After a long while, someone finally shouted loudly—it was Mountville Daoist Master, his face full of excited confusion.

The immortal envoy had already stepped onto the stage. Sweeping his gaze over the outstanding talents on the platform, his expression grew somewhat heavy as he sighed, “Because it has just been confirmed that the Dao Yuan True Explanation obtained by our Qingyang Sect is a fake. In other words…”

His expression showed some regret as well: “For the past three hundred years, everything we have learned from the Dao Yuan True Explanation has been false!”

Chapter Two: Dao Yuan True Explanation

“How could this happen?”

Inside the city lord’s mansion, festooned with lanterns and streamers, Henry Carter sat all alone at a table in the outer hall, staring blankly at the colorful fish swimming in the pond nearby. Suddenly, he felt a strong urge to leap into the pond and become one of them.

He had almost forgotten how he walked down from the Dao platform, or how the servants of the city lord’s mansion had brought him here.

At this moment, a banquet was being held in the city lord’s mansion.

As per tradition, after every triennial grand examination, the city lord would host a banquet for those who made the rankings and were about to become disciples of the immortal sects. This year was no exception. In fact, because his own daughter had also made the list, the festivities were even more lively. Yet, while Henry Carter should have been seated at the VIP table in the inner hall for this grand banquet, he could only sit dazedly in the outer hall, guarding an empty table.

He could feel the gazes around him—some sympathetic, some pitying, some mocking, and even some gloating—leaving him utterly exhausted.

He shouldn’t even be here!

With the Dao Yuan True Explanation invalidated, not only was he no longer at the top of the Jiazi List, he couldn’t even make it onto the Xiao Yi List…

Because he had poured so much effort into the Dao Yuan True Explanation, he had little accomplishment in other areas—be it pharmacology, divination, or artifacts. In fact, he was almost completely ignorant of them. After all, Mr. Brooks had told him long ago that if one mastered the Dao Yuan True Explanation, it was worth more than all the other disciplines combined…

After all, the other disciplines could be learned slowly after entering the immortal sect, but the Dao Yuan True Explanation had to be learned from a young age.

And so it was: in the immortal sect’s examination, Henry Carter had only taken the Dao Yuan True Explanation and had won first place on the Jiazi List.

But who could have expected that before he even received the jade token, such terrible news would arrive?

His name was now nowhere to be found on the list, but the city lord, perhaps out of kindness, still had the servants bring him over and arranged a seat for him.

However, the matter of marrying into the family was never mentioned again, and there was no longer a place for him at the honored seats in the inner hall.

Everyone else in the outer hall, whether intentionally or not, avoided him, leaving him to occupy a large table all by himself, as if an invisible force field had formed around him, keeping everyone else far away!

“Sigh, the young master of the Fang family is truly pitiful. He should have been at the top of the list, but in the end…”

“Heh, it’s never easy for a poor student to rise up. Even the heavens seem to be against him…”

“Why is he still sitting here? Is he waiting to humiliate himself?”

Whispers spread around, buzzing like mosquitoes into Henry Carter’s ears.

He really did feel like he should leave.

“Since you’re here, why rush to go?”

A large hand pressed down on Henry Carter’s shoulder, pushing him back into his seat just as he was about to get up.

Henry Carter turned to look and saw an elderly man in a blue robe, about fifty or sixty years old, thin but vigorous, exuding a natural air of authority. He let out a long sigh, sat down beside Henry Carter, picked up a wine jug and poured a full cup, handing it to Henry Carter.

“Mr. Brooks…”

Henry Carter quickly stood up to salute, showing great respect for the old man before him.

This old man was a Daoist master of the Immortal Hall and had once been an inner disciple of the Qingyang Sect. It was he who, ten years ago, had brought the eavesdropping Henry Carter into the Immortal Hall, and it was thanks to his painstaking guidance over the past decade that Henry Carter had become who he was today…

…Though now, Henry Carter was nothing more than an unlucky soul with no name on the list!

“Sit down and talk!”

Mr. Brooks waved his hand, turned to look at Henry Carter, and said softly, “Are you very disappointed?”

“I…”

Henry Carter’s expression darkened. Ten years of hard work destroyed in an instant—how could he not be disappointed?

But seeing the concern in his teacher’s eyes, he only smiled and said, “I was just wondering if the city lord still wants me as his son-in-law?”

“Haha, now you’re nameless on the list, your future looks bleak—who would marry their daughter to you?”

Mr. Brooks laughed at this, drained a cup of wine, and forced it into Henry Carter’s hand. Then he let out a long sigh and said, “Actually, it was long expected that the Dao Yuan True Explanation would be proven false!”

The forced smile on Henry Carter’s face froze as he looked up at Mr. Brooks.