Snap!
A faint series of crisp sounds came from behind him.
Zheng Qing turned around. His gaze passed through the swaying shadows of the trees, and he seemed to see several fireworks rising into the air, with a few blurry numbers faintly visible among them.
It reminded him of the Performance Stage at the foot of Lishan Mountain.
"I wonder how many points Zhang Shuzhi got."
Muttering, he withdrew his gaze and looked at the witch, who was also tilting her head up. At last, he remembered how her first-round performance had been interrupted by Tu Shan Chu Jiu. "...How many points could you get after Tu Shan interrupted your performance?"
"No points," the witch answered casually.
That answer immediately sobered the young wizard considerably.
His thoughts instantly returned from the earlier "tree shade, little path, walk, and chat" to reality. He remembered the witch's identity and the nature of the Shanglin Garden Spring Hunt.
He remembered that they had left early.
"Is that all right?" he could not help asking quietly.
"What?"
The witch stopped walking and casually plucked a string of unknown golden flowers from a nearby bush. Zheng Qing noticed that the little flowers were rapidly closing their petals.
"Is it all right that you won't get any points for your performance?"
"It's fine."
"Then what about the rest of the competition after you brought me straight out here? You only took part in the third-round challenge, right? Won't your family blame you for not joining the first and second rounds?"
Today's competition was divided into three rounds. The first was a performance, testing young wizards' understanding of magic. The second, "three kills and three offerings," tested wizards' command of ritual through killing and dissecting prey. The third involved challenging one another to determine the final rankings