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“To cultivators in the empire, including the children of the powerful and prestigious families and the children at the bottom of the society, the national exam is the fairest system to select talents,” the old man patiently explained as though he noticed Lin Xun’s puzzlement.

“If the poor grasped such an opportunity, they could leap to the dragon’s gate, soar to the top and break free from the life of poverty. Similarly, the examination could identity the true pillars among the younger generation of the prestigious and noble families and not the incompetent youngsters who only know how to drink and spend extravagantly.”

“When you can enter Qinglu Academy, you may perhaps have the mind and power to understand the truth.”

Lin Xun felt a chill in his heart. “Elder, dare I ask what is the truth?”

The old man smiled, a secretive look in his unfathomable, wrinkly eyes. “The truth you want to know.”

Lin Xun was first taken aback and fell into deep thoughts.

Emotions roiled in his heart. Could the old man know something?

Lin Xun suddenly remembered that, when he was still in Donglin City, the old man had mentioned that the Queen of Darkness had traveled to the depths of the Great Three Thousand Mountains to search for an old friend, only to find that the old friend’s residence had been destroyed and not a trace remained.

At the time, Lin Xun suspected that they were searching for the mine prison, where he previously lived, but he wasn’t entirely sure.

However, after hearing the old man’s implicative words, he couldn’t help but draw a link between the two and vaguely felt that the old man knew something.

Still, Lin Xun couldn’t be entirely sure.

He couldn’t question further because the mine prison involved many matters including Mister Lu’s whereabouts, Lin Xun’s background, and his enemy!

The old man stopped talking and brought out a snow-white handkerchief. In gentle and careful motions, he wiped a simple-looking three-inch black pendant that resembled an ancient sword.

The look of concentration and seriousness on the old man's kind and wrinkled face caught Lin Xun’s attention.

However, Lin Xun was unaware that the sword-shaped black pendant had a name that shook the world thousands of years ago—Evernight Sigh!

It was the name of a rune armament.

For thousands of years, very few people knew about it.

……

Three days later.

Haze City.

As the provincial capital of the southwest province of the empire, Haze City was bustling and prosperous with a population of millions. A frontier city such as Donglin City couldn’t be compared to it.

At night.

In a little secluded and old courtyard in Haze City, Lin Xun surveyed a cleaned and tidied room. It finally felt like a home.

At nightfall, the old man prepared a residence for Lin Xun before leaving. Lin Xun had no servants and so he had to tidy and clean everything by himself.

The courtyard wasn’t particularly big but it had the benefit of being remote and quiet. Lin Xun was already very satisfied to be able to live in a little courtyard without paying anything in the expensive Haze City.

However, Lin Xun had to face a practical problem—he needed more than a place to live. He had to solve the problem of resources for daily cultivation and daily necessities.

After he left Blood Kill Camp, no one would supply him with such materials for free.

Lin Xun had already counted his properties—two hundred gold coins, a Jade Wave Blade and two bottles of Lengning Pills as well as some miscellaneous rune materials.

He had nothing else apart from those.

In the past, that amount of wealth would be enough to sustain Lin Xun for one month, but now that he had reached the human dipper stage, that amount of wealth was just a drop in the bucket to support his cultivation and living requirements.

In other words, Lin Xun had to deal with an extremely realistic problem in Haze City—make money!

“The provincial exam starts in September, which means that I have to survive in Haze City for almost half a year first…”

Lin Xun contemplated before he got up. He decided to first familiarize himself with Haze City.

“Hey kid, wait.”

Suddenly, a tired voice sounded from the corner of the courtyard.

He looked closer and saw a burly figure lying there. The figure had a rugged face, rosy cheeks, drunken eyes and exposed chest like a drunkard.

It was obviously Xue Jin. He also stayed behind after bringing Lin Xun to Haze City. According to the old man, he was there to take care of Lin Xun until the provincial examination was over.

Logically speaking, it was a superb arrangement. Only that Lin Xun had no expectations of Xue Jin now.

Xue Jin had only drank and slept since arriving at the courtyard. Lin Xun would already feel blessed if Xue Jin didn’t bring him trouble, let alone take care of him.

“Is there something?” asked Lin Xun.

“Hey, remember to bring me a bottle of alcohol when you come back. The stronger the better. I remember that there is a very famous spirit in Haze City called Burning Soul. Yes, that should be its name…” Xue Jin muttered, like a drunkard talking in his sleep.

