Chapter 445: Written Exam for Spirit Runes, Hell-like Difficulty!
“Where did you go earlier?”
Gu Xiuxun casually asked.
Ordinarily, when one finished an examination round, they would surely first ask their peers how it was. However, the masochist believed Sun Mo would be able to pass for sure.
“I went for a casual stroll!”
Although he saved a girl, Sun Mo wasn’t the type of person who loved to brag.
“Why don’t I believe you?”
Gu Xiuxun sniffed forcefully. She then went beside Sun Mo and sniffed there. “Did you fool around with some woman?”
Sun Mo was badly frightened. He subconsciously wanted to lift his arm for a smell. Did the smell on the girl and rubbed off on him?
“Aiya, you really went to fool around with a girl?”
Gu Xiuxun was joking originally, but after seeing Sun Mo’s reaction, she was badly shocked.
“...”
Sun Mo was speechless. He really wanted to ask if all women were monsters. Were they innately born with the ability to detect cheaters? Sun Mo swiftly tried to explain.
“Alright, enough. I was just playing around with you!”
The masochist laughed. “Look at how frightened you are. Don’t worry, I won’t tell sister Xinhui. Let’s eat something and prepare for the exam in the afternoon. I can tell you that the examination this year would surely be extremely difficult!”
After a simple lunch, Gu Xiuxun and Sun Mo casually found a place to rest before they headed back to the exam location.
For the written exam, it depended on what the subject the examinee registered for.
Sun Mo’s spiritual beast control art was at the grandmaster-grade, but since he didn’t use it that much, he didn’t register for it. He registered for the study of spirit runes instead.
The examination was still held in a lecture theater of 500 pax. Sun Mo found room #401 and entered it. Upon coming in, he could see some familiar faces that took the first round with him in the morning.
The study of spirit runes was a major subject second only to alchemy and weaponsmithing. Hence, there was a very high probability he would meet familiar examinees here.
“Do you see it? That guy is Sun Mo!”
“That Sun Mo who said ‘you are just a dog waiting for others in front of their door’?”
“Yup, that’s him!”
The examinees mumbled to themselves. But after Gu Qingyan entered, all the focus was shifted to him.
At 2 p.m., the sound of the bell rang out. Tang Nian and two examiners Sun Mo hadn’t met before entered the classroom.
Sun Mo felt a little regret that he didn’t manage to see that beautiful middle-aged woman. After all, no one would hope the examiner in charge of observing them during the examination to be someone with a solemn expression throughout.
“For the written exam, no one is allowed to look around randomly or cheat. Once you are discovered to have done so, your qualifications to participate in the great teacher examination shall be stripped forever.”
Tang Nian announced.
“The duration is three hours!”
After Tang Nian finished speaking, the two other examiners started giving out the exam papers.
Some of the examinees, who were originally filled with trepidation, suddenly cried with anguish when they received the exam papers.
“Oh my heavens, it’s so thick?”
An examinee in the front row almost broke down when he saw the exam consisted of ten sets of exam papers stacked together.
“Silence! Whoever makes a scene shall be banished from the classroom!”
Tang Nian roared.
The classroom immediately fell silent. After that, a tense atmosphere enveloped the area. It was so heavy that it was terrifying.
Each examinee behaved as though they were facing a formidable enemy. Everyone had their heads lowered as they bitterly tackled the questions.
After Gu Qingyan acquired the exam papers, he casually flipped and glanced through them. He then revealed a smile. Very good, it wasn’t that difficult. But after he reached the seventh paper, he suddenly frowned.
Starting from here, the difficulty of the questions spiked up to another level.
The exam given by the Saint Gate this year was just as he had imagined. Many people would surely be eliminated.
“But even if I can’t obtain full marks, I will still be number one!”
Gu Qingyan revealed a confident smile. (I cannot allow anyone to get higher marks than me. No, I can’t think like this. I should just do my best and aim for full marks.)
Sun Mo sat in the middle row. After obtaining the exam papers, he couldn’t even be bothered to flip through them. He directly started answering the questions.
His study of spirit runes was at the grandmaster-grade. Besides, in order to give better lectures for the students, he would often head to the school library to read relevant books. In fact, he had even gone to the old headmaster’s private book collection building to read books about spirit runes.
Other than this, Sun Mo had simplified spirit runes before and even designed three new spirit runes with the spirit rune design template. Right now, his grasp on the study of spirit runes had surpassed basic knowledge. He had his own understanding.
Hence, Sun Mo was very confident and casually tackled the questions in the exam papers.
Sun Mo didn’t notice this, but Tang Nian was currently frowning when looking at him.
“This Sun Mo seems to be extremely confident!”
Tang Nian didn’t know what to say. Sun Mo’s performance in the morning was very excellent. Hence, he decided to pay more attention to him. And now, he saw Sun Mo directly answering the questions even without reading through the papers first.
(He’s actually so confident?)
Not even Gu Qingyan dared to act so rashly!
Why would the majority of people flip through the exam papers before they answered the questions?
This was because they wanted to be mentally prepared. They wanted to see the number of questions and have an estimation of the time needed for each question. If they couldn’t answer a question, they knew how to prioritize the ones that they could solve first.
For the test topic today, there was indeed a need to do this.
Because the Saint Gate wanted to control the passing rate, the questions they had set were all extremely difficult and complex.
Even a 2-star great teacher who was proficient in spirit runes would only be able to just so nicely finish the papers without any extra time. They wouldn’t even be able to check for careless mistakes.
Hence, for these papers, one didn’t only depend on one’s capability, but they needed a battle strategy as well.
If they tried to answer all the questions, they would surely not have time to finish it all.
