The three white-clad divine envoys had still said nothing.

The small round-faced one even turned her bright eyes toward Yue Yang’s direction, picking him out of the crowd with effortless ease.

That single glance left Yue Yang — who’d been hoping to slip past as an idle bystander — feeling distinctly dizzy. These three might look like dainty, delicate white-clad maidens on the surface, but they were divine envoys all the same, and clearly not so easily fooled. Still, an ancient relic already in his pocket was like food already in his belly — how could he be expected to cough it back up? Better to keep playing dumb; there was no chance they’d come up and search him personally.

The transmigrator very calmly tilted his face skyward at the legendary forty-five-degree angle of pure innocence, stopping just short of holding up a sign that read I did not find any ancient relic at the bottom of the sea.

Jinji’s friends waited a good while, and seeing no response, hurried to stoke the fire. Perhaps the envoys wished to bestow the reward privately, away from prying eyes, to keep things low-key.

But as a noble, what one contended for was honor.

What he wanted was a reward delivered in public. What he wanted was the admiring gaze of the crowd. What he wanted was that twist of envy and resentment in everyone’s hearts — how could he possibly handle this quietly? He had to claim this great commission reward in front of all the assembled students. A commission that Ji Wuri, Zhonghua, Captain Cook, and indeed countless elite students and peerless geniuses throughout history had never managed to complete — if Jinji claimed it today, his renown would surely skyrocket. Catching up to, or even surpassing, that so-called nearest-to-the-divine Ji Wuri wasn’t out of the question!

“Congratulations, Young Master Jinji, felicitations, Young Master Jinji — we’re truly waiting on tenterhooks right now, ha ha, we can’t wait to learn what reward the three honored envoys will give you! What could it possibly be? A Sacred-tier artifact? A platinum-tier construct?” Jinji’s friends were already losing themselves in eager fantasy.

“A trifling task, completed by sheer luck — how could I dare accept a reward!” Though Jinji’s words were humble, his face was awash with the smugness of the first man in history.

By now, not only Jinji’s friends but also the students harboring envy and resentment all wanted to know what reward the completed task would bring.

Jinji’s faction frantically fantasized about an even greater reward — ideally a Sacred-tier construct, though they’d grudgingly accept a hundred or so platinum-tier constructs. The students burning with envy, meanwhile, were silently cursing in two directions. First, they cursed for the reward to be utterly negligible — ideally just a verbal commendation. Though they knew this was impossible, they still hoped Jinji would walk away with nothing of substance; he was already insufferable with just the Strong Magnetic Battle Construct in hand, and if he got a Sacred-tier artifact or a platinum-tier construct on top of that, there was no telling how unbearable he’d become. Second, they cursed this dumb-luck-treading wretch to drop dead at the earliest opportunity — preferably overcome with joy, dancing himself into a public frenzy and dying of it, or getting blackout drunk at his celebration, missing a step on the stairs, tumbling down, and landing face-first in the dirt, dead.

In short, both sides kept up an endless stream of fantasizing and cursing, while Jinji, caught in the middle, suppressed his delight and labored to maintain a humble facade. But the pride leaking from his eyes — I genuinely don’t want a reward, but if you really must reward me lavishly, well, there’s nothing I can do about it — was impossible to conceal.

Beyond these two camps, there were also neutral onlookers like Mingzhu — third-party observers watching for no other reason than the spectacle. To see how splendidly Jinji’s expression would shift in the moments ahead, and how the whole affair would resolve.

Of course, people like Mingzhu — those who already knew the truth yet refused to reveal it, content merely to watch Jinji make a fool of himself — were few. Even Zhonghua, secretly observing from a distance, wasn’t among them. The Silver-Eyed Great Sage, however, who’d appeared on another side with Ren Tiange, Hauge, and the others, wore a faint, knowing smile at the corner of his mouth, as though he’d already guessed a fair portion of the truth.

And there was Qingmo, hidden in a patch of darkness, who glanced at Yue Yang — watching the spectacle from the crowd while gnawing on a chicken leg — and then vanished.

So how would things unfold next?

The faintly black-hearted Mingzhu speculated with no small measure of malice. The commission, needless to say, Jinji certainly hadn’t completed. Unless Yue Yang was willing to produce the genuine ancient relic, no one could complete a task that not a single soul had managed since ancient times.

