Chapter 353: End of Term

Early December, Ancient Cultivation Building 101.

Today is the exam for "Deepening Spell Principles."

The classroom is full of students, sitting with empty rows and columns between them.

Due to the existence of Cultivators, cheating has become easy, so the proctoring must be much stricter.

Both proctors are Cultivators, strictly monitoring the students in the exam hall for the use of Spells and Spirit Power, and also strictly monitoring students for cheating behaviors aided by supernatural vision and keen hearing; once discovered, even if only suspected, they will be severely punished.

Therefore, even talking to oneself while solving problems is not allowed.

But then again, as long as one wants to cheat, how could there be no way to do it?

It still comes down to self-discipline.

As one of the top universities in the world, the students who can come to Yujing Academy are somewhat proud; even if the exam questions are very difficult, and it is common for talented students from all over the country to find it hard to pass exams after arriving here, many people would rather score a few points or ten-something points than cheat.

And don't even get me started—

At Yujing Academy, where professional course exams are out of one hundred, it is not uncommon to see people scoring a few points or ten-something points.

Yet, if you were to take these people outside, they would still be considered little geniuses to some extent.

At this moment, there is only the rustling sound of writing in the exam hall.

Chen Shu scratched his head; his fountain pen was out of ink, so he dipped it in the ink bottle and continued writing.

Question four: Perfect the following Rune Group—

【Rune Group】

The difficulty is approximately equal to zero.

Chen Shu only glanced at it and had the answer.

Question five: The following is a core Rune Group from a force-release type Spell; please calculate its spirit-effect ratio. If you want the spirit-effect ratio to reach over 80% without changing more than one-third of the Runes, how would you change it?

【Rune Group】

A test paper only has a few questions.

One could say it is very casual.

Having a relationship that is too close with Teacher Shi Qian has both pros and cons; the benefit is that this set of test papers was written by Teacher Shi Qian, and some questions come from his usual ideas, which Chen Shu had already come into contact with, but precisely because of this, he must hand in a better answer sheet, which brings more pressure.

Getting a full score is not enough; he must exceed the full score.

Ling'an Academy, girls' Dormitory.

Both roommates have gone out to take exams, leaving the Dormitory looking empty and deserted; in this deep winter, it is freezing cold.

Zhang Suannai is curled up in the corner of the sofa, lost in thought.

Whenever it comes to these few days of exams, the campus seems to become quiet, always giving her the illusion that many people have already gone home for the holidays.

What was she doing at this time last year?

Probably taking that damn "Principles of Sword Control"?

Zhang Suannai grew up in the Sword Sect and mastered the Sword Control Technique not long after opening her Spirit Sea, and she used the Swords of two generations of Sword God; it is funny to say, but it wasn't until she took this course that she realized there were so many strange principles behind the Sword Control Technique.

However, these principles all sounded somewhat reasonable.

The teacher's words also made a lot of sense—

Experience is experience, and theory is theory; one should neither be superstitious about experience nor rely solely on theory; only by combining experience with theory can one be invincible.

So, at that time, Zhang Suannai intended to make some scientific adjustments to her Sword Control Technique based on these principles, improve some misconceptions, and vowed to become the first Sword Cultivator in the history of the Sword Sect to learn science and out-compete those uncultured Sword Sect peers; as a result, she quickly discovered that she had already learned these principles and had been using them all along, so there was no room for improvement at all.

It cracked this beauty up.

Of course, she still failed that subject in the end.

"Buzz buzz!"

The Mobile Phone vibrated.

Zhang Ping: There is only one student who hasn't reported their thesis topic yet; how long do you want to drag this out? If you don't want to graduate, just say so! @Zhang Suannai

Zhang Suannai stared blankly at the Mobile Phone, motionless.

She really couldn't think of anything.

This teacher really has too many things to deal with; no wonder he was the one left over when students were choosing mentors—these days, Zhang Suannai thought of several topics, some of which he deemed to have no gold content and did not approve, and others had high gold content but had already been written about by previous Sword Sect students.

"..."

Zhang Suannai remained silent for a long time and decided to use the "pretend to be offline" technique.

Chen Shu walked out of the exam hall, feeling relaxed.

The students around him were discussing the difficulty of this set of questions and exchanging their methods for solving them, but he did not participate; he tucked his pen into his pocket and walked straight toward the cafeteria.

A girl with severe baby fat was standing at the entrance of the cafeteria waiting for him.

This girl was wearing a light-colored wool coat that covered half of her thighs, wrapped in black pantyhose, a pair of small leather boots, her face was fair and tender, and she had a pair of large, bright eyes; the long coat made her look even shorter, looking like a Talent Academy student, and as soon as she saw him, she waved at him happily.

"Finished the exam? Little brother!"

"Finished one subject."

Chen Shu walked over and naturally patted her head: "Why do you look like a little girl again? Didn't you buy any autumn and winter clothes for a mature woman?"

"Go away!"

Chen Banxia slapped his hand away and frowned: "Can you show some respect to your older sister?"

"Why aren't you at work today?"

"I asked for leave."

"What did you ask for leave for?"

"To come back to school."

"What are you going back to school for?"

"To communicate with my advisor, work on my thesis, and prepare for the defense next year." Chen Banxia paused, then suddenly laughed, "Haha, Zhang Suannai has been busy with her thesis lately too. She video calls me every day, completely frazzled. It cracks me up."

