The door was opened by a person with a stern face, his hair gray and white, meticulously combed back into a slicked-back style.
He wore a brown work uniform, every button fastened with precision.
Even though he was in a stone yard, he wasn’t the least bit dirty or sloppy.
Su Xing immediately felt relieved.
Thankfully, she had just tidied up her appearance, or else she probably would have lost points on the first impression.
She bowed.
“Hello, my name is Su Xing. I followed the arrows here; I’m one of the people here to take the assessment.”
The old man looked Su Xing up and down, nodded in satisfaction, then walked back into the room on his own, though he didn’t close the door.
Having already sensed the examiner’s general temperament, Su Xing adjusted her approach accordingly and politely said, “I’m coming in!” Only then did she step inside.
The stone house was fairly large, with two rooms and a hall.
The old man sat on a chair in the living room, while Su Xing obediently stood in front of him.
“What is your Illusory Spirit?”
The old man got straight to the point.
Su Xing froze for a moment, then quickly summoned her little fox and respectfully replied, “This is my Illusory Spirit—Feng Jun. It’s a wind-type Illusory Spirit.”
She didn’t lie, but she also didn’t reveal Feng Jun’s true abilities.
She didn’t lie because if the old man caught her in a lie, her assessment would probably end right then and there.
But she didn’t mention Feng Jun’s real abilities for two reasons: one, to hide her strength; two, because Feng Jun couldn’t release a tornado anyway, so even if she said it, it would be useless and might even be considered a lie.
As soon as Feng Jun appeared, it instinctively wanted to jump onto Su Xing. But seeing Su Xing standing so obediently and cautiously, it immediately retracted its outstretched paw.
It no longer tried to jump up, but instead smartly chose to stay put, just turning its clever little head to observe its surroundings.
It quickly noticed the old man, then its eyes flickered, and it stood beside Su Xing, letting out a soft “hey.”
Raising its adorable little fox face, it blinked innocently at the old man.
Isn’t it true that the kind of Illusory Spirit you have reflects the kind of person you are?
The person and the fox before the old man were completely in sync—one with black hair, the other with red fur, their facial expressions uncannily identical, as if they’d been copied from one another.
He covered up his reaction with a cough.
“Ahem, I understand. You can call me Shi Zhe. Since you’ve come here, you should already know—I am the examiner for this round.”
Su Xing nodded and respectfully asked, “Yes, the Linggan Yuanbi… sir, has already told us. Shi Zhe, may I ask what our assessment will be?”
Shi Lao pointed outside.
“See those stones? I’m a stone sculptor. Your task is simple: within one month, carve a stone sculpture that satisfies me.”
Stone sculpting?!
Su Xing was shocked.
She had never learned anything like that!
Ever since she was young, she had been busy just surviving.
She had neither the interest, time, nor money to study art.
So, even though Su Xing had picked up a bit of everything through various part-time jobs, art was the one thing she knew absolutely nothing about.
She gritted her teeth but finally nodded.
“Alright.”
She clearly had no other choice.
“Then, may I ask if you can give me some guidance during this period? I truly have no understanding of stone carving.”
Seeing that she agreed rather decisively, Shi Lao was a little more satisfied and nodded.
“I can. This test isn’t meant to make things difficult for you.”
He pointed to the room on the left.
“You’ll be living here for the month. Go tidy up quickly and come find me in five minutes. I don’t think you want to experience the consequences of being late.”
Su Xing bowed, quickly walked to her room, and checked it out.
The room was fairly clean, with only a bed and a cabinet—simpler than her previous accommodations.
But Su Xing didn’t mind. Having a room to stay in was already a luxury; she’d even slept under bridges before, so what was this to her?
After simply tidying up her bedding, Su Xing hurried back to the living room.
Seeing her return so quickly, Shi Lao nodded slightly.
He pointed to the table in front of them, which now held several stones the size of a human head.
Beside them was a carving knife.
“First, carve this stone into a sphere. It can’t be smaller than your palm. If you make a mistake, just use a new one. If you run out, you’ll have to brave the wind and go find more stones yourself.”
It sounded simple enough. Su Xing picked up the carving knife, sat down, and started working on the stone.
However, she forgot one thing—with her strength, how could she possibly carve stone?
She tried several times, but could only chip off a few fragments before realizing something was wrong.
If she remembered correctly, stone carving didn’t just rely on a knife, did it?
If she had to carve entirely by hand, how long would that take?
Su Xing glanced up at Shi Zhe, who seemed utterly unconcerned with her struggle, leisurely flipping through an old book.
After a moment’s hesitation, Su Xing decided to keep carving.
What if Shi Lao was actually testing her endurance?
If she asked right away, wouldn’t that make her look impatient?
With this thought, Su Xing calmed herself.
After a while, Su Xing massaged her wrist and continued working.
She had good patience and wasn’t the type to get frustrated over lack of progress.
