Chapter 57: Pass Exam, Go to Songyang

"Zhang Yu!"

"Zhang Yu!"

"Zhang Yu!"

With each call of his name, Zhang Yu abruptly woke up, only to hear a burst of laughter from the classroom.

Looking up at the podium, he saw the teacher on the platform glaring coldly at him: "Get out and stand in the hallway."

Zhang Yu stood up helplessly and walked outside the classroom.

Day after day of high school life, yet he felt no hope whatsoever.

His grades kept getting worse, his rankings kept dropping, from the advanced class down to the worst class, and everyone—classmates and teachers alike—looked at him as if he were a pile of trash.

The various loans he had taken out to cultivate the immortal path only grew larger, crushing him until he could barely breathe.

Finally, one day, he walked up to the school rooftop.

Just as he was about to step forward, his phone rang.

Zhang Yu answered the call, and the voice on the other end said: "Hello? Is this Mr. Zhang Yu? A new cemetery plot has just opened in the northern suburbs—only two hundred thousand, and you get posthumous corpse refining services, with a chance to live another life..."

Zhang Yu let out a bitter laugh: "Your big data really is something—you even guessed I was about to jump? Too bad it didn't calculate that I'm flat broke right now and can't afford your graves."

The other party continued: "If you're broke, don't you want to turn things around? Our company has a Heaven-Mending Plan. If you're interested in learning more, I'll send it to you..."

Zhang Yu hung up and continued staring down at the dark abyss below his feet.

"Turn things around..."

After a moment of silence, he finally opened his phone again and looked at the website the other party had sent.

A bear doll on the screen opened its mouth and said: "Make a wish to the gods."

"Just perform the ritual for me, and in five minutes, all your wishes will come true."

"Completely free, zero threshold, no extra charges whatsoever."

"Click once, and your life will be brand new..."

Watching this, Zhang Yu felt something—some painful memory—kept darting around in his head, but he couldn't recall it.

It was a kind of anger from being constantly pushed, constantly tormented, constantly forced to swallow bitterness.

And just before those painful memories could break out of their cocoon, his emotions and instincts had already reacted first.

"Fuck!" Zhang Yu roared, violently throwing his phone away, then raised his middle finger: "Haha, you think you can trick me?"

"Maybe in your next life!"

Zhang Yu's consciousness faltered, and the next moment he woke up again in the classroom.

But the memories and emotions concerning the evil god grew increasingly intense, gradually making him remember something.

"I remember now—I'm participating in the Divine Assistant Personnel assessment."

"This assessment seems to be related to an evil god?"

Zhang Yu felt he had understood the key to this assessment and decided to perform well in it.

Sun Jiayi was proud at heart.

Because he was not human, but a god.

Although he was only one of the 480 million minor Gongcao gods in the Inspection Department, he was still a god, with the authority to review humans.

Even though he only reviewed outsourced job assessments at 14 yuan an hour, he had always been diligent and worked earnestly.

That was what it meant to be a god.

A god, though lowly, never forgets the worries of the Kun realm!

At this moment, in front of Sun Jiayi were screens lighting up one after another, continuously playing the content of assessment after assessment.

They were the tests of the examinees' instinctive reactions when facing the temptations of an evil god in the illusionary realm of the spirit world.

And whether the candidates for outsourced staff of the Inspection Department can resist the temptation of this evil god in the illusion... is the key to passing or failing the assessment.

"What does this candidate from Taitian City mean by writing out his family's assets and background in his resume?"

"So what if he's worth over a hundred million? If you fail, you fail. Do you think I would engage in favoritism just because of your family background?"

Sun Jiayi let out a cold laugh, completely dismissive. Seeing the other person hesitating in the illusion, he directly chose to fail him.

"Weak will, unqualified."

Sun Jiayi was a proud god, and the more privileged the students he failed, the more he felt his divine pride and enjoyed the satisfaction of fulfilling his duties.

His attention turned to the next candidate from Hong'an City.

The other's resume was filled with honors from their first and second years of high school, practically a top student in the grade, frequent participant in competitions, dazzling talent, outstanding ability, unlimited potential, very likely to get into a top university or even join a major sect in the future.

But seeing the other person struggle back and forth in the illusion, taking a full ten minutes to finally refuse the evil god's temptation, Sun Jiayi still mercilessly chose to fail him.

"Hmph, you think a bright future and a shiny resume will make me go easy? I'm not one of those vulgar people who only care about scores."

"Even if you were truly a proud son of heaven like a college student, once you fall into my hands, if I say you don't pass, you don't pass."

"Taking so long to refuse shows a weak will. How could I let you pass?"

His attention shifted again, and this time what appeared before Sun Jiayi was Zhang Yu's information and assessment content.

"Mm, decisively throwing away the phone on the rooftop, not bad."

"Next the difficulty increases. I wonder how he'll do."

Then the scenes on the screen changed repeatedly, as various methods of evil god temptation appeared one after another before Zhang Yu.

There was a beautiful admirer asking Zhang Yu to make a wish to the evil god with her; Zhang Yu kicked her away and quickly fled. There was being chased and cornered, with the evil god tempting him to save himself; Zhang Yu dismissed it disdainfully, turned around and threw the evil god doll at his enemies, then shouted: 'Good stuff! You can make any wish on this thing!'

