Everyone turned in unison to look at Si Lingxi.
Given her exalted status, if anyone could resolve Zhu Yushan’s perennial failure to reach the examinations, she was the most likely candidate.
Thus, when she spoke, Li Hanyu and Zhu Yushan fixed their attention on her. Li Hanyu immediately pulled Zhu Yushan down to kneel before Si Lingxi, begging for guidance.
Si Lingxi gently raised a hand. She lifted the pair into the air, settled them back in their seats, and shook her head to indicate that such formality was unnecessary.
Lu Zheng could not resist asking. “What exactly is Brother Zhu’s situation?”
Si Lingxi looked at Zhu Yushan and said calmly. “I had previously assumed he was under someone else’s curse, but I have just examined him thoroughly and found no trace. In this world, fewer than ten people could cast a curse that evades my detection. I do not believe it is any of them.”
Zhu Yushan gave a wry smile. “What merit do I possess to attract the attention of such figures?”
Si Lingxi’s gaze towards him grew even more compassionate. “Yet that makes the problem far graver.”
“Ah?” Zhu Yushan looked completely bewildered.
“Since it is not a curse, it means you yourself possess no official fortune. Your official fortune is so meagre that you cannot even sit an examination.” Si Lingxi spoke evenly.
Zhu Yushan. “…”
A faint, almost-smile touched Si Lingxi’s lips. “In other words, the one preventing you from taking examinations and becoming an official is not another person. It is yourself, or rather, the heavens of this realm that grant official fortune.”
Zhu Yushan stared, dumbfounded. “The heavens of this realm?”
Si Lingxi nodded. “Precisely.”
“This…”
Not only Zhu Yushan, but Lu Zheng and the others were stunned. “The heavens will not permit Brother Zhu to become an official?”
Si Lingxi nodded, then shook her head. “It is the innate official fortune the heavens have bestowed upon him.”
Li Hanyu asked in a daze. “So my husband’s fate is sealed. No hope in the imperial examinations?”
Si Lingxi blinked, then shook her head without speaking.
Lu Zheng pondered a moment, then frowned. “Fortune should change with one’s own efforts, should it not?”
After all, Lu Zheng was the most adept at altering others’ fortune. Zhu Yushan alone had been “sheared” by him several times. Had none of that affected his official fortune?
Or had those changes only reduced it further?
Lu Zheng: (โโกโ)
Si Lingxi nodded. “Of course it can. Have you not noticed that, as Zhu Yushan’s cultivation rises, the external forces preventing his examinations grow ever more powerful?”
Everyone nodded together. Earlier years aside, in just the last two, last year it had been He Dingshan and Yue Honghai. This year it was a nine-tailed fox from Mount Tu. Heaven knew who it would be next year.
Si Lingxi said. “This is Zhu Yushan contending against his own official fortune.”
“Hm?” Everyone was puzzled.
“There are two ways for Zhu Yushan to take examinations and become an official.” Si Lingxi said.
“Hm?” Everyone grew even more confused.
Only moments before, she had said his innate official fortune was so low he could not even attend examinations. Each time, internal and external forces interfered to prevent him arriving on time. How then were there suddenly two methods?
Without waiting for questions, Si Lingxi continued. “One is to beseech a mighty being to defy heaven and alter your fortune, borrowing the power of heaven and earth to raise your official fortune. Then not only examinations, but your entire official career would be smooth. Wherever you served, prosperity would follow. If your learning is sufficient, entering the central cabinet in the capital directly would not be impossible.”
“The second is what he is doing now. Relying on his own strength alone to oppose his official fortune.” Si Lingxi went on. “As his cultivation deepens and his power increases, the external forces seeking to stop his examinations must also grow stronger.”
“So…” Lu Zheng understood. “There will be a threshold.”
“Threshold…” Si Lingxi nodded. “Yes. There will be a threshold. When the external forces shaped by heaven through your official fortune can no longer prevent you from attending, you will succeed in the examination. That will be your first successful step.”
Zhu Yushan was speechless. He had cultivated for nearly two hundred years, yet he had not even taken that first step.
Si Lingxi smiled. “This is only the beginning. After passing an examination, you must still ensure your paper reaches the examiners and that they appreciate it. Well, for the provincial scholar examination alone, you should manage.”
Zhu Yushan. “…”
Si Lingxi continued. “Then come the autumn and spring provincial examinations, every three years. Each will be harder than the last, with external forces growing ever stronger. You must confront them all single-handedly. Of course, with a protector, merely handling the examinations would be simpler. The most difficult part, however, will be after the examinations, when you actually serve.”
Zhu Yushan asked curiously. “In what way?”
Si Lingxi said calmly. “Because your official fortune is so low, to prevent you becoming an official, or rather to ensure you perform poorly, wherever you go, natural and man-made disasters will be constant.”
Everyone. “…”
“Floods, droughts, locusts, bandits, mountain thieves, neighbourly disputes, supernatural disturbances. None will be absent. You must suppress them all single-handedly.” Si Lingxi spoke as if discussing the weather, but Zhu Yushan was stunned into silence.
“If by some miracle you enter the court’s inner circle…”
“Senior, no need to go on!” Zhu Yushan waved a hand.
What more needed saying? If he somehow reached the inner circle, without anyone else acting, Emperor Jing would probably eliminate him personally.
Si Lingxi’s lips curved into a genuine smile. She said softly. “Yet if you can suppress the entire realm single-handedly, then you could serve comfortably and long in office.”
Tu Yujiao burst out laughing. “If one can already suppress the realm alone, why bother becoming an official at all?”
“That is not necessarily true.” Si Lingxi shook her head with a smile. “I knew one man of extraordinary literary talent, peerless poetry, and a heart for the common people. He longed to serve as an official yet had too low official fortune and could not change it. So he devoted himself to cultivation. In the end, his sword dao astonished the heavens, and his name shook the world.”
Zhu Yushan asked. “Did he become an official in the end?”
Si Lingxi lowered her gaze in thought, then shook her head. “No. The prime minister of that era was also a great Confucian, at the pinnacle of qi refinement. The two happened to be bitterly opposed.”
Zhu Yushan: (โฏยฐะยฐ)โฏ๏ธตโปโโป
Si Lingxi pressed her lips together. “So, do you lack the confidence to surpass a certain heavenly prodigy of the previous dynasty?”
Zhu Yushan was speechless. Everyone could not contain their laughter. Even Li Hanyu failed to hold it in. She tugged at Zhu Yushan and said. “Perhaps we should just give up the examinations?”
The problem was that, even if he passed, serving in one region would only bring calamity upon the people.
Zhu Yushan’s cheek twitched. He glared fiercely and declared resolutely. “Cultivate first. Cultivate until I can at least govern one region, then continue the examinations.”
