Ze Tian Ji

After their night of happy drinking, Tang Thirty-Six and Xuan Yuan Po were currently extremely tired, yet after smelling the fragrant salted vegetables and seeing the faintly golden millet congee, their appetites suddenly returned, they buried their heads in and slurped it down.

After a short while, Jin Yu Lu also came in.

Chen Chang Sheng and the others felt a little startled, it had to be known, that in the past few months, Secretary-General Jin had always eaten aromatically and drunken pungently in his own room and would very rarely partake in the academy’s three meals.

”Don’t be mistaken, I’m still not interested in food that doesn’t contain any meat,” said Jin Yu Lu as he laughed lightly. Upon hearing his words, Xuan Yuan Po vigorously nodded his head; as a fellow member of the yao race, he concurred with what Secretary-General Jin had just said, it was just, in front of Chen Chang Sheng, he dared to fume, but didn’t dare to speak.

Chen Chang Sheng got up and filled a bowl of millet congee, passing it to Jin Yu Lu’s hand, then asked: ”What’s happened?”

Jin Yu Lu passed over a stack of items that were in his hand, he then raised the bowl of millet congee and drank it all in a single motion, he then said: ”Since early this morning, it hasn’t abated at all, go and see for yourself as to how it should be handled.”

Finishing those words, he turned around and headed for the academy gate.

Chen Chang Sheng received the stack of items, casually going through them, upon seeing the words and the names that were on them, his expression became slightly tense, this was followed with a lot of doubt and confusion.

That thick stack was comprised entirely of name cards and gift records – there was a gift record from Prince Chen Liu; there were gifts from several red-clad clergy of the Education Board; Minister Xin had even privately sent a hefty gift.

There were name cards from several high ranking officials of the government, with one of them actually being from Xue Xing Chuan; once Chen Chang Sheng had reached the bottom, he even saw gift records from Holy Churches other than the Education Board.

What was this about? Chen Chang Sheng was really puzzled, upon going through the stack of name cards and gift records, Tang Thirty-Six also felt very perplexed.

The three of them travelled to the academy entrance, wanting to seek the advice of Jin Yu Lu, but all they saw was that the entrance area was very noisy. Countless craftsmen were endlessly working away, in just a single night, an academy gate constructed from white jade material had already begun to emerge in its initial form, this caused them to involuntarily feel speechless.

Chen Chang Sheng placing first upon the First Banner was nowhere near enough to bring about such changes, in a single night, the Capital’s attitude towards Orthodox Academy had completely changed; there was definitely a problem here.

Being unable to understand it, it was better to not ponder over it. Chen Chang Sheng and the others did not leave the academy, but did what they usually did, sitting in the library, reading and cultivating, discussing and reviewing details of the Grand Examination.

– especially details on the final battle against Gou Han Shi.

How did he achieve Ethereal Opening? Chen Chang Sheng didn’t know, but he still wanted to confer his experience to Tang Thirty-Six and Xuan Yuan Po, hoping to provide some help for their future breakthrough into the realm of Ethereal Opening.

Apart from this, their activities for today were no different from usual, apart from Chen Chang Sheng occasionally glancing towards the academy entrance or the quiet academy wall that was in the direction of the academy’s pond (lake), thinking that Zhe Xiu would make an appearance at the next moment, yet, in the end, it didn’t happen.

A day passed by and then a night, arriving at the time where the Banners of the Grand Examination are officially released.

The Banners aren’t released at Li Palace, but instead, at the plaza before the Hall of Grand Clarity. The azure skies above were void of clouds for countless miles, sunlight constantly streamed down, driving away the chill of early Spring. With the temperature becoming as heated as the atmosphere of the plaza.