Volume 4, Chapter 2 – Dao Heart

After paying the fare, the two of them got out of the car. When they looked up, there was a sea of people.

Back on Chilong Road, Liu Yong had gone on outings with classmates to scenic spots, but even on holidays, the crowds and congestion at those places could not compare to even half of what he was seeing here.

The weather was hot, and people were packed in shoulder to shoulder. They finally squeezed through the front section, and had to stand on tiptoe to see the checkpoint that had been set up at the fork in the road ahead.

That was the road up the mountain. The crowd had formed several crooked lines in front of it. Most of the people there were parents with their children, and only a very small number of teenagers had come on their own.

“Once you go up, don’t be nervous. Just take the test properly. As long as you perform the way you really can, there will be no problem.”

“Think about whether you need the toilet. If you do, go now. Don’t wait until you are up on the mountain and then suddenly need to run off to the bathroom. Did you hear me?”

“We still have a bit of time… Hungry? Then drink some milk. Just don’t eat too much.”

Many parents in line were making the most of the last moments to give their children reminders and instructions. At a glance, Liu Yong could tell these were the ones with ticket posts.

You could see from the adults’ clothes alone that they were not short on money.

Then he looked down at his own coarse cotton shirt and smiled. The only good thing about it was that at least it was clean.

Aside from that, he also saw quite a few inspectors in black.

They were from the Inspectorate Bureau. Normally they were so busy their feet barely touched the ground, yet today hundreds of them had been deployed at once, each one stationed at an intersection or junction to maintain order.

Liu Yong even saw some men in military uniforms, which made him click his tongue inwardly. In his heart he thought, as expected of the Shenming Sword Dao, Maozhou’s only Mountain-and-River-level dao field and the only power in Maozhou that had an Earth Immortal expert. Even the Maozhou prefectural government had to give them face.

“Brother Yong…” Someone poked him in the lower back. It was Dongzi, who had spotted a few suspicious-looking people and was nudging him while pointing in their direction. “Look over there…”

Liu Yong turned his head and saw a number of men in black suits or long gowns and mandarin jackets weaving through the lines. They squeezed their way along, eyes roaming over the faces of the people in line as they walked, then stepped up to speak once they found a target.

Those had to be the ticket buyers.

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Remembering what the driver had said earlier, Liu Yong understood at once.

They were probably the bodyguards or household servants of rich families.

He could not help feeling a bit contemptuous, looking down on people who would not even bother to come buy tickets in person. Then he turned his head and saw a middle-aged woman in coarse clothing pulling her child aside as she left the line with one of the men in a black suit.

Many people around them had noticed what was going on. Some looked at the woman with envy, while others watched with cold, scornful eyes.

But what about that child?

The child the woman was pulling along was not that young anymore, looking to be in his early teens. Even if he did not fully understand everything, he was surely old enough to grasp what this opportunity meant for him.

Liu Yong stared hard at the thin boy half hidden behind the woman. He saw the boy clutching a sheathed wooden practice sword, the tendons standing out on his wrist from how tightly he squeezed it. Under the surrounding stares, the boy did not dare lift his head, only kept his eyes lowered as he walked away with his mother.

Is this… his own choice?

It felt as if a breath leaked out of Liu Yong’s chest, and his anger drained away for no reason.

He suddenly understood why the Shenming Sword Dao did not interfere in matters like this. The disciples in charge of examining spiritual roots and issuing ticket posts could not control people’s thoughts. If someone was willing to give up the heart to seek the Dao over some external temptation, then even if that person entered the sect, he would never achieve much.

He could not help thinking of himself, wondering how far he could go even if he somehow scraped through the entrance exams and got into the dao field with the kind of talent he had.

“Young man?”

All of a sudden, a polite question snapped Liu Yong out of his thoughts.

He lifted his head and saw that the person standing in front of him was a middle-aged man with a cultured air, dressed in a gray-white suit.

“My surname is Li. You can call me Mr. Li.” The man handed him a business card. As he extended his hand, he flicked his sleeve a little, unintentionally revealing the mechanical watch on his wrist.