Who would ever guess that the true ancient relic required gathering the Endless Energy Stones from all four transport gates, assembling them to teleport into a new space, and then — under the guard of a hundred tidal giant constructs — breaking through to the seabed to retrieve it? Even if someone reasoned their way to the same target Yue Yang had, even if they collected and removed the transport stones and teleported to the central island guarded by the tidal giants, they still couldn’t obtain the relic. Because no one but Yue Yang — who could “grow” puppet constructs anytime, anywhere — could break through the tidal puppet constructs’ guard, slip easily into the sea, and search the seabed at will.

As it happened, the spectacle-loving Mingzhu had reasoned it out exactly right. Apart from Yue Yang with his Heaven’s Eye, no second person in all of history would ever have suspected that the Divine Stones used for transport were the prerequisite for obtaining the ancient relic.

That kind of inconceivable suspicion had never once occurred to any of the elite students, Ji Wuri included.

From ancient times to the present, there had no doubt been plenty who suspected something was off about the commission. But none could pinpoint the true target; with so many half-true, half-false clues, even the cleverest minds would lose their way. To truly break through the illusion required a pair of truth-piercing eyes like Yue Yang’s — along with the inherited knowledge, the ancient-rune refinement, and all the other conditions working in concert. Not one could be missing. An ordinary student simply could not meet such conditions, any more than a common person who’d never once touched a puppet construct could create an earth divine soldier.

Students rushing over at the news swelled the crowd until it was packed solid, not a gap to be found.

The three white-clad maidens, after exchanging glances, finally spoke.

Jinji and his group, hearts wild with joy, pressed down their excitement and racing pulses and pricked up their ears, determined to catch every word of the envoys’ praise without missing a syllable. In a historic moment like this, missing even a single word would be a lifelong regret!

“Regarding the commission to find the ancient relic — we did not originally wish for too many people to take part. This is, after all, a difficult task not everyone can complete, and involving everyone might have severely disrupted your lives and studies. And so we sisters have only ever sought out students whose studies and lives wouldn’t be easily affected, entrusting them with the task of entering to search.” The gentlest, most elegant maiden in the middle stroked the silver grimoire with her fingers as she explained why this was no ordinary task to be accepted by just anyone.

“Just so, just so — the three honored envoys’ consideration is most apt. Rather than letting such people waste their time, it’s far better to act selectively, as now, and succeed in a single stroke.” Hearing that the search demanded none but the elite, Jinji grew all the more smug.

“…”

The assembled students seethed inwardly. None of them found it hard to understand that the three envoys had only sought out elite students for the task. If one wasn’t outstanding enough to be chosen, that was simply how it went.

But what exactly was Jinji preening about here? Word had it his Strong Magnetic Battle Construct was someone else’s work, that he’d merely stolen the good name of the master who’d built it — that he’d simply draped himself in a fraudulent shell of “excellence.” Did he genuinely take himself for a master craftsman now? Genuinely take himself for an elite student? They hadn’t exposed him only because they couldn’t be bothered, too uninterested to file a report. But did he really think himself such a somebody that he could swagger like this?

Were the three envoys not standing right there, and had Jinji not already found the relic and stood on the verge of completing the task — making it impossible to obstruct the envoys’ bestowal of the reward — the students would have drowned the man alive in their spittle.

If Ji Wuri, Zhonghua, or one of those genuine prodigies called themselves elite, fine. But Jinji — how many times had he taken part in the Assessment? When had he ever earned a single commendation? Without the Strong Magnetic Battle Construct in hand, the wretch was worthless scrap, not even worth the materials to remelt and recast — and yet here he was, daring to puff himself up and put on airs?

Nearly every student glared at Jinji with fury. This was no longer merely envy over the relic task. Jinji declaring himself elite wasn’t a great problem in itself, but treating everyone else as fools — that was something no one could stomach.

“Regarding the task of finding the ancient relic, we sisters offer our apologies here to all you students.” The middle maiden holding the silver grimoire, together with the two maidens to her left and right, gave a slight bow. The surrounding students, deeply moved, hurried to return the courtesy, repeatedly insisting they dared not accept it, and the faint thread of dissatisfaction buried deep in their hearts vanished in an instant like smoke. That the relic task wasn’t one an ordinary student could accept was no great matter — the elite were a minority, after all. And this dumb-luck wretch Jinji had cornered the three envoys and badgered them into granting him the task; it had hardly been their sincere commission to begin with!

