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Chapter 32 The Imperial Examination

The Guanzhong area had flat plains and a vast expanse of fertile land. The Wei River here was rushing and had no danger. It could be said that heaven sent the Wei river for Guanzhong. And because of the fertile plain and Wei river, Guanzhong has always been the heart of the world. Since ancient times, if those who occupied Guanzhong could make great efforts, then they could take hegemony of the world.

Since ancient times, many heroes of Guanzhong have come out in succession and innumerable heroes have become famous in the world. So people have said that Guanzhong cultivates generals as well as emperors.

There was a branch in the south of Wei River, which was called Lao River. It was about 50 kilometers west of Chang’an City. If one walked along the Lao River for about 50 kilometers, he or she would see a mountain. It was Niushou Mountain, the source of the Lao River.

At the beginning of May, Li Ye went to Niushou Mountain.

The weather was very good and the wind was comfortable. Li Ye’s ship went along the Lao River, and he stood on the bow and looked out. He saw that the trees were green and the hills were tall on both sides. The water was clear, reflecting the green mountains and blue sky. The river moved forward and its length was unknown, and it looked like a swimming dragon that was going to split the mountain.

“I heard that in the early years, there was a Taoist temple in Niushou Mountain, and there were a lot of Taoist priests whose cultivations were high. I don’t know if the Taoist temple and Taoist priests are still there today. If there is a chance, I want to see it.”

Next to Li Ye, Wu You looked up and looked at the depths of the mountains and clouds, and said with fascination.

“If the Taoist temple is still there, such a big thing happened in Niushou Moutain this time, those Taoist priests shouldn’t have had no reaction.” Li Ye shook his head.

After Li Ye inherited the title of Prince An, he was prepared to start his official career with the help of Wang Duo. In accordance with the law of the Tang Empire, the descendants of officials had to pass the test of the Imperial Court before they start their careers. A group of rebels appeared in Niushou Mountain and made troubles in several villages under the mountain. So the imperial court sent Li Ye and others who also were going to become officials to investigate this matter and arrest these rebels to test their abilities and judge whether they had the qualifications to become an official.

There were also several youths of the Imperial Clan. All of them were ready to become officials and needed to be tested. Wu You was also one of them.

“The Duchess of Li rarely goes out, you don’t know that the Jianghu outside Chang’an City is quite sinister. If there are cultivators in the Taoist temple, I am afraid that they are related to the rebels... This group of rebels has already made troubles in several villages, which causes a great bad influence. If the Taoist temple did not collude with them, they should have suppressed them for the Imperial Court and we shouldn’t have had to come.”

The one who talked was an official on another ship. He was about twenty-five years old and wore a green official robe. His name was Song Yuanqiao. He was a relative of Duke Xing’s wife. Now he was the head of Hu County of which Niushou Moutain was under the jurisdiction.

In addition to the ship of Li Ye and Song Yuanqiao, there also were several ships on the river, on which there were youths of the Imperial clan.

Song Yuanqiao continued, “In today’s world, the Taoist methods are flourishing. The Taoist temples and Immortal’s sects are under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Astronomical Observatory and are responsible for assisting the government to protect the environment and the people. After achieving the Qi-refining, the cultivators of Taoist temples and Immortal’s sects have to register in the Imperial Astronomical Observatory, and they will be given the Taoist methods and spiritual swords which are the symbol of identity and manifestation of responsibility. When they return to their local area, they have the mission of punishing and killing evils. Now there are rebels in Niushou Mountain, Niushou Mountain has the responsibility... Of course, we of the Hu County also have the responsibility.”

Li Ye looked at Song Yuanqiao and said nothing. Before starting from Chang’an, Wang Duo had secretly told him that he might need to come to Niushou Mountain to investigate the case. So he already had asked Shangguang Qingcheng to investigate the main officials of Hu County.

In Li Ye’s opinion, that he came to Niushou Mountain to investigate the case was the result of the competition of Wang Duo with Wei Baoheng and Li Guanshu.

Wang Duo naturally hoped that Li Ye could successfully become an official, which was the opposite of Li Guanshu. Li Ye’s title of Grand Prince already hampered Li Guanshu when he dealt with Li Ye. If Li Ye became an official, it would be harder for Li Guanshu to deal with him. He couldn’t directly send people to assassinate Li Ye, the Grand Prince and an official of the Tang Empire.

Wang Duo wanted to fight for an opportunity for Li Ye to become an official, so he asked Li Ye to participate in the test as early as possible. But Li Guanshu had to stop Li Ye from taking part in the test. The final result of the competition between Wang Duo and Li Guanshu was that Li Ye had to take part in the test in Niushou Moutain which was under the charge of Song Yuanqiao.

Li Ye didn’t believe that Li Guanshu had not incited Song Yuanqiao to impede Li Ye’s investigation. It was more likely that Song Yuanqiao would use this opportunity to reproduce how Prince An died in the Battle of Bagong Mountain to kill Li Ye.

However, Li Ye was unafraid.

After deriving the Luck from the Royal Seal of Prince An, Li Ye succeeded in reaching Level 3 of Qi-refining.

Level 3 of Qi-refining was the standard for Five-class officials.

In addition, he had the Luke Sword and Glazed Cyan Jade Gourd. As long as he didn’t face Li Guanshu directly, Li Ye was able to protect himself.

Li Ye’s attention was placed on the beadle who was next to Song Yuanqiao. It was a man in his forties, and his appearance was ordinary and unremarkable. But Li Ye could feel that the man was a master although he deliberately converged his breath and hid his cultivation.

As the head of a county, Song Yuanqiao was only in Level 1 of Qi-refining.

