Chapter 745: Each Displays Their Divine Power
Looking at True Monarch Starfire on the stage, Kuang Tianqing thought to himself, “Because Starfire has experience within a sect, many people believe that following him offers a better chance of passing the Sect Examination and breaking through the gates to a sect.”
“In fact, most people in this classroom probably think True Monarch Starfire is the most likely to ‘make it ashore’ in this Sect Examination.”
“But they’re wrong. There’s likely another person in this classroom who has an even deeper understanding of sects.”
A confident smile touched Kuang Tianqing’s lips. “And that person… is Zhang Yu!”
“Based on my own years of memories from within a sect, I judge that Zhang Yu is very likely the reincarnation of some great figure.”
“That’s the only way he could have stirred up such turmoil in the Lower Realm, accomplished so many earth-shattering feats, and still managed to escape unscathed — only to then participate in this Sect Examination…”
“He’s probably the one in this classroom most likely to make it ashore.”
Kuang Tianqing mused, “To increase my own chances of success in the Sect Examination, I should get close to him and learn from him.”
As for Kuang Tianqing himself… he had absolutely no confidence in securing victory.
“Sigh, I joined a sect long before the Mandatory Entry Exam for Mortals was implemented. I never went through the complete Sect Examination training at all.”
Although he had never participated in the Sect Examination, he had heard the saying: “Even if you haven’t eaten pork, you’ve seen pigs run.” He had witnessed the madness of the candidates from the upper echelons.
“I can’t do it…”
Kuang Tianqing muttered to himself, “To become like those lunatics from the upper echelons, to twist myself into something unrecognizable, to completely deny my own existence, to trample my self-respect underfoot… to become a vessel ruthlessly filled to bursting with the sect’s will, a ‘Sect Man’ of ultra-high purity… I can’t do it! I just can’t!”
In Kuang Tianqing’s mind, that was far more terrifying, more horrifying, and more unacceptable than even the Eight Great Spirit Transformation Tutoring.
“Didn’t my son say he would help me pass the Sect Examination from above? Why hasn’t that help appeared yet?”
“Could it be imprinted on Zhang Yu?”
As Kuang Tianqing’s thoughts churned like a raging sea, Wen Wuya from Heavenly Sword University also walked into the Spirit Realm Classroom.
“Next, it’s time for full-time exam preparation.”
Wen Wuya understood perfectly that abandoning all work in Kunxu was a massive risk, one that would inevitably bring pressure from all sides.
This full-time exam preparation period would last a full three months — a duration Wen Wuya had never dared to imagine before.
After all, three months without working? Was that even human? A three-month gap on his resume would be a huge disadvantage.
“If I fail…”
Wen Wuya shook his head, thinking, “I must succeed.”
Meanwhile, Mo Shangjin looked at Tu Lishan in surprise. “Teacher Tu, you’re here too?”
Tu Lishan chuckled. “I’m not even two hundred years old yet, of course I can be here.”
At that moment, Tu Lishan was incredibly grateful for the University War. If not for the over-issuance of certificates it had caused, he would still be a Golden Core Realm cultivator. The age limit for Golden Core group cultivators taking the Sect Examination was 150, meaning he would have been completely ineligible.
“Fortunately, I’m already at the Nascent Soul Realm. At under two hundred, this is the perfect age to strive for the Sect Examination.”
Many other teachers in similar situations to Tu Lishan had also arrived, and they were now all listening intently to True Monarch Starfire’s lecture.
Soon after, as Tu Lishan reviewed the job descriptions, he couldn’t help but complain inwardly again, “Damn it… Why are there so few positions available for the Civil Engineering Department?!”
Beside him, Mo Shangjin breathed a silent sigh of relief. “Good thing I switched to the Artifact Refinement Department. There are far more positions available than for pure Civil Engineering.”
Meanwhile, Ying Mingchi from Celestial Monsters University scanned the list of positions suitable for monsterfolk. “There are quite a few jobs open to monsterfolk,” he thought. “We even have an advantage in mount positions, which could get us closer to the sect’s leadership.”
After a full day of study, True Monarch Starfire directly manipulated the Spirit Realm Classroom to initiate the first simulated Sect Examination.
After all, under the 20x Spirit Realm Acceleration, they had effectively studied for twenty days — the perfect time to test their progress.
In an instant, the light and shadows before everyone shifted, plunging them into individual Illusionary Realms to begin the preliminary examination simulation.