"What's so funny about that?"

"That teacher of hers..." Chen Banxia said, then paused, "Never mind, let's not talk about her. Anyway, when you do your graduation defense in the future, you'd better ask the seniors who have already graduated. Choose an advisor with a good reputation—either choose one who is really impressive, or choose one who is a good person. Otherwise, if you encounter an advisor who can't handle the leadership above but is very fussy with you subordinates, even if you study well, you'll have plenty of headaches. Just the formatting of the thesis alone will have you revising it over and over, one way one moment and another way the next."

"I don't need you to tell me that."

"I'm worried about you!" Chen Banxia emphasized her tone, showing her dissatisfaction with his attitude, "You don't even know how to thank your older sister!"

"Thanks."

"No sincerity!"

"Are we eating on the first floor or the second?"

"The second floor."

"Okay."

"I like the clay pot three-delicacy rice noodles on the second floor the best."

"I've had them too."

"They're delicious, right?" After Chen Banxia asked, she didn't wait for him to answer, "By the way, you have one more semester before you start your internship, right?"

"Yeah."

"Sigh..."

Chen Banxia looked at her younger brother, feeling a bit sentimental: "I didn't expect the kid to be graduating from college already..."

"Shut up."

"Hey! You're not happy even when I'm talking to you!"

"..." Chen Shu twitched the corner of his mouth, eyeing the top of her head, "You're the kid; you still haven't grown tall yet."

"The reason I didn't grow as tall as you is because when you were little, you always made me carry you on my back—carrying you to school and carrying you home—and you even made me carry your schoolbag. It weighed me down, which is why I didn't grow tall." Chen Banxia frowned, unable to understand how anyone in this world could fail to feel the greatness of an older sister.

"That's because I used the money I won from my classmates playing marbles to buy you ice cream." Chen Shu paused, "And every time you said you'd carry me home from school, you only carried me for a little bit."

"What nonsense are you spouting..."

Chen Banxia frowned as she looked at him, indicating she couldn't understand his gibberish.

Her older sister took such good care of him, yet he thought this way, even making up things that didn't exist in her memory to try and deceive her.

It was truly heartbreaking.

Seeing this, Chen Shu could only shake his head.

As the saying goes, the more one lacks something in childhood, the more one craves it when grown up.

As an older sister, Chen Banxia was always taken care of by her younger brother when they were small, lacking any dignity as an older sister, so she always emphasized that she was the older sister after growing up, always wanting to maintain her dignity as an older sister. And because she always used her younger brother's money to buy ice cream when they were small, she worked desperately to earn money after growing up, giving her younger brother red envelopes, also wanting to regain her dignity as an older sister in this way and harvest her younger brother's respect.

However, this was not going to work.

Chen Shu had already walked to the second floor with her.

Chen Banxia ordered a pot of clay pot three-delicacy rice noodles, and also wanted to eat pan-fried dumplings and fried Fish Fillet, so she ordered a portion of each. Seeing this, Chen Shu knew that this person with big eyes but a small stomach would definitely not be able to finish it all, and he would have to eat it later, so he ordered very little for himself.

The two sat opposite each other.

Chen Banxia first used a spoon to taste the soup, squinting her eyes in enjoyment: "Still the original taste... When are you going back to Yuanzhou?"

"In a few days."

"How many days is 'a few days'?"

"The seventh day of the lunar new year."

"So early this year?"

"Yeah."

"Not going to the Spirit Sect?"

"I'll go after the new year."

"Not going back with your older sister?"

"No."

"I was even saying you'd make Laba porridge for me on the Laba Festival."

"You're the older sister; you should be the one making it for me to drink."

"..."

Chen Banxia's expression stiffened.

This younger brother didn't really know how to talk.

Forget it, forget it...

Chen Banxia shook her head, not holding it against him, and then said: "I heard you guys want to go traveling during winter break?"

"Who did you hear that from?"

"Zhang Suannai."

"How does Zhang Suannai know?"

"Xiaoxiao or Qingqing must have said it."

"Yeah."

"When? Where to?"

"Winter break, let's go to Yuanxi."

"Go after the new year. I'll have resigned by then, so take me... I'll take you guys, be your driver, and cover your food and lodging." As Chen Banxia spoke, her chest gradually puffed out again; the process of spending money on her younger brother always gave her a sense of pride that "I am the best older sister in the whole world," "Or if I can finish the things on hand by the end of this month and resign early, going in the latter part of the month is fine too. Anyway, I'll be your wallet."

"Why are you resigning?"

"Because I have my defense next semester, and after I pass the defense, I'll go back to school to teach." Chen Banxia said, "So I'm resigning."

"Think about it..."

"There's no need to think about that."

"We'll see."

"That means it's a yes."

Chen Banxia already understood her younger brother very well.

"Just focus on eating."

Chen Shu rolled his eyes at Chen Banxia.

In the end, as expected, this woman did not finish her pan-fried dumplings and fried Fish Fillet; she only finished the claypot three-delicacy rice noodles, and most of the pan-fried dumplings and Fish Fillet ended up in Chen Shu's stomach.

"Big eyes, small stomach."

Chen Shu habitually teased her.

Chen Banxia, however, grinned, not minding at all; she took a running start behind him and jumped onto his back, wanting him to carry her as they walked.