章 34: The three tests from hell

Fu Jie chuckled, "What's this? Is it a standard to become his disciple? One has to be good-looking if they want to train under Elder Dayu? That sounds so ridiculous."

Dai Xiaobo suddenly nodded as he joined the conversation, "Not an official standard for judgment."

"It just so happens that all the disciples that have been accepted by Elder Dayu are good-looking." Xu Lifen added.

"Isn't that too unfair?" Fu Jie frowned.

Chen Qiao, "What's unfair? It's not an official assessment that qualifies you, it's just purely coincidental."

"Then what is the official assessment?"

"The three tests from hell." Xu Lifen put the wine jar down as she straightened her back and continued, "The spiritual ability test, the physical strength test, and the emotional stability test."

Chen Qiao grabbed another jar and downed it before adding, "The last one is the most difficult!"

Xu Lifen shuddered as she remembered something.

"The emotional stability test?" Fu Jie furrowed his eyebrows as he asked, "Why?"

Xu Lifen looked at him with a frown, "Do you want to know what I had to go through to pass that test?"

Chen Qiao clicked his tongue as he looked at Xu Lifen, "Senior martial sister Xu, what you went through was at least better than what I had to go through!"

Fu Jie hadn't really planned to change the topic, but somehow, he had and he wasn't complaining about it. The topic certainly started with Chen Qiao wanting to take off Fu Jie's mask, but with the current direction of this conversation, it didn't look like anyone was interested in the mask anymore.

Fu Jie looked at Chen Qiao curiously as he questioned, "What was the test?"

Chen Qiao seemed to have an expression that screamed that he had been wronged as he looked back at Fu Jie and shook his head, "It was horrible, Xia didi." He held his wine jar up and glanced at it lovingly as he added, "My beloved precious was lost forever."

"Eh?"

Xu Lifen side-eyed him before sighing as she spoke up, "He was given the last jar of wine in the world, but somebody attacked him and the wine jar fell and broke."

Chen Qiao, "That's not all! All three wonders were used against me! The one who broke my wine was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen and she was also a musician who used her Guqin to smash my head into a pulp!"

Fu Jie furrowed his eyebrows.

This conversation was a bit weird.

How come the two of them agreed that the third test was the worst and in the next second, they were saying that the third test was... this ridiculous?

Just because there was a beautiful girl beating him with a guqin and he broke his wine, this test was called the worst?

Fu Jie, "But you knew it was a test and not real, so you could've just beat the girl and passed."

Dai Xiaobo shook his head as he spoke up, "The emotional stability test is not conducted like other tests."

Xu Lifen nodded as she agreed with the man, "You are put in an array that is specially designed to trick you and use your weakness against you. Inside this array, you'll be tricked into thinking that everything is real and you won't be aware about the test at all."

Dai Xiaobo, "And beating the other person is not the way to pass the test. If you want to pass the test, you'll have to control your emotions and keep a calm mind."

Xu Lifen, "I was put in an array where my mother attacked my sister who had turned into a ghoul... It looked and felt so real. I had to choose between the two."

Fu Jie, "Who did you choose?"

Xu Lifen looked at him with an indecipherable expression that seemed to be hiding something, "I tried to save my sister and killed my mother by mistake. My sister attacked me and... I killed her too."

Fu Jie couldn't help but be shocked as he heard this.

He had never expected Xu Lifen to be such a person.

For a split second, he saw the sadness and guilt in her eyes. In order to not make the situation turn awkward, Fu Jie chuckled as he tried to reassure her, "Well, at least, it was just a test and you didn't actually kill them."

He had only wanted to save the situation from turning awkward but somehow, right after saying the words that were meant to be reassuring, he felt the atmosphere tense up as the two men glared at him and Xu Lifen looked at him with an expression he could not understand.

"I don't have a sister," Xu Lifen responded.

"Eh?"

"In the array, I was forced to believe that I had a little sister whom I loved dearly. My mother... She left me at a really young age and I grew up as an orphan."

"Oh..."

The atmosphere turned so tense that even breathing felt difficult for Fu Jie. He didn't know what he was supposed to say to that. He knew he couldn't save the conversation anymore since it had already taken an awkward path.

Chen Qiao suddenly broke the silence as he laughed and waved his hand around, "Forget about that! Even after doing all that, both of us failed the test."

"Failed the test?" Fu Jie looked at the man as he questioned.

Chen Qiao nodded, "When I failed the test, I was sure that I lost my opportunity to learn under Elder Dayu, but thank god I didn't!"

"Eh?" Fu Jie was confused, "Didn't you say that these three tests were the standards through which a person is selected?"

Dai Xiaobo shook his head as he answered instead of Chen Qiao, "Not necessarily. The test is just there to analyze ability and potential. Even if one were to pass all three tests, they could still fail to become a disciple under Elder Dayu and even if someone were to fail all the tests, they would still have a chance of becoming Elder Dayu's disciple. In the end, it was Elder Dayu who selected or rejected everyone and no one knows how he judges a person to be worthy or not."

Chen Qiao clicked his tongue, "Because of this, there is a really famous rumor in Maple passion pavilion. Since all the disciples under Elder Dayu are good-looking, people think that Elder Dayu selects the disciples because of their outer appearance."

Xu Lifen, "But this is just a rumor and is not trustworthy. There is no way Shizun uses this method to select disciples. He's not such a narrow-minded person."

"Then what about me?" Fu Jie questioned as he pointed at himself, "How come I became a disciple without having to go through the three tests from hell?"

The other three looked at him with different expressions in silence.

"That's a good question." Dai Xiaobo commented.

"..."

Xu Lifen leaned in closer as she asked, "Have you ever shown Elder Dayu your real face?"

It was Elder Dayu who had given him this mask in the first place so of course, he had seen Fu Jie's face but could Fu Jie just say the truth? Definitely not!

Fu Jie shook his head as he lied without any sense of guilt laced along with his voice, "I don't take off the mask."

Chen Qiao squinted, "Then could it be that since Xia didi's figure looks so great..." Chen Qiao looked down and stopped as he added, "Xia didi, you don't even have an impressive figure.... How come you were selected?"

Fu Jie, "..."

He was selected because Elder Dayu was planning something and Fu Jie was sure that he wouldn't be liking whatever that man was planning!

In reality, Fu Jie didn't have an impressive figure, however, he didn't have a bad figure either.

The real Fu Jie from this world had taken great care of this body but after being thrown in jail and not eating or exercising properly, the body had grown thin and although the muscles were still there, they didn't look as impressive, at least, not impressive enough to be noticed.

Dai Xiaobo sighed, "In any case, Shizun probably saw something in you."

Chen Qiao grabbed another jar but before he could drink it, Dai Xiaobo knocked it out of his hands and the jar fell down, shattering just like the last wine jar that had broken in the emotional stability test Chen Qiao had to go through.

"Senior brother Dai! Why would you-" Chen Qiao shouted but was stopped by Xu Lifen who immediately covered his mouth with her hand and gestured for him to stay quiet as she put her index finger up in front of her lips.

Fu Jie glanced at the broken wine jar before looking back up at Dai Xiaobo, "What happened?"

"Poison," Dai Xiaobo answered shortly.

Yu Lifen removed her hand from Chen Qiao's mouth, "Pull yourself together. We're not the only ones here."

Fu Jie's whole body went stiff as he heard this.

Poisoning their wine? Wasn't this an assassination attempt...?!