Final Exam and Rewards

The final exam was divided into two parts. One was a baseline assessment that few people cared about, while the most highly anticipated event was the tournament to determine the top ranker.

Winning first place came with many benefits, such as the resource allocation that followed a teacher's attention, and the fame and status among classmates that would make future endeavors much easier.

Of course, those were long-term gains; the most immediate rewards were tangible, consisting of gold coins and some trash-tier Spirit Bones. Although Spirit Bones were precious, there had been a massive accumulation of them over the years.

However, most of them were garbage and completely incompatible with the users, as many were produced by century-level Spirit Beasts.

The production rate of such items was originally low, but due to the massive base population of beasts, the number of century-level Spirit Bones was surprisingly comparable to that of millennium-level ones. Since Spirit Bones could be passed down, this accumulation had caused their value to drop. Still, they were not cheap, and they could effectively alleviate financial difficulties for certain types of students.

Naturally, these Spirit Bones were not meant for absorption. As a student of Shrek, that identity alone could earn you a few ten-thousand-year Spirit Bones for free. As long as you asked, plenty of people would rush to gift them to you. However, this always came with a price, and whatever they gave you, you could definitely afford to pay back—much like how Bei Bei didn't personally help Huo Yuhao, but had Xu Sanshi do it instead. For them, money was never the issue.

Still, being able to support oneself was best, and now that opportunity had arrived. Even if they couldn't use them, they could sell them. The world wasn't entirely made of geniuses; many Spirit Masters spent their entire lives stuck at level thirty or forty. These people had the motivation and financial means to improve their strength, and usually, one person represented an entire small family.

For the sake of their families, their strength was the foundation of their survival. They simply lacked the channels to acquire such items. Although these Spirit Bones weren't considered valuable, not just anyone could buy them. The vast majority of Spirit Bones were controlled by noble clans and great families. Most notably, Spirit Bones over fifty thousand years old were simply never seen on the market.

When they did appear, they were usually already earmarked for someone else, and it was only due to certain reasons that they couldn't be traded privately, leading to public auctions. Ten-thousand-year Spirit Bones were even more exclusive—they were absolute heirlooms. If a rising family produced a Title Douluo but lacked a suitable successor, yet had acquired a ten-thousand-year Spirit Bone by chance, it became a case of "an innocent man harboring a treasure becomes a target."

Eventually, through a series of legal and compliant means, the Spirit Bone would end up in the hands of a powerful clan, and the original owner would even have to be grateful for it. Ordinary people had two ways to obtain Spirit Bones: one was to join these great clans—the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect had the best reputation for this, as it was their specialty. The other path was the Advanced Spirit Master Tournament, where there were many opportunities to obtain Spirit Bones.

They would organize a series of activities to trade Spirit Bones to these young talents, befriending them while securing better results. Once the countries they represented benefited, more rewards awaited them; if they lost and their ranking was poor, the benefits would be fewer. In short, it was a necessary expenditure. The highest quality items were usually found at the auctions organized by the host country before the tournament. But first, one had to break into that circle.

This final exam was the foundation. If you didn't let everyone see your strength, how could you command their respect? As long as you performed outstandingly, you would definitely secure a preliminary spot for your grade. Of course, this also depended on whether other grades had people competing for the same position. The two would then be compared to determine the final candidate.

If there was someone capable of suppressing an entire era and dominating for ten thousand years, no matter how much of a genius you were, you would only be a stepping stone; there would be no place for you. The Spirit Hall of the past was also full of geniuses, yet their light was ultimately eclipsed by the first generation of Shrek Seven Devils. The radiance of everyone becoming a god was too blinding. To this day, no one has been able to catch up to that era.

However, every generation had people secretly wondering if they could surpass them. This generation was no exception. One shouldn't just look at their own efforts, but also at the progress of history. Only in a chaotic, war-torn era would the pressure between life and death maximize a person's potential. Only then would the most brilliant light of humanity bloom.

But war required money—a vast amount of money—that only the power of a nation could sustain. Wang Yi, ignoring Huo Yuhao's chatter, stared at the Spirit Bone prize for the competition, and a very bold idea took shape in his mind. He glanced at Huo Yuhao, calculating how to get him to accept this proposal.

Huo Yuhao and the Silkworm Slough's ability to hide aura and Spirit Bones. Connecting this with his historical knowledge, he slapped his thigh: "Meng De was truly a hero; this solves the urgent need."

"Yuhao, I have a very good proposal. It can solve the hole in your finances—the fact that you have no money now and your expenses will foreseeably grow larger in the future. It just requires you to make a small sacrifice." Wang Yi looked at Huo Yuhao with ill intent.

Huo Yuhao felt uncomfortable being stared at by Wang Yi. He no longer trusted Wang Yi unconditionally as he once did; they were so familiar with each other now that they knew each other's tricks, and this expression was definitely malicious. After spending a semester with Xu Sanshi, his skin had visibly thickened, though it was still a distance away from the standard Wang Yi expected.

"Hey, just listen to your teacher's inspirational speech first." Wang Yi retreated into the Sea of Spirit, calculating how to make Huo Yuhao accept his proposal. Based on Huo Yuhao's previous behavior, he certainly wouldn't accept it; he had to break his feudal superstitions and his untouchable idols. If Meng De could do it, and archaeologists could do it, why couldn't they?

They were all the same type of people; what was wrong with digging up a grave? Pfft, that was called the sustainable utilization of resources. For the sake of green mountains and the sustainable development of Spirit Beasts, the protection of land and the ecosystem was urgent. He had to make Huo Yuhao understand this truth. As he said it, even Wang Yi started to believe it himself.

The rest was just a matter of steps and details. Wang Yi planned to set this ideological transformation path for when he finished absorbing his second spirit ring; by then, he would have the foundation to challenge this world. So, which family should he start with? Wang Yi opened the Family Chronicle of the continent. This book roughly recorded all the powerful families, and even if the entries were vague, they provided some clues.

The less information there was, the greater the capability, excluding those top-tier families.

Huo Yuhao was still unaware of Wang Yi's plans, but the speech before him was too annoying. Yan Shaozhe couldn't help but launch into a long-winded lecture during this once-a-semester summary, which caused the goodwill he had built up by revealing juicy news at the start to vanish instantly. Who knew why these leaders were all so talkative? It seemed that position had some kind of magic; everyone who sat in it turned into a chatterbox.

At the very end, the academy head finally ran out of things to say and uttered the first useful sentence.

"The final tournament begins now."

Huo Yuhao's heart stirred; only now did the atmosphere of the final exam truly set in. An exam, huh? That person would be encountered again, wouldn't he? This time, he would truly defeat him once more and make him understand that it was impossible for him to surpass Huo Yuhao in this lifetime.