Chapter 1223: Is This a Dream? (1/2)

Chapter 1223: Is This a Dream?

He didn't begin to answer the questions right away. He first closed his eyes, as if he were carefully considering how to answer. When his eyes opened, they shone brightly. He picked up the brush and immediately began to write down the first answer.

In the same moment that his brush touched the paper, a righteous, noble aura suddenly appeared within the city, causing colors to flash in Heaven and Earth. At the same time, in the Forbidden Palace elsewhere in the city, the emperor sat there holding a Go piece in his hand. Sitting across the game board from him was a Daoist priest, a smiling old man with the air of a transcendent being.

Suddenly, the Daoist priest's face flickered, and he looked in the direction of the exam grounds, an expression of shock on his face.

“One of the scholars taking the Imperial examinations provoked a righteous, noble aura! Which one?”

The Daoist priest waved his finger, causing water-like ripples to spread out over the game board, which vanished, to be replaced by an image of the exam grounds. [1. I found a cool picture of a model of how the Imperial examinations were set up in ancient China. Depending on the type of test, each test taker might have their own room, where they would take the test and even sleep overnight as necessary. Check out the picture here and the article here]

The Daoist priest’s gaze shifted, causing the view to pass through the exam grounds as he searched for what he was looking for. Soon, the image focused on a single room, where Meng Hao was currently writing characters down in flowing calligraphy.

The Daoist priest looked at the emperor in amazement, and then back at Meng Hao. He smiled.

“Is that kid special or something?” the emperor asked.

“Special! Very special!” the Daoist priest replied, laughing. His eyes shone with excitement which only increased as he looked at Meng Hao.

“In all my travels through the years, this is the first time I’ve seen someone who could provoke such a righteous, noble aura. It’s been decided; from now on he’s a prized seedling for the Righteous Noble Sect!” The Daoist priest laughed heartily, then rose to his feet and strode in the direction of the exam grounds. [1. There is a lot of wordplay and room for interpretation with regard to the “righteous, noble aura,” and the “Righteous Noble Sect.” Without getting into too much boring detail, the “righteous, noble” characters could also be translated as “vast, overwhelming, expansive.” For reasons I won't get into now, I chose to go with the ”righteous, noble” interpretation. Furthermore, the first character is “hao” the same character from Meng Hao’s name]

It was in almost the exact same moment that the old man in the Heavengod Society happened to scan the area with divine sense.

His divine sense was in the Dao Realm already, and had also been augmented by the Heavengod Society’s ancestral treasure, making it incredibly powerful, and increasing its range. In addition to that, he had spared no effort to boost it even further in his search. As it scanned Planet Luo River, the entire planet vibrated.

Meng Hao stopped writing for a moment, and slowly closed his eyes. He had noticed the divine sense just now. Although it hadn't stopped specifically on him, he had the feeling that he had been detected.

“What a pity. I'm not even half done with the exam....” he murmured. He looked down at the exam paper, then smiled casually. Ignoring the matter of the divine sense, he continued writing.

Back on the Eighth Mountain, in the Heavengod Society, the cross-legged old man suddenly opened his eyes. His face was a bit pale, but he waved his sleeve nonetheless. Instantly, hundreds of thousands of jade slips flew out from the Eighth Mountain, piercing through the void to head in all directions.

The jade slips appeared in in the hands of numerous cultivators, who then heard the voice of the old man speaking in their minds: “The foreign cultivator who exterminated the Blacksoul Society is currently on Planet Luo River, taking the Imperial examinations in the capital city of the Righteous Noble State!”

The jade slips were also specifically locked onto Meng Hao’s location, so that any cultivator who held them could easily find him.

Numerous figures began to speed in the direction of Planet Luo River, all of them worried that they would be late, and that someone else would be able to apprehend the prize before them.

Somewhere in the starry sky was a young man who appeared to be around thirty years of age, striding along with his hands clasped behind his back. The starry sky trembled as he walked along. Behind him, an enormous figure could be seen that bore the semblance of Heavengod, shining with boundless light.

As the young man walked along, a jade slip shot up to him, which he grabbed. Then his eyes glittered with viciousness. Smiling, he headed directly toward Planet Luo River.

In another location, a 3,000-meter blood mist surged through the starry sky. Inside were various powerful beasts, snarling as they struggled to free themselves from the mist. Soon though, cracking sounds could be heard as their bodies collapsed, and they were absorbed into the blood mist.

Suddenly, a jade slip flew through the sky and into the blood mist. Moments later, cruel laughter rang out.

“So they finally found him... interesting, very interesting....” The blood mist changed directions and headed toward Planet Luo River.

In a stretch of the starry sky not too far away from Planet Luo River, a woman could be seen flying along. She looked like an utter barbarian, a coiled whip resting at her side and a wild look in her eyes. Suddenly, several gigantic pythons materialized around her, which then carried her in the direction of Planet Luo River.

The woman was swarthy but extremely beautiful. As she neared Planet Luo River, she suddenly whistled. The sound wasn’t very piercing, but the result was that all the snake-type creatures on Planet Luo River suddenly began to hiss loudly.

All it took was a brief moment for all of the Heavengod Alliance to be shaken into action. The first to mobilize of all were the sects on Planet Luo River itself. How could they have ever imagined that the person the entire Heavengod Alliance was searching for was on their own planet?

Planet Luo River was one of the four great planets in the Eighth Mountain and Sea. In addition to the Righteous Noble Sect, there were three other sects on the planet.

Those four sects were the overlords of Planet Luo River, and occupied very important positions within the Heavengod Alliance. Currently, all four of those sects had mobilized and were headed toward the capital city.

Bright beams of light shot through the air, and all of the snakes emerged from the forests and mountains, hissing loudly. They did nothing to harm the people, but rather, headed directly toward the capital city.