Chapter 48: Joining the Seven Stars Pavilion

The written examination was not about composing poetry, wielding calligraphy, or writing flowery essays!

Instead, it covered arcane arts, formations, mechanisms, case-solving, antidote-preparation, and everything else related to walking the pugilistic world!

The testing assessment was very simple, consisting of two rounds. The first was a self-selected question, designed to let everyone showcase their strengths.

The second round was a randomized question, intended to test adaptability—for instance, whether one could quickly find an antidote after being poisoned!

Naturally, when it came to the self-selected question, several people unanimously chose the arcane arts. Since they all came from the modern era, no matter how poor their mathematics might be, solving a few ancient mathematical problems was still as easy as pie!

Take the problem Gao Wu drew, for example:

There are things of unknown quantity. Count them by threes, and a remainder of two is left; count them by fives, and a remainder of three is left; count them by sevens, and a remainder of two is left. How many things are there?

Gao Wu only thought about it slightly before replying, "Twenty-three!"

Such a problem was quite difficult for the ancients, and even harder for martial artists, but for Gao Wu, it took only three to five breaths of time.

The proctor, a Four-Star Agent of the Seven Stars Tower, was immediately astounded and hurriedly looked at the clerk, "How many breaths did it take?"

"This... about ten breaths."

"That can't be right, I felt it should have been even shorter!"

"Answering the question took three breaths, but I was stunned for seven breaths, wasn't I!"

"Uh, haha!"

"Good, you've passed this first round. Go ahead and randomly pick another question!"

For the second question, Gao Wu randomly drew a case-solving question.

The Four-Star Agent called over two clerks and said, "Between the boxes in these two men's hands, one is empty and the other contains an object. Now, one of these two men only tells the truth, while the other only tells lies. You can only question one of them; please determine which box contains the object!"

Gao Wu glanced over the boxes in the two clerks' hands, stared directly at the clerk closest to him, and pointing his hand at the other clerk, asked, "If I were to ask him which box contains the object, what would he say?"

That clerk looked down at the box in his own hands.

With a chuckle, Gao Wu pointed his hand at the other box, "The object is in that box!"

"Are you certain?"

"Certain!"

The Four-Star Agent looked at the clerks, and both clerks nodded vigorously at the same time!

"Wow, it's just a few breaths of time again!"

"Three breaths!" the recording clerk said with certainty.

Having gained experience, the recording clerk this time didn't dare to zone out at all!

"Haha, good, good lad!" The Four-Star Agent patted Gao Wu on the shoulder happily.

"Our Spring Breeze Hall specializes in resolving pugilistic disputes and hunting down martial arts villains. I'm going right now to see the Hall Master, and I will definitely get you assigned to our Spring Breeze Hall!"

With that, he left Gao Wu standing right where he was and hurried off!

A total of sixty-three people participated in the second round of tests, with twenty-three being eliminated, leaving forty people to enter the Seven Stars Tower.

Regardless of their strength or realm, all forty of these people became One-Star Agents!

Their token was a bronze star.

That Four-Star Agent named Cheng Qingfeng truly did not break his promise; he managed to have Gao Wu assigned to their Spring Breeze Hall.

As for the three women, they went together to the Fierce Phoenix Hall. Word had it that this hall was composed entirely of women, and the Hall Master was even the sole Six-Star.

Within the Seven Stars Tower, One-Star, Two-Star, and Three-Star were bronze stars, forming the foundation of the tower; Four-Star and Five-Star were silver stars, belonging to the middle tier, typically occupied by Hall Masters and Deputy Hall Masters; while the Six-Stars numbered seventy-two in total and were gold stars.

As for the Seven-Stars, aside from the Tower Master Lord Cao, no one else could even dare to dream of it!

Cheng Qingfeng had an open-handed personality, loved making friends, and didn't treat Gao Wu like a newcomer at all. Instead, he bustled about helping Gao Wu complete his onboarding.

