Chapter 169 – Academic Exam Results and the Mountain Climbing Staff (1/2)

Located within the Green Leaf World, the Education Palace did not distinguish night and day, those inside also had difficulty sensing the flow of time and didn’t know that outside, in the real world, it was already the next day.

The time was near noon, peddlers grasped the opportunity to eagerly hawk their wares.

Using the stone pillars as a perimeter, beyond that line, it was exceedingly lively, with the fragrance of osmanthus jelly being the most distinct amongst all the foods present.

The populace that had come to view the Grand Examination surrounded the outer perimeter of Li Palace, discussing the latest news that would constantly come out from the palace. These people couldn’t see the thrilling scenes first-hand, but this didn’t affect their mood, the atmosphere was still buoyant, it had to be said that this was also attributable to the work of the storytellers present.

On the streets outside of Li Palace, every hundred or so metres apart there would be a tea store, before each store there would inevitably be an ordinary table with a storyteller dressed in either a cheongsam or a padded jacket stood beside it, their spittle spraying in all directions, coupled with their arms and legs gesticulating incessantly as they unremittingly gave accounts of what was currently happening within the Education Palace.

It was unknown as to whom within Li Palace these storytellers, and the store owners backing them, were acquainted with; what had just happened in the Grand Examination would, at the next moment, become the contents of what the storyteller was recounting, with the details actually being more or less accurate.

In the Southwestern corner, there was a comparatively quiet teahouse, its decoration was rather refined, yet today, this teahouse couldn’t escape from the dowdiness either, specially inviting a storyteller to sit in the main area and also spending a large sum to acquire the latest news from Li Palace.

All that could be seen was that sharp looking middle-aged storyteller smacking the table and saying: “It is said that the River Qu’s serene clarity can reflect a person. The examinees all displayed their various abilities; some stepping upon the river itself, others becoming a streaking cloud, leaving that youth from Orthodox Academy as the last.”

They continued: “For a time, both shores were quiet as can be, with everyone wanting to see how that youth would cross the river, yet who could have expected; they only heard a single cry from the edge of the horizon and the White Crane came hither.”

Talking up to this segment, the storyteller once again heavily smacked upon wood, shocking the patrons out of their attentive stupor before slowly continuing the narrative: “At that time, there were close to a hundred examinees upon both shores that had been shocked to the point of having their eyes and mouths wide open; just as with how your esteemed selves have been startled by this simple old man, the examinees had been startled by that White Crane.”

The storyteller continued: “Why? That’s because at the next moment, that youth from Orthodox Academy actually lifted himself up and clutched on, sitting upon the crane’s back without so much as a word, soaring upwards with the clouds, and headed towards the opposing shore; an actual case of riding a crane down South of the river; tis scene, such peculiarity!”

The teahouse erupted in a chaotic wave of chatter.

That storyteller smiled and said: “Your esteemed selves need not debate this. It should be known that for the examinees who are participating in the Grand Examination, whether be within their respective sects or academies, they would have definitely seen sagely birds and strange beasts before, yet why were they so shocked?”

They continued: “This is because no one had thought that you can use this method to cross the river; yet, what made them all the more shocked was that the White Crane wasn’t just any White Crane, but was the White Crane from our Capital’s Divine General of the Eastern Decree’s estate.”

Sounds of discussion within the teahouse became all the more rambunctious. A lot of the people from the Capital knew that the Divine General’s estate has a White Crane, but sightings of it had been rare for the past few years, some also thought of that marriage contract which had been gossiped of intensely; they couldn’t stop themselves being very curious as to why that White Crane would be willing to carry that youth over.

“If your esteemed selves still remember, then you should know that the White Crane had followed young Miss Xu to Holy Maiden Peak in the South. Why would it suddenly appear at the distant Capital? Could it be that Miss Xu really has accepted that youth to be her fiancé? Then what type of reaction should those distinguished disciples of Li Shan Sword Sect have?”

Having narrated up to this point, the storyteller lightly coughed twice, then raised their cup and took a few sips of warm tea. The patrons of the teahouse understood the meaning of this action. Though a few of them angrily complained that this was yesterday’s story and questioned how could it still be used today to extort money, the majority still obediently took out some gratuity money.

The storyteller saw the amount of copper coins within the tea tray and was very pleased. Clearing their throat, they once again began resuming their account of the Grand Examination.

All the patrons listened attentively, with no one noticing that a middle-aged person wearing a large conical hat, upon finishing the remnants of their tea, left the teahouse.

That middle-aged person’s hat was worn extremely low, making it difficult to clearly see their visage, upon leaving the teahouse, they entered the streets and mingled with the crowd, taking but a moment to disappear from sight.

After a period of time, that middle-aged person appeared at an inn that was around four miles away from Li Palace, they took out two dark red medicinal pills from their chest area and then swallowed them. They then painfully coughed for a while, before finally subduing their injury, then walked over to the bed and laid on top of it, the conical hat shifted to one side and within their black hair, two bumps could vaguely be seen.

After noon, all the teahouses and stores became especially busy, but the accounts of the storytellers were no longer all that captivating, that’s because the results to the Academic Exam had been officially announced. Every teahouse and store’s manager or employee had gone to Li Palace and copied down the results, having returned, they now began to give details to the patrons.

Placing last in the academic phase was a Star Seizer Academy student named Zhang Ting Tao, the populace didn’t have any sort of recognition of this name and thus, there naturally wasn’t much discussion on it, with only a few mocking remarks and attacks on those who ran the academy before subsiding.

Xuan Yuan Po’s results were very close to the bottom, Tang Thirty-Six ranked seventh and Zhuang Huan Yu sixth. The four scholars of Scholartree Manor had extremely good results, they had all actually managed to place within the top 10.

Of course, what the populace was most interested in, were the two foremost rankings – Gou Han Shi and Chen Chang Sheng both placed at first and second respectively, beside their names on the rankings was also a note: Outstanding.

Looking at the final results to the Academic Exam, the viewers were all debating heavily, clicking their tongues in astonishment, pointing at Gou Han Shi and Chen Chang Sheng’s names, gasping praises nonstop.

Visitors that had come from outside of the Capital were very confused with this, wondering to themselves that even though they were ranked at the top, was it worthy of such praise?

Some people from the Capital explained: the academic results for the Grand Examination would usually just have rankings, only papers that were exceptional would be specially noted as to being “outstanding”, with “exceptional” usually referring to getting all the answers correct.

Both, Gou Han Shi and Chen Chang Sheng’s names had the note of “outstanding”, this made it clear that both their papers could be considered perfect. It had to be known that this was an extremely rare event – there had already been a lot of years where something similar has not occurred in the Grand Examination.

It was only with this explanation that those visitors from the outer regions came to understand the reason, but they still had something puzzling them; since both examinees had such outstanding results in the academic phase, having probably answered everything correctly, how had they distinguished the better?

Why was Gou Han Shi ranked first while Chen Chang Sheng was only ranked second?