Chapter 12: Selection Begins, Watched by All!
The day before the academy’s selection trials, Gu Lin returned to Shiyang County.
The moment he stepped through the door, his father hurried out, and seeing his son safe and unharmed, the tension he’d carried for days finally eased.
Ever since his son had taken the bounty notice and vanished for days, he’d been sick with worry, terrified his son might have the bad luck to run into some vicious wanted criminal and lose his life.
“Lin’er, where have you been?” his mother Zhou Man asked, her face full of both reproach and concern.
“Mother,” Gu Lin said, pulling an exquisitely crafted gold hairpin from his sleeve and offering it to her with a smile, “I earned some money and bought you jewelry.”
Zhou Man froze, her nose stinging, tears nearly spilling over.
She never could have imagined her son would turn out so thoughtful.
“Lin’er, where did you get this money?” Zhou Man wiped at the corners of her eyes, hesitant to take it.
Gu Changchuan, deeply moved, laughed heartily.
“It’s a gift from Jingming out of filial devotion—just take it.”
He had his suspicions—probably his son’s friend in the Heaven cohort had slain a wanted criminal and claimed the bounty.
This was the first time in years Gu Changchuan had smiled with genuine warmth in his heart.
His son really had turned over a new leaf, transformed completely!
“Then I’ll set it aside for your future wife,” Zhou Man said, deeply moved, though she didn’t forget her son’s lifelong prospects.
With her son’s cultivation so mediocre and the family so poor, finding him a wife would be no easy task.
The three of them then sat down to eat together, a rare evening filled with laughter and warmth.
Gu Lin said casually, as if it were nothing:
“Father, tomorrow’s the academy selection trials. Won’t you come watch the excitement?”
He wanted to give his father a tremendous surprise.
He still remembered his father’s words—
“You have never once made me proud.”
This time, he would make his father hold his head high!
His father shook his head and declined.
“I won’t be going.”
As he said it, a deep gloom settled into his eyes.
Going would only bring more pain.
His son was a member of the lowest-ranked cohort, while Li Qingwu—who had brought such misfortune upon the Gu Family—stood a strong chance of winning one of the seeded spots. Just thinking about it left a knot in his chest.
“Mm,” Gu Lin nodded quietly.
He believed that after tomorrow, there would be no more gossip about the Tongxing Escort Agency where his father worked, the weaving mill where his mother worked, or the academy where he himself studied!
After the meal, Gu Lin went to bed early.
He’d pushed himself hard on the road these past two nights without sleep, and now he could finally get a proper rest to be ready for tomorrow.
***
The next day, before dawn.
Gu Lin woke, washed up, and headed for the academy.
Gu Changchuan was already out in the courtyard practicing his forms. Seeing his son’s figure, he was silent for a long moment before offering a reminder:
“After today, Li Qingwu’s name will be known throughout Shiyang County. Don’t repeat your old mistakes.”
Jingming had only just come to his senses—if he saw Li Qingwu shining brilliantly atop the high platform and let old resentment pull him back into being her follower again, he’d become a complete laughingstock.
Gu Lin didn’t answer. He simply laughed and walked out the door.
By the time he reached the academy, the sky was still dark, half a shichen from dawn.
At this hour, Shiyang Academy was already alive with noise and excitement!
Every official in the county office, led by County Magistrate Lu, had already arrived at the academy.
Shiyang’s prominent families and gentry, including heads of both major and minor factions, had also come to observe of their own accord—among them the chief escort of the Tongxing Escort Agency, his father’s direct superior.
The eyes of the multitude, an unprecedented spectacle!
Inside the academy halls, led by Instructor Zhao, every student of the Wilderness cohort made their way to the academy square.
The most remote spot belonged to the Wilderness cohort, its students lining up in orderly rows.
The very center of the square, without question, belonged to the Heaven cohort.
Every person in the lines was dressed in their finest, each one radiating heroic spirit, eyes sharp with resolve—all their effort and hard work had been building toward this very day.
In the Wilderness cohort’s ranks, chubby Wang Mu turned to Gu Lin and asked, puzzled:
“Where’d you run off to these past few days?”
Gu Lin brushed him off with some vague excuse.
Wang Mu was about to press further.
Boom, boom, boom—
As a series of thunderous drumbeats rang out, the voices of nearly eight hundred students in the square fell silent all at once, and the countless onlookers outside quieted as well.
Under the weight of every gaze, Academy Headmaster Yan Qingqiu, along with the county magistrate and deputy magistrate, took their seats.
Then the three of them rose together. Headmaster Lu, his temples streaked with gray, drew on the power of his Literary Palace and spoke, his voice booming like a bell:
“We reverently welcome the Blade-Bearer Bureaus under the Four Great Sacred Grounds to Shiyang Academy.”
