Chapter 345 - 165: A Youth Bides His Time for 99, Ascends the Tablet in a Day, Earns a Dual A-Plus Rating, and Has His Name Announced in the Prefecture

Chapter 345: Chapter 165: A Youth Bides His Time for 99, Ascends the Tablet in a Day, Earns a Dual A-Plus Rating, and Has His Name Announced in the Prefecture

Jiangyin Prefecture Courtyard.

Two lines of text were carved on a pair of massive stones, each several zhang high, standing before the entrance.

"The Martial Realm is boundless and without end."

"As broad as your heart, so shall be your height!"

"——From the *Profound Monarch Martial Scripture*"

Riding a Jade-Horned Spirit Deer and holding a jade-colored invitation, Ji Xiu arrived before the imposing Mansion Courtyard. His first impression was the words carved upon those two giant steles.

He couldn’t help but leap from the deer’s back, coming to a halt. He let the endless stream of carriages and horses pass him by, his gaze fixed on the words, a thousand thoughts swirling in his mind.

He was all too familiar with these two lines from his time in Anning County.

Back when he was still a groom at the Lin Residence, Ji Xiu had spent his entire fortune to trade for a future from Duan Chenzhou, all in the hopes of climbing the social ladder.

He had thought he’d be content with just finding an opportunity for ’Entering the Realm,’ becoming a Bone Marrow Refining Martial Artist, and escaping the Slave Registry. Who would have thought...

From that day forward, his life had embarked on a completely different path.

’As broad as your heart, so shall be your height.’

’My body is unbound, the Martial Dao infinite!’

’From the *Profound Monarch Martial Scripture*, carved within the Great Xuan Mansion Courtyards... an aphorism left for posterity, is it...’

’I wonder what realm the founding ancestor, the ’Profound Monarch,’ had reached. What kind of figure was that Great Xuan Venerable at his peak?’

’Just two lines extracted from it have inspired me to this day. If I can ever enter Xuanjing’s ’White Jade Capital,’ I must seize the chance to see the complete ’Secret Scripture’ left by such a figure.’

As Ji Xiu murmured softly to himself while studying the two stone steles, the conversations of passersby inevitably reached his ears:

"I hear the competition for ’Prefecture Official’ is intense this time. Our Jiangyin Prefecture Courtyard doesn’t have much of an advantage compared to the young talents from other prefectures."

"Isn’t that the truth? In other prefectures, they say some young Grandmasters have already entered the Qi Sea realm and locked down their positions in advance."

"And then there are the ’Noble Clans’ with hereditary titles. Their Direct Lineage disciples already hold positions in the state government. How can ordinary trades and Schools possibly compete with prodigies like that? They’ve already conceded their spots..."

"Tell me, why would these disciples, who already have status in the state, have nothing better to do than come to a Prefecture Courtyard and test for a ’Prefecture Official’ position? Isn’t that putting the cart before the horse?"

"Now you’re just showing your ignorance. What kind of place is Cangdu? A state-level Vassal Town!"

"Sure, the hereditary Dukes and Ministers are all in the great capital, Xuanjing, but how many state-level Vassal Towns are there in the entire Great Xuan?"

"They’re all full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers. Who do you think competes for Great Xuan’s Merit and Fame there? Heirs to fiefdoms, Nobles’ Sons!"

"Can someone ordinary and unremarkable win the opportunities available in the state capital? Even if there are more resources and positions to be won there, you still have to be able to compete for them."

"It’s better to be the head of a chicken than the tail of a phoenix. Every year, a few ’Young Lords’ who see reality clearly come to become ’Prefecture Students’ during the major Prefecture Courtyard exams, just to secure a qualification to test."

"And these kinds of figures usually have vast family knowledge and deep foundations. They have at least a fifty or sixty percent chance of securing a good rank in the major examinations that follow."

"That’s why everyone, from the Educational Officials to the Dean of the courtyard, is happy to see them."

"Take this time, for example. I heard a Young Lord whose fief is an entire county has come to compete..."

"Tsk, tsk. Looks like some of the Chief Leaders from the courtyard’s five disciplines—Archery, Horsemanship, Weaponry, Martial Arts, and Spirit—are about to have their titles snatched away again..."

However, just as Ji Xiu was quietly listening to the matters of the Mansion Courtyard amidst the surrounding clamor...

Within his Sea of Consciousness, the Primordial Daoist Talisman suddenly trembled, releasing a gentle glow.

At the same time, the characters inscribed on the two steles—with hooks like bent gold and dots like falling stones—began to connect with Ji Xiu’s Divine Soul, allowing him, who had already formed a Divine Thought, to perceive it sharply.

’This is...’

He couldn’t help but be moved, sensing motes of starlight gathering toward him, a phenomenon completely unnoticed by the passing pedestrians.

Ji Xiu instinctively felt that the ’Essence’ from these steles was like the highest-grade sustenance for the Divine Soul and Magic Techniques. If he could just absorb it, his Dao Practice would soar.

’Could this be the Mansion Courtyard’s gift to new disciples?’

’What a grand gesture!’

Slightly astonished, and with the mindset of never letting a good opportunity go to waste, Ji Xiu immediately acted as if no one else was around, closed his eyes, and began to absorb it.

Ever since he mastered Qi Absorption and Grain Avoidance, he could draw the ’Heaven and Earth Pure Qi’ into his body with every opening and closing of his pores.

At the Beicang Marquis’s Mansion, he had been tempered daily by that cold spring, refining his physical body and Divine Soul. Even in the Power Barrier Realm, he enjoyed treatment that many ’Qi Cultivation Grandmasters’ never did; he had been living a very privileged life.

But even so, the gift from these two steles at the Mansion Courtyard far surpassed the results of one or two days of cultivation in a ’Blessed Land’.

According to Ji Xiu’s silent estimation.

While it couldn’t compare to the heaven-defying effects of consuming an Earth Treasure...

...Divine Soul Cultivation was inherently ’ethereal and illusory.’ Great Pill Treasure Medicines that could enhance one’s Dao Practice and Cultivation were incredibly rare in the Great Xuan. Such things, and the methods to acquire them, could only be found by chance in the Outer Dao Celestial Universe.

Now that he had a chance for a huge boost, he naturally had to seize it with both hands and not let go!

In that instant, Ji Xiu’s Divine Thought flared, and his Immortal Robe stirred without any wind.

The Daoist Treasure Robe, so perfect that "not a feather could be added, nor a mosquito land" upon it, shimmered the moment it activated. Before the gates of the Mansion Courtyard, the bustling crowd couldn’t help but turn their gazes toward him, their expressions tinged with shock:

"Which Grand Lineage, which School does this true heir belong to!?"

"To be wearing an Immortal Robe at such a young age... GASP! How have we never heard of him before?"