After the exam papers were given out, the examination began. Other than the rustling sounds of writing brushes on paper, only the sounds of breathing could be heard.
Tang Nian strolled around and observed the examinees. He was so solemn that he was like a majestic lion patrolling its territory!
As time passed, their speed of answering questions began to slow. Anxiousness could be seen on their faces.
Some were panicking, some were in a daze, some stopped writing and gave up. Some even did a last-ditch struggle. At the very least, they tried to finish all the questions that they knew how to do.
“How difficult!”
Tang Nian sighed, feeling sorry for these examinees.
In order to keep things secret, this was also the first time Tang Nian had seen the exam papers. Honestly speaking, if this set of exam papers was what he needed to do back then when he sat for the 1-star great teacher examination, he estimated that he would only be able to get 70 marks.
Tang Nian paused after he arrived beside Gu Qingyan. He wanted to admire Gu Qingyan’s answers a little.
His sitting posture was beautiful, his expression was extremely calm, and his writing was also impressive-looking with the air of a master calligrapher. The most important thing was that his speed didn’t slow down at all.
“As expected of a top graduate from the Skyraise Academy!”
Tang Nian then walked to Sun Mo’s surroundings. After he lowered his head for a look, he was stunned.
(Hmm, this seems to be the seventh set of exam papers. Is his speed quicker than Gu Qingyan? Wait a minute, what am I thinking about? He must have done the questions selectively. As for Gu Qingyan, he should be doing everything.)
Tang Nian took a closer look and involuntarily frowned. Sun Mo’s answering speed wasn’t slow at all. He was already at the seventh exam paper where the difficulty spiked up. However, Sun Mo was still able to maintain his answering speed, could he be a genius?
Very soon, Tang Nian discarded this idea because Sun Mo looked like he didn’t even need to think it through. He wrote down the answers right after seeing the questions.
Clearly, this was giving up.
“Ai, it seems like my judgment must be off!”
Tang Nian shook his head.
Actually, no one could blame Tang Nian for thinking like this. When you were doing mathematical questions of attraction and subtraction, you still needed a few seconds to mentally calculate the answer before writing it down, right?
However, Sun Mo didn’t do so.
The grandmaster-grade knowledge and his outstanding talent made it practically effortless for him to answer the questions.
When Sun Mo saw the questions, his mind already found the correct answer. There was no solution for this. After all, there was simply too much knowledge about spirit runes stored in his mind.
Right now, Sun Mo felt like a professional boxer beating up a primary school student. Moreover, that primary school student was a disabled one!
Very soon, Sun Mo reached the final question. His writing brush paused slightly.
Tang Nian came over again. When he saw that Sun Mo was at the final question, he couldn’t help but start. But after that, he involuntarily shook his head.
(You haven’t even finished the previous questions, so why are you looking at the last question that has a high weightage? This is simply a waste of time. You can’t possibly be thinking that there would be bonus points if you do it, right?)
(This Sun Mo is going to be eliminated for sure. From today onward, he would become the butt of jokes in the great teacher world!)
Tang Nian’s lips twitched. It was fine for any examinee to fail, but things were different for Sun Mo. Who asked him to say that sentence ‘you are just a dog waiting for others in front of their door!’?
If one wanted to act impressive without capabilities, their ending would be like this.
After Tang Nian walked one round, he couldn’t help but return to the spot beside Gu Qingyan. It was a type of enjoyment watching a top examinee like him answering the questions.
“Good!”
Tang Nian almost cheered when he saw the fascinating parts.
“Head examiner Tang!”
Another young examiner called out.
“What’s the matter?”
Tang Nian’s spirits stirred. His gaze turned strict and he glanced around the classroom. Did someone cheat?
“Sun Mo has just raised his hands, wanting to return the exam papers in advance!”
The young examiner explained in a low voice.
Although his volume was low, the examinees at the side could hear it. Hence, their gazes all turned and landed on Sun Mo.
(This fellow must have given up, right? If not, why would he hand his exam papers in advance?)
(He must have realized that he had no hope left!)
However, the questions this year were truly difficult.
Some examinees who still had hope of passing took a glance at Sun Mo and returned to answering the questions.
Gu Qingyan frowned, but he didn’t lift his head.
“Are you sure?”
Tang Nian asked. Honestly speaking, he hoped that Sun Mo could put in a little more effort.
“Yes!”
Sun Mo nodded. He had finished the questions, so why should he stay behind? To check them again?
Please, these questions were so simple. Even if he answered a few of them wrongly, he would still pass for sure.
“You can leave now!”
Tang Nian spoke and then took out his pocket watch to glance at it. There was still an hour left before the end of the exam.
Sun Mo packed his stuff and left the classroom. A few examinees who were destined to fail this time around also lifted their hands and handed in their papers.
They had felt embarrassed to leave in advance. But with Sun Mo taking the lead, things were fine then.
“Move quicker and leave quietly. Don’t disturb the other examinees!”
Tang Nian instructed.
Huala~
A total of seven examinees stood up. After they departed, they saw Sun Mo taking his time and walking slowly ahead. Hence, they quickly chased after him.
“Sun Mo, that sentence of yours about a waiting dog was so cool!”
“Don’t feel discouraged, we have four more attempts after all. We can work harder before coming back next year!”
“Yeah, after returning this time around, I will definitely work harder and stay in the library every day. Next year, I will obtain full marks!”
Because these examinees were those who were doomed to fail, they found a common topic and were mutually encouraging each other.
“...”
For a time, Sun Mo didn’t know how to respond. (I wonder if I will be beaten up if I tell them I will pass?)