The end of August arrived in the blink of an eye, bringing with it the sophomore year-end exams. The students of the Civil Engineering Foundation Class had also unwittingly completed two academic years.

In the Dao Heart Examination Hall, Feng Jiu’s gaze swept across the performances of each examinee in the spirit world.

Li Xiao, driving a flying boat at high speed, decisively chose to ram and kill the vocational college student when faced with a choice between one Netherworld University student and one vocational college student. Then came 10 vocational college students, 100, 200… It wasn’t until the number reached 300 that he began to hesitate.

Feng Jiu nodded slightly, thinking, “This question is a bit outdated; it’s too simple for today’s students. It should be updated. After all, vocational college students have depreciated significantly in value in recent years. This has simply become a math problem; it can’t truly test one’s heart.”

In another light screen, Yu Xinghan had been transformed into a wild dog. Worried about not finding a job after his transformation, he sought employment everywhere and diligently practiced “dog skills” just to secure a glimmer of hope. Feng Jiu nodded slightly: “To continue striving diligently even in adversity, and to persist in job-hunting even after becoming a dog, truly shows a commendable Dao Heart.”

In yet another light screen, Ying Xin, facing persecution from the “Double Rest Heresy” cult, chose to die to uphold her principles, refusing to yield. Feng Jiu nodded slightly: “This question is relevant to current events, a new addition, isn’t it? To choose death over cult persecution and not abandon the right to work overtime – another excellent candidate for immortal cultivation. It seems the school’s recent anti-cult education has been very successful.”

Turning his gaze to another light screen, he saw Gongshu Jin on a construction site, lifting a fellow worker’s corpse and activating its magical skeleton to shake the earth. Feng Jiu nodded slightly: “Inheriting a comrade’s legacy, transforming their death into a work advantage, and continuing to work overtime together until the very last moment – excellent, excellent.” Feng Jiu then thought, “However, several consecutive questions are related to work. Is this because of the influence of the ‘Double Rest Heresy’ cult?”

In the light screen on the other side, Feng Jiu watched Ji Yuanshu become a demonkin. He repeatedly overcame the urge to devour his family’s flesh and blood, eventually succeeding in raising a family of demonkin, selling them, and earning his first pot of gold. Feng Jiu commented: “He overcame the instinctual hunger for flesh and blood, suppressed the concept of family affection, and saw nothing beyond the path of immortality. This is a good solution to the question, and more importantly, it demonstrated a firm Dao Heart throughout the process.”

In another light screen, facing forced demolition, Zhang Yu found an opportunity to hide inside his house, thus qualifying for the demolition compensation and receiving more recompense. Feng Jiu nodded slightly: “Putting himself in danger and taking a calculated risk, he demonstrated a spirit of daring and adventure. However, Zhang Yu’s Dao Heart should extend beyond this; the next question should be more difficult.”

Observing the performance of each student in the Foundation Class, Feng Jiu commented: “Every one of them possesses an astonishing fighting spirit, every one is a top talent, and all have made continuous progress over the past academic year. They are all good students; there are no academic slackers.”

In the Mana Examination Hall, students were taking turns entering, lining up to undergo tests in areas such as mana quantity, mana quality, and astral energy conductivity. Li Mingbo, the mana teacher, was utterly amazed.

“Zhang Yu, from the first layer, ranked first in all mana-related metrics, completely surpassing Ji Yuanshu of the sixth layer…” For a first-layer student to triumph over a sixth-layer student, and by such a comprehensive and overwhelming margin, made Li Mingbo feel a profound sense of anomaly.

Next, he looked at Yu Xinghan on the other side. Yu Xinghan, also a first-layer student, was already performing at a top-five level in the class, even remarkably close to fourth place. Had it not been for Zhang Yu, Yu Xinghan’s results alone would have been enough to astonish Li Mingbo. Then he looked at Li Xiao and nodded slightly: “Now *this* is the normal performance range for a first-layer student.”

In the Physical Strength Examination Hall, Zhang Yu took the lead, streaking like lightning through the complex examination course. Wherever he passed, it was like a hurricane sweeping through, kicking up clouds of construction dust into the sky.

At that moment, vital energy was boiling within Zhang Yu’s body. His qi and blood surged back and forth like molten lava. Driven by his Level 20 physical strength, he forcibly activated numerous explosive cultivation techniques. Techniques like the Battle Demon Life-Shedding Art and Spring and Autumn Endless Zen frantically propelled his physical body. Although they couldn’t temporarily break his physical strength beyond the Foundation Establishment limit, they allowed him to forcibly unleash a trace of power exceeding Level 20 physical strength. Under the propulsion of such violent power, the burden on his physical body was naturally immense. Almost every moment, his flesh and blood were being damaged and shattered, as if his body were burning. However, with the blessing of body activation, his physical body was damaged and healed again and again. Especially under the blessing of the Martial Dao Saint Body, his activated body carried a subtle martial dao intent, allowing him to evenly distribute the burden of physical damage and maintain a balanced state between the shattering and healing of his flesh and blood. Furthermore, under the subtle control of the Martial Dao, the exertion of force throughout his body allowed him to unleash stronger, faster, and more ferocious speed, rapidly advancing through sharp turns with almost no deceleration.

