Chapter 24: Chu Wange

At dusk, at the barbecue stall by the Shahe Park intersection.

A evening breeze blew in from afar, swirling faint wisps of charcoal smoke into the nostrils of passersby.

“Papapa!” A few muffled thuds as several baskets brimming with skewers were set before the owner.

“Eat your fill tonight—Lin Young Master is paying!”

Lin Mo’s boastful voice echoed across the entire stall; beside him, Chu Wange stared at the overflowing table of skewers, her eyes gleaming.

The barbecue owner chuckled: “Oh? Got your weekly allowance? Feeling generous today?”

He glanced at Chu Wange beside him and smiled:

“I say, you’re always so stingy with your orders—so petty. If you were this generous every day, you’d have no trouble winning over any girl.”

Facing the owner’s teasing, Lin Mo smirked, his peripheral vision flicking to the school beauty beside him.

Her eyes held only the skewers before her, as if she hadn’t heard the owner’s jibe at all.

Or rather, even if she had heard, she wouldn’t react.

Rather than labels like "genius cultivator" or "camp goddess," Lin Mo would rather call it: the ultimate freeloader!

Hmm, today the white-pigging monster was wearing casual clothes… Lin Mo waved his hand and declared solemnly to the owner:

“Boss, don’t talk nonsense! We’re just ordinary classmates, that’s all.”

The barbecue owner’s eyes betrayed a hint of contempt, his expression saying: “We’re all men—why pretend? I know you. You don’t like her—you’re just hungry for her body, you scumbag!”…

Lin Mo cleared his throat: “Boss, you gonna run your business or not? If not, I’m going to the snack street across the way!”

Barbecue owner: “...Fine.”

Lin Mo’s lips curled slightly—he had this under control!

Twenty minutes later…

Lin Mo and Chu Wange sat as usual at the small table near the curb, each grabbing several skewers and devouring them ravenously.

But unlike Chu Wange, wholly focused on eating, Lin Mo—who had deliberately chosen the best seat—clearly wasn’t paying full attention.

He glanced up occasionally, then down again, his eyes never still.

The barbecue owner sitting in front snorted, clearly disdainful of this behavior.

Lin Mo snorted right back—you don’t get it. I’m not really here to stare at her—I just don’t want others to freeload off me.

And he was merely observing politely, no inappropriate actions taken.

He ate while watching for a while, then suddenly remembered something and asked:

“By the way, why weren’t you at today’s Immortal Exam?”

Chu Wange swallowed a mouthful of spicy beef skewer and said:

“Ssshh, the teacher said I don’t need to take it—it’d mess with the other students’ mindset, ssshh~!”

An unexpected yet perfectly reasonable answer…

Lin Mo mentally pictured Chu Wange taking the Immortal Exam and realized that if she’d been present today, Master Nong Qing’s attention might not have fixated on him.

Even Ye Chen, today’s most outstanding performer, paled beside Chu Wange at Qi Refining Level 9.

Lin Mo nodded and casually handed her the tea beside him, then asked:

“So, what score did you get on the last Immortal Exam?”

He’d only glimpsed her realm at the check-in machine, never her actual score.

Chu Wange took the teacup and gulped it down: “Huh, 990? Or 995? Not perfect.”

“Clang!” The barbecue owner dropped his tongs—they nearly hit his own foot.

“H-how much?”

The owner turned, eyes wide with disbelief, staring at the beautiful but freeloading girl at the table.

Chu Wange looked up and repeated: “Not perfect.”

Not that line!!!

The owner’s eyes bulged in shock—he didn’t actually want her to repeat it.

If he’d heard such a high literary score, he’d just say: “Impressive, scholar!”

But an Immortal Exam score this high meant the girl sitting at his stall might very well be this year’s provincial top graduate of Xichuan.

No—possibly even the top graduate of Qinzhou’s Immortal Exam!

“Holy shit, awesome! Future Immortal Talent!”

The owner blurted, then glanced at Lin Mo—you lucky bastard!

Lin Mo sneered—unrefined. Like he wasn’t a future Immortal Talent too.

He turned and said: “With a score this high, you weren’t offered direct admission? No Dao Academies contacted you?”

He knew some Dao Academies had reached out to Chu Wange before, but for some reason, she hadn’t been admitted.

If she’d been confirmed for direct admission, Nanshan No. 4 High would’ve held a press conference—or at least hung banners to celebrate.

Chu Wange replied calmly: “They contacted me, but I turned them all down.”

Of course you turned them down… Lin Mo wasn’t surprised. It’d be strange if such a score didn’t guarantee direct admission.

He asked again: “Why?”

“I don’t like them.”

Chu Wange’s reply was blunt.

Of course it was you!

Lin Mo smirked: “Heh, your dream academy must be one of the Nine Great Dao Academies, right? No wonder you turned down ordinary ones.”

Chu Wange shook her head: “I turned down the Hundred Flowers Dao Sect—they’re too powdered and perfumed. I don’t like it.”

Lin Mo gasped: “Holy shit, awesome!”

The status of the Nine Great Dao Academies in Qinzhou was incomparable to ordinary Dao Academies.

If getting into an ordinary Dao Academy was a family honor, getting into one of the Nine Great Dao Academies could rewrite your clan’s genealogy.

In Lin Mo’s hometown—a clan village—it might even earn you a separate page in the ancestral record.

Most crucially, this wasn’t just admission—it was direct admission, which was immeasurably harder.

But Lin Mo realized: this score truly only qualified for direct admission.

Thinking of how the Xuan Yuan Dao Academy, ranked eleventh, had tried all sorts of tricks to secure him, Lin Mo couldn’t help but mutter bitterly:

“If you get direct admission to one of the Nine Great Dao Academies, they must give you tons of cultivation resources, right?”

Seeing Chu Wange nod, he asked curiously: “By the way, you didn’t like Hundred Flowers Dao Sect—so which academy are you interested in?”

Chu Wange answered without hesitation:

“Qingshan Sect and Wenda Academy. Their recruitment teachers are coming to school tomorrow—I’ll pick one.”

How enviable!

Lin Mo was jealous again.

Though the Nine Great Dao Academies had no official ranking, only Qingshan Sect and Wenda Academy were famed for their sword cultivators.

Everyone knew sword cultivators were the most glamorous, so Qingshan Sect and Wenda Academy were the most popular in Qinzhou’s cultivation circles.

Before Lin Mo could speak, the barbecue owner behind him chuckled:

“Girl, you’re incredible! Boy, how’d you do? Your score must be high too?”

Seeing the owner’s sly grin, Lin Mo suddenly found his skewers tasteless.