Chapter 9  : The Written Examinations

Hua Jieyu sat down beside Ye Futian. This was the same Ye Futian who had opted out of exams for three years, gotten rejected by Feng Qingxue, and was about to be kicked out of Qingzhou Academy.

“What a lucky dog.” Many people were very jealous. How come he got to sit next to Hua Jieyu his first time joining the Fall Quarter Examinations?

Furthermore, Hua Jieyu was sitting in an aisle seat, which meant that only one person had the privilege of sitting next to her. Seeing this opportunity given to Ye Futian, one could only imagine how the others felt about this.

Ye Futian could feel the hateful stares directed at him. He took a glance at the girl sitting beside him; she was sitting there silently, elegant and natural. It was as if she had no idea who he was.

This fox, she definitely did this on purpose, Ye Futian thought to himself. He had originally planned to participate in the exams quietly, but now he had become the center of attention for all the wrong reasons.

As more and more people gathered around, the area surrounding Hua Jieyu became the most sought-after seats. People glared at Ye Futian as they passed by. Then, a delicate-looking youth approached him and asked, “Can we switch seats?”

Ye Futian looked up, his eyes meeting with a boy about the same age as himself. His delicate face glowed with pride, his voice natural.

“It’s Yang Xiu.” Many people’s attention was still on where Ye Futian’s was. Yang Xiu had placed second in the written examinations for the past three years. He had always wanted to surpass Hua Jieyu and a lot of people knew he had a crush on her.

Yang Xiu had not only done extremely well in the written examinations; he was also extremely gifted. He was already on the seventh Awakening Plane, the Mystery Plane, his ability to perceive Fire Spiritual Qi was also at the highest level. He truly was a genius. Losing to Hua Jieyu only in the slightest bit, he was still one of the best outer sect disciples.

Ye Futian looked at Yang Xiu and thought, Wow, now that’s rude.

“Of course…” said Ye Futian. The people around him were stunned. Was he really just going to give up that easily?

“…not,” he finished. Hearing these three words, the smile on Yang Xiu’s face was now frozen. He saw Ye Futian’s smile; it looked like he was mocking him.

“I know you. You gave up on participating in any examinations for three years and are about to get kicked out of the academy. A person like you shouldn’t be wasting time here.” Yang Xiu was not mad; he was simply trying to mock Ye Futian back.

“But I want to.” Ye Futian was still smiling.

“Then I hope that it won’t be too embarrassing for you after the written exam,” Yang Xiu laughed lightly. “But then again, it wouldn’t be the first time.”

After mocking Ye Futian, Yang Xiu gave Hua Jieyu a look before he headed back to his seat. He sat back down and got extremely serious, like a warrior before a battle.

“What a sad life.” Ye Futian looked at Yang Xiu’s silhouette with great pity.

Ye Futian’s rejection did not shock anyone. This was what he really was: a legendary, arrogant loser. However, his legend would come to an end after this year’s Fall Quarter Exam. Ye Futian was going to be expelled.

As the outer sect disciples entered, the official disciples surrounded the entire gymnasium.

There were three thousand tables, but only a little over one thousand people were participating in the Fall Quarter Examinations. After all, a lot of the first-year outer sect students lacked the confidence to get a decent grade. They knew it was difficult to do well, so they chose to opt out of the examination and keep a clean slate than to have a bad grade on their permanent record. However, to give up participating in the examination for three years like Ye Futian had done was simply unheard of. This was why he was a legend. Even the academy had had enough of him.

At the front of the gymnasium, many of the official disciples were present. Qin Yi stood there and glanced in Ye Futian’s direction. After three years, he was finally here. He wasn’t giving up on the exams again. Let’s hope for a miracle.

“Yang Xiu already made a deal with the School of Divination Arts. After the Fall Quarter Examinations end, he’s going to be admitted into the school as an official disciple. I don’t even know where that useless loser, Ye Futian, got the guts to talk to him like that,” said Mo Lanshan. He was chuckling lightly beside Qin Yi.

Qin Yi’s eyebrows furrowed. Ye Futian did have some problems, but she still wouldn’t call him a useless loser. “Do you have something against him?” she asked Mo Lanshan.

“Of course, I do!” Mo Lanshan felt no need to hide his feelings. “How dare he say those things to you in class. I really don’t understand why you have such high hopes for him. Why do you waste your time on him?”

Qin Yi did not know what to say to defend herself. Maybe it was because she could not forget the amazing results he had achieved during the entrance talent inspections three years ago. He should not have ended up like this.

“It’s time, hand out the test papers,” said an elder seated behind the two. Official disciples rose out of their seats and began to distribute the written examinations. This meant that the Fall Quarter Written Examinations had officially begun.

The enormous crowd was in complete silence. The people who came to observe the examination process consisted of parents and family, as well as many well-known individuals of the city of Qingzhou. They understood that they had to stay quiet too.

