111: Chapter 111 Cangjiang Prefecture Examination

"It is enough that you know about Yisong's situation; do not spread it. Keep an eye on him during this period and do not allow the child to leave Luomu Mountain privately again," Clan Leader Ye Tuanhui instructed Ye Xiaosan. "Also, do not spread word of that mineral vein either. Keep it limited to just you few; I will personally handle all matters regarding the Affairs Hall."

"Understood, Clan Chief. However, I still suspect that there is a mole hidden within the Family, leaking information to the Wei Family," Ye Xiaosan said as he accepted the order, voicing the suspicion in his heart.

"Hmm, I have investigated secretly for a long time without finding any traces, but I am certain that someone in the Family is a traitor. Otherwise, how could those two sprouts have died so coincidentally?" The anger hidden beneath Clan Leader Ye Tuanhui's eyes was about to overflow.

"Do not meddle in this matter; just look after Yisong well. I estimate that after the Prefecture Examination, this child... at that time, you can continue to execute that task." After finishing, Clan Leader Ye Tuanhui waved his hand, signaling Ye Xiaosan to withdraw if there was nothing else.

"Yes, Clan Chief." Ye Xiaosan bowed and saluted.

"I hope I am just overthinking it." Clan Leader Ye Tuanhui clearly already had a suspect in mind, just waiting to verify the truth and purge the Family's interior.

Since the Ye Family's development, there had never been a traitor within the Family!

...

Looking at the "Closed for Cultivation, Do Not Disturb" sign hanging on the door of his small courtyard, Ye Yisong had no intention of taking it down. He closed the courtyard gate and went back into seclusion again.

Clan Chief Ye Tuanhui told him to stay at home and focus on Cultivating, and Ye Yisong understood that without reaching the Martial Ancestor realm, he could not stand on his own.

Ye Yisong was now at the Nine-Star Martial Master cultivation level. Nourished by dozens of catties of Yao Beast meat, his Body Refining cultivation had reached the Late Stage of the third grade, just one step away from breaking through to the third-grade Great Perfection.

The requirements for the "Three Barriers" of the Martial Ancestor were fully met; the only thing missing was realizing his own Martial Dao Seed. As long as he could realize the Martial Dao Seed, Ye Yisong believed the Family would not be stingy with a fourth-grade barrier-breaking pill for him.

At that time, breaking through to become a Martial Ancestor powerhouse would be an easy task.

The difference between a Martial Ancestor and a Martial Master, though only one realm apart, was like heaven and earth!

Even in a large province like Donghai Province, a Martial Ancestor was no small character; they had a place in every field, and becoming a Guest Elder for a Family was more than enough.

Ye Yisong believed that as long as he became a Martial Ancestor powerhouse, many things would be much more convenient to do, and there wouldn't be a little tail following him.

It made him have to act furtively when doing things now, which was very inconvenient!

As for how to realize his own Martial Dao Seed, Ye Yisong had looked through the experiential insights of many Martial Ancestor powerhouses in the Family, but he still had no clue.

Helpless! He could only polish his own cultivation first and wait for the opportunity to arrive.

"Sigh," Ye Yisong let out a sigh. As a Transmigration big shot, he was actually stuck on his path of promotion by a tiny Martial Dao Seed for two months.

It was truly embarrassing to his Seniors!

Among those many Seniors, who wasn't making progress every day, doubling their combat power every month, killing their way through the entire world in a year, breaking the Void Realm, and entering the next plane?

He had been developing for over a decade and was still doing tasks in the novice village; he was truly embarrassing the Seniors.

Ye Yisong stopped his inner fantasies, sat upright on a meditation cushion, and sensed his own Martial Dao cultivation, attempting to awaken his Martial Dao Seed.

When tired from meditation, he would take out Talisman Making Materials and create various Talismans from the "Talisman Compendium Grade 3" for any contingencies.

