The people in the tavern looked at Sheng Yuan Yao in her official uniform, their expressions somewhat twitching. While Da Qian doesn’t forbid gambling, no public officials openly participate in it, and people generally care about image and reputation.

However, from the perspective of those inside the yamen, it was quite normal. Everyone had seen this female yamen official; wherever there was gossip, she was there, truly down-to-earth. They heard that she had been the head of the Town Demon Division in a local area for two or three months. How could she be a head like that? Did she solve cases by listening to gossip? They also heard she had achieved great merit… Unimaginable.

“Main Matter Sheng, I heard that Lu Xing Zhou saved you in Qing Yao Garden and killed Ye Wu Feng to avenge you, right?” a familiar person asked with a smile.

The words “Qing Yao Garden” now held a magical power for Sheng Yuan Yao. Hearing them, her heart stirred, and she was lost in thought for a while before saying “um.”

In the eyes of others, it was a bit of a rogue demeanor, not paying attention to people, so someone laughed: “When Lu Xing Zhou ascended the New Talent List, he was only a seventh-grade upper-level Dan Master, right? Now a few months have passed, counting some progress, at most sixth-grade?”

“So what?” Sheng Yuan Yao tapped the table. “Among young people, the standard of Dan Masters is generally much lower than cultivation. Cultivation relies on talent and can advance quickly, but Dan Master requires a huge amount of knowledge and experience. It must rely on the accumulation of time, which talent cannot solve.”

This was the truth. If judged by cultivation requirements, a seventh-grade upper-level cultivator would simply not be qualified to enter the New Talent List. But based on Dan Master requirements, they could, and their ranking wasn’t low.

“But Main Matter Sheng…” people laughed, “You don’t know that Xuan Qing Daoist, He Gui Daoist, and the others are already fifth-grade Dan Masters? I heard that if they’re lucky, they can even refine fourth-grade pills. If they have a stroke of luck in this assessment and refine a fourth-grade pill… Tsk, the gap between a sixth-grade Dan Master like Lu Xing Zhou is really too big. You mustn’t give him money flatly because of favor.”

“Grandma’s money is none of your business how I use it, even if I throw it into the water, I’m willing.” Sheng Yuan Yao said this, though inwardly, she felt a little pang. Although this world has spirit stone currency and the value of gold and silver is not as high, taking out five hundred taels of gold still made her a wealthy woman. This had emptied all her savings of so many years.

Regardless, even if she went bankrupt, she had to give Lu Xing Zhou face and support, right?

Sheng Yuan Yao felt a bit of worry and subconsciously walked towards Lu Xing Zhou’s secret room. She wondered how much effect Lu Xing Zhou’s temporary cramming had these days. She hoped he wasn’t being hooked and flirted with by that demoness again, neglecting his training.

Just as she reached the secret room door, she saw Lu Xing Zhou being pushed out in a wheelchair by Pei Chu Yun, chatting and laughing.

Sheng Yuan Yao immediately exploded. She grabbed Lu Xing Zhou’s collar. “You owe me five hundred taels!”

Lu Xing Zhou was very amused. “What are you doing?”

“What time is it, and you still have the mood to play lovey-dovey with a vixen!” Sheng Yuan Yao said angrily. “These past few days, you haven’t been secretly rolling around inside with her, have you?”

“No, I haven’t seen Chu Yun much these days either.”

Sheng Yuan Yao’s mood slightly improved. She let go of him and said, “Then what are you doing?”

“A Nuo and I aren’t familiar with the road. Chu Yun came to take me to the examination hall.”

“Her? What the hell is she familiar with?” Sheng Yuan Yao pushed Pei Chu Yun to the side. “Miss Pei came to the capital with you. This old lady has lived here for twenty years. Does she need her to lead the way? Go, go, go.”

Pei Chu Yun, however, didn’t argue with her. She stood to the side with a smile. “Does Miss Sheng really want to push him in public? If others see, I’m afraid his reputation will be damaged.”

