Chapter 1744: Surrogate Exam-Taker
An Lin squinted his eyes as he looked toward the Spirit Maiden. “You’re the one making this offer, okay? If I can complete these one hundred questions and get them all correct, then you’ve got to twist your head off and let me play with it.”
The Spirit Maiden straightened her slender body. “I’m a woman of my words,” she said with a fearless expression. “It’s something completely impossible anyway. What have I got to be afraid of?
“Anyway, what if you can’t answer the one hundred questions correctly?” The Spirit Maiden chuckled eerily. “If there’s no repercussion if you lose, then this gamble is invalid.”
“Fine, I’ll also enter a stake.” An Lin nodded. “If I don’t answer all one hundred questions correctly, then Xue Mengmeng will twist its head off for you to play with.”
Xue Mengmeng: “???”
The Spirit Maiden was astounded. Such a shameless person actually existed in this world?
However, looking at it closely, Xue Mengmeng’s skull was indeed quite adorable. The Spirit Maiden genuinely did want to play around with it for a bit. Thus, she agreed to this gamble.
In order to prevent its head from being twisted off, Xue Mengmeng’s expression became even more serious. “First question, B. Second question, C. Third question, C. Fourth question, A. Fifth question, C…”
Xue Mengmeng read out the answers one by one.
An Lin condensed a pen using his soul power and started carving the answers out onto the black stone slab.
The Spirit Maiden started to feel a little uneasy. She knew the answers to the first eight questions, and the answers that Xue Mengmeng had read out were exactly the same as what she had in mind.
It can’t be, right? How is this possible? This can’t be happening…
The Spirit Maiden shook her head furiously as she watched An Lin answer the questions at a frighteningly quick speed. Not only did her slender body start to tremble, but even her breathing started to become quick and labored.
Suddenly, the dreadful feeling of being dominated by An Lin welled up in her heart again. This kind of feeling was so painful yet so familiar. The four Holy Beasts hadn’t been able to sanction An Lin, and now, even the Spirit Patriarch was unable to sanction him!
No! The questions become more and more difficult toward the end! He’ll definitely make a mistake soon!
After a short while, An Lin completed the questions under Xue Mengmeng’s guidance.
Everything suddenly fell silent.
Regardless of whether it was the Spirit Maiden, Xue Mengmeng, or An Lin, all of them stared at the black stone slab intently.
Whoosh…
The black stone slab suddenly lit up.
Immediately afterward, several large red words appeared on its surface: “Congratulations, trial-taker. You’ve successfully answered all of the questions correctly. Do you want to accept the Spirit Patriarch’s inheritance?”
The vast and profound soul power exuded by the black stone slab proved that this was indeed the Spirit Patriarch’s power. Similarly, the decision to leave this inheritance was indeed also the Spirit Patriarch’s true intention.
“Hahaha… I really answered all of them correctly? Xue Mengmeng, you’re awesome! Thank you so much!” An Lin exclaimed in praise as he excitedly embraced the gem-red skeleton next to him.
“If Master really wants to thank me, then give me a few drops of your delicious blood.” There was a look of craving on Xue Mengmeng’s face as it smacked its lips in hope.
“This request is very reasonable.” An Lin immediately cut his finger and let out a few drops of blood.
There was a look of satisfaction on Xue Mengmeng’s face.
The Spirit Maiden stood in a daze beside them. She stared blankly at the scenes unfolding before her.
“That’s impossible!” she continually muttered. “How can this be? How can the Spirit Patriarch’s questions be solved in such a short amount of time?”
“Is there anything surprising about that?” Xue Mengmeng retorted. “The Spirit Patriarch discussed most of these problems with me before. Moreover, I partic.i.p.ated in most of the experiments that he carried out. Isn’t it only normal that I can solve all of these problems?”
“Impossible… Apart from the Blood Patriarch, my master would never discuss his experiments in detail with anyone else…” As she said this, the Spirit Maiden’s eyes suddenly widened in shock. Her mouth gaped open as if she had thought of something, and she looked toward Xue Mengmeng with an expression of pure shock.
“Don’t tell me that… that you’re…”
“No! I’m not the Blood Patriarch. I’m Xue Mengmeng.”
The Spirit Maiden was left speechless. She still hadn’t said who this red skeleton was, had she?
