The thunderclouds overhead lingered for quite some time, but no lightning ever fell. Only muffled rumbles sounded from time to time, as though the clouds were still gathering strength.
The head of the Painting School looked up at the sky and stroked his paint-stained beard. Unsurprisingly, this smeared paint all over his hand, which he then casually wiped on his robe.
—Now most people knew how his clothes had gotten so filthy.
“Relax. That lightning isn’t coming down. It’s only an omen,” the Painting School head called out.
When Ye Chenyan merely smiled and acknowledged him, seemingly unconcerned, the man studied him with mild surprise.
“Could that kid have sensed it too?”
“To think someone at the Out-of-Body stage can already sense heaven and earth. What a promising talent. Shame Wen Tianxia didn’t manage to scoop him up back then.”
“Four Books Academy can’t claim every good thing under heaven.”
Academy Head Mei drifted over and landed beside him. She narrowed her eyes at Ye Chenyan and chuckled.
“Every generation produces its own talents. Tsk, tsk. Looking at youngsters like them makes me feel old.”
“You’re not old. [N O V E L I G H T] You can still make the gossip rags over some romantic entanglement.” The Painting School head laughed gleefully at her expense. “Take a trip to Heavenly Music Sect one of these days and you’ll instantly recreate the bloodbath of your younger years.”
“Tsk.” Academy Head Mei turned to glare at him. “Of all the things you could bring up.”
She looked around.
“Canxin didn’t come? All this commotion and he still won’t leave his room? That man really can sit still.”
“He’s been shut in for almost three months now, hasn’t he?” The Painting School head sighed. “We really should go check on him soon. Otherwise, he might genuinely lock himself in there for the rest of his life.”
“Academy Head Mei. Painting School Head.”
Dot Star Formation landed on the roof carrying a man who had practically curled himself into a ball beneath an enormous black gauze hat. She greeted the two seniors.
“Oh? He actually came?” The Painting School head looked astonished. “Voluntarily?”
“Of course not.”
Canxin, head of the Chess School, sounded as though he were breathing his last. However Dot Star Formation had deposited him on the roof, that was exactly how he remained curled up.
“Sigh...”
“Academy Head Wen gave instructions,” Dot Star Formation said with the stern impartiality of someone carrying out official business. “At minimum, you have to see sunlight once every three months. There happens to be something interesting today, and with two other school heads already here, it must be important.”
“Good timing.”
“Sigh...” Canxin’s voice drifted weakly from beneath the hat. “What part of me looks like someone who enjoys excitement...?”
He turned around and started crawling down from the roof on all fours.
Academy Head Mei immediately grabbed the enormous hat on his head.
“Ah—!”
Canxin gave a short cry of alarm and clutched his hat with both hands.
Academy Head Mei smiled and waved at Dot Star Formation. “Don’t worry. I’ll watch him today. I guarantee he gets plenty of sunlight.”
“Star, I’m your teacher...”
Canxin’s slender hands clung desperately to the brim as he struggled against Academy Head Mei and appealed to Dot Star Formation for help.
“Save me!”
Without even looking back, Dot Star Formation jumped off the roof.
Scholar Xiao’s eyes flickered. “Three school heads gathered in one place. Quite the occasion.”
“No kidding.” Dot Star Formation landed beside him. “Especially our Chess School head. How often do you ever get to see him?”
“I don’t even remember the last time he came out.”
“I do!” Scholar Xiao’s eyes lit up. “It was when you traveled to Nanzhou and left the important responsibility of looking after the Chess School head to your junior brothers and sisters. They messed up the schedule and didn’t bring him food for three months. Then one night, the Chess School head crawled into the kitchen dressed all in black and acting suspicious, and scared the chef so badly he nearly blew the roof off—”
Dot Star Formation pressed a hand to her forehead.
“They didn’t forget.”
“They were betting on how long Master would go hungry before finally overcoming himself enough to ask them for food.”
She clicked her tongue, utterly speechless.
“A pack of disciples who’d betray their master and ancestors. Their excuse was that an Integration cultivator couldn’t starve to death anyway.”