“The ancient relic — completing the process is extremely dangerous, demanding both intellect and capability, neither of which can be lacking.” The tallest, valiant maiden nodded with a solemn face. “This is precisely why, from ancient times to now, no one has ever managed to complete it smoothly. To ensure their safety, we tried to find only students capable of protecting themselves. Which is to say, it isn’t that we rank students as higher or lower in our hearts — it is purely a matter of safety. Every student starts on equal footing; but because abilities and directions of growth differ, the choices we make differ as well.”

“So that’s how it is!” The students suddenly understood.

“But why, then, did Junior City Lord Jinji of Gold Leaf City complete it so effortlessly? There was no danger to his life at all!” Mingzhu’s smile bloomed like a flower, and Yue Yang suddenly felt that this seemingly well-behaved Mingzhu was, in truth, terribly wicked at heart.

“Hm?” The students caught on at once, hearts leaping with sudden glee as they looked toward the three envoys. Could it be — was there still a twist coming?

“What exactly do you mean by that?” Jinji exploded in fury. You’re trying to cast doubt on me?

“I don’t think it could be that simple either. Who can’t just dig up a rock in the woods?” Yue Yang hadn’t intended to speak, but Mingzhu stamped hard on his foot, forcing him to step forward and weigh in.

“What a joke! Envy is a man’s most fatal weakness, and you’re all envious of my success! The ancient relic is in my hands, and no amount of denial from you will change that!” Jinji was seized by an extraordinary rage. Unearthing the relic at the center of the sea of trees wasn’t difficult — but whose fault was it that everyone else overcomplicated the matter, refusing to accept the simplest thing as the truth, insisting on racking their brains down crooked paths? Now that he’d dug the relic out, they decided it was easy. Could they possibly be more shameless? Achieving what no one in all of history had ever done before was a pioneering feat, a record, a success — the fullest expression of his own intellect and ability!

Jinji and his friends together hoisted up the glowing stone statue.

At this moment, Yangping of Flame Sun City and his dark-faced companion fixed their stares on Yue Yang, their vicious eyes like knives — knives of unsurpassed sharpness. Fortunately these were not real knives, or Yue Yang and Mingzhu would have been finished long ago, even with ten lives apiece.

Yue Yang ignored the murderous glares entirely, gnawing on his chicken leg and shaking his head. “Whether or not it’s a genuine ancient relic, that’s not for you to decide.”

His implication was that only the three envoys’ word counted.

It’s not for you to decide.

The line was offhand, lightly delivered. But it dealt a tremendous blow to the hearts of Jinji’s camp. Jinji and the others glared at Yue Yang with eyes that all but breathed fire — if the three envoys confirmed the relic, they’d likely force Yue Yang to eat the strange stone-carved statue raw.

In the end, all eyes turned to the three white-clad maidens. Jinji’s word didn’t count, the crowd’s word didn’t count — only theirs did. Now everyone waited for them to unveil the answer: was this strange stone statue an ancient relic, or wasn’t it?

“There’s a reason we gave each student who entered the search three hints.” The small round-faced maiden — the one Yue Yang most wanted to tease — smiled faintly. “If you all consider the three hints, you can reflect on the matter. As we said: first, the ancient relic is not a single item; second, gathered together, they are the key to opening an ancient mechanism; third, there is a mysterious power that can give a person directional guidance…”

Before she’d even finished, the watching students had already burst into cheers. Some shouted at Jinji to vent their resentment: “Fool — the relic isn’t a single item, isn’t a single item, isn’t a single item!”

The shouting swelled into a rhythmic chant, growing louder and louder, surging at Jinji and his group wave after wave as though to drown them entirely.

Jinji’s face turned the color of liver, but he still refused to concede. “What do any of you know? I went into the Heavenly Pride Academy last night and saw for myself — there’s an identical ancient relic inside! It’s true it isn’t the only one; there’s another in the Academy. I’m not the one who’s wrong. The ones who got it wrong are all of you!”

This rebuttal brought everyone to silence. Granted, Jinji had broken the rules by entering the Academy to investigate, but going by what he said, the point that the relic wasn’t a single item hadn’t actually been mistaken.

