Examination Begins

Examination Begins

At the old building examination hall, they waited until noon. The entire morning passed just like that, yet the examination still had not begun.

Some clever people believed the academy had done this deliberately, to test their patience and perseverance. This was probably part of the assessment as well, and most examinees agreed that this was likely the case.

After all, the retest used a scoring system, with the final result determined by the examiners' evaluations. How they evaluated them was highly subjective. Perhaps they would consider not only what happened inside the venue, but each person's conduct outside it as well? Of course, if an examinee could directly defeat the senior student assigned for sparring, they would pass immediately, with no need for further scoring. But most people had no such thoughts. They only wanted to perform as well as possible, which was something they could actually manage.

The female teacher remained standing there. After several hours, even her posture had not changed, making the examinees below afraid to move around carelessly. They could only stretch a little while drinking water or using the restroom, but they did not dare go too often. Some had even been holding it in the entire time.

At that moment, the female teacher tilted her head and saw someone outside waving to her. She walked out, then returned a while later and said, "Examinees may rest for half an hour. Do not go too far from the examination hall. The hall will be closed at 12:45. Anyone late will be disqualified from the examination."

The examinees finally breathed a sigh of relief and eagerly got up to stretch. Sitting still for so long was exhausting too.

At that moment, a round-headed, solidly built chubby boy stood up and took out a large bag of beef jerky from the bundle he carried with him. Every strip was individually wrapped. He handed them out to the examinees beside him and said, "Classmate, this is homemade beef jerky from my family. Have one. It's really filling."

He passed them one by one to the nearby examinees. Chen Chuan was only a few seats away, so he received one as well. He thanked him and took it, but did not eat it right away, instead slipping it into his pocket. He had eaten three tubes of Nutrient Paste before coming, and since he had barely expended any energy sitting all morning, he was not hungry yet.

The chubby boy enthusiastically went on to distribute jerky to the other students. Many people had grown hungry from waiting, so they accepted it with thanks.

However, some people refused outright and merely ate food they had brought themselves. Others did not even give him a pleasant look, directly telling him to stay away.

The chubby boy did not get angry. Still grinning, he took out a stack of flyers from his bag and handed them to the examinees who had accepted the beef jerky. He said that if they liked it, they could come eat at the Han Family Restaurant his family ran. Any Wuyi Academy student would receive a fifty percent discount, while anyone who passed the retest would eat for free.

After eating something, the examinees could no longer hold themselves back and began talking among themselves. Fang Zhiming could not help striking up a conversation with Chen Chuan beside him. He asked, "Student Chen, how many years have you trained?"

Chen Chuan said, "Not long."

Fang Zhiming said, "Ah, me too. There used to be an old man in our town who taught boxing. I got curious watching from the side, so I followed along for a while. The old man said I had talent, so my parents mortgaged one of our houses and scraped together some money to hire me a teacher. I trained every morning and evening, and it's been two years now..."

He took a bite of beef jerky and said through a mouthful of food, "Honestly, I'm not confident at all. When the school said I had passed the preliminary test that day, I could hardly believe it. But my teacher said you only count as a real Wuyi Academy student after passing the retest. Passing the entrance exam alone doesn't count for anything. Since I passed the preliminary test, I came to give it a try."

Perhaps he was trying to ease his nerves, because once he started talking, he could not stop. Chen Chuan sat there listening without showing any impatience.

Meanwhile, in Examination Hall Three, Wei Dong heard that they could take a break and immediately sprang up. Rather than sitting or standing properly, he squatted on his chair, constantly twisting left and right to look around.

The examinee beside him was eating. Already irritated, he could not take it anymore and said, "What are you looking at? Can't you get down? Aren't you tired?"

Wei Dong said, "I know a friend. I don't see him here. Did he forget about the examination today?"

The examinee said impatiently, "There's more than one examination hall. The person you're looking for might be in another one."

"There's more than one examination hall?" Wei Dong suddenly understood.

Seeing that he finally got it, the examinee felt as though a burden had been lifted. But after a while, seeing Wei Dong still squatting there, he said angrily, "Are you a monkey? Can't you sit down?"

Wei Dong said, "Are you insulting me? You insulted me, didn't you?"

The examinee was angry too. He shot to his feet and said, "So what if I insulted you? Want to fight? I'll fight you to the end!"

"Sure. Now?"

Wei Dong jumped down as well, eager to give it a try.

Seeing how excited he looked, the examinee froze for a moment before lowering his voice. "Are you crazy? You don't want to take the examination anymore? Aren't you afraid they'll disqualify you?"

Wei Dong only stared at him, as if nothing else mattered.

Seeing that he really wanted to fight, the examinee's scalp tingled. He turned away and silently sat back down. Forget it. This guy was not worth provoking.

Seeing that he would not fight, Wei Dong seemed somewhat disappointed. He scratched his head, then jumped down from his seat and walked out.

The examinee cursed inwardly, hoping he would not be able to find his way back to the examination hall.

