Chapter 91: Doubting The World (1)
The second examination venue was a big, empty room. The students from the other examination venues were also arriving one after another with their respective proctors. The proctor in charge of this test wasn't Bureau Head Sun. It was the same proctor from the war academy examination in the morning.
When the proctor in charge saw the students, he nodded at Bureau Head Sun before saying, "This test is much easier than its counterpart in the war academy examination. Only your cultivation level will be measured. Cultural research academies don’t care about practical combat abilities. You only need to hit hard enough to get a pass."
Researcher Huang smiled and clarified, "Prior to the Great Strength Realm, any combat test is a joke. Thus, us cultural researchers don't waste our time with that. You will have the chance to test your combat prowess in the future."
Researcher Huang would definitely not fear anyone when it comes to a war of words. As far as the cultural researchers were concerned, testing a student's real combat ability during the Source Opening Realm was pointless.
The cultural researchers greatly looked down on this part of the test. In fact, all combat tests before the Skysoar Realm were pointless for them. For them, cultivation level was more important. After opening nine acupoints and achieving willpower materialization, their physical bodies would quickly reach the Skysoar Realm.
The proctor from the war academy coldly said, "Combat experience is something one needs to start accumulating early on. It isn't something you can gain instantly. There are Skysoar cultivators with zero combat experience. On the battlefield, they couldn't even kill Infinite Strength cultivators."
"It will be much safer for a Skysoar cultivator to gain experience compared to a Source Opening cultivator."
"If you're afraid of death, just stop cultivating. If you're so afraid, just hide at home until you reach the Mountainsea Realm before coming out."
However, Researcher Huang actually agreed and smiled, "And what's wrong if that? If one can keep progressing, it is definitely not a problem to cultivate in seclusion until the Mountainsea Realm. In fact, that happened before in the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy. Someone who has never taken a step out of the academy instantly gain fame and power the day he did it."
"Shut up, both of you!"
Bureau Head Sun was furious. The two academies had been antagonistic toward each other for a long time. They were only arguing here because they wanted to fight for more students. After all, the war academy also wanted some cultural researchers in their academy. This wasn't the first time they tried doing something like this.
"Just focus on the test. If not, you can leave and get someone else to do the job."
With that, the leader from the war academy finally stopped arguing and continued talking to the students, "Attack the dummy in front of you with your strongest hit. You can gain a total of 270 marks from this test. Your score will be displayed on the screen connected to the dummy after hitting it."
He personally felt that this method of test was dull and unreliable. It was as though they were simply going through the motions for this part of the examination. True strength was not something they could measure digitally like this.
For war academy examinations, students would be tested in various aspects such as determining directions from sound, mounted archery, and so on. But here, they only required a single hit on a dummy. The students were given as much time as they needed to gather strength before attacking.
He was unhappy with this test, but the cultural research academies had been doing things this way for many years. He could only follow the procedure. He continued, "Don't think that you can get 270 marks just because you're at the ninth-stage Source Opening Realm. Cultural research academies don't care about physical cultivation and intend to suppress the score one can get from this test.
"Thus, even a seventh-stage Source Opening cultivator might only get 100 marks for this part. Very few ninth-stage Source Opening cultivators can get 200 marks from this test."
Since the war academies restricted the score students could get from the language test, the cultural research academies naturally had restrictions for the score from the physical cultivation test.
A ninth-stage Source Opening cultivator should count himself lucky just getting 200 marks from this test.
Researcher Huang smiled and explained, "He's somewhat right, but not accurate. Students who are familiar with willpower can try using your willpower. That will grant you more marks here."
That was the difference between the two tests. The war academies did not encourage their students to use willpower during the test. It was the other way around for the cultural research academies. After all, if they could use their willpower well, they would only prove that they had learned some of the basics of being a cultural researcher.
At that moment, Wu Lan looked at Su Yu with a smile of victory on her face. He was at the ninth-stage while she was at the eighth-stage. But it didn't matter. Nobody knew which of them would get the higher score here. She might be able to get 270 marks with willpower while Su Yu might only get 200 marks. That would show the gap between them.
"The test will start now. Remain silent." The proctor shouted, stopping the students from talking among themselves. "Student number 1-104."
A student from the first venue walked out and stood before a dummy.
"Teacher, can I use my weapon?"
"It doesn't matter." The proctor indifferently said, "For a test like this, using a weapon won't change much. The strength of your source qi and willpower will be the main focus."
This test did not take into consideration the actual damage one did to the dummy. Rather, it tested one's source qi density and willpower strength.
"I'll use a saber..."
The student did not mind. A lot of them were already used to using weapons and they would perform better with a weapon in hand. A weapon rack was nearby. The proctor did not stop the student from picking up a weapon. Before long, the student walked over with a saber. After gathering power for a bit, he swung at the dummy. After the hit landed, the screen beside the dummy displayed the score.
"22 marks..."
The student was stunned. He couldn't help arguing, "Teacher, I'm a fourth-stage Source Opening cultivator. How can my score be so low?"
The proctor expressionlessly said, "This is how cultural research academies do things. They don't care about your cultivation. They only care about your source qi density and willpower strength. Do you understand now? If you're not satisfied with this, take the war academy examination next year."
"Enough." Bureau Head Sun was getting impatient. "Continue the test. The dummy provides the score based on fixed parameters. If you're unhappy, you can apply to retake the test. But you'll need to pay a fee for that. It's not cheap to activate this dummy. If you don't mind spending money, feel free to retake the test."
