Zanxing (Retranslated)

As the last sentence was spoken, the distant peak and waterfall, shimmering with golden light, slowly faded into darkness, and the last trace of light in the picture disappeared, making the battlefield become eerie.

Zanxing looked into the distance, there was no one. It seemed that in order to prevent the disciples from forming teams, the map had randomly assigned everyone to different locations at the beginning.

This was a bit scary.

There was no sun or moon here, and time seemed to have stagnated at the moment before nightfall. The sky was neither dark nor dark, it was a dull and strange battlefield evening.

Zanxing pondered for a moment, put away the Departure Talisman, and took out another talisman from her pocket and pasted it on her chest.

In an instant, the surroundings lit up, and some light points appeared faintly in the dense forest. Some light points bright and some dim. Some were as small as fireflies, and some were as large as carriage wheels.

Zanxing looked for a while, and then walked towards the place with small light points.

Outside the competition platform, Xuan Lingzi, who was watching the assessment situation in the Xumi Mustard Seed Diagram from the Clear Heart Mirror, almost dropped his teacup. He pointed at the mirror and exclaimed, “How could she have the Torch Eye Talisman?”

Cui Yufu, who was petting a cat, immediately stood up and leaned in close, shouting, “Where is it? Where is the Torch Eye Talisman?”

The Torch Eye, also known as the Wisdom Eye, was one of the five eyes in Buddhism. It was the transcendent eye of wisdom that could see the past and the future. The Torch Eye Talisman was a new talisman that Cui Yufu had come up with. Although it did not have the ability to see the past and the future, ordinary people could see the flow of qi in the vicinity after sticking it on.

However, this talisman was not very useful and is quite niche. Cui Yufu did not want to include it in the sect’s textbooks, so he compiled another book called “Drawing Talismans Properly: Fresh and Interesting Obscure Talisman Techniques” and put it in the library.

This book had been in the library for at least five years, and no one had ever borrowed it. It was said that no one had even looked at it, and now, a Torch Eye Talisman was blatantly pasted on Zanxing’s chest.

“When did she learn to use talismans, and you didn’t know?” Xuan Lingzi said impatiently. “Did you leak the exam questions to her?”

“What exam questions did I give her!” Cui Yufu angrily said, “I didn’t even know that the Torch Eye Talisman could be used like this!”

It was not surprising that the examinees entering the Xumi Mustard Seed Diagram would carry various pills and talismans with them. There were rules in the examination arena, and the rules would be automatically enforced. If the items carried would have a great impact on the examination results, they would automatically become invalid after entering the examination arena. For example, very lethal talismans. Ordinary healing pills and some auxiliary talismans were not restricted. This was also to encourage candidates to diligently study pill refining and talisman crafting, rather than specializing in one area.

However, attending classes during regular days was one thing; indeed, no one expected Zanxing to actually go to the library and read Cui Yufu’s obscure books.

She really had spare time.

As a result, Zanxing had a unique advantage in this assessment. Others might inadvertently encounter high-level demon cultivators right from the start and be unable to defeat them, thus being eliminated early. Meanwhile, Zanxing could use the qi points to judge and choose opponents that suited her best, calmly accumulating qi until the end of the competition.

“It’s just taking advantage of the situation,” Yue Qin, who always held traditional views, coldly snorted, “Only those with insufficient strength would resort to such underhanded methods.”

“I think this little girl is quite clever,” Daoist Yueguang chuckled lightly. “At least, mastering a Torch Eye Talisman is not an easy task.”

“Junior brother, why are you silent?” Zhao Mayi smiled and asked Gu Baiying, “What do you think?”

Gu Baiying lazily replied, “A blind cat stumbled upon a dead mouse, what’s there to see?”

In the Xumi Mustard Seed Diagram, Zanxing was putting away her iron staff, and the corpse of a Four-Eared Demon Wolf lay on the ground. As the slain demon wolf turned into a green smoke, streams of qi surged into Zanxing’s body. Without needing to look, she knew that her position on the ranking stone outside had moved forward again.

The Torch Eye Talisman was incredibly useful. Zanxing avoided encountering any excessively powerful qi clusters and chose to battle with mid-level demon cultivators whose strength was comparable to hers. Not only that, but Zanxing had also copied all the interesting symbols from the book “Drawing Talismans Properly: Fresh and Interesting Obscure Talisman Techniques” she had read earlier and brought them with her. These symbols were indeed quite obscure, with limited effectiveness on their own, but when used in conjunction with other things, they became very useful.

For example, one of them WAs the ‘Silencing Talisman,’ which was very useful when used on the Four-Eared Demon Wolf. This demonic beast has no eyes but four ears, relying on its ears to capture the direction of sound to attack. Although its cultivation was equivalent to that of a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, once the Silencing Talisman was applied, the Four-Eared Demon Wolf becomes like a blind creature, easily slain by humans.

Knowledge is power, and Zanxing silently resolved to go back and read the book “Drawing Talismans Properly” several more times.

At the same time, the remaining disciples in the Xumi Mustard Seed Diagram were also fighting against demon cultivators in various places.