Clang—
Clang, clang, clang—
The great bell atop the academy’s high tower suddenly rang out, its toll echoing in every direction, lingering long and unbroken.
Everyone present held their breath, eyes fixed on the direction of the reception hall.
The first group to emerge was a procession of eight, each clad in resplendent official robes embroidered with lotus seeds, the one leading them in an orange lotus-seed robe, every line of the fabric exquisite and elegant.
The Blade-Bearer Bureau under the Literary Dao Academy!
The Literary Dao Academy’s standard attire was the lotus-flower robe—the lotus rises from the mud unstained, washed clean by rippling waters yet never garish.
Their Blade-Bearers wore lotus-seed robes.
Right behind them came another eight Blade-Bearers, these dressed in black-magpie robes, their leader in an orange black-magpie robe.
The Blade-Bearer Bureau under the Martial Extremity Palace!!
Members of the Martial Extremity Palace wore the standard three-legged golden crow robe, a three-legged crow embroidered across the official garment, radiating dominance and looking down upon all common folk.
After them came the Blade-Bearer Bureau under the Heavenly Mystery Guard.
Eight men in flying-fish robes.
Members of the Heavenly Mystery Guard stood above all, clad in qilin robes as they surveyed the world below!
The last to appear was the Blade-Bearer Bureau under the Eastern Temple.
Eight men in matching elk-deer official robes.
The Eastern Temple’s members were the most distinctive of all, clad in xiezhi robes—the xiezhi baring its ferocious fangs, as if roaring out eight great words:
Authority Descends From Heaven, Wrath Unrestrained!
The thirty-two figures stood beneath the high platform, their presence pressing down on the nearly ten thousand gathered.
Every student watched, utterly entranced—the dazzling official robes and waist tokens gleaming. To enter a Blade-Bearer Bureau meant enjoying the protection and resources of the entire Feathering Divine Dynasty, respected by all the world.
Wasn’t this, in the end, exactly what everyone lived for?
To stand high above, admired by all!
Amid the praise and wonder, the onlookers of Shiyang County couldn’t help feeling a touch of disappointment—after all, none of the Four Great Sacred Grounds’ own members had appeared.
Of course, for a mere county academy selection trial, the Four Great Sacred Grounds would never lower themselves to attend in person.
Only at the prefectural Sacred Ground selection trials would actual Sacred Ground members appear to oversee everything.
After a long, drawn-out silence, the leader of the Heavenly Mystery Guard’s Blade-Bearer Bureau stepped forward, the morning wind stirring, the corner of his flying-fish robe lifting.
He first read aloud from a silk scroll, then drew breath deep into his dantian and declared, his voice shaking the very clouds:
“Any student of Shiyang Academy with a clean background, never imprisoned, with no blemish on record with the authorities, under the age of 22, and who has never before participated in a selection trial, may register for the seed-qualification selection trial!”
The moment his voice fell silent, one figure stepped forward.
Under the gaze of the entire crowd, his expression calm, he walked toward the high platform.
It was none other than Young Master Qilin, Zhao Yao!
The undisputed leader of Shiyang Academy, first in every single subject, a leader in every sense of the word!
At that moment, a thunderous cheer rose up beyond the square. His father, Deputy Magistrate Zhao, beamed with pride, his eyes brimming with satisfaction.
Beside him, Magistrate Yan’s face tightened, his ink-dark brows knitting slightly before he finally let out a helpless sigh.
As the county’s top official, he found himself utterly overshadowed, pinned down by his own deputy.
The common folk knew only Deputy Magistrate Zhao—not the county’s actual head official.
What could he possibly do about it?
That family had produced two towering talents in one household! The elder son was already a member of the Martial Extremity Palace, and now the younger son looked poised to join a Sacred Ground as well—glory without limit, the cheers growing louder and more fervent by the moment.
As Zhao Yao stepped onto the platform, the eight Blade-Bearers of the Martial Extremity Palace’s Bureau gave a slight nod.
“Greetings, honored elders,” Zhao Yao said, cupping his fists in salute.
The eight of them raised their hands in a gesture of acknowledgment, faces touched with smiles.
They knew full well, of course, that Zhao Yao’s elder brother Zhao Can was a member of the Martial Extremity Palace, a young man of extraordinary talent and boundless prospects.
Watching Young Master Qilin greeted with such familiarity by the Blade-Bearers, the students of the Heaven cohort showed not a trace of envy.
They had no right to feel envious in the first place!
Young Master Qilin wasn’t even their true rival—he needed no trial at all. They might as well just hand him a seed token directly.
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