Written Examination

The exam has begun.

Li Qi picked up his pen, faced the written test paper that had been handed out, and began to answer the questions honestly.

However, he was unaware that someone was watching him from behind.

The Imperial Academy Chancellor and an unidentified official stood together, supervising the students and preventing cheating.

However, although they claimed to be supervising the students, their eyes were almost entirely focused on Li Qi.

"How are Chancellor Li's preparations going?" the mysterious man asked the Imperial Academy Chancellor.

"Everything is ready, even the east wind is not lacking," the Imperial Academy Chancellor said with a smile.

"Oh? What kind of questions did Chancellor Li assign that makes him so confident?" the mysterious man continued to press.

Their communication was conducted using Secret Methods, so no one else could hear them, and they weren't worried about gossip. The only concern they had was that their voices might disturb the students taking their exams.

Upon hearing this question, the Imperial Academy Chancellor also smiled and said, "This Li Qi is the young master of Wushen Mountain. He once made a name for himself at the state banquet and debated with Assistant Instructor Liu Junyi without losing. This shows that he is good at ancient books, and is also proficient in Shaman Path, rituals and governance. He also studies the Technique Method of shamans Shamanic Priest. He can be considered a scholar with many knowledge. He is indeed worthy of being called the young master of Wushen Mountain and is truly capable."

He readily acknowledged Li Qi's skill level, after all, it couldn't be hidden forever.

In order to formulate these questions, he even watched the video of Li Qi debating with everyone at the state banquet welcoming the Great Witch of Wushen Mountain several times, specifically trying to figure out his weaknesses.

This young master was truly mysterious. He first appeared in Guangyang of Baiyue, where he reportedly presided over a grand ceremony on his own. Before that, he had never been heard of at all.

It seems that Wushen Mountain deliberately concealed this.

They wanted to use Divine Ability to trace his past, but they couldn't. A powerful being had personally covered up his past and future. The Shaman Path was good at divination, and although the Human Path also had some knowledge, it was not as good as that of the great sorcerers, so they couldn't trace it back.

The mysterious man also knew the key points, so he was very curious about how the Imperial Academy Chancellor had arranged things and how it was 'foolproof'.

"Nothing special, just difficult," the Imperial Academy Chancellor said with a smile.

"I summarized the areas where Li Qi was good at and consulted a large number of ancient books. Since he was good at this, I started from there. For all kinds of truncating questions, even I had to consult books and write while looking up information in order to finish them."

"He is someone who can rival Liu Junyi. You know what kind of person Liu Junyi is. What if he really answers these ancient texts?" The mysterious man was somewhat worried.

He had heard of Liu Junyi's reputation. This man had been reserved by the Ministry of Rites long ago. If he could still be this outstanding after he reached the fifth rank, he would be given a position as a Vice Minister in the Ministry of Rites.

He's only an eighth-rank official, which shows how much the Ministry of Rites values him.

The Imperial Academy Chancellor said, "I also considered this point, so the written test is just an appetizer. As for his practical test question, I chose the Three Lives Ancient Mirror for him."

The mysterious man was now surprised.

He raised his voice slightly. "Does he have the qualifications to activate the Three Lives Ancient Mirror?"

The Imperial Academy Chancellor nodded with a smile, "He is a genius. When I was compiling the data, the report stated that someone could advance from the ninth rank to the eighth rank in a single year. But if you search back a hundred centuries, how many people could advance from the ninth rank to the eighth rank in a single year?"

To be honest, no one believed that this young master of Wushen Mountain could advance from the Subordinate Ninth Rank to the eighth rank in just one year, but they assumed that Li Qi had just entered the ninth rank when he was in Guangyang.

No one believed that he had just entered the ninth rank at that time, but he treated it as such.

"Since he's already used the Three Lives Ancient Mirror, he probably won't be able to get past this hurdle." Upon hearing this, the mysterious man nodded in relief and then stopped asking questions.

Both of them knew exactly what it was.

It is called an ancient mirror, so it must have been passed down from ancient times.

Given the worldview of all people, if it can be called an ancient mirror, then it is indeed very ancient, said to be from more than ten generations of human emperors.

This is quite unusual. Although the lifespan of the Human Emperor in the Human Path is long compared to ordinary people, it is still very short compared to the first-rank cultivators in other Dao Paths. It seems that the Human Emperor is not immortal, but the specific reason is unknown.

The sorcerers of that era are still alive, but the human emperor has changed more than a dozen times.

More than ten generations before the Tang Kingdom Dynasty, there was a monk in the Western Buddhist Kingdom Kashyapa Matanga, with great perseverance, transported scriptures from the Central Plains to spread the teachings. He also translated Twenty Billion Sutras of the Sangha word by word, which were widely circulated in the Central Plains and had many believers in Human Path places.

