Chapter 80: The Inescapable Exam

When Rekton woke up, it was already the next morning. Bright sunlight shone through the window onto his face, bringing a slight discomfort that roused him from his sleep.

Just as he was about to get out of bed, Rekton suddenly noticed a crow with a few crimson feathers standing on Tu Ba Ge's little nest, and his motion of rising froze in midair.

"Mr. Huang? Is there something you need?" Rekton's voice was full of puzzlement.

"I'm just a crow; my main body is still in the library organizing those books. My lord's oracle has been delivered, and soon members of the Church of Knowledge will begin entering the Spirit Realm Sorcerer system one after another," the crow said, its tone somewhat excited.

At the same time, a brass-colored ring slowly materialized behind it, with an All-Seeing Eye in the center of the ring.

"Good lord, are there going to be more animals entering the Spirit Realm Sorcerer system than humans now!" Rekton silently grumbled to himself.

"The Church moves this fast? Then what did you come to find me for?" To cover up the fleeting grumble in his heart, Rekton immediately raised a new topic.

"I'm here to supervise your exam! Once you finish it quickly, I won't have to keep an eye on you all day," the crow said, shaking its head while retracting the brass ring that had appeared behind it.

Rekton rubbed his head helplessly; he had originally wanted to find a chance to read a bit more, or get the Hidden Sage to instill some knowledge into him.

"You're not going to make me take the exam right now, are you? Didn't you say yesterday that the exam time could be extended a little?" Rekton looked at the crow standing on Tu Ba Ge's little nest, his tone carrying doubt.

"The extension refers to giving you a bit more time for a make-up exam if you don't pass," the crow explained mercilessly.

Rekton's expression froze on his face; the other party had known all along that he wouldn't pass, and had even extended the make-up exam time for him in advance.

"Then can I just take the make-up exam directly?" Rekton said dejectedly.

"No!" The crow refused very bluntly.

"Alright, then... let me have breakfast first?" Rekton sought the crow's opinion.

"Fine, I'll come back in a bit." After saying that, the crow's figure gradually faded until it disappeared from the room.

Looking at Tu Ba Ge still sleeping soundly in its little nest, Rekton suddenly felt a bit displeased; he couldn't escape the exam, yet this rabbit could still lie peacefully in its nest sleeping.

Rekton walked over without hesitation and shook the sleeping Tu Ba Ge awake.

"Wu~ Boss! Let me sleep a bit more!" Tu Ba Ge mumbled and rolled over in its little nest.

With a dark line across his face, Rekton reached out, grabbed the rabbit by the ears, and hauled Tu Ba Ge out of the nest; ignoring the rabbit's resistance, he dragged it down to have breakfast.

"Wu!" Tu Ba Ge bit fiercely into the vegetable leaf held in its two paws, as if it were the culprit hand that had dragged it out of its warm bed.

"Huh? Does the little rabbit like eating this kind of leaf? I'll ask Sally to prepare some more from now on," his mother Yi Sha Bei Er said, watching Tu Ba Ge gnawing hard on the vegetable leaf, thinking it was something it liked to eat.

"No need, it's just going for the novelty. After a while it'll switch to liking other foods," Rekton stopped his mother's suggestion.

"Alright then." Yi Sha Bei Er didn't pay it much mind either, picked up the milk beside her, and took a sip.

After breakfast, Rekton took Tu Ba Ge to the study on the second floor. The moment he entered the room, a crow was already waiting for him on the desk.

Rekton's mouth corner couldn't help but twitch; he felt this crow had definitely used prophetic ability.

"When it comes to exams, the Church of Knowledge truly has a deep obsession!" Rekton sighed in his heart.

"Wuwa! Why is the crow here again?" Tu Ba Ge boldly ran over and sat down next to the crow, even reaching out to pat the tuft of crimson feathers on the crow's head.

"I'm here to supervise Rekton's exam. Do you want to take an exam too?" The crow tilted its head, and Tu Ba Ge's paw missed.

"Mm, prepare one for it too. But it can't write, do you have any way around that?" Rekton felt he should share the hardship with Tu Ba Ge.

"Wuwa~ I'm just a rabbit!" Tu Ba Ge looked at its boss in disbelief, its eyes full of panic.

"Very simple, I'll just temporarily let it learn. As an extraordinary creature, teaching it to write isn't too difficult," the crow nodded and said.

"Mm." Rekton nodded thoughtfully, feeling that the Church of Knowledge's peculiar little spells seemed to have been invented for the purpose of helping others answer exam questions.

"You're going too far! Don't you even ask how the rabbit feels about this!" Tu Ba Ge saw its boss reach an agreement with this crow so quickly and shouted loudly in exasperation.

