"That's a brilliant assessment, Granduncle!" Cui Minghuang praised in an earnest voice.

Cui Chan seemed to have finally grown bored of playing around with the dazed young boy, and he stood beside the dry pond as he looked up at the sky along with the boy. 

After a while, he withdrew his gaze, then said something very strange. "I've meticulously arranged an examination, and there's only a single person taking the examination, namely that orphan from Clay Vase Alley by the name of Chen Ping'an. He may have come from a very humble background, but he's led a very interesting life up to this point."

Wu Yuan was becoming more and more puzzled by the second, unable to comprehend any of this.

Cui Chan began to slowly pace around the pond with his hands clasped behind his back, and his head was lowered as he mused to himself, "Given that Qi Jingchun was in a position where his demise was sealed, it would've only made sense for him to make one final struggle before he fell to his death.

“In that case, there were three people that I had to keep an eye on, the first of which is his junior brother, Ma Zhan, the second one is his scholarly attendant, Zhao Yao, and the third one is Song Jixin. These three people are the likeliest candidates for Qi Jingchun to place his hopes on. He would've wanted Ma Zhan to continue the heritage of Mountain Cliff Academy, even if the academy fell into such decline that it only had a single student. 

“He would've wanted Zhao Yao to spread his teachings to the world. As for whether Zhao Yao spread those teachings in the Great Li Empire or even on Eastern Treasured Vial Continent at all, that wouldn't have mattered to him. When I first learned that Qi Jingchun had left all of his books to Song Jixin, I thought that perhaps he had assigned Song Jixin to be his heir, but I quickly realized that this was nothing more than a smokescreen."

Cui Chan's words trailed off here, and he fell into a contemplative...