Chapter 53: The Monthly Exam Begins
’The Life Chart... it hasn’t changed!’
"Shenzi? Shenzi? What are you thinking about? You’re spaced out."
Yang Shen snapped back to reality and gave an unnatural smile. "It’s nothing. Your headache... you should really get it treated. Don’t let it turn into a chronic illness."
Xu Bamboo shook his head. "My attending physician seems pretty capable. He’s already handled several cases of ’Martial Arts Psychosis.’ Mine is a common side effect."
Yang Shen let out a turbid breath. "Mm... right. You’re being treated at the big hospital in Jianghuai City, so you must have had other tests, right? Did they find any other problems?"
Xu Bamboo: "Of course. I had all the tests done—MRI, CT scan, EEG..."
"Your... when’s your birthday again?"
Xu Bamboo said expectantly, "August 23rd. Why? Are you going to get me a gift?"
"It’s nothing. It’s just, you’re turning 17, and it makes me a little nervous..."
Xu Bamboo: ...
’Is 17 that old?’
Yang Shen cracked a smile, brushing off the topic, but his heart felt anything but light.
Life Charts can obviously be changed. He’d survived such a huge crisis, and Liu Yuankui had even gone off to open his "Teacher’s BBQ," yet it was still an Early Death Life Chart?
’Where is the "early death" part?’
---
On March 29th, the second-to-last monthly exam at Nanliang High School officially began.
Based on past years’ experience, these monthly exams would start off "easy," giving students the confidence that "I can still be saved," before getting progressively harder to test their true scores.
The very last exam would be a "super freebie," giving students the ultimate illusion of "I really have gotten stronger," so they could walk into the exam hall with confidence.
Rounding things up, this second-to-last exam was the strictest one of all.
Just like the official college entrance exams, it would last for a total of two and a half days.
Although Nanliang High School had been weathering a storm of rumors lately, with students gossiping that it was on the verge of closing down, the arrangements were still very strict.
That morning, Yang Shen had twelve boiled eggs, plus countless soy milks and fried dough sticks, to cope with the day’s high energy expenditure.
On the morning of the first day, Yang Shen started with the language arts exam from the academic curriculum. This part was a breeze. The exam was 75 minutes long, and besides the 300-character essay which took a bit of time, he had everything else down pat.
However, the next event, the first of the five major Martial Arts sections—Subject One—would require some effort.
Although he had bragged to Xu Bamboo, at his current level of just entering the "Mid-stage Bone Training" realm, the pure stat-based events weren’t actually that easy.
Subject One: Speed and Nerve Response. Total score: 100 points.
The test consisted of three events: the 100-meter dash, the 400-meter obstacle course, and Extreme Evasion.
It assessed a student’s ability to respond to emergencies and high-risk environments, especially their instantaneous explosive power, instantaneous reaction time, and instantaneous ability to handle complex surroundings.
The classes were broken up for the exam. Yang Shen stuck his "examinee number card" to his chest and back and waited outside the arena for his number to be called.
"Examinee number 69, please enter the testing area!"
The first event: the 100-meter dash.
There wasn’t much to say about it. While technique was certainly important, one’s cultivation realm and strength were the true foundation.
Yang Shen didn’t stand out among this batch of examinees. He ran his heart out and only placed third out of ten.
9.18 seconds.
This was already a huge breakthrough for him. Although he had the "Buddha Sound Body Refining Technique" and his physical strength was approaching the limit for his realm, his Martial Arts path was, after all, "balanced" and not focused on "speed."
At the Mid-stage of Bone Training, a horizontal comparison would place him only in the top 30% of the school. There were two experts in his heat, but since the score was based on the time and not the ranking, Yang Shen didn’t care.
The second event: the 400-meter obstacle course.
Nanliang High School had three stadiums, one of which was a dirt and stone track that had been dug up so badly it was unrecognizable today.
There were dirt pits, sand traps, water hazards, and many ground-level obstacle mechanisms, like a giant pendulum hammer that would suddenly swing out, and constantly spinning discs.
The rules were also simple: stay in your lane, don’t maliciously interfere with others, and compete for speed.
Besides explosive power, it tested one’s ability to change speed and direction, overcome obstacles, and adapt on the fly.
As for the types and distribution of the obstacles, that was a whole other story. Every year, the P.E. teachers had to "spot questions," and if they guessed right, the whole school would soar; if they guessed wrong, there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Liu Yuankui’s title as a "famous teacher" was not just due to his daily teaching, but also his consistently high accuracy in spotting questions every year was a key factor.
’I wonder if he left behind any intangible cultural heritage...’
Yang Shen was once again grouped with a bunch of people he didn’t know, a full 20 of them this time.
When the starting gun fired, it was as chaotic as herding sheep. Some took long strides like meteors, some used footwork resembling the Eight Trigrams, and others hopped instead of ran. Clearly, everyone had chosen a different path based on their own strengths.
Yang Shen, on the other hand, hadn’t learned any "Body Techniques" Cultivation Techniques. After all, extracurricular tutoring required paying for copyrights.
