Volume 2, Chapter 52 – Application and Evaluation

After Xiang Xian left, Bai Xiang felt she needed to digest today’s gains, so she took out her communicator and sent a separate message to her partner Yu He, telling him she wouldn’t be coming that afternoon.

As for Yu He becoming her fixed partner, that had been Tao Shuohua’s decision. She probably felt Yu He’s rich experience would let him guide Bai Xiang better in various commissions.

Yu He replied in seconds.

【Heaven-Breaking Sword】：You stood me up!

【Baizhixing】：I never said I was definitely going.

【Heaven-Breaking Sword】：I don’t care! You stood me up! You have to treat me to a meal!

【Baizhixing】：Okay.

???

Yu He was sitting by a pond in a park, playing on his phone. When he saw that “Okay,” he was genuinely thrown off.

How could she agree that sincerely?

What was he supposed to say to that?

【Baizhixing】：I made quite a bit just from that Jinshui Company job last time, and you pulled your weight in that too. If you’re willing, I can give you a share of the payment.

This person was too straightforward; Yu He actually felt embarrassed.

【Heaven-Breaking Sword】：What’s yours is yours.

【Heaven-Breaking Sword】：If I was petty enough to be jealous of that, how could I still go around playing the old beggar?

He really didn’t seem to care.

Bai Xiang judged he wasn’t pretending.

Then she’d just find a chance to take him out for something good.

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For example, the beef soup place at the gate of No. 1 High. The taste was good, the portions generous, and most importantly, the price was right. Bai Xiang decided she’d treat Yu He there.

【Heaven-Breaking Sword】：Right, remember you said you were going to apply for a Swordsman’s License? The result of the application I helped you submit is out. I’ll send you the file—take a look.

Then the screen flickered, and a file popped up below.

Bai Xiang tapped it open. It was a scan of several evaluation certificates and forms. It covered her entire life: birth certificate, elementary school report cards, middle school report cards… even all sorts of awards and teachers’ comments were in there.

It wasn’t an exaggeration.

The shi in “swordsman (jianshi)” represented a noble class and was also a reflection of filial piety and loyalty.

This was the first gate in applying for a Swordsman’s License. If someone’s natural talent wasn’t particularly outstanding and they’d been unruly and vicious since childhood, disrespectful to their elders and lacking in filial piety, they would be eliminated right at this stage, without even the right to proceed to the actual assessment.

Bai Xiang, on the other hand, had essentially been a model student from childhood.

Her grades weren’t necessarily the very best, but she was definitely the most well-behaved, the one teachers liked the most.

She never took the initiative to rally classmates or socialize with them, but when classmates needed help, she rarely refused them out of self-preservation.

So her evaluations in all areas were quite high—she got an A in her peers’ reviews, and an A in her teachers’ reviews as well.

Her highest scores were in “filial” and “loyal,” both rated A-Plus. That was probably based on the fact that she wasn’t born to the Bai family; as an adopted daughter, she had stayed with them without leaving when the Bai family fell into hardship. Naturally, she deserved a high rating.

【Heaven-Breaking Sword】：This evaluation was done by the Sword Dao Association. Don’t go thinking that just because Tao Xingxuan had it in for you, the entire Association is a nest of snakes and rats. It’s not like that. He doesn’t represent all of that.

【Heaven-Breaking Sword】：This is your preliminary review result. Your overall rating is “A.” “B-Plus” is the minimum to enter the next stage—you’ve already passed. Right now they’re determining the test content based on your situation. That should still take about a week.

Bai Xiang typed and asked, “What are the usual assessments like?”

【Heaven-Breaking Sword】：How to put it… the bar to start with a Swordsman’s License is pretty low. A lot of rich young masters start the process once they enter university. In a few years of college most of them barely make it to Forge the Sword, right? So the tasks they get are basically going to the outskirts of the wilderness and hacking at small demons.

Got it—tailoring the dish to the diner.

【Baizhixing】：Then if I only take it after Condensing the Aspect, am I getting the short end of the stick?

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Forging the Sword and taking the test meant the targets were within the Forge-the-Sword range.

Taking it at Condensing the Aspect meant the targets would certainly include enemies at the Condensing the Aspect realm too. The level of danger wasn’t comparable.

【Heaven-Breaking Sword】：You’re not losing out, because the Swordsman’s License also has four grades. The type I mentioned can at most get a Grade B license—no matter how strong their family connections are, there’s no breaking that ceiling. If you want a Grade A, you have to genuinely prove yourself during the assessment.

