Chapter 119: Sword-Receiving Assessment
Zhang Qingchu also came out after a short while, holding a bowl of fried rice and chicken soup.
“Auntie Qing, this is too much. We can’t finish it,” Liu Chuxia said, feeling full just looking at the bowl of fried rice.
“Don’t worry. If you can’t finish it, Xiaoyan definitely can,” Zhang Qingchu said with a smile, putting down the fried rice and egg soup.
Then she went to the kitchen and made two bowls of dipping sauce.
“This one is not spicy, and this one is spicy. You can choose for yourselves.”
“Mhm, thank you, Auntie Qing.”
“Why be so polite? I’m in a better mood just watching you eat.”
Liu Chuxia finished the bowl of dumplings, drank some egg soup, and was full.
She only had a taste of the fried rice and then didn’t touch it. She felt a little too full.
As for Li Hanyan, after finishing her dumplings and seeing that Liu Chuxia was not moving, she took the fried rice and started to eat it. After finishing it, she also drank the egg soup.
She let out a long breath, burped, and looked at Zhang Qingchu with sparkling eyes. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had Auntie Qing’s cooking. It’s so delicious.”
Zhang Qingchu looked at the two of them with a beaming smile. “Since you think it’s delicious, why don’t you stay here for a few more days after you get your sword? To keep us company and pass the time?”
Liu Chuxia and Li Hanyan exchanged a glance, and then Li Hanyan nodded. “Alright. It’s a good opportunity to have more of Auntie Qing’s cooking. I’ll call Xiao Xu later.”
“Good! Tonight, I’ll let you try a new soup I’ve learned. I’m going to buy groceries now,” Zhang Qingchu said excitedly, standing up and about to go out to buy groceries with her phone.
“I’ll go too,” Liu Junyue said, standing up with her coat in hand.
“You stay with the children. I’ll be right back.”
“How do they need me to stay with them? I’ll go with you to buy groceries,” Liu Junyue said, draping the coat over her and then taking her hand and going out of the courtyard.
“Grandmother and Auntie Qing are quite loving,” Liu Chuxia said, looking at their backs and sighing.
“Mhm, indeed,” she said, then turned to look at her. “Let’s go. It’s time for the assessment.”
“Mhm, okay.”
Li Hanyan led Liu Chuxia to the left side of the Liu family’s main residence, where there was a huge cave.
Liu Chuxia looked at the pitch-black cave, swallowed nervously, and tightened her grip on the iron sword in her hand.
“Generally speaking, there won’t be any danger in the assessment, but you still have to be careful. There’s no guarantee that all the ghosts inside will be obedient. The content of the assessment is also very simple. Just last for an hour,” Li Hanyan said, looking at her.
“Hanyan.”
“Hmm?”
“Is there no light inside?”
Li Hanyan shook her head. “No. After all, for Spirit Masters, it’s better to train their reaction and concentration in the dark. This is also a key part of the assessment. But you can still bring a flashlight, in case you get lost inside.”
Li Hanyan walked behind Liu Chuxia and took out a flashlight for her. “The assessment is very easy for you. Don’t worry, the ghosts inside are not very powerful. At most, they’re just scary.”
“Are you trying to comfort me?” Liu Chuxia looked at her with a resentful expression.
Just then, Elder Yu and the others also arrived.
“Why haven’t you gone in yet? What are you dawdling for?” an old man with a wrinkled face behind them urged.
“What are you in a hurry for? Are you the king of hurry?” Li Hanyan rolled her eyes at him.
“Xiaoyan, why are you so disobedient this time you’re back? You used to be such a good child. You must have learned it from someone,” Elder Yu said, glancing at Liu Chuxia with a sidelong look.
Everyone knew who she was talking about.
“You’re disrespecting the heir again and again! You really think you’re something, don’t you?! Someone, ‘escort’ Elder Yu and the others down, and then call Elder Liang over,” Li Hanyan said angrily, looking at Elder Yu.
Soon, the disciples on the side “escorted” these old men and women down. No matter how Elder Yu and the others shouted, the disciples acted as if they didn’t hear and continued with their actions.
In a short while, Elder Liang arrived.
“Isn’t that person with the surname Yu in charge of this? Why did you call an old man like me over?”
“They disrespected the heir and are not worthy of having management rights. They can just spend their old age in the backyard from now on,” Li Hanyan said with a cold snort, explaining to Elder Liang.
“Sigh… those few have always been singing a different tune from Xiaochu. Xiaochu has her concerns and it’s not good for her to deal with them. But now that we have Xiaoxia, it’s a good opportunity to let them see the rules of the Liu family,” Elder Liang said with a helpless shake of his head.
“Xiaoxia, go in. Don’t delay until the afternoon, or you might not pass the assessment.”
Liu Chuxia frowned. “Elder Liang, may I ask why?”
“Because the afternoon is when they are most irritable, so some ghosts might attack you fiercely. They are not even conscious of it themselves.”
“Then why is that?”
Elder Liang chuckled softly and patiently explained, “Because this entire cave actually has a formation. And this formation is quite special. It will chant scriptures to these ghosts every afternoon, so the ghosts in the afternoon will be more irritable.”
“Alright, I understand. Then I’ll go down.”
“Don’t underestimate the enemy. Be careful,” Li Hanyan said, still looking at her with some worry.
“Mhm, don’t worry.”
With that, she took a flashlight and entered the cave.
Outside, Elder Liang also began to contact the various management-level ghosts, telling them to pay attention to the little ghosts below and not to cause too much trouble.
And in a room not far from the cave entrance, there was a full set of surveillance equipment. A large display screen was hung on the wall of the room.
Li Hanyan walked in and took a look. She found that Liu Chuxia had already walked a certain distance.
Liu Chuxia listened to the sounds in the darkness with her ears while also observing her surroundings with her eyes. But this was a cave, after all, empty and cold. There were always the sounds of dripping water interfering with her ears.
So Liu Chuxia could only concentrate on listening to the subtle sounds.
The path in the cave was not easy to walk. And with the dark environment, it was a bit difficult with just a flashlight. From time to time, she would step on a protruding rock. Even though Liu Chuxia was walking extremely carefully, she would still be tripped by the protruding rock.
“Is this path intentional?” Liu Chuxia was tripped by the protruding rock again. It was a good thing her balance was good, otherwise she would have definitely fallen.
Liu Chuxia composed herself. Her intuition told her that there was something strange about the rocks on this path. All she could do now was to take it one step at a time and deal with whatever came her way.
After walking for a while, the further she went, the colder Liu Chuxia felt. There were still protruding rocks on the path from time to time.
Liu Chuxia shone her flashlight around and finally found a rock with the three words “Trial Ground” written on it.
The color of the words was red, which looked a bit eerie in this dark environment.
Liu Chuxia didn’t dare to look for long and walked straight in.
The area inside was very large, and there were no more of those large rocks.
Liu Chuxia felt that this was intentional. These large rocks could sometimes be life-saving. Removing all the cover was equivalent to putting a person in an empty space, to be attacked by ghosts and monsters.
