Faceted Jade a.k.a Carven Jade [ENG Translation]

CHAPTER 30

ೋ❀❀ೋ
The only one you can trust right now is me.
ೋ❀❀ೋ

Fu Changling was the very last examinee to enter the Forbidden Zone of Mount Ling. After he had gone in, Yun Yu came up to Xie Yuqing and Qin Yan and gave a proper salute, reporting, "Dà Shīxiōng and Xie Shījiě, all examinees have entered."

Qin Yan responded, turning to Xie Yuqing and saying, "I'm off to the backside of the mountain."

Dangerous areas had to be closely monitored to prevent examinees from inadvertently entering them.

Xie Yuqing gazed off into the distance. "I'll keep an eye on things from here."

Without saying anything further, Qin Yan rode his sword straight towards the mountain's rear. Yun Yu looked at Qin Yan's figure and said with some concern, "Shījiě, the forbidden areas at the back of the mountain are teeming with high-level ferocious beasts, so with Shīxiōng on his own..."

"No harm in that," Xie Yuqing said softly, lifting her hand in a circular motion. As she did so, the iron talisman suspended in mid-air flipped, re-sealing the boundary of the Forbidden Zone of Mount Ling.

Mount Ling shook, and Fu Changling sensed it. When he looked back, he could see the barrier closing up little by little.

After thousands of years, the barrier of the Forbidden Zone of Mount Ling of the Hongmeng Heavenly Palace, set up by Ye Lan himself, remained one of the strongest in Yunze.

Fu Changling paused to observe the barrier of the Forbidden Zone of Mount Ling before continuing on his way.

The examinees preceding him had long since raced ahead, heading deeper into the dense forest.

Spiritual plants could be found all over Mount Ling. Determining the final score based solely on the overall amount of spiritual plants collected was, of course, impossible. Should he follow this rule, he might as well squat at the entrance and dig up the entire Mount Ling.

So the final score was actually determined by the spiritual plant's grade. The higher the grade, the higher the scores earned, and higher-grade spiritual plants were usually guarded by spiritual beasts. Therefore, even though it was merely a task of plucking spiritual plants, it was an extremely comprehensive test. They had to be able to not only identify the plants and pluck them properly, but also fight those spiritual beasts. In addition to this, while no jostling over spiritual plants was allowed between examinees, it was never specified that bamboozling or perhaps stealing them from the corpse following a struggle between two parties wasn't allowed. This was a hefty, underhanded set-up for what was arguably the most demanding level out of all the previous examinations in terms of an individual's overall competency.

Fu Changling wasn't in a hurry to find spiritual plants. First, he knelt down and felt the soil on the ground before examining the spiritual plants at his feet. Then he grabbed a handful of dry leaves, crushed them between his fingers, and scattered them to see which way the wind was blowing them.

"What is he doing?" It struck Yun Yu as a little odd. Xie Yuqing observed quietly, explaining, "He's determining."

"Determining?"

"The attributes of the spiritual energy given off by the spiritual veins vary, as do the spiritual plants that grow. The growth of spiritual plants follows its own regularities. He is trying to determine the location of the spiritual plants and beasts that exist in these mountains."

A specific kind of spiritual plant would correspond to a specific kind of spiritual beast guarding it.

Fu Changling cast a glance in the direction in which the dry leaves were fluttering away and murmured, "Red soil, frost flowers, southeast wind."