The day of the final exams for the academy has finally arrived.
Li Ang sat on the attic of the wine shop, watching the candidates filing towards the Suzaku Gate. My heart is full of emotions.
There is a roster on the table in front of him, which records the general information of the key candidates participating in the final exam.
As in previous years, there were more than 2,000 candidates in the final exam, and only 700 were selected in the end.
"It would be fine if the final exam questions were geared towards testing spiritual power, but if they test writing skills or classics..."
Li Leling leaned against the window and waved goodbye to Chai Chai. After the Suzaku door was closed, she pulled back and said to Li Ang with some worry.
"probably not."
Li Ang comforted, "Every year the final exam questions are given by mountain chiefs and doctors. They are random and strictly confidential, but they can also be guessed through other methods."
It's been so long since Chief Shan left Chang'an, and the right to choose the exam questions is in the hands of the doctors.
If the test this year is about classics, then Dr. Wang Wenlun, the person who asked the question, should disappear for a while to avoid suspicion.
Since they have not disappeared, there is a high probability that the final exam questions will not be from classics. "
Of course, it is also possible that a bunch of final exam questions have been pre-booked, and the mountain chief and Si Ye randomly select one from them.
Li Ang added silently in his heart.
————
"Well...this test paper..."
In the examination room, Chai Chai squinted his eyes and checked the examination papers on the table over and over.
There are three examination papers, normal size, and the paper is white. There are no questions on them. Only the four words of place of birth and name are printed in the center.
"These are the questions you will take the final exam on."
On the podium, a tall and lanky academy teacher who was in charge of invigilating the examination said loudly: "The examination paper does not have any additional questions.
You only need to use the issued Langhao pen to fill in your own information in the [Place of Place] and [Name] of any test paper. If you pass, you can leave the examination room on your own. "
"What?!"
All the candidates in the audience raised their heads in surprise.
Can you pass the final exam just by filling in the information?
Are you kidding? They are not His Majesty's favorite princes and princesses. By writing an essay titled "My Father, Emperor Yu", they can be admitted to the academy without passing the exam.
There must be something wrong.
"You heard it right, this is the only test content."
Another short and fat invigilator added: "There are three examination papers, and you only need to write clearly on one of them to pass.
In addition, the clearer and more correct the handwriting is, the higher the score will be. "
"The examiner,"
A student raised his hand and said, "If you write your place of origin and name on all three examination papers, wouldn't the probability of being admitted to the palace be higher?"
"haha, yes."
The tall and thin examiner smiled and said: "But there is one thing to note. If the paper is damaged or contaminated by excess ink and the name cannot be read clearly, the examination paper will be invalid.
Three test papers mean three opportunities..."
A strange smile appeared on the tall and thin examiner's face, and he slowly took out an open wooden box from under the table.
The wooden box is rectangular, with fifty brushes neatly stacked in the groove.
The short and fat examiner carried the wooden box, walked to the audience, carefully picked up the brushes with metal tweezers attached to the talismans, and placed them on each candidate's desk.
The barrel of the Langhao pen is made of green bamboo, which is round and shiny. The Mao Feng is translucent and soaked in ink.
"call..."
The short and fat examiner's movements were slow and steady. After all the brushes were distributed, he returned to the stage. He took a long breath and wiped the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief, as if he had done some heavy physical work.
"The exam has officially begun."
The tall and thin examiner nodded and said to everyone: "Unlike previous years, candidates are not allowed to communicate privately in this year's final exam, nor are they allowed to assist others in any way.
In addition, if a candidate develops symptoms such as physical discomfort, syncope, or coma during the exam, the Academy will forcefully intervene and escort the candidate out.
If the candidate's symptoms are severe and he or she is judged to be no longer suitable for the exam, or the duration of syncope exceeds the exam deadline, the qualification will be automatically revoked.
I hope that all candidates will do their best.
The academy is just a place to learn, and life is only once. "
The thin examiner spoke sincerely, but many students in the audience showed wry smiles.
For those who are already in it, the Academy is indeed just a place of learning.
But for the candidates, it means getting ahead, leaping over the dragon's gate, family luck, and shining the lintel of the family.
The expectations of the family, the future of the family, and the life-long destiny of the individual are all tied to this exam.
It's so heavy that the examiner can get rid of it with just one sentence?
As if he knew he had said nonsense, the thin college examiner sighed softly, waved his palms, and announced the start of the final exam.
