As Zhang Yu and Ye Lingxiao exchanged glances, the five Divine Examiner Proctors—Deng Bingding, Huang Zichou, and others—appeared one after another.

Looking at the five candidates present, Deng Bingding calmly stated, “For the second round of Foundation Establishment Exams, the promotion rules for the physical cultivation track are quite simple.”

“In the upcoming exams, the top two candidates will advance to the next round, competing for the Foundation Establishment Qualification Certificate in the final round three months from now, which is in January of next year.”

“The third-ranked candidate will receive recommendation bonus points, which can be applied when taking the Foundation Establishment Qualification Exam at a university in the future.”

“The fourth-ranked candidate will receive bonus points for the college entrance examination…”

Upon hearing this, the students present instantly perked up.

Especially after hearing about the Foundation Establishment bonus points and college entrance exam bonus points, even students like Yu Xinghan, who had little hope of winning, suddenly felt their fighting spirit ignite.

Just then, however, Zhang Yu raised his hand and asked, “Proctor, besides the opportunity to compete for the Foundation Establishment Qualification Certificate, are there no other rewards for the first and second place?”

Deng Bingding looked at him and smiled slightly. “The chance to ultimately compete for the Foundation Establishment Qualification Certificate… isn’t that enough?”

“It’s fine if you think it’s not enough. After participating in the final round of exams in January next year, whether you obtain the Foundation Establishment Qualification Certificate or not, you will receive excellent rewards.”

“Alright,” Deng Bingding continued, “Next, I’ll explain the specific examination items.”

“Today’s examination content will be divided into two parts: a morning session and an afternoon session.”

“The key to the morning session is medication intake…”

While Zhang Yu, Ye Lingxiao, and Yu Xinghan listened to the examination item explanations.

In another examination venue, Bai Zhenzhen opened her eyes and found that Zhang Yu was not around.

She then quickly glanced around and realized she was standing in an underground plaza, with four other candidates present besides herself.

Bai Zhenzhen thought to herself, “The second round of Foundation Establishment Exams has begun, and the competition is divided by different tracks.”

“It seems that as soon as I entered, I was assigned to a different examination venue from Yu-ge.”

Bai Zhenzhen’s gaze swept over Yun Jing’s number 11 tag. “This guy must be the second-place finisher from the previous round, right? One of the top cultivators from Xian Du.”

Feeling the restless, surging, endless thunder-attribute spiritual power within her that simply wouldn’t settle, Bai Zhenzhen thought, “This guy is the biggest obstacle to me obtaining the Foundation Establishment Qualification Certificate.”

Meanwhile, under Bai Zhenzhen’s gaze, Yun Jing suddenly felt a faint tingling sensation in the air, as if he had been brushed by static electricity.

He turned and glanced at Bai Zhenzhen. “Is that number 56 from the last round? She seemed to be a newcomer, along with number 55 (Zhang Yu), right?”

Yun Jing recalled that in the first round of Foundation Establishment Exams, these two had concealed their strength in the first two stages but then secured third and fourth place in the final stage, demonstrating impressive mastery of cultivation techniques.

Nevertheless, Yun Jing remained confident, largely because his family’s investment in him over the past two months had far surpassed anything before.

With substantial financial support, he had made rapid progress, undergoing qualitative transformations time and again.

“Only with the kind of investment from the Yun family could I continue to achieve such qualitative leaps, even though my Dao Heart, spiritual power, and physical body had already reached the peak of Qi Refinement.”

“And as long as I can obtain the Foundation Establishment Qualification Certificate, I’ll have a chance to reverse the family’s current decline, making all the resources invested in me worthwhile.”

“Therefore, I absolutely cannot fail.”

What made Yun Jing feel fortunate was that Ye Lingxiao was not in his group.

After all, as fellow Xian Du natives, he knew that Ye Lingxiao, the heir to a perfect bloodline, was also in a period of rapid advancement during high school. Heaven knew what level of strength he had reached now.

Avoiding direct competition with Ye Lingxiao instantly made his chances of securing the Foundation Establishment Qualification Certificate almost certain.

At the same time, a flash of light appeared ahead, and the figures of the five examiners—Deng Bingding, Huang Zichou, and others—emerged.

The five Divine Proctors had currently manifested their divine power into four examination venues, simultaneously overseeing the exams for four different tracks.

For Deng Bingding, it was like controlling four bodies, four perspectives, and performing four tasks at once…

However, she had long grown accustomed to such multi-tasking. Ever since becoming a Divine Proctor, tasks like attending meetings while working overtime, giving gifts during meetings, or working overtime while giving gifts… using her mind for multiple or even a hundred tasks simultaneously had become basic operations.

Deng Bingding was heard saying, “The content of this round’s martial arts examination is very simple: it’s a practical combat assessment.”

“Next, the five of you will take turns engaging in one-on-one arena battles. After everyone has completed one round, each match will be scored differently based on the outcome: win, loss, or draw.”

“The top two candidates by total score will advance to the next round, competing for the Foundation Establishment Qualification Certificate in the final round three months from now, which is in January of next year.”

