Chapter 13: Pen and Paper

“Pen? Paper?”

Lin Feiyuan stared in disbelief. Shouldn’t this be a feast?

“Yaoyao, what are you doing?”

He had assumed Lin Yaoyao had invited everyone over to celebrate passing the first two rounds. Not this.

Lu Yan’er wilted at the sight. Every time she made a mistake, her father made her copy books. She couldn’t muster any enthusiasm.

“Today I asked you all here to do a little market research. We’re going to use SWOT to analyze our competitors.”

Her words left the other three utterly confused.

“What salt? We’re going to make salt? Yaoyao, what are you talking about?”

“And what’s that ‘s…’ thing?”

Lin Yaoyao broke out in a sweat at their questions. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. There was no way to explain, so she simply said she wanted to look into the opponents they’d face next.

“Know your enemy and know yourself, and you will never be defeated. If we want to pass the third round, we have to understand them from every angle.”

Gu Mingchun nodded. Many of the competitors were personal disciples of academy elders, with extraordinary strength. Making it into the top ten would not be easy.

Pass the final test?

Lin Feiyuan didn’t even dare to hope. Getting through the first two rounds was already the most impressive achievement of his life.

Thinking about bragging to those rich brats later, he grinned and picked up a pen to draw a turtle.

Lu Yan’er was the same. When she ranked in the top twenty in the second round, her mother had gone to the ancestral hall to burn incense and tell their ancestors that her daughter had finally amounted to something.

“Yaoyao, my dad says passing the first two rounds is already amazing. As for the last one, who cares?”

As a top student, Lin Yaoyao simply couldn’t understand the slackers’ mindset.

The exam wasn’t even over, and they’d already given up.

To get more of her people into the Tianxuan Secret Realm, she had to dangle a big promise in front of them and serve up some chicken soup for the soul.

“Third Brother, Yan’er, only by entering the Tianxuan Secret Realm can we find the medicine to heal Big Brother’s leg! If you follow my plan, I guarantee you’ll pass the final round.”

Lin Feiyuan stopped drawing and looked at her. His little sister could brag even better than he could.

“The final round tests real strength. Their cultivation is higher than ours. How can we win?”

Lu Yan’er was excited instead, grabbing Lin Yaoyao’s arm. “Yaoyao, what’s your idea?”

Lin Yaoyao vividly told them the story of the tortoise and the hare. The strong didn’t always win, and the weak didn’t always lose.

“The hare overslept and lost. Yaoyao, are you saying we drug the opponents that day so they oversleep and miss the fights?”

After listening for so long, that was their conclusion. Lin Yaoyao wanted to cry but had no tears. This group was too hard to lead.

“Ugh.”

“What I mean is, if we find our opponents’ weaknesses, we can beat them. Everyone has weaknesses.”

After all that talking past each other, her efforts weren’t wasted. The other three agreed to follow her arrangements.

Lin Yaoyao had Lin Feiyuan, Lu Yan’er, and Gu Mingchun sort the competitors into three tiers: high, middle, and low. Then they grouped them by which elder’s faction they belonged to.

Tiandu Academy had five elders, each practicing one of the five elemental arts: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Every personal disciple had a top-grade spirit root and exceptional talent.

But this examination targeted Qi Refining and early Foundation Establishment disciples. Most at that stage belonged to some elder’s faction.

Gu Mingchun had a wood spirit root and moderate talent. Elder Hong, who practiced wood techniques, had ties to the Gu family. Even though Gu Mingchun was only at the fifth level of Qi Refining, Elder Hong took him in as a wood-element personal disciple.

A spirit root didn’t automatically match a faction. To join, you had to be accepted by the elder.

Lin Feiyuan had a fire spirit root, and Lu Yan’er had an earth spirit root. They’d barely met Elder Yang of the fire faction or Elder Chen of the earth faction. Their cultivation was slow too. Which elder would want them?

Elders wanted outstanding disciples. Ordinary ones weren’t even worth a glance.

After sorting by faction, the four of them found that water-element disciples were extremely rare in the matches three days later. Tiandu Kingdom was part of the Central Province, where few practiced water techniques. The other four factions were evenly matched, with seven or eight disciples participating in each.

Lin Feiyuan wasn’t diligent in cultivation, but he knew everyone’s business. Who belonged to whom, who liked whom, which senior brother had a crush on which junior sister. He talked on and on with great relish.

“Stop, stop. Third Brother, focus. Aside from factions, analyze their personalities, hobbies, combat specialties, and what they hate or fear. Stop with the spicy romance.”

Lin Yaoyao drew a table and recorded each opponent’s information using a SWOT chart.

Gu Mingchun was amazed. Such a method existed in the world? It analyzed people so clearly and thoroughly.

With Lin Yaoyao’s guidance, Gu Mingchun learned to use the method on his own rivals.

Lin Feiyuan and Lu Yan’er knew lots of people, so they handled the oral reports. Lin Yaoyao and Gu Mingchun wrote everything down. The four stayed busy until late at night, and the maids didn’t dare disturb them.

Chunyu stood guard outside. She was uneasy. Third Young Master was in there, but still, it was her young lady’s courtyard, and a strange man at this hour… it wasn’t proper.

When Lin Feiyuan and Gu Mingchun left, Chunyu went in to help Lin Yaoyao wash up. Lu Yan’er was sprawled across Lin Yaoyao’s bed, fast asleep.

Chunyu thought about waking Lu Yan’er and moving her to the guest room, but Lin Yaoyao let her stay. She herself lay on the couch, closed her eyes, and entered her consciousness space to cultivate.

After a night of cultivation, Lin Yaoyao broke through again. Having a cheat was really nice. But this cheat had come a little late. She didn’t know if she could escape the Lin family’s destruction.

Lu Yan’er left early in the morning. The night before, Lin Yaoyao had given her and Lin Feiyuan an “important” task: stir up trouble among the academy factions.

Lu Yan’er complained to her earth-element friends. Senior Brother Zhang Yu of the wood faction had said earth-element people were ants. Wood conquered earth. Earth-element disciples could only kneel and beg. Not one of them dared challenge him. Earth would never beat wood.

Word spread. Earth-element disciples gritted their teeth at the sight of wood-element disciples. They rubbed their fists, waiting for the day of the exam to take revenge.

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