The day had arrived. Mingzie against Yuchun pay per view television, at least if this was Earth it would be, Mingzie thought to himself. “Well probably not, who would pay to watch a couple kids take a test” I say for a second, before realizing there were literally popular quiz shows on air before I was brought here. Also, they somehow turned tag into a televised sport, so honestly who knows. It is the hour before I need to be down in the inner courtyard, so I decide I’ve waited long enough to take a shower. Take a quick ten minute shower, I day dream about walking down to the courtyard, a towel around my neck as if I was a boxer walking into the ring. Shaking that thought away, as even that is too stupid to me.

I get out of the shower, drying off using the formations imbedded within the room to make the process go by faster than a dad could say “hey hungry, I’m dad”. Getting dressed in my go-to formal wear, I decide to go with the blue flowing robe that has the deep jade green accents on the cuffs. Thinking that the blue, I mean azure, colored robes along with the jade is about as on the nose for “I represent this clan”, I smooth over any wrinkles before beginning my walk of victory down to the inner courtyard. With over fifteen minutes to spare, I enter in the area designated for the event, thinking that maybe the event would be sort of small, maybe a dozen or so people watching for the fun of it, but I turn out to be wrong. A mini-stadium of people are seated , nearly encircling a couple tables seated in the middle. Seeing what looks like at least five thousand people, I find the gap that was left open, walking through it to get to the center tables. As I am walking through, a good portion of the group erupts in cheer, as I notice a lot of the people were either people I had worked with, or those who had come to watch the silly challenges between and and Zhonglei. When I sit down, I get a couple nods from the proctors, as well as my guards, as I at least came a little early. Turns out that was a bit unexpected for someone of my status, since ole Yuchun didn’t even show until over ten minutes after the event had started. I’m pretty sure I noticed someone who had been eating popcorn in the crowd having to get up for a refill because he ate his entire bowl of popcorn.

“Zhou Mingzie I see you have come to be defeated, I hope my hand is soft enough on your face when I slap it, I didn’t put any moisturizer on it today” the little idiot says.

I reply, “wait you regularly moisturize your hands? Is that why people regularly say you leave a bottle of lotion on your nightstand?” I say, not caring if it was true or not. The guy erupts in fury, talking about how he doesn’t always leave it there. Ignoring him, I listen to the proctor explain the rules.

Alright Young Masters, it is simple. First one to finish the shortened exam wins, however we also have a full exam that can be taken afterwards, either for a tiebreaker, or if you feel the need to hammer home your victory. With everything said, two servants come and bring each of us a small packet of paper, really just a few sheets of paper with questions on them. The proctors do the thing where they count down from ten, before waving the arm and saying go, before we are allowed to start. I pause for a second just to see how long it takes Yuchun to answer a question, when almost two minutes pass before he even remotely starts on the question, I decide I’ll only go 50 percent for now. I open up my packet, setting two sheets side by side, activating [Split Focus] so that each sheet is within a screen, I begin answering questions on two of the three sheets.

It doesn’t take long for people to notice I’m answering five or sex questions a minute compared to Yuchun’s one every couple minutes. The crowd even begins to yell a bit “Go Mingzie Go!” Before being hushed. This nearly sets Yuchun off, knowing he was not getting any support. In fact the guy got so angry he broke his pencil in half. Realizing he didn’t bring a spare, he had to waive a proctor over for an extra pencil. In that time I nearly finished both pages, meanwhile Yuchun barely even got four questions finished, if they were even right. A couple more minutes pass, giving me enough time to finish the shortened test, just in time for me to notice Yuchun getting halfway through the first sheet. Thinking I probably have enough time for the full exam, I waive a guy over, telling him I finished and I’d wish to take the full exam.

The whole crowd hears this, erupting into a loud roar of approval. I hand my test over for someone to slowly grade while they hand me the twenty page version of the test. Deciding to splurge a bit on my Qi, I also activate [Double Time] simultaneous with [Split Focus], making my pencils write like I’m possessed by a demon. At this point I’m nearly finishing two pages of questions every minute, and like a divine timer had started, the minutes begin melting away.

After five minutes people notice half my stack of papers have been set aside, completely filled up with words all in the margins, showing how thoroughly I was answering the questions. People began whispering in the crowd, as they were mentally calculating the speed I was going at against my opponent, many of them realizing I would likely win.

Among the crowd, a couple teenage boys were whispering to each other while one of them was holding some crystalline camera, as he was recording everything to send to some friends in other branches. “Bo, why are you recording, there’s no way this is going to become a trend” the friend says to the kid holding the camera.

Back to the challenge, a few more minutes had passed, Mingzie nearing completion with just a handful pages left, while Yuchun had a full page left. The crowd exchanging money super fast now, as people realized the results were set, and the only bets still going now were about how many questions Yuchun would lose by. Time ticks down, and as Mingzie finishes the last sentence for the very last sentence, Yuchun still has two questions left.

When I hand in the huge pile of papers to the proctors, they are slightly surprised, even though they clearly knew I would finish first. While the proctors use their Techniques to check everything for any errors, Yuchun finally manages to finish his test. One of the proctors comes over to check his answers, almost immediately finding several wrong answers. The remaining two proctors huddle together for a second before yelling to the crowd, “Mingzie, winning by an absolute landslide, not missing a single question on either test and finishing before his opponent could even turn his test in, is victorious!”.

Youhao walks to the center, makes a short speech about the excellence of the new generation, before grabbing my hand it lifting it to the sky, really making it seem like I had won a wrestling match, all I needed was a gaudy belt. Finally he announced that any consequences, or awards, from this challenge would be announced tomorrow morning, before taking me aside, and telling me he has a victory party planned. With the formalities out of the way, I went along with the Branch ahead to go enjoy a good college party.