The Reason for Failing the Exam

After lounging in the chair for a while, Luo Tong suddenly jolted and snapped out of his enjoyment.

Luo Tong, Luo Tong, how could you be like this?!

President Chen had given you nearly six times your previous salary, so you had to produce ten times the work. Otherwise, you'd be letting down President Chen's faith in you!

We're Heavenly Origin natives through and through. What we value most is honesty!

Since President Chen had already shown such sincerity, how could we not repay him? How could we face our own Dao Hearts otherwise?

With that thought, Luo Tong felt his heart fill with fighting spirit. The passion within him surged like an endless river, then like the Yellow River in flood—utterly unstoppable.

Excitedly opening the document on his Spirit Brain desktop, he found that Chen Yu had already sorted every requirement into categories, making them easy to index and search.

But once Luo Tong opened the document, he was stunned again.

Heaven Origin's Dream Makers really had some wild methods.

Unlike Dream Makers elsewhere, who had systematic frameworks and modular management, breaking every large Dreamscape into countless smaller modules and dividing the work among specialists,

Heaven Origin's Dream Makers were more like makeshift troupes. Any one person might perform well enough, but once they were brought together, they became a scattered mess.

Luo Tong had worked as a Dream Maker for a few days himself. But after realizing that small Dreamscapes couldn't turn a profit and that he couldn't make medium or large Dreamscapes, he gave up on the idea and went back to lying flat.

But now, after carefully examining Chen Yu's framework, Luo Tong discovered that his boss was far more formidable than he had imagined.

This modular structure, this parallelized workflow—it was completely the style of a major company, perhaps even more refined.

When he looked up, he saw the same astonishment on his brothers' faces and knew they were thinking much the same thing.

President Chen, just who are you?

An avalanche-like pressure crashed down on him, drawing a thin sheen of cold sweat across Luo Tong's forehead.

With such a high salary, and as prestigious Dream Makers besides, cultivators who wanted this job were as numerous as fish crossing a river, stretching beyond sight.

If he failed to produce sufficient results, he would lose such an excellent position!

At that thought, Luo Tong felt the pressure mounting further, but his fighting spirit was also fully ignited.

President Chen, this is the grandeur of me as an employee! This is the obsession of me as a workhorse!

Now, let me show you my Grades!

The four of them burned like furnaces, making even Chen Yu in the inner office feel a little hot.

Lowering the air conditioner's temperature, he asked doubtfully, "Did summer come this early this year?"

After stretching, he lay down on the large bed in his office and continued reviewing his current Grades.

[Name: Chen Yu.]

[School Registration: Third Cultivation High School of Heavenly Origin City]

[Spiritual Root Rating: 91 (100)]

[Realm: Qi Refining Second Layer]

[Morality: 27 (100)]

[Intelligence: 93 (100)]

[Physical Fitness: 39 (100)]

[Aesthetics: 83 (100)]

[Labor: 43 (100)]

Thanks to Teacher Zhao's earlier help, his Moral Score had actually risen by 7 points, which was no small improvement in such a short time.

Moreover, based on his current grasp of the material, his physical fitness had also risen by 8 points, bringing his total score to 285.

These Grades were still rather awful, but if he kept improving at this rate, he should be able to get into a second-tier university in next year's National College Entrance Examination. If he worked harder, a first-tier university might even be possible.

Besides that, his realm had risen to the Qi Refining Second Layer, which was an unexpected delight.

After all, while one's realm was not an exam subject, it involved a cultivator's stamina, mana capacity, physical strength, and more. It was a comprehensive measure of a cultivator's strength.

Furthermore, the higher one's realm, the more mana one naturally consumed each day, which could also help expend his Positive Mana.

Clenching his fist, he could indeed feel that his body had become sturdier. The seven hours of sleep he had previously needed could now be replaced by six. If this continued, perhaps he could cultivate away sleep altogether.

Nodding in satisfaction, Chen Yu looked toward his goal.

His target was the archaeology major at the Profound Law Sect. Although this university was first-tier, its archaeology major only required second-tier scores.

The only troublesome part was that the major required perfect scores in cultural subjects. This condition alone eliminated a huge number of cultivators.

For Chen Yu, the final seven points had been lost in Talisman Arts.

Talisman Arts was the physical education of cultural subjects. The sixty-four basic talismans were the foundation of all spells, corresponding to the sixty-four hexagrams, and would later serve as the basis for divination and artifact refining.

The written portion of this subject was manageable, but the practical demonstration could only be mastered through repeated practice and brute force. Chen Yu had no way to find a clever shortcut with his smart little brain.

Sighing, Chen Yu closed the Grades management interface, brought up his Talisman Arts course, and began practicing in a meticulous, methodical manner.

While he studied, the four people outside had already grown somewhat frantic.

Chen Yu had finished setting up the framework for the new Dreamscape. The four of them were tasked with gathering various exercises and filling the question bank with them.

At first, they thought it would be a simple job.

But once they got started, they discovered that it was anything but simple.

When the Former Tianyuan Cultivators Committee fled, they had done a thoroughly ruthless job of it. They had returned and sold off much of the information and access privileges for cash, and even the books had not been spared.

Luo Tong had not felt much when they left before, but now that he found himself constrained at every turn whenever he tried to do anything, the anger in his heart finally ignited.

"Damn it, that blasted Former Tianyuan Cultivators Committee!" Luo Tong said at lunch as he gnawed on grass.

Glasses pushed up his glasses. "Exactly. This is the first time I've felt such concrete murderous intent toward an organization. If I ever see someone from the Former Tianyuan Cultivators Committee, I'll definitely throw them into a manure pit!"

"Th-that's not much, is it?"

"Headfirst!"

"Approved."

But complaints aside, the work still had to continue.

And whenever they thought of those vermin interfering with their work progress and disrupting their boss's grand Dreamscape undertaking, Luo Tong and the others felt as though their hearts were being cut apart. Their hatred for the Former Tianyuan Cultivators Committee deepened by several more degrees.

After a moment of silence, Glasses stood and said, "No choice. We'll have to use the old-fashioned method. I'll go back to Culture High School. The library there has a more complete collection, and I'll try to organize some questions as quickly as possible so President Chen can start producing them."

"I-I'll go too."

"Let's go! Luo Tong, what about you?"

Luo Tong did not rise. Instead, he stared at the document on his phone in thought.

After a moment, he shook his head and said to the others, "No. This is very wrong!"

"What is?"

"Anyone can do this job, so why does it have to be us?"

Glasses looked at Luo Tong helplessly. "At a time like this, why are you still hung up on that? What do you think the reason is?"

"Think about it. We're graduates of Culture High School. We should use a more efficient method to solve President Chen's problem."

The short fellow stared at Luo Tong for a long while before suddenly understanding. "Sp-spells!"

"That's right, spells." After hesitating briefly, Luo Tong added, "The thing that made everyone fail the exam."