Still, the stone’s lack of progress made Su Xing think: If only Evangel or Kaka were here.
Evangel was strong—carving stone wouldn’t be hard for him.
Kaka’s Xiao Lan was tough as steel; for them, carving stone would be as easy as slicing tofu.
Unfortunately, Linggan Yuanbi had made it clear that she couldn’t ask others for help…
Wait, Xiao Lan?
Su Xing’s eyes suddenly lit up.
She scooped up Feng Jun, who was lazily dozing nearby.
“Feng Jun, try using your claws on this stone!”
Feng Jun wasn’t the least bit startled by Su Xing’s sudden action, as if it had already expected it.
It glanced at Su Xing, then lazily scratched at the stone with its paw.
Its claws were indeed razor-sharp, immediately leaving several marks on the stone.
Fantastic! Su Xing quickly said, “Feng Jun, can you carve this stone into a sphere?”
Now, that was a bit of a challenge for a fox.
Even for a human, carving a wooden sphere out of soft wood wasn’t easy, let alone for a fox’s paw.
Still, compared to Su Xing, Feng Jun had a much easier time with stone carving.
So, even though it was a bit tough for Feng Jun, it had no choice but to give it a try.
But the little fox didn’t have Su Xing’s level of patience.
After ten minutes of careful carving, it lost control of its strength and shattered the stone with a swipe.
Su Xing had expected this.
Glancing at Shi Lao, she comforted Feng Jun, “Don’t worry. How about this—you work for ten minutes, then I’ll work for ten minutes.”
“Hey… ga mi!” Feng Jun hesitated, then nodded its little head and tucked its paws under its body.
Su Xing immediately understood its meaning—the last ten minutes were Feng Jun’s turn, so now it was her turn.
Not blaming Feng Jun for its earlier mistake, Su Xing naturally picked up the carving knife and continued her slow, painstaking chiseling.
Shi Lao, who had watched their entire exchange from the sidelines, couldn’t help but glance over.
“Su Xing, if I’m not mistaken, you’re a novice Phantom Spirit Master, aren’t you?”
Su Xing nodded.
“Yes, I’m a first-year at Lingyu Academy.”
Although Shi Kao was a figure from within a painting, he’d still heard of Lingyu Academy’s reputation.
He realized, “So you’re one of Lingyu Academy’s little monsters. No wonder you’re already this in sync with your Illusory Spirit after such a short time…”
Even so, Shi Lao couldn’t help but look conflicted.
“But even for someone from Lingyu Academy, isn’t this a bit much? Has it even been a semester since you started school?”
Su Xing shook her head honestly.
“It’s not even midterm yet.”
“But my rapport with Feng Jun is mainly because Feng Jun is amazing—it can understand me without any barriers.”
Seeing Shi Lao’s shocked expression, Su Xing still felt the need to explain.
Although she did enjoy being praised, she didn’t like being overly flattered.
Hearing this, Shi Lao finally breathed a sigh of relief, then looked curiously at Feng Jun.
“Why can it understand you?”
Normally, there was a barrier between Illusory Spirits and human language, which was why constant practice was needed.
Su Xing thought for a moment.
“Maybe it’s because I summoned it on my own, without using any devices?”
Shi Lao didn’t understand, but he was clearly very shocked.
So much so that he didn’t bother to explain the subsequent arrangements—he simply let Su Xing get started.
Su Xing and Feng Jun, one human and one fox, were both very clever and quickly got the hang of it, finding a rhythm.
Feng Jun was in charge of roughly shaping the stone into a polyhedron, while Su Xing handled the finer details.
With their seamless cooperation, they actually managed to carve out a stone sphere. Su Xing looked outside—it was already dark.
They had worked all the way until ten at night, both physically and mentally exhausted.
Su Xing felt as if her hands were trembling from fatigue, her eyes sore and half-closed.
Feng Jun beside her was equally worn out, its paws showing several scrapes.
During this time, Shi Lao had accompanied them from the side.
He took the stone sphere and examined it. Since Su Xing had polished it very carefully, there were no issues with the finished ball.
Given Su Xing’s good performance so far, Shi Lao didn’t make things difficult for her.
“Alright, you can go back. Tomorrow, you’ll sculpt something specific. Tonight, you can think about what that might be.”
Something specific! Su Xing’s face fell—how was she supposed to do that?
But as it turned out, people could always rise to the challenge.
By the fifth day, Su Xing and Feng Jun could already work together to carve a vivid little fox.
Granted, it was just a simple cartoon version of a fox, and that was all she could do.
During these five days, Su Xing and Shi Lao had also grown familiar with each other.
Shi Lao was the type who was cold on the outside but warm inside; once you got to know him, he was actually quite easy to talk to.
Su Xing noticed that he’d been reading the same old book over and over these past few days and grew curious.
“Shi Kao, what book is that you’re always holding? Can I take a look?”