Chapter 15: The Joyful Rules of Taking Exams

Chapter 15: The Joyful Rules of Exams

"Master, this exam paper feels completely different from the one we took last time?"

Ran Deng said while flipping through the exam paper.

Besides the eldest disciple Yu Wenxuan, who was granted an exam exemption by Zhou Hui to entertain guests, the third disciple Ran Deng and the fifth disciple Lu Shulong were also excused.

They were originally supposed to lead He Yong and the others to the Celestial Spirit Sect's main hall, Huaixu Hall. Lu Shulong and Mo Bei had already prepared the banquet there a few days earlier, but since Yu Wenxuan had butted in, they ended up at Buyan Palace instead.

Zhou Hui, going by the "since we're already here" principle, handed out exam papers to his three disciples too.

The results wouldn't count for anything, but they'd still show the disciples' general level and whether they'd improved.

Well, one thing was certain: Yu Wenxuan had definitely not improved.

Not only had he not improved, he seemed to have gotten worse.

Even a disciple who'd just entered the Qi Refining Stage wouldn't pick "Qi Refining Pill" as the answer to "what pill is suitable for Foundation Establishment."

Nope, just looking at this gave him a headache.

He felt like the injuries from the Heavenly Tribulation were about to act up again.

Zhou Hui pressed his forehead and swept his Divine Sense over the other two disciples' exam papers.

In theory, Lu Shulong was in charge of the guest reception prep, so having him entertain the guests today instead of taking the exam seemed like the obvious move. But in reality, Zhou Hui felt his fifth disciple Lu Shulong was on a whole other level—someone who couldn't be allowed to take regular exams.

Not because Lu Shulong's basic knowledge was as bad as Yu Wenxuan's. In fact, Lu Shulong's personality was way better than Yu Wenxuan's—he was a very obedient, good kid. After the last exam, Lu Shulong had dutifully read through every Qi Refining Stage book in the library, and then... well, there wasn't a single question he couldn't answer.

Yep, today Lu Shulong's paper was perfect.

At least so far, Lu Shulong hadn't gotten a single question wrong. You couldn't see his weaknesses, but you couldn't see his strengths either.

What a talent!

As an "ordinary person," he used to hate facing opponents like this.

The Volume King part of Zhou Hui let out a sigh, but then he cheered up.

Sure, Zhou Hui didn't like such opponents, but Lu Shulong was his disciple! What was wrong with your own disciple getting stronger with ease! And Lu Shulong's potential clearly didn't stop there—he'd obviously underestimated this disciple before. From now on, he could confidently ramp up Shulong's study load.

Zhou Hui looked at Lu Shulong with affection, like he was looking at a piglet he'd raised himself.

Lu Shulong suddenly shuddered.

Confused, he brushed aside his long silver-blue hair, touched his cold nape, and looked around suspiciously. He found nothing out of place, because by then Zhou Hui's gaze had already moved to Ran Deng.

Ran Deng wasn't as "extraordinary" as her senior and junior brothers—she was just your average top student.

And this girl had clearly been slacking off.

The same type of questions—however she'd gotten them wrong last time, she got them wrong the exact same way this time. It was obvious she'd used the library repair task as an excuse and never reviewed once she got back to her cave dwelling.

But Ran Deng, being ordinarily excellent, had an ordinary level of attention to detail.

Unlike Lu Shulong, who just buried his head in the questions, she noticed after finishing only a third of the paper that Zhou Hui's intention behind this exam was different from last time.

Ran Deng tested the waters: "Seems easier?"

"It's not easier. I even expanded the question bank recently, adding more high-difficulty and deeper questions," Zhou Hui replied. "If it feels easier, it's because I had the system collect data in real time, figure out which types of questions each disciple excels at and prefers to answer, and increased the weight of those questions."

"Weight?" Ran Deng looked like she'd heard the words but didn't get them.

"Simply put, this exam makes it easier to find your strengths," Zhou Hui said.

After all, the purpose of the exam and the examinees were different.

The previous exam was for inner disciples and elite disciples. These people were chosen precisely because they had outstanding qualities. They also had that elite self-awareness, full of confidence—maybe even overconfident—and didn't need anyone to remind them how great they were.

Zhou Hui's diagnostic exam was meant to find their weaknesses, see how much water they could hold, and keep them on their toes so they'd take future lessons seriously.

But this exam was a sect-wide test, with most participants being outer disciples.

These disciples didn't have great aptitudes to begin with, and they had to work part-time while studying, spending most of their time on chores. For such disciples, it wasn't so much that they had weaknesses—they were more like a flat plate that couldn't hold any water at all.

They also weren't short on discouragement. Many of them had the highest goal of just reaching Foundation Establishment to extend their lifespan by a few decades.

These disciples needed to find their strengths. If they had none, then find a direction they could get interested in and invest sustained effort into, so they could be encouraged to keep going.

But Zhou Hui didn't explain all that. He just said, "It'd be nice if everyone could find joy in taking the exam."

"No way, impossible, can't be done." Ran Deng quickly fired off her triple denial.

She admitted this exam was "easier"—as long as you got through the basic questions at the front, the number of questions on mechanisms and formations she excelled at went up. But being good at something didn't mean she liked it! Just seeing those questions made her feel like she was going bald.

So who would actually enjoy taking exams—

Ah, right, only someone like Master!

Ran Deng gave Zhou Hui a helpless look.

