Chapter 179: Chapter 179: Searching Everywhere
’Incredible. To think that the Profound Spirit Academy has such a genius.’
Chu Yunfei murmured to himself. His eyes then shot toward the middle-aged steward, and his piercing gaze made the man’s skin crawl.
"You didn’t tamper with this person’s second-stage assessment, did you?"
Chu Yunfei’s frigid voice carried a soul-shaking pressure.
"N-No..." The middle-aged steward jumped in fright and stammered a reply.
WHOOSH!
The next moment, Chu Yunfei had vanished from the Wooden Man Array.
’What on earth happened?’ The middle-aged steward still had no idea what was going on as he hurried toward the second stage.
’Just as I thought...’
In the room for the second stage of the assessment, Chu Yunfei stared at the chessboard before him—one where a pawn had captured the general. A sharp glint flashed in his eyes.
According to the middle-aged steward, this person hadn’t failed the second stage at all. Instead, he had directly shattered the Illusion Realm, perfectly completing the assessment.
For this second stage, Chu Yunfei had set up a Third Level Illusion Array. Normally, with the strength of Profound Spirit Academy students, breaking through this Illusion Realm should have been impossible.
That was why Chu Yunfei had set the passing requirement as simply enduring within the second stage’s Illusion Realm for the time it takes an incense stick to burn.
He never imagined someone would perfectly shatter the Illusion Realm and complete the second stage. The revelation left him utterly astounded.
Just then, the middle-aged steward rushed in.
Chu Yunfei asked coldly, "You said he walked out of the second stage room. How long was he in there?"
The middle-aged steward, not knowing what had happened, quickly replied, "My Lord, it was about ten breaths. He was the last person to be assessed. This humble one wouldn’t mistake it. My Lord, did he break something?"
At this, the middle-aged steward gritted his teeth. "I could tell he wasn’t sincere. If I’d known, I shouldn’t have let him take the assessment in the first place."
’Ten breaths?’
Chu Yunfei was now completely and utterly stunned.
’Breaking a Third Level Illusion Array in just ten breaths... is this person really a student at the Profound Spirit Academy? Not one of the instructors?’
Chu Yunfei could hardly believe it, but he knew the middle-aged steward wouldn’t dare lie to his face.
"Quick! Show me his drawing from the third stage of the assessment. Which one of these is his?"
Chu Yunfei commanded the steward coldly, his eager gaze fixed on the drawings in the man’s hands.
The middle-aged steward’s expression stiffened. "My Lord," he said hastily, "this person’s third-stage assessment isn’t here."
"If it’s not here, then where is it? Or are you saying he never even took the third stage of the assessment?" Chu Yunfei’s brow furrowed.
"Well..." The middle-aged steward hesitated, but not daring to conceal the truth, he said, "It might still be in the third-stage assessment room."
"Go. Take me there now."
The middle-aged steward hastily led Chu Yunfei to the third-stage assessment room. There, under Chu Yunfei’s livid stare, he rummaged through a pile of discarded papers in a corner and pulled out Ye Xuan’s drawing.
Chu Yunfei watched the steward indifferently, taking the drawing from the man’s trembling hands.
With his intelligence, how could he not tell something was amiss?
But at that moment, he couldn’t be bothered to question the man. His gaze fell instantly upon the drawing.
The moment he saw it, Chu Yunfei’s entire body shuddered. He began to tremble uncontrollably, like a sieve shaking chaff.
His expression went blank as he stared in disbelief at the drawing before him. It was made with just a few simple strokes, yet it contained a surging, powerful artistic conception.
Others might not see it, but as a Tier Five Martial Sect, how could he fail to recognize the Flow in Ye Xuan’s painting? It contained a Flowing Water Sword Intent as vast as a surging river, continuous and unending. Compared to the picture of flowing water he had drawn, the conceptual depth was superior by a factor of ten, no, a hundred times over.
"Flowing Water Sword Intent... this is the *true* Flowing Water Sword Intent..." Chu Yunfei murmured to himself. He was suddenly struck by the urge to cry, to wail at the top of his lungs.
He had dedicated over twenty years to studying the Flowing Water Sword Intent, traveling to see every river and stream in the kingdom, meditating for hours each day, only to grasp a single, hazy trace of it. He didn’t even know if he could truly set foot on the path of Sword Intent in this lifetime.
He never imagined that during a simple assessment at Profound Spirit Academy, he would witness Flowing Water Sword Intent with such profound conceptual depth.
The water flowed like a great river, like the ocean itself—unending, unstoppable. It carried with it the heroic passion of legendary figures throughout the ages, their ambitions soaring to the heavens. Compared to his own meager expression of Sword Intent, the difference was like that between heaven and earth, between the clouds and the mud.
"Quick! Tell me, who is this person? Give me his records."
Chu Yunfei grabbed the middle-aged steward by the collar, his voice urgent.
If the middle-aged steward still couldn’t tell he was in deep trouble by now, he’d have to be an idiot. In a voice bordering on a sob, he cried, "My Lord, I don’t know! The person didn’t leave any information!"
Chu Yunfei’s eyes blazed with fury. "No information left? How is that possible?" he roared. "I set the rules! Participants must fill out their information *before* taking the assessment! What kind of an examiner are you?"
