As the Illusion Realm dissipated, Wei Yuan's spirit returned to reality, only to see chaos within the Judgement Hall; some were crying, others laughing, and some were trembling on the ground, their silhouettes gradually moistening beneath them.
In the midst of the clamor, a girl's voice suddenly pierced through not far away; her voice was crisp and sweet to the ear, irresistibly pleasant: "You bastard riding a pig, I'll fight you..."
Stealing a glance, Wei Yuan saw a girl in a goose-yellow dress not far off; she looked like a doll carved from jade, flawlessly beautiful. She appeared to have just come to her senses and sprung up from her seat. But as she realized all the examinees' eyes were focused on her, she instantly became quiet, her little face showing a mix of panic and lingering fear, invoking a particular kind of heartache in anyone who saw her.
This girl, Wei Yuan certainly remembered—she was the Northern Green Team's captain who had taken one of his spears. Later on, when Wei Yuan found out she wasn't dead, he went over to finish her off with another spear.
Looking at the girl's tear-stricken face, Wei Yuan couldn't help feeling a bit of remorse. However, remorse aside, the spear that needed to be delivered had to be delivered.
The Daoist long suffered from the headache of dealing with these noisy children, quickly hustling all the examinees out of the hall.
Wei Yuan rose sluggishly to his feet, waiting for the girl in the goose-yellow dress to leave before blending into the crowd and making his way out of the hall. Although the girl hadn't recognized him, someone else had seen through his disguise.
Just as he was about to leave the great hall, Li Zhi suddenly emerged from the shadows and blocked Wei Yuan's path.
Wei Yuan's heart chilled as he waited for Li Zhi to speak. But Li Zhi remained silent, and neither gave way. The two of them stood face to face like that, as the rest of the examinees passed by on either side and left the hall. In the blink of an eye, only Li Zhi and Wei Yuan were left.
The Daoist didn't urge them on but only stood outside the door, with his back to the two confronting each other.
Li Zhi stared intently at Wei Yuan, his eyes slowly reddening. Clenching his teeth, he said, "The disgrace of today, I, Li Zhi, will never forget! If you dare, state your name!"
At this point, Wei Yuan could not back down. Besides, the two of them had already fought in the Illusion Realm, and with the strength of the Heaven and Earth Madman within him, Wei Yuan thought that taking down Li Zhi was merely a matter of one or two moves, so he answered right away, "Wei Yuan."
Li Zhi declared, "Good, Wei Yuan, I'll remember you! You've won this time, and I admit defeat gracefully—I can afford to lose! But this is only because you're a few years older, nothing more. I, Li Zhi, am only eight years old! Thirty years may pass on either bank of the river! Just you wait; one day, however I lost to you, I will win it back!"
Having said that, Li Zhi turned and rushed out of the great hall, and only when he was somewhere devoid of people did he stealthily wipe his eyes.
The martial testing was over, and the debate in the Judgement Hall was just beginning.
All the assessors were left with their heads spinning in confusion. No one had anticipated such an outcome. Had the assessors not concluded the martial test early, Wei Yuan might have continued to fish out every last one hiding in the woods and underbrush and refused to stop until he had killed them off.
Almost all the candidates predestined for the Immortal Sect and Grotto Heaven were killed by Wei Yuan before they could achieve anything, while those who managed some achievements were ordinary examinees, either vanguard or scouts, and their sparse merits were barely worth one or two points.
The current situation was such that if they conducted the evaluation strictly according to the rules, then, apart from Wei Yuan, everyone else would score zero.
The elder Cultivator was the first to speak, "How we should score them, we need to have a good discussion."
The old Confucian Scholar immediately said, "I think the first should be Li Zhi! As the commander of the Yellow Team, he led his troops to exterminate the Green Team, and in the end, the Central Army's elites were still intact. At such a young age, he has shown his command talents; if not him, then who else deserves first place?"
The young Cultivator sneered, "He was the one who exterminated the Green Team? Are you blind, sir?"