Zhou Hui looked oddly at his disciple's twisted face, but didn't mind her denial. He said confidently, "Doesn't matter. Even if you can't find joy in the exam paper itself, I've had Xi'er design another reward system that'll make everyone very happy."

Really?

Ran Deng thought doubtfully.

Actually, she'd always felt that what made Master happy wasn't the kind of thing ordinary people could be happy about.

*

Ran Deng didn't understand that there was a kind of joy called the joy of a top student.

Although most struggling students couldn't comprehend it, through big data, some people could get a taste of it.

Not to mention Qin Xian, who had his strengths from the start—Xiang Rong was feeling pretty happy right now:

"Slowly getting into the groove."

"Huh? This question's about sewing, right? I don't remember this type showing up on the last exam!"

"No problem, I got this! Who do you think did all the embroidery work for Yiyi at the Heavenly Garment workshop?!"

"But this question's deeper than I expected. So that's the purpose behind stitching that way..."

"Should I try to earn an inner disciple qualification? Otherwise I won't be able to help out in the future."

*

Meanwhile, Xiang Rong's twin sister Xiang Yi was having a similar experience, though her direction was different from her brother's:

"Reviewing really paid off—almost everything I studied showed up on the exam!"

“But the creatures in the Abyssal Sea are truly numerous—mere memorization isn't enough; one needs to understand their classifications at a fundamental level, right? When I handled materials before, I had a vague sense of this.”

“Come to think of it, am I perhaps better at the categorical processing of spiritual power?”

“Should I strive in this direction after the exam ends...?!”

“My cultivation realm... has advanced!”

Xiang Yi looked at her dantian in shock, discovering that with a mere shift of her thoughts, her stagnant realm had actually budged a little.

Xiang Yi had never been very confident.

Although she was an inner disciple and could have been guided by a direct disciple, or even had the chance to attend the Tireless Immortal Venerable's public lectures, her cultivation level was about the same as Xiang Rong's in the outer sect. In fact, the reason she was in the inner sect at all was because Xiang Rong felt that girls were more likely to be bullied in the outer sect, so he gave up the opportunity to her. He even asked Junior Mo to help her get into the Heavenly Garment Pavilion—only for her to end up failing at the embroidery that girls were expected to excel at, so she had to ask Xiang Yi for help.

It was only after extensive review, reading a lot of material, and being inspired by the exam paper that Xiang Yi found her strength.

Her realm had finally improved—though not enough to raise her cultivation level, she at least had a direction now.

*

While most disciples were happily “spoon-fed answers” and some were inspired by it, there were also those who had already set their direction from the start and refused to be spoon-fed.

Gan Tang frowned at the exam paper:

“Why are all these questions about cultivation methods we've already reviewed? At the start, there were plenty of things I didn't know.”

“The Immortal Venerable must have a plan—could he have intentionally set questions on what everyone is good at?”

“...This is a bit troublesome. I hate to go against the Immortal Venerable's goodwill, but instead of focusing on cultivation methods I'm good at, I'd rather pursue beast taming, after all...”

“Should I deliberately get a few cultivation method questions wrong to test the waters?”

“Ah, indeed, other types of questions have appeared—I'll carefully choose the ones I want...”

Gan Tang thought hard.

Such a top student naturally had nothing to worry about. Her newly formed Divine Sense gradually solidified during this process.

*

There were quite a few such happy (if that's the right word) examinees.

In fact, as long as you reviewed seriously and got through the basic questions decently, you could usually find your strength later on, which showed up on the exam as harder questions—yet everyone felt they were easier.

This was especially evident in the cheating device brought by a certain “uninvited guest.”

At this moment, Su Xin could no longer understand Qin Xian's exam paper; he only knew it was a complex artifact-crafting question.

Because of the earlier misunderstanding, Su Xin was shocked to think:

“Can ordinary disciples—or even below-average ones—of the Celestial Spirit Sect handle artifact-crafting questions of this level?”

Su Xin didn't give up and looked at others, only to find that all the exam papers he had spied on before seemed harder now.

“Damn it! How am I supposed to continue like this?!”

Su Xin tossed aside the Light-stealing Mirror and looked up in frustration, then suddenly noticed something very strange.

The Coral Platform was going up!

No, to be precise, the Coral Platforms of the others—wrapped in bubbles—were rising!

Take Qin Xian for example—initially, the bubble with his Coral Platform was floating near Su Xin, but now it had risen to over ten meters high.

If Qin Xian alone wasn't obvious enough, during the time Su Xin was spying, most people's bubbles had risen to varying degrees. The Coral Platforms that had all been floating at roughly the same height now stood at different levels.

There were already few Coral Platforms still at the original height, like Su Xin's.

Most examinees clearly hadn't noticed, and even those who did probably didn't get what it meant.

But Su Xin had been looking around with the Light-stealing Mirror, and given how differently people were performing on their exams, he formed an even more ominous guess.

Su Xin picked up his brush and scrawled a dozen or so answers randomly on his exam paper.

These answers were obviously wrong.

The problem was that with the appearance of these dozen or so wrong answers, the Coral Platform visibly dropped a large amount, nearly touching the ground of the Wordless Palace.

This Coral Platform was actually a ranking board!

It directly reflected how well you were doing!

The worst part was that Su Xin then noticed a large group of people who looked like servants at the very bottom of the Wordless Palace, near the entrance. They were standing there, pointing and watching.

Su Xin's vision nearly went dark.

How was this any different from public execution?!

Who on earth had come up with such a malicious idea?!