Cultivation Kill

The next day, Chenshi.

Two servant disciples from the Selection Hall tore down the notice board in front of the hall and replaced it with a new one, pasting on a large red paper. The paper listed the disciples who had passed yesterday's exam, with the number of examinees listed as 5,110 and the number of those who passed as 380.

The area in front of the hall was crowded with people, creating a noisy and bustling atmosphere.

The streets in front of the palace were already packed with people, so Shen Zige could only stand far behind and watch.

Top of the list: Di Zheng.

Following that are the names of the other people, arranged in order of their scores.

Shi Yuange's name was not among the 380 people.

"Fellow Daoist, don't be discouraged. There will be another chance in five years. Just because you can't be an inspector now doesn't mean you can't in five years, haha!" A male cultivator with a buzz cut and wearing a purple robe stood next to Shen Zige and said, "My name is Jin Duoduo, and I'm ranked 303rd. Look up there!"

Shen Zige glanced at it again.

Then he noticed Shi Yuange's name in the last row of prompts.

The notice read: "Shi Yuange and Wu Xin, two candidates who scored zero in this exam, need to go to the Sixth Inspector's office today to explain the situation."

"Unbelievable! Who is Shi Yuange? How could he get a zero on this exam?" Jin Duoduo shouted. "I, Jin Duoduo, could have done better than them even if I wrote with my feet!"

Shen Zige left the crowd and went to a nearby restaurant for a meal.

The vegetarian dishes in the shop are all grown in the spirit fields, and the meat dishes are all made from spirit beasts, containing spiritual power. Eating them can quickly restore physical strength and mental energy.

Shen Zige had just sat down when Shi Yuan walked in.

"Hello, brother who is five years younger than me, could you please treat me to some spiritual food?"

It seems he still harbors resentment towards Shen Zige for using the name Shi Yuange!

"Hello, test taker with zero score," Shen Zige said.

"each other."

Shi Yuan didn't stand on ceremony with Shen Zige. He plopped down in a chair, picked up a roasted eagle from the table, and took a bite.

"Not too hot, not too cold, the temperature is just right, the meat is firm, and it's full of fat and sauce—it's superb!" Shi Yuan praised.

"Oh, you can pay later." Shen Zige stood up. "I'm full!"

He told the waiter, "Wu Xin will pay the bill after he finishes eating." With that, he walked out the door with a flourish.

Holding a roasted spirit eagle in his hand, Shi Yuan asked the waiter next to him, "How many spirit stones is this meal?"

"Two hundred and fifty," the waiter said. "Our shop is owned by the brother-in-law of the deputy peak master of Planting Peak, so we don't offer credit."

"Fortunately."

Shi Yuan sat down again and continued eating and drinking.

ten minutes later.

"Check, please!" Shi Yuan said.

"What bill do you want?" the waiter asked.

"Of course, it's this table's bill." Shi Yuan thought to himself, "This is bad. Did Shen Zige buy something else to take home?"

"The guests at this table have already paid their bill. He was just joking with you when he asked you to pay," the waiter replied.

"Stinky boy."

Shi Yuan got up and went to the kitchen window.

"Pack up all the dishes from earlier, one hundred portions for me." As he spoke, he handed over an empty storage bag.

"No problem." The head chef, a tall, fat man, took the storage bag and told the kitchen staff to prepare it.

The entire kitchen immediately sprang into action.

After more than an hour, Shi Yuan paid over 20,000 spirit stones and received a storage bag containing spiritual food.

Storage bags cannot harbor living organisms, so they are free of bacteria, and their independent space makes them even more effective at cooling than a refrigerator.

He had read a collection of anecdotes about a cultivator who found a storage bag that had been lost by another cultivator two hundred years ago. When he opened the bag, there was a roasted chicken leg inside. He took it out and ate it; it was still warm!

Shi Yuan walked out onto the main street. The crowd that had gathered to watch the rankings had dispersed, leaving only two or three disciples who were strolling around.

The patrol envoy's residence was located in the middle of this mountaintop city. Shi Yuan planned to wait in front of the Sixth Patrol Envoy's mansion. If he hadn't seen Shen Zige by dark, he would go in by himself.

After waiting for about an hour, Shen Zige appeared on the main street of the Inspectorate, in front of the gate of No. 6 Mansion.

