Chapter 74: A Different Examination (1)
"Distribute the papers."
After the warning, the examination officially began. Several city guards walked in with a massive chest. The chest was filled with stacks of test papers that could basically be called books due to how thick they were.
The young man from the Great Xia War Academy smiled and said, "These are your test papers. In total, there are 660 sets of them. Some sets might repeat, some sets might be different. Complete the set you receive. For the war academy examination, you won't be able to get more than 100 marks from the language test. You only need to complete the test for 10 languages for full marks.
"Of course, you can do more. Each set contains the questions for a few dozen languages. You can answer them all and try your luck. Maybe by trying all of them, you can score full marks for 10 languages and get all 100 marks offered. There are 10 questions per language. You only need to answer six questions correctly to get a passing mark for each language."
The students were remaining completely silent. The little demonstration earlier seemed to have worked splendidly. After a while, a student raised his hand. The young proctor said, "Yes?"
"Teacher, if my set only contains the languages I don't know, can I exchange the set with a different student?"
"Decide for yourself. Just know that you will be disqualified if you break any rule."
"..."
Meanwhile, Su Yu had his brow raised. It seemed like they were doing things differently each year. In the previous year, all the students received the same questions. However, the questions under the different languages would be randomized, forcing the students to match each question with the correct language before answering. This year, the gimmick seemed to have changed as the students were all getting different questions instead.
The war academy examination would not only test one's martial might. One's intelligence would also be tested. That was the case for the cultural research academy examination as well.
Thus, Su Yu had no idea how he would be tested in both examinations. Since the sets were different from each other, the set one received might not contain the languages one knew. In that scenario, what should one do?
Before long, Su Yu received a thick stack of paper. He randomly flipped through the pages before noticing that something.
The first three languages he saw were the divine devil language, the common language, and the demon language. Those were the compulsory languages that everyone knew. After that, he started seeing other languages.
Su Yu flipped through the pages rapidly and skimmed through their contents.Including the two new languages he had learned recently, he had mastered twenty languages in total. However, including the three compulsory languages, he could only find nine languages he knew.
Ninety marks?
Su Yu started hesitating. Even if he could answer all questions for the languages he knew correctly, he would only get 90 marks instead of 100 marks for the language part of the examination. Of course, that didn't really matter that much for him. However, for the other students, these 10 marks could very well determine whether they could pass the examination.
While Su Yu was going through the questions, the other students were doing the same. Some of them appeared rather indifferent as they only knew the three compulsory languages. These students did not hesitate and immediately started answering the questions. Since they did not know any other languages, the other questions might as well not exist for them.
Could they exchange their examination papers? Su Yu did not know the answer for that. But since the random nature of the questions were essentially unfair for some of the students, would it be acceptable for the students to actually exchange their papers?
Su Yu glanced at the proctors, but they were completely expressionless. He couldn't find any clues from their faces. At that point, a lot of the students were already starting to answer their questions.
After some hesitation, Su Yu reached a decision. He looked at the student seated next to him and asked, "Do you want to exchange your papers with me?"
That person was clearly a guest student. He did not even care that Su Yu was a local student as he hurriedly asked, "Do you have the flying sky tiger, mountain piercing mole, and nine-tailed fox languages in your set?"
"I’m not sure since I don't even know those languages..."
Su Yu shook his head. Since he hadn't mastered those languages, he naturally wouldn't know they were in his set even if he was looking at them. There were too many races in existence. Nobody could recognize how the characters of every single language in existence were written.
The student beside him hesitated slightly before answering, "Let's do it!"
The two then exchanged their papers. The proctors merely looked on silently. Seeing that, the other students stopped hesitating as well. Those who had mastered more than the three compulsory languages started exchanging their papers with others.
However, one would still need to rely on luck when exchanging papers. Before long, some students noticed that their new papers were even worse than their previous papers. They continued exchanging, but suddenly, the young proctor said, "Exam papers with names written on them can no longer be exchanged."
