"Sword Tomb?" Li Cheng muttered, looking at Xiaoyao with some confusion. He was suspicious of Xiaoyao's purpose in going to the Sword Tomb.
"You're not bad either. I was suspicious of your purpose in going to the Sword Tomb before. I wondered why you kept going again and again when you seemed unable to understand those swords. Now I understand, you're someone who knows swords," Princess Wen Ya said.
"Yes, I know swords very well," Xiaoyao nodded, directly admitting it. As a dissolute person, how could he be modest about something he was good at?
"Then why did you pretend not to understand before, saying it was just because you liked them?" Princess Wen Ya asked.
"Did I? I only said I liked them. Does that mean what I like is what I don't understand? On the contrary, it's precisely because I understand that I like them. You just misunderstood," Xiaoyao said indifferently.
"This..." Princess Wen Ya suddenly fell silent. She seemed to realize that she had indeed thought wrongly. This had always been her own speculation. Thinking about it now, Xiaoyao had only said he liked them, but never said he didn't understand.
"Then do you know what's inside that sword?" Princess Wen Ya immediately asked.
"Naturally I know, so I won't give it to you," Xiaoyao replied, also setting up a preemptive defense to prevent Princess Wen Ya from continuing to ask about this matter.
...
...
"You don't need to give it to me, as long as you don't waste that material! Perhaps you'll be able to use it later..." Princess Wen Ya smiled. At this moment, she remembered that what Xiaoyao had taken wasn't just one sword, perhaps those swords also contained precious materials that she didn't know about. In other words, his eye for quality was even sharper than hers.
When she thought of this, Princess Wen Ya wanted to ask more, but the King's arrival prevented her from speaking.
"Wen Ya, how can you stand here talking without any reserve? Sorry everyone, my daughter has this kind of personality. Please don't mind," The King smiled apologetically to the people inside.
"Not at all. Princess Wen Ya's frankness is something I like very much." Li Cheng was again the first to speak, representing those he was representing.
"It's fine, she's great like this," Xiaoyao said with a smile, then muttered very quietly: "It's none of my business anyway..."
"What did you say?" Princess Wen Ya couldn't hear Xiaoyao's words clearly, so she asked gently, with a somewhat confused look in her eyes.
"Ah, nothing. I was just talking nonsense..." Xiaoyao shook his head in response.
"Cough, cough. Wen Ya, step aside for now. We need to announce the results of this competition. The next competition is for you to announce." The King coughed again, could he really have a cough?
"Now announcing the results of this competition. First place: Young Prince..."
At this moment, almost everyone was confused, who was this Young Prince? Xiaoyao?
Princess Wen Ya hadn't mentioned Xiaoyao's score since arriving, so no one would think Xiaoyao was first place. Except for Li Cheng, who vaguely guessed and felt somewhat relieved, everyone else was looking around for this Young Prince.
This included Xiaoyao himself, who was looking left and right, "Huh? Who else is a Young Prince? So awesome to get first place..."
Both the King and Princess Wen Ya were speechless. Then the King said somewhat oddly, "Who else could it be but you, Young Prince!"
"No way! Impossible! You must have made a mistake. I clearly left one question blank, how could I be first," Xiaoyao shook his head directly.
"You only left one question blank, but all your other answers were correct. The others didn't leave any blank, but they got at least two or three wrong." Princess Wen Ya said directly.
"Really? Their level is that bad? I thought leaving one question blank would keep me out of the top ranks. I didn't expect to still be first. If I had known, I would have left two questions blank..." Xiaoyao said with some regret.
"..." The entire venue fell silent.
At this moment, although everyone felt speechless, they no longer thought Xiaoyao was ignorant as before. Now everyone was just shocked, they hadn't expected that questions they found so difficult seemed so simple in the eyes of this seemingly ignorant person.
So everything they had thought before was wrong.
What was even more frustrating was that this guy seemed to really be playing around, deliberately not answering questions. If these questions weren't so difficult, he would definitely have fallen behind.
Also, what kind of Young Prince was he exactly? This was a question everyone present wanted to know.
"Um, are you really called Young Prince?" Princess Wen Ya asked.
"Yes, just call me Young Prince," Xiaoyao said casually.
"Who has a name like that?" Princess Wen Ya wanted to ask if this was real, she was very suspicious.
"Mind your own business. If I like this name, I'll use this name." Xiaoyao said indifferently.