The half-hour break quickly passed. At 12:45, the four examination halls were closed once more, and the examinees continued waiting in silence and torment.

At around one in the afternoon, Committee Member Jiang and his group emerged from a private dining room in the academy cafeteria and headed toward the old building.

The teachers responsible for the examination had finally been waiting for him to arrive, and their nerves relaxed somewhat. Teacher Ning, who had been accompanying him the whole time, cautiously asked, "Committee Member Jiang, can we sign now?"

Committee Member Jiang gave a grunt of acknowledgment.

The assistant immediately handed over the list of examinees. After looking through it, he took a pen and signed at the bottom. "Begin. Hurry up. It hasn't been easy for the examinees, and we should be efficient too."

Teacher Ning took the list and breathed a sigh of relief. He immediately walked aside and gave several hurried instructions to the assistant teachers, who promptly left in a rush.

The assistant then walked up to Committee Member Jiang and asked, "Which examination hall would the committee member like to observe?"

"Mm, let's look through all of them." As though remembering something, Committee Member Jiang asked, "By the way, I heard Examination Halls Three and Four are somewhat more difficult?"

The assistant said, "Yes. There are quite a few highly skilled examinees there, so we have correspondingly assigned some highly skilled senior students."

Committee Member Jiang said, "Let's go. We'll take a look at Examination Hall One first."

Inside Examination Hall Four, the door was pushed open. An assistant teacher hurried in holding a sheet of paper and handed it to the female teacher. After accepting it, she raised her head and said, "We will now call the numbers."

A wave of soft cheers and relieved sighs immediately rose from the room, but one sweep of her sharp gaze silenced everyone at once. No one wanted to be thrown out at this point.

The female teacher said, "Students whose numbers are called, report to the corresponding test station. Numbers 115, 218, and 93, proceed to Test Station One. Numbers 3, 9, and 492, proceed to Test Station Two. Numbers 207, 100..."

As she called out the numbers one by one, the examinees realized that this retest was not actually proceeding in numerical order. Chen Chuan immediately understood that this meant even those placed later in the order would not be able to rest easy. They had to remain alert and focused at all times. This was probably a deliberate arrangement by the academy.

Listening to the numbers being called, it was not hard to tell that Examination Hall Four had five test stations, numbered one through five. This corresponded to the information they had previously received on the five senior students, though it was impossible to know which one they would face.

At that moment, the tightly shut door at the rear, on the side closer to the interior of the building, opened. The first batch of examinees whose numbers had been called left through it and followed a broad looping corridor toward their respective test stations.

Only seven or eight minutes later, the next batch of examinees had their numbers called. The process did not seem slow.

But as the examination continued, injured examinees gradually began to appear. The academy made no effort to conceal it. Through the open doors and windows, everyone could see examinees, some unconscious and some with fractured bones, being carried out.

However, the examinees had already experienced this during the entrance examination. The retest would only be stricter, so everyone was more or less mentally prepared.

An hour later, the senior students responsible for the assessments rotated out. The examinees were allowed to rest during this time, and information about those senior students was posted on the noticeboard for the examinees to see, prompting much discussion.

"It won't be easy to pass today. At Test Station Three, there's a senior student named Tai Dongwei. My older brother mentioned him before. He's incredibly strong and especially good with fists and kicks. I really don't want to run into him."

Many examinees nodded. The information did not contain much, but just from the surface details, he was six foot five and weighed ninety-eight kilograms. He sounded hard enough to deal with just thinking about it.

They were all teenagers, after all. Most of their bodies had not fully developed yet. Even with some training, let alone experience, they were still far from their peak in strength and physique. Against someone like that, they might not even last one exchange. Then there would be no chance to perform, and without any performance, what was there to score?

"Zhou Xinrou at Test Station One is six foot one, weighs eighty-two kilograms, and is a third-year student. She specializes in grappling techniques. Apparently, those students with broken joints ran into her."

"And Zhong Wu at Test Station Five is even more outrageous. He's six foot eight, weighs four hundred and forty-two pounds, and is a third-year student. He's especially skilled at throws and clinching. Isn't that completely beyond the syllabus?!"

The examinees went pale, sweat beading on their foreheads as they hurriedly looked through the information in their hands again, hoping to find something they could use.

Chen Chuan thought it over. Since the senior students responsible for the assessments rotated out for breaks, theoretically only a small portion of the examinees present would encounter these people.

However, the numbers were not called in order, so who would face whom might have been arranged long ago.

He looked at Fang Zhiming and saw him nervously staring at the information. Chen Chuan asked, "Student Fang, did you accept funding from the Mutual Aid Society before?"

"Hm? Ah? That..." Fang Zhiming scratched his head. "My dad said not to trust sponsors who take the initiative to lend you money, so I didn't accept it..."

Chen Chuan gave a quiet acknowledgment. If his guess was right, then those who would have to face these senior students were likely the examinees who had refused the Mutual Aid Society's help, including himself.