Unspoken

The illusion faded, and the radiant, resplendent scenery before the hall returned.

Dead silence...

Utter dead silence...

Whether the civil and military officials had felt surprise, shock, or anger at the scene just now, they all fell silent once the illusion receded.

As though nothing had happened at all...

"Lies to delude the masses! How could such a thing happen beside the Imperial City!" someone snapped.

Still silence!

Endless silence!

Refining Blood Pills from thousands of people beside the Imperial City-an undertaking of that scale...

Only a handful of people could accomplish it!

And whoever could commit such an atrocity, one that enraged Heaven and man alike, had to be seated among those present.

Su Mo had pointed straight at Liu Feng. None of those seated there were fools, and they understood that Su Mo clearly knew something of the inside story.

Liu Feng was the son of Liu Cheng, the Minister of War. The answer was plain as day!

But with Liu Cheng's Nascent Soul strength, and the Academy refusing to meddle in the nation's fate, who besides Prince Ying could stand against him?

Moreover, Liu Cheng controlled the Ministry of War and held the nation's foundations in his hands. Within Great Hua, he could blot out the sky with a single hand!

And the one on the imperial throne had not even entered the Dao... otherwise, this mighty nation would never have fallen into its present state.

Once the illusion dispersed and reality returned, reality was what they had to face.

The officials and Immortal Cultivators stood high above, while the common people scraped by, clinging to life.

Those thousands of lives would amount to nothing more than "absurd, deceitful lies"...

Jiang Yu looked dazed, and Ji Hongyan's face was filled with disbelief... the other dozens of candidates wore varying expressions, but none spoke.

Liu Feng had been terrified within the illusion, and when it faded, his face had turned deathly pale with panic. But once everyone fell silent, he turned to look at his composed father, slowly recovered, and then actually smiled.

Liu Feng looked at Su Mo, standing isolated and helpless, his eyes full of mockery.

"Su Mo, here at today's Palace Examination, not only have you refused to answer the examination question, you have spread lies to delude the masses and undermine our nation's foundations. What are your intentions?" Liu Feng sneered and berated him loudly.

Lies to delude the masses?

"Ha ha ha ha..."

Su Mo began to laugh... a wild, desolate laugh!

He looked around. No one spoke!

Su Mo looked toward the officials. Some averted their eyes, some wore stern expressions, and some had even closed their eyes.

The one on the imperial throne had remained silent ever since returning from the illusion, seemingly waiting for something.

"So that's how it is..." Disappointment filled Su Mo's eyes. Shaking his head, he said in a low voice, "So when you peel back the skin over a festering wound, if no blood flows, the pus that comes out merely turns people's stomachs... this rot will never heal!"

"I was naive!"

Su Mo murmured those words, then raised his head toward the red sun already shining high above!

"Whether you know about this or not, whether you believe it or not, you cannot know, and you cannot believe!"

Su Mo turned to Liu Feng, then to the man Liu Feng looked toward whenever anything happened... Liu Cheng, the Minister of War.

Liu Cheng remained composed, though a trace of coldness lingered in his eyes as he looked at Su Mo.

There were some things that others might know, but once they were laid on the table, they inevitably became a little troublesome.

They might not affect the larger picture, but they certainly looked ugly!

Sacred light blazed over the imperial palace, and the red sun rose high in the east.

Yet that blazing red sun left Su Mo feeling cold. The hall was filled with civil and military officials, none of them ordinary mortals. Why would they care whether ordinary mortals lived or died?

Only among those dozens of candidates were there ordinary mortals...

But ordinary mortals... had long since been stripped of their will!

They did not dare... or did they not believe?

To Su Mo, even the red sun shining high above seemed somewhat mocking.

Luo Yin had said that the Academy could not interfere in matters of the nation's fate!

If he interfered in the nation's fate, he could not enter the Academy.

Without entering the Academy, he would cut off his only current path to immortal cultivation!

The moment Su Mo activated the Memory-River Spirit Jade, he had made his choice...

There was nothing to regret. Without trying, how could he know just how bad things were?

"Little girl, I can't cultivate immortality anymore!" Su Mo sighed to himself, no longer paying attention to the expressions or actions of those present.

Su Mo slowly removed his Tribute Graduate's ceremonial cap, revealing his neatly bound hair, which gave him a particularly refined appearance. He bent down and slowly placed the cap on the ground beside his feet...

"What is he going to do?" an official exclaimed!

No one answered. They merely watched Su Mo's actions in puzzlement.

Su Mo continued speaking to himself:

"I won't be an official either... let's go back to Jiangnan... who cares about the people's suffering? What does it have to do with me?"

Inside the Riverboat Pavilion, the little girl, who had been staring into space, suddenly seemed to sense something and looked toward the east of the city.

There... golden light shone, and the red sun rose high... a scene of sacred majesty!

"Young Master..."

Seeing the little girl's reaction, Luo Yin paused in surprise, stopped playing the zither, and asked, "What's wrong?"

The little girl covered her face and wept. "Young Master is heartbroken!"

"Isn't the Palace Examination today? Why would he be heartbroken?" Luo Yin was puzzled. Earlier, she had seen Su Mo's name on the Golden Ranking in the Sky Dome. The little girl had been overjoyed then. How had something gone wrong so soon?

"And... how do you know?"

The little girl shook her head. "It's Little Stone. Little Stone is hanging against Young Master's chest. It passed his feelings on to me."

The "Little Stone" the Little Girl spoke of was precisely the little white stone she had hung against Su Mo's chest as a protective charm on the day he went to West City.

In the little girl's subconscious, that little white stone was the most important thing to her besides Su Mo!

"I'm going to find Young Master..." The little girl turned and started to run out of the Riverboat Pavilion.

"Wait..." Luo Yin reached out and pulled the Little Girl back.

"Your young master must have something important to do right now, and he always manages to handle things, doesn't he? Then let's wait quietly for him to return!" Luo Yin sighed, patiently trying to reason with her.

The little girl quieted down and gazed toward the east of the city without speaking for a long time.

Luo Yin also looked toward the imperial palace in the east, a trace of worry flickering in her eyes...

Atop a sheer cliff on a desolate mountain, a woman stood panting, her red robes fluttering in the wind, while the blue-robed old man beside her remained utterly at ease...

With a dark expression, the woman in red said, "Teacher, you rushed me all this way through the air just to look at this lousy formation again?"

The blue-robed old man calmly stroked his beard and glanced at her. "You said it yourself: I carried you all that way. Why are you still so tired? Your cultivation isn't high enough!"

The red-robed woman's expression stiffened. Then she kicked the large bundle of Bronze Array Disks at her feet, making the disks inside clank.

"But I was the one carrying these Array Disks! They weigh at least a thousand jin! Is it reasonable to make a young woman like me do that?"

The blue-robed old man gave an embarrassed smile. "Your First Senior Brother is still in seclusion, your Second Senior Brother and Sixth Senior Sister have gone out to gain experience, and your fourth and fifth senior brothers are still facing the wall in repentance! Your Little Seven junior brother is facing a major choice in his life, too. I simply couldn't find anyone else on such short notice!"

"What choice is Little Su Su facing?" The red-robed woman's anger vanished at once, and she asked curiously.

"He's facing a..." The blue-robed old man calculated on his fingers. "Oh? He's already made his choice!"

"What did he choose?" the red-robed woman pressed.

The blue-robed old man seemed very pleased with Little Seven's choice. Smiling, he crouched down, personally opened the bundle holding the Array Disks, picked up several, and casually tossed them out.

The Array Disks landed steadily, each in its appointed place.

"He chose... not to enter the Academy!"