“Okay, but Old Jin, you should take it easy. Don’t go out and cause trouble,” Lin Xun urged helplessly.

He still vividly remembered how Xue Jin rammed into the empire’s Prestige Battleship and so he couldn’t help but worry that Xue Jin would destroy the courtyard when drunk.

“You sound like a woman now. Hurry up and go. I’ve been drinking for thirty years and hadn’t done anything stupid once,” Xue Jin shouted impatiently.

Lin Xun sighed, shook his head, and walked out of the courtyard.

……

Haze City at night was as lively as in the daytime. The streets were brightly lit like fire dragons and illuminated half the night sky.

The spacious streets were densely lined with all sorts of buildings like cobwebs. Even if it was night, an endless stream of carriages and people continued to weave their way through the streets. It was a bustling scene.

So bustling!

Lin Xun found it a little uncomfortable to return to the city after one year.

Everything in Blood Kill Camp was dull and peaceful. His every day consisted only of training, fighting, battles, cultivation, and exams.

As he wandered down the bustling streets, watching people shuttle in and out the alleys and hearing the various lively sounds, he felt somewhat isolated from the world.

Soon, he shook off the distracting thoughts with a brisk toss of his head.

His first stop was a grocery store to buy some daily necessities such as firewood, rice, oil, salt and aeth grains. After that, he went into a store that specialized in rune materials and purchased fine rune ink and materials. He easily spent twenty gold coins.

Then, he spent another fifty gold coins to buy sixty bottles of azure jade dipper pills. Although costly, they were essential to his cultivation.

After running up and down seven different streets, he finally managed to find a bottle of Burning Soul Spirit from an unknown wine shop. Lin Xun had already spent half of his riches and had only one hundred odd gold coins left.

Lin Xun’s heart ached a little. He fully realized how expensive it was to live in Haze City.

After all the errands, Lin Xun unknowingly arrived at the center of Haze City. Magnificent and gorgeous buildings towered into the sky and many various well-known chambers of commerce, businesses, and entertainment venues, such as brothels and taverns, were clustered together.

Such a place was simply unaffordable to ordinary cultivators. All the people on the streets were clearly wealthy and respectable people from their appearance and the way that they were dressed.

Lin Xun was in no mood to wander around, but just as he was about to leave, a grand building in the distance caught his attention.

The building was quaint and interesting. It stood hundreds of feet tall like a majestic mountain.

At that moment, an incomparably huge light screen emerged on the surface of the building and a meticulously dressed woman began to broadcast the news on the light screen.

“According to reliable sources, three days ago, the Governor’s office had stated that Governor Liu Wujun will personally serve as the examiner in the upcoming provincial examination in September. This news caused a stir when it came out.”

“Yesterday, reports from the battlefield in the western frontier of the empire said that the Iron Blood Army had successfully defeated the thirty thousand elite soldiers of the Magi Brute Race after half a month of fierce battle!”

“This morning, the Imperial Divine Workshop announced that a new generation of small-scale Violet Hero Battleships will launch soon. According to reliable analysis, the power of the new generation of Violet Hero Battleships will break previous records and become a new battle weapon of the empire.”

The beautiful woman’s dignified face was devoid of expression as she spoke calmly. “News about cultivation will follow. The most eye-catching news today is undoubtedly…”

Lin Xun raised his head, quietly staring at the light screen.

The light screen was called a rune transmission light screen, and ultimately, it was a large-scale projection rune array. It had a very simple purpose and that was to broadcast news.

However, the rune transmission light screen was extremely expensive and was considered a luxury gimmick. Operating it cost tens of thousand gold coins every day.

The kind of price was unmanageable to even some top forces, let alone ordinary people. Only the officials of the empire could spend such an amount of money to maintain the operation of a rune transmission light screen.

Lin Xun had once heard that the provincial capital of each of the thirty four provinces in the empire had a rune transmission light screen. It could send communications between each other and immediately report major incidents that happened.

Lin Xun found it amazing when he heard about them, but when he saw one with his own eyes, he was much calmer because, as a rune master, he understood the nature and mystery of the rune transmission light screen.

Soon, Lin Xun narrowed his eyes as a piece of news caught his attention—

“Rumor has it that Lian Fei, the son-in-law of Yao Tuohai, a Heaven Ascension cultivator in Qingfeng County, has successfully formed a second-grade aeth power reservoir when he broke through to the human dipper stage. He has been known as a talent in Qingfeng County and caused a sensation. It is also said that Lian Fei will participate in the provincial examination in September…”