Chapter 41: Chapter 41: The Catastrophe of Tian Sha Pavilion

“Have you heard? Among the examination candidates, there’s a real beauty!”

“A gorgeous girl? How beautiful can she be? More beautiful than the belles of our college?”

Two senior students were chatting casually, exchanging gossips, and the latter responded nonchalantly.

Their college, the Great Zhou Dynasty Family College, is the academic heart of the whole Great Zhou Dynasty. Any monk who has achieved success in cultivation, or businessmen and officials who are successful in their careers, would do whatever they can to establish a connection with the college to flaunt their status. Even the high-ranking officials and nobles would spare no effort to send their children to study at this college. It could be said that all the children of the upper class were studying in this college.

These monks, officials, and businessmen might not be particularly good-looking themselves, but they could easily find beautiful wives using their influence. Thus, their children often turned out to be good-looking as well.

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For instance, the daughter of the mighty Grand Marshal Li Changyue, the Princess of Huailing County from Prince Gong, and the granddaughter of the cabinet Grand Academician Nan Jin, were all stunning beauties. It was hard to say who outshone the rest, and they all had numerous suitors.

“You can’t even compare!” His companion animatedly responded. He was regretful that his linguistic skills were incapable of describing the charm of the new girl, “You haven’t seen the new girl. She is an uncommon beauty in this world. One glimpse at her and you’ll remember her for the rest of your life!”

“Eh, the lady hasn’t passed the exam yet, how did she already become your junior?”

“She will definitely pass. If she doesn’t, I’ll help her cheat!”

The other student gave him a brief side-eye, “Don’t you know how strict our college’s exams are? You’re planning on cheating? It would be more like flirting with death. The Vice Principal himself invigilates the exam, and the Principal personally checks the papers. Where will you muster up the audacity to cheat? Going by your Qi Cultivation Stage Eight strength?”

The ability to enroll in the Empire’s top-rated school at the eighth stage of Qi Cultivation was something unimaginable in other empires. According to them, how dare someone at the Qi Cultivation stage think about studying in our institute?

The most significant difference between the Great Zhou Dynasty Family College and other empire’s colleges was this: Great Zhou emphasized laws and reduced rash conflicts. Monks in Great Zhou aren’t required to be particularly skilled in combat. This resulted in a robust academic atmosphere in Great Zhou. Consequently, the admission standards to the Great Zhou Dynasty Family College were not focused on one’s level of cultivation, but on one’s memory and understanding of the scriptures.

Memory was contingent on Divine Sense; the stronger one’s Divine Sense, the stronger one’s memory.

Divine Sense was introduced to cultivators at the Nascent Soul Stage, and it could only be trained later in the Nascent Soul Stage. Still, the Great Zhou Dynasty Family College required its students to be under twenty-five years old.

If anyone could reach the latter half of the Nascent Soul Stage before the age of twenty-five, the Great Zhou Dynasty Family College wouldn’t suggest enrolling in the institute but would recommend joining the Dao Sect as a wandering monk instead.

However, now his companion had aroused his interest, and he asked, “What’s the name of the beauty?”

“Jiang Jingxin.”

Jiang Li, who happened to be passing by and overheard their conversation, paused at the sound of the name, feeling a sense of absurdity emanating from it.

“Are you referring to the girl with the soft long hair gently drifting in the wind, her delicate eyebrows finely shaped like willow leaves, a pair of clear and hopeful eyes, skin tender and smooth like jade? She is stunningly beautiful as if she were a phantasmal vision, who keeps you restless once you set eyes on her,” he asked.

The man, realizing what his companion was getting at, understood the description of the belle.

“Yes, yes, finally, you get what I mean.” His companion was elated, but soon became wary, worrying that he might have gained another competitor.

“Is that the girl you are talking about?”

Hearing his friend’s words, the companion looked in the direction of the man’s finger and saw a man with ordinary looks standing with his unforgettable ‘junior’, their relationship looking extremely close!