Even True Monarch Starfire himself participated in this Simulation Test, while Deng Bingding observed everyone’s performance within the Illusionary Realms.
Watching Zhang Yu’s slow reactions, stiff and unsociable movements, various subconscious acts of discrimination, and lack of demonstrated dedication to the sect, Deng Bingding shook her head.
“Zhang Yu’s grasp of sect ethics is severely lacking,” she thought. “This will likely be his greatest weakness going forward.”
Zhang Yu himself felt helpless. Even though he knew he needed to act in accordance with the Myriad Laws Sect’s ideals, his subconscious, primal reactions were difficult to suppress. Overcoming them required thought and time, which caused him to take too long to answer the questions.
In another scene, Deng Bingding watched as Bai Zhenzhen’s sword qi suddenly spiraled out of control, causing her to fight wildly within the Illusionary Realm. She shook her head again. “Bai Zhenzhen’s situation is also troublesome. Her history with the Extreme Emotion Sword Dao is already a demerit. Combined with her performance in the Illusionary Realm, the examiners will probably view it as equivalent to having a history of mental illness.”
“Yu Xinghan’s knowledge of the Dharma Realm isn’t deep enough. He needs more time in the simulated environment…”
“Why is Kuang Tianqing reacting so slowly? Does he need to think about every question for so long? Still, his accuracy rate is quite high.”
Soon after, the simulation preliminary examination for everyone concluded, and the results were released.
True Monarch Starfire looked at the projected scores, nodded slightly, and said, “Just as I expected. Not a single one of you passed.”
“And currently, among the sects in the Upper Realm, the average score for this exact test is… 560 points.”
Seeing this, True Monarch Starfire inwardly gasped.
He hadn’t realized that during his time away from the sect, the preliminary examination — originally scored out of 200 — had been changed to have no upper limit. Now, the more questions a candidate answered correctly within three hours, the higher their score. The top-ranking candidates would then pass the preliminary examination. This relentless competition… had driven the average score up to a staggering 560 points.
He couldn’t help but sigh inwardly, “Thank goodness I don’t have to take the exam up there. The competition has reached an unbelievable level. We wouldn’t stand a chance.”
Pushing aside his stray thoughts, True Monarch Starfire addressed the group, “After this simulation test, you should all be aware of your own shortcomings.”
“I hope you will all cherish this opportunity and strive to improve.”
Everyone present stared at their scores, the pressure mounting instantly.
Zhang Yu, who had only scored 55 points, frowned slightly. “An exam that forces you to change your instinctive reactions, even your core beliefs… What a pain.”
“The candidates selected by this Preliminary Examination Illusionary Realm are the most ‘sect-like’ of sect members. It’s a competition to see who has the highest ‘sect purity.’”
Zhang Yu stroked his chin and mused, “If I went up there to compete with those sect grandpas in purity, even if I won, I’d just become a new sect grandpa myself.”
“Thankfully, the competition down here is much less intense.”
At the same time, a new question surfaced in Zhang Yu’s mind.
“The Mandatory Entry Exam for Mortals has been in place for a long time. So how did the seniors who entered the sect from the Ten Universities succeed back then?”
“In their time, there were no sect exams down here. They were all selected first and then sent to the Eleventh Layer to take the Sect Examination.”
“If I could learn their method…”
With this thought, Zhang Yu’s gaze swept over Zhang Pianpian’s name in his contact list, and he sent her his question.
Soon, he received her reply.
Zhang Pianpian: “One method I know of is memory transplantation.”
Zhang Yu’s heart skipped a beat. “That’s right… If I could transplant the relevant memories, I’d be able to react in the most ‘sect-like’ way possible.”
Zhang Pianpian: “But the side effect is that your own memories get completely compressed.”
Zhang Pianpian: “If a candidate has 50 years of memories, they often need to transplant the memories of someone who successfully passed the Sect Examination at a scale of 100 or 200 times their own.”
Zhang Yu was stunned. “100 times? 200 times?!”
Zhang Pianpian: “When this method first appeared, many Sect Examination candidates could pass by transplanting just 5 or 10 times their own memories. Later, to beat them, others increased the amount to 20 times, then 30, and eventually up to several hundred times.”
Zhang Pianpian: “In that situation, the candidate’s original 50 years of memories become insignificant. Most of their life becomes a cycle of thousands of years spent reliving the Sect Examination experience.”
“Wait… thousands of years of Sect Examination memories?” Zhang Yu thought incredulously. “Has the competition up there really gotten that insane just to pass?”