He had a feeling that if he didn’t find this person, he might never again in his lifetime witness a Flowing Water Sword Intent of such conceptual depth.
"I..."
With a miserable look on his face, the middle-aged steward immediately confessed everything that had happened.
He was simply unhappy that Ye Xuan hadn’t offered him a "gift," so he had deliberately prevented him from registering. He had originally planned not to even record his score. That way, even if Ye Xuan passed the assessment, he would never be able to gain the favor of King Chu.
But after seeing what he thought was Ye Xuan’s poor performance, on a whim, he had marked a few X’s on the sheet. Now that Chu Yunfei had seen them, the cat was finally out of the bag.
He wanted to hide the truth, but under Chu Yunfei’s frigid glare, he had no choice but to spill every last detail.
He knew that if he confessed, he might have a chance to live. If he kept quiet and was found out later, it would be a dead end for sure.
Listening to the middle-aged steward’s tale, Chu Yunfei trembled with rage. A single slap sent the man flying, blood spraying from his mouth.
"You bastard! I put you in charge of this assessment, and you use it to line your own pockets! Did you think I, King Chu, am just a decoration?"
"My Lord, I was wrong! Please, spare this humble one’s life!"
The middle-aged steward kowtowed repeatedly, his body covered in blood. He was a miserable sight.
Chu Yunfei’s eyes were glacial, killing intent radiating from him as he roared, "Guards!"
The two Celestial Martial Artist guards at the door immediately entered and bowed.
"Drag this man out, give him one hundred strokes of the cane, and then throw him in the Iron Blood Guard’s prison to await his sentence."
"No, My Lord, spare me!"
The middle-aged steward’s face went pale as he begged frantically for mercy.
The Iron Blood Guard was a branch of the Imperial Guard that specifically handled criminal cases in the Royal City. Its prison was an absolute hell on earth.
A living person who went in would be thanking the heavens if they came out with half a life left.
"Hmph!" Chu Yunfei snorted coldly, ignoring the steward’s pleas. He wasn’t a bloodthirsty man, and for this person to have been appointed as his assessment supervisor, he must have been one of his trusted subordinates.
But this was the one thing he could not tolerate.
He wouldn’t have cared if the man solicited bribes, as long as he did his job diligently. But to think that this man, for his own selfish desires, would treat the assessment he had arranged as a complete joke.
After ten years of assessments, he had finally found a genius, only to have him turned away by this steward’s selfish greed. The fury in Chu Yunfei’s heart was beyond imagination.
After dealing with the middle-aged steward, Chu Yunfei called the two guards over again for detailed questioning.
He finally managed to get some clues from the two guards.
The last youth to be assessed hadn’t come alone. He had been accompanied by a female instructor from the academy. Although the two guards didn’t know her name, they knew she possessed a Profound Spirit Academy Supervision Token, marking her as part of the academy’s upper echelon. Otherwise, they would never have allowed anyone to enter after the assessment period had ended.
’An academy Supervision Token?’
Having gotten a clue from the guards, Chu Yunfei finally breathed a sigh of relief.
There couldn’t be many high-level staff in the entire Profound Spirit Academy who possessed a Supervision Token. This would make finding the youth much easier.
’To think that my Liuyun Kingdom still has such a genius... one who can break through the Wooden Man Battle Array and the Illusion Realm, and on top of that, express Flowing Water Sword Intent with such profound conceptual depth. I truly want to meet him and see for myself who this person is.’
An excited glint shone in Chu Yunfei’s eyes.
In truth, what he was most eager to do was discuss with that student how he had cultivated his Flowing Water Sword Intent. How could it possibly be so much stronger than his own?
’What level of comprehension of the Martial Dao must one have to be able to depict that kind of Sword Intent, that kind of conceptual depth?’
His heart anxious, Chu Yunfei quickly made his way to an office at the Profound Spirit Academy and began inquiring about the Supervision Token.
Given Chu Yunfei’s status, upon hearing his request, a vice director of the academy immediately came to receive him personally. He then placed a pictorial roster of all high-level staff who possessed an academy Supervision Token in front of the two guards.
The Supervision Token was for the regulatory department, so not many instructors in the entire Profound Spirit Academy possessed one—only seven or eight people in total, and even fewer of them were beautiful women.
Under Chu Yunfei’s expectant and anxious gaze, the two guards shook their heads. "My Lord, the person we saw isn’t in this roster."
"What? Are you sure you didn’t make a mistake?" Chu Yunfei blurted out, growing frantic.
The two guards insisted they hadn’t made a mistake. The female instructor was stunningly beautiful; there was no way they could mistake her for someone else, and she was not among the people in the roster.
Chu Yunfei turned to look at the vice director accompanying him. The man was also perplexed. "Lord King Chu, our Profound Spirit Academy absolutely only has these few instructors who possess a Supervision Token. There are no others. Is it possible your two subordinates are mistaken about something?"
The Supervision Token was incredibly important. It would never be issued to an ordinary instructor.
Chu Yunfei didn’t think the vice director would lie to him, either. A flash of inspiration struck him, and he came up with an idea. "Vice Director Li, could it be that some people were missed for some reason? If it’s not too much trouble, could you please bring out your academy’s complete instructor roster and let my two subordinates take a look?"