"..."
Chai Chai sat on his seat and looked around for a while with the corner of his eye. He found that all the candidates in the examination room were still sitting where they were, and no one touched their brushes.
The words of the two examiners clearly hinted that there was something wrong with the exam paper. And everyone only has three chances.
After a long time, one of the candidates finally took a breath, stretched out his arm tremblingly, picked up the brush on the table, and assumed a writing posture.
Then he froze.
His eyes were wide open, his arms were shaking, his teeth were chattering, and his face was pale, as if he had seen something terrifying and incomprehensible.
Tick tock.
The ink accumulated in the tip of the pen dripped onto the examination paper along the tip of the pen, leaving circular ink marks on the edge of the examination paper.
Tick tock.
The ink dripped more and more, as if there was no end, and after the examinee was in a stalemate for more than ten breaths, he finally couldn't hold on anymore, dropped the pen holder, and leaned back behind the chair. His whole body was soaked with sweat, as if he had just Retrieved from the pond.
what happened?
The same question appears in the minds of all candidates.
Chai Chai supported his chin with his hand and observed the candidate carefully.
The opponent's arms were trembling, his face was pale, and his eyes were wandering, but his eyes were not bloodshot, and there were no veins popping out on his forehead. It didn't feel like he was suffering physical torture.
Could it be oppression on a psychological level?
Chai Chai hesitated for a moment, took off the hosta on his head, and gently picked the brush on his desk with one end of the hosta. There was nothing unusual.
Dip the ink on the tip of the brush with a hosta, and there is no abnormality.
Even when squeezing the nib with a hosta, the ink will gush out significantly more than the upper limit of the wolf hair.
Could it be that this pen is not the point, but just an alien substance that can flow out ink?
The real difficulty lies in the test paper itself?
Chai Chai frowned and thought, while some candidates next to him brightened up and deliberately used a brush to apply ink on the table, and then dipped it in with items they carried with them, such as jade pendants, trying to circumvent the restrictions in this way.
However, when they excitedly tried to write their names on the exam paper, they all stopped and developed the same symptoms as the previous candidate.
'how so...'
Chai Chai pursed his lips slightly. The fact that so many people had the same reaction proved that he was not pretending to be the first candidate.
And all of them stopped in place, which proves that the mechanism of the test paper is probably that when the behavior of [trying to write information] occurs, the alien ability takes effect.
In fact, as long as the content "I want to write a message" appears in the mind, the superpower will be triggered.
Chai Chai slowly withdrew his gaze. One of the examinees was so anxious that he tried to write the text backwards on the table with ink, then covered it with the examination paper, and "printed" the text on the examination paper.
But this behavior also caused his body to become stiff and unable to move. As soon as his palms were loosened, the entire examination paper fell onto the ink marks.
The entire name field was covered with ink marks, and the test paper was immediately invalidated.
'Is this the power of alienated objects...'
Chai Chai was extremely shocked. Although she stayed with the two academy disciples Li Ang and Li Leling all day long, she had never seen an alienated object.
Time passed by, and candidates kept dropping their writing brushes in the examination room, and some even fainted and fell to the ground.
"Don't move, I'll help you."
The tall and thin examiner ran down the podium, stopped the other candidates, used his telekinesis to lift up the fainted student, and after checking the situation, sent him directly out of the examination room.
After a while, the examiner returned and announced to the other candidates: "After examination by the doctor, his condition is no longer suitable for the examination, and he can only wait until next year."
After saying that, the thin examiner paused, as if he couldn't bear to see the students torture themselves, and sighed: "This final exam not only tests courage and perseverance, but also tests character, wisdom, and understanding.
Everyone...just do what you can. "
After that, he sat back in front of the stage and drank tea without saying a word.
Mind, wisdom, understanding...
Chai Chai lowered his head thoughtfully and looked at the exam paper again.
According to what the examiner reiterated over and over again, there are no interlayers or invisible questions that require special means to be seen in the test paper.
The only test point is to write your place of origin and name.
Being able to do it means entering the palace of education and leaping over the dragon gate. If you can't do it, you will have to come back next year, or even say goodbye to the academy forever.
The memories of this period of time flashed through Chai Chai's mind. He took a breath, picked up the brush on the table, and slowly moved it to the test paper.
"!!!"
Her eyes suddenly widened, and in the next moment, all the light in the surrounding environment rapidly stretched and dimmed,
There was only a strong light shining down from the top of the head.