"Names are given by parents, how can you be so casual about it?" Princess Wen Ya frowned, somewhat disliking Xiaoyao's statement. To her, this was unfilial behavior.
Princess Wen Ya's attitude made those participating in the marriage competition feel quite comfortable, because just before, Princess Wen Ya seemed to have favorable feelings toward Xiaoyao, and they had even met by fate before. This situation made them feel very dangerous, this mission would fail.
Now, suddenly this happened. Princess Wen Ya's favorable feelings toward him were gone, and she had discovered the major flaw of being unfilial. For marriage-related matters, this was fatal.
"You can talk after you find the parents who gave me my name," Xiaoyao said lightly.
"??" When Princess Wen Ya heard Xiaoyao's words, she felt there seemed to be something behind them. After thinking carefully, she immediately realized something was wrong.
"You don't have parents?" Princess Wen Ya asked.
"I do," Xiaoyao replied.
Princess Wen Ya's expression changed again, she thought Xiaoyao was teasing her. However, Xiaoyao's next words made her understand.
"I just haven't found them yet..." Xiaoyao smiled.
Just hadn't found them yet, that's all. Her previous words had been wrong from the start, why say someone had no parents?
Li Cheng was a bit confused. If that's the case, you should be an orphan, but why would you be a Young Prince of the Great Tang Empire? Wait, a Young Prince doesn't necessarily need both parents alive, that's possible too.
"So you gave yourself your name?" Princess Wen Ya asked.
"Yes!" Xiaoyao answered.
"Very interesting name!" Princess Wen Ya smiled.
Damn, her favorable feelings were rising again! This situation didn't look right.
Want to stop this momentum? Who could stop it now? Trying to stop it might incur Princess Wen Ya's displeasure, this was something others could do, but they couldn't.
"Cough, cough!" The King coughed again. This cough made many people feel quite comfortable, thinking to themselves: cough a few more times. At this moment, they didn't know that this cough might also be the beginning of their judgment.
The King was here to announce results, some would pass, some would leave. This was an inevitable outcome.
"After Young Prince, second place goes to Prince Li Cheng of the Greedy Wolf Empire, third place to our Bai Yue Kingdom's Tian He..." When the King announced the rankings, he only announced the top three, then read out some names, those who qualified. Anyone who answered more than five questions correctly could participate in the next competition.
There were only about twenty people who answered five questions correctly. You can imagine how natural it was for Xiaoyao to be first. These were all talented young men who had studied sword forging knowledge before coming, knowing Princess Wen Ya would test this.
Also, that Tian He could actually be in the top three seemed to shock many people. Only Xiaoyao thought it was normal, not because he had confidence in Tian He, but because he thought anyone getting top three was normal. These questions weren't that difficult to begin with.
What he found abnormal was that among so many people, only about twenty answered half the questions correctly, just half. Was it really that difficult?
"The others can rest here, eat something, then leave on their own. Those whose names were called, please follow us to continue the competition. Of course, if any of you haven't rested enough, you can rest a bit more now. The others can still continue with the next competition. The next competition actually requires a lot of time, so being a bit late won't matter," The King said with a smile, even making a joke at the end.
"Good, I've rested enough. I'll go," Xiaoyao was the first to jump up. This wasn't because he was eager, but because he had rested plenty here. Don't forget, he had left much earlier than others, he had a full hour more rest than everyone else. How could he not have rested enough?
"Why did he suddenly become so active? Could it be that after seeing me, he wants to marry me?" Princess Wen Ya saw Xiaoyao's performance and misunderstood somewhat, well, a beautiful misunderstanding.
Now in Princess Wen Ya's eyes, Xiaoyao was a sword forging master, completely different from his previous image. Her interest was in sword forging, if Xiaoyao had extraordinary sword forging skills and intended to marry her, she would definitely agree.
Simply put, Xiaoyao was now Princess Wen Ya's ideal partner. If she were to marry Xiaoyao, she wouldn't object.
"I'm ready too. Please lead the way," Li Cheng continued to maintain his grace and presence. Even though Xiaoyao had a bit of a disruptive flavor, he remained calm.
After Xiaoyao and Li Cheng, the others also began to follow. Not one person wanted to rest!
This was natural too. Even if they wanted to rest, they would wait until the next competition started and understand the situation before deciding whether they needed rest. At this moment, the most important thing was to know the competition content.
(End of Chapter)