Chapter 56: Passing the Assessment and Heading to Songyang
“Zhang Yu!”
“Zhang Yu!”
“Zhang Yu!”
Pulled from his stupor by the repeated calls, Zhang Yu abruptly awoke to the sound of giggles filling the classroom.
Looking up at the podium, he saw the teacher glaring at him coldly.
“Get out and stand in the hall.”
Zhang Yu stood up helplessly and walked out of the classroom.
Day after day of this high school life, yet he felt not a sliver of hope.
His grades worsened, his rank plummeted, and he had dropped from the model class to the very worst one. Students and teachers alike looked at him as if he were a bucket of trash.
Meanwhile, the various loans he had taken out to cultivate the Immortal Dao were piling up, suffocating him.
Finally, one day, he walked to the school’s rooftop.
Just as he was about to take a step out, his cell phone rang.
Zhang Yu answered the call, and a voice on the other end said, “Hello? Hi, is this Mr. Zhang Yu? There’s a new cemetery plot that just opened in the northern suburbs. For only two hundred thousand, you can enjoy our post-mortem corpse-refining service, giving you a chance to live again…”
Zhang Yu let out a dry laugh. “Your big data is really something else, isn’t it? It even guessed I was preparing to jump off a building? Too bad it didn’t calculate that I’m completely broke and can’t afford your tomb.”
The person on the other end continued, “If you’re penniless, then wouldn’t you want a chance to turn your life around? Our company has a ‘Heaven Mending Plan.’ If you’re interested in learning more, I can send you the details…”
Zhang Yu hung up and continued to stare down at the abyss-like darkness below his feet.
“Turn things around…”
After a moment of silence, he ultimately opened his phone again and looked at the website the person had sent him.
A teddy bear on the screen began to speak, “Make a wish to the gods.”
“Simply perform a ritual for me, and all your wishes will be granted in five minutes.”
“Completely free, no requirements, and absolutely no hidden charges.”
“One click, and your life will be transformed…”
Watching this, Zhang Yu felt something—a painful memory—darting through his mind, but he couldn’t quite grasp it.
It was the rage of being constantly forced, endlessly tormented, of having his head held down and made to suffer.
And just before those painful memories could break free, his emotions and instincts had already reacted.
“Fuck!” Zhang Yu roared, hurling his phone away before flipping his middle finger. “Hahaha, think you can fool me?”
“Try again in your next life!”
Zhang Yu’s consciousness stalled, and the next moment, he awoke in the classroom once more.
But the memories and emotions concerning the evil god were growing more intense, causing him to gradually remember something.
“I remember now. I’m taking the assessment for the Divine Assistant personnel.”
“This assessment seems to be related to an evil god?”
Zhang Yu felt he now understood the key to the assessment and decided he would perform his best.
…
Sun Jia’yi was immensely proud.
Because he was not a man, but a god.
Although he was just one of the Inspection Department’s 480 million minor Duty Gods, he was a god nonetheless, possessing the authority to review mortals.
Though he only reviewed the assessment for an outsourced job with an hourly wage of fourteen yuan, he had always been diligent and serious in his work.
This was a god.
A god, however humble, never dares to forget the woes of Kunxu!
At this moment, rows of lit screens appeared before Sun Jia’yi, each continuously playing the content of one assessment after another.
It was an instinct-based test of the applicants’ reactions to the temptation of an evil god within an illusionary landscape in the Spirit Realm.
And for the outsourced staff members applying to the Inspection Department, whether or not they could withstand this evil god’s temptation within the illusion was the key to passing the assessment.
“This candidate from Taitian City, what’s the meaning of listing all his family’s assets and background on his resume?”
“So what if he’s worth over a hundred million? If you can’t pass, you can’t pass. Did he really think I would bend the rules for his family background?”
Sun Jia’yi sneered, dismissing it with contempt. Seeing the applicant hesitating in the illusion, he directly failed him.
“Weak-willed. Unqualified.”
Sun Jia’yi was a proud god, and the more privileged the students he failed, the more he could feel his divine pride and enjoy the satisfaction that came from his conscientiousness.
His thoughts turned to the next candidate, one from Hong’an City.
The applicant’s resume was filled with all kinds of honors from his first and second years of high school. He was the top student of his grade, a regular in competitions, with dazzling talent, outstanding ability, and infinite potential. It was highly likely he would get into a top university in the future, or even join a major sect.
But watching the applicant struggle back and forth in the illusion, taking a full ten minutes before finally managing to reject the evil god’s temptation, Sun Jia’yi still mercilessly chose to fail him.
“Hmph, does he think a promising future and a shiny resume will make me show mercy? I’m not one of those commoners who only cares about scores.”
“Even if he were a true prodigy, a favored son of heaven like a university student, if he lands in my hands, he doesn’t pass if I say so.”
“To take so long to refuse is a clear sign of a weak will. How could I possibly let you pass?”
His thoughts turned again, and this time, Zhang Yu’s file and assessment content appeared before him.
“Mm, he decisively threw the phone away on the rooftop. Not bad.”
“The difficulty increases next. Let’s see how he fares.”
The scene on the screen then shifted repeatedly as various methods of temptation by the evil god were presented to Zhang Yu one after another.
A beautiful admirer asked Zhang Yu to make a wish to the evil god with her; Zhang Yu kicked her aside and fled at top speed.
He was being hunted with no way out when the evil god offered salvation; Zhang Yu sneered, turned, and threw the evil god doll at his enemies, shouting, “Good stuff! You can wish for anything from this thing!”