Where am I...
She looked around at the chaos and darkness, and suddenly felt an extremely strong fear.
Like a hairy spider crawling across the arm, a slippery snake gliding by the feet, a sharp blade gently grazing against the neck,
But it's ten times, a hundred times more serious than that.
There is no way to escape, no way to hide, just like standing in front of a mountain that is collapsing, disintegrating, and slowly toppling, watching helplessly as the rocks topple and fall.
It's like facing a natural enemy.
A memory suddenly flashed through Chai Chai's mind.
One summer afternoon, Li Ang was lying on a chair, reading Liu Zongyuan's collected works. When he saw an article "Snake Catcher", he casually said something.
"Animals have such a thing as primitive fear."
"A sage named Darwin once brought some real or fake snakes to the zoo to show them to the chimpanzees there."
"Zoo? A zoo is a place where animals are kept in captivity, similar to an inner garden. Chimpanzees are black-haired monkeys."
"He found that whether they were real snakes or human-made snake models, chimpanzees were extremely frightened. Even chimpanzees who were born in zoos and had never seen a snake in their lives."
"This is very strange. It is understandable that orangutans in the wild are afraid of venomous snakes, but why would orangutans who have never seen venomous snakes feel afraid?"
“He speculated that animals have built up a fear of snakes from generation to generation during millions of years of survival and reproduction. When the descendants of animals see snakes with the same shape, color, and smell, they will instinctively feel fear. , subconsciously running away in panic or freezing. Just like a mouse seeing a cat..."
The images in my memory gradually fade away,
But the light above his head was gradually extinguishing.
Darkness came from all directions, and a strong and inexplicable fear swept through his body. Chai Cuiqiao took a step back involuntarily.
Snap.
My consciousness returned to the examination room in an instant,
The writing brush fell from the sweaty hand and fell on the examination paper, smearing it black.
"Ha ha..."
Like other candidates, Chai Chai sat in his seat, breathing heavily to calm down his fear.
The darkness in the illusion clearly showed nothing, but she was still extremely frightened and her mind was shaken.
Snap.
Snap.
The sound of pens being dropped in the examination room was endless, and every time a pen was dropped it meant that someone was withdrawing from the illusion.
"..."
The two examiners looked at each other, shook their heads helplessly, and sighed secretly, "This year's final exam is really too difficult." I don’t know what Jijiu thinks. '
————
"What did I think?"
In the hall of Honglu Temple, the academy held a wine ceremony. Chen Danqiu raised his head from his book and looked at the other doctors, "Are this year's exam questions difficult?"
"It's more than difficult."
Mu Changgeng, a doctor of agriculture, sighed: "That is a first-class alien [Yuanyan]. Even if the test paper contains only a little bit of Yuanyuan, it will probably be difficult for students who don't even have a sense of energy to deal with it."
"[Yuanyan] directly affects people's minds, and even personal courage has no use. Confucian scholars who have no power to restrain chickens, and military recommended students who have killed the enemy in battle, their performance in the face of [Yuanyan] is almost the same." no difference.
They will also be scared off abruptly. "
Xue Che, the Department of Physical Education, frowned and said, "Danqiu, your topic selection..."
"The mountain leader is not here, so all examination matters are decided by me."
Chen Danqiu said indifferently: "Besides, I have checked every exam paper and the content of [Yuanyan] is just at the level that can scare people away without scaring them to death."
He paused, glanced at the colleagues with different expressions present, and said calmly: "Also, don't think this is too harsh on the candidates.
Today, things are different. "
"..."
Some academic doctors were still frowning, while Xue Che, Tantai Leshan, Su Feng and others were thoughtful.
Only a few people have the right to know that Cui Yixian, the Sword Master, and Xi Yangyu, the Nianxue Master, were arranged by Jun Qianzi, a wanted suspect in the Yu State, in the Shiwan Barren Mountain.
Jun Qianzi is just one of the stubborn diseases. What really worries Xuegong and Yu State is the even bigger shadow lurking behind him.
As for the leaders of the Haotian Dao Sect who suddenly ended their retreat some time ago, and the letters they sent requesting academic exchanges with the Academy.
It also made them feel vaguely worried.
The situation seemed to have undergone some unpredictable changes, but the mountain chief and Jijiu, who knew the inside story, still did not reveal anything to outsiders, not even Xue Che and other officials.