“And isn’t this basically just possession?” he couldn’t help but curse inwardly.
“Imagine waking up to find you’ve spent thousands of years in the Cyclical Sect Examination, your own life experiences now as faint and unimportant as memories from first grade.”
Zhang Yu couldn’t help but shake his head. “These people… Is it really necessary to go this far just to join a sect?”
As Zhang Yu asked his question, Tian Shengong from Immortal Armaments University posed a similar one to the Righteous God who had contacted him about joining a cram school.
The god’s reply made his heart sink.
“Modify my body, install an external brain, and completely surrender control of my body and mind to a sect’s artifact spirit in the upper Spirit Realm, severing all control from my own consciousness?”
“If I do that… even if I pass the Sect Examination, will I still be me?”
“Did I pass the Sect Examination, or did the artifact spirit?”
“Will I even be able to change back afterward?”
“If too much time passes, with my mind and body out of sync and my thoughts completely altered, will I become nothing more than a Dharma Puppet?”
Tian Shengong sighed inwardly. “Are the seniors really willing to sacrifice this much just to enter a sect?”
At Joyful Union University.
Lian Tianji saw a new notice posted at the university. It announced that sect disciple who had descended — now the new principal of Joyful Union — were willing to guide students for the Sect Examination and teach the methods used by past Joyful Union seniors to enter the sects.
Seeing this, Lian Tianji was immediately tempted, but she quickly discovered that registration had filled up instantly.
“Damn it!”
From then on, Lian Tianji waited for the registration window to open each day, hoping for a chance to receive guidance from the sect member.
At Heavenly Demon University, Kuang Tianqing looked at the Righteous God who had contacted him and said, “You don’t need to tell me; I already know.”
“Although no new people are born in the upper realms anymore, plenty of reincarnated elders are reborn into the sects each year.”
“Before these elders die, they sell the copyrights to their memories. Some people then extract the Sect Examination memories, splice them together, and sell them to other candidates.”
“Hmph… These memory-synthesized individuals risk memory corruption and madness with the slightest mistake. Even if they enter a sect, they’re just consumables. I would never choose such a method.”
At Netherworld University.
Under the guidance of Divine Monarch Nether Spring, Wang Yin met the Righteous God before him and asked how Netherworld University seniors had managed to enter the sects.
The Righteous God replied calmly, “First, they work as outsourced contractors at the sect’s grassroots level to gain practical experience. This naturally gives them an advantage during the Sect Examination.”
Wang Yin asked in surprise, “They can get practical experience at the sect’s grassroots level? Is there really such a good opportunity?”
The Righteous God explained, “They become shared physical bodies for Netherworld Palace disciples, experiencing sect life firsthand. This allows them to quickly grasp the Netherworld Palace’s philosophy.”
Wang Yin exclaimed, “Shared physical bodies?”
The Righteous God continued, “The entire Netherworld Palace is built from mountains of corpses and seas of blood. Shared physical bodies are a form of infrastructure, you could say.”
Wang Yin said, “So they’re like bricks or doors? Isn’t that too low-level?”
The Righteous God replied, “The physical bodies of top students from the Ten Universities wouldn’t be wasted like that. They’re always assigned to good positions.”
He then added, “But don’t even think about it. This year’s outsourced positions at the Netherworld Palace were snatched up long ago. There’s no chance for you.”
At Myriad Laws University.
A faint light flickered in Yun Zhiguang’s Bionic Eye as the results of Zhang Yu’s class’s first simulation test appeared.
Seeing that not a single student had passed, Yun Zhiguang was completely unsurprised.
“How could you possibly comprehend the difficulty of the Sect Examination?”
“Don’t even mention not having enough preparation time…” Yun Zhiguang thought as Zhang Yu’s figure appeared in her mind. “How long has it been since you reached the Nascent Soul Realm? Your cultivation isn’t even complete, yet you’re already thinking about the Sect Examination.”
“Go ahead and crash. Crash and burn completely, utterly routed.”
Yun Zhiguang sighed inwardly. “Before the Sect Examination, you see me like a frog in a well gazing at the moon in the sky. After the Sect Examination, you’ll see me like a leech seeing the vast heavens for the first time.”
Inside the Grand Void Research Association.
Zhang Yu’s consciousness was immersed in the Supreme Clarity Realm. His main body and sixteen mental projections were each busy completing his Master’s coursework.
