Chapter 274

During the exam, it was extremely quiet; only the scratch of black water‑based pens moving back and forth on paper could be heard, and every examinee was writing furiously.

For most people, the college entrance exam is enough to change their entire fate and is an important turning point in life; regardless of whether they can solve the questions, at least filling them all gives them more confidence.

While most people were heads down, writing hard, Wu Zhenghao had a dazed expression, staring at the last question on the test paper, feeling somewhat at a loss.

These things were never covered in the textbooks!

Not to mention textbooks, I haven't even touched any extracurricular knowledge—I haven't even seen it—how could I possibly write down my feelings?

Just who came up with this question? How could it appear as the final major problem on the college entrance exam!

Not only Wu Zhenghao, but also some people who work as fast as him have ended up here, their brains crashing on the spot.

Leaving aside the sudden appearance of the bonus question, just the question itself is bewildering, completely incomprehensible; those who don't know still think it's some kind of prank.

At once a student boldly raised his hand and, hesitating, said: "Teacher, teacher, the last question on the exam paper seems a bit odd; could it be a mistake?"

The invigilator frowned slightly and said firmly: "This is the college entrance exam paper; it has undergone strict review and double-check—how could there be an error?"

Although he said that, the teacher still walked over to him; after all, it was the college entrance exam, and since a candidate had raised a question, he still needed to look and verify.

However, when he finally saw the last question clearly, the invigilator froze on the spot, couldn't help pushing his glasses up his nose, wondering if he had misread.

Having been a teacher for most of her life and having seen many past college entrance exam papers, she could be certain that in the history of the Chinese language exam, such a question had never appeared.

If the exam paper were suddenly reformed or changed, producing an unprecedented question type, there would certainly be a notice.

Speaking of notice—

She suddenly recalled the text-message notice sent by the Education Bureau before the Chinese exam supervision, roughly saying that this exam's questions were somewhat special and they shouldn't overreact.

When she first saw that message, she was somewhat surprised and didn't understand, even thinking it was someone's prank, after all, who sends a notice right before the exam starts? The timing was too tight.

Not only this examination hall, but other halls were the same; countless students staring at the final big question fell into a daze, their faces full of bewilderment and incomprehension.

Let alone these questions, even the question material they couldn't understand at all; they had no idea what was going on, couldn't put pen to paper, and could only stare blankly at the questions.

The originally quiet examination hall instantly erupted in a considerable commotion, but this panic didn't last long.

Long before the exam, the heads of several major regions had anticipated such a situation, and thus ordered the relevant education officials to send out the text-message notice.

Those who become invigilators are all carefully selected individuals who remain calm in emergencies; recalling that earlier notice, they quickly reacted.

"Please maintain silence in the examination hall, all candidates!"

"There is nothing wrong with the exam paper; no whispering, continue the test!"

"Only thirty minutes remain until the exam ends; please manage your time well, all candidates."

Many examinees still didn't understand what the final big question was about, but they were no longer as flustered as before, after all everyone had the same question at the end.

Carrying their doubts, the examinees continued to scrutinize the question; regardless of what the truth actually was, their exam had to go on, and other matters could only be discussed after the test ended.

Quiet returned to the examination hall; Wu Zhenghao calmed himself, carefully examining the question before him, silently reciting those obscure, hard-to-understand sentences.

Inside the hall, countless students wrote furiously; some frowned, not knowing how to begin, while others swept ink and brushed, producing smooth script.

Some simply gave up, slumped over their desks snoring; only Wu Zhenghao stared at the last big question on the exam paper, eyes vacant, immersed in his own world.

To be frank, Wu Zhenghao didn't understand the meaning of these sentences at all, but reading them several times was never wrong.

Black characters on white paper—those black fonts were like mysterious symbols, drilling into his mind; at some point, the surroundings fell utterly silent.

The sound of writing and the rustle of filling out answer sheets all vanished; it was quiet to an extreme, and in a daze he found himself in another world, before an ancient bronze gate.

The gate bore evident age, standing in the long river of ancient times, its dense patterns and symbols filled with endless mysteries.

Wu Zhenghao studied the gate before him; those lines seemed irregular at first glance, but upon closer look they faintly formed a character.

That character was unmistakably "Dao"!

Before he could figure out what was going on, a faint sound came from within the gate, as if something were calling; he instinctively stepped closer, wanting to hear more clearly.

With a creak, a slit faintly split open in the middle of the gate; Wu Zhenghao tried pushing it with his hand, and the ancient bronze gate slowly swung open.

Countless white specks of light flew out from within; the originally black characters combined with the white light points, the collision of black and white was breathtaking.

For a moment Wu Zhenghao became entranced, even forgetting that he was in the middle of the college entrance exam.

Black and white slowly merged, then turned into two yin-yang fish, continually spiraling in midair; time flowed, years flew like arrows, and the surrounding scenery kept receding.

