The Path Toward Heaven

Chapter 786: Having a Drink

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Hearing this, the girls participating in the selection of female priest and the guests were all surprised.

The books placed in front of these girls by the praying hall were all secret scripts, ones that were not even collected by the College of Divinity; where did she get these?

The people suddenly recalled that she was a member of the priest clan, thinking that the priest clan was indeed resourceful.

Mr. Xia was aware of the true reason. He glanced at Jiang Yuxia imperceptibly and then asked a preacher to bring over another divinity script for her.

Along with the chiming of a bell, ninety-nine girls with black hair and a girl with red hair opened the books at the same time, creating a gentle breeze; it was a remarkable scene.

The girls read the books in different manners.

Jiang Yuxia turned the pages of the book gently with her elegant and long fingers, at a steady and desirable pace. Mo Zong turned the pages of the book more quickly than the others with a great deal of concentration; she finished reading the book only after a few minutes, and closed her eyes to start meditating. Hua Xi flipped the pages curiously with her eyes opened wide, as if she had seen something truly interesting. She turned the pages erratically; it was unclear if the pace of her reading depended on how much she liked a specific content.

Yet no matter what, the girls were all paying a close attention to their postures, making sure they read the books in a graceful fashion.

It was because they suspected the female priest behind the sky-like screen might be watching them.

Zong Lizi was the only exception. She turned the pages swiftly, but she often came back to the earlier pages to recheck the content. The worry was written all over her beautiful face.

Many people wondered if she forgot the earlier parts when she reached the later pages.

As time went by, Zong Lizi grew more anxious. Her sitting posture changed slightly, and she almost crossed her legs under the skirt out of habit.

Jiang Yuxia had already finished reading the entire book. She noticed Zong Lizi from the corners of her eyes and tapped the green ceramic bowl lightly with her finger.

Hearing the reminder, Zong Lizi resumed her kneeling posture hastily and continued reading the book.

...

...

Ding!!!

Twenty minutes had passed. One hundred preachers and female caretakers started checking the results at the same time to avoid being unfair to those who would be tested later than the others.

Jiang Yuxia, Hua Xi and Mo Zong could answer the questions fluently. They could easily repeat the contents accurately no matter which page of the book was chosen for the test.

Zong Lizi had a little trouble to answer the questions in the beginning because she was a little nervous, but she had passed the test in the end.

Now that Zong Liz had passed the test, the vast majority of the girls had easily passed it. Only two girls were eliminated, because they were too nervous.

This test was indeed very simple. Everybody, be it the girls participating in the selection, the guests in the praying hall, the people partying on the prairie and billions of audiences in front of the TV sets, felt it rather odd. How could the selection of female priest be so casual after more than twenty years?

Next, Mr. Xia announced the content of the second test.

The girls were to fight against a highly achieved warrior from the military who was invited by the praying hall for the purpose. Those who could last the longest would be ranked closer to the top.

Whoever could defeat the military warrior would be the winner of the test.

The people thought that the highly achieved warrior must be a general in the Star State, but unexpectedly, the person walking out from behind the screen was also a young woman.

Judging from her appearance and bearing, the woman in military uniform was at most twenty years old.

How could a young woman twenty years of age be strong enough to defeat ninety-eight talented girls? Was she qualified to be a testing officer?

Mo Zong, a proud person, felt a bit angry, as she thought that the praying hall underestimated them. So she decided to do her best to defeat her opponent.

The governor suddenly stood up and said to the young female officer mildly, “Colonel Ran, why didn’t you let me know when you arrived on the Stargate?”

Whoosh!!! Whoosh!!!

Many guests stood up.

Though they had no idea who this young female officer was, they could tell based on the attitude of the governor that she was not an ordinary person.

The people had gradually learned from the whispered discussions that she was a military officer in a fleet of the seventh army, her name being Ran Handong.

