Pressuring!

Pressuring! Inside Liu Zhixing's quarters at the county academy!

The moment Liu Zhixing finished speaking, the entire room fell silent.

The Geng Class students who had been summoned were all dumbfounded.

They had never expected that Liu Zhixing had called them here so suddenly in order to make them voluntarily give up the county exam.

Though none of them could be called heaven's chosen, anyone who had entered the county academy possessed at least some talent for cultivation.

Even those with poor aptitude had still buried themselves in martial cultivation, studying cultivation techniques day and night, all for the sliver of a chance to enter a prefectural academy and change their fate against the heavens.

Yet Liu Zhixing, their instructing teacher, was not encouraging them to give the exam their all at such a time. Instead, he was asking them to abandon their chance at the county exam and become ordinary guards at a trading company?!

"Teacher, this... this matter..."

"Teacher, the county exam is tomorrow. If you make us give it up now, wouldn't our years of bitter cultivation have been for nothing?!"

"Teacher, I want to take the county exam!"

Several students turned deathly pale and could not help protesting, their eyes filled with disappointment and unwillingness.

"Fools!!!"

At that moment, a cold, arrogant, and cutting voice suddenly rang out.

The students turned toward the sound and saw that the speaker was Liu Qingyun, an upperclassman from Class Jia who had been standing by the side.

Everyone knew that Liu Qingyun was not only one of the county academy's top Class Jia students, but also Liu Zhixing's biological son. Relying on his family background and his instructor father's influence, he had always been arrogant and overbearing in the county academy, looking down on everyone.

He slightly raised his chin, contempt written across his brows. Looking over everyone in the room from on high, he gave a cold snort and said indifferently, "Do you really think this Five Prefectures Joint Exam is as simple as an ordinary county exam?"

"In past county exams, only a thousand people from Wurong County competed, leaving plenty of room for error. But this joint exam encompasses one hundred and eighty counties, gathering more than a hundred thousand cultivation students. Talented prodigies from every corner will emerge one after another."

His gaze swept across the Geng Class students before settling on those of unremarkable cultivation. His body trembled, and true qi at the late stage of Qi Condensation, nearly at perfection, burst forth from him. His mockery could not have been more obvious. "With your mere early Qi Condensation cultivation and middling or inferior martial bones, you would still rank at the bottom within a single county. Tossed among the countless geniuses of the five prefectures, you are nothing but ants and dust."

"Running off to take the exam without knowing your own measure—what can you gain besides becoming a laughingstock and humiliating yourselves?"

"My father kindly paved a retreat for you, allowing you to enter the Treasure Gathering Trading Company and earn a steady living. That is already extraordinary consideration. Yet some people cannot tell good from bad, stubborn and unrepentant, insisting on their foolishness!"

After hearing Liu Qingyun's ridicule, the students' faces turned green and red.

They knew in their hearts that although Liu Qingyun's words were unpleasant, they were not entirely wrong.

After all, with their early Qi Condensation cultivation, even judging by previous years' county exams, it would be difficult for them to enter a prefectural academy.

Not to mention that this Five Prefectures Joint Exam would certainly make the martial exam harder and more brutal. Their hopes were even slimmer.

Still, many students were unwilling to see their years of bitter cultivation cast aside in a single day. They wanted to resist rather than give up before the county exam, but they feared the power of the Liu father and son. Though anger burned in their hearts, they dared not speak, and could only lower their heads in indecision.

Among the crowd, Chen An alone remained as calm as still water as he watched Liu Zhixing and his son perform.

How could others fail to see it when he could see exactly what the Liu father and son were plotting?!

Liu Zhixing was not showing consideration for his students or seeking a way out for them. He clearly feared that the standards of this Five Prefectures Joint Exam had risen sharply. Once the joint exam began, this group of mediocre Geng Class students would most likely all fail. Their bottom-ranking class results would directly drag down his instructor evaluation, salary rank, and prospects for official promotion.

That was precisely why he had deliberately singled out students with ordinary foundations, low cultivation, and average family circumstances, forcing them to abandon the exam voluntarily. This would reduce the number of failures and whitewash his teaching record.

As for Liu Zhixing's claim that he would personally recommend them to become guards at the Treasure Gathering Trading Company?!

Knowing Liu Zhixing's character and ethics as a teacher, Chen An would dare say that if there was no hidden trick involved, he would swallow that agreement on the spot!

Seeing the students hesitate without anyone willing to step forward and give up the county exam, Liu Zhixing's expression darkened slightly. A shadow flickered through his eyes, but in an instant, the balefulness faded. He put on a falsely earnest expression of concern for his students and slowly said, "I know you are still young, your spirits restless, clinging to the road of martial cultivation and unwilling to face reality!"

"But I believe you yourselves know what the outcome will be if you take the county exam with your current cultivation?!"

"The Treasure Gathering Trading Company is one of the county city's foremost trading companies. Its pay is generous—twenty yuan crystals per month, two hundred and forty yuan crystals per year. Is that not far better than forcing yourselves to take the exam only to achieve nothing in the end?!"

"You also know that ordinary commoners in the marketplace cannot earn even one hundred yuan crystals in a year no matter how desperately they toil. Yet you, fresh out of the gate, need not roam about or fight and kill. You need only sign one document to secure this excellent position, and from then on, you will have no worries over food or clothing and live in peace!"

"This is a position this instructor worked very hard to obtain for you. Outsiders could beg for it and never receive it. Think it over carefully yourselves. Once this village is passed, there will be no such inn!"

Pfft!!!

Suddenly, a snicker shattered the stifling silence in the quarters.

Everyone immediately raised their heads, their gazes turning in unison toward the source of the sound.

When they saw who had laughed, they could not help but freeze slightly.

Having studied together for years, they naturally knew Chen An.

Yet in their impressions, aside from reportedly being childhood sweethearts with Shen Qinglan, the county academy's top student, Chen An was solitary and rarely interacted with his classmates. His cultivation was only at the second level of Qi Condensation, making him one of the lowest-ranked students in Geng Class.

No one had expected Chen An to dare laugh at such a time. Was this not openly slighting Liu Zhixing's dignity?!

For a moment, everyone in the quarters looked at him. Some were astonished, some found it strange, some secretly admired him, while others—like Liu Qingyun—wore dark expressions as they waited to watch the show.

Facing the various gazes cast upon him from all directions, Chen An remained composed. He smiled calmly and said without haste, "My apologies, everyone. I merely thought of something amusing and could not help laughing. Please continue, continue!!!"

Liu Zhixing's face had already turned livid. Chen An's casual words left the anger in his heart surging. His expression became as cold as frost as he stared fixedly at Chen An and said icily, "Something amusing? Before this instructor, in such a serious setting, you still dare joke around so casually. Do you have any respect for this instructor at all?!"

"Of course..."

Faced with Liu Zhixing's icy question, Chen An remained utterly calm.

He raised his head, met Liu Zhixing's sharp gaze with a hint of mockery in his eyes, and curled his lips into a faint smile. "No!"