Jiang Li, who saw the saintly Jingxin, appearing just like when he had last seen her, was taken aback.

“Jiang Li, who would have thought we could meet here. Fate works in mysterious ways,” said Saint Jingxin, delighted..

Jiang Jin had run into some problems within her sect which upset her mood. So, she thought of visiting the places where Jiang Li used to stay to help lighten her mood. But, she didn’t expect to run into Jiang Li straight away.

What an unexpected joy!

Because he wanted to avoid being recognized, Jiang Li always made slight adjustments to his face. He was too well-known, and there were statues of him everywhere in the nine states.

But Jingxin was just a holy woman who had only gone on her journey below a few hundred years ago and had rarely left Red Dust Pure Land since then. Thus, very few people knew her, and she could present her actual looks without being afraid of being recognized.

“So, you’re Jiang Jingxin?” Jiang Li found the name quite strange.

“Hmm.” Saint Jingxin hummed softly, and her cheeks flushed slightly. She did have her selfish reasons behind the name. However, who would have expected to meet Jiang Li here? It was indeed embarrassing!

“What’s your name now?” Jiang Jingxin did not believe that Jiang Li would use his real name.

“Kong Li, the ‘Kong’ as in the Kong from Kong Rong sharing the pears,” replied Jiang Li.

Jiang Jingxin, who didn’t understand the latter part, managed to catch that Jiang Li’s current name was Kong Li.

She thought she should act like a smart girl to make the man she fancied like her and chose to not ask about the meaning behind the phrase ‘Kong Rong sharing the pears’.

“Did you come to take the entrance examination?” Jiang Li couldn’t understand why he would see Saint Jingxin here.

Was there anything valuable at the Great Zhou Dynasty Family College that the Red Dust Pure Land’s saintly maiden ought to learn? Even if there was, there was no need to pretend to be a student.

Saint Jingxin looked at Kong Li, who was also planning to take the college entrance exam, and smiled without saying a word.

Jiang Li coughed dryly, “Reminiscing about childhood, reminiscing about childhood.”

“I remember that you entered college at the age of twenty. But it seems, Kong Li, your childhood lasted quite a long time.”

Even though he was unsure how the other party knew when he started college, but being so bluntly exposed made Jiang Li feel slightly embarrassed.

Saint Jingxin couldn’t help but laugh and decided to not embarrass Jiang Li further, “Since we both are taking the exam, why don’t we compete and see who will rank first?”

Jiang Li’s interest was piqued, “Cool! Let’s raise the stakes, whoever loses must fulfill a condition set by the winner!”

The two students clapped and made the agreement, leaving the senior students envious of Jiang Li.

“By the way, has the Fairy of Red Dust awakened yet?”

More than two months had passed, so the Red Dust Fairy should have recovered from her slumber.

“She woke up a few times. She stayed awake for longer than before, but she still sleeps more than she’s awake. Drawn to the peach tree, it’s where she spends most of her time when she’s awake. The Grandmaster rarely speaks, she just walks and strolls around the estate,” she said.

“It seems the Fairy of Red Dust’s condition is still unstable,” Jiang Li continued, “I have already warned Emperor Jiang and Emperor Wei to keep their mouths shut about the Fairy of Red Dust. Make sure to keep the situation related to the fairy a secret. Because if any information is leaked, who knows which old fellow who has seen the Fairy of Red Dust before may barge into the Red Dust

Pure Land.”

“I understand. But if our Grandmaster wants to go out, we won’t be able to stop her. ”

While chatting casually, the two walked away, leaving two envious seniors behind planning something sinister.

“Should we kill that guy? “I’ll hire an assassin from the Tian Sha Pavilion!”

“I don’t have such money.” “Neither do I.”

“Well, let’s drop it then.”

“Oh.”

And just like that, an imminent catastrophe by the Tian Sha Pavilion vanished in their casual conversation..