Yet, why did the praying hall have her in charge of the test for martial arts? And why did the governor show such an amiable attitude toward her?

...

...

Sitting on a spot close to the gray screen, Jing Jiu looked at the young female officer below silently. He felt a bit surprised when he saw her behind the stone pillar. He didn’t expect this “Rabbit” to come to the Stargate Base from the fleet. He guessed that she must have some sort of a relationship with the female priest.

Jing Jiu were not interested in the second round of tests, the test of martial art.

As he expected, the second round proceeded very quickly and uneventfully.

In the very beginning, the surprised screams and heavy inhaling could be heard in the grand hall. However, as time elapsed, those sounds were replaced by the quietness and the noise of objects dropping to the floor.

None of the girls with black hair could resist Ran Handong’s attack for more than a few moments; they had all fallen down on the floor, looking rather deplorable.

Mo Zong and Jiang Yuxia were defeated by Ran Handong without mounting any effective defense.

The two of them were the favorite for this selection of the female priest, especially for the test in martial arts, as they were known to have entered the Golden State. But unexpectedly, they lost the fight without being able to put up much of one. In other words, this young female officer must have a very high Cultivation state.

Zong Lizi didn’t produce a miracle either. She was knocked down by Ran Handong with a simple swing of fist to a spot one hundred feet away, and was in too much pain to speak. If Jiang Yuxia and Hua Xi hadn’t helped her, she wouldn’t have stood up for a long time.

Ran Handong shot a strange glance at Zong Lizi, feeling a bit surprised. She didn’t say anything and went back to the spot behind the gray screen.

Different from the prairie where tens of thousands of people gathered and the grand hall where thousands of guests congregated, quietness loomed behind the gray screen.

The lights from the battleships and the stars streamed down through the roof windows, illuminating the water in the bowl and the flower petals on the surface of the water and revealing the deck behind the screen.

Sitting before the green ceramic bowl, the female priest looked at the flower petals on the surface of the water rippling with the wind. It seemed that she paid no attention to the selection taking place at the moment.

“Aunt...Is it true that the Stargate Base lacks talent? Besides that girl and Jiang Yuxia, no one can fight.” Ran Handong came up next to the female priest and knelt on the floor. “The redhaired girl you favored is even worse than the others; she is not even in the Golden State,” Ran Handong commented in bewilderment.

The female priest lifted her head and looked at the grand hall outside, a surprised expression showing in her eyes as well.

...

...

The picture on the gray screen changed again, replacing the scenes of fighting during the test of martial arts with one word.

It was a large word written with distinct strokes, making the onlookers feel comfortable. Everyone could see it easily no matter where they were in the praying hall.

It was the word “serenity”.

A main preacher walked out and announced the decree of the female priest, which was the content of the third test.

It was quiet in the praying hall. Everybody listened to the decree announced by the main preacher carefully, because none of them wished to miss a word of it.

Even those inhabitants in the Federation of the Milky Way who didn’t believe in the god had some knowledge about the inheritance of the female priests and the meaning of the word “serenity”.

The final test was about this word in the last two selections of female priest on this planet. The only difference was the method of testing.

One of the two former tests was to wait and observe the first cereus flower petal coming out at night.

The other test was to wait and observe the first silk spat by the silk worm.

What would be the content of today’s test?

The word “serenity” on the gray screen disassembled, changed, and then reassembled into a new word:

“Alcohol”.

The scene had displayed itself clearly in front of everybody, including those in the praying hall, on the prairie, and those in front of the TV sets on this planet.

Nobody believed that the praying hall would be stupid enough to use the tolerance of alcohol to determine the selection of the future female priest. They thought there must be a deep meaning for this test. Hence, they waited quietly.

However, the main preacher didn’t offer further explanation or elaborate on the rules. He merely asked the girls to drink alcohol freely.

