After passing through the glittering golden door, light and shadow shifted around them, and a warm, fragrant air rushed towards their faces.
They had returned to the thatched hut with the brazier from earlier. There was now a calligraphy painting hanging on the wall. It showed snow-covered mountains faintly rising in the distance. Unlike ordinary inscriptions in the world, there were only three words written on the painting: **Ruixue Cottage**. Other than that, there was no seal and no signature.
So this thatched hut was Ruixue Cottage.
Aside from the few children who had come out first, there were three strangers in the hut: two men and one woman. One man looked to be in his twenties, with an honest face. The other was around forty, with a cold, stern expression. The woman looked only seventeen or eighteen, with an apple-shaped face and a smiling, likeable expression.
All three silently stared at a bronze mirror on the table. No one spoke, and no one looked at the children.
Lei Xiuyuan felt uneasy and could not help moving closer to Xiao Bangchui. He murmured, “Boss… did we pass?”
Xiao Bangchui shook her head. She seemed to have something on her mind. Without saying a word, she found a corner and crouched down. The children’s earlier joy at leaving the forest was washed away by the silent atmosphere. Everyone looked at one another, and no one dared speak first.
“We saw everything that happened in the forest just now,” the middle-aged man suddenly said, his tone very dignified. “You are the first group to return.”
After saying this, he fell silent again.
Was… was that encouragement? Or did it mean something else? Had they passed the second selection or not? Everyone grew even more uneasy.
Before long, the second group of children also returned safely to Ruixue Cottage. This group was even smaller, with only two people. One of them had dirty clothes, but her appearance was extremely beautiful and her bearing noble. It was that little commandery princess.
After she entered, she first looked around. When she saw Ji Tongzhou, she immediately smiled faintly. In that instant, her beauty shone brilliantly, making even Lei Xiuyuan, who deeply hated her, freeze for a moment.
“Prince Ying really was one step faster,” the commandery princess said, walking to Ji Tongzhou’s side. “Lanya admits she is inferior.”
Prince Ying?
Ye Ye had been right. This boy really was a prince or noble!
Ji Tongzhou seemed to enjoy everyone’s awed gazes. He glanced towards Xiao Bangchui. How about that? Frightened now, was she? She would definitely regret all her previous rude and rebellious behaviour. Those actions were enough to have nine generations of her family executed several times over.
Xiao Bangchui did not notice his proud mood. She was hiding in the corner, quietly calling out to that hoarse-voiced old sir. Her curiosity about him had already grown beyond control.
Who was he? Was he human or ghost? She could not see him, and it seemed only she could hear his voice. Could he have possessed her?
When facing that fox demon filled with monstrous demonic aura, he had said “they stole my thing” and also “although it is less than one-thousandth, it can still be of some use.” What exactly did that mean?
The strangest thing was that the fox demon in the forest looked exactly like the one she had encountered in Qingqiu. Her master had said that every demon had its own unique demonic aura. If a phantom was created using demonic aura, the form that appeared would definitely resemble the owner of that aura.
In that case, was the demonic aura of the forest fox demon from that nine-tailed fox in Qingqiu?
When she put all these things together, a flash of insight suddenly crossed her mind. Could it be that the severely injured fox demon from back then had not escaped, but had attached itself to her?!
But that did not make sense either. Whether Daoist Dongyang or Zhenyun Zi, both should be extremely powerful immortals. How could they not have discovered a fox demon attached to her?
“Old sir, stop pretending to sleep,” Xiao Bangchui deliberately provoked him. “I know who you are. You’re that nine-tailed fox demon!”
He clearly did not fall for this at all and ignored her completely.
Xiao Bangchui asked several more times, but he continued pretending to be deaf and mute. Xiao Bangchui’s stubbornness was forced out. The more he refused to speak, the more she insisted on asking. She would annoy him to death if she had to.
In all her ten years of life, she had never spoken for such a long stretch before. She kept asking and talking, until the sky was almost bright. After who knew how long, someone suddenly patted her shoulder. Baili Gelin’s crisp yet tired voice sounded behind her head.
“Xiao Bangchui, what are you mumbling over here by yourself?”