There was a huge ragged doll chasing Zhang Yu, threatening him with terrifying force, demanding to make a contract. Zhang Yu, while running away, started calling the police. When the constables arrived, he even wanted to charge together with them to fight the evil god.

But... Sun Jiayi in front of the screen was no longer watching his lively performance, because someone had contacted Sun Jiayi.

Seeing Zhang Pianpian pop up in the contact window, along with her title as Acting Deputy Captain of the Patrol Team in the Songyang City Inspection Department, he frowned slightly and said: "What business does this colleague have?"

Zhang Pianpian said: "There's a candidate named Zhang Yu. I hope..."

Sun Jiayi waved his hand to refuse, but saw that the other party had already activated a ledger and directly cast a talisman.

"You dare to cross the spirit world and cast a talisman on me, a dignified Meritorious Official God?"

"What audacity!"

But upon seeing the specific talisman being cast, Sun Jiayi immediately relaxed: "It's a Charm Talisman?!"

A Charm Talisman, a talisman that can quickly increase a god's favor.

!.

The specific working principle is that it doesn't require the god's name, nor data, nor knowing the other's account; as long as you activate the Charm Talisman when contacting the other party, you can directly transfer money into the other's account and automatically hide the transfer record.

Sensing the effect of the Charm Talisman, Sun Jiayi's originally stern expression relaxed.

"I didn't expect a mere mortal from the lower realm like you to be so knowledgeable about talismans, even having learned the Charm Talisman."

And upon noticing the change in the numbers in his account, a smile even appeared on his face, and he remarked: "A high school student showing such respect to the gods shows a firm faith."

"What matter do you need me to handle?"

Zhang Pianpian was not surprised by this.

Based on her experience over the past two years using ledgers and learning talismans, faith level relies on top-ups, learning talismans relies on top-ups, inviting orthodox gods for guidance relies on top-ups... so talismans are all about top-ups!

However, even when topping up for gods, one must pay attention to methods. For example, ledger top-ups, private transfers, public transfers, Charm Talismans... the various channels are vastly different, and that's where the level of talisman skill comes in.

Zhang Pianpian said: "Could I trouble this great god to lower the difficulty of Zhang Yu's assessment just a little bit..."

Sun Jiayi said nonchalantly: "Hey, a job paying 14 yuan an hour, what difficulty could there be in the assessment?"

In the illusion.

Zhang Yu looked at the world before him, his eyes filled with bewilderment.

Now he appeared in a white room.

Floating in the middle of the room was a line of text: "The evil god tempts you. Will you accept?"

Below it floated two options: Yes and No.

Wait... isn't this a trick question?

Because the question seemed too simple, Zhang Yu couldn't bring himself to answer.

After thinking for a full ten minutes and truly unable to perceive where the trap was, Zhang Yu nervously chose No.

The next moment, a notice of passing the assessment appeared before him.

A bewildered Zhang Yu withdrew from the spirit world, still somewhat unclear about what had happened.

Just then, his phone rang.

Zhang Yu answered the call, and on the other end came Zhang Pianpian's voice: "You should have passed the exam by now, right?"

Zhang Yu immediately voiced the question in his heart.

Zhang Pianpian explained: "Oh, I transferred a sum of money to the minor deity on duty—the Merit Officer—and asked him to lower the assessment difficulty a bit?"

The fuck is "a bit"?

This is a god?

Zhang Yu was shocked: "You can bribe a god with money?"

Zhang Pianpian: "How could that be."

Just as Zhang Yu was about to breathe a sigh of relief, Zhang Pianpian continued: "Spending money only makes it possible to bribe a god; it depends on how much you spend and how you spend it—that's related to your talisman skill level."

Zhang Yu: "But... that's a god!"

"In Kunxu, gods work for money—that's what 'money can reach the gods' means." Zhang Pianpian said matter-of-factly: "Without money, how could the Eight Departments of True Gods run Kunxu? How could they govern the world?"

Zhang Yu was speechless again. All he could say was that he had gained a deeper understanding of Kunxu.

Remembering what the other had said before, Zhang Yu asked again: "Didn't you say this assessment tests Dao-heart and willpower?"

Zhang Pianpian said calmly: "Mm, that's right. You need enough Dao-heart, enough willpower, to hold out until... I find a way in the spirit world to locate the day-duty Merit Officer in charge of your assessment, and then use a talisman to transfer the money into his account."

She continued: "Alright, I've brought your work ID and work Register out. Let's meet at the entrance of your high school."

"Now... we can go have a talk with the student council of Songyang High School."

So Zhang Yu, dragging his exhausted body, squeezed onto a bus and arrived at the school stop an hour and a half later. From afar, he saw

Zhang Pianpian standing at the intersection.

She handed Zhang Yu a black-and-white object that looked like a manual.

"This is your work Register. You have one free use of a talisman per day, and you can get a discount on learning the Patrol Department's talismans through this Register..."

She then pointed at the strange symbol on the Register and said: "This mark on the Register is the Patrol Department's insignia. You can show it if you run into trouble."

Zhang Yu carefully held it up, thinking to himself: "So this is a Register. The cheapest one costs almost a hundred thousand, right?"

The Register is a key to learning talismans, and talismans are related to high school Dao arts grades. Zhang Yu had once heard of a high school student who even mortgaged his organs to buy a Register.

"They actually give this out just for joining? The Patrol Department is really rich."

"If Azhen saw this, she'd kneel down and call me 'Daddy,' begging me to let her play with it, wouldn't she?"

——