"Hi!"

Shi Yuan walked over and greeted him.

“Brother Shiyuan.” Shen Zige turned around, “I just took the teleportation array to the Scripture Pavilion to trade spells, so it took me a while.”

I didn't expect to gain any benefits from coming here, but instead spent a lot of spirit stones.

It costs ten spirit stones to teleport to the patrol peak, which is a bit expensive. Shen Zige heard from the disciple in charge of collecting teleportation fees that some people spent a month traveling to the neighboring peak in order to save on the teleportation fee!

Shen Zige was surprised to find that the peaks of the Great Yuan Sect were so far apart. He suspected that each peak had a spatial superposition and expansion array, otherwise the area occupied by the Great Yuan Sect alone would be larger than the Earth!

Shi Yuan went over and knocked twice on the door knocker of the mansion gate.

"Squeak-"

A male cultivator who appeared to be a menial disciple opened the door.

"What business do you two have?" The seventh-rank official in front of the prime minister's gate, the male cultivator, although he was a menial disciple, generally did not take the inspectors seriously.

"We are the people the inspectors on today's list want to meet," Shi Yuan said. "Please pass on the message." After saying that, he stuffed a spirit stone into the male cultivator's hand.

"So it's you two. Come with me." The male servant turned and walked away.

Shen Zige and Shi Yuan entered the Inspector's Mansion.

Behind the mansion gate is a scenic garden, complete with pavilions, waterside terraces, rockeries, and artificial hills. There is also a small pond in the garden, where unidentified goldfish swim by, wagging their tails as they pass through the coral and algae.

After passing through the garden and going around three corridors, we arrived at a two-story pavilion.

"The inspector should be in the study on the second floor right now." The male servant handed the two men over to a middle-aged man who was standing in a daze in front of the door. "Chang Gui, wake up. The master will be unhappy if he sees you. Take these two guests to see the master."

The man named Chang Gui was a cultivator in the early stage of the Spirit Condensation Realm. He probably knew he would never advance in this lifetime, so he usually dozed off and was too lazy to even cultivate. He just wanted to finish his menial work as soon as possible, use his points to exchange for a sect's return-home order, go back and take up a high-ranking official position or a town mayor, and live a life of comfort and ease, and marry a beautiful wife and have children.

There's nothing we can do. The path to immortality is closed, and no one can cultivate to a high level. But people have to face reality. Most Spirit Condensation cultivators just want to get by, seizing opportunities when they arise and continuing to drift when they don't.

Come to the study on the second floor.

The sixth inspector sat behind a sandalwood table in front of a row of bookshelves. The bookshelves were filled with a pile of thick books, and on the table was an open book and a cup of tea, with steam escaping from the edge of the open teacup.

“There’s a bench by the wall, you two can sit here,” the inspector said.

Shen Zige felt the other person's aura was very strong, pressing down on him and almost making it hard for him to breathe.

Shen Zige judged that the inspector must be at the Core Formation stage!

Suddenly feeling relaxed, the patrolman withdrew his spiritual pressure.

"You two got zero on the exam. I've seen your papers," the inspector said. "You're so young, you should take the right path and not try to cheat."

“The Inspector is right.” Shi Yuan took out a cloth bag and held it up, saying, “On the way, I came across a cloth bag with some spirit stones inside. It must have been lost by some cultivator. We couldn’t find the owner, so we had to leave it with the Inspector for the time being.” After saying that, he quietly placed the cloth bag next to the sandalwood table.

Shen Zige realized that the cloth bag was a piece of clothing that Shi Yuan had worn before, and she didn't expect him to cut it into a cloth bag.

"Actually, I can tell you're both capable people. As a matter of principle, it's acceptable for talented individuals to make mistakes once or twice." The inspector didn't even glance at the bag. "Team 72 in District B is still short of a captain and deputy captain. What's your name?"

“Wu Xin,” Shi Yuan replied.

"Wu Xin is appointed as the patrol captain of Team 72 in District B, and Shi Yuange as the deputy captain." The patrol officer took out two jade identity tokens from the drawer, picked up a pen and wrote on them. He infused the jade tokens with his spiritual power, and the tokens instantly shone brightly as the spiritual power was absorbed into them.

Shen Zige and Shi Yuan stepped forward to accept the jade token, thanked them, and left.