Chapter 6: Collateral Damage

Chapter 6: Collateral Damage

A sect-wide exam.

This wasn't something Zhou Hui decided on a whim.

In fact, Zhou Hui had come up with the idea when he was dissatisfied with his inner disciples' grades, wanting to help them brush up on the basics, putting together study materials in the Scripture Library, and sensed the nearby "transaction"—indeed, Zhou Hui had known from the very beginning.

Since he'd already decided to start from the fundamentals, in for a penny, in for a pound.

Besides, in the "story," it was precisely because the protagonist got bullied in the outer sect that everything that followed happened.

Although Zhou Hui didn't think he could change fate—even in another world, bullying still existed, and even a big shot at the Tribulation Transcendence Stage couldn't keep an eye on every disciple 24/7—he also couldn't justify continuing to treat the outer sect unfairly when he knew there was a problem. At the very least, he needed to narrow the gap between the inner and outer sects.

A fair, exam-based system was just the ticket.

In short, the principle was still to save as many as possible.

Having made this decision, Zhou Hui hadn't yet figured out when to hold this "sect-wide exam" when he witnessed this very scene before him. Zhou Hui figured why not strike while the iron's hot—might as well use this opportunity.

Zhou Hui spoke in a warm and fatherly tone:

"It is indeed my fault. As the sect master of the Celestial Spirit Sect, I should never have played favorites from the start. Since everyone is so motivated, let's just have the whole sect take the exam, top to bottom."

Hearing this, even Qu Qianxing, who had been adamant about punishing the exam paper scalping incident, thought this was going too far.

"Master, there's no need to go that far." Qu Qianxing said with a heavy heart.

Only these few did something wrong—the other outer sect disciples were innocent!

"Why are you making it sound like a punishment? Isn't this what everyone wanted?" Zhou Hui smiled.

Zhou Hui was well aware that what the disciples truly wanted was the exam papers... no, to be precise, what everyone wanted was "exam papers that could rival Foundation-building Pills." If they had a way to buy Foundation-building Pills, they wouldn't even bother with exam papers.

But Zhou Hui didn't say this out loud.

Besides, as a former ultimate grinder, Zhou Hui genuinely believed that exams were a good thing.

For someone like him, whose very right to grind had been taken away by the Heavenly Dao, now that was truly cruel.

Zhou Hui didn't bother explaining further to Qu Qianxing, instead turning his gaze to the little disciple who started all this trouble: "Xi'er."

"Yes." Mo Xi said nervously.

"You think copying is unnecessary, don't you?" Zhou Hui asked.

"I didn't..." Mo Xi said, not meaning it.

"Since you think it's unnecessary, you can stop copying," Zhou Hui said. "In its place, you'll be in charge of the exam preparations."

"No, Master!" Mo Xi's eyes went wide.

He didn't actually hate this job, and secretly thought it was better than being punished with copying, but he knew damn well this was a "punishment"—and messing up wouldn't be as easy as just copying.

Mo Xi grabbed Zhou Hui's robe in a panic: "Master, I'm sorry, I won't do it again, I swear! I really don't hate copying! Or, or, you could punish me by having me copy a hundred more times!" As he spoke, he looked up at Zhou Hui with teary, cat-like eyes, his nose tip turning red too.

Unfortunately, this didn't work on Zhou Hui.

"Copying was never supposed to be a punishment, but to help you memorize better. Since you still see it that way, it means you're not doing it willingly, right?" Zhou Hui said slowly. "In that case, why not do something you actually enjoy instead?"

With that said, he didn't give Mo Xi a chance to speak, and continued:

"Although this is the first sect-wide exam, you've helped your Second Senior Brother organize a few events before, so it shouldn't be too hard for you. I'll give you a detailed plan later—just do what it says."

"That said, I want every single disciple in the sect to participate, all taking the exam at their best, with zero cheating. In short: fair, just, and open."