Scholar Xiao: “...Your academy head really does have a good temper.”
“I don’t have a good temper.” Dot Star Formation raised an eyebrow, then turned toward the martial-practice platform. “Have you heard anything?”
“Hm?” Scholar Xiao leaned closer. “Do tell.”
“Heaven and earth are changing.”
Dot Star Formation’s answer was terse. Her brows drew together slightly.
“A few days ago, Master opened his own window and looked at the moon. He said he was observing the stars.”
Scholar Xiao narrowed his eyes. “Did the academy head say anything?”
Dot Star Formation: “...He asked whether I had any unfinished business and told me to hurry up and take care of it now, so I wouldn’t leave any regrets behind.”
Scholar Xiao: “...”
“That sounds terribly ominous.”
“Right?” Dot Star Formation sighed. “He’s always like this, but even he doesn’t usually say things that ominous.”
“Something major may be coming.”
Scholar Xiao hesitated for a moment, then gave a soft laugh.
“Even if we knew, there probably wouldn’t be much else we could do.”
His eyes curved as he cupped his hands toward her.
“Leave no regrets. Do what we can. That’s all.”
Dot Star Formation studied him intently.
“So you really do know something?”
Scholar Xiao abruptly changed tack.
“If you wish to know what happens next, then watch our academy—”
Dot Star Formation withdrew her gaze.
“Get lost.”
“Right away.”
Scholar Xiao slipped neatly into the crowd. He wove through the packed disciples like an eel impossible to catch and called out to Ye Chenyan, whose aura had finally settled.
“Brother Ye! Brother Yu already won all the points we need. Come over here!”
Ye Chenyan turned, cupped his hands toward the senior brother he had been sparring with, and flew down from the martial-practice platform.
Scholar Xiao smiled. “How was it?”
“Interesting.”
Ye Chenyan slung his spear across his back and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
“Your academy has every kind of cultivation method imaginable, and people use all sorts of things. There are always strange tricks that catch you off guard.”
“Oh, right. Where’s Qingtang?”
Scholar Xiao pointed toward the head sticking through the entrance.
“At the door. Squatting there with Brother Chi.”
Ye Chenyan looked surprised. “Why didn’t he come over?”
Scholar Xiao opened his mouth.
“Well...”
He chose his words tactfully, even trying to salvage a little dignity for Yu Qingtang.
“The thunderclouds looked rather intimidating. Brother Yu was somewhat... startled.”
“Oh—” Ye Chenyan nodded in immediate understanding. “He was afraid of getting struck by lightning.”
“Uh...” Scholar Xiao’s gaze wavered. “I wouldn’t necessarily put it quite like that...”
Ye Chenyan chuckled.
“What an idiot. How is he this cute?”
Scholar Xiao whipped his head around in shock.
“Huh?”
Ye Chenyan strode over to Yu Qingtang, leaned against the doorway, and deliberately tilted his head to stare at him.
“I hear someone was afraid I’d drag him into trouble...”
Yu Qingtang pulled open Ye Chenyan’s robe, stuffed a fistful of bamboo tallies inside, then patted him on the chest.
“Oh, don’t fuss over little things like that. Look! Behold the empire I conquered for you!”
Ye Chenyan looked down at his chest and laughed under his breath.
“Where did you learn that?”
Yu Qingtang looked up at the sky.
How was he supposed to explain this?
I can’t exactly tell him I learned it from TV dramas where mob bosses stuff cash into their lovers’ shirts, can I?
“Oh—”
Ye Chenyan leaned closer to inspect his face.
“You look awfully guilty. You didn’t learn it somewhere respectable, did you?”
Yu Qingtang blinked innocently. “Of course I—”
“Stop wasting time!”
He grabbed Ye Chenyan and pulled him away.
“We’re going back to study. Are you trying to escape?”
Sure enough, Ye Chenyan’s face immediately fell.
“We still have to study?”
“Thirty points are still points!” Yu Qingtang turned around smugly. “Of course, I only need twenty.”
“Why?” Chi Yantian stared at him in shock. “Where did you get another ten bonus points?”
“Heh heh.”
Yu Qingtang swayed smugly from side to side.