In an instant he found himself amidst chaos, as if he had arrived at the era when heaven and earth were still murky, with nothing yet unfolded.

Wu Zhenghao's heart surged with tremendous waves; he steadied himself, and the scene before him instantly dissipated like smoke and clouds, as if nothing had ever existed—only the black-and-white fish circled him, unchanged from ancient times to the present.

The Great Dao is eternal, heaven and earth endure!

Wu Zhenghao cautiously reached out to touch it; the black-and-white vapor instantly vanished, and the two fish leapt forth into heaven and earth, as elusive as the Dao itself.

Yet a tingling numbness came from his fingertips; the sound of the Dao echoed from the void, resonating loudly as the black-and-white fish spun, buzzing in his mind.

That sensation was wonderfully extreme; Wu Zhenghao even became entranced by listening to it.

A faint emanation drifted from his body, imperceptible to ordinary people, yet in the distant Longyuan Mountain range, Ye Qin, who was in secluded meditation, seemed to sense something.

He suddenly opened his brilliant green eyes, a streak of light flashing across!

At the same time, within the mountain range, the Longling avatar that was guiding the Great Demon's cultivation abruptly halted its actions, gazing into the distance with a look of some depth.

"Has someone already grasped it? It seems the pace of action in Xia is faster than I imagined."

Upon hearing the Longling avatar's words, the other Great Demons first blinked, then reacted: "Does the Master mean that someone in Xia has already begun cultivating that manual?"

"This speed is too fast, isn't it? They don't have the abundant spiritual energy we have in Longyuan Mountain, yet someone grasped it in a short time—clearly they have good talent."

"It has little to do with spiritual energy; it mainly depends on personal comprehension."

"If they can cultivate, they must believe what we say; I don't know what they'll do next."

"I have a feeling that the higher echelons of humanity will definitely come knocking again."

If monsters and humans of the same level were to fight, the monsters would certainly have the advantage, for they inherently possess strong defensive power and combat ability.

However, from the starting point, the monster race needs to awaken wisdom and open spirit before entering cultivation, whereas humans can skip that step; once they comprehend the method, they can cultivate directly.

The monster race and the human race each possess their own advantages.

Many Great Demons in the Longyuan Mountain range discussed this matter endlessly, while in the distant examination hall, Wu Zhenghao remained unaware of it.

His pupils were dilated, his eyes still lifeless, yet strangely he gripped the pen in his hand and began writing slowly on the answer sheet, as if some mysterious force were controlling his body.

Some answers appeared on the paper without even thinking; various answers, as well as countless basic knowledge of cultivation, were all answered by him one by one.

This state continued until just before the papers were collected, when he barely came to his senses.

"Ding-ling-ling—"

"There are still ten minutes until the exam ends; please, all candidates, answer quickly."

The piercing bell sound pulled Wu Zhenghao's thoughts back; he shuddered all over, suddenly regaining consciousness, "I, I what's wrong with me?"

Wu Zhenghao rubbed his eyes; for some reason his wrist felt sore, he glanced at the clock in front of the exam hall, and his previously muddled mind became completely clear.

Only ten minutes left!

What can he write in ten minutes? His spacing out is too absurd!

Wu Zhenghao panicked; his first reaction was to pick up the pen to make amends, but when he lowered his head to look at the test paper, he spaced out again.

On the answer sheet, densely packed, the last major question had somehow already been filled with all the answers.

All kinds of bizarre and strange answers were written out by him, like tadpoles, filling every blank space on the answer sheet, and even some were written on the edges of the paper.

Wu Zhenghao couldn't help swallowing, feeling incredulous—was this written by him?

Impossible—how could he have no memory of it?

But the handwriting can't be faked; it's definitely his, and this is the college entrance exam—who would be kind enough to help him write? That's also unlikely.

For a moment Wu Zhenghao's head felt like mush; he wanted to change some answers, but had nowhere to start, as there was no space left for corrections.

Looking closely at these answers, he didn't know if they were correct, and while he hesitated and agonized, time quietly passed.

"Ding-ling-ling—"

"All right, from now on, answering is prohibited."

"Everyone leave the exam hall, start collecting the papers."

The piercing bell rang, and countless examinees could only leave the exam hall; as soon as they walked out of the classroom, they began discussing the questions.

Some were excited, some dejected, some calm and composed; small groups of examinees gathered together, most of their focus still on the last question.

One can imagine the shock and surprise this sudden bonus question brought to the examinees.

Only Wu Zhenghao had dilated eyes, as if he had lost a soul and spirit, his whole body filled with low pressure, no longer his former vigorous self, and he felt somewhat down.

Regarding that last major question, he truly had no confidence, feeling as if he were just guessing randomly, and whenever he finished all questions before, he would check the earlier ones for gaps and fill them.

But now, due to various unexpected incidents, he had no time to check, breaking his original rhythm, and he didn't know what the final result would be.