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“I believe you can guess my reason for coming. That is right, I am here for the invitation post you are holding.” The cultured man’s tone was very courteous. “There are a lot of people here and too many listening ears. Would you be willing to step aside with me for a while so we can find somewhere quiet to talk properly?”

This…

Liu Yong’s body froze in place.

He could feel the gazes of many people around him turning in his direction.

One stare after another felt like red-hot knives that had been held over a fire, to the point that the skin on his arm seemed to burn under them.

He did not dare look anywhere else. He only snuck glances at the man from time to time, and it was only in one of those moments that he noticed the seventeen- or eighteen-year-old girl standing behind the man.

The girl had short hair and wore an old-style ceremonial dress. In her arms she held a finely crafted longsword from the Yu workshops. Her features were young, but she carried a proud air. When she caught him looking, she tilted her chin up and turned her eyes away with open disdain.

Liu Yong could also hear Dongzi breathing nervously behind him.

That idiot had been muttering the whole way here that if they failed the exam they might as well sell the ticket, but now that it had come to this, he did not dare push him and chose instead to respect his decision.

Even just for Dongzi’s sake, how could I let myself be looked down on like this?

In that moment, complicated feelings churned in Liu Yong’s heart.

The torment of his days in hardship, the grief of losing family, the ambitions in his dreams, and that night when the iron-strip swords had poured boiling heat into him and the sword qi he swung had arced across the sky like a rainbow.

In the end, he did not know how, but all those images merged into one: him lying inside the house, looking up through the big hole in the damaged roof at the figure standing in midair and that boundless ocean of blue lightning that stained heaven and earth.

His lips curled, and suddenly, Liu Yong was no longer nervous.

“Sorry.” He flicked the business card aside, and his voice shifted into a lazy, roguish drawl as he spoke to the man. “I’m not selling. You can leave.”

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Huh?

This turn of events caught many people off guard.

Mr. Li stared wide-eyed at Liu Yong, while the girl beside him glared just as fiercely, tugging on the man’s sleeve over and over. “Dad!”

Being toyed with like this, the man clearly grew angry. His lips trembled as if he wanted to say something, but at that moment, the crowd suddenly parted to either side and a pretty young girl in a white trainee’s uniform stepped out.

“There you are at last. You idiot, what are you doing standing in line here?”

Her eyes locked onto Liu Yong, and she waved him over.

“Miss, are you… are you planning to openly take someone in through the back door?”

The short-haired girl, furious at the sight, could not stop herself from speaking out in a mocking tone.

“Shanshan!”

That gave Mr. Li a terrible fright. He had already flinched when he saw the white-clad girl’s uniform, and now his face turned ashen. He spun around without hesitation and slapped the short-haired girl across the face.

Smack.

“Out of line!”

“Hurry up and apologize!”

“Li Guangyuan, is it?” The girl in white only gave him a cool glance. “No need for apologies. Take your daughter and get as far away from here as you can.”

When he heard this, Mr. Li’s face went even paler, but he did not dare protest in the slightest. With his bodyguards and servants in tow, he grabbed his daughter and hurried away.

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“And you… did you plan to bring a free extra along?”

The girl in white looked at Liu Yong and jerked her chin for him and Dongzi to follow, then walked in front to clear a path, leading the two of them straight to the foot of the mountain gate.

“Name.” The disciple doing registration spoke up.

“Liu Yong.”

“The one next to you?”

“Dongzi… Oh, Zhang Donglai.”

“Let me see your ticket.”

Liu Yong felt numb all over and obediently took the envelope from inside his shirt.

The disciple took the contents out of the envelope, and a low murmur of surprise rippled through the people nearby.

The post was clearly different from the usual ones. At the end of the writing, there was a cicada-shaped seal stamped in bright relief.

“Your Dao heart is not bad.”

After checking the post and handing it back, the disciple at the register even gave him a faintly amused smile.

The girl in white was still off to the side playing on her phone, but when Liu Yong heard those words, he shivered, and the clothes on his back were already soaked through with sweat.