As the soft footsteps and occasional clanking of the wine wares rang out, many bottles of alcohol were brought to the tables in front of the girls, including a variety of alcohol of large quantity, such as strong spirits brewed from the crops, wheat wine, grape wine and rice wine. It was believed that these girls, regardless of how high their Cultivation state was, could in no way drink all of them.

The type of the alcohol, its place of production, and its percentage of alcohol were all marked on the bottle except for the brand name.

The girls were at a loss. They didn’t know what to do, wondering what this test meant.

The guests couldn’t help but discuss among themselves in a low voice. They came up with several conjectures. Some of them thought that this test was intended to observe the self-control and demeanor of these girls under the influence of alcohol. Since the main preacher didn’t specify how much they should drink, some people argued that those who drank less than others would make less mistakes if this was the purpose of the test. Some of them thought that the praying hall wanted to test the knowledge of these girls by asking them to identify the production years and brand names of these wines, but many people didn’t believe this was the purpose of the test because it was the selection of female priest, not a selection of wine-tasting master. Some people believed that this test had no rules at all; it was intended to evaluate the girls from a comprehensive perspective. As for how to gain a higher score, they had to wait and see.

The CEO of the Twirling Rain Company sat on a seat in the second row. He had remained calm, not revealing any moot emotions, watching Zong Lizi closely in silence.

He hadn’t expected Zong Lizi to have passed the first two tests, and the test “serenity” was so strange. If she could perform well today...she might end up on the final list.

He had such a hope because he knew that this red-haired girl had a secret relationship with his father-in-law, though he had no idea what kind of a person she was.

Those who truly knew Zong Lizi, like Jing Jiu, didn’t have such a hope. Jing Jiu only hoped that this little girl could keep her calmness and not drink too much.

The owner of the barbecue stand in the underground Mingshen neighborhood was another one who knew her. He had seen Zong Lizi get drunk twice with his own eyes. Seeing the scene on TV, a terrible look showed on his face. He didn’t even pay any attention to the eggplants burning on the barbecue grill.

“What’s wrong?” Mr. Dan failed to understand why the owner of the barbecue stand was so upset. He thought that it would be in that little girl’s favor if the test were more unpredictable and wondered why the owner of the barbecue stall was so worried.

The owner of the barbecue stall stand irately after he put the half-burned eggplant on his plate, “You know freaking nothing about her. This girl can only drink one bottle of rice wine.”

Upon hearing this, the residents of the neighborhood who had been watching the event on TV eagerly eyed one another, thinking this would be the end for her.

...

...

Only those who had never gotten drunk didn’t know their true tolerance level of alcohol. Zong Lizi was not such a person and knew her own low tolerance of alcohol...Looking at the bottles of alcohol piled up like a small hill on the table before her, she was almost stupefied.

She instinctively lifted up her head to look at the place where the guests of the University of Stargate were situated, but she didn’t find that familiar figure.

She couldn’t care so much about demeanor at the moment and searched left and right, but failed to find him. In the end, she had no choice but to give up, feeling dejected.

What was the purpose of this test? Even if it was not intended to test one’s tolerance of alcohol, she still had to drink some...

She could just have a sip of it in secret, she thought. But this would be dishonest behavior. Based on her tolerance of alcohol, she would get drunk after drinking a half bottle even if it was the rice wine...

No matter how much she was to drink, she would get drunk, so she decided to drink as much as she could before she passed out.

Zong Lizi suddenly thought of a way to do it. She picked the spirits made from the crops with the highest percentage of alcohol first and gulped down one whole glass of it.

It was a large glass, containing about half a liter of alcohol.

She closed her eyes and brought the glass to her lips, then started getting herself drunk. She didn’t even dare to look at the wine glass.

A barrage of surprised cries went up among the guests; it was because the way she drank alcohol was truly gallant.

Mo Zong shook a glass of red wine in her hand slowly while shooting a mocking glance at Zong Lizi, thinking that this girl from the underground was really ill-mannered since she drank the strong spirits with the glass made for rice wine.