“That’s just what happens when an academy head takes a liking to you...”
“Academy head...”
Ye Chenyan stopped and turned toward the three figures on the roof. His eyes narrowed.
“If we robbed them, do you think they’d give us—”
Yu Qingtang slapped a hand over his mouth and gave the three school heads above them a polite but painfully awkward smile.
“Calm down,” he whispered.
“There are three Integration cultivators up there.”
Ye Chenyan leaned against him and smiled at the three school heads as well, even lifting a hand in greeting.
The three school heads waved back in a friendly manner.
Ye Chenyan lowered his hand and nodded thoughtfully.
“True.”
“Three Integration cultivators would be difficult to deal with. Better to wait until they’re alone—”
Yu Qingtang stared at him in horror.
Ye Chenyan laughed quietly.
“I’m joking.”
...
The following afternoon, Scholar Xiao entered Academy Head Wen’s study with a slightly sheepish smile.
Wen Tianxia slowly looked up at him.
Their eyes met.
Silence stretched between them.
Scholar Xiao opened his mouth, but before he could speak, Wen Tianxia closed the book in front of him and sighed.
“Don’t bother. I can guess.”
“They failed?”
Scholar Xiao gave two dry laughs.
Wen Tianxia pressed his fingers to his temple and leaned back into his grand armchair. He drew a deep breath, sounding almost unable to believe it.
“They couldn’t even get twenty points?”
“The one who needed twenty did,” Scholar Xiao answered quietly. “The two who needed thirty failed.”
A vein throbbed on Wen Tianxia’s forehead.
“Absurd.”
“Are those the two idiots Tianji Zi and Cangyan raised? Huh?”
He stood and paced a circle around the room.
“How many points short?”
Scholar Xiao held up seven fingers with one hand and three with the other.
Wen Tianxia let out a long sigh.
There was actual sympathy in his eyes now.
“Which family’s is dumber?”
“The Heavenly Fire Cult’s is still a little dumber,” Scholar Xiao answered with another awkward laugh. “How about we... narrow the exam scope a little more?”
“Narrow it further?”
Wen Tianxia covered his forehead.
“Any narrower and the syllabus will be smaller than both their brains!”
He waved a hand.
“Go think of something else.”
“Oh...”
Scholar Xiao agreed, but his feet remained firmly planted.
He stole a glance at Wen Tianxia.
“Master, they asked me to ask you something. If they can’t pass the exam anytime soon, could they go recruit some of the other sects in Central Province into the alliance first?”
Wen Tianxia gave him a complicated look.
“...Fine.”
“Take my ‘Subject to No Taboos’ folding fan with you. Anyone with a brain will understand our position when they see it.”
“Yes!”
Scholar Xiao hurriedly accepted.
“Then our alliance...”
“They still have to meet me in person before we can formally ally, don’t they?”
Wen Tianxia rapped the desk in exasperation.
“Thirty points! I could shut my eyes and scribble nonsense and still get thirty points!”
“Oh, right. How much did the one who needed twenty score?”
“Brother Yu?” Scholar Xiao smiled. “Exactly twenty. Not a single point more.”
Wen Tianxia: “...Get out.”
“Right away.”
Scholar Xiao obediently retreated to the doorway.
Then he suddenly remembered something else.
“Oh, Teacher. One more thing. Academy Head Mei asked me to ask whether you already have an idea who’s behind the cheating scandal that’s been causing such an uproar in the academy. Does she need to step in?”
“Of course I know.”
Wen Tianxia took a sip of tea.
“But if she steps in, the children lose their chance to earn bonus points. Give them another half month. If they still can’t find the culprit, I’ll deal with it myself.”
“Yes.”
Scholar Xiao stole another glance at him.
“Then these bonus points... could they count as extra?”
Wen Tianxia gave him another complicated look.
Scholar Xiao laughed awkwardly.
“Come on, Teacher. Give them a little.”
Wen Tianxia covered his forehead.
“Five points.”
“If they still can’t pass after that, tell them to get out of Central Province.”
“Yes!”
Scholar Xiao beamed and hurriedly shut the door.
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