Another End of Year

After Wei Gaoyuan and Liu Xingfei got the moon flower, they hurried back to Huyang Town without stopping. Qiu Mengqin and Yu Wansu hadn't left yet when they arrived; Qiu Mengqin was so badly injured that she couldn't recover in a few days, so they had to abandon the original plan and set off to return to the outer section.

...

Jin Dashun went to the Mission Hall at his leisure these days, for any news of the Full Moon Flower and release of the new missions from Garden of Nine Herbs.

This day, when he came to the front of the hall and was striding his not very fatty leg over the doorsill, he was gripped by the collar as a voice exclaimed behind him, "You fatty thief! Are there anything else but bad water in your stomach and brain?! Do you deserve your face of integrity and honesty your parents gave you?!... "

Jin Dashun was startled and turned, only to find Liu Xingfei with an angry look. He grinned immediately and said, " Brother Liu! Brother Wei! That's great! You never know how much I miss you these days! let me see~ You must have brought back the best news! But why brother Liu said like that? I swear, my offer is always reasonable. 50 points! No one could offer you such a good deal! "

What he said was indeed true, Liu Xingfei had to admit that 50 points was not low; however, the key point was that the fatty never told them the root of Full Moon Flower was deep in the mouth of the Whining Dead! On the way back, Liu Xingfei never let his hand that had touched the stem of the flower to grab any food even though it had been wrapped up in a piece of cloth.

In Huyang Town, he found a small rectangular box to store the flowers, and then washed his hands, seven or eight times. He'd just touched something like clothes so far, but not food, never. The experience in mission might have scarred him for life…

Liu Xingfei didn't want to waste even one word with the annoying fatty guy. He gave a cold humph and threw out the box, "Take it! Transfer contribution points!"

"You really got it!! I knew it!!"Jin Dashun's eyes brightened, and turned a blind eye to Liu Xingfei's colder face. He quickly opened the lid of the box with joy, glanced at the inside and got the lid back on. Then a sunny smile was put on his face, "Brother Liu truly deserves 'the man I've always admired for my life.' Got two flowers! Please allow me to report your merit to my elder later. Err…you know, for you, ask them for more benefits…"

Liu Xingfei stopped his endless speech, "Save your words for Spring Festival this year, just go and finish the procedure."

"Yes, yes, brother Liu, please!" Jin Dashun made a "please" gesture, with a smile of Jin Dashun's style.

The procedure was not complicated, and finished in just a few moments.

Wei Gaoyuan refused to accept 20 points as Liu Xinfei suggested. After a deliberation, Wei Gaoyuan finally received fourteen points, Liu Xingfei fourteen points, Qiu Mengqin twelve points, and Yu Wansu ten points.

Yu Wansu knew that she had taken an advantage, and treated the three to a feast of spirit animal in the Restaurant of Sprite, which cost nearly 1,000 silver coins! Wei Gaoyuan, who'd been leading a very poor life since his childhood, was really shocked by this number.

Sister Yu just perfectly explained to her junior brother Wei that "The rich Martial Artist and the poor scholar."

...

Time flied peacefully. Five or six months had just passed. It was almost the end of the year.

The outer section of the East Mountain Sword Clan allowed the disciples to go home to celebrate Spring Festival. That, however, depended on their performance in the evaluation at the end of each year, regardless of those by formal trial selection or those by other ways like donation.

The rule of evaluation was simple: the disciples who entered in the same year competed with each other on the competition platform; on the basis of the result, half of them were allowed to go down the mountain of the outer section; the top ten would be rewarded; the last ten would be recorded; If three times totally in record, they would go down the mountain too, though never allowed to came back.

A few months ago, WEI Gaoyuan of Cyan-Feather had already broken through into the ninth-level. Recently, he'd been reported to have levelled up to the bottom of the eighth

As a routine, the Undistinguishment was the foundation stage of Martial Arts. During this stage, most of disciples tended to try hard laying a solid foundation step by step, under the guidance of their elders, in order to get higher achievements in the future. It was very unusual that a new disciple could broke through into a higher stage and then got another level-up in just seven or eight months.

Admittedly, it was not a surprise, even if it was rarely rumored, that a man with Fake spiritual root reached the Nature at his twenties. Almost everyone, especially ordinary people, took it for granted.

