The starry field that isolated him from the outside world finally disappeared, and the door was knocked on forcefully, bang bang bang!

Jiang Baiyu covered his stinging cheek, tears welling up in his eyes, “Who is it?”

Outside, Lou Yuzhu’s voice rang out, filled with joy, “Great! Can we come in?”

Jiang Baiyu still had a bright red handprint on his cheek, and he was worried about how to explain it if the two saw it. He hurried to the door, carefully blocking it to prevent them from getting too excited and pushing the door open. From their tone, it seemed they thought something had happened to him inside.

In a sense, they weren’t wrong; he had almost gone into a frenzy seventeen times, which was quite a shock.

“Do you have any blood-activating ointment?” he asked quietly, leaning against the door.

“Yes!”

The door was pushed open a crack, and a small porcelain jar was handed in.

Jiang Baiyu accepted the ointment, “Wait a moment, I’ll apply it.”

Lou Yuzhu didn’t mind; he was worried that Jiang Baiyu might have had an accident in the room, so talking through the door was fine.

“You’ve been in your room for a month, not coming out. Every time my junior brother and I wanted to find you, we knocked on the door but got no response. We were so anxious, but there was nothing we could do. It felt like some inexplicable force was blocking us from opening the door; we could only knock. We speculated that you might have set up a barrier to prevent outsiders from entering while you were cultivating inside.”

“With the enrollment day for the Ascending Immortal Academy approaching, and no movement from your room, we were really worried you might miss the deadline.”

Jiang Baiyu applied the ointment to his face like he was putting on moisturizer, and the blood-activating effect was immediate; he quickly felt the pain subside.

After tightly sealing the porcelain jar, Jiang Baiyu opened the door, and sure enough, Lou Yuzhu and Bai Xianzhong were standing outside.

As he invited them in to talk, he felt a bit embarrassed, “I was worried I wouldn’t pass the entrance exam for the Ascending Immortal Academy. I happened to have some insights, so I entered a meditative state to cultivate, and I didn’t expect so much time to pass.”

He paused, “The Ascending Immortal Academy shouldn’t be accepting students outright, right? I wonder what kind of method they will use to screen applicants.”

Lou Yuzhu nodded, “That’s also what my junior brother and I are worried about. The Ascending Immortal Academy has a deep foundation, and countless people aspire to it. Every year, applicants come from all over to enroll, including many famous young talents and prodigies. The dean is willing to look out for my junior brother and me because of our master, but we can’t let that make us complacent or forget our place, or we would embarrass the dean and our master.”

“In this past month, we’ve also been working hard, reviewing what we’ve learned in the past, solidifying and improving our skills, hoping to achieve a good ranking in the entrance exam and not get eliminated.”

“That’s why, seeing that there was no response from your room and we couldn’t get in, we guessed you were cultivating. A place like an inn is rather chaotic and not a good place for cultivation, so being cautious is necessary.”

Jiang Baiyu returned the ointment to Lou Yuzhu, “Thank you.”

Lou Yuzhu accepted the small porcelain jar without asking why he needed blood-activating ointment.

Bai Xianzhong sat down on a stool at the table, raised his hand to pour himself a cup of water, completely unaware that it was tea from a month ago. He gulped down a couple of sips before suddenly realizing. To his surprise, the tea was still fresh, not at all like it had been sitting in the pot for a month.

Ordinary tea would have gone bad after such a long time, but if it was influenced by spiritual energy and other factors, that might not be the case.

Bai Xianzhong sighed, “The tea is still fresh; it seems your closed-door cultivation has yielded great results. With the barrier in place, we couldn’t sense anything from outside, and thankfully, you set up the barrier. With the opening of the Ascending Immortal Academy approaching, the number of people preparing to enroll is overwhelming, and all the inns are fully booked, bustling with activity.”

“Among these people, there are plenty of energetic ones who cause trouble every few days, making the patrol teams in Tianxiang City busier than usual, patrolling more strictly.”

“If we hadn’t arrived early, we wouldn’t even have been able to get this room.”

He took another sip of tea and set the cup down, saying, “My junior brother and I were thinking that if you didn’t come out tomorrow, we would have to go without you, which would be a real shame.”

Jiang Baiyu understood and poured himself a cup of tea while sitting on the stool, “Tomorrow is the day of the academy’s entrance exam?” Just as he was about to drink, he suddenly stopped, “Is it a direct participation in the exam after registration, or do we register first and then schedule another day for the exam?”

Bai Xianzhong understood his meaning and immediately explained, “Don’t worry, my junior brother and I have registered for you. You can take the entrance exam with us tomorrow.”

Jiang Baiyu sighed in relief, “Thank you both.”

Lou Yuzhu carefully formed a hand seal to set up a barrier, ensuring no one could eavesdrop, then whispered, “Before you entered seclusion, you told us about Qin Ling. We’ve been keeping an eye on him. He really hasn’t revealed his identity and has been pretending to be an ordinary cultivator, but unfortunately, he was caught by enemies and lost all his cultivation.”

“He’s very cautious; his injuries have healed enough for him to get out of bed and find a job in the patrol team, where he is responsible for cleaning every day and refuses to leave.”

