"Damn it!!"
Hearing this, the chat group instantly disbanded on the spot.
With a *whoosh*, centered around Yan Xiaoyi, not a single person remained within a ten-meter radius.
Everyone kept a safe distance from her as if she were a plague god.
"Sigh! You guys just missed a great opportunity to suck up to a future genius!" Yan Xiaoyi put her hands behind her head and walked forward alone.
She collected her examination token and moved into her temporary quarters.
Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
On the day of the first round of examinations, Yan Xiaoyi woke up bright and early.
Today, she had deliberately changed into a bright red dress, symbolizing a thriving future and a auspicious start.
In the huge central plaza, hundreds of tables were set up, somewhat resembling an outdoor exam hall in the real world.
An old man with a white beard stepped forward and said expressionlessly, "The first examination is about to begin. You now have half a stick of incense's time to hand over anything unrelated to the exam!"
Yan Xiaoyi sat in her seat without moving—she only had a spirit brush for answering questions in front of her, nothing to hand over.
"The time allowed for the exam is one hour. During this period, you are not allowed to walk around casually, whisper to each other, or look around. Anyone caught cheating will be severely punished!" After saying a few symbolic words, the old man handed out the exam papers.
Signing her name with a flourish, Yan Xiaoyi bit the end of her spirit brush and began to answer the questions:
[Question 1: The founder of the Cold Moon Sect is ____. He founded the Cold Moon Sect in the year ____ and proposed the ____ theory. Please elaborate in detail on the core values of this theory (no less than 1,000 words).]
[Question 2: Suppose your enemy who killed your father is escaping at the speed of light. During his escape, the space and time around him are compressed. According to Supreme Master Einstein's absolute rules of space, what method must you use to successfully kill him?]
[Question 3: Fellow Daoist Wang next door wants to craft a batch of Dharmic Instruments. If he crafts twelve more pieces per hour, the time required will be shortened by one-eighth compared to the original plan; if he crafts ten fewer pieces per hour, the time required will be two-fifths longer than the original plan. How many Dharmic Instruments does he need to craft?]
[Question 4...]
"Aiya~ Am I here to cultivate immortality, or to take the civil service exam?"
Yan Xiaoyi gasped, feeling her head itch the more she looked at the questions, as if her brain was actually growing.
Could she answer them? Absolutely not!
Every question left her speechless at a single glance, let alone solving them.
But she wasn't panicked at all, because she had a countermeasure prepared long ago.
She hadn't been idle these past three days. Using her silver tongue and wearing down her lips, she finally badgered the Trash System into reluctantly allowing her to buy on credit, letting her store the cheat sheets in the system space.
She could check them with her consciousness without anyone noticing.
*Swish, swish, swish~* The spirit brush in her hand wrote at flying speed, and she finished answering the questions in less than half an hour.
Bored, Yan Xiaoyi rested her cheek on her hand and blankly stared at the birds in the tree next to her, twirling the spirit brush between her fingers like a juggler.
"You're finished?" At some point, the white-bearded old man had walked up beside her.
"Yeah," Yan Xiaoyi nodded and yawned. "There's zero difficulty to speak of."
"Is that so?" The old man didn't believe it and casually picked up her answer sheet to check.
After an inspection, the error rate was extremely low, and a look of doubt flashed in the old man's eyes.
He muttered inwardly: *Rumor has it that this Yan Xiaoyi is an ignorant and incompetent good-for-nothing? In the past in other sects, she always passed exams using shady methods. How could she get so many right this time?!*
*Something's wrong! She must have cheated!*
He immediately released his divine sense and gave Yan Xiaoyi a full-body CT scan on the spot, but truly found no suspicious items.
Could it be that she was deliberately hiding her clumsiness before? The old man put down the answer sheet with lingering suspicion and silently walked away.
Looking at his retreating back, Yan Xiaoyi bared her teeth: Sorry, I just turned on a little cheat.
Soon, the examination time was up.
The candidates handed in their answer sheets one after another.
"Guess who's going to come in last this time?"
"Do you even have to ask? It's definitely that cancer of the cultivation world!"
"Right! If she can score over thirty points, I'll smash my head against something and die right here! No joke at all!"
Yan Xiaoyi treated the discussion around her as dog barking and couldn't be bothered to pay attention.
Suddenly, a sarcastic voice came from behind: "Yo! Isn't this the great Miss Yan? An ignorant and morally corrupt scum of the cultivation world like you actually has the nerve to come take the exam? Where do you even get the face?"
Turning her head, she saw a horse-faced man wearing a shit-yellow checkered robe.
"Ha~ Life is so dull, and yet a toad is here to judge humanity."
