Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
After explaining to Wei Tianchong in every way possible that his method of cheating wouldn’t work, Tang Jie was finally able to escape.
Upon returning to the Carefree House, Tang Jie heated up a big basin of water, threw in all of the herbs he had bought, and then jumped in and started to circulate the mantra to refine his body.
The Parting Classic’s cultivation process was truly a most excruciating affair. Tang Jie felt like he was being boiled alive. The medicinal power would seep into the steam as the herbs were boiled and enter his body, and so his body felt like it was on fire, his blood energy seething and beads of blood emerging from every pore. His body was a frightening sight to behold.
The process took an entire hour, and it only ended after Tang Jie circulated the mantra three times and absorbed all the medicinal power.
Upon emerging, Tang Jie discovered that he was much more energetic. After using the Weapon Mantra last night, he had been weak and listless all day, but now, he was brimming with strength and vigor.
He looked at his body and found that his boiled skin was cracked all over, peeling away to reveal a glossy layer of new skin beneath.
“Is this considered shedding the mortal body?” Tang Jie muttered.
According to the Parting Classic, the Martial Lord had divided body refining into five phases. These were the Wood Body, the Jewel Body, the Diamond Body, the Immortal Spirit Body, and the Great Dao Body.
The Visceral Manifestation Classic could bring one to the Wood Body level. Upon reaching this level, one would no longer get ill and would be impervious to mortal weapons. The Jewel Body, other than strengthening one’s constitution, also worked the organs. One’s blood energy would flourish, lifting weights would become easy, and endurance would soar. It was described as having a body of jade and marrow of gold.
As for the Diamond Body, upon cultivation, one would truly possess a body like diamond, capable of even resisting art relics. When one reached the Immortal Spirit Body level, one would obtain a truly undying body.
The glossy, jewel-like luster of Tang Jie’s skin meant that he was at the threshold of the Jewel Body.
The Visceral Manifestation Classic was the entry technique to the Parting Classic. He had cultivated it for three years and essentially finished the Wood Body, so it was natural for him to be ready to enter the Jewel Body level. But he was only at the threshold and was still far away from reaching the jade constitution and golden marrows.
As he looked back at the basin of water, he saw that it was completely black. Was it because he had been too dirty or because of the filth expelled from his body?
Although it was rather excruciating, the Parting Classic’s cultivation process was quite simple.
With this bath done, if he wanted to keep cultivating it, he would have to gather new herbs. The problem was that this one round of cultivation had almost emptied Tang Jie’s savings.
Tang Jie made some calculations. The Parting Classic didn’t take long to cultivate, but it used a tremendous amount of resources. Meanwhile, the mantras of Basking Moon primarily relied on time, and the aid that medicines and herbs could provide was limited.
In other words, 99% of his cultivation time could be spent on Basking Moon mantras and 99% of his resources could be devoted to the Parting Classic.
He was currently poor, with plenty of time and no money, so he would have to spend most of his focus on Basking Moon mantras.
Thus, Tang Jie continued to cultivate the Lesser Sea Grotto Metal Mantra, at the same time familiarizing himself with his new spells, the Aquagel Shroud and the Energy Needle.
The Aquagel Shroud was simple. With the Aqualight Shroud as the foundation, Tang Jie was able to easily pick up this spell. But with the Energy Needle, he needed to start from the beginning.
Fortunately, Min Dong’s death had caused Basking Moon Academy to increase the guard, so he didn’t need to worry about Godhead Palace making another move for now. Thus, Tang Jie was in no rush to train spells, and spent his days cultivating normally.
On the surface, the school said that Min Dong had gone out on a mission without permission and died. As for Zhuang Shen, it said that he had some family emergency and had to withdraw from school. The majority of the student body remained clueless as to what had transpired.
For the vast majority of students, Basking Moon Academy was a calm and peaceful place. Though there were fierce rivalries, it was far from reaching a level where one’s life was on the line.
In this period, Wei Tianchong came to find him two more times, clearly still determined to cheat on the exam. He brought up all sorts of suggestions, but Tang Jie refused all of them. In the end, he promised that if conditions on the testing ground permitted, he would help Wei Tianchong out.
Half a month went by very quickly, and the day of the big exam finally arrived.
The big exam was held twice every year, and it was always the busiest and liveliest time of year.
This year’s big exam was particularly lively, for the academy had announced that the top scorer of this year’s class would receive a special reward. All of the students who thought themselves gifted were itching to take their shot.
Of course, in their eyes, this so-called special reward would probably be a high-quality bottle of spirit medicine.
Even so, this was worth it for most of them.
Today, all of the side courtyards of the Ink Fragrance Court were opened, and several thousand students gathered in the main square of Ink Fragrance Court. Whether one was at Spirit Lake, Spirit Sea, or the Mortal Shedding Realm, so long as one had yet to pass the culture exam, one had to participate.
Everyone had a small table in front of them and a small cushion under them. The test paper was placed on the table. Basking Moon Academy didn’t have subject tests, but placed all the questions on this one test, squeezing in all sorts of questions together. There were one thousand points in total, and one needed to get five hundred to pass. There were nearly one hundred questions and a time limit of six hours.
Around the students were students who had already passed the examination and were serving as proctors, as well as a few esteemed teachers, all of them eying the students like hungry wolves.
The students looked at each other, exchanging glances. They tacitly understood that a battle of cheaters and cheat-catchers was about to commence.