When a giant ragdoll chased him, threatening him with terrifying power to form a contract, Zhang Yu ran while calling the police, and after the constables arrived, he even wanted to charge forward with them to fight the evil god.
But… Sun Jia’yi, sitting before the screen, was no longer watching his spirited performance, because someone had contacted him.
Seeing Zhang Pianpian’s name pop up in the contact window, along with her title as the acting vice-captain of the Songyang City Inspection Department’s patrol team, he frowned slightly.
“What is it, colleague?”
Zhang Pianpian said, “There is a candidate named Zhang Yu, I hope…”
Sun Jia’yi was about to wave his hand in refusal when he saw she had already activated a Talisman Tome and cast a talisman.
“You dare cross the Spirit Realm and cast a talisman on me, a magnificent Duty God?”
“What audacity!”
But upon seeing the specific talisman she cast, Sun Jia’yi immediately relaxed.
“A Favorability Talisman?!”
A Favorability Talisman was a type of spell that could quickly increase a god’s goodwill.
Its principle of operation required no name, no information, and no account number; as long as it was activated while in contact with the target, money could be sent directly into their account with the transaction record automatically hidden.
Recognizing the effect of the Favorability Talisman, Sun Jia’yi’s originally stern expression softened.
“I didn’t expect a mere mortal from the lower realm like you to be so knowledgeable about talismans, to have even learned the Favorability Talisman.”
And after noticing the number in his account change, a smile spread across his face as he remarked, “For a high school student to be so reverent toward the gods truly shows the firmness of his faith.”
“What is it you require of me?”
Zhang Pianpian was not surprised by this.
Based on her two years of experience using the Talisman Tome and studying talismans, raising one’s faith level relied on payments, learning talismans relied on payments, and hiring a righteous god for tutoring relied on payments… therefore, the art of talismans was simply the art of payment!
However, making payments to gods also required specific methods. Channels like Talisman Tome payments, private transfers, public transfers, and Favorability Talismans were worlds apart, and this was where the skill level in the art of talismans came into play.
Zhang Pianpian said, “I must trouble this great god to lower the difficulty of Zhang Yu’s assessment just a little…”
Sun Jia’yi said dismissively, “Hah, a job that pays fourteen yuan an hour, how difficult can the assessment be?”
…
Inside the illusion.
Zhang Yu looked at the world before him, his gaze filled with bewilderment.
He now found himself in a white room.
In the center of the room floated a line of text: An evil god tempts you. Will you accept?
Below it floated two options: Accept and Decline.
Wait… this has to be a trick question, right?
Because the question seemed far too simple, Zhang Yu was unable to answer.
After thinking for a full ten minutes and being genuinely unable to spot the trap, Zhang Yu nervously chose “Decline.”
The next moment, a notification that he had passed the assessment appeared before him.
With a bewildered expression, Zhang Yu withdrew from the Spirit Realm, still not quite understanding what had just happened.
Just then, his cell phone rang.
Zhang Yu answered the phone, and Zhang Pianpian’s voice came from the other end.
“You should have passed the test by now, right?”
Zhang Yu immediately voiced the confusion in his heart.
Zhang Pianpian explained, “Oh, I sent some money to the minor Duty God on watch and had him lower the assessment difficulty a bit.”
A bit?
This is a god?
Zhang Yu was shocked. “You can bribe a god with money?”
Zhang Pianpian replied, “How could that be possible.”
Zhang Yu was about to breathe a sigh of relief when Zhang Pianpian continued, “Spending money only makes it possible to bribe a god. It really depends on how much you spend and how you spend it. That’s where skill with talismans comes in.”
Zhang Yu said, “But… that’s a god!”
“In Kunxu, gods get things done for money. That’s what ‘money moves the gods’ means,” Zhang Pianpian said as if it were obvious. “Without money, how could the Eight Ministries of Righteous Gods operate Kunxu? How could they manage the world?”
Zhang Yu was speechless once again; he could only say that he had gained a much deeper understanding of Kunxu.
Remembering what she had said before, Zhang Yu asked, “Didn’t you say this assessment tested one’s Dao heart and willpower?”
Zhang Pianpian said lightly, “Yes, it does. You need a strong enough Dao heart and enough willpower to hold on until… I can find the on-duty Duty God responsible for your assessment in the Spirit Realm and then use a talisman to transfer money into his account.”
She continued, “Alright, I’ve brought your work ID and work Talisman Tome. Let’s meet at the gate of your high school.”
“Now… we can go have a talk with the student council of Songyang High School.”
Zhang Yu quickly dragged his exhausted body onto a bus and arrived at the school stop an hour and a half later. From a distance, he could see Zhang Pianpian standing at the intersection.
She handed Zhang Yu a black-and-white object that resembled a manual.
“This is your work Talisman Tome. You have permission to use one talisman for free each day, and you can get a discount when learning the Inspection Department’s talismans through this tome…”
She then pointed to a strange symbol on the Talisman Tome and said, “This is the mark of the Inspection Department. You can show it if you run into trouble.”
Zhang Yu carefully took it in his hands, thinking, So this is a Talisman Tome. Even the cheapest one must cost close to a hundred thousand, right?
The Talisman Tome was crucial for learning the art of talismans, which in turn affected one’s Daoist art grades in high school. Zhang Yu had even heard of students mortgaging their own organs to buy one.
They actually give these out as soon as you join? The Inspection Department is really rich.
If Zhen saw this, wouldn’t she get on her knees and call me ‘daddy’? Beg me to let her play with it for a bit?