Xiao Bangchui jolted. Only then did she realise that, after crouching all night, her waist and back ached, and her throat hurt like it had been burned from speaking for so long.
“Nothing…”
She drank all the water in her leather pouch in one breath, then looked around. There were quite a few more people in the thatched hut than before. Roughly counting, there were about a few dozen.
Baili Gelin’s clean clothes, which she had only changed into yesterday morning, were dirty beyond recognition again. She sat beside Xiao Bangchui with a tired face and whispered, “I’m exhausted. That fox demon was terrifying… If Ye Ye hadn’t risked everything, we might not have made it back.”
Fox demon?
They had also encountered a fox demon?
Xiao Bangchui quickly understood. That forest was very vast. Thousands of people could not possibly have all walked in one direction. Presumably, fox demons had been stationed at exits in every direction. Only by defeating one could they pass through the gate and return to Ruixue Cottage.
But Ye Ye had actually been able to subdue a fox demon. That really was not simple. At the end, the demonic aura it released had left even Ji Tongzhou unable to move. How had Ye Ye solved it?
“Where’s Ye Ye?” Xiao Bangchui asked.
Baili Gelin pointed in another direction. “Over there, lying down. My sister is looking after him. He probably won’t be able to move for a while.”
Xiao Bangchui looked over and indeed saw Ye Ye lying pale-faced on the ground, his head resting on Baili Changyue’s lap, half-conscious and half-asleep.
For some reason, from the moment she first met them, she had noticed that there seemed to be a subtle atmosphere between those two, a feeling that outsiders could not blend into at all.
Clearly, Lei Xiuyuan and Gelin beside her felt the same. Everyone smiled awkwardly at one another. Baili Gelin changed the topic. “Right, Xiao Bangchui, how did you deal with the fox demon?”
Xiao Bangchui rarely stammered. “It… it was everyone working together, and then…”
She truly did not know how to explain. Gelin and the others were her friends, so she did not want to casually fool them. But she was even less willing to reveal that a nine-tailed fox demon might be possessing her.
“And then Boss smashed the fox demon apart all by herself,” Lei Xiuyuan said proudly, repeating Xiao Bangchui’s heroic moment. Boss showing off was even happier for him than showing off himself.
Baili Gelin was stunned. “Really? Xiao Bangchui, you’re that amazing? Was it mystic arts your master taught you before?”
This loose-mouthed crybaby…
Xiao Bangchui mumbled vaguely and brushed it off. Fine, let them think she had subdued the fox demon with mystic arts.
As they were speaking, the middle-aged man suddenly stood up and said, “All right, time is up.”
With a sweep of his long sleeve, the bronze mirror was taken into his sleeve.
Was it already noon?
The children in the hut immediately perked up. Were they finally going to announce whether they had passed?
The apple-faced young woman smiled and said, “Listen carefully. From now on, those whose numbers I call will go outside. Those I do not call will remain.”
Was it starting?
The children all showed nervous, hopeful expressions. Those whose numbers were called had to go outside. Did that mean those whose numbers were not called had passed?
Xiao Bangchui’s palms were covered in sweat. She was more nervous than anyone. In the end, she had only returned to Ruixue Cottage because of the fox demon possessing her. She did not know if they had seen through it. Alongside her nervousness was endless guilt and fear. Her heart was about to leap out of her throat.
The young woman read the numbers very quickly, going from the one-hundreds to the two-hundreds in no time. When she read “two-six-five,” Xiao Bangchui nearly stopped breathing.
She was two-seven-six.
Would her number be called?
Unexpectedly, after two-six-five, the young woman directly read, “Two-seven-six.”
Xiao Bangchui’s heart sank to the bottom.
Her?
She had not passed?
Had they still discovered that her aptitude was poor? Had they noticed the real fox demon inside her body?
Her mind buzzed chaotically. All kinds of thoughts surged up one after another. Fear, then despair, then complete confusion. It was as if she no longer recognised the world. She looked around blankly. Beside her, Baili Gelin, Ye Ye, and Lei Xiuyuan were looking at her comfortingly. The children whose names had not been called showed every kind of expression: wild joy, pride, and more.
“Th-then… I’ll go out first…”
She felt as if her own voice came from somewhere very far away, vague and blurred.
