Xueming Showed Up

After leaving the auction room, Xueming hurriedly turned in the bills of exchange to get coins, but because of the saying “Too Many Treasures May Invite Danger," Xueming did not wear the dimensional ring on his finger, knowing that his own strength was not enough to take care of such a high-value treasure. In the Purple Jade City and the eastern territory, most of the cultivators who possessed the dimensional ring had a cultivation level of at least the first level of the natural Qi. Or, if they had lower cultivation levels, they were all descendants of influential families.

After obtaining everything as intended, Xueming decided to immediately leave the great dome where the Black Wood Tower auction took place. But then his eyes came across Zi Hui conversing with a group of people that Xueming did not know. Now that Xueming was still in disguise as the Alchemist Yi Fei, he chose to walk away without saying hello.

After leaving the Black Wood Tower auction for a while Xueming felt like someone was stalking him. The paranoia from holding 10,000 gold coins and other valuables made Xueming afraid to turn back and face the stalker directly and expose them, because if they were a strong band of thieves, then it would not end very well. Xueming thus decided to speed up and take the narrow alleyway before jumping up and moving forward on the roof in the hope of escaping from the stalking by the group that was following him.

But then the event turned out to be mistaken. On the roof of a building a few blocks away, there was another group of people following him, causing Xueming to have no other choice but jump back down to the other side of the road before taking a shortcut into a nearby liquor bar.

Fortunately, at this time the sky was overcast. Many people from different towns stopped by for dinner, making the liquor bar not so empty. Xueming dug his way through the crowd into a corner, took off the disguises piece by piece, storing two of them in the dimensional bag, before disappearing into the toilet. Then, he came out with a new set of clothes that he had bought long before.

Removing the disguise as the Alchemist Yi Fei, Xueming now returned to his original appearance, thus making it possible to escape from the pursuit for now. Yet, he forgot completely about himself being hunted by Li Biao's people. Consequently, not long after he walked out of the liquor bar, many other groups of people--many more than before--all headed straight toward Xueming until his face turned pale. Given the total number of people chasing him now, it would be difficult for Xueming to get away this time. When the event came to this stage, Xueming concentrated to gather the Qi energy and prepare to handle the situation by using his force to break through and run away.

But not before all the crooks approached Xueming, a glittering golden chariot rushed through the crowd before reaching Xueming's side. When those who are in pursuit saw the chariot, their faces suddenly turned pale, and then they dispersed and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

The chariot’s window was opened before Zi Hui ordered a charioteer: “Stop.” Then it stopped beside Xueming, and the two friends met each other, Zi Hui smiled at Xueming and told him to come inside the chariot for a conversation. The chariot was of the City Governor, so from this event, Xueming eventually knew Zi Hui’s status. This meant that this friend was the grandchild of the Purple Jade City Governor. Even though he was surprised, today he had encountered more exciting events than this one, so, he happened to know the high status of Zi Hui was more normal than it should be.

The conversation inside the chariot was entertaining. Zi Hui did not behave like a noble like the other descendants of great families; instead, he chose to talk to Xueming like a friend of the same age and told him about the previous event, that Zi Hui himself had just attended a big auction. This was the first time that Zi Zheng had assigned him to the Black Wood Tower auction and also allowed him to use this golden chariot.

Zi Hui also said that ... he wished Xueming had seen the exciting events at the Black Wood Tower auction. As Xueming listened, he could only nod in response. But in his mind, the image of the beautiful woman, Fei Xiang, suddenly popped up.

After that, Zi Hui asked about the things that had happened in the motel room, as well as the period of Xueming’s disappearance for about a month. Xueming adhered to his motto ‘Their Goodwill to Me, Mine to Them.’ Therefore, when having to answer Zi Hui’s questions. Xueming did not conceal the events that had happened, including the fight with the assassins and his escape to hide and practice cultivation in the cave. However, there were some matters that could not be spoken, such as the topic of the Divine Body Cultivation Technique, the eccentric heat in his body, as well as the story of the fake Alchemist Yi Fei.

When the chariot arrived at the residential area of the Governor's Mansion, its speed gradually reduced until the chariot stopped. After that, Zi Hui volunteered to take Xueming to explore the surrounding area by himself. Due to the story of the assassination, Zi Hui lent a small house in the compound of Zi Zheng's Mansion to Xueming to live temporarily. Xueming complimented that it was green and pleasantly peaceful. At first, Xueming refused Zi Hui’s offer, but Zi Hui mentioned the safety issue. Until the day of the Azure Dragon Academy entrance examination arrived, if Xueming lived out there, he could be assassinated at any time.

When the offer made sense, Xueming could not deny it again, thus accepting Zi Hui hospitality in the hope that, if an opportunity arose in the future, he would find a way to repay Zi Hui’s kindness.

As he lived in Zi Zheng's Mansion, everywhere was filled with watchmen, both for the danger from outside and the situation inside. This made Xueming afraid to share every matter with Zi Hui, despite trusting him to a certain extent. Therefore, Xueming chose not to practice the Divine Body Cultivation Technique here but only to cultivate the normal Qi following the Yong family's Qi technique.

.

.

On the other side of the Purple Jade City, in the house of the young master of the Li family, Li Biao was irritated by the incident. He didn't think that Zi Hui would abandon the Black Wood Tower auction early and rushed out to pick up Xueming. As soon as he had heard the news of Xueming's appearance, he hired the entire flock of killers to get Xueming. But it turned out that his spent money for the mission became a waste. When Xueming went to stay in the Governor's Mansion, the continuous hunt had to be put on hold.

Although the pursuit was over, the frustration was still ingrained in his chest because Xueming wanted to enter the Azure Dragon Academy. As an inner disciple of the Academy, Li Biao surely had a lot of connections and influence. Thus, he waited for the day Xueming would set foot on the examination hall, willing to do whatever it takes to prevent Xueming from being able to pass this Azure Dragon Academy examination.

.

.

.

Eventually, time passed until the exam day of the Azure Dragon Academy. The courtyard of more than 1,000 Mu (Chinese measurement) in front of the Academy became short of space, as the cultivators from the ten-day registration period combined with their supporters and bystanders came to wait in this area until crowded since the early morning. Lots of people crammed into each other to find the best location to watch today's test.

As for the nobles and large families, all came a little before the time of examination because the Azure Dragon Academy would set up a specific place to separate the nobles and great families from the general public.

Even though Xueming himself had previously received a special registration privilege from Zi Hui, today things were different. Although the designated lounge did not specify that the users must be the people from the same clan only, there were not only people from Zi Hui's side but also his antagonist which was Zi Jiang, another grandchild of the Purple Jade City Governor and a cousin of Zi Hui. This caused Zi Hui not to invite Xueming to enter the special room of the Zi family, causing Xueming to stay in the crowded area with other people downstairs. He was happy with it because he had never experienced such an atmosphere in his life, thus feeling very excited.

Eventually, when entering the Dragon Hour (7.00 am - 8.59 am), the big bell rang loudly all over the place. The people previously noisy all became stunned. Those who were walking stopped their feet altogether. All eyes were fixed on the high ladder in front of the entrance of the inner area of the Azure Dragon Academy. After just a moment, a loud noise came from inside the main gate as if something was dashing straight out ...