Chapter 327: Is This Right?

Inside the thatched hut, Gu Yuan sat cross‑legged, his fingertips lightly tapping his knee, a faint smile playing at the corner of his mouth.

His vast, mist‑like divine consciousness had already shrouded the entire Qingzhou County yamen.

Every move Wang Bo'an made in the study, even the rhythm of his heartbeat and the flow of his qi, was clearly reflected in his perception.

When the county magistrate's great seal, representing seventh‑rank authority and bearing a fierce crimson official‑qi tiger, viciously lunged at his own exam paper, Gu Yuan distinctly sensed a strange rule interaction.

"I see."

Gu Yuan opened his eyes, a flash of understanding crossing his pupils.

The official road of the Great Yin Divine Dynasty is essentially an exceedingly sophisticated system for siphoning and allocating qi‑fortune.

Centered on imperial authority, it weaves an invisible massive net that spans the world.

The births, deaths, illnesses, joys, anger, sorrow, and even the mental intent generated with each breath of all the people are forcibly extracted by this net, converging into a vast torrent of qi‑fortune that nourishes the lofty Divine Dynasty Golden Dragon.

And the so‑called officials are merely individual nodes on this net.

Through the imperial examinations they gain preliminary recognition of the Heavenly Dao law and are granted an official seal to mobilize this qi‑fortune torrent.

The higher the rank, the more qi‑fortune one can command, and the greater the mighty power one can wield.

Wang Bo'an suppresses the talent of his essay with the official seal, employing the system's rule to forcibly use a node's energy to erase the energy emitted by an individual not yet incorporated into the system.

Within the rules, this is a dimensional‑reduction strike.

But similarly.

The drawback of this power is that all ability concentrates in the official seal.

In other words,

A single word can strip away all power.

A lofty strongman can be reduced to an ordinary person.

Every word and deed, everything is controlled by the court.

"An interesting system; it's not beyond being emulated,"

Gu Yuan pondered.

If only he could study the power of the imperial system.

Concentrated, perhaps at a crucial moment it could even produce a saint‑king in the Ancient Immortal Realm.

Gu Yuan slowly spread his palm.

In his palm there was no official seal, nor any talent.

Only a tiny, rainbow‑glowing phantom of the World Tree hovered, turning silently.

"Your rules are those of a well at the bottom. I, however, carry my own sky."

Gu Yuan's inner world is, in the truest sense, a perfect, self‑consistent, ever‑evolving supreme great world.

The World Tree bears three thousand Dao, from the chaotic singularity it spawns creation and destruction.

The stature of this world's law far surpasses the crippled, malformed qi‑fortune Heavenly Dao of the Great Yin Divine Dynasty.

In other words, the Great Yin Divine Dynasty's ancestral temple, imperial authority, and official road are but a grain of sand before Gu Yuan's inner‑world law.

He need not obtain the so‑called official seal through the examinations.

If he wishes, he can at any time base himself on the supreme law of his inner world and forge his own Heavenly Dao official seal that supersedes this realm's imperial authority.

By then, not even a lowly seventh‑rank county magistrate, let alone the emperor himself with his crown‑topped Ziwei Dragon Qi, could bow and submit before Gu Yuan's inner‑world law.

"Playing the pig to eat the tiger, advancing step by step and slapping faces—too slow."

Gu Yuan stood, stretched lazily, and said, "I'm here on vacation, not to play a bureaucratic cultivation game with a swarm of ants."

He had intended to keep a low profile, enjoy the imperial examinations, and meanwhile uncover the truth behind that qi‑fortune blemish.

But now it seems these aristocratic families won't even give him a chance to complete the process peacefully.

Since that's the case, there's no need to waste any more time.

……

The next day, the day the results were posted.

The lingering spring rain finally ceased, and long‑awaited sunshine pierced the clouds, draping the ancient city in a golden warm glow.

On the long street before the Tribute Hall, crowds already swelled like mountains of people, several times livelier than on the examination day.

In front of the screen wall bearing the Golden List, hopeful examinees and their families jammed together.

"It's out! It's out!"

Someone shouted, and the crowd instantly boiled over.

Several clerks carried a massive red list and, amid the throng of townsfolk, solemnly affixed it to the center of the screen wall.

Countless gazes, greedy, hopeful, nervous, swept toward the red paper that would decide their fate for decades.

"Top of the list! Wang Teng! My son passed! Hahaha!"

In the crowd, a middle‑aged man in a sumptuous brocade robe let out a maniacal laugh the moment he saw the top name; he was Wang Bo'an's elder brother, Wang Teng's father.

Around him, a chorus of flattering congratulations rose immediately.

"Congratulations, Lord Wang! Blessings to Lord Wang! Young Master Wang's great talent, the top spot is truly deserved!"

"The Wang family's twin talents will surely become the pillars of Qingzhou Prefecture!"

The brocade‑clad middle‑aged man twirled his beard smugly, basking in the praise, yet his gaze subtly flicked toward a few skeptical merchants nearby.

He knew that many had witnessed the talent anomaly that hovered over the examination hall yesterday.

But it mattered not; Qingzhou City ultimately answered to the Wang family.

Gu Yuan propped the shabby oil‑paper umbrella and strolled to the outer edge of the crowd. He need not push in; a sweep of his mind rendered every character on the list crystal clear in his thoughts.

His own name indeed sat at the bottom, followed by two glaring red‑ink annotations—"Dismissed."

"Interesting," Gu Yuan thought, withdrawing his gaze; rather than anger, he found it rather amusing.

He slowly folded away his oil‑paper umbrella, stepping step by step toward the bustling screen wall.

He did not push through the crowd, but the people blocking his way seemed to be split by an invisible force, involuntarily stepping aside to both sides and clearing a path for him.

Gu Yuan then strolled leisurely to the foot of the screen wall.

He lifted his head, quietly gazing at the red list, at the "first place" after Wang Teng's name, and the humiliating "dismissed" after his own name.

"Huh? Isn't that the poor scholar who triggered the talent‑transmuting pillar yesterday?"

"It's him! I remember his room number was in the northwest corner! How did he fail the exam?"

"A conspiracy! There must be a conspiracy!"

Among the crowd, some examinees who had witnessed the anomaly yesterday began to murmur softly.

The middle‑aged man in the brocade robe's face darkened, about to order his household guards to seize these troublemakers who slander the officials.

At that moment, a sudden anomaly erupted!