Lin Ye opened the class group chat and found countless people spamming messages, sharing their thoughts on the college entrance exam rules.
Confused, he looked at the pinned message. There was a file package posted by their homeroom teacher, Chen Guo'an, titled: "The Latest Implementation Rules and Important Notes for the 524th Unified Higher Education Assessment of the Great Xia New Calendar: Linjiang District Examination Area."
There was also a message calling on everyone.
"Everyone, check the file package. Liberal arts students, read the liberal arts version of the exam rules; Martial Arts Students, read the martial arts version. Make sure you read it carefully, especially the exam procedures, schedule, and rules for determining violations. If anything is unclear, you can watch the video explanations inside. Everything is covered."
Another message followed: "The final exam venue assignments and admission ticket numbers will be announced tomorrow night at the same time."
After reading the messages, Lin Ye's heart stirred. He immediately downloaded the file package from his homeroom teacher and opened the "Martial Arts Version."
The file was long, but he read extremely quickly, swiftly picking out the key information.
First was the exam period: four days in total.
The first and second days were for the academic subject exams.
These were standardized exams, with Martial Arts Students and liberal arts students taking the same papers in the morning and afternoon.
Morning of the third day: Blood Qi Value assessment.
Afternoon of the third day: Illusion Tower challenge assessment.
The rules were similar to those of the last citywide mock exam. Students could only use basic martial skills—Rolling Stone Fist, Flowing Cloud Palm, and Wind-Chasing Leg—along with one movement technique.
In addition, this time the Illusion Tower would have one more stage than in the previous mock exam, for a total of eight stages worth 350 points. The eighth stage was a "Challenge Stage," where the NPC had the strength of the early Blood-Qi Realm and mastery-level basic martial skills. Passing it earned an extra 50 points. These points were not included in the Martial Arts Students' 700-point total, but were awarded separately, mainly to distinguish the top candidates.
The fourth day was still set aside for the Martial Dao Ranking Tournament. Any candidate who cleared the third stage of the Illusion Tower on the afternoon of the third day could participate.
Compared with the mock exam, however, the college entrance exam was a little more merciful. The rules had been improved. First, the first two rounds of the Ranking Tournament would follow the "avoid high-level opponents" principle, ensuring that seeded competitors from different schools would not meet too early. In addition, losers would not receive zero points outright. The system would award a certain number of "performance points" based on their showing in battle, such as damage dealt, successful dodges, and tactical application. These could reach up to 60% of the winner's points for that round, helping ensure fairness as much as possible.
After reading every word, Lin Ye slowly leaned back against the pod seat. He felt much more at ease.
What worried him most about the college entrance exam was running into Chu Tiange or some other renowned genius from another school early in the Ranking Tournament. If bad luck struck and he faced one in the first round, he would have been left with nothing but despair.
Fortunately, this time there was not only the principle of avoiding high-level opponents, but also performance points for the losers. That greatly reduced the risk of leaving empty-handed and still left room to earn extra points through a good showing.
At the same time, Lin Ye would not just be competing against a handful of people from Linjiang District. The field now extended across the entire Qingjiang Province. Experts would be everywhere, and he might run into some formidable competitor who had not made the seed list.
Still, he had to admit that the rules gave him plenty of breathing room. Lin Ye felt that as long as he did not meet one of the seeded competitors from another school in the third round, he had a good chance of getting past it, reaching the Melee Round, and earning more bonus points.
"That gives me one more reason to hope I can get into Qingjiang Martial University."
Lin Ye murmured to himself. Compared with two months ago, he was more confident now, and his goal had risen another tier. He was no longer aiming for a provincial Martial University, but the only provincial key Martial University in the whole province.
In previous years, the cutoff for ordinary Martial Universities had been above 420 after conversion, provincial Martial Universities required 500 or more, provincial key universities started at 580, and Regional Martial Universities above them required 640.
Given that, he did not dare claim he was certain to get into a Regional Martial University. But based on his current assessment of his own strength, he thought his chances of getting into Qingjiang Martial University were around sixty or seventy percent.
Of course, all of that depended on him bringing out one hundred percent of his ability in the exam hall—or even outperforming himself.
If he had bad luck and faced a seed-level opponent in the first round of the Ranking Tournament, he could only accept his fate.
For a while, Lin Ye's thoughts churned chaotically. After a moment, he closed the group chat and turned his attention back to his open notes and wrong-answer exercises, continuing to review the problems.
Two days passed in the blink of an eye amid tense preparations and tightly packed revision.
The college entrance exam officially began.
On the first morning came the general language exam.
