CHAPTER 189: CHAPTER 159: GENIUS

"Er..."

Recognized, Li Leqing blinked and raised her forefinger to her lips. "Shh."

"Understood, understood."

Song Shaoyuan and You Xiao immediately got the hint and stopped talking.

Since today was the day Song Shaoyuan passed the preliminary selection, according to the customs of Chang’an City, a banquet was to be held at his home to invite friends and family to celebrate. Chai Chai, You Xiao, and Li Leqing walked ahead toward the East Market to shop for supplies, while Song Shaoyuan and Li Ang followed behind.

"Risheng," Song Shaoyuan glanced at the female attendants and guards from the Imperial Palace and hesitated for a moment before whispering to Li Ang, "When did you and Princess Guanghua..."

"Huh?"

Li Ang was stunned for a moment before he realized and waved his hand. "Hey, it’s not me. Her Highness is mainly friends with Cui Qiao; we’re just schoolmates."

"Is that so..."

Song Shaoyuan’s expression was full of disbelief. It seemed that after getting together with You Xiao, he had become much more adept at understanding social intricacies. He whispered, "The way she looks at you doesn’t seem like an ordinary schoolmate."

Li Ang frowned slightly. "Really?"

"Maybe..."

Seeing his unaffected demeanor, Song Shaoyuan also began to feel uncertain.

"Benefit of the doubt. So, no."

Li Ang waved his hand. At this stage, he wasn’t too concerned with romance. Besides, there was the question of whether awakening memories from the Otherworld even counted as falling in love prematurely. Dealing with Guang Zhao Ming and Mo Si was enough to keep him busy.

As for whether he was interested in Li Leqing... well, he was, in a way. His interest lay in curing patients with congenital heart disease.

"..."

Hearing this, Song Shaoyuan smacked his lips and looked again at the figure of Li Leqing, who was laughing and talking with You Xiao and Chai Chai ahead of them.

From a status perspective, she was the most favored Princess Guanghua in the Great Ming Palace, the legitimate daughter of Emperor Yu and Empress Xue, the mother of the nation. Whether the future ruler was the Crown Prince or the Fourth Prince, Li Hui, both were her full brothers. Despite the generally poor reputation of princesses from the Li imperial family, rumor had it that Princess Guanghua was approachable, gentle, and intelligent, devoid of the arrogance and extravagance seen in some other Li Yu princesses. However, Princess Guanghua’s health seemed a bit bleak. Rumor had it that her heart condition was severe in her early years, and even the Imperial Physicians had been at a loss. But Risheng was a renowned physician, after all. Surely he could find a way to manage even heart disease... As a distant cousin from Yizhou, Song Shaoyuan felt a responsibility to help advise Li Ang on major life decisions—if Li Ang truly had no interest in Princess Guanghua, he should break it off early to avoid the attention of the princess herself and her two brothers.

"Hey, Risheng."

The voice came from a street corner in the East Market. Li Ang turned his head to look, only to see Instructor Ren Xin from the Academic Palace’s Body Study and Instructor Sui Yi from the Sword Study sitting at a roadside stall, waving at him. Ren Xin and Sui Yi had secretly protected Li Ang during the development of allicin, so the three of them were quite familiar with each other.

"Senior Brother Ren, Senior Sister Sui."

Li Ang approached and greeted them. Noticing the Zhiyu Guide Compasses in their bags, he couldn’t help but be surprised. This type of compass was used by the Academic Palace to test the number of Spirit Veins in school-aged children and to find suitable candidates. Li Ang had used one before. The preliminary selection list for the Academic Palace was already posted. Technically, there shouldn’t be a need for any more Spirit Vein tests.

Sui Yi noticed the expression on Li Ang’s face and sighed, a hint of weariness in her voice. "It’s an Academic Palace tradition. After the preliminary selection process ends, they still spend half a month using a compass to search Chang’an City once more. This is to prevent missing any individuals with outstanding Spiritual Vein Talent."

Li Ang quickly realized. "For those whose birthdays happen to be in May?"

"Yes." Sui Yi nodded. "The earliest age at which young people across the land could begin to form the outline of their Spirit Veins was around thirteen, with them solidifying by eighteen. That equates to five years, five opportunities, to test into the Academic Palace. For those boys and girls whose birthdays happen to fall in mid-May, if the Academic Palace only held preliminary selections at the beginning of May, then they effectively missed one opportunity. This regulation was for the sake of fairness."

"After all, they had to ensure public acceptance." Sui Yi smirked. Resting one hand on her smooth chin and lazily stirring the noodles in her bowl with chopsticks, she said, "There was such a case before. A young student with ten Spirit Veins tried several times but couldn’t get into the Academic Palace. Later, he concluded that because his birthday fell squarely in mid-May, he had one less chance than his peers. Feeling the Academic Palace was unfair, he ran off to the Turkic territories to become a strategist for the Turkic Khan."

Li Ang raised an eyebrow. "Was that Zhang Yuan?"

"Exactly." At the mention of this name, Sui Yi curled her lip scornfully. "That Yu traitor! Decades ago, he somehow managed to transport cartloads of books to the Turkic territories. He gained the Khan’s favor and, in a poor imitation of the Academic Palace, established something called the Wolf Garden. Though it was nothing more than a band of incompetents, the Academic Palace still changed its rules to prevent certain people in Yu Country from following suit."

The revenge of a failed student, huh? Fail once, try again. Li Ang silently snarked to himself. The Academic Palace selected seven hundred from ten thousand applicants annually. Yet, below these ten thousand, countless more students were stuck at the preliminary selection stage. It wasn’t an overstatement to compare it to tens of thousands of soldiers trying to cross a single-log bridge.

"Alright, enough chitchat. We still have to continue our search. No rest, even during a festival. See you the day after tomorrow." Sui Yi sighed, stood up from the stool, and pulled Ren Xin, who was still drinking his mutton soup, to his feet.

"Wait for me."

Ren Xin, holding a large ceramic bowl, gulped down the last of his mint-laced mutton soup. He wiped the corner of his mouth, burped contentedly, then reached into his cloth bag and pressed his palm onto the compass.

CLICK. CLICK.

The Knowledge Protection Cultivation Plate emitted a barely discernible sound. Ren Xin stood still. He turned a few times, following the sound’s direction, walked back and forth about a dozen steps, then stopped in his original place with a puzzled look.

"What happened?" Li Ang asked, confused by the sight.

"...The Knowledge Protection Cultivation Plate has detected a suitable candidate with twelve Spirit Veins." Ren Xin frowned. "Right... nearby?"

"I’ll handle it."

Hearing this, Sui Yi’s expression also turned serious. A suitable candidate with twelve Spirit Veins is a one-in-ten-thousand genius! We can definitely make an exception and give them a chance at the preliminary exam.

She waved her hand, instructing Ren Xin to give her the cloth bag and the Knowledge Protection Cultivation Plate. She then began to operate the compass, turning in circles on the spot.

"One Yin with Beauty, upper and lower two Yang..."

Sui Yi furrowed her brow, muttering the incantation. Eventually, she determined the direction and took several steps forward, arriving... right behind Chai Chai.

Chai Chai, who was engrossed in picking out vegetables at a stall with You Xiao and Li Leqing, sensed someone approaching. She instinctively turned, a dirt-covered yam still in her hand.