In Basking Moon Academy, students would think of every method possible to get through this trial, battling the proctors in wits and strength. There were some who joined together to try and mutually assist each other. If Tang Jie had to describe it, he would call this “organized test copying”.
Every year, many students would get caught cheating and expelled, and there were also students who got lucky and passed. One could say that the big exam was the primary producer of forsaken students.
Anyone who could successfully cheat was certain to become famous because of it.
There was no need for the school to come looking to settle accounts later. Just as Tang Jie and everyone else knew, the incapable needed to follow the rules while the capable could break, work around, or even exploit the rules!
So long as you were capable of successfully cheating while being watched by several thousand students and several dozen teachers, you could crow about your achievements afterward and the school would do nothing about it. On the contrary, it might even congratulate you. This was one of the defining attributes of Basking Moon Academy.
But pulling it off truly wasn’t easy.
With the ring of a gong, all the students sat down in front of their tables, raised their brushes, and began to write.
Tang Jie took only a glance at the questions and smiled.
While this examination had all kinds of questions, they had all been lectured on in class. For Tang Jie, this was as simple as could be, and he immediately began to write.
The Ink Fragrance Court’s square had more than ten thousand students, but it was silent, the only sounds the scratching of brushes and the occasional flipping of a page.
Tang Jie moved quickly through the questions. As he was writing, he heard someone shout behind him, “You! Your privilege is removed! Get out!”
Tang Jie raised his head to look and saw a proctor student charging in, grabbing a nearby student, and dragging him away.
That student shouted, “I didn’t…”
“No shouting!” A white-bearded Spirit Master waved his hand, and the student immediately lost his voice. As his body was dragged out, another student came forward and deducted twenty points from him.
“This is only the beginning…” Tang Jie helplessly shook his head and went back to writing.
As he rapidly answered questions, he suddenly sensed a shift in spiritual energy.
As he cultivated more and more, he grew more sensitive to the surrounding spiritual energy, so he was naturally able to realize a problem.
He tilted his head and saw a distant student looking at his table, a gleam in his eyes.
The Spirit Eye spell?
This Spirit Eye spell was a kind of surveillance spell, but he hadn’t expected someone to have learned it. It was rather useful for something like the big exam.
In truth, the big exam was a world for students skilled in surveillance and observation. Basking Moon Academy was all about applying one’s studies, and it used methods like this so that each student could display their skills.
Anyone who said that surveillance spells were useless… would have to pass the big exam first.
Tang Jie immediately took out a piece of paper and covered his previously answered questions.
He wasn’t just being petty. His goal in this exam was no longer to pass, but to get the right to enter the ninth floor of Heaven One Pavilion.
According to his agreement with Xie Fengtang, he had to be the top scorer.
As all the students of the academy had to take part in the exam, he had many competitors, so he didn’t dare to be careless. What if he let that student copy all his answers and then that student was able to solve a few questions that he couldn’t? Then he would have lost for no good reason.
Moreover, the path of Immortality was fraught with conflict. There was no need to politely yield the path.
That student saw that Tang Jie had covered his answers, and grimaced. Grunting, he turned his head to another student.
At this moment, a proctoring teacher suddenly grunted and waved his hand. That student’s vision went dark, and he could no longer see anything.
The teacher said, “Focus on your test and stop looking around.”
There was no evidence he had used the Spirit Eye spell to peek at other test sheets, so he wasn’t immediately removed, but there was no problem with breaking off his spell.
Tang Jie continued to answer questions until a sudden gust of wind blew away the blank sheet of paper he was using as a cover.
A transparent eyeball appeared in front of him, turning left and right as it inspected his test sheet.
Tang Jie was speechless.
Even the Windguide spell and Eye of Observation spell had appeared.
The Eye of Observation had appeared at his abdomen, using Tang Jie’s body to block out the eyes of the proctors. It was a very clever move, but alas, it required Tang Jie’s cooperation.
Tang Jie chuckled and grabbed it. The Eye of Observation shattered, and there was a grunt from nearby. Having his spell broken wasn’t a good thing for this unlucky student.
Tang Jie felt his back turning hot. Someone was resentfully glaring at him, unwilling to give up.
As most of the top students had already passed their exams and become proctors, Tang Jie, as the new top student, was being targeted the most by other students. Various spells were used on him, constantly meddling with his test sheet so much that he was truly starting to get annoyed.
Fortunately, the proctors weren’t just going to stand around and watch. From time to time, they would grab someone and kick them out.
In the sky above the Ink Fragrance Court’s square, a person would occasionally fly through the air. The cheating students who had been caught were thrown out one by one. All they could do was curse and grumble outside, hoping that they would be luckier next time.
As he was rapidly writing, Tang Jie heard a soft “Hey! Hey!”
It was an urgent call.
Looking up, he saw Wei Tianchong, seated in front and to the left of him, shooting him looks and gesturing with his hand.
His meaning was, “Hurry up and give me the answers.”
Tang Jie shook his head.
Seeing that he had refused, Wei Tianchong’s face fell. He could only grip his brush and stare blankly at his test sheet.
Tang Jie bitterly chuckled and continued writing.
Suddenly, a gust of wind carried a piece of paper onto his table.
Tang Jie froze as someone shouted, “He’s cheating!”
Raising his head, Tang Jie spotted a nearby student pointing at him while shouting at a proctor, his eyes burning with hatred.
Tang Jie saw that it was none other than that You Shaofeng that he had mocked before.