1825 Getting the Red Flower “Student Li Xiao Bai greets both teachers.” Li Xiao Bai walked up the stage and said politely. Great Scholar Shen smiled at him, nodding. Meanwhile, Teacher Jiang of this school asked: “Xiao Bai, do you have any poems?” Teacher Jiang had a bit of worry shown between his brows. This Xiao Bai was very ordinary in talent, hopefully he had some sort of preparation before this, otherwise with his current standards, this would be a disappointing show. It was okay if he was the only person disappointed, but right now with Great Scholar Shen here... Especially when the first half of this competition was very interesting and would become renowned in the world, if the later half was disappointing, everyone in the world would know that Teacher Jiang was a talented person but could not teach young talents himself. “Teacher, I have a poem prepared.” Li Xiao Bai immediately answered, he was quite confident. “Then let us hear it.” Teacher Jiang was slightly more assured now. This Profound Literature grotto-heaven was not like any other place, it had a flourishing literary culture. If anyone could make a good poem, even if nobody rewards them, heaven and earth would provide them benefits! Thus, the art of creating poems was an important task, it directly affected the person’s livelihood, status, reputation, and future. Normally speaking, most scholars would accumulate their foundation and save some good poem lines as secrets, even if they could not compose a poem with those lines, they would save it for the future. Thus, even though many scholars could create great poems, they would not publish them. They would conceal their strength and use them to deal with difficult poem competitions. Because of this, it was not strange or surprising that Li Xiao Bai had a poem prepared. Li Xiao Bai had his considerations. “I have read countless poems in my life, most are world shocking creations, they are famous on Earth even after thousands of years, and after such a long time, the literature on Earth flourished greatly.” “But if I try to use these poems, it will be a problem!” “This grotto-heaven world has an information path environment, it most excels at collecting information. Especially the method to observe literary qi and talent qi, almost everybody has such methods, they only vary in the depth of abilities.” “I lack literary qi and talent qi, before I used soul replacement, this was just an ordinary student. By creating a world shocking poem now, not only would people not believe me, they would also be suspicious and start investigating me.” “Even if I try to explain that it is not my work afterwards, it would be too late. I’d be seen as dishonest, in this world, everyone will despise and loathe me.” Fang Yuan had planned many things before infiltrating Profound Literature grotto-heaven to deal with all sorts of situations. The clone Li Xiao Bai lacked literary qi and talent qi to begin with, it was not that Fang Yuan’s own talents were lacking. However, Li Xiao Bai had a large number of famous poems in his memories, other than those from Earth, there were also Fang Yuan’s own creations. Thus, Li Xiao Bai chose one of them and started to recite. Teacher Jiang let out a breath of air, this poem was quite well constructed, it was barely living up to the standards of today’s competition. “What, it is nothing impressive.” “I sat beside Li Xiao Bai for three years in class, this is way beyond his usual standards, hahaha.” “Isn’t that great? With his poem as the anchor, the next two winners will be very lucky.” The students below the stage became increasingly lively. Even though Li Xiao Bai’s poem was quite compatible with his known abilities, he still had many more talented classmates around. Especially when some students had many precious poems that they prepared already in advance. These poems were composed meticulously by them, using a lot of time and effort to create, they were too good for other situations, but this was an appropriate setting to use them. When the drums started rolling and the red flower got passed around, these elite students became very excited, their eyes were shining. The drums stopped. Most of the students were disappointed, why were they not chosen? Next, their eyes turned red, it was him again! The red flower stopped at Li Xiao Bai’s table. “Oh?” Li Xiao Bai was also quite surprised. “The rules are the rules, you can come up again.” Great Scholar Shen laughed as he shook his head. Teacher Jiang got worried again, according to Li Xiao Bai’s nature and foundation, he had already performed above standard last time, this time... But Li Xiao Bai started to recite his poem again. This poem was on the same level as the previous one. Teacher Jiang finally relaxed as he looked at Li Xiao Bai with a gentler expression: “It seems that even though this student is not as talented, he is very hardworking, he stored up two poems as backup. These two should be his own creation, it was not easy that he managed to compose them.” Li Xiao Bai did not put up a shameful performance, Teacher Jiang was very glad about it. “The final person.” “Both chances went to Li Xiao Bai, sigh, that was truly bad luck!” “If I had gone on stage, the two great scholars would definitely be pleasantly surprised. But I was not given a chance.” “I wonder who will get the third chance? If it is not me, I hope it is not them either.” 