Longzang

Chapter 463 A great shame and humiliation

Once inside the Taichu Palace, Zhang Sheng's story becomes quite simple.

She displayed her talent, quietly cultivating in the Taichu Palace. Several years later, she forged her Dao foundation, making a name for herself. However, after forging her Dao foundation, she always felt that it was not yet perfect, so she went into seclusion to cultivate the "Heaven and Earth Furnace Sword Forging Method," using her own body as a furnace to nurture her fourth immortal sword.

The furnace body is male, the furnace core is female, the inner is yang and the outer is yin, in accordance with the way of heaven. She then changed her name to Zhang Sheng, and after leaving seclusion, she appeared in people's bodies as a man, until the Great Mantra of Cause and Effect.

At that time, the Taichu Palace had not yet centralized its teaching; the disciples cultivated in their respective temples and halls. Therefore, apart from a few people who had known Zhang Sheng since childhood, the vast majority of the Taichu Palace disciples of the same period did not know that Zhang Sheng was actually a woman.

Even after changing her body to be male and hiding her stunning beauty, Zhang Sheng still encountered many people who expressed their love for her, both men and women, but with far more men than women, which often made her irritable.

Then came the story of going down the mountain to search for the dragon, and then being unable to leave Yongzhou for three years.

As they continued their conversation, the two flew into the azure sky and landed on the main peak. Wei Yuan then asked, "Where do you live?"

“Of course, it’s the same place.” Zhang Sheng went into the small courtyard where he used to live and then pushed Wei Yuan out.

Everything in the courtyard remained exactly the same as it had been on the day of the Great Curse of Cause and Effect, and everything was impeccably clean, clearly indicating daily maintenance. Zhang Sheng casually picked up a book from the desk. She had only read half of it back then, and it was still sitting there perfectly fine. Only its position had shifted slightly, suggesting that Wei Yuan had read it later.

Since there was still some time before dawn, she decided to finish reading the book.

She suddenly sensed something was amiss behind her. Turning around, she found Wei Yuan standing behind her, blindfolding her with a cloth strip...

Then the lights went out, and the room fell into darkness.

At dawn, Zhang Sheng slowly woke up, feeling that she hadn't slept so deeply in a long time. Even though it was already daylight, and while the physical fatigue and soreness were bearable, why did she still feel so mentally exhausted?
Zhang Sheng glanced at her side; Wei Yuan was nowhere to be seen. However, she didn't care. Wei Yuan had now cultivated to the Dharma Form stage and didn't need to sleep at all. As for her body, reborn with dragon blood and returning to its pre-Dao Foundation stage, she had become a mortal and naturally needed to sleep.

Qingming is now more than ten times larger than it was before, and it has countless things to do, so she won't keep Wei Yuan by her side.

Zhang Sheng got up. Everything in the room was the same as when he had just gone to bed, except that there was a tall stack of jade paper on the table.

Zhang Sheng put on his robes, went to the table, and picked up the jade paper to read. The jade paper contained various data and information about Qingming at present. Zhang Sheng became so engrossed in reading that he spent almost half an hour on it.

Then she looked up at the window and found the light of day rather strange. The sky in the center was a beautiful light blue, but in the distance, the horizon gradually transitioned into a deep, surging dark red, with an indescribable sense of decay and ruin.

Zhang Sheng seemed to be deep in thought. When had Qingming ever had such a sky?

She put down the jade paper, pushed open the door, and was shocked to find that she was not on the main peak. The small courtyard she was in was built on a high slope, and not far down the mountain was a magnificent seven-story building with a huge plaque on the main hall, which read: "All beings are equal".

If you look closely, there is another line of small characters below the plaque: Research Institute of War Equipment.

Looking closer, there are side halls on both sides of the main hall, and in front of them stands a statue of a muscular man, shirtless, holding a multi-barreled flying sword cannon, poised to fire into the sky.

Even Zhang Sheng, with her composure, was momentarily stunned. Looking to the side, she saw another cluster of buildings on a small hill opposite the Institute of War Equipment for Equality of All Beings. Between the buildings were several training grounds, where dozens of people were engaged in fierce combat.

On the roof of the main hall, there is also a large sign that reads "Nine Heavens and Ten Earths Battle Holy Hall".

There is also a statue in front of the main hall, which is a muscular woman, also shirtless, raising a knife and roaring at the sky.

These two statues are quite a good match.

Zhang Sheng sensed something was amiss and looked into the distance again, only to see a vast, desolate expanse of land, devoid of anything. But Zhang Sheng was no ordinary person; although he had lost his cultivation, he could immediately discern multiple roads and tracks on the ground leading into the distance, only to abruptly abruptly stop halfway through.

Zhang Sheng then realized there must be an array that blocked divine sense perception. Such a large-scale array must have been incredibly expensive; when did Wei Yuan create it?
At this moment, a young girl appeared out of thin air and said to Zhang Sheng, "You're awake."

Zhang Sheng frowned slightly and asked, "Where is this? Where is Wei Yuan?"

The girl was of medium height and average appearance, dressed in simple and plain clothes. However, the style of her clothes was quite peculiar: a tight-fitting top with sleeves and long trousers.

This outfit made her otherwise somewhat plain figure exude youthful vitality, and it also allowed for easy movement.

"You mean the Creator Immortal? That's not someone you can just see whenever you want. It's time to get to work. From now on, I'll be in charge of assigning you tasks. Come with me!"

Zhang Sheng remained calm and followed the girl, casually asking along the way, "What kind of work do I need to do?"

"The celestial lords will make arrangements according to your abilities."

