Chapter 11677 — A Third-Layer True Mandate Is Already Quite Good
As a result, the few outside the little clique grew all the more restless.
Di Liankong once again extended the olive branch at the opportune moment, and soon two more joined, bringing the little clique to eight members at a stroke!
Yet apart from Wei Zhao, the one who remained showed not the slightest wavering.
Barely a moment later, that man succeeded in concretizing his True Mandate.
A fifth-layer True Mandate!
Di Liankong's eyelid twitched.
Until then his attention had been fixed wholly on Wei Zhao; he had never expected another capable hand among them.
Wei Zhao took note of the man's name.
Liu Han.
Now the rest all felt the pressure.
After all, apart from Wei Zhao, this had become purely an internal contest within their own little clique; if Wei Zhao beat them to concretization, it meant one of them would have to be eliminated.
And that was plainly not the outcome they wanted, nor the outcome Di Liankong wanted.
Even so, Di Liankong still wore the air of a man seated calmly on the fishing platform.
Half a day later, three more succeeded in concretizing their True Mandates in succession.
One at the fourth layer, two at the second; none of them threatened Di Liankong's standing.
In the end, only two were left who had yet to succeed: one was Wei Zhao, the other Nan Kezi.
Cold sweat dripped from Nan Kezi's brow.
As the first to throw in his lot with Di Liankong, he had received more shared experience and insight than anyone else present.
Wei Zhao, shut out of the little clique, could still be forgiven for failing; but with the resources at Nan Kezi's disposal, by any reasonable measure he ought to have managed it even by sheer imitation.
It could only mean that his comprehension, set among this crowd, truly ranked as merely ordinary.
Di Liankong, however, was in no hurry. "Don't panic," he reassured him. "He won't get ahead of you. Take your time."
Nan Kezi was half convinced, half doubtful.
He could not fathom where Di Liankong's confidence came from; after all, by any reckoning, Wei Zhao did not look like some harmless weakling.
As for himself, he plainly enjoyed such unparalleled advantages, yet still could not manage concretization after all this time; his self-confidence had been battered to the point of gasping its last.
The longer it dragged on, the more anxious Nan Kezi became.
And so the harder it was to devote himself wholeheartedly, and the lower his odds of comprehending concretization—a thoroughly vicious cycle.
Until Di Liankong sent a single line into his consciousness by divine sense.
"I tampered with the jade talisman Wei Zhao holds."
Nan Kezi's heart settled at once.
No wonder Di Liankong had rushed to hand out the jade talismans to everyone—so that was the reason!
They had assumed he did it purely to curry favor before Instructor Lord Song; now it seemed they had thought far too shallowly.
Nan Kezi's confidence returned on the spot, and he took the initiative to provoke Wei Zhao: "Brother Lin, it's just you and me now. How about a wager, to see who can concretize first? We've nothing better to do anyway—might as well give everyone some entertainment?"
Wei Zhao gave him a curious glance. "You're that confident?"
Nan Kezi chuckled. "To my shame, I'm a dull fellow, worth nothing at all beside the rest of you."
Wei Zhao raised an eyebrow. "And yet you'd pit yourself against me?"
Nan Kezi sneered. "Brother Lin may have missed my meaning. I am indeed dull, but compared to you, Brother Lin, I'm still rather better off. If I were you, I'd start steeling myself now to accept the fate of elimination."
The others perked up, watching coldly from the sidelines.
They had all made it safely ashore by now, and Instructor Lord Song had issued no further instructions; just then they were only too glad to enjoy the spectacle.
For that matter, Nan Kezi was one of their little clique, yet so far he was far from being one of their own.
Apart from Di Liankong, bent on clearing away every threat, the others did not much care whether Nan Kezi or Wei Zhao ended up eliminated.
Still, Nan Kezi's round of taunting, crude as it was, ought to have its effect.
The intent was clear enough: to put pressure on Wei Zhao.
Then again, Di Liankong had tampered with Wei Zhao's jade talisman, so he had no correct method to begin with; and shut out of the little clique, he could not hear the experience and insight of the others' successes.
By any measure, his prospects were already all but dark.
Nan Kezi's move was, so to speak, killing the man and damning his heart.
At the Ministry of Instruction headquarters of the Heavenly Dao Academy.
The live scene of the trial trainees was projected in hologram, laid out clear as day before the assembled high officials.
For the Heavenly Dao Academy, recruitment was the paramount affair; whether it could long preserve its present transcendent standing depended chiefly on whether it could replenish itself in timely fashion with powerful fresh blood.
Thus every stage of the new recruits' trial had a dedicated roster of high officials overseeing it.
The selection officials who had recommended candidates also had to sit in and observe.
Watching the scene on the screen, Shi Wushuang could not help but sweat cold for Wei Zhao.
She did not know exactly what had happened, but she was certain that if this trend continued, Wei Zhao would likely be eliminated in the very first round.
From what she knew of Wei Zhao, that ought to be utterly impossible.
Had it been only herself, there might still be room for a misjudgment.
But even her mentor, Chu Yunfan, the current Vice-Head of the Heavenly Dao Academy, held Wei Zhao in the highest favor—which in itself proved Wei Zhao's top-tier potential.
By Chu Yunfan's assessment, this was a seedling qualified to contend for the title of top newcomer king!
If a figure like that were eliminated in the first round of the trial, then the problem would lie not with Wei Zhao but with the trial selection mechanism itself.
Or else there was some trickery behind it.
Shi Wushuang had scarce begun to entertain the suspicion when Prince Di Xuan's voice sounded beside her.
"Eliminated in the first round of the trial—seems Junior Sister Wushuang's eye for talent could use some practice."
Shi Wushuang shot him a glance. "After a year in confinement, Senior Brother Di's color has recovered nicely."
Prince Di Xuan's face darkened at once.
Because of the earlier affair, the two factions had torn all pretense from their faces; powerful as his backers were, they had still paid a considerable price, and his one-year confinement was merely the least of those costs.
One had to understand that confinement at the Heavenly Dao Academy was not confinement as commonly conceived.
It was a true flaying of a layer of skin; and for those with poorer luck, cases of dying outright within were not few.
Even now, recalling it, Prince Di Xuan felt a lingering dread.
Prince Di Xuan sneered. "My color is naturally fine—after all, the man I recommended has already passed. But that one you recommended, Junior Sister Wushuang, is afraid truly hanging by a thread."
Shi Wushuang narrowed her eyes slightly.
She had looked over the files earlier.
The one he had recommended was none other than Di Liankong, in the same group as Wei Zhao.
Originally Prince Di Xuan had meant to stake everything on protecting Lü Chunfeng, but after that earlier incident Lü Chunfeng was vetoed outright, and he could only settle for the next best, avoiding the Inner Royal Court and choosing this Di Liankong.