Chapter 352: First Academic Year, Final Major Exam

On the battlefield, Gongshu Jin advanced rapidly, weaving through explosions without pause, charging again and again through the sea of thunder and fire.

He carried Ying Xin under his left arm, Zhang Yu under his right, Yu Xinghan pressed against his chest, and Li Xiao on his back.

And no matter how bloodied and mangled the four classmates on him became, how severely they were wounded, or even if they stopped breathing, he never thought of putting them down.

Because he knew that only by relying on each other, as comrades, could they survive.

"On a crisis-ridden battlefield, students from the Earth and Wood Department are the best protective talismans."

"Thank you for protecting me."

The artifact spirit nodded slightly: "Calm and decisive, quick to act. Even on a perilous battlefield, at a moment of life and death, he showed no panic, demonstrating willpower that matches the Dao Heart rank."

"He can be recommended for next semester's Spirit Realm competition."

Zhang Yu, having suddenly become rich, walked along the street.

With his savings exceeding 1,000 spirit coins, he did not choose to squander them… Instead, he displayed the deposit number on his forehead, immediately gaining countless friendships and receiving wave after wave of gifts.

Then, in the various fraud attempts that followed, he dodged each one, remaining composed throughout.

The artifact spirit recorded: "Faced with sudden wealth, his core remained stable, with extremely strong self-control…"

Looking at Zhang Yu's various scores, the artifact spirit said calmly: "Indeed, his Dao Heart is even above Gongshu Jin's; it's now on par with Ji Yuanshu's."

…

At the mana test.

One by one, students were being tested on mana quantity, mana quality, and aura conduction.

And as numbers appeared one after another, occasional gasps came from the crowd.

Li Mingbo, as the mana teacher, naturally also felt curious and checked the students' results.

In his eye socket, all students were arranged according to the layer of their origin.

As the students' scores emerged, the results were basically positively correlated with the layer.

"According to the data completed so far, first is Ji Yuanshu from Layer Six, second is Gongshu Jin from Layer Four, third is Ying Xin, fourth…"

But the next moment, his gaze sharpened slightly.

He saw a name far ahead, shooting up like a rocket, surpassing Gongshu Jin from Layer Four and reaching a position on par with Ji Yuanshu from Layer Six.

"Zhang Yu."

"From Layer One."

Li Mingbo remembered the name—a student who, together with two other Layer One students, always sat in the last row in class.

"Last semester, his mana score barely kept up with Gongshu Jin; this semester, he's already on par with Ji Yuanshu?"

Li Mingbo was a little stunned: "A student from Layer One can actually catch up to the level of a Layer Six student?"

…

At the physical strength test.

Amid everyone's stunned gazes, two figures shot out like bolts of lightning, refusing to yield to each other, crisscrossing and flickering back and forth across the complex simulated battlefield—neither could shake the other.

One of them was Zhang Yu.

At this moment, the essence energy inside him was boiling, his qi and blood surging violently like lava. The War Demon Longevity Art was pushed to its limit, directly increasing his physical strength by 1.5 levels, driving Zhang Yu's physical strength to a terrifying 17.38.

Under such狂暴 physical enhancement, his speed reached an unprecedented level; even the Number 20 secret steel he wore felt extremely light in his perception.

At the same time, he was multitasking—controlling his body's forward motion while managing several Invisible Force Warriors, using his Third Eye Divine Ability and Time-Eroding Demon Eye to help him block various attacks on the simulated battlefield.

Yet even under these conditions, he found he still could not overtake Ji Yuanshu ahead of him.

"This guy… is so fast."

"He's using too many legal remains to boost his speed."

"Looks like in this round, I still can't beat him after all."

But Zhang Yu was already used to this; speed was ultimately not his forte. His current high-speed movement was all pushed out by sheer basic stats and hard strength.

Zhang Yu thought to himself, "The final result will still depend on the construction exam. After a semester of grinding, my well-honed construction ability is my greatest strength."

Zhang Yu had already learned that the Civil Engineering Department's final professional exam every academic year was the most difficult, carried the highest composite score, and had the greatest impact on the rankings.

At the same time, behind Zhang Yu and Ji Yuanshu, Gongshu Jin's coruscant energy roiled, his streamlined body continuously tearing through the atmosphere.

But even though he had specially swapped all four of his arcane prosthetics for a displacement acceleration set, he could only watch helplessly as the two ahead of him grew farther and farther away, until even the blinking rankings above their heads vanished from sight.

Gongshu Jin's eyes were filled with unwillingness: "How is that possible… how is that possible?! Why is the gap even bigger?!"

Over the past semester, he had maxed out loans, burned spirit coins, and had arcane prosthetics for arcane cultivation, body cultivation, and different sets for different exams.

He had even detailed every second of his daily cultivation, wasting not a single moment.

"Why? Why can't even I catch up to them?!"

"How much money did they spend?"

…

As each exam progressed, Ji Yuanshu and Zhang Yu gradually became the focus of all the students in the class.

Especially watching the two rivals keep neck and neck in the exam rooms, or watching Zhang Yu chase after Ji Yuanshu's figure time and again, the classmates all realized that the top spot of the freshman year would be decided between these two.

