The Final Exam

Lin Qi didn't take Haolin's threat seriously. Although he became more cautious in his actions, he truly didn't take Haolin's threat seriously.

The Bavier Family—would they really stake everything and use their family's power to deal with him for Black Horse House's sake? Lin Qi didn't think the Bavier Family would do that. As a military noble family, they couldn't deploy their full strength lightly. As for retaliation from Black Horse House? If it was only Black Horse House himself seeking revenge, what did Lin Qi have to worry about?

And just like that, the matter passed. The tavern fire that had stirred the upper echelons of the Empire passed just like that.

Black Horse House and several core members of the Round Table Knights remained safely at the Army Academy. They had only received stern warnings from certain quarters. Meanwhile, more than eighty members of the Round Table Knights who had been knocked unconscious by the dizzying potion in the tavern that night received severe punishments. They were forced to leave school early and join the Empire's most grueling and deadliest force, the North Sea Border Guard.

The North Sea Border Guard was stationed mainly at Norman Fortress, the principal battlefield of the Continental-Island War. Its duty was to defend against attacks by the orcs, giants, and other evil beings of the Five Great Linked Islands. It was a true front-line battlefield.

Normally, as students of the Imperial Army Academy, if those eighty-odd men had completed their studies, they would have joined the North Sea Border Guard at least as junior officers. But forced to leave school early, they could only join as ordinary soldiers, and their records were also marked with a conspicuous black stain.

Lin Qi had gained yet another group of enemies in this world who hated him to the bone. But he still didn't care. Did he need to worry about a bunch of unlucky fools who might get chopped into chunks of flesh by a berserker orc's battle axe at any moment?

"Oh, the North Sea Border Guard? Ten gold coins would be enough to bribe some middlemen, and those bastards would get hacked to death in an orc landing raid! No need to worry about them. They'll die soon enough!" That was Yu Lian's first reaction when he heard the news. Even Enzo heartily agreed. The North Sea Border Guard's daily casualty rate of forty percent was no joke.

And so the matter passed. Lin Qi merely kept an eye out for retaliation from Black Horse House, but he wasn't really worried.

Days went by. Two weeks later, the final exams began at the many universities in Berely.

The Army Academy's exams included not only strategy, but also practical exercises. Enzo and the Blood-Clad Seven Swordsmen formed a small squad and, under the supervision of an instructor, left Berely for the weeklong wilderness survival exercise required for their final exams. Under the instructor's watch, they would survive for seven days in a randomly selected wilderness area, hunting at least ten qualifying beasts and one extremely powerful magic beast amid the ice and snow.

As a third-year accounting student at Fifth University, Lin Qi had become close friends with Mr. Grong, and he and his whole gang of cronies had been promised perfect grades. Even so, they still had to go through the motions.

Slumped over his desk, Lin Qi gazed distractedly at the beautifully printed exam paper in front of him. The final exam paper was more than ten times better quality than the Atonement Talismans Father Balin sold. Not only was the paper smooth and supple, but every printed character was crisp and clear. Holding his quill, Lin Qi tapped its tip lightly against the paper and slowly sketched a small, monstrous head.

The creature's head was shaped like a snake, but its mouth was full of sharp teeth. It was the same bizarre beast Lin Qi had seen on the robes of Jiang Yong and the others. Lin Qi had some faint recollection of it. He seemed to have seen this creature somewhere before, and knew that it held a special place in the East, representing some kind of extraordinary power or authority.

But what was the creature called?

The students around him were writing furiously. There weren't many questions on the exam paper, only five, but each was a killer essay question covering multiple subjects. For example, the first asked: "How did the Hundred-Year Land-Island War damage the continent's economy, and what changes to the Empire's tax laws followed in its aftermath?"

Lin Qi thought whoever had written these headache-inducing questions had something wrong with their head. They were accounting students. All they needed to know was how to earn gold coins, how to earn even more gold coins, and how to keep others from earning a single coin off them. Why did an accounting student need to know about the war?

The Hundred-Year Land-Island War had ended thirty years ago, after lasting a century! Gods, strike the professor who set this question dead with a bolt of thunder! What did the war's damage to the continental economy have to do with Lin Qi? All he knew was that during the Hundred-Year Land-Island War, his family's wealth had grown thirty-fivefold under the guidance of his grandfather, his great-grandfather, his great-great-grandfather, and even more ancient forebears.

Had the Land-Island War damaged the continental economy? Lin Qi had no such impression.

On the contrary, he clearly remembered his father, Blackbeard, complaining to him when he was little: "A hundred-year war? Now that was an age when a real man could make a fortune! Toward the end of the war, one loaf of black bread could fetch five silver coins. Dear Lin Qi, one loaf of black bread for five silver coins! There's never been an easier time to get rich than during the Land-Island War."

And that was just black bread. They hadn't even gotten to the human slaves his family sold to the Five Great Linked Islands through their control of Dunkirk Port, or the orc and giant slaves they brought back from the islands.

Now that had been a time of blazing prosperity, when any real man could make a fortune with ease.

But what about now? The war had been over for thirty years, and Lin Qi's father even had to worry about the wheat in the warehouses going unsold!

The Land-Island War. What a wonderful phrase. Lin Qi sighed softly. When would the next Hundred-Year Land-Island War break out? Would he live to see such a wonderful age, a grand era for a true man?

Setting aside the sudden flood of thoughts, Lin Qi slowly drew the long, snake-like beast from the robes of Jiang Yong and the others, following his vague recollection. He frowned and sighed through clenched teeth. That damned Jiang Yong—he was actually a Heavenly Knight.

What terrible luck. He was actually a Heavenly Knight. Well, if Jiang Yong was a Heavenly Knight and the attendants around him were all Earthly Knights, then Lin Qi's little Iron Fist Brotherhood couldn't possibly stand against them. The strongest fighters in the entire Iron Fist Brotherhood were Lin Qi, Yu Lian, and Enzo, along with the Blood-Clad Seven Swordsmen. The gangsters on the outskirts were good enough for bullying ordinary people and students, but facing a Heavenly Knight? That would be suicide.

Looks like he'd have to give up on this fat sheep.

What a shame. Such a plump, tender fat sheep.

After a whole week of Lin Qi's nonstop lamenting, the final exams for the accounting program at Fifth University came to an end.