novelraw Chapter 138: An Old Acquaintance Comes Calling
Chapter 138: An Old Acquaintance Comes Calling
Beyond Chen Nangsheng, seven other students had earned first-class ratings this round.
Tang Xiaoxue and Hu Caiyi rose sharply out of nowhere, landing just behind Chen Nangsheng with First Class Lower ratings.
Fourth place went to Zeng Mingming.
Building a solid foundation mattered, but a foundation was still only a foundation.
Foundations were meant to help ordinary people close the gap with the gifted. Back when Wang Su had been persuading Chen Nangsheng, he had said it plainly: to earn a place in the inner hall, a person needed personal courage, intelligence, perseverance, and character, with none of those elements missing.
Academic ability was only one part of the whole.
When students entered territory that lay outside their familiar domain, those who were exceptional in unconventional ways, like Tang Xiaoxue and her kind, immediately gained an advantage.
How long that advantage would last was another question.
Entirely possible that the others would catch up quickly, or that the two girls would stumble in the rounds ahead.
Both were perfectly plausible outcomes.Two consecutive trials had taken an inevitable toll on everyone's mental stamina.
Hu Caiyi could just barely hold herself together in class, but the moment she was home she melted flat onto her bed like something deflating, producing sounds of vague suffering.
"So much pressure. I want something good to eat. I want sweet water..."
The sweet water in particular.
"I want braised pork knuckle."
Tang Xiaoxue's request, as usual, was considerably more direct.
Li Qiuchen thought it over. The three of them combined were close enough to three first-class ratings to round up. Surely that called for a celebration?
It was settled.
Since Hu Caiyi had moved in with the Tang household, the back courtyard had become considerably livelier. Little Lamei plus Hu Caiyi's four handmaids spent their days dressing the two young misses up beautifully.
But they were only responsible for clothing and accommodation, the first and third of life's four essentials.
What everyone ate, and where they went for outings, that fell to Li Qiuchen to arrange.
The handmaids could manage sweet pastries, light snacks, and the occasional soup or broth.
But the non-human aspects of the two young misses' appetites were entirely beyond them.
Tang Xiaoxue's greatest love was gnawing on bones. She found cut meat lacking in chew, insisting that the meat clinging to the bone was the only kind that tasted right. On occasion she even crunched the bones themselves and swallowed the pieces, and she was especially partial to sucking the marrow.
Hu Caiyi's enthusiasm for small winged creatures needed no elaboration. There had to be something with wings at every meal.
But you couldn't have chicken every day. It got dull.
That evening Li Qiuchen laid on a proper feast for the two young misses, and they both ate with complete abandon, wolfed everything down, drained an entire bottle of the Hundred-Fruit Immortal Brew between them, and toppled over unconscious with a thud.
Li Qiuchen picked up the two fallen ancestors with practiced ease and deposited them in the cellar, then turned and told the handmaids to clear the table.
Governess Zhang came over and said quietly, "I hear both young misses achieved first-class ratings in the illusory realm trials?"
Li Qiuchen nodded. "That's right. Does Sister have any thoughts to share?"
Governess Zhang waved a hand. "I never had the blessing of proper schooling myself. I wouldn't know the deeper workings of any of it. But I did attend on the old dowager at the marquis's household in my day, and I saw several of the young masters go through their studies. There is something I'd like to say, if it's appropriate."
Li Qiuchen smiled. "Since when have you been so formal with me?"
Governess Zhang smiled back. "Not formality, just caution. This coming from my mouth might give the young misses the wrong idea. The resident tutor at the marquis's household made a particular point of warning those young masters that in the illusory realm trials, one must follow things naturally and never chase a perfect outcome by force."
"From what I understand, the higher the rating achieved, the more demanding the next trial becomes. Eventually, if a single mistake occurs, the consequences for the cultivator's mind and spirit can be severe."
"That path was laid specifically for those with extraordinary gifts. It is not meant to be trodden by those of ordinary ability."
Li Qiuchen nodded. "Sister is quite right that the illusory realm trials are indeed an upstream battle with no room for complacency. But I wouldn't say it's laid exclusively for the gifted. Setting others aside, consider our young miss. Looking at how her studies have gone, who would have expected her to earn a first-class rating on her second trial?"
The Dao Heart aspect, Tang Xiaoxue genuinely had something of a racial advantage with.
The child was remarkably easy to raise.
The Rakshasa ghost people lived year-round in the harsh conditions of the Border Wilds. Li Qiuchen had never been there himself, but he could well imagine the brutal conditions of survival.
Compared to the frost and ice of the northern lands, these illusory realm trials with all their literary and narrative atmosphere would seem as trivial as a game of house.
Besides, the two of them had only just earned their first first-class ratings. The next step for them would be at most something on the level of Pig-Slaughter Lane.
What he himself was about to face was a genuinely steep ascent, the kind that separated the exceptional from the rest.
That sort of invisible pressure wasn't something he could share with others.
So tonight Li Qiuchen had made an exception and poured himself a couple of extra cups.
He slept through to mid-morning.
He had to admit, the Hundred-Fruit Immortal Brew really did have something going for it.
When he woke there was no trace of a hangover. If anything he felt extraordinarily well, the cloud that had been sitting over him completely swept away, and his entire bearing and complexion considerably improved.
The gatekeeper came to report that someone had come calling, asking specifically for him, and had already been waiting outside for some time.
Li Qiuchen hurried out to the front and found, to his surprise, that it was Bai Ke.
He hadn't seen him in quite a while. Bai Ke looked like he was doing well enough. His clothes were clean, and there was considerably more color in his face.