“Third place… Foundation Establishment bonus points…”

“Fourth place… college entrance examination bonus points…”

Bai Zhenzhen understood: “So, it’s just fighting one round against everyone.”

She was seen stretching her limbs, and with the flicker of electric light, she had already begun her warm-up exercises.

Just as Bai Zhenzhen began warming up.

In the physical cultivation examination venue on the other side, Deng Bingding was still explaining the assessment content for that track.

“As everyone knows, medication intake is crucial for physical cultivation.”

“If you can’t endure the hardship of medication intake, you won’t be able to walk the path of immortality.”

“Historically, a cultivator’s tolerance for and absorption rate of medication have always been crucial indicators of how far they can progress on the path of immortality.”

“In the morning session of the exam later, you will take as much medication as possible within one hour.”

“As for which medications to take, that will be your choice.”

“Naturally, you are not permitted to use your spirit roots or activate your Dharma Bones during this process…”

As he spoke, a series of massive light screens appeared, displaying lists of medications, each with a corresponding score.

“A total of 23 types of medications will be provided on-site.”

“These medications have different functions. We have ranked them from highest to lowest based on the burden they place on the body and assigned different points accordingly.”

“Generally, medications that impose a greater burden on the body will yield higher points.”

“Conversely, medications that impose a lesser burden on the body will yield fewer points.”

“After the one-hour medication intake period concludes, the sum of the points from the medications you have taken will be your score for the morning session of the exam.”

Upon hearing this, a flicker of worry arose in Zhang Yu’s mind; he just wanted to know if there would be a fee for the medications.

“If this cursed exam charges for medication… I’ll have to borrow money from someone.”

“And these medications…” Zhang Yu looked at the names on the list and thought, “I haven’t taken many of these before, and I don’t know what their effects are.”

In particular, Zhang Yu had never even heard of the three medications with the highest points, placing them completely in his blind spot of knowledge.

Fortunately, Deng Bingding’s next words answered Zhang Yu’s questions.

Deng Bingding was heard saying, “All medications for this exam are supplied free of charge, so you don’t need to worry about any fees.”

“Furthermore, I understand that you might not be familiar with all 23 types of medications.”

“Therefore, a medication review video will now be played to help you understand the effects of each medication…”

At this point, Zhang Yu’s eyes lit up. “Free? So, it’s a self-service medication intake? These Divine Proctors are finally doing something right.”

Huang Zichou, standing nearby, listened to Deng Bingding speak and thought to himself, “Ultimately, those pharmaceutical companies succeeded. They talked about replacing exams with medication intake, using the quantity of medication consumed to measure students’ strength and potential… but in the end, won’t the Divine Ministry have to reimburse it? Make the Divine Ministry pay for these medications?”

“In the end, isn’t it still the Heavenly Court that suffers losses? Isn’t it still the interests of Kunxu at large that are harmed?”

“And they haven’t even given me a single cent.”

“Those scoundrels in the company truly don’t regard a Ninth-Rank Divine as a deity.”

However, considering that this policy of replacing exams with medication intake wasn’t just limited to one level, but extended to over a dozen levels of examinations above,

…and that such a deal could be made even while the Heavenly Court was cutting expenses, Huang Zichou knew the depth of the corruption was unfathomable. The interests involved made his heart tremble, so he could only grumble inwardly for now.

Simultaneously, the light screen displaying the medication list flickered slightly, and a video began to play.

A man in the video was heard saying, “Hello everyone, today I’m going to review 20 common medications often used in daily cultivation…”

Zhang Yu, watching the video, was slightly taken aback. He thought, “Isn’t this a medication review video by an internet celebrity?”

The original Zhang Yu had already watched many such videos: medication reviews, cultivation technique reviews, dietary supplement reviews, and unboxing videos for various exercise equipment, tonics, and spirit roots…

The current Zhang Yu hadn’t watched many himself, but he still had some understanding, especially with the memories of his original self still preserved.

For instance, Zhang Yu had a strong impression of the internet celebrity in the current video because, in addition to various unboxing videos, the celebrity also had a highly popular “coffin opening” series, which the original Zhang Yu had watched multiple times.

Initially, the celebrity filmed a video touring a family graveyard, showcasing the condition of preserved corpses from different years: 10, 30, 100, and 300 years.

After that video became popular, the celebrity struck while the iron was hot, filming the ancestral graves of many local prominent families, showcasing parks, underground palaces, buildings, and mountains within these ancestral burial grounds…

It was precisely those videos that made the original Zhang Yu truly feel the enormous gap between himself and the wealthy for the first time.

They also made him realize that some people’s ancestral graves could be larger than his school, and that even after lying in a coffin, the wealthy could accumulate wealth faster each day than a poor person like him could earn through labor.

The memories in his mind flashed and faded, and Zhang Yu continued watching the medication descriptions in the video.

It had to be said that the internet celebrity’s explanations of the medications were indeed very detailed and professional, yet they were also clear and easy to understand, presented in a straightforward and simple manner that allowed viewers to grasp the effects, advantages, and disadvantages of each.