Chapter Twenty-Two: The Divine Calculations (2)

Hua Sheng was so shocked her jaw nearly dropped to the floor. She stammered, "W-what! Mie Ying is Nezha's goddaughter?"

The Young Lord of the Supreme Palace appeared equally surprised. "How come my grandfather never mentioned this?"

"Do other immortals have to register their goddaughters at your house?" Xuan Wen retorted. "Besides, Mie Ying never made a big deal out of it. Not like some people who constantly boast about being so-and-so’s grandson. Grandson this, grandson that, as if the world must know they're a grandson."

The Young Lord's expression grew complex. "Must you step on everyone around you with every word?"

Xuan Wen didn’t respond.

The Young Lord continued, "But Uncle Nezha isn’t the type to casually adopt a goddaughter. And as you said, Mie Ying is of average talent—why would a deity as distinguished as Nezha take notice of her?"

"Although Mie Ying is mediocre in ability and reclusive by nature, her eight elder sisters are all powerful in their own right."

"Then it should be one of her sisters who was adopted as a goddaughter, shouldn't it?" Hua Sheng found it hard to believe, but on second thought, perhaps Nezha saw some hidden potential in Mie Ying.

The Young Lord mused, "It seems making it to the second round wasn't easy for Mie Ying. If she exposed herself so carelessly before Tianjizi, isn’t that extremely dange—"

Before he could finish, a strange wind whipped through the cavern. With it, countless deep blue and black feathers began swirling around the cave. The wind grew stronger, so fierce it was impossible to keep one's eyes open.

Hua Sheng had to brace herself against the rock wall to avoid being blown away. "Why is there suddenly a tornado in here? Where did this wind come from?"

At the center of the cavern, the wind raged fiercest, whipping Tianjizi’s priestly robes about, but his figure remained steady as a mountain.

Taking advantage of the moment when Tianjizi's attention was caught by the gale, a dark shadow darted from behind him. In a flash, it snatched the slip of paper from his hand.

Tianjizi’s brow furrowed ever so slightly.

The figure landed not far before him, making no attempt to hide. From her vantage between the stones, Hua Sheng could make out a slender, short-haired girl in her prime. Her face was delicate and small as a palm, yet she wore a pair of oversized gold-rimmed glasses almost half as big as her head. When she looked at Tianjizi, her eyes narrowed, as if her eyesight was poor. She was so petite that the Academy’s ceremonial robe hung off her like a sack.

Tianjizi asked, "You wish to know the number written on this slip?"

The bespectacled, short-haired girl gazed straight at him without a word.

Seeing her remain silent, Tianjizi went on, "I didn't expect the flaw in this game to be the trial’s colored ring. Once it suffers any external blow, it shrinks further and further. I suspect it won't withstand many more impacts before it shatters."

The girl stood unmoving, making no attempt to dodge. She raised the slip of paper in her hand. Unexpectedly, she didn’t open it at all; instead, she balled it up in her palm, twisted it between her hands, and ground it into powder, letting the dust fall and scatter from her fingers.

"Still, since you’ve revealed yourself, I might as well send you out." Tianjizi, unmoved by the destroyed slip, continued, "It seems you have an interesting number. Yours is thirteen, isn’t it?"

Hua Sheng quickly looked up at the carvings on the cave wall.

Where once it read “Testers: Twenty-one,” it now read “Testers: Twenty.”

Hua Sheng gasped inwardly and whispered to Xuan Wen, "This girl is far too impulsive. Tearing up her number slip is useless. Tianjizi can just write the number again. Getting eliminated like this—what’s the point..."

But before she finished speaking, her expression froze. She rubbed her eyes in disbelief—for Tianjizi wore the same expression.

The short-haired girl in glasses still stood there, perfectly fine.

"Tianjizi guessed the wrong number?" Hua Sheng couldn’t help blurting out. "No, wait! The fact that the count dropped means he got her number right."

Could the numbers on the wall be some kind of illusion, as with the spell she’d cast on the Tiger Spirit? No, that was impossible. While an illusion might fool the Tiger Spirit, whose spiritual power was sealed, it wouldn’t deceive an expert like Tianjizi.

