Chapter 1238: A Poor Student Mixed into a Group of Top Students

The back mountain of the Jixia Academy.

Two servants carried food boxes to the small courtyard at the back mountain, where the gate was tightly closed. They placed the food boxes at the entrance, retrieved the food boxes from the previous meal, and turned to leave.

From beginning to end, they didn't say a word. It was as if they were afraid that making a sound would disturb the person inside the small courtyard and commit a monstrous crime.

About half a stick of incense later, the courtyard gate opened, and two academy students walked out, picked up the food boxes, and entered the small courtyard. The courtyard gate closed once again.

The two students were both disciples of Master Qi, guarding the gate here.

Master Qi had been in seclusion since the middle of the year; several months had passed, and there had been no movement. Only every few days, food scraps from the remaining meals were passed out from the secret room's hole.

At a critical moment, no one dared to ask whether Master Qi's seclusion was going smoothly or if there was hope for a breakthrough. Even the Mountain Master instructed the disciples guarding the gate not to speak on ordinary days, so as not to interfere with Master Qi.

Breaking through to the Grandmaster realm is something everyone yearns for.

Unfortunately, decades had passed, and the Grandmasters were still those same few people, with only one or two added in the middle.

One can imagine how difficult it is to break through to the Grandmaster realm. A one-in-ten-thousand probability!

After using lunch, the food boxes were placed outside the courtyard gate.

Not long after, a senior from the sect came personally to deliver pills.

The pills weren't bottle by bottle, but basket by basket. These pills were all prepared for Master Qi; seclusion requires consuming a large amount of pills to assist in breaking through.

To prepare these pills, the Jixia Academy bled heavily, purchasing from the neighboring Jade Spring Palace. Among them, a portion of the pills was refined by the Jixia Academy itself.

Back then, when Pure Yang Zhenren was imprisoned in the Heavenly Prison, the Jixia Academy ran to the Heavenly Prison to demand the person, the purpose being to plot the pill formulas in Pure Yang Zhenren's hands. The Jixia Academy cultivated talent itself, having people with excellent talent for refining pills, but they lacked pill formulas.

They didn't expect to be destroyed by Chen Guanlou, this Cheng Yaojin. The pill formula wasn't obtained, and they suffered a great loss of vitality because of it.

Truly a deadly feud!

The pills were sent in, and Master Qi began a new round of pill-popping for a breakthrough.

He was in seclusion in the secret room, and he could actually feel the passage of time. Although he didn't know the specific date, he reckoned he could calculate that at least several months had passed.

"Why is there still no feeling of breaking through? Everyone says that when breaking through, there will be guidance from the Heavenly Dao, a kind of mysterious induction; why do I still not have it?"

Master Qi seemed to be going crazy, dragging his grass-like hair, pacing in the secret room, thinking!

"Could it be that my cultivation isn't up to par?"

"Could it be that the Heavenly Dao is testing me?"

He looked at the weather outside through the skylight.

A cloudy and rainy day—not a good day.

His heart was extremely irritable; he grabbed a handful of pills and was about to stuff them into his mouth.

The pills entered his mouth, and he realized, hurriedly spitting them out. Pills weren't eaten like this, and even more so, one couldn't take so many pills at once.

He grabbed his head irritably, violently wanting to rush out and kill someone.

He hit the wall frequently, barely venting the depressed Qi in his heart. Afterward, he continued to sit cross-legged and cultivate, comprehending the great righteousness of the Heavenly Dao, striving for an early breakthrough to the Grandmaster realm.

Gu Yiyang invited him to drink flower wine, and Chen Guanlou happily accepted the invitation.

A good person!

He hadn't forgotten him even after being released from prison.

Unlike other Grade A prison inmates, when they were in the prison cell, their words were beautiful, as if they didn't cost money, pouring out basket by basket. It was as if he were their reborn parent.

Once they were released from prison, when they met in the brothel, they would pretend not to know him.

Bad luck!

This kid Gu Yiyang was loyal.

The two met in a brothel, spending money to hold the most beautiful girls, drinking the gentlest wine.

