The more she thought about it, the more thoroughly confused Ling Chunxi became. Who in Shi Qu Town could have entered the Qin ancestral court undetected? The three Ling family elders had pretty good abilities, but the each of them shared the same limitations. None of them would have been able to enter without any of the Qin family’s guards and experts noticing. No one could. This was something she herself wouldn’t have been able to pull off.
Who did this?
Ling Chuxi couldn’t think of anyone else who had both the ability to do this and the desire to assist her by ensuring Qin Xiruo got a just punishment.
“Does this mean you don’t know who was behind it either?” asked Ling Yichen.
Ling Chunxi shook her head no.
“Whoever did it was a true expert.” Ling Yichen furrowed his brow a little. He too could not identify in Shi Qu Town who had this level of expertise and who had an obvious interest in protecting Ling Chunxi.
“Let’s just forget about it. Since neither of us can think of anyone, let’s not bother thinking about this anymore. Instead, tell me how the White Stone Academy entrance exam works.” Ling Chunxi hugged Little White tightly and waited for an explanation. Little White was a soft, furry ball of warmth. As winter was almost here, carrying Little White around felt like holding a hand muff. Ling Chunxi loved the feeling so much, she found herself unwilling to let go Little White most of the time.
“The entrance exam can be considered easy, yet not. Difficult, yet not,” responded Ling Yichen vaguely. He paused and added, “The exam does include the assessment of innate talent, however, this doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things as many participants have probably already passed their own initial assessments.”
“Many. This choice of word gave Ling Chunxi the understanding that though some people did not pass their initial innate talent assessments, they still bore hope of getting accepted and came to White Stone Academy to try their luck. That was how much pulling power White Stone Academy had.
“I’m sure you won’t have any trouble with the innate talent assessment portion. There is another part of the exam in which a participant is tested by examiners individually. As the examiners decide on the questions, this part of the exam is different for each participant.” Ling Yichen held onto his thoughts as though he was going to stop speaking, before finally deciding to continue. “There’s nothing much to it. It should be easy for you to pass this time.”
They arrived at White Stone City at noon. It was a lot livelier compared to how it was during Ling Chunxi’s last visit here. There were many more people on the streets and the number of patrolling soldiers seemed to have doubled or tripled as well. Clearly, this was all due to the annual recruitment examination that was about to take place.
Ling Yichen instructed the coachman to head to the inn and help see to their rooms and cart over the lean amount of luggage brought along at the same time. Then, he took Ling Chunxi to the beef restaurant they had eaten at during their last visit to White Stone City.
As she sat in the same dining room she and Ling Yichen dined in the last time they were at this restaurant, Ling Chunxi looked down at the familiar yet unfamiliar street below in curiosity. She saw quite a few young men and women walking about, some dressed in luxurious garments and some dressed in everyday ones. Mostly, everyone seemed to be moving in the same direction. It was really noisy.
“What’s going on? Are they all heading towards White Stone Academy?” asked Ling Chunxi as she bit into a piece of roasted beef with her watchful eyes still cast on the street.
“Most likely. White Stone Academy is right up ahead. They must be going there to take a look.” Ling Yichen answered succinctly as always.
“Oh?” Right then, Ling Chunxi saw a maiden ride up on a big horse. She was wearing a gorgeous blue dress with deerskin boots, and a golden whip dangled from her hand. The maiden’s face was beautiful and had an arrogance to it. Indeed, she looked a little impatient. A man and a woman who were dressed in suits and who were also on horseback, followed closely behind her.
“It’s the peerless genius, Lan Xinyu!”
“Wow! It really is her!”
“How beautiful she is! Didn’t they say she had a very strong monster beast? Where is it, where is it?”
“Here comes White Stone Academy’s genius maiden!”
Ling Chunxi heard everything the people on the streets were saying. Her hearing was a lot better now than it had been in the past.
Peerless genius Lan Xinyu? With a strong monster beast to boot?! Were all these people crowding the streets just to see her?