As everyone got their test papers, Feng Qingxue took a deep breath. She hoped to rank well in this year’s Fall Quarter Examinations and gain the privilege to access the second-floor of the Qingzhou Academy library. This way, she would have unlimited access to some of the most powerful spells.

Ling Xiao glanced at Ye Futian before looking down at his test paper. When he noticed the beautiful Hua Jieyu seated beside Ye Futian, he could not hide the look of jealousy on his face. Ling Xiao had always had a crush on Feng Qingxue, and Hua Jieyu was the girl of his dreams, unreachable. How was Ye Futian worthy of sitting next to her?

Hua Jieyu remained quiet after receiving her test papers, probably because she was just that confident. Somewhere near the front of the room, Yang Xiu’s fists clenched tight and then relaxed, in preparation for the exam.

As for Ye Futian, he looked through the test questions once and a smile appeared on his face. He then picked up his pen; his very first Fall Quarter Examination was finally here. He knew many people were waiting for him to make a fool out of himself and looked forward to seeing him be expelled. What a pity; they were about to be disappointed.

The test questions went from easy to difficult, starting with basic questions about cultivation. Most students were able to answer these questions.

Ye Futian’s pen danced across the test paper. He answered the questions with ease.

“Interesting,” said Ye Futian as he read one of the test questions. During a battle between a knight and a sorcerer, the sorcerer’s elemental Spiritual Qi runs out. If you were the knight, what would you have done? What if you were the sorcerer?

He scribbled down his answer quickly.

Time was passing by quickly. Some students were now sweating. Towards the back of the test packet, the questions got more abstract and more difficult to answer.

Unknowingly, Ye Futian was already on the last question. This question seemed easy enough.

The question was: A group of martial arts cultivators and a group of divination arts cultivators on the same plane and level fought. Which side won?

This was a freebie. In a group battle, the martial arts cultivators would have people from a variety of occupations. Naturally, the divination arts group would also consist of a variety of elemental sorcerers. If the sorcerers worked together, the amount of power they possessed could destroy the opposing group. There wouldn’t be much fighting.

Ye Futian thought of this and smiled. After writing down his response, he put his pen down.

Coincidently, Hua Jieyu had also just placed her pen down on her desk beside him.

The two looked at each other. Ye Futian gave her a provoking smile. All Hua Jieyu did in response was glare at him, but no matter what she did, she remained breathtakingly beautiful.

Nobody amongst the test-takers noticed their little exchange, but at the front of the room, someone took notice of Hua Jieyu.

“She’s still the same, always the first one to finish,” said an elder at the academy. She was always the focus of the room, even if she just sat quietly, focused on her exam.

“That’s not true, the young man next to her finished just before her, but his responses are probably rubbish,” said another elder. He smiled and shook his head thinking of how hard it must have been for Ye Futian to focus with Hua Jieyu sitting next to him.

“Wow, look how quickly he finished. You worked so hard to give him a fighting chance, but all he’s thinking of is how to put on a show to attract a girl’s attention.” Mo Lanshan’s words were directed at Qin Yi. Her eyes went to Ye Futian and she felt a twinge of disappointment.

Slowly, more and more people finished up their exams, some excited, some not so excited.

Finally, an elder stood up on the stage and signaled the end of this year’s Fall Quarter Examinations.

The official disciples were waiting. Once the elder stood up, they moved forward to collect test papers.

Even though the test papers had been collected, everyone remained seated in the gymnasium. Qingzhou Academy’s Fall Quarter Written Exams had always been graded on the spot, and the results were announced the same day.

A group of academy elders and outer sect lecturers graded the exams together with great speed. As they graded, the students looked on nervously, while the audience chatting lightly.

When the lecturers began to separate the test papers by score, the atmosphere intensified.

After a while, one of the lecturers walked up to face the students, holding a list. Everyone knew that the list of people who had passed this year’s Fall Quarter Examinations would be announced first.

“Li Yu, Fang Yun, Mo Hanjiang…” With every name the lecturer announced, students began to relax one by one. Of course, there were also many who looked very disappointed, as they had hoped for better results.

Other than the list of those who passed, there were also lists of Rank 3, Rank 2, and Rank 1 students yet to be announced.

After the names on the first list were announced, it was revealed that there were seventy-two people in Rank 3, thirty-six in Rank 2, and only three in Rank 1.

Qin Yi listened carefully. After the list of rankings was announced, her disappointment heightened. If he could not even pass the written exam, then he was destined to be kicked out of the academy.

Her eyes drifted toward Ye Futian and she let out a deep sigh.

Seated in front of Ye Futian, Yang Xiu laughed coldly. “Just as expected. You were going to fail regardless, why embarrass yourself like this?”

Feng Qingxue also looked at Ye Futian. Her eyes reflected her disappointment, but it disappeared shortly. Wasn’t this what everyone expected?

“Ye Futian, remember what you said in class last time? Now that you’re about to be expelled, doesn’t it feel like a big slap in the face?” Ling Xiao asked loudly from far away, causing many people to avert their attention towards Ye Futian. Secretly, they were all happy that this shameless bastard was about to be expelled.