After the first day’s intensive session, True Monarch Starfire’s subsequent tutoring was no longer 24 hours a day but 12 hours daily. With the 20x Spirit Realm Acceleration, this equated to 240 hours of study.
The remaining 12 hours in the physical world were left for the candidates to manage themselves. They could either focus on strengthening their weaknesses, complete their academic requirements to graduate as soon as possible, or advance their cultivation.
One’s cultivation level also provided a significant advantage in the examination. Not only was the cultivation level itself one of the tested criteria, but a higher cultivation also enhanced a Cultivator’s cognitive processing speed, which was immensely helpful for the exam.
At this very moment, Zhang Yu was accelerating his study of the Master degree’s curriculum.
During the University War, although the university had given him a free pass on all his exams, he had still missed many courses.
But now, within the Supreme Clarity Realm, he was studying at a frantic pace — 17 times the normal rate, multiplied by a 20x acceleration. Combined with the cognitive speed of the Nascent Soul Realm, he was confident he could complete all remaining courses within the day. He planned to finish his school exams and write his graduation thesis ahead of schedule over the next two days.
At the behest of Divine Monarch Magnetic Pole and Divine Monarch Greenwood, Myriad Laws University had streamlined the entire process for him, fast-tracking all the necessary procedures.
After obtaining his Master’s degree at an astonishing speed, Zhang Yu began a new phase of cultivation.
His damaged magical artifacts had already been entrusted to the Artifact Refinement Department and the Research Association for repair, thanks to the influence of Divine Monarch Magnetic Pole and Zhang Yu’s own reputation.
Zhang Yu now focused entirely on his personal cultivation.
In the Meditation Chamber of the Research Association, Zhang Yu’s main body was tempering his physical strength, while his sixteen Monsterfolk Clones practiced the Profound Yellow Mountain-Suppressing Seal from the Seven Absolutes of Civil Engineering.
“With my Nascent Soul Sacred Body and these 16 Monsterfolk Clones, I estimate I can raise the Profound Yellow Mountain-Suppressing Seal from the Seven Absolutes of Civil Engineering to level 40 in just one day.”
“Seven days from now, I’ll be able to push the Heavenly Kunlun Mountain-Moving Divine Power to level 40, reaching the Nascent Soul Peak.”
Ever since breaking through to the Nascent Soul Realm, Zhang Yu felt he was constantly swamped with tasks, never able to fully dedicate himself to self-improvement.
As a result, his base stats and many of his martial arts and Daoist arts had yet to reach their full Nascent Soul Peak potential.
Only now could he finally address these cultivation shortcomings, preparing himself to take the Sect Staff Examination in optimal condition.
“The preliminary examination tests personal cultivation, moral character, and aptitude for sect administration…”
Zhang Yu thought to himself, “With my current progress, personal cultivation won’t be an issue. But the other two…”
At that moment, the Underworld Soul-Washing Scripture flashed through his mind, along with the methods once used by Fu Xiantian and True Monarch Immortal Slayer.
He couldn’t help but wonder, “Should I cultivate the Underworld Soul-Washing Scripture?”
“I wonder if the Underworld Soul-Washing Scripture can connect me to any Sect Examination memories and infuse them into my mind.”
But Zhang Yu knew this carried the risk of his own will being altered or corrupted. For the moment, he hadn’t made a final decision.
Just then, a flash of lightning erupted from Bai Zhenzhen’s body, mingling with her Extreme Emotion Sword Qi in a brilliant burst of light.
Zhang Yu knew this was because Fu Ji’s status had been elevated, which in turn enhanced Bai Zhenzhen’s potential. Her Thunder Magic Power had become increasingly swift and fierce.
However, when placed alongside Bai Zhenzhen’s Azure Lotus Sword Embryo and Extreme Emotion Sword Qi, this acceleration in her Thunder Magic Power seemed almost unremarkable.
Besides Bai Zhenzhen, Yu Xinghan’s potential had also been enhanced. His Third Eye Mystic Power had entered a dormant state, seemingly brewing some kind of transformation.
Observing the starkly different effects of the potential enhancement on Bai Zhenzhen and Yu Xinghan — one subtle, the other profound — Zhang Yu couldn’t help but sigh inwardly. The Evil God’s potential boosts truly followed no logic.
Thinking of this, he raised his hand and looked at the black symbol nearly filling his palm. He thought to himself, “What effect will the new page of the Feather Book have?”
Two days later, as the symbol on his palm was completely filled, a new page of the Feather Book slowly unfurled before Zhang Yu.