Chapter 16: From Cheating to Self-Isolation

Chapter 16: From Cheating to Self-Isolation

"A ranking board?"

"Yeah, a common and effective competitive system!" Zhou Hui said wistfully.

No matter which world he was in, he actually quite liked exam rankings—whether improving or falling behind, it let him examine himself more clearly and thus keep grinding.

"..." Master, can't you consider the feelings of underachievers?

The disciples groaned inwardly, looking at the exam hall with dread.

From where they stood, they had a clearer view than Su Xin.

After all, the current Wuyan Palace was modeled entirely on the Dragon Palace. The exam hall was set up as a stage, and where Zhou Hui and the others sat was the main seat of the palace.

From this position, one could clearly see some Coral Platforms floating high upward like bubbles rising to the surface, while others sank, as if being dragged into the abyss.

Even Yu Wenxuan went a little pale at the sight: "Good thing I didn't sign up for this." Even he had some dignity.

Getting strung up in a tree for being a brat and getting sunk to the bottom for bombing an exam were two totally different things.

—Though in Zhou Hui's eyes, they were basically the same thing.

Lu Shulong watched the Coral Platforms bobbing up and down, a worried look on his face: "Controlling the Coral Platforms like this must take a huge toll on spiritual energy, right? Even if the spiritual energy isn't coming directly from him, as a conduit—given the Junior Master's cultivation level—"

"...Hall Master He, why are you suddenly doing the exam?" Zhou Hui suddenly lifted his pale, frost-like lashes and looked to the other side.

Lu Shulong froze.

They followed Zhou Hui's gaze and saw that the Heavenly Dao Alliance envoy who'd been watching them earlier had somehow started filling out the exam in front of him.

Hearing Zhou Hui's question, He Yong said as if trying to salvage his dignity: "Haha, I saw the questions and my hands started itching."

But on the other side of the exam hall, Su Xin's Light-stealing Mirror was showing exactly what was on He Yong's exam.

This was the only opening Su Xin could find.

To help He Yong understand what the exam was about, Zhou Hui had originally given him a copy of the exam that was synced with Su Xin's.

After figuring out the Coral Platforms' secret and nearly losing all hope, Su Xin finally noticed this and secretly used other treasures to get He Yong to feed him answers from the sidelines.

—There was no way he was leaving. Sure, Su Xin wanted to bolt, but after making it obvious he had the worst score, he couldn't face the humiliation.

That's also why He Yong suddenly started doing the exam.

Too bad He Yong had no idea that several anti-cheating arrays were carved into the floor of Wuyan Palace. The second Su Xin whipped out the Light-stealing Mirror, Zhou Hui and the others already knew he was cheating.

Zhou Hui just gave He Yong a meaningful look and said, "Then keep at it!"

"Heh heh!" He Yong was drenched in a cold sweat, just like any student who gets called out by the teacher for cheating.

He had a feeling he'd been caught and wasn't sure if he should put the pen down, but the Junior Master on the other end was pushing him hard, so he had no choice but to keep going, obedient as ever.

However, seeing that Zhou Hui didn't seem to say anything more, he gritted his teeth and kept going—

Even the Tireless Immortal Venerable wouldn't want a guest from the Heavenly Dao Alliance to rank dead last on his watch, right?

Wouldn't that be a deliberate slap in the face?

Zhou Hui naturally didn't want to deliberately slap faces. He didn't really care how some other sect's kid scored; he was just a little puzzled by the Heavenly Dao Alliance's teaching methods.

Whipping out treasures at the start of the exam and getting outside help halfway through—was this some special exam rule the Heavenly Dao Alliance had?

Zhou Hui hadn't mentioned it before, though. It was only when Ran Deng brought up Mo Xi that he deliberately changed the subject to this, obviously just trying to change the topic.

Lu Shulong obviously got what his master was doing and instinctively shot a desperate look at Yu Wenxuan and Ran Deng.

Yu Wenxuan shrugged and played along with Zhou Hui's deflection: "Actually, it makes sense. Exams are all about relying on your own skills anyway!"

"If I let you take an exam, you weren't planning on doing that from the get-go, were you?" Zhou Hui had no qualms about assuming the worst of Yu Wenxuan.

Yu Wenxuan let out a sly chuckle: "Cultivation is all about breaking the rules in the first place. Is there any such thing as fairness in the face of the Heavenly Dao? Back then, cheating or not cheating didn't even matter!"

Zhou Hui froze at those words.

Any other time, Zhou Hui would've sneered at Yu Wenxuan's warped logic, but right now, words like "Heavenly Dao" and "fairness" hit a nerve with Zhou Hui.

"Hmm, as a cultivator, maybe we shouldn't be judged by mortal standards after all..."

Zhou Hui mused.

He stared at the exam hall, lost in thought.

But Zhou Hui's reaction freaked Ran Deng and Lu Shulong out completely.

They stared at their master in sheer panic, never thinking they'd live to see the day their master got led off track by the Senior Brother.

Even Yu Wenxuan was taken aback by that.

He then leaned in and whispered to his junior siblings to confirm: "Does this mean we can all cheat out in the open from now on?"

"Senior Brother, would you just shut up already!" Ran Deng said, at her wit's end.

Over there, Zhou Hui was lost in thought; over here, Su Xin was scribbling away like crazy.

But Su Xin wasn't feeling great about it.

He'd always had that "chosen one" mentality. Whether he actually had the goods or not, he was fawned over and hyped up in every sect. Thanks to the treasures his parents gave him, he'd never lost a single contest, so Su Xin just assumed he'd one day hit Mahayana like his parents did.

*

But once he got to the Celestial Spirit Sect, Su Xin realized he couldn't even solve problems that regular disciples could handle, and he couldn't even cheat off anyone. This stung his pride a little.

That feeling only got worse when he was copying the "outside help" exam.

Su Xin realized the exam was getting harder the more he copied.

The scariest part was that the later questions were all about their sect's signature cultivation techniques!

What Su Xin didn't know was that the exam was customized to the test-taker's specialty and skill level. The "outside help" he'd found was his own sect's "junior nephew" He Yong, so the exam naturally turned into a greatest hits of the Heavenly Dao Alliance's techniques, and the difficulty shot straight up!

It was only because Zhou Hui had locked the exam at the Foundation Establishment level that the questions didn't reach the Void Refinement Stage—otherwise, with He Yong's cultivation, it wouldn't have been surprising to see Void Refinement Stage questions.

But that was more than enough to utterly crush Su Xin.

Su Xin, looking at the examination papers of the Celestial Spirit Sect disciples, couldn't understand them, and thus couldn't tell what cultivation level those questions were meant for. Though it stung, it wasn't a personal blow, and at least he had an escape route.

He Yong's paper, though, was the exact stuff Su Xin studied every day. So even though he couldn't solve the problems himself, he had a rough idea of how far along you'd have to be to actually finish that thing.

Then, comparing this paper to the Celestial Spirit Sect's, Su Xin jumped to a wild conclusion:

Had the Celestial Spirit Sect disciples really mastered their Cultivation Method that thoroughly?!

Were other sects really that far ahead?

Was he the only one falling behind?

Was this world even for real?!

The more Su Xin thought about it, the colder he got. But he wasn't the type to look inward—he was great at pinning his problems on other people.

"No, this paper is about my family's technique, specially made for me. That backwoods wandering immortal must've set this paper just to humiliate me! I refuse to believe his inner disciple is dealing with problems this hard too!"

With that in mind, Su Xin deliberately tuned out how the other Celestial Spirit Sect folks were answering, and aimed his Light-stealing Mirror at Zhou Hui's inner disciples.

By then, the exam was almost over, and most people had wrapped up their papers.

And since the papers were "so easy," both inner and outer disciples had done pretty well. Of course, the inner disciples weren't slacking either. Coral Platforms like Qu Qianxing's had already floated up to the top of the palace, looking like they were about to drift right out of it.

Su Xin's Light-stealing Mirror hovered for a while, but he didn't dare lock onto anyone, like he was scared of seeing something he couldn't deal with.

Then Su Xin spotted an exception.

One of the twin girls he'd noticed earlier—her Coral Platform was still wobbling, barely higher than where it started. The girl (?) inside looked pale, soaked in cold sweat, and totally stuck on the questions—downright pitiful.

Su Xin thought of himself as a sucker for a pretty face. Normally, he'd have felt bad for the girl (?), but seeing her suffer like this just made him thrilled:

Now that's a slacker if I've ever seen one!

Su Xin wasted no time aiming his Light-stealing Mirror at her paper—then he completely froze.

The paper with the name "Mo Xi" on it was covered in dense math problems, like "There are pheasants and rabbits in a cage," and the scratch paper next to it had messy handwriting but was packed with formulas and calculations. Honestly, that sight was enough to make you cry even more than the cultivation questions.

Su Xin even thought it was impressive she'd managed to stay that high up with questions like those.

But that wasn't the most mind-blowing part. What really blew his mind was that while the girl (?) named "Mo Xi" was answering, spiritual energy was pouring out of her pale, onion-white wrists.

Shocked, Su Xin rubbed his Light-stealing Mirror hard and took another look at Mo Xi.

This time, he saw it clearer. Not just her wrists—her ankles, waist, neck, and head all had spiritual energy of different colors spreading out, like puppet strings on a marionette.

But these spiritual energies weren't controlling Mo Xi—she was the one controlling them.

She (?) directed those energies to mix and spread, eventually weaving them into this gorgeous palace.

"An inner disciple of the Celestial Spirit Sect has to pull something like this during an exam?!"

Su Xin stared at the girl (?) in the mirror, his brain completely short-circuiting.

Right then, a bell from above rang out, signaling the end of the exam:

"Dong—"

In the echoing chime, Su Xin watched the girl (?) on the Coral Platform topple backward like a marionette with its strings cut. He instinctively reached out to catch her, but then he saw it—the desk and paper beneath him, the Coral Platforms and bubbles around him, the grand palace, even the pitiful girl (?)—all of it dissolved like smoke.

When Su Xin snapped back to reality, he found himself standing in front of a few shabby tile-roofed houses, facing a dirt path that led into the mountains.

Confused, Su Xin looked at the mirror in his hand, then at the houses, feeling like some unlucky scholar who'd taken shelter in a temple on a rainy night and gotten scammed by a fox spirit.

Luckily, He Yong's shout snapped him back to reality:

"...How dare you just ditch people halfway!"

Su Xin looked up in a daze and saw He Yong and Yu Wenxuan flying over to him.

Yu Wenxuan was among them, smiling apologetically: "Sorry, sorry! Looks like we decided before the exam to head straight to the Scripture Pavilion to announce the results, and we totally forgot about our guests' feelings."

Su Xin couldn't wrap his head around it and asked blankly, "What about the exam? The palace?" And the girl (?)?

He Yong called it out: "There was never any palace! That exam hall was just an illusion! This is what the Celestial Spirit Sect actually looks like."

Ah, so the girl (?) weaving the illusion at the end was actually real?

So the Celestial Spirit Sect's inner disciple really was building an illusion while taking the exam!

Su Xin's face went even paler.

He Yong, seeing his junior uncle's face, figured Su Xin was also pissed about being dumped out of nowhere after sitting comfortably, so he kept angrily grilling Yu Wenxuan: "Is this how the Celestial Spirit Sect treats their guests?"

"Oh, what else can you expect from a sect run by some backwoods wandering immortal? This is about their level!" Yu Wenxuan said with a grin.

He Yong was stunned for a second.

Su Xin, meanwhile, looked up at Yu Wenxuan, totally shocked.

"Backwoods wandering immortal"—wasn't that what he'd said to He Yong in the cloud chariot, quoting Zhou Hui? How the hell did he know? That cloud chariot was a True Immortal artifact that could block Divine Sense at the Tribulation Transcendence Stage!

"The Celestial Spirit Sect doesn't have any True Immortal artifacts or a real palace. But as a 'rustic wandering immortal' who 'lives simply and hates luxury,' we can still afford to buy you a meal," Yu Wenxuan said, facing the guests' wary gazes, his smile deepening. "Now that the exam's over, don't be shy—let's go grab a bite together!"

"Come on, right this way."

Yu Wenxuan smiled and made an "after you" gesture.

In a shadow that seemed to come from nowhere, his smile looked a little creepy.