Chapter 32: Scores

The empty front courtyard.

“Sit.”

Jiang Ding pointed to the bench opposite him.

Han Lin sat down nervously.

“Um, is your family a medicinal herb clan?” Jiang Ding asked.

“Yes, Master. Since my great maternal grandfather’s generation, our family has worked for Qi Xuan Sect; two generations even served as stewards, and thus we were also implicated…”

Han Lin’s voice was low.

Jiang Ding fell silent.

Paying with rare, high-grade materials is a payment method many alchemy masters gladly accept.

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In this social environment, unfortunate events are too common—he had seen it more than once.

Han Lin looked around with reverence, then returned outside the shop to resume his fist training, though his sounds grew quieter, no longer “hei-ha.”

“It’s just too agile, hard to spot, hard to catch.”

“60 points.”

Ding ling ding ling!

“Seventh place…”

“Fourteenth place, Zhou Xiyuan, 834 points.”

“Blue Glow Butterflies have tough wings that won’t tear, glow at night, and look beautiful—the county office buys them at ten wings per tael of silver,” Han Lin answered without hesitation. “I heard they’re exclusively used by big shots in the capital to make robes and dresses.”

But he quickly calmed down.

“Nineteenth place, Li Junhao, 815 points.”

Jiang Ding whispered, pleased for him—the class’s most hardworking student, universally acknowledged.

“Qi Refining seventh layer, spiritual sense undergoing subtle transformation—alas, people can’t be compared.”

The class bell rang as homeroom teacher Guo Kui walked in carrying a thick stack of exam papers.

This rare potion cannot be mass-produced; only an alchemy master can extract it, requiring many spirit coins to hire—and even then, the master may not be available.

He glanced at Jiang Ding and sighed: “I’ve seen your other exam papers. Unless something major goes wrong, you should have a real shot at Qianling University.”

“I understand, Teacher.”

With improved comprehension and the reference of internal force, progress in Chinese, math, geography, and other subjects was expected.

“How many cultural points did Sun Xiao gain when he broke through?”

“Damn! 892 points!”

After confirming for a long while, the classmates finally believed what they saw and couldn’t help buzzing with murmurs.

“What the hell? A jump of over two hundred points—is this what the teacher meant by explosive growth among senior-year martial cultivators?”

Han Lin hesitated: “I know several uncles and cousins who catch Blue Glow Butterflies. If the price went up ten or twenty percent, they’d be happy to sell them to us.”

“Ninth place.”

Eighth to second place remained roughly the same, but when it came to Hua Bing, the gap suddenly widened by nearly a hundred points—still only a hundred points short of the perfect 1400!

…

“Even though breaking through Inner Qi Realm brings a slight cultural score boost, this explosive growth is utterly unreasonable!”

Jiang Ding nodded: “Go rest. During this phase, don’t train your fists more than twenty times a day, and make sure to eat plenty of meat and vegetables—don’t skimp on these expenses.”

“Twelfth place…”

Entering the classroom, Jiang Ding rubbed his bleary eyes; Li Junhao was indeed solving problems.

Sun Xiao’s face darkened; his bonus points were already high, but compared to others, they looked negligible.

Guo Kui slammed the desk, forcibly restoring order.

“Should… probably.”

With that, he closed his eyes slightly, internal force flowing, his aura dim and unstable, sometimes strikingly visible.

…

During breaks from practicing the Lesser Concealment Technique, Jiang Ding silently recorded his difficulties on a mini-computer to ask Teacher Zhang Dingjun in class.

!.

The class stirred, including many Qi Refining students; several couldn’t help glancing at Jiang Ding’s seat.

So far, his name hadn’t been called.

“Yes, Master!”

He still held great goodwill toward Jiang Ding—after all, students in Qian Province who scored 141 in Moral Education were exceedingly rare.

“Master, it’s just bad luck for our family,” the others blinked in surprise.

Little did they know the shy boy before him had, in another dimension, killed enemies without hesitation—he wouldn’t grow arrogant over a modest score increase.

Jiang Ding calculated based on the library’s detection data.

“Eighth place, Gong Sun You, 906 points—Qianling University is within reach.”

“Incredible!”

“But don’t get complacent.”

This is even under the current conditions of immortal sect knowledge and technology sharing, where alchemists and array masters are numerous, driving labor costs down drastically.

In the outside cultivation world, securing such a person’s services would require astronomical spirit stones, rare artifacts, and heavy favors.

One name after another fell—still no Jiang Ding by the tenth. Many suspected Guo Kui had gone senile, his Qi Refining ninth-layer spiritual sense confused.

“Quiet!”

Such students are flagged by the Central Array Spirit Computer as politically reliable, granting them many hidden advantages.

“Thank you,” Li Junhao whispered, tears glinting in his eyes—his score was only a few dozen points below Qianling University’s cutoff; cultivation was now possible.

“The…”

“What was his score last time? Six hundred-something?”

Those lacking strength risked their lives with even a single misstep.

“First place, Hua Bing, Qi Refining seventh layer, 1292 points—on track for the Twelve Great Academies!”

“Blue Glow Butterflies—how much do you know about them?”

“Congratulations.”

“Thirty-first place, Zhou Dong, 627 points.”

“Jiang Ding, 892 points.”

“This score is inflated—I’d get no more than 75 in practical exams, usually bottom five.”

Still, with the Young Eagle Soaring Sword Art nearing mastery, he’d likely adapt within a week, needing only four hours of sleep daily.

Guo Kui nodded, observing his composed demeanor.

Jiang Ding nodded, walked up to the podium, and collected his score sheet and exam paper—showing no visible excitement.

“The more you achieve, the harder you must work to improve yourself.”

Guo Kui’s tone turned serious: “This is merely a school-issued midterm exam. Don’t think a little success means you can slack off or ignore the Gaokao.”

An extra tenth is the labor cost for refining ‘Blue Gold 2413.’

Many turned in surprise—his improvement was too great, nearly a hundred points.

Everyone had heard that mortals could outscore cultivators—was today finally the day for Class One? “Thirteenth place, Zhao Yuanye, 857 points.”

“Eighteenth place…”

…

“Due to the principal’s sudden emergency, all practical exam scores are calculated at 50% of 75 points.”

“Should”

“Now distributing midterm score sheets and Moral Education exam papers.”

As a night-owl study god, Li Junhao instantly recognized Jiang Ding’s state, his pen never pausing as he remarked in surprise.

“I want five hundred thousand pairs—or even five hundred fifty thousand, or more—and I’m willing to pay a premium, even double the price, but only for live ones. Do you think it’s feasible?”

Han Lin pulled himself together and feigned cheerfulness.

…

Five hundred thousand pairs is the quantity needed for one vial of Proto-Body Accelerator, which can multiply the speed of Proto-Body formation—i.e., the condensation rate of Young Eagle Primordial Essence—and yield greater innate talent in the end.

“Rare indeed—you actually pulled an all-nighter.”

Guo Kui glanced at the students below, a faint smile on his face—his mood seemed good.

Guo Kui paused, double-checking the score sheets.

He’d slept only three hours last night; still unaccustomed.

“Are we going to produce a Golden Core True Person in this class?”

The classroom erupted—1300 points? This was the pace to enter the Twelve Dao Palaces! A Golden Core seed, a true child of heaven.

Guo Kui watched the scene with a smile, not stopping it.

To train a Golden Core seed brought him pride; if Hua Bing one day achieved Golden Core, even after his death, his descendants generations later might still benefit from his legacy.

(End of Chapter)