Henyee Translations Henyee Translations

He figured it out almost right away. “There’s another explanation for that incident, isn’t there?”

By that incident, he obviously meant the one five years ago when Feng Wu lost her cultivation ability.

Feng Wu said, “Yes…”

Grand Secretary Fang nodded. He now understood why the girl had to hide her real ability at the cost of all those insults and contempt.

It was incredible that she could be this level-headed at such a young age.

The old man liked Feng Wu even more.

“But,” said Feng Wu, “Xuan Yi doesn’t know about my recovery…”

Feng Wu didn’t finish the sentence, but Grand Secretary Fang knew what she meant.

He nodded. “Your top priority now is to prepare for the written exam.”

Grand Secretary Fang then asked the old steward to fetch a stack of exam papers, then had the servants transcribe two copies.

Meanwhile, Steward Fang was instructed by the old man to set up a couple of desks and chairs in the main hall.

The papers, which still smelled of fresh ink, were laid out.

Grand Secretary Fang casually sat down in the head seat and waved his hand. “Finish the papers in two hours.”

Feng Wu and Chaoge looked at each other in bewilderment. Neither of them had studied the subjects or read the relevant books. The stack of papers was completely foreign to them.

Feng Wu picked up the first paper.

The first section was filling in the blanks.

A few characters were missing from a verse and one had to fill in the missing parts.

Feng Wu was well-versed in books and could finish five out of the ten problems. Chaoge, on the other hand, was at a complete loss. She knew next to nothing about literary works.

Feng Wu looked up at Chaoge and shook her head with a wry smile.

Although there were only ten questions, they covered a very wide range.

The study of nature, history, cultivation theory, formations, medicine… you name it. If one wasn’t well-read enough, they wouldn’t even be able to understand the question.Read more chapter on vipnovel.com

Poor little Chaoge…

Feng Wu then moved on to the second section.

One had to write something from memory.

And the subjects covered were just as diverse.

There was a random paragraph taken from some book and the candidate had to write down the rest of the passage from memory.

One could only answer the question if they had memorized the passage. Even after reading the passage, they might not be able to write down everything. However, if one hadn’t even read it, then…

This was the case with the sentence Feng Wu was reading. “Courtesy is the standard by which intimacy and remoteness is determined.”

Feng Wu was dumbfounded. Where was that sentence from? Although she had read a lot of books, she had never seen it before.

Because she didn’t know that sentence, she left the entire section blank.

The third section consisted of multiple choice questions.

“Write down the option(s) you deem correct in the bracket. The answer is only correct when it contains all the correct option(s) and only the correct one(s).”

Feng Wu read the questions, then rubbed her forehead.

They were incredible.

The subjects mentioned covered everything from astronomy and the universe, to medicine refinement… No subject was left out, and candidates who weren’t well-read enough would fail miserably in this section.

Section four was short answer questions.

The name of a practice manual was mentioned and the candidate needed to elaborate on the theory, techniques, and innovations.

The name of the manual on Feng Wu’s paper was “Ice Everywhere.”

Ice Everywhere? Feng Wu was elated!

She didn’t have the ice attribute herself, but she had a peerless beautiful master who knew all the attributes and all professions.

Her beautiful master used to explain all the attributes and skills to her. With his encouragement, she memorized everything, even though she hadn’t understood most of it.

Henyee Translations Henyee Translations

Back then, Feng Wu used to be so confused and had to ask her master the reason for her memorizing all those theories and techniques. She wasn’t going to have all of those attributes anyway.

Her beautiful master told her that whether she had an attribute herself or not wasn’t relevant; it was about recognizing her opponents’ attributes and techniques. As the saying went: Know the enemy and know yourself, and you can fight a hundred battles with no danger of defeat.

Hence, her beautiful master had urged her to learn all the techniques by heart.

Back then, she had even talked to her master about making innovations to existing manuals.

She had only been five or six and knew too little to innovate anything. Her beautiful master, however, was a different story.

He was the man that could look down on the entire continent. He was like a god who stood on the clouds.

If he wanted, nothing on this continent could escape his eyes.

A casual comment on a practice manual could make men go wild with joy, or even create a grandmaster of a generation.

Hence, Feng Wu was elated when she read the question for the fourth section. It was right up her alley.

She wrote down her answer without hesitation.

The fifth section was on auxiliary skills.

From a list of questions related to auxiliary skills, one had to choose two and make improvements.

The subjects covered formations, medicine refinement, sewing, smelting, and so forth.

Feng Wu was looking at an incomplete formation.

She soon saw that it was a medium level formation, which could be turned into an advanced level one with some minor alterations…

Given her formation skills, Feng Wu solved the problem in no time.

The second question she chose was on medicine refinement, which she solved very quickly as well.

Whoosh –

Feng Wu didn’t linger on any of the questions. She answered those she could answer, and as for those she couldn’t, staring at them wouldn’t change anything.

After handing in the paper, Feng Wu turned around to look at Chaoge.

Feng Wu had at least answered part of the first few sections and had done well in the last section. But Chaoge…

Chaoge had chewed the end of her pen raw, but her paper remained blank.

Chaoge looked up and her face reminded Feng Wu of a poor, sad spiritual pet.

Feng Wu rubbed her forehead.

Chaoge… had a lot of work to do.

After Feng Wu handed in her paper, Grand Secretary Fang began to correct it right away.

The first section totaled 50 points and Feng Wu scored 25.

The second section required her to write from memory, but since Feng Wu wasn’t familiar with the text, she had left it blank, which meant she got a zero.

Grand Secretary Fang wrote a big, round zero on the paper with cinnabar. He then raised his head and gave Feng Wu a stern look.

Feng Wu felt ashamed and bit her lower lip involuntarily.

The third section was multiple choice questions.

The requirement was very strict. The answer was only correct when all correct option(s) and only the correct one(s) were selected.

There were ten questions in total and they could be on any subject.

The frown on Grand Secretary Fang’s face gradually eased as he read on.

Feng Wu had answered five out of the ten questions, and all five were correct. That was to say, as long as she knew the subject, she could get the correct answer.

The five unanswered ones were on subjects she didn’t know.

Out of the total 50 points, Feng Wu got 25 again.

Section four was short answer questions, and the candidate needed to elaborate on the theory, techniques, and innovations of the “Ice Everywhere” stance.