Sheng Yuan Yao said, “Miss Pei has been like a pure lotus in the capital these days. Aren’t you afraid of being seen pushing him?”

“After all, I was the young master’s maid,” Pei Chu Yun smiled happily. “At least before going out, it’s quite normal for me to push him… So, is Miss Sheng also a maid?”

Sheng Yuan Yao suddenly dropped her hand.

A Nuo straightened her chest and belly and took the position of pushing the wheelchair.

True victory requires no snatching.

A group of people leisurely walked out the door, straight to the examination hall. Sheng Yuan Yao casually asked, “How long do you have to sit in this wheelchair? Don’t you feel tired of pretending?”

Lu Xing Zhou said, “I pretended to be lame before, not just because I wanted to scheme against people. The most important point is that if I had already cured my leg before going to the capital, wouldn’t that mean I could also cure Shen Tang’s leg?”

Sheng Yuan Yao was startled for a moment, her scalp numb. “I didn’t consider this point.”

Lu Xing Zhou nodded. “Yes, for you, it’s quite normal.”

Sheng Yuan Yao: “?”

“So the time I can publicly stand up in front of people must be after finding a high-grade Dan Master in the capital to help treat it, or after studying deeply at the Dan Academy. With this reason, I can stand up publicly.”

A Nuo lowered her head, her victory short-lived.

The assessment was divided into three days. The first day was the written exam, which was a question-answering format testing medical theory, pharmacology, and other theoretical knowledge, as well as some regulations on practicing medicine. Lu Xing Zhou had been urgently cramming the latter these days. Poor Yan Luo Hall judge, when did he manage Da Qian’s regulations…

His cultivation was still far from the divine soul level, at most his divine mind was clearer and his memory was better, far from the point where one sweep of divine sense could imprint everything in his mind. These days had truly tired Lu Xing Zhou out badly, truly making him dream back to the desperate memorization of the college entrance exam year… Fortunately, there weren’t many related laws, and he managed to get through them.

The written exam’s examination hall was in the Imperial Academy, and there was actually an army maintaining order outside, intercepting idlers, which was extremely serious.

Regardless of whether you were a noble daughter of the Pei family or a second generation of the Town Demon Division, the little demoness and the melon girl were all blocked outside and not allowed to enter. However, child servants were allowed. Child servants were unrelated to the written exam, but for the later pill refining, it was permitted for Dan Masters to have child servants assist with some miscellaneous tasks like picking herbs and fanning the fire.

A Nuo proudly pushed the wheelchair into the field under the jealous eyes of the two sisters.

Entering the field relied on a local recommendation letter, and there was no need for body searches. There were self-activating magic treasures that scanned for cheat sheets, which was simpler and clearer than body searches. Each person was assigned an independent room for the exam to avoid mutual interference, and there were also magic treasures monitoring inside the rooms.

This solemn atmosphere made Lu Xing Zhou feel a lot more serious in his heart, and at the same time, very satisfied. The more strict and solemn, the more it indicated the degree of attention from the court and the country, meaning the gold content. This was probably much higher in gold content than the little demoness’s backdoor enrollment. No matter where he went, he would be highly regarded.

Just as he was organizing his pen and ink, the room door was pushed open, and a group of examiners entered together to distribute the test papers.

Lu Xing Zhou saw Meng Li at a glance.

Meng Li acted as if he didn’t recognize him, his face tense as he placed a pile of papers in front of him. He said very officially, “Many questions this year were personally set by His Majesty. Do your best.”

The paper was still wax-sealed. With reverence for the previous Meng Li family’s paper, Lu Xing Zhou carefully opened it and looked, almost laughing on the spot. Meng Li had said at that time that the assessment difficulty was not as high as that paper, and the opportunity was great… You meant “not that high” by dropping the difficulty from third-grade knowledge to fifth-grade! Fourth-grade level questions were the main questions!

Was this a level of assessment?

However… Some questions here were a bit interesting…

Lu Xing Zhou’s fingers brushed over: “Demon force penetrates blood, causing continuous decay. Analyze solution methods”; “Blood undergoes change, interfering with the heart and lungs. Analyze”; “Discuss the principle of blood generation”; “Analyze the feasibility of a whole-body blood exchange and elaborate on the reasons.”