At that time, he traveled all the way from the Western Regions to Luoyang, built temples, and spread Buddhism widely, and was known as the 'Source of Buddhism in China'.

However, being a foreign monk, Kashyapa Matanga paid homage to the emperor at the time and offered tributes in order to build temples and pagodas in Luoyang. One of these tributes was the Three Lives Ancient Mirror.

The Human Emperor granted them permission to spread the teachings and bestowed upon them a piece of land to build a temple. That temple has now become its own sect, with its influence spreading throughout the Central Plains, the East Sea, and even the southeastern Demon Race. These Buddhist lineages are all referred to as the 'Ancestral Court'.

The emperor at that time could not have been unaware of the consequences, yet he still bestowed this land upon Kashyapa Matanga to build a temple. Although the reasons behind this are unknown, it is evident that the precious mirror served a purpose in being presented as tribute.

To this day, this Three Lives Ancient Mirror has reached the third rank, but it has yet to develop sentience and is unlikely to do so in the future. Therefore, it remains in Chang'an as a public object for people to use.

This mirror has no destructive power, but it has one advantage: it can trace back through three lifetimes, revealing the past, present, and future lives of the person, and then finding the weaknesses in their Dao heart.

As for what to do with it, that depends on the owner's skill. This mirror is only responsible for finding weaknesses; how to utilize those weaknesses is the user's business.

Now, the Tang Kingdom use this mirror to reflect on themselves.

After submitting an application and receiving approval, one can go to the Three Lives Ancient Mirror to clearly see one's weaknesses, then go back to reflect on oneself and make up for those weaknesses.

Therefore, this mirror is very popular. Although it is expensive because it requires a lot of energy to start, people still flock to it.

This time, the Imperial Academy Chancellor took advantage of the practical opportunity to have Li Qi look into the Three Lives Treasure Mirror, then find its weaknesses. Then, as the examiner, he personally took the stage, using demonic thoughts to break through Li Qi's Dao heart and crush him to death.

For this purpose, he took out a Mara of Self-Transformation, which was also a sixth-rank existence.

The demonic energy of a sixth-grade Heavenly Demon, and a secondary species of the Mara of Self-Transformation, coupled with the weakness of the Dao heart revealed by the Three Lives Ancient Mirror, would make even a true sixth-grade cultivator dare not say they could pass with certainty, let alone a mere eighth-grade cultivator.

If one's Dao heart is invaded by demonic energy, even the most talented person will not be able to cross such a huge chasm to resist it, and will definitely suffer huge aftereffects.

Mara of Self-Transformation Dao heart was attacked by the secondary demonic energy of the Free Heavenly Demon. This was no ordinary injury. It all depends on whether this young master has the ability to get out of here on his own.

A wound to one 'Dao heart is something no one can help with, not even one's master.

That's why the two of them felt at ease.

Even if someone investigates later, there won't be any problems. If someone asks, the answer is that it's because Li Qi is too outstanding. They just set the examination standards that an outstanding person should have. This has always been the rule of the Imperial Academy.

But unexpectedly, Li Qi turned out to be all show and no substance. How can we blame him for that?

As for causing a diplomatic incident?

No, it won't.

No one died, just a young master who was injured during his exam and suffered some aftereffects. It's not a diplomatic dispute.

Let's start a war at Wushen Mountain if we dare!

The Tang Kingdom had killed three high-ranking officials in a surprise attack last time, so they didn't dare to start a war lightly and swallowed their anger.

Wushen Mountain has only lost one young master, so they must be able to bear it.

The cause and effect were all laid out clearly.

Everyone here is a smart person and wouldn't do anything stupid. There are also high-ranking officials in the court who support this matter. After all, Zhu Fengdan had killed three third-rank officials in succession, which made many people grit their teeth in anger.

The reason why the great shaman Yun Fang stopped Li Qi from coming to the Tang Kingdom was precisely because he was afraid that this kind of thing would happen.

The Tang Kingdom has strict rules, so attacks from outside the rules are impossible, but attacks from within the rules are inevitable.

The Imperial Academy Chancellor laughed and said, "With these two layers of arrangements, let alone the Three Lives Ancient Mirror at the end, even the exam questions alone would be difficult for Liu Junyi to solve..."

Li Qi, on the other hand, was completely unaware of all of this.

He answered the questions honestly and took the exam honestly.

As for this question...

It's quite interesting; it's not too difficult, but it's not exactly easy either.

Most of the questions were simply recited from the text, although some were truncated or reversed, causing some confusion. But these are ancient books, after all...

I've read almost all of them.

In Guangyang, Li Qi couldn't even remember how many books he had read.

In order to complete a grand ceremony, he buried himself in the books in the library of Wushen Mountain for more than half a year, and he and Rabbit dug out all kinds of hidden classics and ancient books to study and find out the useful parts.

For someone of the ninth rank to hold a grand ceremony, this is absolutely necessary, because there is no room for error whatsoever; the slightest mistake means death.

