“Look at that idiot, he looks just like a pig, with a few pockmarks on his face, and yet he insists on sticking a fan into his collar, thinking he’s some kind of Young Master Huan Yu? Doesn’t he realize that the rolls of fat on his neck are about to snap that fan in half!”

“That’s right, look at how unsteady his steps are—at most, he’s only just undergone marrow cleansing in the past two months. I bet his muscles and bones haven’t even been tempered yet, and he actually dares to apply to our Tiandao Institute? Where does he think this is? The National Academy? Hahaha... I really don’t understand what these idiots are thinking. Do they really believe that with such weak and pitiful spiritual sense, they can comprehend the Dao Canon?”

“Comprehend the Dao Canon? Even Gou Hanshi, who’s obsessed with studying, wouldn’t dare say that. You all pity that idiot for what he’s about to go through, but I actually pity his parents. The humiliation he’s about to suffer is secondary; all the money they spent before can never be recovered. If I were that fat idiot’s parents, I’d rather spend that money at the altar to buy some pills to lose weight—at least then he could get a wife.”

“And what if he does get a wife? Even if he takes the Hanmei Pill, it only helps himself. In the future, if he has seventeen or eighteen sons and daughters, they’ll all be born just as fat and foolish as he is. Raising a whole litter of pigs—how could that be a good thing?”

The students burst out laughing, brazenly gossiping about the applicants. Their words were extremely harsh, and they made no effort to lower their voices—perhaps even deliberately wanting their target to hear, which was truly despicable. The chubby boy they were talking about blushed bright red, but didn’t dare to fight back, because what they said was true. He had indeed only just undergone marrow cleansing a little over ten days ago, and his chances of getting into the Tiandao Institute were slim to none. Most importantly, even if by some miracle he did get in, he couldn’t afford to offend these seniors.

Ethan Brooks walked through the crowd, listening to the filthy words, his brows twitching slightly. He wondered if he could endure it if he were the one being talked about. Fortunately, he kept his head down and his presence was so ordinary that he was barely noticeable in the crowd, so he luckily avoided being mocked and smoothly passed through the gate of the Moyu Courtyard and went inside.

Because he was lost in thought and had his head down, he didn’t notice the two massive stone walls flanking the stone path at the entrance to the Tiandao Institute. The walls were carved with strange flowers and divine beasts, and in the middle were densely packed with hundreds of names, as if it were some kind of ranking list. Many gazes were fixed on those names, filled with heat and admiration.

Family members and servants who had accompanied the new applicants were not allowed to enter the Tiandao Institute, so once inside, the environment became noticeably quieter. Ethan Brooks took a clean white handkerchief from his sleeve, wiped the fine beads of sweat from his forehead, exhaled, and felt a bit more at ease. He followed the student in front of him and lined up at the end of the long queue.

There were many people applying to the Tiandao Institute, and the line was very long, looking like the legendary hundred-zhang Qishe serpent from the Western Demon Domain, stretching from a distant building all the way to this side of the lawn, even crossing a clear stream in the middle. Quite a few new applicants stood on the wooden bridge over the river, their faces turning bluish from the chilly early spring wind.

Soon, people began to come out of that building—boys and girls, their faces just as ashen as those on the bridge, looking miserable. If it wasn’t from the cold, it must have been because the exam was going terribly. Those still in line, seeing their dejected expressions, immediately grew nervous and lost all desire to chat.

Ethan Brooks didn’t know anyone, so naturally he didn’t chat. He looked curiously at the building in the distance. Right now, he only cared about the Tiandao Institute’s entrance exam—was it really as described in the books, or had the method changed? Why had so many failed so quickly? Or had the exam at the Tiandao Institute really changed?

The crowd kept moving forward, across the lawn and the stream, but before reaching the building, they arrived at a row of bamboo sheds. Behind a stone table sat a stern-faced teacher from the Tiandao Institute, and on the table was a piece of jet-black rock that looked like volcanic stone. Ethan Brooks recognized what it was, recalling a case he’d read about in the Dao Scrolls, and was momentarily taken aback.

Chapter 5: The Youth in Blue, Thirty-Six

The young men participating in the Tiandao Institute’s entrance exam, under the stern command of the instructor, stepped forward one by one to pick up the stone and hold it tightly for three breaths. Most of the time, the black stone would glow faintly in their hands, with subtle differences in brightness. Only a few people would pick up the stone and see no change at all.

That jet-black rock had a very ordinary name: the Resonance Stone. In the Dao Canon, there is a scripture about the strange products of mountains, rivers, and seas, called “The Classic of All Living Things.” Ethan Brooks had seen a picture of this stone in that text and knew its wondrous properties—this black stone naturally contains a kind of energy similar to spiritual thought. When it comes into contact with a human body, a wisp of this energy enters the person, stimulating their own true essence, and then, like fishing, draws a wisp of that essence back into the stone. The more abundant the true essence in the person holding the stone, and the stronger their spiritual sense, the more the stone is replenished and the brighter it glows. After many years of experimentation, people have developed a set of rules to judge a person’s strength by the brightness of the stone.