The old Confucian Scholar unperturbedly replied, "The Green Team was extinguished by Wei Yuan, and since Wei Yuan is a member of the Yellow Team and Li Zhi the commander, any merit achieved by a team member is his merit. This has always been the case. Of course, Wei Yuan's contributions are considerable, but they should be considered for first place as well."
The young Cultivator laughed bitterly in anger, "Then what about the Yellow Team's demerits? Should those not also be put on Li Zhi's shoulders?"
The old Confucian Scholar as a matter of course responded, "Merits are merits, and faults are faults; they are not to be confused."
The young Cultivator trembled with rage, but in a battle of words, he truly couldn't win against Liu Sigu. The old Confucian Scholar had spent half his life arguing with others; the young Cultivator, brash and concerned about face, was no match in a quarrel with an elder.
Daoist Fu Feng interjected, "The rules only differentiate between the Green and Yellow Teams, there was no notion of a commander. Even if the Yellow Team had a commander, why should it be Li Zhi and not someone else, just because he is Duke Hui En's son?"
Unexpectedly, the old Confucian Scholar declared confidently, "Exactly because he is the son of Duke Hui En! And because Cui Han Wang Quan has stood by him!"
This statement, full of self-righteous confidence, immediately shut Daoist Fu Feng down.
Everyone knew that noble families had deep foundations, with the saying of the seven surnames and thirteen noble families, the foremost few of which are not below the Immortal Sects. In such a universal martial examination, the desire to lead an army is truly enough based solely on one's birth, and it can only be based on birth. Bao Yun leading the Green Team and Li Zhi leading the Yellow Team—it was like this. The distribution of teams is said to be absolutely fair, but there are secrets to it; regardless of the method used, Bao Yun and Li Zhi would never be on the same team.
Daoist Fu Feng of course understood this, but the fact that the old Confucian Scholar could so openly and unabashedly articulate it, immediately made Daoist Fu Feng's Dao Foundation stir restlessly, his face dark as the bottom of a pot.
The old Confucian Scholar continued, "Someone must tidy up this mess. Regardless of others, under my pen, it is Li Zhi for thirty points."
At this moment, the middle-aged Confucian Scholar coughed, breaking the silence, and said, "As we all saw during the martial test, the Green Team was destroyed first; Li Zhi managed his troops well, unfazed in the face of danger, and as the Yellow Team's leader, he should rightly be awarded thirty points."
The young Cultivator sneered, "Li Zhi was defeated in two battles and you call that managing troops well? What does the Green Team's collapse have to do with him? If it weren't for Wei Yuan, heh, Miss Bao would've wiped him out several times over! If Li Zhi is to get thirty, should my young miss not get fifty?"
The middle-aged Confucian Scholar said, "Wei Yuan is from the Yellow Team, isn't he?"
The young Cultivator retorted sarcastically, "Didn't they also wipe out the Yellow Team?"
This question wasn't easy to answer. The middle-aged Confucian Scholar exchanged a glance with the older one and said, "Injuring one's own team members by accident should indeed merit a reduced rating."
His words were slippery, but the young Cultivator refused to let it go, pressing on, "So how much do you plan to reduce it?"
Both Confucian Scholars cursed inwardly, but with Zhang Sheng watching right beside them, they couldn't answer carelessly. The middle-aged Confucian Scholar didn't dwell on the question, instead saying, "Miss Bao's Green Team was annihilated, and she failed to establish any merit herself. According to the regulations, she should get zero points!"
"Bullshit!" the young Cultivator exploded in rage.
In an instant, the evaluators were arguing heatedly among themselves again, leaving Zhang Sheng in the cold. But everyone knew that arguing was pointless, so when opinions didn't align, they simply went on to score individually.
Zhang Sheng didn't touch the roster in front of him, just quietly watched everyone.
Old Confucian Scholar Liu Sigu was the first to pick up his pen and directly wrote down thirty for Li Zhi, then the second name he wrote down was Wei Yuan. After finishing the name, he pondered for a long time, his pen weighing heavily as if a thousand catties, first writing a two, pausing in the air for a moment, before finally adding an eighteen.
