Unlike reality, it was summer in the test.
Warm sunlight filtered through the carriage curtains, falling on the two people nestled together inside the carriage. Their intertwined black and white hair was tinged with a layer of pale gold, and the air seemed to flow with a peaceful and beautiful atmosphere.
Inside the carriage.
The older black-haired girl sat formally, her expression precise.
The smaller white-haired girl leaned against the former, her eyes full of curiosity.
If an uninformed passerby saw them, they would certainly think the older child was the leader between the two; she also seemed more reliable.
But in fact, the situation was exactly the opposite.
Jiang He was the type who was somewhat naive about the world. On the outside, she appeared cold, the kind of untouchable flower on a high mountain. But after prolonged contact, one would discover she was actually a bit slow.
At this moment, she was staring at the empty space in front of her, her gaze unfocused.
She was also silently muttering something.
Friends...
Friends...
You really can find friends in the Human Gate!
If Ning Shuyu hadn't given her that preventive talk in advance, even though the white-haired girl beside her was set as a friend in the Human Gate test, she wouldn't have been so defenseless as she was now.
But Ning Shuyu had just told her about this, and then she encountered it as soon as she entered.
With these two colliding.
Jiang He could only say, indeed, Sister Ning hadn't lied to me!
Of course, the bad woman with a currently docile expression didn't know about Jiang He's little thoughts. Right now, she only felt—
This woman is damn sweet!
It made her want to lure her into her arms even more!
'Let me get her name first. Who she is, what identity she has, whether she can help me—once I know her name, everything will be clear.'
Mu Qinglan silently planned her course of action.
After all, there were only the two of them here, so she didn't worry about being overheard by others.
She suddenly said:
"By the way, what's your name? I can't keep calling you by the name in my memory."
Jiang He was startled for a moment, and the word "Jiang" had already popped out of her mouth.
However, at this moment, she suddenly remembered this was the Human Gate test. Her small mouth pursed, and after several seconds, she awkwardly patched up her words:
"Jiang Jiang."
Tsk, not falling for it?
Just from the character "Jiang," she could only judge that perhaps it was related to the royal family.
Mu Qinglan somewhat regretfully withdrew her gaze: "Jiang Jiang can also call me Qing Qing."
"Mm, Qing Qing."
Jiang He agreed quite quickly.
"Does Jiang Jiang live in the city? My home is there too. Perhaps we know each other in reality." Mu Qinglan familiarized herself while probing for information.
Jiang He coolly shook her head:
"I don't go out, so we probably don't know each other."
"Why don't you go out? Does Jiang Jiang's family have some difficulties? You can tell me, after all, we're friends. Perhaps I can even offer you some good advice."
Jiang He's eyes remained calm: "Lazy."
It wasn't hard to see that Jiang He was skilled at killing conversations.
Even with Mu Qinglan's level of conversational skill, she was left speechless for a moment.
How was she supposed to respond to that?
Noticing that the girl beside her had stopped talking, Jiang He tilted her head, giving her a puzzled look. Her expression was also somewhat confused, as if asking why she had stopped chatting with her.
How could I stand this? You're playing with fire!
Mu Qinglan took a deep breath, just about to regroup and use her exquisite linguistic art to peel back the layers of this ice-cold simpleton.
But at this moment, the carriage slowly came to a stop.
It stopped in a courtyard.
Mu Qinglan knew this was their destination. Probably as soon as they got off the carriage, they would receive their mission.
So she was no longer in a hurry to probe for information but looked at the girl opposite, extended her hand, and invited:
"It seems we've reached our destination."
"Together?"
Jiang He's expression was serious: "Together."
○
The place where the carriage stopped was near the mansion of the city lord of Dingwu City.
And inside the city lord's mansion, in a hall large enough to accommodate quite a few people, the remaining five test-takers were sitting quietly, waiting for someone from the city lord to issue the mission.
The atmosphere in the hall was somewhat oppressive.
After all, only three people could pass this test, which meant everyone was a competitor.
'I really encountered them…'
In a corner of the hall, Bai Yuyu looked at the remaining four people, feeling somewhat helpless.
'I really encountered a team keeping someone safe to advance. But what's the meaning of this? Without that strength, even breaking through to the eighth rank would just be at the bottom.'
There were only five test-takers in the reception hall.
Yet they were clearly divided into three areas.
Bai Yuyu, a mysterious person in black, and a small group of two men and one woman.
That small group had quickly formed in front of her, not even hiding it. Their purpose was very clear. From their conversations, those two men were both family servants, and their only purpose for entering the Human Gate was to ensure the young lady successfully advanced.
It was an operation used by many wealthy families.
The three gate rituals grouped ritual participants based on distance.
This also gave many people an opportunity to exploit, as well as a chance to form teams offline.
After all, at the ninth rank stage, everyone's strength generally hadn't opened up too much of a gap, so numerical differences often brought overwhelming advantages.
Therefore, this small team was particularly arrogant.
'Don't provoke me, don't provoke me! Even if you want to provoke me, wait until after the mission is issued. If I eliminate them now, it would be troublesome if I need them for the mission,' the little girl thought somewhat vexedly.
The little girl was lost in thought when suddenly she turned her gaze toward the door.
Two figures walked in together.
'Are they also together?' Bai Yuyu guessed.
Before she could think more, it seemed that with all test-takers present, the mission was triggered. With a series of hurried footsteps, the city lord of Dingwu City quickly entered through the side door, taking two steps at a time, and rapidly said:
"You should all understand the current situation."
"Demon scouts have discovered the family members of the General. They are now mobilizing demon spies here with evil intentions.
General Yuan is holding back the fourth-rank demon. The princess and the lady have already been escorted away separately. But the demon have blocked the carrier pigeons, and messages can't get out! Take this letter requesting aid, ride as fast as you can, and deliver it to the neighboring city to request reinforcements!"
The people in the hall had various expressions; some hadn't expected this to be a message delivery mission.
Mu Qinglan's expression was particularly complex.
When she learned about her current identity as a subordinate of Prince Qi, she had some suspicions. But when she heard her own name, she couldn't help but feel confused.
There weren't many princesses in Great Xia.
And only she was related to Prince Qi.
And listening to this background story... did that mean that this test was extracting the incident of her mother's assassination in this life?
This was really...
Mu Qinglan had just turned sixteen this year, and when her mother died, she was only two years old. With fourteen years of erosion, even the image of her mother was quite blurry in her memory, let alone the incident back then.
But no matter what, this was also the revenge for her mother's murder...
Who wouldn't care?
The white-haired girl thought indifferently, her eyes gradually turning cold.
Just at this moment, as the middle-aged city lord finally finished explaining the situation, several lines of text suddenly appeared in Mu Qinglan's vision:
[This ritual is a team collaboration mission, with consistent mission objectives for everyone.]
[Main Mission:]
[Ensure your letter requesting aid is safely delivered while under pursuit by demons.]
[Secondary Missions:]
[Mission One: Survive as long as possible in the Human Gate ritual]
[Mission Two: Kill as many demons as possible]
[Mission Three: Ensure the survival of your close friend]
[Mission Four: Kill the mole who leaked the information]
[Mission Five: Find the mastermind behind the scenes]