The student looked dispirited. With his cultivation level, he should have gotten 60 marks. But instead, he had only gotten 22 marks. That was far lower than his expectation.
"Student 1-139."
"Boom!"!
The second student did not hesitate. He walked forth and directly smashed his fist into the dummy.
"26 marks."
"Hehe, I'm only at the third-stage. This score is good enough for me."
The second student was feeling rather good. He might not feel that way without a comparison, but with the previous student as an example, he was extremely satisfied with his score.
"Student 3-009."
"Boom!"
"36 marks."
"..."
"Student 2-025."
"..."
Score after score appeared on the screen. Some were happy and some were sad. Su Yu frowned. It seemed impossible to determine the standards of this dummy. Some fifth-stage students were able to get 110 marks. Some fifth-stage students could only get 30 marks. Even now, the first student was still in disbelief, doubting his existence and doubting the entire world.
"Student 3-176."
Finally, Su Yu saw someone familiar taking the test. Liu Yue stepped forth, picked a sword, and stabbed forth with a roar.
"63 marks."
Liu Yue was happy with the result. She was only a fourth-stage student. Supposedly, she was only supposed to get 60 marks here. However, she had surpassed her supposed limit. At present, the person with the highest mark was the fifth-stage student with 110 marks. Not even some of the sixth-stage students could get a score that high.
"Congratulations!"
Su Yu congratulated her. That was a very good score for Liu Yue who was only a fourth-stage student.
In a good mood, Liu Yue walked over and whispered, "Channel your willpower to the weapon to get a higher score. You should be able to do that as well."
Su Yu was someone who had studied willpower texts before. He should be capable of that.
Su Yu nodded. He had been paying close attention to the other students, so he naturally knew what to do. In fact, he was quite confident. He didn't know if he could get full marks, but he would definitely get a high score.
"Student 5-179."
This was yet another student Su Yu was familiar with. The student looked rather nervous. Instead of choosing a weapon, the student attacked with a palm.
"14 marks."
"..."
That was probably the lowest score yet. 14 marks. Third-stage Source Opening Realm.
By the time the examination drew near, many of the students at the second and third-stage had broken through. Nowadays, there were very few second-stage students around. Most of them were at the third-stage. Of course, that referred to only the locals. There were plenty of fourth and fifth-stage students among the guest students.
When the student saw the low score, his face turned red as his mood crumbled. That was too low.
Even Su Yu sighed for that student. The better students could get around 400 to 500 marks just from the first two tests. As for the weaker students, they might not be able to get more than 80 marks after all the tests. The gap between them was too big.
The next student was a familiar face. It was Zhou Tianqi from the third venue.
"Boom!"!
A loud sound rang out. He had attacked with a dagger.
"180 marks."
A seventh-stage student was supposed to only get 170 marks here. But Zhou Tianqi had exceeded his theoretical limit to get 180 marks, living up to his reputation as a genius from the capital. Or to be more accurate, he was a little genius.
He had gotten 190 marks from the language test. Coupled with this test, he now had 370 marks. That was enough to make him a middle-tier student. This would probably be a decent result even in the capital. However, he did not look happy. His companions were all looking at him with an unfriendly look.
They had previously agreed that Zhou Tianqi would be taking the repeat examination in the capital. However, he refused. As a result, his family was forced to pay a great price to calm the anger of the other families.
Now, the other students were already sure that they wouldn't be able to pass the examination this year. They naturally would no longer stay polite to him. Severing one's future was basically the act of creating a massive grudge.
After Zhou Tianqi was done, Wu Lan was getting impatient. She wanted to see Su Yu's dark expression once again. That would be very interesting.
"Student 3-003."
Wu Lan walked out in excitement while trying to stay aloof. He did not look back. With a sword in hand, she shouted and stabbed at the dummy.
Swish! Swish!
Instead of a loud boom, only a sharp whistle accompanied her strike.
"265 marks."
Joy covered Wu Lan's face when she saw her score. She turned her head to once again look at Su Yu smugly. She now had 595 marks, only a tiny bit away from being a high-tier student. She had reached that far after only two tests.
Even Researcher Huang couldn't help but to praise, "Strong willpower. Not bad. There are probably less than 10 exam takers this year that can do the same. How long have you reached the Mental Tempering Stage?"
"Three months." Wu Lan was very excited, but she kept feigning calmness as she said, "I've never enjoyed cultivating before so I didn't spend much time doing so. Otherwise, I could have reached the ninth-stage and gotten 300 marks here."
Su Yu was stunned. He hurriedly asked, "Teacher, is it actually possible to get more than 270 marks here?"
"Of course." Researcher Huang answered, "However...ninth-stage Source Opening cultivators are generally not capable of doing so. Their willpower..."
He looked at Su Yu and did not finish his words. He was basically hinting that Su Yu was not good enough. His willpower was far weaker than Wu Lan's. She was after all a genius that had been trained since young. Su Yu, a random nobody, would not be able to compete against her. Her score of 595 marks was akin to a lofty mountain looming above him.
The look in the eyes of the other students when looking at Wu Lan changed. This was a true genius from the capital. Many of them couldn't even get 100 marks yet she already had nearly 600 marks. The gap between them was so big they didn't even consider catching up to her.