Chapter 33: Chapter 33: Restless Mind and Wandering Intentions

“Excuse me, brother, do you happen to know what’s peculiar here?” Ye Jingyu walked over to Li Jizhou, respectfully cupping his hands and bowing.

Yang Yutong reluctantly put down the jade slip but hurriedly followed behind Ye Jingyu.

It wasn’t until she reached Li Jizhou’s side that she peeked out half her head from behind Ye Jingyu, looking oddly at Li Jizhou.

While everyone else frantically searched for cultivation techniques and secret skills to memorize, the handsome and graceful man before her remained composed, diligently copying down notes.

Hearing Ye Jingyu’s respectful inquiry, Li Jizhou’s hand did not stop writing as he calmly replied, “Calm your mind!”

“Hua~” These two words seemed to possess endless magical power, causing Ye Jingyu to break out in a cold sweat instantly.

He suddenly recalled everything that happened after entering here.

It seemed that the events that happened in the plaza earlier were inexplicably weakened in memory after entering here, leading to an unconscious tendency to forget them.

And at this moment, Li Jizhou’s two words instantly made Ye Jingyu think of Xu Jiuge’s words and the events that happened in the plaza.

He quickly changed his expression and bowed to Li Jizhou, “Thank you for the guidance, brother!”

Then, he hurriedly pulled Yang Yutong and sat on a low couch beside Li Jizhou.

“Remember, we’re currently in an examination, and the first stage is calming the mind.

Don’t let external influences disturb you, don’t let desire attack you; those so-called cultivation techniques and secret skills on the jade slips are just obstacles for our state of mind.

Subdue the restless mind, calmly copy down notes!” Ye Jingyu took a deep breath and solemnly warned Yang Yutong.

“But these top-grade cultivation techniques…” Yang Yutong looked longingly at the records in the jade slip, feeling extremely reluctant.

“Don’t think about them anymore; consider them all as illusions!” After saying this solemnly, Ye Jingyu mimicked Li Jizhou and began focusing on copying.

“Oh~” Yang Yutong pouted and picked up a pen to start copying, though with some small thoughts in mind.

Surely, I can copy while memorizing, right?

Gradually, time passed by.

In the blink of an eye, a day and night had gone by.

“Done, done, I’ve memorized this top-grade cultivation technique completely! Hahaha~”

“I hope there’s more time so I can memorize a few more books!”

Throughout the period, people kept expressing excited ecstasy.

However, during this period, some noticed the peculiarity of Li Jizhou, Ye Jingyu, and their group, momentarily came to their senses, and quickly returned to the low couches with jade slips, copying while memorizing.

But while copying, they involuntarily paused, pondering and comprehending the content of the techniques.

“Huh, what’s wrong? Why is it that although I’ve memorized this cultivation technique, I can’t recall any of it in my mind?”

“What? After memorizing the entire technique, it’s gone from memory?”

“I clearly memorized… memorized… how many did I memorize? Why is there nothing in my mind, as if the memories have been erased!”

Until noon, someone suddenly discovered the anomaly, causing a chain reaction.

“No, no, why is this happening? My top-grade ’Thick Earth Skill’! I’m not reconciled; I’ll memorize it again…”

Some fell into madness, more frantically memorizing techniques.

Meanwhile, some noticed the peculiarity, saw someone sitting down to copy, and briefly regained consciousness, copying down notes while pondering.

Days passed one by one, and before anyone knew it, a month had quietly slipped away.

For those small cultivators in the early stage of Qi Cultivation, a month is the limit for fasting.

Because Li Jizhou possessed profound and long-lasting Eternal Spring Magical Power, he didn’t feel hungry even at this point.

But most were already anxiously hungry.

At this point, of the sixty-seven who entered the first stage of the examination for calming the mind, forty-one sat before the low couch, some like Li Jizhou calmly copying notes, while others copied and tried to memorize in vain.