"What are you thinking about, so absorbed? I've called you several times."

Just as Wu Zhenghao was blaming himself and feeling regret, someone patted his shoulder; turning around, he saw a few of his classmates.

Wu Zhenghao shook his head, "I wasn't thinking about anything."

A classmate curiously asked, "Top student, you should do well this time, right?"

Wu Zhenghao showed a bitter smile, "Should be okay."

He had performed steadily on the earlier parts, but as for the last question, he truly had no confidence.

A classmate wore an "I know all too well" expression and sighed, "Don't say it—everyone's definitely stuck on the last question."

Wu Zhenghao opened his mouth to give an important answer, and the other classmates immediately started spitting.

"That's right—what's with this year's last question? It's never appeared before in previous years, and they didn't even give us a heads-up."

"Good heavens, I suspect I'm looking at a heavenly book—I can't understand it at all."

"Exactly, I asked many people, and none of them understood."

"Even if you understood it, the follow-up questions are so bizarre they leave you completely unable to start writing."

"That's a whole twenty-point major question, yet I didn't write a single character, just left it blank—I don't know who came up with this question, it's absolutely insane."

"You can't do that—at least write something; I just randomly filled in a bit, hoping for a lucky guess."

"Hehe, I'm still smart—I copied the question stem onto the answer sheet; at least I'll get a few points."

"That last major question is really going to screw people over; I'd estimate that over half of the examinees nationwide will stumble on it."

Many examinees were discussing heatedly, and outside the exam hall, some well-informed parents had found the Chinese exam questions.

The earlier questions were still normal, but when they saw the later major question, everyone's expression was almost identical.

Dense blocks of text appeared at the end of the exam paper; seeing these, they thought they were hallucinating.

This question is way too absurd!

What the heck is this?!

Why would the Chinese exam contain such a question?!

As the largest exam of the Great Xia, with countless participants, it also concerns the futures of these young people; once the college entrance exam questions are released, they attract everyone's attention.

And this last question almost instantly stirred up a huge wave on the internet, with both discussion and heat rising at a terrifying speed.

Because the college entrance exam has never seen anything like this before!

"Is there any expert who can explain how to solve this last question?"

"Manually tag the education-related people—is this question really meant for people to answer? Give them the pen, let them try; it's truly off the charts."

"Moreover, these questions are too weird—Heavenly Dao and spiritual energy are popping up; ask the person who came up with this question, did they read too many fantasy novels?"

"Exactly, this question feels completely unserious."

"Wow, the total score for this Chinese exam is 170 points!"

"Really, I started thinking I'd miscalculated—what's going on? Is anyone coming forward to explain?"

"This exam has undergone major changes, and there's even a bonus question—why wasn't there any advance notice, and why wasn't any preparation given to us?"

Online, people were practically up in arms over this question, because it was completely unheard of, obscure and hard to understand, far beyond the syllabus.

Moreover, many classical Chinese experts and literature professors, after staring at the last major question and researching it repeatedly, were still completely baffled, not knowing what it meant.

Only those scholars who had participated in the Mountain City Conference showed astonished expressions.

Originally I thought the higher-ups were just talking; who would have imagined they actually added it to the college entrance exam!

After they finished reading the last question, they also began to show incredulous expressions; it was truly too hard to understand, simply baffling.

Although they knew the reason, the ordinary people of Great Xia were unaware; facing this major change in the Chinese language exam, countless people gave feedback through various channels, hoping the authorities would give an explanation.

Faced with these people's demands, the authorities were like a disconnected line, having no intention to respond or explain; not even an @ got a reaction.

The phones of all departments of the Education Bureau were about to be blown up; the ringing never stopped, and even the official accounts were drowned in a flurry of private messages like snowflakes.

Unable to withstand the crowds of people coming to inquire, the Education Bureau had no choice but to issue a notice.

【Regarding the last major question of the Chinese language exam, it was added after consideration and verification by relevant personnel; there is no problem.】

【As the first temporarily added question, this test item was jointly initiated by the heads of several major regions nationwide, and approved by the Great Xia Education Bureau Headquarters.】

【Please, parents and examinees, do not panic; prepare seriously for the upcoming exams, respond flexibly, give it your all, and wish all examinees success on the golden list!】

After seeing the authorities' notice, all the people fell into a dazed state.

The temporarily added question even changed the total score; it was jointly proposed by the heads of several major regions—just what kind of genius came up with this?

Everything is really too strange.

After seeing the authorities' explanatory notice, everyone still found it unbelievable; moreover, the authorities never clearly stated the specific reason, speaking all along in vague, evasive terms.

However, since it was approved by the Great Xia Education Bureau Headquarters, there should be no major issue regarding fairness.

After all, their region won't be disadvantaged, nor will examinees from other regions; everyone is on the same level.

(End of chapter)