Moreover, the habit of reading has been established over time.

Li Qi reads whenever he has free time. Even on the journey back to Wushen Mountain from Baiyue, he would read carefully for six to seven hours every day.

In the Great Deer Kingdom, he could sometimes read for ten hours a day, reading while walking.

As a former researcher, Li Qi knows this well.

Knowledge is power.

Moreover, he possesses genuine knowledge; reading is a direct absorption of knowledge, he has a photographic memory, and he can even retrieve information.

Under this habit, these simple rote memorization questions were not difficult for him. He didn't think there was any problem and just finished answering the questions and handed in the paper.

He thought there was no problem, but the people above, watching the two answering the questions, realized there was a big problem.

"Chancellor Li?! This is the problem you've created for us?!" The mysterious man exclaimed anxiously.

However, Li Qi had already finished answering the questions and left within 15 minutes of entering the examination room.

Among thousands of test takers, he was the first to leave the examination hall!

Where's the supposedly ultimate problem?!

"Don't worry, he might not be able to answer and has to give up. Let me go and take a look at his exam paper." The Imperial Academy Chancellor was filled with doubt and disbelief at Li Qi's speed in submitting his paper. He could only guess that Li Qi didn't know the answer at all and had just written something haphazardly before handing it in.

So he quickly went downstairs and looked at Li Qi's exam paper.

However, it is evident that the sutras are the framework, and the texts are the details. With the framework in place, the details become clear, and the meaning of the text naturally emerges. It incorporates the teachings of various schools of thought from ancient and modern times. Although the recorded texts are few in number, their main principles do not deviate from those of the sages. Its purity and integrity demonstrate the author's skill.

Further down, regarding practical skills, it incorporates the views of various schools of thought, including divination and astronomy, subtle techniques, profound numerology, historical records, and even music and rhythmic music. It covers agriculture, engineering, medicine, water conservancy, and all kinds of industries.

He was well-versed in geography and geography, metaphysical texts and interpretations, and had a broad knowledge of historical records, studying the sayings of all schools of thought.

His knowledge of the arts and sciences, his expertise in Technique Method, and his broad wisdom are beyond description. He is also proficient in many other skills, and can be said to be able to answer any question and has mastered all the arts!

The Imperial Academy Chancellor was dumbfounded.

How is that possible? How could such a genius exist in this world?!

In reality, it is indeed impossible.

Li Qi is just a theorist; he can talk a good game about these things, but he's never actually seen what many of them are like.

For example, regarding the method of forging iron, he wrote, "Put it in the fire and swing the hammer. The mud and dregs will turn into dust and be removed. Take the spirit of the wood as a medium. After it is bonded, it can never be broken except by cutting it with an axe while it is red-hot. All wrought iron is not hard when it has not been heated by water and fire. When it comes out of the fire, put it in clear water to quench it. When water and fire meet, the iron becomes steel, which is called strong steel."

What he said seemed to make a lot of sense, but he had never even seen what it meant to "take its spirit as a medium"; he probably wouldn't recognize the spirit of cast iron even if it were right in front of him.

But it doesn't matter.

This is a written test, an exam where you answer questions on paper. What's wrong with theoretical discussions?

Knowing a lot isn't a bad thing. Li Qi isn't showing off all the time; he just loves reading.

His dream, his goal, is to explore the endless heavens and see what this wonderful world really looks like.

Seeing it in person is too costly and risky; it's better to wait until I'm more skilled in cultivation to see it.

At this time of year, reading a book is a good idea.

But the Imperial Academy Chancellor did not know.

He looked at Li Qi's back in a panic.

"Don't rush... don't rush, the Three Lives Ancient Mirror can't be compensated for by knowledge, no matter how much you know..." he comforted himself.

But when he looked at the exam paper in his hand, he felt a little tremble.

Is Wushen Mountain really that powerful?

At that moment, Li Qi paid no attention to these things, because he was the first to walk out of the examination room and was being interviewed by reporters.

It's kind of a tradition that the first person to leave the exam room is always surrounded by a crowd, and many people come to interview them to see how difficult the questions were.

This is a completely pointless question, but everyone loves to hear it.

Surrounded by a crowd, Li Qi took the sound tube and said, "Ahem, the questions for this exam are quite simple. I hope everyone can relax, stay calm, and be confident to achieve satisfactory results."

The media members standing nearby looked bored.

They'd love for a wild student to emerge, someone who'd wail and berate the examiners, or leak some questions, or even better, tell some grievances and create some big news.

Unfortunately, no, this kid speaks official jargon even better than they do.

After Li Qi finished speaking, the disappointed media let him go.

He couldn't be bothered with these people. He retrieved his terminal in front of the exam hall and hurried off to the next exam hall.

The next exam venue... huh? In a Buddhist temple?