The remaining twenty-six had fallen into madness, still frantically searching for jade slips under the bookshelves with reddened eyes.

“How much longer do we have to keep copying? I’m out of strength!”

“When is Xu Jiuge coming?”

“I’ve found that there’s definitely something wrong with these techniques; they can’t be memorized. After remembering the entire technique, it will disappear completely.”

“These cultivation techniques and secret skills are part of the examination; stop thinking about it and calmly copy down notes.”

…

“Brother, your mental fortitude is remarkable, I admire you!” At this moment, Ye Jingyu, who had been diligently copying, couldn’t hold on anymore, and weakly glanced at Li Jizhou, who remained focused on copying.

Li Jizhou didn’t speak, only nodded slightly.

In Ye Jingyu’s heart at this moment, Li Jizhou had already become a stellar figure.

Yang Yutong, with her low cultivation level, had long been exhausted, no longer thinking about memorizing techniques, only copying out of habit, but the words under her pen had long become chaotic and unrecognizable.

At this moment, she looked at Li Jizhou’s profile, her eyes full of surprise and admiration.

“Clang~”

Just then, a bell sounded.

Following that, the main door of the hall opened wide.

Rows of low-tier puppets dressed in Thunder Flame Sect warrior outfits entered, holding golden platters and jade butterflies, each filled with a feast of delicacies, filing in.

In the end, they stood in a row, without further action.

“Spirit Beast Meat!”

“This is… Steamed Flame Carving!”

“Oh my, Stir-fried Five-color Snake!”

“These are all g1 Spirit Beast meat; that Flame Carving is a Tier One Advanced Level Demon Beast that even Foundation Establishment stage figures would avoid when alone!”

Unexpectedly, those in the hall almost had no qualifications to enjoy spirit beast meat of this level.

At this moment, looking at them, coupled with extreme hunger, nearly all couldn’t help wanting to step forward and feast.

Eating a meal of this level of spirit beast meat would cause a minor improvement in their realm and condense the magical power in their dantian.

However, those who had gone through the empty experience with the techniques had gained vague insight into at least one aspect of Xu Jiuge’s mental fortitude examination.

So they temporarily suppressed their inner impulses.

Yet, after the puppets entered, they didn’t move anymore, just standing there while the spirit beast meat remained exposed before everyone.

The aroma of the meat filled the air, tempting mouths and tongues.

“Gulp~” More people swallowed forcefully.

“There should be no issue; eating to gain strength for copying is prepared for us!”

Finally, someone couldn’t resist anymore, stepped forward, and tore off a piece of neck from the Golden Jade Mouse-headed Duck, devouring it ravenously.

Seeing that person ate the entire duck neck without any anomalies, some couldn’t restrain themselves and went forward to eat.

“Brother Wing…” Yang Yutong looked expectantly at Ye Jingyu.

Ye Jingyu turned to glance at Li Jizhou, seeing him steady as a mountain, he resolutely said:

“Calmly copy notes!”

“Gulp~” Yang Yutong strained to swallow, forcing herself to stop looking at the spirit beast meat.

Then she looked at Li Jizhou again, pouting secretly.

In the end, of the forty-one originally seated on the low couch, twenty-eight couldn’t resist the allure of the spirit beast meat, rushing forward to crazily grab food from the puppets’ plates.

Strangely, as they ate, the spirit beast meat on the plates increased, to the point where everyone had a bulging stomach, yet the meat on the plates didn’t diminish, and they… still didn’t stop…

Until…

“Boom~”

A muffled sound, the stomach of the first person who grabbed the food suddenly burst like a balloon.

Mixed internal organs flowed all over the ground,

he looked at his stomach in horror,

but his hands involuntarily continued to stuff spirit beast meat into his mouth from the plates.

With the first, there came a second, just like those still crazily memorizing jade slips from the bookshelves.

Ultimately, all twenty-eight suffered ruptured stomachs yet continued grabbing food persistently.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep