Journey to the West: The Mountain Shaker

Chapter 60 Simulation 1

On the first day of the seventh month of the 5836th year of the Taiyi calendar, six months before the immigration exam, the four classes of Aolai Academy—Heaven, Earth, Mystery, and Yellow—underwent a comprehensive test.

The academy made a solemn arrangement for this exam, setting up the entire Water Curtain Cave area as the examination venue, giving the other students a holiday, and transferring all the teachers to the examination venue to supervise the exam, evaluate the four arts of cultivation, and grade the papers for the other three subjects.

In order not to affect students' performance in the other three subjects, the academy put the divination exam last. Beforehand, the class leaders had warned that it was "extremely difficult," and Teacher Yue of the top class repeatedly emphasized to the students that it would be difficult to get points.

"Everyone knows the questions are difficult. How difficult? Let me put it this way: I estimate there will be a large number of zeros in the school, and even in our class, there will be quite a few zeros! Of course, for some talented students, this is an opportunity—it's possible for the class to produce several 90s or even full marks. But for most students, I'm not concerned about grades. I only have two requirements," Teacher Yue said. "First, those who don't know the Tranquility Technique should prepare Tranquility Talismans in advance; second, no early submission of the paper."

Fang Yingyue was naturally the most nervous. She had spent more than ten days explaining various difficult questions beforehand, and she kept emphasizing the need to stay calm during the exam.

"When you get the test paper, first look through the entire first page. There are six questions on the first page, and for most students, that's where their chances of getting points lie," Fang Yingyue said. "Find out any questions you're familiar with, or that you have a general idea of ​​how to answer. Focus on those questions first, try to get them right, and then move on to the others. If you have no idea how to answer any of them, just pick one from the first page and work on it. Remember, every question you can answer is a success; for many, answering just one question is a victory!"

The teachers' repeated emphasis made some candidates very nervous. Of course, these were mostly from the top-tier classes. The lower-tier, middle-tier, and lower-tier classes had no hope for this exam; they were mostly just curious.

Everyone was thinking: How difficult must this exam be to make the teachers so panicked!

At 1:00 PM, the bell rang for the final exam. Yu Qianqian walked into the exam room with trepidation and sat down.

The exam paper was placed on the exam table. It was a specially made scroll with added magic, and the surface of the scroll was shielded by an array, so it looked like a blank sheet of paper.

Yu Qianqian first closed her eyes and cast a calming spell on herself, remaining silent for five seconds until her mind was clear before opening her eyes and channeling spiritual energy into the center of the scroll.

As soon as the seal was opened, the cloud and mist talisman attached to the scroll was activated, and a thin layer of mist rose three inches high, flowing over the answer sheet without dissipating.

This is a specially made talisman to prevent cheating—the cultivator has excellent eyesight, but with this layer of mist protecting him, others cannot see the text on the scroll.

Yu Qianqian quickly skimmed through the entire paper. The first page was alright; she had ideas for the first four questions, just that the calculations were complicated. But the fifth question, with its inlaid array, made her scalp tingle...

All around were hissing sounds of gasping, clearly indicating that many people were stunned by the questions; of course, there were also quite a few who remained relaxed, those who had no hope and were just there to show up for the exam.

A few minutes passed, and some people had already started writing. The cultivators could clearly hear the rustling sounds coming from all around, about a dozen of them.

Retracting her outward spiritual sense, trying to avoid being disturbed by the surrounding sounds, Yu Qianqian bit her lip, categorized the fifth question as "give up," and continued looking at the next question...

Unfortunately, as you flip through the pages, the questions become increasingly difficult to understand, and the diagrams grow more and more grotesque...

Fifteen minutes later, she realized with dismay that she was only confident about seven questions, could try her luck on three others, and was left with nothing but confusion and despair for the remaining ten...

At most, you can get 50 points; if you don't do well, you might only get 30 or 40.

How can we compete with such a low score?

All that hard work, all that daily practice and countless divination exercises, it's all in vain!

Frustrated, desperate, and dejected, Yu Qianqian felt like crying. However, she was still strong after all. As soon as her nose tingled and tears welled up in her eyes, she immediately cast a calming spell on herself to collect her thoughts, compose herself, and begin to answer the first question.

Half an hour later, more than half of the people in the examination room had given up: some of them started rolling dice and randomly guessing answers; some stared blankly into space; and some, bored, started drawing turtles...

This was still the exam hall for the Earth-class students. The Xuan and Huang exam halls were even more lax, with many people even lying down to sleep. Even in the Heaven-class exam hall, amidst the rustling sound of writing, there were still a few people who hadn't written a single word.

Fang Yingyue was the proctor for the top-performing class. She glanced around and saw several students scribbling on their draft papers, almost filling them completely, while their exam papers remained untouched. A few students looked helpless, glancing around, and when they saw the teacher watching them, they gave Fang Yingyue a self-deprecating smile before lowering their heads and scribbling a few lines on their papers. A few girls were pale-faced, seemingly focused on their work, but their eyes were filled with tears, and they had already begun to sob quietly…

As Fang Yingyue predicted, at least ten students in the top-tier class would score zero, which was expected. For these students, the questions were completely beyond their capabilities; they were simply enduring endless torment in the examination room.