One guy probably miscalculated the timing and got sent flying out of bounds by a giant pop-out boxing glove, "happily" receiving a 10-second penalty to his total time.
Another girl lost her balance and pulled someone down with her, and then the two "besties" started passionately cussing each other out on the spot. The teachers couldn’t even pull them apart.
Yang Shen’s run was less eventful. He finished seventh in his group with a time of 43.03 seconds.
It wasn’t until the last event of the morning, "Extreme Evasion," that he finally showed a level of skill that surpassed his realm.
Inside a completely enclosed room, walls on all six sides would fire tennis-ball-sized spheres. Examinees had to dodge as many as possible for one minute—a total of 100 balls—and were scored based on the number of hits they took.
The small balls were infuriating. Not only did they hurt like hell when they hit you, but they would also ricochet. Yang Shen’s reaction speed wasn’t actually top-tier, but he felt that his dynamic vision had recently gotten stronger.
The reason was unclear. Normally, only upon entering the Marrow Refining Realm would one experience such a fundamental change in talent. Yang Shen guessed it might have something to do with him staring directly at the sun while practicing his fist techniques every day. Or perhaps it was because he’d been through a life-and-death battle and had become more decisive?
In the end, he was only hit 4 times, a result that far exceeded the expected level for the Mid-stage of Bone Training. The supervising teacher even praised his performance.
When the morning exams ended, everyone was drained. The lunch cafeteria was a terrifying scene of students holding basins and wolfing down food. If this were a pig farm...
The owner would be laughing all the way to the bank.
There were also some wealthy students who took a bite of food, then a dose of medicine, washed it down with some soup, and then gave themselves a shot in the butt.
Clearly, this was a more expensive, and more efficient, method of recovery.
Yang Shen walked around with his tray, saw Xu Bamboo waving, and headed over.
"Let’s split."
Before his butt even hit the seat, Zhuzi had already pushed a whole row of Initial Realm Passage over.
Ten bottles, a complete box.
Worth the equivalent of 31.25% of the "Jianghuai Yang Family’s" total assets...
After learning that Yang Shen was already at the Mid-stage of Bone Training, Xu Bamboo had naturally increased the supply, giving off the domineering air of an "all-you-can-drink" offer.
Compared to other Supplements, Initial Realm Passage didn’t have targeted extra effects like "Strengthened Muscles," "Enhanced Endurance," or "Enhancement Duration." Its strength lay in the fact that it was easy to digest and absorb, didn’t cause drug resistance, and wouldn’t make a Martial Arts Practitioner "unbalanced" due to targeted strengthening.
To use a gaming analogy, other Supplements came with a bit of "Automatic Point Allocation," while Initial Realm Passage was all "Free Attribute Points." This was also why this deathly expensive item was a huge success the moment it hit the market.
A chubby kid sitting across the table saw the row of Initial Realm Passage and suddenly felt that his food wasn’t so appetizing anymore.
Yang Shen shook his head. "No, I can’t digest this much. I’ll just stick to two bottles."
Xu Bamboo directly opened a bottle and poured it into Yang Shen’s food, concocting a mix of science and hardcore stuff on the spot. "You need at least four bottles. The monthly exam is draining. Get a good score."
Yang Shen sighed helplessly. ’Thank goodness I finished that first side quest early on.’
’Otherwise, I’d have been stuck for a lifetime.’
"Zhuzi, you’re making me feel awkward."
"Shenzi, we’re deskmates. What’s there to be polite about?"
The chubby kid across the table shed tears of envy...
’I’m open to talks, I can be a deskmate too!’
’If you guys don’t mind, I could even sit under your table...’
Yang Shen ate his now weird-tasting food, but this was nothing unusual for a high school student. They could stuff any kind of disgusting medicine into their mouths.
He could even swallow two Vajra Pills of Great Strength at once without it scratching his throat.
"Is your head still hurting?"
Xu Bamboo sighed. "Yeah, it’s a throbbing pain..."
"For that kind of thing, there doesn’t seem to be any solution besides getting more rest."
"The problem is, there’s not enough time to rest... I wasted three days in a hospital bed, and my whole study plan is messed up."
Yang Shen thought to himself, ’Zhuzi, is your schedule really that packed...?’
’It’s because he sets his standards too high. Jianghuai Sports Academy... that’s a prestigious school packed with Champion Scholars. More than half of Yanhua Country’s college entrance exam Champion Scholars go there every year, and the ones who aren’t champions are all kings of the rat race.’
’The school has hundreds of sports academicians, and most of the famous old monsters are alumni of such prestigious institutions.’
’Talent? Talent is just the entry ticket to even try!’
’Which one of them doesn’t have pockets full of cash, needle marks on their waists, stays up all day, and doesn’t sleep at night?’
Xu Bamboo stirred his soup with his spoon, swirling the egg drops up, then watched them slowly sink back to the bottom of the bowl.
"I’ve probably already bombed this monthly exam. I have to catch up on the progress I’ve lost."