Mainly because this kid Gu Yiyang couldn't hold his liquor and didn't dare to drink the strongest wine.

"Everything settled?"

Chen Guanlou was drinking wine while holding a girl, incidentally watching the performance on the stage. A group of fat-headed, big-eared guys were making a scene, fighting over the most beautiful dancing girl on the stage.

Gu Yiyang nodded, then shook his head. "Not settled, but I recently made a small fortune. My father and mother, to compensate me, gave me a few shops and farmland, as well as a separate courtyard not too far from here. From now on, I am also a person with income. Inviting you today is just to celebrate!"

"Then we must celebrate well! Looking at your spring-breeze-proud appearance, the good news is probably more than just this."

"Haha, nothing can be hidden from Brother Chen! My good brother was severely disciplined by my father, which can be considered venting some anger. Not only that, with the family's operation, I am now working in the Ministry of Rites."

"You, the Ministry of Rites?"

Chen Guanlou was so angry he laughed.

"You, a person without learning or skill, who doesn't even have a degree, can still enter the Ministry of Rites. Did that group of old masters in the Ministry of Rites not discipline you?"

A poor student actually mixed into a group of top students; is this appropriate?

"The Ministry of Rites is very big; I never crowd around that group of old guys." Gu Yiyang defended himself, not caring about the other party's mockery. In this day and age, as long as one doesn't have a degree, one will be scolded as having no learning or skill.

Unconvinced?

If you're unconvinced, go take a degree and come back!

"Did your colleagues not despise you?" Chen Guanlou absolutely didn't believe Gu Yiyang's official career would go smoothly. The Ministry of Rites wasn't that easy to stay in; without some knowledge, one would be too embarrassed to work there.

Go ask Sun Daojing if he would be embarrassed to run to the Ministry of Rites to be the Minister.

If you don't have the diamond drill, don't take on the porcelain work.

If you aren't erudite and didn't place in the top ten in the imperial examination, you aren't qualified to be the Minister of Rites. More commonly, the top five in the imperial examination are the candidates for the Minister of Rites. The staff under the Ministry of Rites are at least in the top twenty of the second list in the imperial examination. Otherwise, they wouldn't even know how to scold people.

In this day and age, there are many people who read dead books for the sake of the imperial examination.

However, the top twenty of the second list can basically guarantee that these people are rich in knowledge and are definitely not people who read dead books. After so many years of imperial examinations, the screening of talent has stood the test!

It's the same as martial arts cultivation; ninth rank is ninth rank, eighth rank is eighth rank—it cannot be faked!

Chen Yiyang stammered, clearly having been hit on the mark.

Chen Guanlou gave two laughs. "The Ministry of Rites doesn't suit you; hurry up and let your family operate again to change you to another Yamen. Why not come to the Ministry of Justice to work?"

Gu Yiyang's mouth twitched. "I just came out of the Heavenly Prison; you want me to run to the Ministry of Justice to work—is this appropriate?"

Chen Guanlou pinched his nose; it seemed it really wasn't appropriate. Sun Daojing would likely be angered to death!

"Why not go to the Ministry of Works, compete with Xiao Changsheng, snatch his projects, and fight for favor with him."

"Thanks, I don't have that ability."

"Then only the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Personnel, and the Ministry of War are left! In short, the Ministry of Rites doesn't suit you; leave early, lest others drive you away."

"I want to see who dares to drive me away. My appointment was issued by the Ministry of Personnel, and all procedures are legal and compliant; why should they drive me away?" Gu Yiyang suddenly decided he would stay in the Ministry of Rites, and he would be happy even if he just fished for fish every day.

Chen Guanlou didn't understand at all. "It doesn't suit you, yet you insist on staying. This is like being with a woman you don't like every day; when asked to separate, you insist on entangling yourself, disgusting yourself every day. What kind of hobby is this? Do you have a tendency for self-abuse?"

"You don't understand!"

"Tell me about it." Since he said he didn't understand, he would listen to what the reason was. ===== CHAPTER 1239 =====