San Shou Level 2 (0/20) → San Shou Level 3 (0/30)

Instantly, the fifteen movements of San Shou became much more refined in his mind. Even the subsequent variations of each move and their seamless transitions became incredibly clear. The flow of spiritual power for each move became instinctive. Zhang Yu felt that if he executed a move now, the spiritual power within him would transform as if on its own, naturally flowing to his hands and feet.

“The passive qi circulation of the Universal Qi Gathering Method also played a role in this process.” Zhang Yu sensed the circulation of spiritual power within him and realized that because the power was constantly flowing throughout his body, it became much easier to maneuver while performing San Shou. He was quite impressed by how much the Universal Qi Gathering Method helped beginners, not just with qi circulation and body tempering, but also significantly benefiting practical combat techniques.

However, exams were imminent, leaving Zhang Yu no time for further reflection. After a brief period of qi circulation to recover his energy, he headed to the examination hall. The first exam in the afternoon was on Daoist arts, followed by the martial arts practical exam.

The Daoist arts exam primarily focused on the recognition and use of talismans. After all, those at the Qi Refining stage could not yet master true Daoist spells; they could only activate talismans using their knowledge and spiritual power. Thus, the three-year Daoist arts curriculum in high school was essentially all about talismans. Among these, “Fu” refers to charms or spells, and “Lu” refers to ritual registers or books. Together, “Fu Lu” refers to the secret methods used by humans to communicate with deities and wield divine power.

Inside the computer lab, Zhang Yu, having arrived at the exam room, sat in front of a computer, mentally reviewing all his knowledge about talismans. Not far away, Zhao Tianxing was diligently flipping through his textbook, repeatedly memorizing knowledge points he feared forgetting. Bai Zhenzhen was napping on her desk, seemingly not nervous at all about the upcoming exam.

Just then, a bell rang, and students quickly placed all non-exam related items on the desks at the front of the classroom, then returned to their assigned seats. A moment later, the computer screens in front of everyone flickered slightly, and their exam papers appeared.

Question 1: Which of the following talismans belongs to the spells of the Great Deity of Universal Travel and Communication, from the Ministry of Transportation?

Relevant information instantly surfaced in Zhang Yu’s memory. The Ministry of Transportation, one of Kunxu’s eight divine departments, oversees all road, air, and waterway transportation within Kunxu, possessing the authority to monitor all traffic under heaven. The Great Deity of Universal Travel and Communication is a righteous deity in the Ministry of Transportation responsible for urban roads. Zhang Yu recalled that one of his divine powers was apparently to record surveillance data for all urban roads and vehicles. By using talismans, one could borrow the power of the Great Deity of Universal Travel and Communication to access various surveillance records within urban road areas, allegedly knowing everything down to the smallest detail from three hundred years ago.

After the memory flashed through his mind, Zhang Yu continued looking at the options below. There were four options in total, something like this:

“All four options are the beginning of a talisman, and judging by their style, they all belong to the righteous deities of the Ministry of Transportation… Heh, trying to mess with my mind right off the bat?”

“It should be option D, the vehicle surveillance talisman, right?” Zhang Yu thought for a moment and chose D, then the next multiple-choice question appeared.

“Which of the following talismans is not a reporting talisman?” Zhang Yu was slightly taken aback: “Reporting talisman? I haven’t studied that. Is this an out-of-syllabus question again?” Frowning, he randomly picked one that looked plausible and moved on to the next question.

After completing all the multiple-choice questions one by one, he moved on to fill-in-the-blanks and open-ended questions, where the difficulty sharply increased. Such as, “Please write a physical examination talisman, respectfully inviting the Great Deity of Health and Vitality from the Ministry of Health to check your gastrointestinal tract for tumors.” Or, “What talisman can quickly subdue three ordinary mortals without spiritual power located 30 meters directly north? Please draw the talisman. Below are the specific data for the three mortals and the surrounding environment…”

“Damn it… Can’t I just knock down three mortals directly? Why use a talisman?”

Just as Zhang Yu was sweating profusely while writing a detention talisman, he heard the sound of a chair being dragged. He looked up and saw his classmate He Dayou had finished his exam and was preparing to leave. Zhang Yu remembered that He Dayou had ranked third overall in the previous month’s exam and was incredibly wealthy, much like Qian Shen. However, unlike Qian Shen, who focused on scores, He Dayou enjoyed showing off his wealth and usually had little interaction with Zhang Yu. Turning in his paper early, like now, was a display of wealth. This was because talismans were a subject where true mastery required significant financial investment, making it the clearest dividing line between the poor and the rich in exams. Many even called talismans “the language of the wealthy.”

Specifically, drawing talismans allowed one to invoke the powers of the eight divine departments—often referred to by people as the Eight Righteous Deities—to accomplish various incredible feats. However, schools only taught the most basic methods of drawing talismans. To learn more advanced ones, or even many not taught in schools, one had to purchase ritual registers. Besides the high purchase cost of these registers, there were also significant expenses like membership fees, offerings to deities, and upgrading one’s faith level.

It could be said that besides being categorized by the cultivator’s realm level, the talismans provided by the registers were most crucially dependent on money. Only by spending enough money on the registers could one achieve a sufficient faith level, unlock more permissions, and master more advanced methods of drawing talismans, as well as various types of talismans. Only after fulfilling these prerequisites did one gain the right to diligently study and practice talismans, for example, engaging in one-on-one talisman dialogues with the Eight Righteous Deities, receiving error corrections from righteous deities, or optimizing talismans with divine guidance during practice… Of course, such diligent practice was also prohibitively expensive.