Yan Xiaoyi curled her lip and put her hands behind her head. "Young Master Gao, instead of wagging your tail beside your goddess, you come over here barking like a mad dog—did your rabies act up?"
This person was named Gao Jiannan, a simpering toad in Leng Qingxue's fishpond.
The reason he was called a toad was because the female protagonist never once deigned to look at him properly from beginning to end. In the end, this fellow was consumed by unrequited love, his Dao Heart collapsed, and he hanged himself.
He was a downright pitiful wretch, and because of Leng Qingxue, he held deep hostility toward the original body.
Gao Jiannan's bull-like eyes widened. "What do you mean? Are you calling me a dog?"
"Dogs are man's best friends, please don't insult them! Thank you!"
"You!..." Veins throbbed on Gao Jiannan's forehead and he flicked his sleeve heavily. "You're only capable of sharp-tongued banter! When the scores come out in a moment, let's see what face you have left to stand here! If I were you, I'd tuck my tail between my legs and get lost!"
"Oh?" Yan Xiaoyi slanted her eyes. "Then do you dare to make a bet with me?"
"A bet? What do you want to bet?"
Yan Xiaoyi thought about it. "How about this... if my score reaches ninety points or higher, you strip naked and run a circle around the mountain gate while shouting 'I am a loser'! Of course, if I lose, I'll let you do whatever you want with me."
"You? Ninety points?" Gao Jiannan laughed out loud, as if he had heard a joke.
"Right, just me! Do you dare or not? You pitiful wretch, cowardly pig, spineless good-for-nothing, little piece of trash..."
Unable to bear her slander, Gao Jiannan slapped his chest hard. "Why wouldn't I dare! I'm just afraid some people will try to renege on the debt when they lose! After all, some people's reputations—tsk—aren't so great, you know!"
"That's easy to settle, let's write it down in black and white! Neither of us can back out."
"Fine..."
Just as Gao Jiannan was about to agree, the white-bearded old man, who had caught the gist of the conversation, interrupted: "There's no need for that!"
"There is a need!"
Thinking the old man wanted to protect Yan Xiaoyi, Gao Jiannan refused to let it go. "Elder Hu, it's she who doesn't know her own limits and insists on humiliating herself! I know you've always been impartial and incorruptible, so please bear witness for us!"
"This matter..."
Before the old man could finish, Gao Jiannan interrupted: "Elder Hu, you must not lean toward her! This woman is morally corrupt! Everyone hates her, even dogs loathe her. She must be taught a lesson today! I'll put it bluntly—even the Heavenly Emperor himself coming down today won't stop me!"
*Fine, fine, fine! The old man is trying to help you, and instead you say I'm helping her!*
*You like streaking, do you? Alright, this old man will grant your wish!*
Seeing that he insisted on courting humiliation, Elder Hu nodded dully. "Just don't regret it."
"Whoever regrets it is a dog!"
Gao Jiannan decisively wrote down the bet slip, pressed his fingerprint on it, and smugly handed it to Yan Xiaoyi. "Great Miss Yan, if you please!"
Yan Xiaoyi didn't dilly-dally either, quickly signing and pressing her thumbprint.
"Haha~ Yan Xiaoyi, cherish your last bit of dignity! After today, you'll become the laughingstock of the entire cultivation world!"
Yan Xiaoyi didn't answer. She covered her nose and mouth and took a step back—he was standing too close, and she could smell a pungent, eye-watering stench of underarm odor.
"What? Scared? Guilty? Let me tell you, it's too late!"
"Ew~" Yan Xiaoyi wore a look of utter disgust, leaning back and waving her hand. "Get away from me, I'm a clean freak! I honestly don't know how Leng Qingxue puts up with you—she has such heavy tastes!"
"Hmph! You, are you even worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as Junior Sister Qingxue? The dead skin on her feet smells better than you!"
"Yes, yes, yes!" Yan Xiaoyi increased the distance between them again. "Then hurry up and go smell her foot skin, and keep your hands off this old cat!"
"You... Hmph! Vulgar person!"
...A moment later, the fresh scores were released.
The smile at the corner of Gao Jiannan's mouth was harder to suppress than a cocked AK; he couldn't wait to see Yan Xiaoyi running naked!
*Haha! It's bound to be spectacular!*
*Right, I'll use an Image Recording Stone to record it then! Let's see how she'll show her face in public in the future.*
Soon, Yan Xiaoyi's name was called: "Yan Xiaoyi, ninety-five!"
"Haha!" Gao Jiannan jumped three feet high in excitement. "Ninety-five! Yan Xiaoyi, you good-for-nothing piece of trash, you only scored ninet—uh, wait?"