Dear Immortals… Zhang Sheng remained unmoved.

Soon the two arrived in front of a magnificent nine-story hall. At the entrance of the hall stood a towering, pointed stone tablet, on which was engraved a row of large characters, each several meters square: "Research Institute of the Beginning of Heaven and Earth".

The young girl led Zhang Sheng into the hall, ascending to the top floor. Along the way, rows of tables and chairs lined each level of the hall, with countless people seated inside. Some had beams of light above their heads, while others were writing furiously. The entire hall was deathly silent; everyone was busy at their tasks. Looking at these people, Zhang Sheng felt a strange unease. Some were very active, yet lifeless, like ghosts without shadows. Others gave him a sense of familiarity, as if he had seen them somewhere before.

Soon the two arrived at the top floor, where there were far fewer seats, only a few dozen, with a ball of light floating above each seat.

Zhang Sheng's pupils suddenly narrowed as he spotted Cui Yu in the corner!
However, Zhang Sheng pretended not to know her and was led by the girl to sit in an empty seat. Then, following the girl's instructions, he pulled the ball of light in front of him, stared intently at it, and then Zhang Sheng discovered that his consciousness was connected with the ball of light.

The sphere of light contained basic operating methods, which Zhang Sheng learned with a single scan of his divine sense. Although she had lost her Dao foundation, her primordial spirit remained, and her divine sense perception was no less than that of an ordinary Dharma Aspect cultivator.

Immediately, a task appeared in Zhang Sheng's mind: to design a magic array with a specific function.

The task has specific requirements regarding the size of the magic circle, the functions it needs to perform, and the completion time. In addition, there will be a score based on the degree of completion, and the score will be compared with that of others. Finally, a total list will be compiled and ranked from high to low.

Zhang Sheng was instantly interested. She was interested in any publicly ranked list, let alone a subject as familiar as magic array design.
Moreover, the research institute's system looked quite sophisticated, and Zhang Sheng was also interested in trying out its functions.

With Zhang Sheng's expertise in formations, designing such a formation would be a piece of cake. But the key is to be original and ingenious, so as to fully demonstrate his skills, convince everyone, and get a high score.

Furthermore, Zhang Sheng wanted to see just how far others were from his level under the evaluation system of the Creation of Heaven and Earth Research Institute. Judging from the fact that Cui Yu was among them, he figured everyone's level was probably not very high.

So Zhang Sheng, too lazy to read the long list of instructions at the end of the task, focused his divine sense and quickly sketched out a magic array. She reviewed it again, quite satisfied, considering it a masterpiece, and sent it into the light sphere, choosing to submit.

Zhang Sheng awaited the result with great interest, also wanting to see what else was inside the sphere of light. However, after flipping through only two pages of information, a mission evaluation popped up before her eyes:

Unqualified.

Looking at the three striking characters before him, Zhang Sheng felt a surge of heat rush to the top of his head, and his Dao heart felt as if it were about to split open!

A murderous glint flashed in her eyes, and she was about to slash the blind, ethereal orb before her with her sword. But with a thought, nothing happened. Zhang Sheng then realized that he didn't even have a single immortal sword, and was truly powerless to do so.

The girl's voice suddenly rang out from beside them: "Is there a problem?"

Zhang Sheng glanced at the girl beside him and said indifferently, "It's only the first day I've taken over, so I'm still a little unfamiliar with things. These are minor issues and nothing to worry about."

"Oh, there are instruction files in the system. You can find the answers to most common questions there. If you still can't solve it, feel free to call me anytime. I'm on this floor."

Zhang Sheng nodded, then asked seemingly casually, "Who exactly is in charge of evaluating the tasks?"

"He is also a Celestial Venerable, a born immortal who sees all beings as equals and has no distinction between you and me, noble and lowly." The girl seemed to have a hidden meaning in her words.

"I've learned a lot." Zhang Sheng nodded, his consciousness returning to the sphere of light.

Zhang Sheng breathed a sigh of relief as the girl left.

Although she completely disagreed with the mission evaluation, she was now just an ordinary person in a completely unfamiliar world, surrounded by strange people. Even those she knew, like Cui Yu, were doing strange things in this bizarre world.

Therefore, Zhang Sheng had no intention of greeting him at all; he only wanted to observe the situation and figure out what was going on in this world first.

Of course, she also wanted to find out who was judging the task, and then teach that ignorant fool a lesson about what a real formation was. Daring to say his own designed formation was substandard? Even Ancestor Xuan Yue wouldn't say that!

A murderous glint flashed deep within Zhang Sheng's eyes as he activated the mission evaluation with his divine sense. Below the overall "unsatisfactory" rating, there were several sub-evaluations:

Magic array function: Passed.

Usability: Poor (Unacceptable).

Generality: Very poor (unacceptable).

Magic array consumption: Poor (unacceptable).

The magic array is stable: Pass.

Overall rating: Unsatisfactory. Task must be redone.

"It really does look convincing..." Zhang Sheng thought to himself. But seeing such a detailed evaluation and such a complete system, it was clear that the so-called Immortal Venerable of this research institute had some skills. However, Zhang Sheng had never heard of anything like universality and ease of use among the evaluation criteria.

The most important aspect is the array function. Although it says "qualified" on the label, the word "qualified" feels particularly jarring here. Zhang Sheng thought that only words like "peerless," "unrivaled," and "peak" should be used here.

Zhang Sheng's aura became unusually dangerous as he began to carefully read the task evaluation. She felt her fractured Dao heart couldn't be mended, and she didn't want the judge to take back the word 'unqualified.'

(End of this chapter)