Ideally, they should have submitted their papers early, but Teacher Yue had stated that, in order to cultivate their character, students in the top-tier class were not allowed to submit their papers early.

Fang Yingyue had no choice but to move her patrol around and cast a few calming spells on a small area to help the students who were a little out of control to calm their minds and not affect the students around them.

An hour passed, and the life-saving bell rang for the first time. As soon as the proctor said "You may hand in your papers," dozens of students from both the Xuan and Huang classes stood up in a flash, threw down their exam papers without hesitation, and rushed out of the classroom excitedly.

"Live a life of emptiness! I told you, there's no hope at all..."

"You're messing with my mood! Making it this difficult, only a fool would do that!"

"We know what the elites are, right? We need the elites. The trash should just go and try to make it to Group B..."

……

Amidst the cacophony of complaints, only seven or eight people remained scattered in the Xuan and Huang examination rooms, and half of the seats in the "Di" examination room were also empty.

Students poured out of the Water Curtain Cave area in large numbers, finally freed after a day of confinement, and were all in high spirits: some threw exam papers and draft paper into the air, and lit fireballs to burn paper; some used their agility to run fast, somersault, and perform acrobatics by stepping on people's shoulders and heads; some put their arms around each other's shoulders and called their friends to go play...

Two quarters of an hour later, the Xuan and Huang examination rooms were completely empty. The invigilator removed the isolation array, used a teleportation technique to pile up the answer sheets, and leisurely walked towards the marking point.

The female proctor from Class Earth stood with her arms crossed at the entrance of the examination center, watching with envy as her two colleagues leaped into the water curtain cave and disappeared into the water curtain. Turning back to continue patrolling the examination room, her gaze was unconsciously drawn to the boy in the third row of column B.

She had secretly observed the boy countless times from various angles. When he looked at the questions, he stood tall and straight, like a bamboo shoot; when he did the questions, he was focused and beautiful, with a graceful figure, like a person in a painting.

Could it be the legendary Cai Fei?

She had heard her colleagues mention it many times, and today she finally met it in person.

The real person was even more handsome than the rumors suggested—unfortunately, the exam paper was obscured by a cloud-like talisman, making it difficult to see.

I don't know how well he answered.

She sighed inwardly: This kind of man is born to be the protagonist. Compared to him, everyone else is just a chicken or a dog.

Just like the blue-robed youth sitting next to him, with his upright posture, handsome appearance, and a shallow scar on his forehead that added a touch of wildness, if viewed alone, he could be considered a charming young man.

Unfortunately, he happened to sit next to that boy, and instantly paled in comparison to the bright moon, like a firefly.

Time passed quietly, and another half hour went by. The bell rang for the second time, and those who remained from the Earth Class could no longer bear it.

The blue-robed boy, whom the female proctor had regarded as a firefly, was the first to stand up, close his answer sheet, and leisurely walk out of the examination room. A dozen or so others followed suit and handed in their papers.

With half an hour left before the end of the exam, only Feng Xiangguo, Li Fengping, and the boy remained in the examination hall—oh, no, four people. In the corner sat a girl with outstanding looks, but a very dejected expression.

As if sensing the proctor's gaze, Yu Qianqian looked up blankly, saw that she still had a lot of blank test papers left, bit her lip, wrote down a few answers she had randomly guessed on the draft paper, and then turned to the first page, intending to use all the remaining time to review and focus her energy on the questions that might be correct.

This is pitiful; at least a third of it is empty...

"There are probably only three other students from the Earth Class who can get into the Great Wilderness," the female proctor remarked as she spun around collecting the answer sheets from the empty seats.

He carefully removed the cloud and mist talismans from the exam papers and placed them into his Qiankun bag. As for the exam papers of these candidates—there were quite a few that were filled in, but at a glance, the answers were all mixed up and absolutely rubbish!

The female cultivator flicked her sleeve, casually rolled up the exam papers, stuffed them all into her Qiankun bag, and then continued to admire the boy's handsome face.

The boy had reached the last two questions on the test paper. He frowned as he looked at the questions, and his red pen lightly touched the draft paper for almost a quarter of an hour, but he couldn't start writing. Clearly, he had no idea what to do.

The handsome guy's frown is heartbreaking.

Seeing the boy's helpless expression, the female proctor reminded him, "There are only 35 minutes left. The exam is too difficult, so try to answer the questions you can correctly and don't waste too much time on the ones you can't get points on."

The boy glanced at the proctor, finally gave up on the last two questions, and began to review the previous questions.

"Sigh..." Feng Xiangguo, Li Fengping, and Yu Qianqian also sighed softly, each burying their heads and starting to nervously re-examine.