Seeing this, the young Cultivator sneered inside, thinking to himself that this old man was a gutless wonder after all. Faced with the Immortal Sword, his spine wasn't as stiff as it seemed.
The young Cultivator also picked up his pen, first giving Bao Yun thirty points, then it was Li Zhi's turn. He unceremoniously gave him fifteen points.
Just as he finished scoring Li Zhi, he suddenly saw the old Confucian Scholar look up at him, and then the older man wrote down: Bao Yun, one.
The middle-aged Confucian Scholar seemed to have awakened from a dream, sweeping away his earlier hesitation, and wrote down the same: Bao Yun, one.
The young Cultivator was dumbfounded.
He looked around; the Monk gave Wei Yuan thirty points, but only three points each for Bao Yun and Li Zhi, and was now busy scoring others, mostly ones and twos. The older Cultivator had an indifferent demeanor, bestowing both Bao Yun and Li Zhi with twenty-five points.
Daoist Fu Feng scored Wei Yuan thirty, Bao Yun ten, Li Zhi five. Apart from these, there were a few who scored over twenty points; obviously, these were the families he needed to take care of.
Actually, the absolute scores weren't important; the relative differences were what truly mattered. It was then that the young Cultivator realized his naivety; he should have waited until the end to give Li Zhi zero points. But once written, scores could not be changed.
By this point in the evaluation, except for the Monk, everyone's scores had mostly become irrelevant to their performance in the martial test, and were unabashedly confrontational.
Zhang Sheng quietly observed everyone's performances.
Just then, a water-colored radiance descended from the sky, landing directly on the central stone stele. The water-moonlight, as fine as a strand of hair, brought immense pressure on everyone, like facing a tremendous abyss or the Great Sun!
The minds of the evaluators froze as they saw all the names on the stele disappear and then reappear with corresponding scores. At the top of the list, shockingly, was Wei Yuan with twenty-five points; then Bao Yun with three, Li Zhi with two, and the others with a few one-pointers, the vast majority with zero.
A lofty and desolate voice echoed throughout the hall, thunderous and mighty, coming from on high: "This is justice!"
Then the scores on the stele melted away like snow, with new scores appearing—everyone was given an additional twenty points. In the end, Wei Yuan had forty-five, Bao Yun twenty-three, Li Zhi twenty-two, and the rest were arranged in order.
"This is to save face for your families."
The evaluators were as silent as cicadas in winter, daring not to make a sound. When a True Monarch spoke, who were they to interject?
Each True Monarch was a pillar of heaven, capable of sustaining a medium-sized family by themselves. Even for noble families like the Bao Family or Cui Family with a thousand years of heritage, they had to treat a True Monarch with great respect. Moreover, that fine thread of moonlight was well-known even among True Monarchs, for there was only one who held the titles of Hall Master of both Sky Blue Palace and Water Moon Palace within Taichu Palace.
Then that voice became stern, reprimanding, "Taichu Palace's evaluator Zhang Sheng has acted presumptuously and humiliated his peers. Although there were reasons for his actions, he must be severely punished!"
After a pause, the voice continued, "...Punish Zhang Sheng by docking his pay for three years, to serve as a warning to others!"
The evaluators accepted the verdict wholeheartedly, showing no sign of disagreement.
A figure enshrouded in water-colored moonlight from above said, "Many of us here are old friends. If anyone objects, we can discuss it further. If there are no objections, then it is decided."
Around him were several other towering figures, each with an extraordinary presence. Two nodded slightly, while another two snorted and remained noncommittal. Those two were dressed like Confucian Scholars, but one of them had a fan neatly broken in half, and the other, dressed like a Cultivator, was adorned in dazzling light from famous magic treasures, though his resplendent magic robe was missing a sleeve, giving him an odd appearance.
With three agreeing and two abstaining, the matter was settled, and the unified examination concluded.