These questions were scattered in different positions. At first glance, there seemed to be nothing special about them, just medical theory assessment items. But if you picked them out and looked at them together, you would find that these questions had associations and causality. Very few people would pose questions like this, especially scattered.

Combining the information that the emperor had always been hiding an unhealed injury, one could roughly guess what kind of injury the emperor had.

Demon force penetrates blood cells, continuously interfering, and cannot be eradicated… From these questions, it seemed that doctors had already tried to perform a whole-body blood exchange on the emperor.

But no one dared to take this risk, and the emperor himself didn’t dare either.

Asking students these kinds of questions would definitely not yield a solution, but young people’s thinking is more flexible, not limited by established methods, and outstanding ones have their own special inheritances. Perhaps they could propose some beneficial references.

This was desperately seeking medical advice, even from young students… It was also quite tragic.

Lu Xing Zhou pondered for a moment, first answering these questions, then turning to the other questions.

In the chief examiner’s room, Gu Zhan Ting slowly entered. “How is the situation?”

Everyone quickly stood up and saluted. “Currently, everything is normal. The candidates have already started answering.”

Gu Zhan Ting’s gaze fell on the “big screen” on the wall, which was divided into countless blocks, each displaying the situation in a different examination hall.

Gu Zhan Ting immediately recognized Lu Xing Zhou from the group of candidates. He clicked his tongue twice. “How come everyone else has started writing, and he’s still looking at the paper?”

Then an examiner said, “Lu Xing Zhou may be sharp in battle and experienced in handling affairs, but in terms of refining pills and medicine, he may not have a big advantage. This person has so many side issues. If we hadn’t seen him enter, we would have even forgotten that he is a student participating in this year’s assessment.”

Gu Zhan Ting ignored him, staring at the “screen” for a while, just seeing Lu Xing Zhou suddenly start moving his pen.

Everyone quieted down and looked carefully, only to discover that Lu Xing Zhou was picking questions from different positions to answer.

Gu Zhan Ting looked at two or three questions, his expression slightly changing.

This person was actually picking the questions he had set to answer! Even Meng Li didn’t know the questions he had set!

Gu Zhan Ting took a deep breath. “Can this surveillance be more detailed? I want to see the specific content of Lu Xing Zhou’s answers.”

Meng Li bowed and said, “This cannot be done. Because if an examiner looks at someone’s answer like this, they will know whose paper it is later when grading, which will lead to cheating. Therefore, the preset of the surveillance magic treasure is that it cannot see the answer details clearly.”

Gu Zhan Ting nodded, knowing this was for fairness and not forcing it. However, his gaze remained fixed on Lu Xing Zhou’s room, not moving at all.

The question volume was very large, several types of papers, designed for people to take the exam for a whole day.

Lu Xing Zhou held his pen and wrote quickly, finishing in just over an hour. He threw the pen. “A Nuo, did you bring food?”

The emperor and the examiners watched dumbfounded as the little girl took out a large pack of cakes. While other candidates were still scratching their ears and cheeks writing diligently, the master and disciple ate happily, one piece after another.

“Master, can we leave early? How can this little thing take an exam for a whole day?”

“Probably not… You’re not allowed to go home during these three days; you sleep here directly. Tomorrow, patients will be brought in directly to assess on-site treatment ability.”

“Then what should we do? It’s so boring…”

“What should we do? Practice gong.”

“Oh…” A Nuo was very dissatisfied. “Does this little thing really need three days? I can answer all the questions here. Are other Dan Masters all so useless?”

After they finished eating the cakes, they casually threw the oil paper away. The big and small figures sat cross-legged with their eyes closed, directly entering meditation.

A group of examiners were dumbfounded. Were you here for an outing?

“Can she answer the questions here?” Gu Zhan Ting waved his hand. “Go, give her a set of spare questions and have her answer them for me to see!”

Please visit: m.llskw.org