Bai Xianzhong sighed, “Perhaps my junior brother and I weren’t cautious enough, and he discovered he was being monitored. Or maybe it’s just in Qin Ling’s nature to act decisively and find a way to protect himself. He has rooted himself in the patrol team in Tianxiang City, determined to stick with them, and it might be difficult to get him out without alarming others. Plus, we need to enroll in the Ascending Immortal Academy; if we get caught for improper actions, it would reflect poorly on us.”

Jiang Baiyu pondered for a moment, “Let’s put this matter aside for now; the entrance exam is the most important thing.”

In the past month, the dean of the Ascending Immortal Academy must have already grasped most of the situation, and what remained was only information that he alone knew.

Cleaning jobs aren’t hard to come by, but finding such a job in the patrol team in Tianxiang City isn’t easy. The fact that Qin Ling could secure a life-saving job even with his injuries shows his capability, but it also hints that the patrol team might be complicit in this.

With unstable factors right under their noses, for someone in the dean’s position, it would only take a word.

“In this past month, has the Chen family made any other moves?”

Lou Yuzhu and Bai Xianzhong immediately showed strange expressions, conflicted, confused, and lost.

Jiang Baiyu’s nerves tightened, “What’s going on?”

The two exchanged glances, and Lou Yuzhu said in confusion, “The Chen family has sent people to Tianxiang City again; it seems they want to enroll.”

Bai Xianzhong nodded, “My junior brother and I have inquired; they are also from the Chen family’s direct line, and it seems their status is even higher than that of the previous young master; they are the bloodline of the main family.”

Even among the direct line, there are distinctions in status. The main family means the other party is a direct descendant of the head of the Chen family.

Although the previous situation was tense, the Chen family must have known about it. Suddenly changing their attitude, not only not pursuing the previous matters but also sending a more valuable heir to Tianxiang City to participate in the entrance exam for the Ascending Immortal Academy is indeed strange.

Jiang Baiyu contemplated, “Perhaps both sides have reached some kind of agreement.”

Lou Yuzhu was taken aback, “What agreement?”

Jiang Baiyu shook his head, “I don’t know. There must be others who are just as puzzled about this as we are; everyone must be very confused about the Chen family’s actions. As long as there hasn’t been a direct conflict between the Ascending Immortal Academy and the Chen family, and no bloodshed has occurred, then everything can be discussed.”

“Since both sides want to suppress this conflict and pretend nothing has happened, we shouldn’t stir the pot; it’s best to act as if we know nothing.”

“This matter is not something we can control; improving our strength is the most important thing right now. Overthinking will only lead to unnecessary troubles.”

The two brothers understood this principle as well, so when the topic came up, Lou Yuzhu specifically set up a barrier to prevent eavesdropping.

He lifted the barrier and poured himself a cup of tea, “Tomorrow is the entrance exam; let’s rest well tonight, conserve our energy, and be in the best condition.”

Bai Xianzhong sighed, “I tried to find out what the entrance exam for the academy is like, but no one knows.”

Jiang Baiyu replied, “Maybe the academy has specifically requested confidentiality and doesn’t allow any leaks.”

The next day, the three of them set off early, full of energy, suppressing their worries and anxieties as they headed to the Ascending Immortal Academy. Many others were in the same boat, all there to take the entrance exam, a large crowd gathered in the spacious area, bustling with activity.

Even those who looked quite affluent, born into wealth or nobility, were squeezed into this space, their expressions serious.

Without any lengthy opening remarks, as the sun rose high in the sky, a deep voice echoed, reaching everyone’s ears in the area.

“Time’s up; the entrance exam for the Ascending Immortal Academy begins!”

As the words fell, beams of light suddenly shot up from the ground, one beam for each person. Everyone was separated by the power of the light beams, maintaining distance from each other. Then, Jiang Baiyu felt a flash before his eyes and found himself in another place.

The cold wind howled, and snowflakes danced in the air; he stood at the peak of a snow-covered mountain, gazing at the endless snowy expanse, feeling as if he was the only person in the world.

Jiang Baiyu: ……………

??????

The entrance exam has started?

Where are the exam questions?

He stood there in a daze for ten minutes, with no other sounds coming through, as if he had been forgotten on this snowy peak.

The biting cold wind was nothing compared to the confusion in his heart; why wasn’t there any mention of the exam questions?

Were they just going to leave him in a deserted area like this? What was he supposed to do next?

Jiang Baiyu had imagined many scenarios: some testing qualifications, some collecting scores, some arena battles, and even unexpected incidents for testing. But he never imagined it would be a “leave you to play” situation, where they didn’t even give the candidates a question and just dropped them into the exam site and vanished.

Or perhaps, from the moment the candidates entered the venue, the exam had already begun?

Time passed slowly, the gloomy sky dropping snowflakes, and Jiang Baiyu looked up, still completely at a loss.

His usual sixth sense, which would give him hints in the dark, was completely unresponsive.

He sat down cross-legged on the spot and began to cultivate the “Wen Xing Tu” heart method.

If he didn’t know what to do and felt lost, then he might as well do something he was interested in.

……

Just as Jiang Baiyu settled into meditation, the beam of light that belonged to him on the square suddenly became very bright.

Everyone remained in place; they hadn’t really been transported anywhere; it was all an illusion.