Who Let Him Cultivate?! (WX)-Chapter 70: The Second Round of the Selection Trials

“Who practices Mantis Fist like this?!” The vice creed leader’s eyes widened. He had heard of Mantis Fist before—it was a fist technique that imitated the movements of a mantis.

It’s supposed to imitate a mantis, not turn into one!

To ensure that the selection trials would meet expectations, he had simulated it repeatedly and even asked a few sharp-minded higher-ups to test it out. With that, he ascertained that aside from his intended solution, it was impossible to derive a second solution. Even if two other unexpected solutions had just emerged, I can’t accept it!

The creed leader was not too hung up about it and accepted it more calmly. “If you think about it from another perspective, it merely took him a few glances at the mantis to comprehend Mantis Fist. The Jin Kingdom’s general from history was also not talented in martial Dao, which all the more implies that this person called Lu Yang possesses extremely high aptitude! In the end, he even attained the Dao through martial arts, achieving the advanced realm of transforming martial techniques into spell techniques. We’ve stumbled across a rare genius!”

The vice creed leader was dumbstruck for a bit before turning to look at the creed leader with a serious expression. “Are you being serious?”

The creed leader thought, Of course, I made that up. Actually, I also couldn’t tell how he transformed from a human into a mantis. But as the creed leader, I can’t show my ignorance in front of my subordinates.

The creed leader proceeded to nod. “Of course, I’m serious.”

The vice creed leader’s mood slightly improved after hearing the creed leader’s words. Since he is a rare genius that is hard to come by, it’s also not a stretch that he accidentally found an unconventional way to turn the tide.

I can force myself to accept this.

“Everyone who could pass has passed by now, so let’s end the first round here,” the vice creed leader said.

There were hundreds of thousands of scenes displayed on the water surface, each one of them recording the performance of every candidate. Only a selected few could comprehend perseverance from the spider, and even fewer comprehended strategy from the mantis. Most people didn’t bounce back on their feet and became an army deserter. They were killed by the Liang Kingdom’s soldiers in the chaos of war and perished in a nameless death. The soldiers from the Liang Kingdom didn’t even know that the person they killed was once full of spirit and ambition.

“The second round begins.”

~~~

“The second round tests whether you can make the examiner sincerely want to let you stay.” This sentence suddenly popped up in everyone’s mind. They had forgotten everything else, only remembering that they had to come up with a way to pass the second round.

Yan Wangsun was feeling a bit dizzy. He had no recollection of what had previously transpired, except for a vague memory of a sociable person asking him where he was from, to which he replied with “Huangyue City.”

“I’m Yan Wangsun. I am currently interviewing for a position in the Luodi Merchant Guild. The interview rule states that I can’t share the interview questions with others.” Yan Wangsun organized the information he currently had. Even if this wasn’t a requirement, I wouldn’t have told others about the interview questions either. Helping others in this case brings no benefit to myself.

He then noticed that he was sitting in the first position, and next to him was a burly man donned in Confucian robes.

“I’m Man Gu. What about you?”

Yan Wangsun didn’t answer because the examiner happened to call his name then.

Upon entering the room, Yan Wangsun noticed a ball of paper on the ground. He casually tossed it into a trashcan before preparing for the interview.

The examiner was plump with clothes barely fitting and wore a permanent smile. “You’re Yan Wangsun, right? Go to the marketplace now and see if anyone’s selling potatoes.”

Yan Wangsun obediently left for the marketplace and made his round. There was only one shop selling potatoes, and he came back, replying, “Yes.”

The plump examiner posed another question, “How many potatoes?”

Yan Wangsun had no choice but to run out again. When he came back, he answered, “There are eighty jin[1] of potatoes.”

"And what about the price?”

Yan Wangsun cursed inside his heart, Why didn’t you say so earlier, fatty? He ran out a third time and came back with the price. “Three copper coins for one jin.”

“How’s the quality of the potatoes? Does it match the price?”

Suppressing his burning fury, Yan Wangsun ran out for the fourth time to examine the potatoes’ quality and returned with an answer. “The quality of the potatoes is average and looks to be about three to four copper coins, so the selling price isn’t very high.”

The plump examiner smilingly said, “You’re disqualified.”

“Based on what?!” Yan Wangsun was furious. He felt like he was a leashed dog forced to be walked four times by the plump examiner. Every single time I would run out and run back, but after all that hard work, you’re telling me that I’ve failed?!

Are you toying with me?!

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The plump examiner spread his hands. “You had to go out four times just for a trivial matter like answering questions about potatoes. How can I trust you to handle the job?”

“Then you could have asked all the questions in one go!”

The plump examiner shook his head. “You were not meticulous and thorough with your work, so how can you blame me for not asking the questions at once? Young man, you need to anticipate the intentions from above in the workplace.”

“Pfft, intentions from above? You think you’re the emperor?”

The plump examiner was not offended. “Although you have failed, you can still stay behind.”

Yan Wangsun looked at the plump examiner suspiciously, worried that he was being played with again. “Really?”

“Do you still remember the ball of paper you picked up right when you stepped in? I had purposely thrown that on the floor so that I could see who would pick it up.”

Yan Wangsun was overjoyed. Is this testing my sense of responsibility and observation skills?

“We happen to be short on a janitor. You can stay behind and be in charge of maintaining hygiene and sanitation.”

Yan Wangsun, “...”

He really wanted to lash out at him, but none of the words came out. No matter what, being able to stay means that I’ve passed the trial, which is a good thing.

“Next,” the plump examiner called.

Man Gu walked into the room. Upon seeing Man Gu’s honest demeanor, Yan Wangsun was somewhat disdainful. This person will definitely be toyed with by the examiner just like I was.

“Go and see if there’s anyone selling potatoes in the marketplace,” the plump examiner asked the same question.

Man Gu simply responded with an affirmative and left. It took him more than ten minutes to return.

“There’s an old man pushing a cart of potatoes in the marketplace. There are eighty jin of potatoes, and one jin is worth three copper coins. The price and quality match, and the old man even said that if we buy in bulk, he can lower the price further by ten percent...” Man Gu’s answer was extremely detailed, even covering questions the plump examiner hadn’t considered. At the side, Yan Wangsun was completely dazed.

Although Man Gu might not look like it with his burly appearance, he was an attentive person inside. He was adept at being humble in learning, especially when learning from Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou, though judging based on his current progress in this aspect, he still had a long way to go before graduation.

“Congratulations, you may stay.”

~~~

“See? I said that Man Gu is a prospective talent.” The vice creed leader was elated to see Man Gu passing once again. This proves that my thought process in designing the questions is correct.

Among the other candidates, there were some who answered four of the examiner’s questions in two trips, which allowed them to barely pass.

Only Man Gu perfectly fits my expectations.

The creed leader nodded. “Looks like this second round tests whether one is thorough and capable of considering their superior's point of view.”

The diabolic path has to be cautious and not leave any incriminating traces to avoid the righteous path getting a hold on them. Moreover, by taking into account their superior’s perspective, it demonstrated that one had the potential for advancement, prompting the higher-ups to promote them.

It was out of such considerations that the vice creed leader had come up with the second trial.

The vice creed leader smiled smugly. “There shouldn’t be other methods this time.”

The creed leader didn’t speak, simply turning his gaze to the two people with excellent performance in the first round.

His instincts told him that there might be other methods.

1. 1 jin is 500g. In this case, it’ll be 40kg. ☜