As the ranking stone in front of the competition stage displayed the rankings for the first time, a disciple who couldn’t hold on any longer crushed the Departure Talisman and voluntarily left the stage, ending their participation in the internal disciples’ assessment.

Ziluo looked at the names on the ranking stone and pondered, “Currently, excluding senior disciples, among the newly enrolled internal disciples, Hua Yue ranks first in this assessment. After all, he has already formed his core, and ordinary demon cultivators are not his match.”

“Tian Fangfang is also good,” Li Danshu looked at a burly man in the Clear Heart Mirror who knocked down a demonic cultivator with an axe, and praised, “He is quite vigorous and seems to have extraordinary strength. His cultivation of the ‘Dragon-Slaying Technique’ gives him a momentum as if he could slay dragons and subdue tigers.”

“What about that Mu Cengxiao?” Zhao Mayi asked. “I heard he picked the incomplete scroll of ‘Five Elements Divine Shattering Technique.’ It was okay at first, but when he got to the latter part of the incomplete scroll, he couldn’t cultivate it successfully because of missing pages. He’ll be at a disadvantage.”

“I don’t think you need to worry about him anymore,” Daoist Yueguang said with a smile. “This young man is no worse than Hua Yue.”

In the Clear Heart Mirror, the young man with wheat-colored skin was holding a golden knife and cutting off the head of a demon. His knife seemed to be burning with flames. As soon as the demon’s head was cut off, green blood flowed out and poured onto the flames on the knife. Not only did it not extinguish the flames, but it made them even more intense.

“He can already skillfully use the power of the Five Elements,” Daoist Yueguang smiled. “In my opinion, this child has unlimited potential.”

If Zanxing could hear what Daoist Yueguang was saying at this moment, she would surely burst into laughter three times. Mu Cengxiao is the male protagonist, let alone one Hua Yue, even a hundred Hua Yues combined would not be his match.

“Yingying, little girl,” Li Danshu asked with a smile, “Among these new disciples, who do you think has the most potential?”

In the original work, the attention of the handsome Mu Cengxiao would attract the gaze of the beautiful Meng Ying, but now, in her eyes, there was only one person. She looked towards the Clear Heart Mirror and said calmly, “I don’t care about others, I only care about… Yang Zanxing.”

Yang Zanxing, the recipient of the attention of the beautiful woman, was currently sitting under a tree, looking very relaxed. If this weren’t an examination arena, others might think she was just out for a leisurely stroll.

The other examinees were naturally rushing to defeat monsters and gain points, as they didn’t have the Torch Eye Talisman. Sometimes, when one examinee encountered a demon, others would rush to snatch it. Zanxing, however, was different. She selectively chose her challenges. When she got tired, she would take out a few Qi-Boosting Pills from her pocket and chew on them.

She had brought the pills from the Alchemy class that Mimi couldn’t finish into the examination ground in her Qiankun Bag. These Qi-Boosting Pills could replenish qi but only a little bit at a time. However, it was better than nothing.

As she was eating, she heard voices coming from the bushes in front of her. Zanxing paused, crawled over, and parted the bushes to see two people standing there.

Both of them were wearing gauze robes, one was a young man and the other was a young girl. The two of them should not have known each other, as the male disciple asked the other, “Lady, why are you here?”

The girl also seemed to be an inner sect disciple. She was lying crookedly under the tree, holding her knee with one hand, and said softly, “I just ran into a demonic cultivator and I couldn’t beat him… I ran here and sprained my ankle.” She raised her head, revealing a pitiful and moving face, and said with some embarrassment, “Please don’t laugh at me, Senior Brother.”

She was very beautiful, with a face the size of a palm, fair skin, eyes that seemed to hold a pool of water, and long hair cascading down her shoulders. She was like a frightened fawn, especially pitiful.

The young disciple was stunned for a moment before he came to his senses. He blushed and said, “I won’t laugh at you. Let me help you up.”

With that, the male disciple helped the girl up. As soon as they took a step, the girl almost fell and whispered, “I’m sorry… I don’t think I can walk.”

In moments like this, even if one were a woman, they would still show pity and care. The young disciple stuttered, “Th-then, let me carry you.”

Watching the young man lift the maiden onto his back, there was a faint cluster of light points on the maiden’s back, about the size of a ball, indicating she was quite formidable.

Yang Zanxing: “…”

Eventually, she felt a bit compassionate and stood up to follow them, intending to pick up something and throw it to remind the young disciple. Unexpectedly, the handsome young disciple asked the maiden on his back, “Miss, I haven’t seen you in the sect before. What’s your name?”

“I’m Xiao Shuang.” As the maiden spoke, she gently turned her neck. The wind blew her long hair, revealing another fierce and terrifying ghost face under the black hair at the back of her head.

Yang Zanxing was taken aback, nearly kneeling down.

Xiao Shuang, turned out to be a Two-Headed Asura.

This demon cultivator even gave herself a rather unique name

Footnotes

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   Xiao means ‘little’ and Shuang means ‘double’. So Xiao Shuang means Little Double. So the irony here is that despite her lovely and adorable name, she is actually a terrifying double-headed monster.