Chapter 42: THE EXAMINATION(16)

Zhou Yuan laughed; he understood what Gu Jun meant. "We have no intention of causing trouble. We only want to pass the examination."

Li Yan considered them for a moment before agreeing; having more people around could be useful if the mountain presented a situation that required several people to deal with it.

"We can travel together for now."

Zhou Yuan’s expression brightened; that was all he had wanted.

"Thank you, Brother Li."

The group joined them, and their pace remained steady as they continued toward the higher sections of the mountain. Li Yan did not mind having more people around him; additional pairs of eyes could be useful, especially when none of them knew what the sect had prepared farther up the mountain.

Several thousand steps later, the mountain began to change. The trees became thinner, the paths...narrower, and the slope gradually became steeper as they approached the middle section.

Li Yan looked toward the summit and realized that the mountain was beginning to resemble what he had expected from the beginning.

The pressure increased again, but this time Li Yan could tell that something was different.

The pressure was no longer distributed evenly across his body; instead, it seemed to gather around his head, creating a strange sensation that made his thoughts feel heavier.

His steps slowed slightly as he tried to understand the change.

Gu Jun noticed it and looked toward him. "Something feels different."

Li Yan nodded; he felt it as well, but he did not answer immediately. He wanted to determine whether the sensation was caused by the pressure or something else.

He continued walking for several more steps before the scenery ahead suddenly distorted.

The mountain disappeared, and in its place a familiar courtyard appeared. Li Yan recognized it immediately because it was the courtyard where he had spent countless nights studying under Xiaoxiao’s guidance.

The wooden table stood exactly where he remembered it, the books were arranged in their usual places, and even the chair where Hu Biyan usually sat whenever he brought Li Yan food was still beside the table.

The scene vanished as quickly as it had appeared, leaving the mountain in front of him once again.

Li Yan’s expression became serious because he finally understood what had changed.

This was not simply pressure anymore.

The examination had begun testing their minds.

Xiaoxiao’s voice sounded inside his mind at that moment. "Do not trust what you see."

Li Yan narrowed his eyes, her warning confirming his suspicion.

He took another step, and the courtyard appeared again, but this time it remained in front of him for longer.

He saw the wooden table, the books, and the familiar surroundings, but then he noticed Hu Biyan sitting beside the table with a smile on his face.

The sight was so realistic that Li Yan almost forgot where he was.

"Yan Yan."

Li Yan’s expression changed; the familiar voice made the illusion even more convincing.

Hu Biyan stood up and looked toward him with the same smile Li Yan had seen countless times before. "Come here. You do not need to continue climbing."

Li Yan remained where he was as he studied the familiar figure, and although every detail looked exactly as he remembered, the situation itself made no sense because Hu Biyan was outside the examination grounds and had no reason to suddenly appear inside the array.

"Uncle, why are you here?"

Hu Biyan walked toward him with the same relaxed expression he always wore whenever he visited Li Yan. "I was worried about you, so I came to find you. You have already passed the first two examinations, and Elder Mo has recognized your talent. There is no need for you to risk yourself climbing this mountain."

Li Yan watched him approach, and the more he listened, the more unnatural the conversation became because the real Hu Biyan would never encourage him to abandon an examination after he had already come this far.

Also, he hadn’t told Hu Biyan about the reward yet.

"How did you enter the array?"

Hu Biyan stopped several steps away and smiled. "I found a way in."

Li Yan narrowed his eyes; the answer was too vague for someone who knew how serious the sect treated its examination grounds.

And Hu Biyan would never expect him to accept such an explanation without asking further questions.

"You are not my uncle."

The smile remained on Hu Biyan’s face as he looked at Li Yan. "Why do you say that?"

"You are telling me exactly what I want to hear."

The courtyard became strangely quiet as soon as Li Yan finished speaking, and the leaves that had been moving in the breeze suddenly stopped while the steam rising from the teapot beside the wooden table remained suspended in the air.

Li Yan’s gaze moved across the courtyard as he examined the scene more carefully; the longer he looked, the more flaws he began noticing in the illusion.

Hu Biyan’s smile slowly disappeared. "You are more difficult to deceive than I expected."

The courtyard began to distort around him, and the wooden table that Li Yan had spent countless hours studying at gradually darkened before crumbling into black dust while the books arranged across its surface dissolved into nothing.

The familiar courtyard disappeared along with them, leaving only the figure that had been pretending to be Hu Biyan.

Its face twisted before becoming completely unfamiliar, and its clothes changed from the robes Li Yan knew into a plain black robe that revealed nothing about its identity.

"What are you?"

The stranger looked at him without answering the question directly. "You do not need to know."

The darkness swallowed the remaining courtyard, and Li Yan found himself standing inside the examination hall where he had taken the written test.

Hundreds of examinees surrounded him while Elder Mo stood on the platform with his examination paper in his hand, and the elder’s expression carried none of the approval he had shown Li Yan after announcing the results.

"You cheated."

Li Yan stared at the examination paper; the three thousand points written across it were the exact score he had earned, yet the entire hall was now treating the result as proof of deception.

Elder Mo raised the paper for everyone to see. "Three thousand points from a commoner with a yellow spirit root is impossible. Your results are invalid."

The examinees around Li Yan immediately began whispering among themselves, and the accusations became louder as more people joined in.

"He must have obtained the answers beforehand."

"How could someone like him score three thousand points?"

"He has no business taking first place."