"Our Hall Master has a rigid personality, as stubborn as a block of wood. Be careful when you see him later!"

"Understood, Brother Feng!"

"Brother Feng? Hmm, not bad, call me that from now on! Brother Feng, haha!"

"Inside our Seven Stars Tower, the lowest tier consists of those clerks and handymen, who receive a monthly stipend of five taels. Next is a newly joined One-Star Agent like you, with a monthly stipend of twenty taels!"

"Of course, I know you certainly wouldn't look down on this tiny stipend, but we have another system: merits. Complete missions, earn merits, and treasures, pills, and martial arts manuals will all be well within your reach!"

"Oh, those are just drizzle. The most important thing is acting according to circumstances!"

Cheng Qingfeng said in a low, mysterious tone as he took out his Four-Star silver token, "With this token, you can freely enter and exit the treasuries and scripture pavilions of various large and small sects!"

"Hehe, of course, if someone has powerful backing behind them, you'd better be careful!"

"Come, look here..."

On this day, Gao Wu truly broadened his horizons and gained a preliminary understanding of the empire's pugilistic administration agency!

Over the next few days, Gao Wu reported to the Seven Stars Tower on time every day, and then spent his time chatting and bantering with several colleagues about various martial arts gossip and secrets!

His cultivation was also gradually reaching the peak of the Qi Condensation realm, with the possibility of breaking through to the Qi Sea realm at any moment!

On this day, just as Gao Wu finished roll call, he heard the sound of a whistle—it was the assembly whistle.

All the agents already present in the Spring Breeze Hall gathered at the entrance.

"A martial arts school on Chang'an Street was exterminated last night. Now, everyone follow me to the scene!"

Cheng Qingfeng was concise and to the point. Once he finished speaking, he led the group on horseback toward Chang'an Street!

The destroyed martial arts school was named the Gold and Stone School. Its master had founded it after coming down the mountain as a disciple of the Vajra Sect. Because his external physical cultivation truly had distinctive features, he had made a name for himself, and people coming to learn martial arts in the capital area were endless.

The courtyard of the Gold and Stone School was not large, but its location was quite good. It was not impossible that someone might have taken a fancy to this plot of land and harbored evil intentions because of it.

A total of thirteen people were killed: four ordinary servants, the master of the Gold and Stone School, and eight disciples!

"Everyone was killed with a single blow. The opponent is an expert with the saber!"

The master of the martial arts school was named Jin Shi. He was in his forties, lived alone, and had no family.

Gao Wu was also observing Jin Shi's corpse. His head had been severed by a single saber slash, and the perpetrator must have been quite ruthless at the time, cutting halfway through his neck.

Logically speaking, Jin Shi was, after all, a Qi Sea realm expert with a body tempered in hard qigong; he shouldn't have been so easily killed by a single saber strike.

Unless Jin Shi had been completely caught off guard at the time!

However, the killer had attacked from the front, so how could he have been caught off guard?

Thinking of this, Gao Wu already had an answer in his mind.

After walking around and inspecting other areas, Gao Wu discovered that the killer seemed only to have killed people without vandalizing the school or plundering any valuables!

What was the killer's motive?

"Are all of Jin Shi's disciples here?"

"No, the disciples Jin Shi took in were of two kinds: boarders and non-boarders. These are only the boarding disciples!"

Gao Wu immediately instructed the bailiffs, "Summon all the non-boarding disciples here immediately!"

"Yes, my lord!"

At that moment, Cheng Qingfeng walked over and asked, "Gao Wu, do you suspect the killer is a disciple of the Gold and Stone School?"

"Brother Feng, the killer is not a disciple of the Gold and Stone School. Calling them here is simply to find out who visited the Gold and Stone School yesterday!"

Cheng Qingfeng nodded; Gao Wu's reaction was indeed swift enough!

"Gao Wu, what is your view on this case?"