She pushed open the door. Wind and snow rushed towards her face. Several children were already standing outside, each with a deathly pale face and an expression of disbelief. She imagined she probably did not look much better.
Snow was still falling on the mountaintop. Between heaven and earth, there were only two colours: black and white.
Xiao Bangchui did not know what she was looking at. Would she be captured next and executed together with the fox demon inside her body? Should she run away now? But this was a cliff thousands of feet high. Without a rope, how could she get down?
Maybe being executed like this was fine too. She had tried her absolute best, but still had not passed the second selection.
What would happen to her master?
Creak.
The door opened again. This time, the one who came out was Ji Tongzhou. His face was ashen, and he looked as if his soul had left him. He looked at no one, slowly brushing past Xiao Bangchui before standing alone at a distance with his arms crossed, lost in thought. Among the children who had come out earlier were a few of his lackeys. They hurriedly followed him, seemingly wanting to comfort him, but he kicked them all away one by one.
He had not passed either?
Before long, several more children came out with miserable expressions. They were actually the children who had returned in the first group with them earlier.
A vague thought suddenly surfaced in Xiao Bangchui’s mind.
Could it be that the ones left inside were the ones eliminated?
No matter how she thought about it, it made no sense to eliminate the children who had returned first and defeated the fox demon.
As if confirming her guess, the children who came out one after another were all those who had returned before noon. Even Commandery Princess Lanya was among them. The moment she came out, she began crying.
Before long, Lei Xiuyuan came out too. Since stepping outside, he had not said a word and had only been crying. Right after him, the Baili sisters and Ye Ye also slipped out with devastated expressions.
When Baili Gelin saw Xiao Bangchui, she cried too.
“How could we not have passed? Didn’t we defeat the fox demon and return before noon?”
Ye Ye’s face was still a little pale, and he leaned tightly against Baili Changyue’s shoulder. He looked around and saw that there were only a dozen or so people standing outside, and all of them had returned to Ruixue Cottage before him. After thinking for a moment, he suddenly said, “Perhaps… the ones who came out are the ones who passed?”
Xiao Bangchui nodded. “I think so too. Everyone outside defeated the fox demon and returned first.”
There were still tears hanging on Baili Gelin’s lashes, but when she heard them say this, she immediately smiled again. “Really?”
Baili Changyue, who almost never spoke, suddenly nodded. “We passed. I heard it. That woman is saying it inside.”
“Honestly, doing it like this could scare people to death!” Baili Gelin complained loudly. She looked back and saw that the others were still dejected, while Lei Xiuyuan was crying as if he was about to faint. She slapped him on the back and shouted, “Stop being sad! We all passed!”
The children all looked up at her. In an instant, hope filled every face.
Baili Gelin said clearly, “We all defeated the fox demon and made it back before noon. If that doesn’t count as passing, then do the ones who came later and didn’t even see the fox demon count as passing?”
Her words were extremely convincing. The children immediately burst into noisy discussion. Even Ji Tongzhou smiled. He seemed to secretly rub his eyes too; perhaps he had also been uselessly crying just now.
Lei Xiuyuan’s crying stopped as well. He timidly tugged Xiao Bangchui’s clothes and murmured, “Boss, really? I passed?”
Xiao Bangchui nodded firmly. “We all passed!”
Excitement surged in her heart. Thinking back to her despair just now, she found it both funny and helpless. Once she calmed down and thought about it, even an immortal as powerful as Daoist Dongyang had been unable to discover the fox demon’s presence inside her body, so how could anyone else notice?
Only, that mysterious person with the hoarse voice remained a worry in her heart. Through the first and second selections, she had relied on him the whole way. She depended on him, yet also felt some dislike towards him.
Could he really be the nine-tailed fox demon?
Just as everyone expected, the three adults soon opened the door and let them back into the hut. The young woman smiled and handed each of them a large bundle, saying gently, “You are all children of excellent talent, with outstanding willpower and ability. Chufeng Academy welcomes you. Here are your disciple robes and name plaques, along with other necessary items in the bundle. Before the third day of next month, you must make your way to Huaguang Commandery in the state of Yue. There will be carriages to gather you and take you to the academy.”