"If you can pass the exam, I'll tell you how to grow a bed that can take various shapes, bear fruits of different flavors, and even keep you warm," the crow stared at the exasperated Tu Ba Ge and stated in a steady voice.

"A bed?" Rekton was taken aback.

"Is it really true?" Tu Ba Ge widened its eyes and said in utter disbelief.

Rekton saw drool already about to drip from the corner of this disappointing rabbit's mouth.

"Of course it's true. Why would I deceive a rabbit?" The crow's tone was very haughty when it said this.

"When does the exam start?" Tu Ba Ge said impatiently.

Rekton, standing to the side, was a bit speechless; he hadn't expected the rabbit to be so easily manipulated by the crow. One had to say, as expected of an angel of the White Tower pathway, grasping others' weaknesses perfectly.

Rekton took out the exam papers the crow had delivered to him yesterday from the drawer, then ignored the negotiation between it and Tu Ba Ge, sat down on a chair to the side, and began working on the questions.

The crow flapped its wings and pulled several exam papers out from the Spirit Realm. Then it looked at Tu Ba Ge and nodded, flapping its wings again as specks of brass-colored glimmer fell onto Tu Ba Ge's body.

"Alright, take these questions and try doing them," the crow flapped its wings, signaling Tu Ba Ge to take the exam papers and do them itself.

"Okay!" Tu Ba Ge nodded excitedly.

It picked up the exam papers from the desk, went over to Rekton's side to grab a quill, and sat right on the desk to begin answering questions.

Unable to contain his curiosity, Rekton glanced at Tu Ba Ge earnestly working on the questions and found that it was genuinely thinking hard, then writing and drawing on the exam paper in a convincing manner.

Seeing the rabbit writing so earnestly, Rekton had no choice but to continue looking down and working on his own questions.

The exam questions the crow had given Rekton didn't involve that much mysticism; instead, there were many questions on various subjects like geography and mathematics.

Fully embodying the spirit of never leaving a blank space and making up an answer even if he had to, Rekton finally finished these exam papers before the sun set.

Looking at the sunset outside the window, Rekton stretched, never expecting that a whole day would pass just like that.

The crow flapped its wings, and the last exam paper Rekton had finished automatically flew in front of it, then faded into transparency and disappeared from reality.

"You finished reading it that fast?" Rekton asked curiously.

This crow had only glanced at the exam paper before tossing it into the Spirit Realm; Rekton wouldn't suspect the other party of not reading it carefully—that would be an insult to a Cherubim.

"Mm, there wasn't much to look at. I already read through it while you were answering the questions," the crow said in a very flat voice.

"Then what's the result? I didn't pass?" Rekton had good self-awareness about his score.

"To be precise, you earned a few points. Take the make-up exam in a month," the crow replied in an uninflected voice.

"Uh, that bad?" Rekton felt like he was facing his homeroom teacher after doing poorly on an exam.

"Mm, the make-up exam was originally supposed to be in two weeks, but I felt two weeks wasn't enough time for you to pass the make-up, so I extended it a bit," the crow continued in an uninflected voice.

Rekton was at a loss for words for a moment; even though this was helping him, Rekton felt he had been discriminated against by the other party.

"Where is that rabbit?" Lei Ke Dun curiously asked about the rabbit's grades.

If the rabbit passed the exam, Lei Ke Dun felt he would also have to despise himself.

"Same as you!" the crow said in a flat tone.

After the crow finished speaking, its figure gradually became illusory and transparent, and in the next moment it disappeared from the room.

Lei Ke Dun and Tu Ba Ge exchanged a glance, as if each saw the other's disdain for themselves in the other's eyes.

"A bed that can grow different-flavored fruits and let you sleep is gone!" Tu Ba Ge said in a dejected tone, like a defeated dog.

"It's fine, you can move the bed into the orchard, you can still eat and sleep at the same time!" Lei Ke Dun reminded the dejected rabbit.

"Right!" Tu Ba Ge's eyes lit up, and he regained his vigor again.

"Then I wasn't just wasting my effort on those problems earlier, was I?" Tu Ba Ge thought about how hard he had worked on those problems just now, feeling that all his effort had been in vain.

"It's okay, at least it let you realize you're not suited for studying." Lei Ke Dun said offhandedly.

"Yeah, that's right! Boss, you're not suited for studying either." Tu Ba Ge's sincere words made Lei Ke Dun feel as if a dagger had pierced his chest.

Lei Ke Dun very much wanted to retort that statement, but after thinking for a long time he couldn't figure out how to rebut it.

"Forget it, what does it matter if we're not suited for studying? The Hidden Sage is the best study partner!" Lei Ke Dun completely solidified his idea of finding the Hidden Sage to imbue knowledge.

(End of chapter)