When the paper was handed out, Lin Ye skimmed it quickly. The question types were similar to the mock exam, but the reading passages were excerpts from cutting-edge domestic Martial Dao journals, packed with technical terms and quite difficult. The essay prompt was about the humanities. After pondering for a moment, Lin Ye drew on how his mind had grown calmer since practicing Spirit-Nurturing Stance and built his argument around the idea that "still waters run deep."
In the afternoon came mathematics.
The questions this time clearly leaned toward applied calculations. The final long-answer question in particular gave the parameters of an energy shield and asked students to calculate the Blood Qi oscillation value needed to resonate with it, along with the minimum threshold required to break through it. Lin Ye furrowed his brow, finding the problem rather difficult. He then wrote down a series of differential equations on his scratch paper and made an estimate based on his own understanding of Blood Qi. He could not solve it completely, but his reasoning was clear, so he should still get most of the points for his work.
After the first day's exams, at the school's Rest Area,
Wang Tao hurried over to Lin Ye, who was resting with his eyes closed. Sweat still clung to his forehead. "Brother Night, for that last shield question, did you get a resonant frequency about 2.7 times the basic Blood Qi oscillation? And was the minimum shield-breaking threshold 485?"
His eyes were anxious, and he clutched a tissue covered in calculations.
Lin Ye opened his eyes and thought back. "I got around 2.65. I used iterative approximation. I couldn't work out the minimum shield-breaking threshold."
"Huh? I used a linear simplification model, so the error shouldn't be too big... I should have a chance. And honestly, I guessed the shield value." Wang Tao breathed a sigh of relief, then smiled bitterly. "There were so many calculations this time. Those last two questions... sigh, they felt harder than the mock exam."
"Definitely. The questions were more applied this time."
Lin Ye nodded. He could also see how nervous Wang Tao was. Liberal arts was Wang Tao's all-or-nothing battlefield, so his nerves were understandable.
"What about you, Brother Night? How do you think you did?"
Wang Tao asked.
"Not bad. I did everything I could."
"Like I said, I couldn't do anything with that last question either."
Lin Ye spoke calmly, with a faint, rueful smile. He truly had not encountered any particularly insurmountable obstacles, but the last few questions had been genuinely difficult. And with math, you either knew how to do it or you didn't. There was nothing he could do about that.
That evening, Lin Ye's Smart Wristwatch kept vibrating. He looked down and saw that the class group chat had exploded with messages.
"Can someone tell me why the questions were so hard this time? I couldn't understand the reading comprehension at all!"
"The essay was so hard too. I felt like crying while writing it."
"Math is killing me. Those two parts of the shield calculation question—could any carbon-based life form actually come up with that?"
"It hurts. It hurts so much!"
"I feel like the overall difficulty of the academic subjects went up this time. Was it to balance out the higher Martial Arts scores?"
"@Lin Ye, Brother Night, what was your answer to the last math question? I need something to compare with!"
Lin Ye glanced at the group messages but did not join the discussion. He privately sent a single number to the classmate who had asked for the answer: "About 2.65. I couldn't work out the shield value."
Soon, someone in the group posted "suggested answers" from some unknown source. The frequency range for the final question was listed as 2.6–2.7, and any minimum shield-breaking threshold from 480 to 490 was considered correct.
The answers sent the group into a chorus of wails, with a few people breathing sighs of relief.
The next morning came history.
The source-analysis question provided three historical documents on "Great Xia's strategies for responding to Astral Rifts in the early days of the Martial Dao Era." Students had to analyze the ideas behind the different strategies and propose corresponding solutions. Drawing on his experiences from his previous life, Lin Ye explored the topic through the "supply chain logic" of Martial Dao civilization's expansion and the idea of "limited coexistence," laying out his analysis point by point.
In the afternoon came physics.
The questions this time were closely tied to practical Martial Dao applications, such as analyzing the force exerted on objects by a Blood Qi burst, the characteristics of different energy shields and how to break through them, and simple energy circulation. It was also useful for understanding martial arts, so Lin Ye answered with great interest. He found approaches to some difficult problems after working through the calculations; he just had no idea whether his answers were right.
But if physics was this hard, the class group chat would be in an uproar.
Sure enough, when he left the exam hall and checked the class group chat, it had blown up, messages flooding in from all sides.
"Ahhh, these physics questions were way too hard!"
"I feel like I'm going to die on the physics exam."
"Luckily, I did pretty well on history. I hope the physics graders go easy on us."
"Did anyone get the last physics question right? Any geniuses willing to share their approach?"
"Still... déjà vu. That was really strong."
Looking at the lively messages, Lin Ye smiled. It felt like he had returned to the college entrance exam of his previous life. After browsing for a moment, he lost interest and simply closed the group chat, then practiced Lost Track Steps in a corner.
Since he had nothing else to do, he might as well practice his martial arts.
Before you continue