In order to deal with Li Ye, Li Guanshu must have sent a master to come over. Now it seemed that the man next to Song Yuanqiao was the master. But he always stood beside Song Yuanqiao, looking straight and not even glancing at Li Ye.

There were ripples when the ship passed by. The trees on both sides were left behind and green hills appeared one after another.

Li Ye stopped looking at the man next to Song Yuanqiao and looked at Niushou Mountain. He remembered some past events.

Others didn’t know, but he knew that there was a real master hidden in Niushou Mountain. In Li Ye’s memory of the Last Life, the master had strutted his stuff in the period of Huang Chao Uprising. The master defeated one thousand soldiers of Huang Chao by himself and saved the lives of thousands of people.

Of course, Li Ye wanted to draw such a person over to his side to expand his power. At present, in addition to Shangguan Qingcheng and the eight hundred Guards of the Manor, he didn’t have any other helpers.

There were geese flying on the mountainside, and their inverted reflection glided over the surface of the river.

Li Ye slightly tilted his head, and a young figure was reflected in his pupils. It was a young man of the Imperial Clan, who was about twenty years old. Holding a folding fan, he looked at the river in front of the ship and never turned his head to look at the scenery on both sides of the strait.

Li Ye knew that he was Li Jing’an, the second son of Grand Prince Gong. Apart from that, Li Ye knew nothing about him. Li Jiang’an was one of the descendants of the Imperial Clan, but he seldom showed himself in Chang’an City. He was low-key and mysterious. It was unknown which level his cultivation was in. However, he refined Qi from an early age.

All the way, Li Jing’an didn’t say anything, which was not due to shyness but because of pride.

Song Yuanqiao was very respectful to him, but still did not coax out a good attitude.

The sun had reached the highest position. The water waves were golden and somewhat dazzling. The meandering river had not yet reached its end. A small river came from the east mountain and washed out a large flat area, on which a village of about twenty families was located.

“Here we are.” Song Yuanqiao shouted.

The ships docked, and more than ten people walked down from these ships. Except for Song Yuanqiao who brought four low-level officials, the other youths of the Imperial Clan only brought one follower each.

Bringing only one follower was also a requirement for assessment.

“What beautiful stones!”

Wu You jumped off the ship and was quickly attracted by the pebbles along the river. The river channel in the mountains was different from that in plains. There were many pebbles on the riverbed that were washed by the river and became smooth. Although they were not colorful, they were also different in color and favored by girls.

There was a large area of grass along the river. The clumps of dense grass were more than 20 steps wide and most of them were taller than a person.

When Li Ye disembarked, Shangguan Qingcheng suddenly said and was ready to draw out her knife, “Your Highness...”

She wanted to say something. But when she only said two words, she suddenly pulled out the knife and jumped from the bow in one step. In a moment, she was in front of Li Ye to protect him and shouted in a low voice. “There are assassins!”

There were indeed assassins; everyone had seen them.

Many figures suddenly ran out of the clumps of wild grass, the wild grass swaying. They all held knives and rushed towards Li Ye and the others.

They were very fast, and they were obviously all cultivators. They stepped on the pebbles, which caused short and hard sounds because of the excessive force. And the pebbles and river sand splashed behind their heels.

The wild grass was only several steps away from the place where the ship docked. So those cultivators with knives rushed over and arrived in a moment.

The sunshine was bright. When the knives and swords were wielded, the sunshine flashed a cold light because of the inflection.

The youths of the Imperial Clan couldn’t be pushed around easily. Among them, the one with the lowest cultivation also reached Level 1 of Qi-refining. The attack happened all of a sudden, so they inevitably were flustered at first. But they would not helplessly wait for death. They all made incantations and gestures to use techniques.

Their response was quick, but they still were not quicker than the attackers who took the initiative.

At the same time the knife-held cultivators rushed out, there were fireballs flying out of the grass which crashed near Li Ye and the others.

When the fireballs came, Li Ye and the others had to give up the intention of attacking the attackers by techniques. They first had to dodge the fireballs and defend themselves.

The thunderous sound of explosions could be heard. The fireball smashed the ship and also fell near Li Ye and the others. The wood chips flew out and the water splashed, the pebbles and river sand flew in all directions.

In the blink of an eye, the attackers who rushed to the front were already fighting against the officials of Hu County who had disembarked first.

“Pfft!”

An official in the Realm of Warrior was directly decapitated by an attacker. His head flew up in the air and blood gushed out from his neck.

The wind which had a slightly fishy smell was mixed with the smell of blood immediately.

“You rebels!” Song Yuanqiao shouted, his eyes red. Then he pulled out his sword and rushed towards the attackers in the forefront.

“These rebels have murdered countless people. They’re cruel. Your Highnesses, watch out!” The officials of the Hu County screamed to Li Ye and the others with worry, then rushed forward to help Song Yuanqiao.

The youths of Imperial Clan who came from Chang’an City realized at this moment that the attackers were the rebels who made troubles in Niushou Mountain. Some were scared and panicked while others were hateful and indignant. Some ordered their followers to fight against the enemy while others ordered their followers to protect them.

However, no matter what these youth of the Imperial Clan did, they could not avoid the battle. Song Yuanqian and the officials only intercepted a small number of attackers, but more people rushed towards these youths. In a moment, both sides were involved in the fighting.

The techniques were useless when they fought in close combat.

The youths of the Imperial Clan now realized that the number of attackers outnumbered them by several folds and almost all the attackers were cultivators!

“Your Highness?” Shangguan Qingcheng was about to rush out, but was pulled back by Li Ye. She looked back at Li Ye with confusion.

Li Ye looked calm and shook his head slightly to her.