“Within this ancient relic, a mysterious power is stored. Merge it with the one in the Heavenly Pride Academy, and it will surely open the ancient mechanism the honored envoys spoke of, revealing the correct directional guidance! You fools — what good does all your shouting do? Do you think shouting can change the actual facts? Do you think shouting can change the fate of your own feeble intellects? A pack of big-mouthed toads!” Jinji jeered smugly. Since they’d already fallen out, he saw no further reason for courtesy and struck back directly.

“Ah…” The students, unable to bear the verbal assault, looked toward Mingzhu with a touch of pleading.

The man beside Mingzhu they didn’t recognize. But Mingzhu — who among them didn’t know who he was? Now it seemed only Mingzhu could step forth and grind this swaggering Young Master Jinji underfoot.

Meeting the expectant gazes of the surrounding students, Mingzhu lifted his small face and gave Yue Yang a smug little snort.

Yue Yang hurried to flatter him, dragging out a chair before the assembled crowd. “Young Lord Mingzhu is a figure on the order of a savior — what need is there for you to act yourself? A piece of garbage like Jinji here, I — your shoulder-side little flatterer-in-training — can flatten with one hand. Please, have a seat. Just watch me take Jinji down. I guarantee I won’t waste your time.”

Mingzhu was thoroughly delighted. He tried to suppress his laughter and look stern, but it was utterly impossible. Declining the half-gnawed chicken leg Yue Yang offered up, he sat down with grand authority, crossed his legs, and waved a hand with affected nonchalance. “I’ll give you a chance. Perform well. If you don’t, then don’t bother coming back!”

By now Jinji was so furious his navel had nearly twisted askew. What a monstrous humiliation! Never in his life had he been treated with such contempt!

Where was the justice in this? Had Mingzhu wished to quarrel with him directly, fine — the man was a genius of some standing, after all. But this fellow — what was he? A mere little flunky, daring to say such things? It was practically begging to die!

“Hold it. You claim this ancient relic is fake — what proof do you have?” Yangping, however, was secretly delighted now. This was the perfect moment to grind the kid into the dirt.

“No proof at all,” Yue Yang said, spreading his hands with debonair ease. “Much like whether you’re actually your father’s biological son — I’ve no proof of that either!”

“Ha ha ha…” The crowd roared with laughter.

“Kindly refrain from casually insulting another man’s relatives — unless this is what you call noble breeding.” Yangping trembled all over with rage, but he couldn’t afford to lose his temper and lash out, at least not before he’d ground the kid before him into the dirt. Yangping drew a deep breath and sneered coldly. “You claim this ancient relic is fake — on what grounds? Have you ever even seen a real one?”

“Never seen a real one,” Yue Yang answered without the slightest fluster. “But even if I’ve never seen how a pig dies, I’ve certainly eaten pork.”

Clap, clap! A good number of students found the kid’s retort rather fine and began applauding to cheer Yue Yang on.

“You’ve never seen a genuine ancient relic, and you can’t produce any actual physical proof — on what grounds do you declare it fake?” Yangping felt victory was assured. Sweeping his gaze across the surrounding students, he bellowed, “Don’t deny things for the sake of denying! Facts are facts. You’re sore that someone else completed the task, and out of envy you deliberately distort the truth — is that the conduct of a noble? Unless you all wish to be like this scoundrel before me, deliberately confounding black and white! Do you think this lets you deny the relic’s existence? Deny the recognition in the honored envoys’ hearts? Look — it’s right there before you. However you resent it, however you deny it, it won’t vanish, and the envoys’ recognition of it won’t change. This is fact — iron-clad fact!”

“A splendid speech — far more pleasant to the ear than a dog’s barking,” Yue Yang applauded in lavish praise. “Though I’d offer one reminder: an iron-clad fact can sometimes turn out to be a joke born of excessive greed and excessive self-confidence.”

“You’re talking nonsense!” Jinji and Yangping roared in unison.

“If you think my word doesn’t count, then go ask Baron Zhonghua. As the runner-up of the last Assessment, a prodigy even you acknowledge — surely no one would doubt his word.” Yue Yang dragged the distantly observing Zhonghua into the fray. Hearing this, Zhonghua — who’d meant only to watch the show — hurried over to pay his respects to the three envoys, then to the assembled students, putting on the full picture of a courteous, modest gentleman.

“It won’t matter who you summon. Facts are facts, and you can’t argue your way around them!” Jinji strongly suspected Yue Yang was saying all this on purpose, planning to swoop in and snatch up the “ancient relic” once Jinji discarded it himself.

