“Not as strong? You mean that she hasn’t reached Level 9 yet?”
“Yes —”
“That shouldn’t be a problem.” Mr Lu waved his hand matter-of-factly. “Real talent is hard to come by. Don’t we have an exemption rule here in Imperial College? As long as three members of the education board —”
He stopped abruptly and looked from Grand Secretary Fang to Priest Wu.
And those two nodded back at him.
Mr Lu said, “That’s why you’ve been fawning on me the whole time. You’re here for that letter.”
Priest Wu chuckled. “Brother Lu, Boss Lu, it’s like you said. She has real talent and that’s so hard to come by.”
“You also said she’s not as strong in all subjects.” Mr Lu was disgruntled. “Exactly how weak is she in the other subjects that you two have to go this far?”
Mr Lu couldn’t understand. Both old men were valuable assets of the empire. One was usually arrogant and the other irascible, and both were equally stubborn. It was amazing to see them work as a team to ingratiate themselves with Mr Lu.
“Well —” Both old men were embarrassed to bring up the subject and looked at one another.
Mr Lu rubbed his chin. “If her performance is so lopsided and her formation skills so amazing, it has to be her cultivation level that’s not as advanced… How bad? Level 9?”
Both old men shook their heads.
“Level 8?”
They shook their heads again.
“Level 7?”
Still shaking.
“Level 6?” The look on Mr Lu’s face began to change.
Both old men remained silent.
“Don’t tell me that she’s only a Level 5!” Mr Lu jumped to his feet.
That wasn’t lopsided, but was completely…
“No…” Priest Wu said gingerly after glancing at Mr Lu.
Mr Lu asked, “So what level is she?”
He had lost all hope after hearing that she wasn’t even a Level 5.
“She has none…” Grand Secretary Fang scratched his head awkwardly.
“Pfft —”
Mr Lu burst into laughter. “Hahaha, you two are really… Have you come all this way just to tell me a joke? None? That makes her an ordinary non-cultivator. You —”
Seeing the looks on Grand Secretary Fang and Priest Wu’s faces, Mr Lu stopped short. “You… you’re telling the truth?”
Grand Secretary Fang and Priest Wu smiled at him in embarrassment.
Mr Lu made a last-ditch attempt. “If her spiritual essence hasn’t been activated…”
Priest Wu smiled bitterly. “To be more precise, the girl… lost all her cultivation ability. She has no spiritual essence at all.”
Mr Lu was speechless.
To have lost her cultivation ability was worse than to have unactivated spiritual essence.
He sat back down, leaned back in his chair, and became very quiet.
He sat up all of a sudden, stared at the other two, and said in a solemn tone, “You do realize that spiritual essence is fundamental to formations? Without it, the girl won’t be able to get too far in the study of formations…”
Priest Wu and Grand Secretary Fang exchanged looks and both smiled bitterly.
“Old Lu, how much further do you want her formation skills to go?”
“At her current level, the things she has shown us are already as advanced as what we can do.”
And these two old men were top formation masters in all of the empire.
Mr Lu rubbed his chin. “It’s not that I don’t believe you… but at least, I need to see her first.”