The faces of many students fell. They could only look for students who had yet to write their names on the papers to continue exchanging. Rustling noise resounded continuously in the room for several minutes. At that point, ten minutes had passed since the examination started.
When Su Yu looked at his new set, he saw that it was worse than his previous set as he only knew eight of the languages on it. He frowned. Should he continue exchanging? After some hesitation, he clenched his teeth and decided to settle with eight.
He lowered his head and started answering the questions. Some of the other students continued exchanging in hope of getting a better set.
Right that moment, Old Xie pointed at a student and coldly said, "You can't exchange your papers more than thrice. Start answering your questions."
"Teacher..."
The student's face fell as he knew five languages in his previous set, but after exchanging it away, he received a set with only three languages he knew. At least 20 marks were gone just like that.
"Do you want to get disqualified?"
The student could only shut his mouth in fear and started answering his questions sullenly. Some of the other students looked at each other in dismay.
...
In front of the room.
The proctors exchanged glances with each other before smiling. Old Xie transmitted his voice, "Little Zhou, do you think they're regretting exchanging their papers right about now?"
"Definitely." The young man softly replied, "The first set would be the most suitable set for them. They need to understand that they can't achieve perfection all the time as they might end up losing even more.
"For the students that are good in languages, their first set will not be satisfactory. However, that would be the case for everyone else. Nobody could get full marks for this part. But by exchanging their papers repeatedly, they are only going to lose more."
The young proctor smiled, "The more they exchange, the worse they will feel. I wonder if these little fellows are despairing right now."
"If this much is enough to make them despair, they should just forget about joining a war academy." Old Xie was strict. This was merely a tiny trial. If these students couldn't even withstand the pressure of something like this, what would they do when they lost the upper hand on the battlefield? Were they going to rout?
Old Xie sank into thought before continuing, "I'm already wondering how the exam should be conducted next year. Seems like we have tried all sorts of tricks already."
"What's the rush?"
The young proctor was in no rush. Looking at the time on his wristwatch, he announced, "You only have one hour for the language test. It has been twenty minutes. You might not have enough time to answer all the questions."
"..."
The faces of some students dropped. Only an hour was allotted for this section of the examination yet they had wasted a lot of time on exchanging papers. Between looking for someone and checking their new questions, they would take between five to six minutes per exchange. Just like that, they had wasted around 20 minutes.
Su Yu, who was busy answering his questions, could only smile helplessly. This was basically a massive trap. Wasn't this supposed to be a normal examination?
With this little trick they played, some of the better students would be pressed for time as well. They did not have much time remaining. Some of the students who still wanted to exchange their papers couldn't even find anyone willing to exchange with them anymore.
Even if one was fast enough to take only 10 minutes per language, one would still need a lot of time to answer the questions for several languages.
...
In the blink of an eye, the hour was over.
"Collect the papers."
With one order, the city guards stepped into the room and collected the papers before sealing them off. Some of the students looked crestfallen when their papers were collected. The time was too short.
"If I've known, I wouldn't have exchanged my papers."
"How unlucky. I know sixteen languages but I was only able to answer the questions for four languages."
"The exam last year was different. They are messing around this year. What's the point of learning so many languages if they're going to do something like this?"
Sounds of discussion broke out. This was basically a massive trap. Some of the students who had mastered a lot of languages felt like crying. These people had all been confident they could easily get 100 marks in the language test, but now, they would be happy with only 30 or 40 marks. That was much lower than they had expected.
As for Su Yu, he had been able to finish answering the questions for all eight languages he knew. He exhaled in relief and rejoiced that he had not continued exchanging his papers. If he did so, not only would he waste more time, but he might also end up with an even worse set of papers.
"Good thing I was able to answer all the questions for the eight languages I know. I am confident I can get at least 60 percent of them correct. Hopefully I can actually get 80 marks."