And from the current look of things…

Ying Xin analyzed, "I'm afraid Ji Yuanshu's winning rate is much higher."

"After all, at the end of last semester, he was already leading Zhang Yu by 27 composite points."

"Even if he only leads Zhang Yu by a small margin in this final exam, it will be hard for Zhang Yu to overtake him."

Yu Xinghan watched as Zhang Yu ultimately failed to surpass Ji Yuanshu in the speed exam and breathed a slight sigh of relief: "Good, good. Zhang Yu didn't surpass Ji Yuanshu."

"That scared me—I thought he was really going to become the class top."

Yu Xinghan didn't dare imagine how terrible he would feel if he saw Zhang Yu defeat Ji Yuanshu and leave him so far behind…

That would be many times worse than seeing a good brother use the Time-Remnant Demon Eye.

Compared to the students' vague guesses, the teachers, who could see the backend scores in advance, had a much clearer grasp of the situation.

Tu Lishan had been watching the scores after each of the duo's exams, calculating the changes in their composite scores.

He muttered while calculating, "Overall, Zhang Yu's base data is already approaching Ji Yuanshu's?"

"Truly incredible."

But thinking back on the amount of medicine Zhang Yu had taken over this semester, he couldn't help but marvel that Zhang Yu had survived so far—that in itself was incredible.

"His physique is even stronger than he claims—he really is worth focusing on."

"Alas, it's a pity. If he were an upper-layer person, or even just a second-layer person, he might have been able to beat Ji Yuanshu in this exam."

And what Tu Lishan observed, Ji Yuanshu also sensed.

Looking at the notifications from his fortune monitor, seeing his own win rate climbing higher and higher, Ji Yuanshu felt as if the throne of the year's top spot had already settled beneath him.

But defeating Zhang Yu, he had always considered it a matter of course.

After all, under the fortune monitor, he had always seen the other's extremely low win rate.

What concerned him was not beating Zhang Yu, but whether he needed to invest further now that victory was assured.

After all, he was still far from his master's goal of leading by 100 points.

"Be greedy when others are fearful."

Recalling a famous saying from the Finance Department, Ji Yuanshu quickly made up his mind.

"Right now, Zhang Yu, Gongshu Jin, and the whole class are all deeply intimidated by my strength and swept with fear."

Ji Yuanshu knew that fortune gathering was not easy, especially for a freshman like him.

"This is the perfect chance to further gather fortune, consolidate my position as class top, and lay the groundwork for subsequent cultivation of fortune Daoist arts."

"At the same time, I can also further improve my strength. Even if I can't exceed 100 points, I'll gain as many as possible."

So he once again @mentioned Zhang Yu and Gongshu Jin in the group chat.

Ji Yuanshu: "You two, in the remaining exams, unleash all your potential and let me enjoy it even more."

As he finished speaking, Ji Yuanshu felt wisps of fortune surging in from various directions.

It was the confidence of one classmate after another in him.

With each exam today, he was like an undefeated general, anchoring the word "invincible" in the students' hearts through one victory after another.

This is where people's hearts gather, and fortune returns.

And a coin artifact in his sea of consciousness gently swayed, suppressing all the fortune he had collected within the sea of consciousness, beginning to boost his various qualities.

"The way of fortune is to follow the trend."

"Then, through methods like showing off, applying pressure, and creating hype, guide people's hearts and borrow fortune."

"Use cultivation to bolster momentum, and use momentum to nourish cultivation in return."

"Continuously grow in mutual cycles."

"In the end... become the momentum itself."

And Ji Yuanshu believed that by seizing first place in the class at this moment, he had already become an unstoppable momentum.

As for fortune backlash?

Ji Yuanshu could not imagine the possibility of defeat.

Because even before the final exam, he still led Zhang Yu and Gongshu Jin in overall score.

"They have no chance left."

"In the final exam, I will take even more overall points."

In the simulated construction site.

The students of the Foundation Establishment class all arrived, ushering in the final exam of the day.

Tu Lishan stood before them and said, "To start from reality and test professional ability more objectively, the department has been reforming exams since last year."

"Today, we have decided to combine all professional skill exams into one, using real examples to test your engineering array drafting, architectural drawing reading, building materials, construction survey... and your comprehensive construction ability."

"After all, the most important thing in our civil engineering department is hands-on ability."

"Today is the time to test the fruits of your freshman year's learning."

As he spoke, a set of blueprints was simultaneously transmitted to everyone's smart eyes.

Then Tu Lishan pointed to the left side of the simulated work site and said, "On the left are all the building materials provided for this exam."

"You have half an hour to select and transport the materials you need."

"On the right are the construction sites assigned to each of you."

"Within half an hour, you can do your best to pick materials and transport them over."

"But after half an hour, you cannot leave the construction site."

"Next, you have three hours to construct according to the blueprints."

"Three hours later, everyone must stop work immediately, regardless of completion, and leave the site."

"Afterward, your works will be scored on completion level."

"Then all construction sites will uniformly face 10 waves of attacks."

"The performance of your works in these 10 waves of attacks will also determine your score in this exam."