“It is indeed fake.” The moment Zhonghua spoke, the whole field erupted in uproar.

“What?” Though the students had wanted to hear that answer, actually hearing it left them finding it inconceivable.

“The reason I say this ancient relic is fake is that I, too, was taken in by it.” Zhonghua smiled wryly. “This thing was actually stolen from the Heavenly Pride Academy by Ji Wuri and buried in the sea of trees. I dug it up and looked at it myself. In truth, nearly everyone suspected whether a genuine relic was buried at the center of the sea of trees — not just me; even Ji Wuri, I believe, was once taken in by it. It cost no effort to dig open the central point and have a look, no loss in it — a little foolish, perhaps, but I doubt there were many who entered the Eastern Peak and didn’t dig open the central region for a peek. We were all taken in. We simply weren’t foolish enough to haul back this statue, or whatever prank object some predecessor buried there…”

“Why would Ji Wuri do such a thing?” Jinji shrieked.

“Not just him — anyone who got taken in would likely have done the same!” At Zhonghua’s words, everyone laughed in knowing understanding.

“Impossible — you’re lying!” Looking at Yue Yang’s smile, Yangping felt it was more excruciating than having the man carve the flesh from his body with a knife.

“I can bear witness — I dug it open and looked before any of you did.” Ren Tiange walked over as well, smiling. “I suspected the ancient relic wasn’t on the Eastern Peak at all. There’s no sea there. A sea of trees isn’t a sea — it’s just a turn of phrase. And the true ancient relic couldn’t possibly be buried at the center of the sea of trees; no matter which hint you match it against, none of them holds up.”

“What the envoys said is absolutely not wrong — it’s you few who guessed wildly! The facts are nothing like that!” Jinji bellowed in a fury, clutching the stone statue in his arms for dear life, as though so long as he never let go, this strange carving would never turn into a counterfeit.

“We did not lie. The hints are correct.” The moment the maiden holding the silver grimoire spoke, Jinji was wild with joy, as though clutching a lifeline — but her words weren’t finished. She continued, “However, you cannot follow our hints to the letter. By the rules, we can only speak a portion in riddles; the rest you must work out with your own wisdom — thinking it through, searching it out. I trust many students now understand one thing: the Eastern Peak is only a beginning. It is neither the whole nor the only place. As we said just now, the ancient relic isn’t as simple as digging something up on the Eastern Peak. It is exceedingly difficult, even life-threatening. Otherwise, from ancient times to now, no one would have failed to complete it.”

“La la la, la la la — once there was a great big fool, who feared no boast too tall. He came to the Eastern Peak and saw a melon on a tree; he plucked it down, took a bite, and felt his wits grow sharp. So he set to digging, dig and dig, dig and dig — and dug up a treasure of rotten mud! He cradled it home in glee, scampered off to ask his mum; Mum said go fetch the Heavenly Pride one, the very same, that’s it! The fool’s heart filled with joy, his face one big blooming flower; he scooped it up at once and ran to claim his prize. Along the road he met you, met me, met him — one word, and they laughed their front teeth right out of their heads!”

Yue Yang clapped his hands and sang out an adapted nursery rhyme.

Jinji nearly burst a blood vessel hearing it.

He wanted to feign a faint. But no matter what, he simply couldn’t pass out — he remained extraordinarily, infuriatingly conscious. The people around Jinji, too, wished they could find a crack in the ground and crawl into it on the spot.

The students on the other side, meanwhile, were beside themselves with glee. Those with a good ear for music learned the song after a single hearing from Yue Yang and immediately took up the clapping and chanting. More and more students joined in, and even the tone-deaf ones, swept up in the revelry, bellowed fool, fool along with the rest.

“Mingzhu, how was my performance?” Yue Yang turned back smugly to claim his reward, wearing the expression of a husband kneeling on the washboard asking his wife, darling, may I come to bed tonight? — earnest and ingratiating in equal measure.

“Not much to speak of!” Mingzhu bounded up from the chair in delight, threw his arms around Yue Yang in an impulsive embrace, and thumped a fist against his back, laughing and scolding, “You really are wicked!”

“Your smile is the work of my whole life!”

Yue Yang swept into an exceedingly debonair, elegant knight’s bow — for all the world like a guardian knight pledging fealty to his princess.

(End of Chapter)