Taking the Exam with a Blade in His Chest

The reporters asked question after question, and Li Tao handled them with poise and ease. Though her answers were all exceedingly arrogant, she did have the credentials to show off.

Before this dazzling young lady, ordinary students could not even bring themselves to feel jealous. They could only look at her with envy.

Li Tao was very pleased by the crowd's reaction. She had grown up surrounded by such envious gazes, and the future would be no exception.

Just then, the bell rang, and the gates of Guanghua School slowly opened. The examinees clutched their admission tickets, but hesitated to step forward.

Everyone knew that this perfect young lady had to be the first to enter.

It was only natural, and even the examinees' parents saw nothing wrong with it.

Li Tao smiled demurely and was about to lead the way into the examination venue. Just then, a commotion broke out below.

"Make way! Make way! Everyone, out of the way!"

A team of Internal Affairs Bureau agents cleared a path through the packed crowd.

Ji Yin personally supported Lu Yuan as he walked toward the examination venue's gates.

Such blatant queue-jumping should have drawn condemnation from the onlookers.

But everyone looked at the agents' Internal Affairs Bureau uniforms, then at the blood-soaked Lu Yuan and the knife still dripping blood from his chest. Not one of them dared say a word.

Taking the exam with a blade in his chest? What an entrance!

The reporters quickly moved aside. Only Li Tao remained where she was, furious that someone had stolen her thunder.

So she blocked Ji Yin's path.

"You can't-"

"Out of the way!"

Ji Yin did not even wait for her to finish. He slapped Li Tao aside.

"Internal Affairs Bureau business! Who dares stand in our way?"

It was the Internal Affairs Bureau!

Someone cried out in alarm.

Li Tao was beside herself with rage, but there was nothing she could do. No matter how high her True Essence was, she was still not a cultivator. She was no match for a proper cultivator, let alone an agency wielding state force!

Trembling, Lu Yuan pulled his admission ticket and identity card from inside his clothes and handed them to the guard at the gate.

The guard was dumbfounded. He numbly took the partly charred admission ticket, which was also covered in large patches of blood.

The identity check turned up no problems, but the guard pointed awkwardly at Lu Yuan's chest and consulted Ji Yin. "The rules say no weapons are allowed inside the examination venue!"

Ji Yin glared at him. "You think this examinee is going to threaten someone with that knife?"

The guard shook his head vigorously. He knew that if the knife came out, the man would be done for.

"Then that settles it!" Ji Yin waved a hand. "I'm Ji Yin, director of the Ning City Internal Affairs Bureau. If anything goes wrong, I'll take responsibility!"

The guard had nothing more to say.

"You two, follow him inside. If anything happens to Lu Yuan, bring him out."

The two subordinates obeyed and entered the examination venue with Lu Yuan. They showed their Internal Affairs Bureau credentials, and the guards there let them through as well.

By law, the Internal Affairs Bureau was already permitted to enter and leave examination venues at any time, including any classroom.

But the parents watching did not see it that way. Why could he send people in to accompany an examinee when they could not?

What parent would not want to be by their child's side during the college entrance exam?

The blatant use of privilege was what the Hua People hated most to see.

For a time, the crowd buzzed with discussion, and the atmosphere turned distinctly hostile.

The reporter Ding Lin mustered her courage, stepped to the front, and challenged Ji Yin:

"Sir cultivator, what reason do you have to violate examination rules by sending people in to accompany an examinee? The college entrance exam is the fairest thing there is. Why should that examinee get special treatment?"

"That's right!"

"Why should he get special treatment?"

"Not even a cultivator can do that!"

Once someone took the lead, the parents immediately began shouting.

The scene was starting to get out of hand. Ji Yin stepped forward.

"Silence!"

A voice like the tolling of a great bronze bell rang from his mouth. It was the Great Sound Technique, a simple, practical minor Technique with no killing power whatsoever.

The noisy parents and examinees immediately shut their mouths. How would ordinary people dare act impudently before a cultivator, even knowing that cultivators would not hurt them?

Given Ji Yin's personality, he would normally have disdained to explain himself. What a joke-did the Internal Affairs Bureau need to explain its actions?

But considering Lu Yuan's reputation, Ji Yin still needed to give the angry public and the media some explanation. He did not want to see tomorrow's trending headline:

"Mysterious examinee has powerful connections, can even order the Internal Affairs Bureau to accompany him to his exam"

Lu Yuan would certainly demand an explanation from him over that, and in the end, he would still be saddled with trouble.

He might as well clear things up now.

Facing the worked-up parents, Ji Yin spoke word by word:

"You ask why he deserves it? Fine. I'll tell you why."

"I'm Ji Yin, director of the Ning City Internal Affairs Bureau. The examinee who just went in was injured on an Internal Affairs Bureau mission."

"More than a month ago, the Internal Affairs Bureau learned that a cult was going to launch a terrorist attack on this college entrance exam."

"This student was entrusted with a mission at a critical moment. He infiltrated the cult alone to gather intelligence and finally uncovered its entire plan of action yesterday."

"Using the intelligence this student risked his life to pass on, several nearby Internal Affairs Bureaus joined forces and destroyed the cult's Jiangzhou City stronghold in a single strike today."

"The explosion that just occurred on Linchun Road was the work of the cultists. Let me remind you: if this student hadn't risked his life to stop them, that bomb would have exploded in the examination venue, right beside your children."

"This student was gravely injured as a result. He didn't go to the hospital. Instead, he told me he still had to take the college entrance exam."

"Only then did I remember that he wasn't a cultivator. He was just an examinee. Just like your children, an ordinary student."

"But this student stepped forward and protected us all through his resolute and courageous actions."

"You ask why he deserves it?"

"Because of the wounds he suffered for you, the blood he shed for you, and the knife he took for you!"

"I'm Ji Yin, director of the Ning City Internal Affairs Bureau, and I'll say it here today: if any of your children can do the same, our Internal Affairs Bureau will give them special treatment too."

"I, Ji Yin, will personally stand guard for your child!"

"Is that good enough?"

What Ji Yin said was not entirely true, and many details were vague. This was a military operation, after all; it was neither possible nor necessary to explain every detail to the public. But the main parts of the story were not exaggerated in the slightest.

When Ji Yin finally asked, "Is that good enough?" no one answered. The crowd before the examination venue fell silent.

For one thing, they had been frightened by the cult.

If the cultivator had not told them, who would have imagined that a bomb had nearly gone off in the examination venue? Everyone had come to take the college entrance exam. Who would have thought their lives could be in danger?

The cult was truly insane and hateful.

For another, they had been stunned by someone's heroic courage.

He had infiltrated the enemy alone to gather intelligence, stepped forward at a critical moment to protect innocent people, and, despite his grievous injuries, never lost sight of his original purpose and remained steadfast in his duty!

A person like that was an "ordinary student"?

He was a peerless hero!

Ji Yin finished speaking.

After a silence, someone applauded. A moment later, thunderous applause rang out from the entire crowd.

It was applause of gratitude, and applause of admiration. It was for Lu Yuan inside the examination venue, and for the members of the Internal Affairs Bureau outside it.

As for Young Lady Li Tao, whom Ji Yin had tossed aside at the start-

Her eyes blazed, and her whole body trembled with rage.

She was always the protagonist, yet today she had been reduced to a backdrop. The young lady would never forgive this!

She had received countless rounds of applause and the admiration of countless people throughout her life. But she knew perfectly well that the applause and admiration she had received were not worth mentioning compared to what she saw at this moment.

"I'll remember you!"

The young lady had now set herself against Lu Yuan.