Ji Yuanshu, surrounded by swirling winds, constantly accelerated forward with the blessing of his magical skeleton, yet found himself unable to catch up to Zhang Yu. “Damn it, my straight-line acceleration is definitely faster than his, but…” Faced with the convoluted terrain, Ji Yuanshu was forced to repeatedly slow down and turn, consistently unable to achieve his top speed. At the same time, within this examination hall simulating a war environment, he also had to constantly dodge various incoming attacks.

In contrast, Zhang Yu simply allowed a bolt of lightning fire to blast towards him, which fiercely collided with a cloud of mist around his face. Under this lightning fire attack, Zhang Yu’s movements not only didn’t slow down at all, but instead, relying on the precise control of his martial dao and the Nine Heavens Cloud Empty Force, blessed by the Martial Dao Saint Body, he actually borrowed a surge of power from the lightning fire to accelerate himself further.

Ji Yuanshu watched helplessly as he accelerated repeatedly, only to be forced to slow or stop each time by the need to turn and dodge. In contrast, Zhang Yu’s speed became faster and more ferocious, even pulling further and further away from him.

“Why?”
“Why, when I’m giving it my all?”
“Why am I getting further and further from Zhang Yu?”

As he watched Zhang Yu’s increasingly distant back, Ji Yuanshu felt as if he were watching an opponent whose overall score was steadily increasing beyond his own, yet he was helpless. A growing sense of intense frustration rose within him.

As the exams concluded one after another, Zhang Yu displayed overwhelming strength in almost every exam, firmly securing the top position in the class in a manner that left no room for dispute.

Yu Xinghan took photos of Zhang Yu sprinting to claim first place and sent them to Zhang Yu’s “Backup Dual Cultivation Group.”

Yu Xinghan: Zhang Yu photo. (Image file)

Messages immediately flooded the group.

“Zhang Yu looks so cool sprinting!”
“With that much money, of course he looks cool doing anything.”
“Group owner, take a few more photos.”
“Group owner, has Zhang Yu responded yet?”

Yu Xinghan: There are too many applicants.
Yu Xinghan: I discussed it with Zhang Yu. You can all pay an initial potion fee, and Zhang Yu can take a dose of medicine with you.
Yu Xinghan: Remember, just the medicine, nothing else.

“Huh? Just taking medicine together?”

Yu Xinghan: We’ll see your performance then. He might choose one person from among you to cultivate with.

In the blink of an eye, it was time for the final Civil Engineering professional skills exam. To objectively assess each student’s professional abilities, this year’s professional skills exam, like last year’s, was also based on practical scenarios. It was even more hands-on than the previous year, with the examination site directly located on Level 668.

Tuli Shan looked at the entire class and announced: “This time, for your exam, and to objectively assess your real performance on a construction site in a truly practical environment, we have specifically arranged the examination site at an actual construction site. Even for this single exam, for the next 12 hours, this entire area will be completely shut down, with no workers present apart from yourselves. We have paused the overtime here.”

Many students were shocked to hear this, exclaiming about the teachers’ arrangements.

“They actually made the construction workers stop for 12 hours?”
“Is it all for our exam?”
“What a grand gesture!”

Zhang Yu cursed inwardly, “Damn it… so they’re intentionally making us free labor, aren’t they?”

Yu Xinghan cursed inwardly, “A 12-hour exam? 12 hours of free labor? Are you even human?”

Ying Xin cursed inwardly, “Why does everyone only dare to curse in their hearts? Is there no one brave enough to stand up and lead the cursing? Is there not a single person with guts in the Civil Engineering department?”

Tuli Shan continued, “This sophomore year, your main focus of study has been large-scale construction capabilities. Therefore, this exam’s content is also the same: it tests your large-scale construction capabilities. I have assigned different construction tasks to each of you, covering various aspects of large-scale construction. This ensures that every student will have more than enough work for these 12 hours, enough to test your limits.”

As he spoke, streams of information appeared in everyone’s inner vision, detailing the large-scale construction tasks they could perform on the site before them. Simultaneously, they also saw their respective salary statistics, which, for now, all read zero.

Tuli Shan said, “I believe you’ve all seen the salary statistics, correct?”

Zhang Yu thought happily, “So there’s pay! Damn it, Tuli Shan… I completely misjudged you!”

Tuli Shan continued, “The scoring for this exam is very simple: it’s calculated based on your completion rate for the large-scale construction tasks. Specifically, it will be calculated based on the salary you earn, which will then be converted into your final score. We believe this metric best reflects your large-scale construction capabilities after a year of study and cultivation.”

Yu Xinghan raised his hand and asked, “Will the salary be issued immediately after the exam?”

Tuli Shan smiled slightly: “Hasn’t your salary already been converted into more important scores? Of course, you can also choose not to convert.”

Yu Xinghan cursed inwardly, “Damn it… that work scoundrel!”