The wall’s numbers truly reflected the current number of participants. The number Tianjizi called out was indeed this girl’s.

Several contestants had already been forced out for having their numbers guessed, proving the rule that “if your number is known by another, you must withdraw” was real and binding.

So why hadn’t this girl been eliminated?

"Could there be a flaw in the trial’s rules?" Hua Sheng frowned deeply. She could not imagine the cause and murmured, "This is completely unscientific!"

At the center of the cave, Tianjizi also seemed puzzled. He mused, "Hmm? Then perhaps your number is... nine hundred ninety-nine?"

Upon hearing this, Hua Sheng looked immediately back at the wall.

“Testers: Twenty” instantly became “Testers: Nineteen.”

Yet the girl still stood there!

Tianjizi double-checked the numbers, then stared at the girl intently, his gaze filled with disbelief.

What in the world was happening?

The strange wind in the cave gradually died down, and countless blue and black feathers drifted between the bespectacled girl and Tianjizi. The atmosphere grew increasingly eerie.

Hiding behind the rocks, Hua Sheng clutched her head and urgently asked the Young Lord and Xuan Wen, "What kind of illusion is this? Is it a Supreme Illusion? Or is there a loophole in the rules of this mind-calculation game?"

"Indeed. That girl is clearly still present, yet the number of participants is dropping," the Young Lord replied, equally perplexed. "Could this be a fake person?"

But the girl’s next move immediately disproved that theory. With a flick of her sleeve, a black feather shot out, striking the trial’s colored ring with a heavy thud. Sparks flew in all directions, and a sharp sound echoed through the cavern. The ring shuddered at the impact, shrinking further until it was no larger than a palm.

Worse, cracks now appeared along the edge of the colored ring.

"This is bad! If it gets hit again, the ring will be destroyed!" Hua Sheng cried out. "What happens if the ring is ruined?"

"Then it’s considered that everyone is eliminated from this round," Xuan Wen answered.

The Young Lord added, "That would mean all the disciples in this year’s Celestial Eye Trial would be wiped out."

"Wait, you mean it’s possible for everyone to be eliminated?" Hua Sheng asked anxiously.

"If no one completes the trial, the first-place spot that year goes unawarded. It's happened before," the Young Lord replied.

Hua Sheng grew agitated. "Then all our efforts in the first round will be wasted? No! I still want to defeat Tianjizi! And I want the Path to the Victorious Buddha, so I’ll have a chance to meet the legendary Sun Wukong!"

"Calm yourself! I imagine someone is more desperate than you," said the Young Lord.

Sure enough, Tianjizi’s composure was slipping. He demanded, "Who are you? If you destroy the trial’s colored ring, neither of us will advance. What could you possibly gain?"

"I don’t need to win against you," the girl in glasses suddenly spoke, her voice as clear as birdsong ringing a bell. "I only want to make sure you don’t win this game."

No sooner had she finished than two more feathers shot from her sleeve. Almost simultaneously, the ever-vigilant Tianjizi struck toward the ring with a lightning-fast palm. The two feathers exploded into dust less than three meters from the ring.

The tension in the air was suffocating. The colored ring was hanging by a thread. As the Young Lord had said, one more strike and this year’s Celestial Eye Trial would end in universal failure.

Though Tianjizi’s winning streak would be broken, there would be no benefit for Hua Sheng either. Worse, she was completely bewildered and might not even know why she was eliminated.

If what she saw was real, then what had this mysterious girl done to skirt the rules of the mind-calculation game? The numbers on the wall didn’t lie—two had just disappeared. Yet the girl in glasses remained. So who, then, had vanished?

Hua Sheng looked questioningly at Xuan Wen, hoping for an answer.

"She’s Mie Ying. Now you understand why the Fire Wheel King Nezha would choose her as his goddaughter."

Xuan Wen seemed to know exactly what Hua Sheng wanted to ask.

"What Mie Ying carries within her may be beyond the reach of even one as blessed by fate as Tianjizi!"