(MC POV)
With Sect Master Qing and the others appearing so flashily, all of the prospective students' attention were directed towards them, allowing me to hide at the side of the courtyard without anyone noticing my presence.
Cai Hong was seated on my lap to watch the show while Iris stood on my right to continue watching me.
At this point I just let her do it without saying anything already. It's not like this is something new that she's doing considering she had been watching me ever since I created her.
And before you ask, yes, I did use omniscience to check and she really was just watching me live out all of my other lifetimes.
No, I don't want to talk about it.
Sect Master Qing waved his hand over the crowd, "Good morning to all of you prospective students of Heaven Sect, I am Sect Master Qing. Know that the road ahead of you is a perilous journey that many may fail, but if you persevere and…"
I tuned out Sect Master Qing's welcome speech to materialise a cookie from my storage ring.
"Does Cai Hong want a cookie?"
"Yay! Papa cookie! Cai Hong wuv Papa!!" My little dragon squealed, accepting my proffered snack with her hands gingerly.
Her squeal caused a few of the students to look in my direction.
I thought they might be surprised to see me but the women seemed to swoon at Cai Hong's cuteness while the men ogled at Iris for a while before turning back.
Hmm… They didn't recognise me.
Ah, this is the situation where people know my name but don't know what I look like.
That makes sense since it's not like there's an internet for them to search up and see what I look like anytime they want. At most they might have simply heard about me and that's all they know.
Well, this works in my favour actually. I definitely would have preferred this over people swarming me and asking me stuff.
And just in case anyone is curious, I'm currently wearing the Sect advisor's robes which are different from the Master robes.
While the standard Master robes are pure white in colour, mine were white with very obvious gold trims along the hem and sleeves. The patterns on my robes also had cloud imprints on it which the Master robes do not have so I shouldn't be mistaken for a normal Master of Heaven Sect.
This is a design Sect Master Qing and gang came up with so it's unique to our Sect, meaning anyone not of our Sect wouldn't know who's wearing these robes.
They actually came up with an even gaudier design before this and I had to reject them a few times before we finally settled on this.
At least I'm not wearing those priest robes that Guiying made me wear for her coronation.
Also, I kind of dulled Iris's perfection in other people's eyes so she doesn't look like an absolutely perfect, heavenly, out of this world, breathtaking beauty, but more like an especially, incredibly beautiful woman instead.
"What do you think of the event so far, Iris?" I tried to ask the cosmic being beside me.
She tilted her head at me, "Ara? What event?"
I gestured to the Grand Courtyard, "You know… The student selection that's happening right in front of us?"
She blinked at me, her eyes looking a little distant which told me she was currently using her omniscience to figure out what I was talking about.
"A complete waste of time," She declared without batting an eyelid. "None of these have anything to do with Master."
"Um… Well, they might be future students inside the Sect I'm currently living in, you know? So you can't say they have absolutely nothing to do with me."
She shook her head, "Ufufufu~ It's not like anything will change even if the students are better or worse. As long as Master is here, this Sect's standing won't change and thus, this event is utterly pointless. As evident by the events caused by Master's absence, your presence here is what matters the most."
Ugh… If you put it that way, there's now way I can refute that…
Sect Master Qing finally finished his lengthy address after Cai Hong finished nibbling half of her cookie, signaling the start of the student selections.
Since they didn't tell me to do anything, they must have their own plans of selecting this year's students.
"Without further ado, I will announce the beginning of your first test! There are various Masters spread out around the Sect, a few of them are currently around this very courtyard. All you need to do is to find them and obtain their approval, be it through your display of Cultivation skills or some other way. Anything is allowed as long as the Master approves of you!"
Anything huh? Well I suppose if they resorted to using underhanded methods, the Masters could just choose not to pass them.
Someone in the crowd raised their hand, "How do we know if you got their approval?"
"The Master who has approved of you will infuse you with their own personal Quarks that we will recognise. Go to the Grand Hall with it and you will pass the first test. But if any Heaven Sect member determines that you are unsuitable for the Sect for any reason, you will be kicked out of here without question. All of you have two hours! Now, begin!"
The moment the words left his lips, the people wearing the white robes on the rooftop immediately leapt away, disappearing inside the Sect.
Interesting.
Because there's so many people, they came up with this plan of testing everyone at once. First they will need to find a Master which determines their searching and information gathering skill. If they are smart enough, they might be able to figure out where these Masters might have gone or even who to ask to find out.
The fact that anyone in our Sect including the servants could disqualify them would also ensure they wouldn't try anything stupid too.
Then, even if they found a Master, they will need to do their best to impress them and I know for a fact that bribes definitely wouldn't work.
This is basically a treasure hunt game, isn't it?
Interesting, very interesting.
With Sect Master Qing's declaration, the doors to the Grand Hall were opened, allowing the prospective student to start rushing out to find a Master to impress.
Most of them paid no attention to me as they rushed past and even those who did only took a moment to look at my robes before following the crowd.
I smirked secretly.
I'm pretty sure Sect Master Qing also included me in the panel of judges so I should be free to give my approval too.
Well, it's not like I expect people to actually come to me anyway, this is an event that would decide these prospective students' futures so they definitely wouldn't waste their time with someone they weren't even sure of–
"She's so cuuuute~"
"Ahhh! Just look at her nibble on the cookie!"
"Hello little one! What's your name?"
"Umm… I've fallen in love with you at first sight! Will you please go out with me?"
I was surprised by the voices that came out of nowhere.
Turning my head, I saw three girls cooing at Cai Hong in front of me while a young man was bowing his head with his hand outstretched to Iris.
Both Cai Hong and Iris were completely ignoring the people who were interested in them.
I smiled, "Hello, can I help you?"
One of the girls turned their attention to me, "Are you this little one's guardian?"
"I'm her father actually," I admitted.
Cai Hong giggled and turned to me with her cookie, "Papa, cookie?"
Since she offered, of course I took a bite of my cute little dragon's cookie.
The girls swooned exaggeratedly at the action.
Seriously, calm down. I know Cai Hong is cute and all but… Ok, she really is cute. So cute. Head pats for you, you cute little thing.
I cleared my throat, "Ahem, shouldn't you girls be going to complete the test?"
The one on the right with short, black hair smiled, "As you can see… Everyone's rushing out right now so even if we wanted to, we'll have to wait for the flood to die down first."
I suppose that makes sense.
"Also, boy," I called out to the young man who still had his head bowed to Iris. "She's completely ignoring you. Like seriously. Just give up."
He turned to look questioningly at me, "Who is she to you?"
Before I could answer, Cai Hong pointed to Iris, "Mama!"
The young man's eyes widened at her words, finally realising what Iris's relation to me was.
Oh well, it's not like I care about what he thinks.
I turned back to the girls, "So… Since we're here, how about you girls tell me why you are trying to join Heaven Sect?"
I was going to begin my secret interview with these girls to decide whether they can get my approval when a voice shouted out from behind them.
"Husband!!"
…
What are you doing here?!