Su Yu was starting to worry if something similar would happen during the cultural research academy examination in the afternoon as well.
"Your papers are being marked by our specialists. It won't take long. Be patient."
Old Xie smiled and continued, "Since the first test is over, let's move on to the second test. With the language test concluded, it's time to start the cultivation test."
A group of city guards entered the room. Old Xie said, "During the Source Opening Realm, one needs to open the nine acupoints. Mouth, nose, ears, and eyes were the basic seven acupoints. Just because you think your acupoints are opened, it doesn't mean that they are truly opened. Begin the test for the first three stages."
At his order, a glass appeared before each student. Each glass was filled with some unknown liquid.
"The first three acupoints are the mouth and the two nose acupoints. It is important that you are able to smell and taste properly. Smell the liquid and determine if it can be consumed. Taste it and try to determine what materials have been added to it. We only use regular materials such as blood of commonly seen beasts, the cooking condiments you can find at your home, and so on. By the way, we have laxatives in our list of ingredients as well."
Old Xie indifferently said, "If you make the wrong decision, you won't make it to the next part of the exam since you'll be spending your time in the toilet instead. Therefore, be very careful. For the final step, write down the materials you discovered. This will be the test for the first three stages.
"Also, there might even be some sleeping drugs added in the liquid as well. If you fall asleep after tasting the liquid, you won't be able to take part in the subsequent tests either."
A student raised his hand. When he received the permission to speak, he asked, "Teacher, this is different from last year's exam. Last year, the students only needed to answer multiple choice questions. They have ten choices per question. Are we not doing the same thing this year? Without a list of choices for us to select, the scope of the answers would be too large."
"You're not wasting our time or your own time asking that question. You're wasting everyone's time." Old Xie indifferently said, "If you're willing to take this test, take it. If not, shut up. This is how we're doing things this year. All the cities are being tested the same way. Of course, if you wish to continue wasting your time talking to me, I'm more than willing to continue. I have plenty of time to waste."
The students felt even more helpless after hearing that. Su Yu was feeling rather helpless as well. The examination this year was too different from the previous years. Although the overall process was similar, the contents were massively different.
"Be very careful. Check with your sense of smell before tasting. Only write down your observations after. I promise that none of the materials used are unknown to you. You can even try writing some random materials on the paper. If you're lucky, you might get them right.
"It's not like third-stage Source Opening cultivators can fight. Are you intending to showcase your fighting skills instead? If you really want to do that, I'm fine as well. How about this? Have a battle royale here and the final 100 students will pass."
"..."
Nobody answered. What joke was that? That would be the same as a street brawl. It would be too embarrassing to return from an examination with bruises on their faces. Since Old Xie promised that no unknown materials were used, the students stopped wasting time.
Carefully, Su Yu sniffed the liquid in front of him. 'I think I'm smelling some fire hog blood...'
He was very sensitive toward blood. Different blood had different smells to it. Race, specialties, and other aspects of the blood owner could all be ascertained from the blood. After a while, Su Yu judged that this liquid posed no threat to him. He lifted the glass and tasted a bit of the liquid. Before long, he had his answer.
Fire hog blood, mundane duck blood, red pepper paste, plain water, butter...
Su Yu rapidly wrote down the list of materials he tasted. Around him, the other students were also getting started with the test. Some were already writing while some were hesitating to taste the liquid.
"Manage your time properly." The young proctor reminded once again. "Students that are done don't need to wait for the others to finish. Go to the next room to take the next test."
At that announcement, a decent number of students stood up. Su Yu was one of them. He was afraid that the subsequent tests would have time limitations as well so he wasted no time after writing down his answers.
The fifth floor was massive. Previously, Su Yu had thought that there was only one room on the floor. Only now did he find out that there was another room behind the wall. As Su Yu and the other students entered the second room, Old Xie, the woman from the Talent Fostering Bureau, and the person from the Devil Subduing Army followed them.