The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#293 - Xiaobi

Lu Jing hadn't expected the news of his participation in the Little Competition to spread so quickly.

It had only been an hour since he returned from Chen Bo's place, and both Xia Huai and Yang Tao had already come to find him. By the afternoon, the entire academy knew about it.

It was the first time in the academy's history that someone who didn't cultivate mystic force had participated in the Mystic Force Little Competition.

Especially since Lu Jing seemed to want to use this Little Competition to prove that he hadn't fallen behind the other students of his year. However, his opponents, except for Xia Huai, who had started cultivating a month later, were all uniformly people who had completed the Hundred-Day Foundation Establishment and could be officially called cultivators.

In other words, this was a challenge launched by a martial artist against cultivators!

In fact, if it were a simple contest of skill, none of these newly initiated cultivators would have the confidence to defeat Lu Jing. However, the Little Competition was designed from the outset to test the results of their three months of mystic force cultivation, which was tantamount to attacking their opponents' weaknesses with their own strengths.

If they could still lose in this situation, wouldn't all their training during this time have been in vain?

And don't forget, this is the academy, where the mystic force is much denser than in the outside world.

It can be said to be the cultivators' natural home ground. Casting spells here is faster, easier to succeed, and consumes less mystic force.

Therefore, most people weren't worried about Lu Jing joining the Little Competition. Instead, they were all eager to try.

If they could defeat a top-notch expert on the Heavenly Pivot Rankings, even if it was a conditional victory, it would undoubtedly give them a huge boost.

It would make them more determined in their cultivation.

The supervisor of this Little Competition, Huang, also thought so. Therefore, that night, he asked the education officer to increase the difficulty of several of the test questions, making it impossible to complete them by means other than mystic force.

"Isn't this the most important purpose of this Little Competition? Therefore, the academy has no reason not to promote things in this direction."

Supervisor Huang paused and then continued, "As for Lu Jing, I do think highly of him. Precisely because of this, I hope he can withstand more trials. This process may be painful, but it is also a cultivation of his character."

Professor Zheng wanted to retort, but what's the use of having a good character if he still can't cultivate mystic force? However, he ultimately held back.

Lu Jing was someone Supervisor Huang favored, so Supervisor Huang naturally had the final say on the relevant training. He had no reason and didn't want to interfere. The reason he had interjected earlier was simply because he felt it was unnecessary to make things so absolute.

In his opinion, even if the test questions weren't changed, Lu Jing was destined to lose tomorrow's Little Competition. It was just a question of how much he would lose. But after he saw the new test questions, he felt that tomorrow's Little Competition might become a complete humiliation for that student named Lu Jing.

But the problem was that Lu Jing hadn't done anything wrong. He simply didn't have the talent for cultivating mystic force. Was it really necessary to go to this extent?

Seeming to see what Professor Zheng was thinking, Supervisor Huang then added.

"Don't underestimate him too much. Don't forget how long he stayed in the ancient desert tomb. Even now, we still don't know how he did it? And the Otherworld that existed for thousands of years also disappeared because of him…"

"And some time ago, in order to help him find a way to cultivate mystic force, I also asked Wu Han to send him to Mirror Lake Valley to see those paper figures. This is also an important reason why I temporarily changed the test questions, because I always feel a little uneasy in my heart."

Professor Zheng didn't think much of it, and secretly felt that Supervisor Huang was being too cautious.

But he didn't intend to argue with him, and only nodded, "In any case, this time it should be foolproof."

"Let's hope so."

That night, I don't know how many people lost sleep over the Little Competition early the next morning.

But this certainly didn't include Lu Jing. Anyway, he had already packed up what he needed for tomorrow by Xu time, and then went to bed early.

And at Mao time one quarter the next day, he got up from bed.

After washing and eating, he practiced the first four stances of Wind and Cloud Change twice in the courtyard, loosening up his muscles and bones. Then he carried a suitcase on his back and strolled towards the back mountain.

Because Lu Jing didn't want to attract attention, he deliberately chose an earlier time, wanting to arrive ahead of time and then find a corner that was not easily noticed to hide.

As a result, he didn't expect that when he arrived at the foot of the mountain, even though there was still half an hour before the Little Competition started, there were already thirty or forty people gathered there.

And when Lu Jing appeared, those people's eyes naturally converged on him, or more precisely, on the suitcase behind him.

There was no way around it, mainly because that suitcase was too conspicuous. It was almost half a person tall, making Lu Jing look like a scholar who had traveled a long way to the capital to take the exam.

But the problem was that he was taking the mystic force exam this time. Apart from some students majoring in formations who had several satchels hanging around their waists, filled with materials for casting spells, most of the rest were lightly armed.

They only needed to put what they needed in their sleeves, or simply carry it in their arms. Unlike Lu Jing, it felt like he had brought all his belongings with him.

However, Lu Jing himself didn't feel anything was wrong, because he also knew that the Little Competition mainly tested things related to mystic force. He had even inquired about the exam content of previous Foundation Establishment Little Competitions from Wu Han and Ye Gongmei.

Naturally, he also knew that martial arts couldn't solve all problems. Fortunately, he didn't only have martial arts. Lu Jing had already made a lot of preparations before the Little Competition, and he was determined to get that Heavenly One Water.

Supervisor Huang and a group of instructors from the academy arrived on time at Chen time. Afterwards, they didn't say any nonsense, but just asked the students participating in the Little Competition to tie the red silk ribbon around their arms.

Then he swept his gaze over the crowd, his eyes paused slightly on Lu Jing, and he was obviously shocked by the large suitcase behind someone, but he didn't say anything to Lu Jing alone, but just continued.

"There are a total of seven questions. You can only do the next one after you finish one. After you finish all of them, come back here and give me the silk ribbon. Whoever takes the shortest time will have the best score. The top ten can choose a prize in order. Do you all understand?"