Serving as Xu Qing's retainer was a role that didn't sound particularly dignified on paper.
But that was a judgment only someone of equal standing had any right to make.
Most people didn't enjoy such an opportunity.
As they said, even a prime minister's doorman commanded a third-rank officer's worth of respect. Xu Qing, as the county magistrate's brother-in-law with a convenient claim on the man's authority, held a position within the inner hall that couldn't match the chief senior brother's, but outside the school walls he could walk wherever he pleased with complete confidence.
The county constables addressed Xu Qing respectfully as Young Master Qing whenever they saw him, and when they saw Bai Ke, they greeted him warmly as Brother Bai.
With food, clothing, shelter, and daily needs all sorted out, and possibly with income on top of that, there remained nonetheless a trace of lingering trouble in Bai Ke's expression.
"Benefactor!"
"Don't call me that. Watch your words."
Li Qiuchen quickly pulled him inside. "All I did was point you toward a road. What kind of favor is that?"
Bai Ke smiled. "Without your guidance, I might still be begging in the streets today."
Li Qiuchen said with a snort, "When I first got to know you, it was because you seemed to have a sense of righteous character. I didn't expect you to turn into someone so smooth-tongued and worldly. It's unpleasant to look at."
Bai Ke flushed and quickly lowered his head. "My apologies, Brother Li. I didn't used to be like this. I picked it up from others around me."
"It's far easier to pick up bad habits than good ones. You and I aren't brothers by blood, and I'd rather not say too much in case you take it the wrong way. I'll just say, conduct yourself properly."
"Brother Li..."
"Come to the point. What have you come for?"
Bai Ke shifted awkwardly and lowered his voice. "I heard that students in the county school's inner hall have started doing some kind of trial..."
"The illusory realm trials?"
"That's it. I caught a bit of Young Master Qing's casual conversation about it and couldn't make sense of it, so I came especially to ask for your guidance, Brother Li."
Li Qiuchen gave him a brief explanation of what the illusory realm trials were and how they worked.
"I see."
Bai Ke took it in, then immediately looked worried. "So if I understand correctly, only inner hall disciples can participate in the illusory realm trials. And without participating you can't obtain an Elixir Viscera or truly set foot on the path of cultivation. Is that the situation?"
Li Qiuchen said, puzzled, "From what I know, Xu Qing isn't a stingy person. You work for him. Surely you've received some benefits?"
Many of the inner hall's rules were established with ordinary people in mind.
The masters would say all the right things about following the rules, but if you had the wit to find your way around them, the masters generally weren't inclined to dig into it.
Take the Hongwen Hall's collection of texts, for instance. By the rules, you needed to have cultivated an Elixir Viscera before being permitted to borrow and read from it, but if you found the right channel, such as boarding Senior Brother Yang's unofficial service, you could access them ahead of schedule.
And if you truly couldn't find any legitimate channel, sneaking over the wall in the dead of night and picking the lock on the Hongwen Hall to borrow books, the masters would probably let that pass too.
To set foot on the path of cultivation you needed money, or luck, or cleverness, or initiative. You had to bring something to the table.
You couldn't expect to walk away with the benefits while bringing nothing at all.
Xu Qing had his own similar channels. Given his particular position, within the small domain of Yun County, virtually any request that wasn't completely outrageous, such as anything involving a fox spirit, was within his reach.
Bai Ke scratched the back of his head with a sheepish smile. "He did give me something. Young Master Qing gave me an internal energy manual and a sword manual. At first I couldn't even read the characters in them, and even after I learned the characters I couldn't understand the classical allusions in the text. That was when I realized how important studying was. It was quite difficult, but I got there in the end. Far superior to anything I knew from farming life. Shall I demonstrate for you?"
Li Qiuchen raised a hand to stop him. "No need. If you already have a cultivation method, why not focus on that? Eating from one bowl while eyeing what's in the pot is a rather unbecoming kind of greed."
Bai Ke quickly shook his head. "You misunderstand, Brother Li. It's not greed. I just... want to get a sense of my own aptitude."
"You want to know whether you have what it takes to cultivate?"
"Yes."
Li Qiuchen thought for a moment, then said, "In the past, what cultivators called aptitude mainly referred to whether a person possessed a spiritual root. Nowadays, what counts as aptitude is primarily how steadfast one's Dao Heart is. In these illusory realm trials, quite a few students have failed two rounds in a row and taken serious psychological damage because of it. You might want to pay attention to whether there's anyone like that around Xu Qing."
"And then?"
"Have him put up the money and hire you to run the trial in their place."
"What?"
Bai Ke stared. "That's actually possible?"
"How would you know it isn't until you try?"
Li Qiuchen hadn't tested this himself, but it seemed plausible enough that such a loophole would exist.
It wasn't that he thought poorly of Xu Qing, but given what he knew of the man, it was genuinely difficult to picture him pushing through the illusory realm trials on his own merits, earning an Elixir Viscera, and becoming a Qi Refining cultivator through sheer personal effort.
The Dao Heart was an abstract concept, and not everyone pursued it. The Elixir Viscera, by contrast, was a concrete and tangible benefit.
So there was a real possibility that something like a paid run service existed.
It was simply that Bai Ke hadn't moved in those circles yet and hadn't encountered anything of the sort.
Some things were only visible to those who knew where to look.
Li Qiuchen's nudge was enough to make things click for Bai Ke, as though a cloud had parted.
"Alright! I'll go and ask around... would you have any need for something like that, Brother Li?"
"I don't."
"Ha! I was getting ahead of myself. Many thanks for the guidance, Brother Li!"
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