Not only do we have to take exams!

We even have to move the desks!

CLANG! CLANG! BANG! BANG!

The classroom was in a state of utter chaos.

A hundred or so people were moving their desks, creating distance between the rows. Fortunately, the classroom was large to begin with. Even after arranging the desks two meters apart from front to back, there was still plenty of space left over.

The students who had finished moving their desks didn’t stay idle; instead, they gathered their books and piled them up at the back of the classroom.

"Sigh, another monthly exam. This one will take three days. We’ll be totally drained by the end..."

"Ugh, just gotta endure it. Once the college entrance exams are over, we’ll be free!"

"When my Cultivation gets high enough, I’m gonna come back and blow this school up!"

The students chatted idly as they tidied up.

’Blow up the school...’

Chen Che listened to everyone chatting as he moved his desk.

The one who said that was Zong Yudao.

In the last practical exam, he was the first from Class 1 to be knocked out, simultaneously earning the "honor" of first place in the grade... from the bottom.

Zong Yudao’s old man had been a Body Cultivator who graduated from a third-rate Daoist School and was now the head of security at a mortal security company. After hearing about his son’s performance, he had specifically requested a day of leave for Zong Yudao. Rumor had it that on that day, his old man took a belt made of Red Rhino Hide and whipped him so hard it shattered his Protective True Essence.

Of course, if Zong Yudao actually dared to do something like that, he’d probably be taken down by the teachers outside the school grounds before he even got close.

However, several classmates who heard him walked over, patted Zong Yudao on the shoulder, and told him to be sure to call them when the time came.

...

As they were talking, a commotion broke out outside the classroom. Li Xiaoshuang, Ding Dawei, and Wei He—the teachers for the three main subjects—had arrived.

"Hurry up and finish!"

Li Xiaoshuang’s face was expressionless. She glanced at the students still arranging their desks and announced:

"The exam starts in ten minutes."

CLATTER, CLATTER.

Hearing this, everyone quickly finished arranging their desks and returned to their seats.

She glanced at the time.

"Before the exam begins, I will announce the rules!"

Li Xiaoshuang’s expression was stern, and her tone was formal:

"This is the written exam. It will run from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM, for a total of eight hours. During the exam, talking, leaving your seat without permission, and using any mortal technology or Cultivator Magic to cheat are strictly forbidden. Violators will receive a score of zero!"

It was the same speech every monthly exam; it never changed.

Chen Che twirled his pen and glanced at the other students. They all wore the same numb expressions.

BRRRING~

Right after she finished announcing the rules, the bell rang.

Li Xiaoshuang took out a Jade Scroll. As she formed a Seal Technique with her hands, over a hundred beams of light shot toward the students. When the light faded, a test paper resembling a rolled-up scroll appeared on each person’s desk.

The test papers were tied with a golden rope.

If this were the college entrance exam, the golden rope would have a restriction placed on it by a Golden Core master. If anyone opened it before the time limit, the proctors in charge of that exam area, from the top down, would all be punished.

Untying the golden rope, the students looked at the exam and their faces filled with despair.

Chen Che’s eyelids twitched wildly.

It would be a grave mistake to think a Cultivator’s written exam was easy:

This was because rote memorization only accounted for 20% of the points. The majority of the questions tested a student’s comprehension and ability to extrapolate on topics like the Four Skills of Cultivation, general Cultivation, and specific Cultivation Techniques. Add to that some terrifyingly difficult advanced questions, and not even the top scorers of previous years had ever managed to get a perfect score on the written exam.

Question 1:

As shown in the diagram: a ’Tier One Middle Grade Rainwalking Talisman’.

There are three errors in this diagram. Please find and mark them.

Chen Che’s eyes widened.

The design had a total of 76 strokes, each one a wild, flamboyant flourish. At first glance, it looked like every single stroke was wrong.

This question might not have been difficult for students in the Talisman Class, but for a student from the Alchemy Dao Class, it was quite tricky. Although he had memorized the pattern of the Rainwalking Talisman, identifying the errors one by one would take a huge amount of time.

After a few glances, he immediately chose to give up on it.

’Skip!’