【Heaven-Breaking Sword】：For Condensing-the-Aspect cultivators, they’ll usually give you several tasks to choose from. You pick one yourself. It might include going deep into the wilderness to investigate, flying on short notice to some Circuit City to help hunt a wanted criminal, or it might be our old line of work—dealing with a Demon Pool.

【Heaven-Breaking Sword】：Oh, right! There can be overseas missions! Lately our relations with the Shinu people are pretty bad, and your features have a bit of mixed-blood to them. They might send you over there to work.

Yu He’s explanation was very detailed. Bai Xiang only had to skim it to more or less understand that, depending on the difficulty of the task you picked, the grade of the Swordsman’s License you earned would also differ.

For the highest grade, “A-Plus,” the task was even split into multiple stages—you wouldn’t get it just by completing a single mission.

In other words, if you were aiming for the highest grade from the very start, then your first task choice had better be the hardest one.

Because the Sword Dao Association wouldn’t tell candidates which missions had follow-up stages. You only got one chance to choose.

Yu He had clearly already considered that Bai Xiang might soon be heading into the assessment mission. He told her to stay home and quietly cultivate for the next couple of days, and to try to adjust herself to peak condition.

He also explained the perks that came with getting a Swordsman’s License.

First was a state stipend.

Once you had a Swordsman’s License, you were no longer just a plain commoner—you had official merit. Each year you could draw pay and grain according to your license grade, along with certain social benefits.

Second—and most important—were the rights of counterattack and self-defense. You would no longer be so bound hand and foot.

From Grade A upward, you also had the authority to look up case files in the Sword Dao Association, and even call on manpower from there and direct them.

The benefits were many. You could say that anyone who wanted to do well would need to take this test.

After tapping out that long string of messages, Yu He glanced at it and chuckled smugly. “I am pretty good at looking after the juniors, huh.”

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Then he glanced down again and saw Bai Xiang’s reply.

【Baizhixing】：Aren’t your fingers tired from typing that much?

【Baizhixing】：Did you forget what we’re using to communicate?

【Heaven-Breaking Sword】：……

【Heaven-Breaking Sword】：Then I’ll call you right now! Pick up if you dare!

Bai Xiang naturally wouldn’t pick up.

He’d said everything he needed to say; there was no need to answer. She casually hung up on Yu He’s incoming call, set him to “Do Not Disturb,” took out a Jade Spirit Pill and swallowed it, then began using the Jade Spirit to study the Sword Dao prospects Xiang Xian had described.

The medicinal power of the Jade Spirit Pill could only be described as explosive.

After swallowing one pill, her whole body seemed to catch fire, heat and sweat erupting everywhere.

Once she got through the initial burning, it felt very comfortable, like soaking in a rather hot hot spring. It truly gave a sense of being replenished.

She studied like this until dark, when Xiang Xian came looking for her again.

“If you’re free tomorrow, you can come with me to Qi University.”

Xiang Xian’s gaze swept over the strands of hair plastered to her by sweat, and she was deeply satisfied with her diligence as well.

High talent.

Good temperament.

Diligent to boot.

This was simply the perfect disciple—being able to take a disciple like this was truly a blessing for Yuming Sword Dao.

Bai Xiang remembered Yu He’s words that the assessment would take nearly a week to be scheduled, so tomorrow she was likely free.

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But what were they going to Qi University for?

“An old friend invited me over, and wants me to watch a good show while I’m at it.”

Xiang Xian’s tone was a little meaningful.

“There’ll be a lot of young people—and there’ll be foreigners too.”

Foreigners?

Bai Xiang frowned.

In terms of foreigners tied to Chilong Circuit, if it wasn’t the joint-venture crowd like Qingyun Pharmaceuticals, Black Collar Co., and Reef Co., then it could only be the Shinu people near Nanling.

An exchange event?

Or were there really Shinu people bold enough to come here and “give lectures”?

“We’ll talk about that in a bit.”

Xiang Xian glanced toward the door.

At the same time, Bai Xiang heard a deep, resonant howl. Rising with it was a vast, grandiose aura, accompanied by a sharp cicada cry.

“Congratulations.”

Smiling, Xiang Xian looked at Bai Xiang.

“Old Brother Bai has wasted so many years…”

“He’s finally taken this step.”