It could be said that learning talismans outside of school was a process entirely built on money. Moreover, throughout this process, if one violated the rules set by the Eight Righteous Deities, such as secretly transmitting talismans or using talismans to break sectarian laws, they would be punished. Penalties ranged from fines to complete financial ruin. Every time Zhang Yu attended a Daoist arts class to learn talismans, he couldn’t help but sigh, recognizing it as an utterly unfair and unjust subject. It was the best way for the wealthy to boost their scores in the college entrance exam, and the most effective subject for widening the gap with the poor—truly deserving its title as “the language of the rich.”

But Zhang Yu had also heard Zhou Tianyi say that talismans were not the most expensive aspect of Daoist arts. Many Daoist spells that could only be learned after reaching the Foundation Establishment stage required enormous sums of money, enough to plunge a university student into massive debt.

Having finally endured the Daoist arts exam, Zhang Yu stepped out of the classroom and saw a large group of people gathered around He Dayou, checking answers. He Dayou smiled faintly, pulled out something resembling a jade tablet, and then scribbled a series of seemingly nonsensical symbols on it. As spiritual power fluctuated in his hand, a golden phantom slowly emerged from the jade tablet. He Dayou chuckled, “This is the Answer Talisman from the Great Deity Who Knows All Questions. Just ask Him if you have any questions.”

Many students gasped in astonishment at this sight, their gazes filled with envy as they looked at He Dayou. As Zhang Yu watched the jade tablet in He Dayou’s hand, Bai Zhenzhen’s voice piped up from the side: “That must be a ritual register, right? And it’s even jade-colored. This guy must have been preparing to show off for ages, huh?” Zhang Yu turned his head and saw Bai Zhenzhen beside him, full of indignant resentment, twisted with jealousy. Zhang Yu asked, “How was your exam?”

Bai Zhenzhen replied discontentedly, “How do you expect it to be? At least a quarter of the talismans were things we never studied.” She continued, “Two years ago, the college entrance exam had 20% out-of-syllabus content; this year it’s pushing 25%? If this continues, by the time we take the college entrance exam, will half the paper be stuff we haven’t been taught? They really have no shame.” She added, “I hope I don’t run into those damn rich kids in the practical exam, or I’ll beat them until they fail.” On the other side, He Dayou seemed to sense Bai Zhenzhen and Zhang Yu’s gazes, turned his head, and smiled faintly at them. Bai Zhenzhen instantly adopted a calm and composed demeanor, nodding slightly towards him.

A moment later, the next exam was about to begin, and He Dayou walked with several companions toward the martial arts practical exam venue. He Dayou was the kind of person who could write an elementary school essay titled “My Chairman Father,” because his father genuinely was the chairman of the board for Songyang High School.

Yet, despite growing up in luxury, he didn’t feel his life was easy, simply because he was just one of his father’s more than thirty children. He only became one of the two high school students, and one of the two cultivators, among those thirty-plus siblings after numerous assessments, repeated competitions, and consistently meeting family KPIs. As for his other mortal siblings, they had long since gone to work at their father’s company to repay their upbringing debts.

“Although I am a child from a wealthy family, the more important reason I’ve reached this point is ultimately my own hard work and talent,” he thought. “I earned my father’s investment through my hard work, so why can’t I show off my wealth? Those poor fools just complain all day, thinking I only got to this point because I have a rich dad? A bunch of childish, ridiculous people.” Harboring these thoughts, He Dayou had always looked down on those who were poor and performed poorly in academics. And after he entered Songyang High School as the chairman’s son and gained a deeper understanding of its many unwritten rules, he gradually began to look down on intelligent poor people as well.

“Even good grades are only temporary. These poor people simply don’t know… From the moment they were born, they never had a chance to get ahead. Perhaps they and we were never even the same species.” With these thoughts, He Dayou consistently maintained his third-place ranking in the overall scores for his grade, occasionally showing off his wealth, living a peaceful campus life, and awaiting the moment he would be admitted into a top university.

Until one person’s transformation shattered his inner peace. Seeing Zhang Yu’s increasing diligence over the past half-month, which even inspired the whole class to become more competitive, made him feel disgusted. “These poor nobodies… counting their debts on their fingers every month, rushing off to work after school every day to earn a few hundred or a thousand in pocket money, living frugally just to cultivate immortality, fantasizing about sudden wealth and eternal life.”

“They have no idea who their competition for the college entrance exam truly is. Still jumping around in school. Truly ugly in their poverty.”

He Dayou couldn’t stand Zhang Yu’s frantic efforts, as if he could surpass them, the wealthy, through sheer hard work. Especially after hearing rumors that Zhang Yu had been accepted as a disciple by a Golden Core True Master, the chairman’s son specifically used his connections to verify the information. After confirming that Zhang Yu had not been accepted as a disciple by a Golden Core True Master, his dislike for Zhang Yu reached its peak. “Deliberately not clarifying, trying to borrow prestige like a fox by assuming the tiger’s might?” Therefore, he planned to use the practical exam as an opportunity to teach this pauper a lesson, making him recognize his true place.