Like Chen Che, most of the other students also chose to skip it.

Exams required strategy. When faced with a low-point question that required a lot of calculation, it was best to set it aside for the time being.

Question 2:

"A student, Xiaoming, accidentally finds a Pill Formula composed of twelve Spiritual Objects, including Jade Peak Bamboo, Ghost Valley Grass, Golden Leaf, Cyan Snake Bamboo, and so on. He successfully refines a Pill according to the formula, but half an hour after testing the Pill, he dies of poisoning. Please answer the following—"

"1: What is the color of this Pill, and why?"

"2: If you were Xiaoming, how would you correct the Pill Formula, and why?"

"3: If you were Xiaoming, please write an antidote Pill Formula for yourself after being poisoned by the test Pill."

Chen Che breathed a sigh of relief. This was a freebie for him. He took a deep breath and immediately began to write.

Answer:

1: The Pill is transparent. Cyan Snake Bamboo contains Yin Ruins Snake Poison, which, when combined with Ghost Valley Grass, forms a colorless, odorless, transparent liquid. This liquid can absorb other colors, so when refined into a Pill with other Spiritual Objects, it remains transparent.

2: Remove the Golden Leaf. This Spirit Grass is non-toxic, but when it encounters Jade Peak Bamboo, it produces a highly corrosive, low-density red liquid. This liquid would float on top of the liquid formed in Question 1, and upon being refined into a Pill, would become a ’Pill Core’.

When consumed, the outer layer of the Pill would melt, releasing the properties of the Pill Core, which would rapidly corrode the internal organs.

3: ...

Question 3:

"A Cultivator, Xiaohong, discovers a Spiritual Spring in a Secret Realm. Assume this Spiritual Spring produces 36 drops of Spirit Liquid per year. Xiaohong absorbs 72 drops of Spirit Liquid per day. After seven days, her absorption rate increases to 108 drops per day. She uses up the entire Spiritual Spring in exactly one month. Please answer the following—"

"1: What is the grade of this Spiritual Spring?"

"2: ..."

The vast classroom was deathly silent, the only sound being the scratching of pen tips on paper.

Chen Che held his breath and focused, constantly searching his mind for everything he had learned. With every question he answered, he felt like a huge chunk of his brain cells had died. The faces of some other students grew paler and paler as they worked, clearly overexerting themselves mentally.

This was because some questions were written in Spirit Runes, which were incredibly draining to read.

BRRRING~

"Time’s up. All students, please put down your pens."

Even with a full eight hours, many people still hadn’t finished. They couldn’t help but sigh in despair. Some students were still writing frantically, but just then, Li Xiaoshuang cast an Immobilization Spell, forcing them to stop.

On a real college entrance exam paper, continuing to write after time is up would trigger a hidden Array on the test paper, delivering an electric shock.

"I bombed it!"

"It’s so over!"

A wave of wails went through the students.

Some students with lower Cultivation levels staggered out of the exam hall, their steps unsteady.

Even Chen Che felt his head buzzing.

Only Zong Yudao’s expression was unchanged. He even called for people to go play online games with him. When someone asked how he could be so relaxed, he replied matter-of-factly, "I filled everything in within half an hour. If Li Xiaoshuang wasn’t watching, I would’ve turned my paper in early!"

Qi Fengzhu, his face pale, was mashing a calculator. "You’re something else!"

Most of the students were sighing in dismay.

Although Li Xiaoshuang had said this month’s exam would be difficult, no one had expected it to be *this* damn hard.

"I estimate I’ll score around 480. If I got those few questions right, I might even break 500!"

Chen Che walked out of the classroom, estimating his score.

His score had always hovered around 450, but his recent research into Alchemy techniques had helped him improve quite a bit. It wasn’t that he was a bad student, but the written curriculum required a huge amount of time for expanding one’s knowledge base and conducting in-depth research.

Chen Che spent most of his spare time traveling between two worlds, so he was slightly weaker in his written studies.

Although this score would place him in the top five of his class, Chen Che was still a little dissatisfied:

’To get into a top-tier Daoist School, I need at least a 550 on the written exam, and close to a perfect score on the other three subjects... I’m still a long way off!’