Since the end of last mission of Full Moon Flower, Wei Gaoyuan had almost locked himself in his dorm at Dark-Feather Peak. He spent no time on other training but thirstily learning SONG OF MAGIN and CHASING WIND SWORD, and within half a year, he finally entered the door of the first-floor of SONG OF MAGIN.

As for the scroll of CHASING WIND SWORD, it seemed different from the one from the woman in white. The latter was a set of swordsmanship, eight patterns; the scroll from Lie Qianshan was a complete combating system, of which the swordsmanship of "Chasing Wind Sword" was the most basic part, pretty suitable for him, a virtual novice as a swordsman.

In addition, he found it quite comfortable to hold the unknown stone in the Universe in Bag, which made him more smoothly and efficiently while flowing the Internal Qi in a full circle than before. Until yesterday, he'd reached the bottom of seventh-level, even not far from the top of it.

However, there had always been a no-answer question in his mind—the cultivation in his weird dream space. It seemed to happen only to him; the more wired three-man-high stone stele in the dream, which had modified "Eight Clouds in Dream," also made modification occasionally to the cultivation methods in both SONG OF MAGIN and CHASING WIND SWORD.

Was there any senior who was strong enough to help him with clearing up the road of cultivation, through his dream?

Every time he thought of it, he would laugh at himself in his heart. A super, mighty, earth-shaking senior favored and helped a poor kid who grew up in a slum— that did happen, only in the fairy tale from the storyteller in the teahouse. Even if he owned some Transcendent Spiritual Root, if the division stream of consciousness of Lie Qianshan was right, was it even a higher rank than senior Lie's spiritual root?

Or, it might be related to the woman in white and her scroll.

Anyway, it was a secret, his own secret.

...

In the blink of an eye, the end of the year came, and that meant the competition evaluation this year was beginning.

There were ten generations of disciples altogether in the outer section of the East Mountain Sword Clan, who were in ten grades—Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, Gui— and upgraded to the higher grade every two years. .

There were more than fifty new disciples, known as the grade of Gui, of which the twelve through the trial selection had been listed as "the seed disciple" (the best 12).

On the first day of evaluation, because of having a bye, Wei Gaoyuan went to the Competition Field to give Liu Xingfei a boost.

Liu Xingfei's grade, Xin, consisted of sixty-four disciples, who would compete with each other by sortition. The winner would get directly promoted into next round while the loser would be pending. The majority of disciples at Xin were at the stage of the ninth- to the eighth-level, only a few at the seventh.

The first opponent of Liu Xingfei was a male disciple at the top of ninth-level, who seemed a bit down to compete with Liu Xingfei, a seed disciple.

It was not a big issue for Liu Xingfei to be one of the top ten disciples who entered the section in the same year. Thus, after three rounds, Liu Xingfei seized a chance to kick his opponent's shoulder and knocked him off the competition platform. He won, for sure.

He walked down the competition platform and greeted his opponent with a cupped-fist, "Junior brother Mu, thanks for your guidance!"

The man called Mu greeted with a cupped-fist and gave a sigh, "Brother Liu, I appreciate your mercy on the platform!"

Liu Xingfei nodded slightly before he saw Wei Gaoyuan. He smiled, "I know~ Junior brother Wei must come here for giving his sister Yu a support and boost!"

Wei Gaoyuan rolled his eyes, knowing that Liu Xingfei was teasing him, "Exactly, if sister Yu meets you on the platform, I'll be cheering up for her~"

"Junior brother Wei, I hope your expectation never came ture~ Brother Liu was the last man I wanna meet on that platform," a voice came behind Wei Gaoyuan, it was Yu Wansu, who was wearing a light-yellow long dress and greeted them with a lovely smile.

That was true. Liu Xingfei was at the top of eighth-level, half-level higher than herself, not to mention the practical combating experience gap between them.

Wei Gaoyuan smiled awkwardly, scratching his head and grinned, "Look my big mouth~ May Tao bless sister Yu! Never draw that shor~~t straw~ Go straight into the top 10!"

"Humph, that's just sweet~" Yu Wansu pretended to be annoyed.

Then she looked Wei Gaoyuan up and down for a while, then blinked and smiled, "Brother Liu told me your virtual combating power might be stronger than his, and you're here now…Are you planning to challenge the Xin-grade disciple?"