"If you can't even handle this much, then I'll really have to punish you with copying—for instance, having you copy all the books on the first floor of the Scripture Library a thousand times."

Mo Xi shuddered all over at these words.

Given the number of books in the Scripture Library, even just the first floor would be enough to use up Mo Xi's entire lifespan at the Foundation Establishment stage.

He dropped the cute act and tried to negotiate better terms for his task—or rather, he wanted to drag others down with him: "Master, something as important as the sect-wide exam—I'm afraid I can't do it by myself—?"

"You can find 'friends' to work with you." Zhou Hui glanced at the Xiang siblings.

Mo Xi immediately understood—it was "group punishment." The other disciples who dodged the copying punishment wouldn't get off the hook either.

Of course, leaving it all to this bunch wouldn't work either.

Zhou Hui then said to his second disciple: "Qian Xing, you'll be in charge of keeping an eye on your junior brother."

"Yes, Master." Qu Qianxing nodded.

He also didn't feel comfortable leaving the sect-wide exam to such a junior brother.

But Qu Qianxing hadn't forgotten what his master had originally assigned him: "But, the task you gave me to collect the Ascension Platform fragments and organize the Scripture Library—"

"It's fine, I'll have someone else handle that." Zhou Hui said, waving it off.

He looked at the disciples present with a serious expression: "Right now, the most important thing for the whole Celestial Spirit Sect is this 'sect-wide exam.' I want you all to seriously help me get this done."

"Yes, Master."

The disciples respectfully acknowledged the order.

News of the sect-wide exam quickly spread throughout the entire sect.

*

The disciples across the sect immediately erupted in a chorus of groans, and then—

Then the inner sect exam papers became even hotter commodities!

Well, that was only to be expected: with an exam coming up, how could anyone not study their butt off? Especially since it was said that Lord Immortal Venerable had overhauled the exam questions, adding many brand-new question types, even testing on tiny, obscure details—how could anyone not go looking for those papers? Compared to that, the rumor that the papers might hold heavenly secrets paled in comparison.

And this time, it wasn't just the outer sect disciples—even the inner sect disciples were starting to sweat.

Qin Xian of the inner sect's Artifact Refining Hall was one of them.

There was no helping it—in the last inner sect exam, Qin Xian had only scored in the teens. If not for the Senior Grand Disciple being dead last, he would have been dead last for sure.

If Qin Xian's grades had always been that bad, it would've been one thing, but the thing is, he was actually kind of a big deal.

Qin Xian had a single fire spiritual root—with that kind of talent, even in a Great Sect, it would be enough to make him a core disciple, let alone in a third-rate sect like the Celestial Spirit Sect. It was only because Zhou Hui's personal disciples all had impressive backgrounds and freakish talents that someone with Qin Xian's talent was stuck as an inner disciple.

Qin Xian himself didn't really care. The Celestial Spirit Sect had few people and little to do. Even the Artifact Refining Hall, a key spot in the sect, didn't have much work. Qin Xian could slack off to his heart's content, cultivating in fits and starts, relying on the fact that his single spiritual root meant fewer cultivation techniques to practice and his natural talent was high—his cultivation progress had always been at the top of his cohort.

But this laid-back attitude fell apart completely in the face of Zhou Hui's diagnostic test, revealing his true colors.

Qin Xian was shocked himself.

He had always been confident in his academic prowess, yet faced with the exam paper, he couldn't solve a single problem, and truly felt like he was done for.

Therefore, even though Qin Xian had one of the heaviest copying assignments, he didn't dare outsource it like others did, and instead just did the corrections and copying himself.

He had just finished copying when he heard the news of the sect-wide examination.

Qin Xian nearly passed out.

Then, secretly, he felt a bit relieved—at least this was a chance to redeem himself, otherwise his score in the teens would be forever nailed to the sect's pillar of shame.

The only problem was that the time between the two exams was too short, and proper review might not be enough.