“Forget about it. Seeing how shocked and pitiful you are right now, I’ll give you an explanation,” An Lin said. “Xue Mengmeng was formed after the Blood Patriarch’s remains developed a spirit. This spirit also gained a portion of the Blood Patriarch’s power and memory.”
Even though the Spirit Maiden had suspicions in her mind, her mind still rang in shock as she heard this explanation.
It’s the Blood Patriarch; it’s genuinely the Blood Patriarch… Xue Mengmeng is the Blood Patriarch… Everything makes sense now. No wonder the skeleton claimed to be a good friend of the Spirit Patriarch. No wonder the skeleton could complete all the questions in such a shockingly short amount of time…
The more the Spirit Maiden thought about this, the more her face flushed red in embarra.s.sment and shame. Not long ago, she praised the Blood Patriarch… before the Blood Patriarch himself. At the same time, she had also belittled Xue Mengmeng. Thinking about that now, she felt utterly foolish and ashamed.
Sigh, I’ve lost to An Lin once again. But who would’ve imagined that the once elegant and handsome male would end up becoming this strange and peculiar skeleton?
“Why are you looking at me with that weird expression? I repeat, I’m Xue Mengmeng, not the Blood Patriarch.” As if feeling discriminated against, Xue Mengmeng huffed in anger.
“Oh,” the Spirit Maiden answered unenthusiastically. It was evident that she didn’t believe Xue Mengmeng.
“That’s right. Spirit Maiden, do you still remember our gamble?” An Lin chuckled.
The Spirit Maiden’s slender body shuddered upon hearing this, and tears instantly brimmed in her eyes.
She had lost the gamble… which meant that she had to twist her head off and let An Lin play with it…
“You… this doesn’t count! You clearly didn’t rely on your own abilities to answer the questions. You used a surrogate exam-taker! That’s cheating!” The Spirit Maiden resisted with all her strength.
“Even the Spirit Patriarch has recognized my results.” An Lin pointed at the large red words on the black stone slab. “Perhaps you’re even more authoritative than the Spirit Patriarch? Could it be that you’re trying to exceed the Spirit Patriarch’s authority?!”
“No!” The Spirit Maiden shook her head furiously as her heart and soul both trembled uncontrollably. It was clear that she had suffered a severe blow.
It was a necessity for her to respect the Spirit Patriarch’s decisions. Otherwise, she would be displaying great disrespect toward him. She was unable to endure this type of accusation.
“An Lin is my master,” Xue Mengmeng added. “So, my strength is my master’s strength; me answering the questions is the same as my master answering the questions.”
Damage to the Spirit Maiden × 2.
An Lin placed his hands on his hips and continued, “I relied on my own abilities to summon this surrogate exam-taker. If you’re able to, why don’t you also summon a Blood Patriarch to do the questions for you? Are you able to?”
Damage to the Spirit Maiden × 3.
The Spirit Maiden’s HP bar had already decreased to zero, and her face was already covered in tears.
“Fine, I’ll twist my head off! Play with it all you want!” There was a look of humiliation on the Spirit Maiden’s face as tears glimmered in her eyes. She used her hand as a blade and cleanly sliced her head off her slender neck.
“Take it!” the Spirit Maiden said bitterly as she carried her own head.
An Lin accepted the Spirit Maiden’s spirit head. The Spirit Maiden’s head felt cool to the touch, and her delicate and beautiful face also felt smooth and cool. There were still drops of spirit tears running down her cheeks.
An Lin couldn’t help but squeeze the Spirit Maiden’s cheeks. It was extremely delicate and soft. After transforming into a physical form, the feel of spirit bodies was in fact quite nice. At least, they felt more physical than jelly.
There was a look of utter humiliation on the Spirit Maiden’s face, and she couldn’t stop the tears from trickling down her face.
Just as she thought that An Lin would play with her head like this for a long time, she suddenly found that her head had been placed back onto her neck.
A warm and gentle hand patted her head.
The handsome male tousled the Spirit Maiden’s head and smiled. “Alright, I’ve finished playing with your head. I’ve returned it back to you now.”
“Huh?” The Spirit Maiden had thought that An Lin would continue toying around with her head for a long time. To her surprise, however, An Lin returned her head after an extremely short period of time. It seemed like he had merely squeezed her cheeks a bit and quickly allowed her to complete her gamble.
The Spirit Maiden suddenly felt quite touched.