu, and Xu the Eternal had spread far and wide.
The thirteen masters guarded the Examination Hall for fear of a surprise attack by demons. Even more than half of Southern Yu Prefecture's officers had come, surrounding the hall with three rings inside and out, ready to draw their blades at the first sign of anything unusual.
That showed how highly they valued Xu Qingxiao.
Yet at that moment, while Xu Qingxiao had not fallen asleep, some people in Southern Yu Prefecture had.
They were examinees who would normally have gone home to rest after the exam. To keep the news from leaking, however, they had been confined here. Once the court's great scholars arrived, they could be allowed home to rest.
These people were not martial artists. After staying up through several days