Moreover, the Immortal Venerable's exam had new types of questions.

"I need to get my hands on other people's exam papers."

Qin Xian immediately took off on his sword to Tianyi Workshop.

All inner disciples of the Celestial Spirit Sect knew that Xiang Yi of Tianyi Workshop was a real money-grubber. Just a while back, she had tried to buy exam papers from disciples who had taken the test, reselling them to the outer sect. So, apart from Qu Qianxing, who was in charge of "collecting homework," she probably had the most complete collection of papers.

Unexpectedly, upon arriving at Tianyi Workshop, Qin Xian found that a third of the inner disciples were also there, with the same goal.

Qin Xian walked over to an inner disciple he knew and asked:

"Why are you here? Didn't you do pretty well last time?"

"Pretty well? That was just passing," the other replied dismissively. "It's just that everyone did so poorly, so it looked decent."

"...There's no need to work this hard, is there?" Wouldn't that just inflate the average without real progress?

"Actually, I don't want to either, but this time, the outer sect is taking it too... You've probably heard that rumor from the outer sect, right?"

"The rumor about the papers containing heavenly secrets?" Qin Xian scoffed. "You don't believe that, do you? We've all taken the exam and know it only covers the most basic knowledge that even Qi Refining cultivators can grasp."

"That's exactly why I'm worried!" The other sighed anxiously. "Because the questions are basic, the outer sect can handle them as well. Regardless of the absurd rumor, the fact that some of them achieved Foundation Establishment because of that is real. If a few more outer disciples like that emerge... no, even if their average score is just close to ours, how do you think the Immortal Venerable will view our inner sect?"

Hearing this, Qin Xian's face went a little pale.

As an inner disciple, he naturally didn't want to be embarrassed in front of the outer sect, who they'd always looked down on.

Clearly, Qin Xian wasn't the only one thinking this way.

"Come on, how could the outer sect compare to us?" someone interjected.

"Hard to say. We're definitely more familiar with cultivation methods and such, but when it comes to miscellaneous knowledge, it's hard to say," another worried. "The outer sect has fewer resources than us, so they dabble in spirit beasts, spirit fields, alchemy, and talismans. Their overall score on that exam might actually be higher."

"Besides, their enthusiasm for studying has been high lately! I've already had over a dozen outer disciples come up to me asking to buy exam papers," another inner disciple said with concern.

"Ah, me too."

Thus, a brief silence fell over the group, and the tension grew even thicker than before.

Just then, Xiang Yi walked out of Tianyi Workshop.

Someone immediately asked her: "Xiang Yi, how are the exam papers doing in the outer sect?"

"Really well—I've made several copies, and they're all sold out," Xiang Yi replied. She then noticed the tense atmosphere and quickly added: "But as you know, my brother handles the outer sect. He started collecting and selling exam papers before the sect-wide exam even began, so even if I wanted to stop it later, it was too late."

Hearing this, everyone looked even more grim. "So that means the outer sect has already gotten their hands on most of the papers."

"We're doomed. Because of that absurd rumor, they started studying earlier than us too, right?"

"We might actually lose to them."

Listening to the gloomy comments, Xiang Yi smiled instead. "It's not that bad. Look at what I have here."

With that, she pulled two exam papers out of her storage pouch.

The others were confused at first, but upon seeing the scores, they gasped:

"Is that Second Senior Brother's..."

"Yes! Through Junior Mo, I got Second Senior Brother's exam papers! These weren't sold to the outer sect!" Xiang Yi said, then pulled out several books from her storage pouch with a clatter. "Not just his, but also those of a few other senior brothers, along with their condensed reading notes and selected practice questions—"

"You really know how to make money," Qin Xian couldn't help but remark.

Xiang Yi raised her chin. "So, are you buying or not?"

The inner disciples present looked at each other and said firmly:

"We're buying!"

Even if it was just to save the inner sect's face, they had no choice but to buy!