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞 The students were unable to sit still, they had their own thoughts as they lost their cool. The drums rolled as the students looked at the red flower with bloodshot eyes. “Pass it to me! Pass it to me!” “Sigh, it has passed me... I hope the drumming continues and it makes its way to me again.” “Bang!” The drums stopped abruptly with a loud sound. Great Scholar Shen opened his eyes as he smiled: “Who is it this time, ugh.” He was dazed, a strange expression was shown on his face as he pointed at the final lucky star, he did not know whether to cry or laugh: “Why is it you again?” Li Xiao Bai held the flower as he walked up the stage with a grim expression. He first cupped his fists at the two scholars before turning to the students below the stage: “Fellow classmates, I really did not do this intentionally, getting up the stage thrice is less of a surprise and more of a shock to me. I know that most of you are more talented than me, but I have to recite three times, I sincerely apologize.” Originally, his classmates were shocked and furious, but after hearing Li Xiao Bai’s words and expression, the anger in their hearts dissipated. In fact, a portion of the people started to feel pity for Li Xiao Bai. After all, Li Xiao Bai’s talent and literary skills were inferior to them, wasn’t he suffering by going up the stage? “Your luck is too incredible. Forget it, start reciting.” Teacher Jiang laughed as he spoke. Li Xiao Bai started his recital again, the standard was ordinary but the final line was quite impressive. Even though it was just a minor point, it elevated the entire poem to a new level. Not only did Great Scholar Shen laugh and praise it, even Teacher Jiang was a little surprised: “The final line of your poem is quite interesting. How did you conceptualize it?” Li Xiao Bai smiled bitterly: “Teacher, I don’t dare to lie, this poem had only three lines originally, I thought of and added the final line earlier when I was anxious, to think that both sirs would enjoy it, I was also quite surprised!” Teacher Jiang was stunned before laughing loudly. Great Scholar Shen shook his head: “Li Xiao Bai, you are very honest.” It turned out that he had used a method secretly to inspect Li Xiao Bai’s literary qi and talent qi, he obtained information that this person had quite an ordinary talent. “But it is not something rare that he can have a flash of inspiration and perform better than normal.” Great Scholar Shen had no suspicions. Teacher Jiang reassessed Li Xiao Bai in a new light. He looked at Li Xiao Bai inconspicuously as he thought: “Even though Li Xiao Bai is very ordinary in talent, he is very hardworking normally, that is how he had three poems prepared. Being able to gain inspiration and make up the verse on the spot shows that he has potential. But the best thing about him is that he said those words earlier before the third round, he apologized to his classmates, that was his good interpersonal skills. Being able to articulate as well as his writing, and sophisticated in human interaction, he is not bad.” “Wait.” Teacher Jiang suddenly thought: “This competition is going to be famous in the world, my reputation has already spread throughout the world before this, that is not key. But Li Xiao Bai is going to become famous from this, if there were three students who performed, it would be less impactful, but he actually took all three chances, this way, he will be the center of attention.” “After ending in a draw against Brother Shen, nobody will find me for a duel in the short period. But there might be some devious people who would target my student in order to affect me!” And the problem was, Li Xiao Bai was a common and ordinary student. Teacher Jiang frowned as he made up his mind: “After this, I need to nurture Li Xiao Bai and secretly give him tuition! After this competition, everyone will know that Li Xiao Bai is my student. Even though I have many students, he is the only famous one.” “In the future, if anyone mentions Li Xiao Bai, my name will also come up. Our reputation is already tied together, I need to nurture him well, otherwise...” Teacher Jiang felt very pressured, he decided to make sure Li Xiao Bai was a proper scholar even if he had to spend a huge amount of effort and resources. Even if he was a cheap piece of wood, he needed to be carved into jade in appearance! Central Continent, Fei He mountain. Gu Liu Ru stopped his killer move as he wiped the sweat off his forehead, he let out a breath of air: “It is done, his immortal aperture time has been shifted to its limit, he will face calamities and tribulations very often.” “Thank you for the hard work.” Qin Ding Ling smiled as she looked at the sleeping Gu Yue Fang Zheng, suddenly, she gasped. “What is it?” Gu Liu Ru asked in confusion. Qin Ding Ling said: “I was using a killer move to inspect luck, I found that after your killer move was activated, Fang Zheng’s luck changed again. His original luck was like a hill, lush and squarish, but now it has turned into... hmm... it looks like a pot lid.” Gu Liu Ru was very perplexed: “What premonition is this?” Qin Ding Ling shook her head, she was troubled too: “In the short term, I cannot understand it.” Two months later. A certain news made Fang Yuan’s main body stop his cultivation. “I finally found out the location of Dragon Palace.” “Good, I have basically learned all the qi path methods there are, I should act in advance and steal this Immortal Gu House in secret before Heavenly Court does!”