Xiao Bangchui hugged the bundle, so excited she could not stop trembling. She was even smiling foolishly without realising it. But no one noticed her, because every child who had passed was immersed in wild joy. Baili Gelin laughed and cried in turns. Lei Xiuyuan pressed his face to the bundle and choked out something under his breath. Even Ye Ye’s face flushed red with excitement.
For a long while after that, everything felt like a dream.
The rainbow deer carriages sent the children back to their respective homes. Xiao Bangchui and the others had nowhere to go. Fortunately, the five of them had all passed the first selection from Lugong Town, so they were all sent back there.
Every now and then, Xiao Bangchui took out her name plaque to look at it. The plaque was made of some unknown metal, clear yellow in colour, shaped like a half-moon, with simple and elegant patterns. On the back, the four characters “Chufeng Academy” were engraved in seal script. It felt heavy in the hand.
However, her plaque was a little different from everyone else’s. The others had their names properly carved in seal script on the front, while hers had the three characters “Xiao Bangchui” written with a brush.
She specially took the name plaque to ask the apple-faced young woman about it. The young woman smiled and said, “You are already a member of the academy. This name is really not presentable. On the day you enter the academy, a teacher will help you request a formal name. Then your name plaque can be made properly.”
Was the name Xiao Bangchui really that unpresentable?
She felt a little regretful. This was the name her master had given her. Apparently, when he had picked her up from the river, someone by the river had just happened to be beating clothes clean with a washing mallet. Her master saw that the woman doing the laundry was very beautiful, felt inspired, and named her Xiao Bangchui…
All right. Thinking back on it like that, it really was a little unpresentable.
When they returned to Lugong Town, it was already deep in the night. The town was pitch-black, except for two faint lights flickering at the entrance of the inn.
The five children were still excited. As they walked, they chattered nonstop. After all, all their friends had passed, and in the future, they could cultivate together at Chufeng Academy for a year instead of separating here. In the end, Ye Ye was slightly more mature. After entering the inn, he asked for two rooms. Originally, they said they were tired after a day and night and should rest early, but everyone still gathered in one room to talk.
“Xiao Bangchui, Xiuyuan, do either of you have anything you need to go home and deal with first?” Baili Gelin lay on her sister’s lap like a cat.
Both of them shook their heads. Lei Xiuyuan had long since lost his home and had been wandering everywhere. Xiao Bangchui also had no thought of going back. She had been brought to Lugong Town by Daoist Dongyang. They had flown for an entire morning. If she relied on her own two legs to return to Qingqiu, who knew how long it would take? What if she failed to make it to Huaguang Commandery in time?
“Then the five of us can travel together!” Baili Gelin smiled so widely she could not close her mouth. “Five people. How lively!” She raised one hand, her face full of hope and joy. “In the future, the five of us will all become the most powerful great immortals!”
In the forest used for the second selection, filled with mist and miasma, two figures suddenly appeared.
The black-veiled woman bent down and picked up the talisman paper from the ground, now completely blank. After looking at it, she respectfully handed it to the white-bearded old man behind her.
“The seal on it was broken?” the old man said, somewhat surprised. “Was it done by those children?”
“It was a ten-year-old girl called Xiao Bangchui.” The black-veiled woman briefly explained what had happened that day. “The nine-tailed fox’s demonic aura sealed on the paper disappeared, so the seal naturally broke as well.”
The old man silently walked around the area. The miasma nearby was thinner than in other places, as if something had purified it.
It was said that the fox demon had disappeared after being lightly touched by that little girl. The demonic aura sealed within it had disappeared along with it, and a purifying aura remained in the surroundings. It was very likely that the demonic aura had been exorcised.
That girl was only ten?
For such a young child to have such ability was truly rare.
“She… has very ordinary aptitude,” the black-veiled woman thought for a moment, then added, “During the first selection, based on her aptitude, she should not have been able to pass. But for some reason, I sensed that her body seemed to be full of spiritual energy. The amount of spiritual energy inside her was several times greater than that of ordinary children, so I allowed her to pass the first selection.” “Oh?” The old man raised his brows with great interest. “What is her name? Xiao Bangchui? Hehe. Bring her to me next time. ”
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