This sweep of the eight mountain strongholds gave Ye Yisong a new understanding of combat. As a Talisman Master, if he could solve enemies with Talismans, why should he personally step into the fray? That was so demeaning.

If he personally stepped into the fray and was not careful, he could easily get injured; in more serious cases, it could even be life-threatening.

That was so unlike a Talisman Master!

Ye Yisong decided that in the future, when out and about, if a battle could be solved with Talismans, he would absolutely not do it himself.

This also meant that Ye Yisong could not be lazy and had to focus on Talisman Making so that he would have an infinite number of Talismans to use during combat.

He could not waste his one hundred percent Talisman Making success rate.

Otherwise, how could he face the great 798 Navigation System!

In order to quickly improve his Talisman Making success rate, Ye Yisong simply cheated, utilizing the 798 Navigation System to turn all the Materials in his Storage Pouch into Talismans.

Only a very small amount of time was spent on his own Talisman Making; there always had to be a process of practice. No matter how much one reads, it is not as good as doing it oneself once.

Throughout July, Ye Yisong was stuck in a cycle of Divine Soul meditation and Talisman Making.

Except for going to Uncle Jiexin's place three times to exchange for Talisman Making Materials, he didn't go anywhere else. Uncle Jiexin might have been at a critical period of his Breakthrough and had no extra time to deal with Ye Yisong, later even giving Ye Yisong a token to exchange for Talisman Making Materials himself.

July was a month full of harvest for Ye Yisong. During meditation, he inadvertently successfully Cultivated the Soul Splitting Art. His Divine Soul could now be split into two. Ye Yisong thought that this world didn't have Clone techniques, so couldn't he just use this for that?

He didn't know how many third-grade Talismans he had made. At first, Ye Yisong carefully added up the total, but later there were too many, so he just gave up. Scanning them at a glance, there were at least over a thousand.

As for second-grade Talismans, there weren't many. During the process of making third-grade Talismans, some failures were inevitable, so adhering to the principle of reasonable resource utilization, he had them all improved into second-grade Talismans.

The only thing that made Ye Yisong unhappy was that the ethereal Martial Dao Seed still had no clue as of now.

He wouldn't be stuck here, would he!

Ye Yisong couldn't help but worry a little about his path of Dao; he didn't want to be a late bloomer, as that was just too torturous.

...

On the first day of August, today was the day the Ye Family Disciples gathered to go to the Cangjiang Prefecture city to participate in the Prefecture Examination.

The number of Disciples on the boat this time was double the number of Disciples who participated in the County Exam last time.

The County Exam was held once every five years, and the participating Martial Artists could not be over 20 years old; the Prefecture Examination was held once every ten years, and the participating Martial Artists could not be over 50 years old. After achieving a ranking, one did not necessarily have to participate in the next Prefecture Examination or Provincial Examination immediately. As long as the age limit was not exceeded, one could postpone for one or two sessions.

Just like Ye Yisong, who won first place in this Shuinan County Martial Examination and was not yet fifteen years old, he could completely Cultivate for another ten years and participate in the Prefecture Examination ten years later. At that time, there would be a certain chance of winning first place again. Winning first place could earn a fourth-grade High Grade barrier-breaking pill, and even for the Ye Family, a fourth-grade High Grade barrier-breaking pill was not easy to obtain.

However, according to the Family's reliable intelligence, there were no Prodigy figures among the Martial Artists participating in this Cangjiang Prefecture Examination whose cultivation had broken through to the Martial Ancestor realm. Therefore, Ye Yisong did not intend to postpone participating in the Cangjiang Prefecture Examination and wanted to pass it in one go.

He even planned to directly participate in the Provincial Examination and National Examination five years later!

He was confident that five years later, his strength compared to now would have a much greater improvement, enough to achieve a good ranking!

After boarding the boat, Ye Yisong gathered with Ye Yiguang, who was waiting on the deck, and came into a room. Unexpectedly, he discovered that besides Uncle Jiefu, Ye Yitian, and Ye Yifan, there was also a woman sitting upright in the room.