Chapter 81

As soon as exam week arrived, pills, talismans, spirit artifacts, and the like that improved learning ability or increased luck all became bestsellers.

Final exams were the most important exams of the semester, so naturally it was even more true for them. Even the Guiding Spirit Brush had to be bought in the top-student special edition.

In the past, Song Yi’s attitude toward this had been: learning and cultivation were both long processes that required persistence. Cramming at the last minute was ultimately a lesser path.

When sword cultivators walked the world, what they relied on was not external objects, but the sword in their hands.

“A cultivation level gained by gobbling pills is like a paper tiger. Grades obtained by last-minute cramming and relying on luck are nothing but useless numbers.”

Song Yi spoke with perfect conviction. But when she heard Lin Ze and Li Wenwen discussing god-tier exam gear, she secretly pricked up her ears.

Ahem. It was not that she wanted to take a shortcut. She was just paying attention to current trends.

After Lin Ze and Li Wenwen finished their discussion, they asked Song Yi, “I prepared a set for you too. Do you want it?”

“We sword cultivators do not need to resort to opportunistic tricks,” Song Yi said solemnly. “But wasting things is not a good habit. Since you already prepared it, I suppose I’ll reluctantly use it.”

Lin Ze reminded her, “Actually, you don’t have to force yourself so much. It won’t be wasted. If I resell it...” I can even make another profit.

But under Song Yi’s deadly stare, Lin Ze silently swallowed the rest of his words. Forget it. He would leave her a little dignity.

They had known this for a long time. Song Yi’s mouth was harder than her sword.

And so, the current Song Yi was armed to the teeth.

The scent of a lucky talisman lingered around her body, to the point where she could pick up money just by walking down the road. She had swallowed pills until she was full, replaced her Guiding Spirit Brush with a complete set, changed her magical robe to the exam-passing model... using strength to prove exactly what it meant for poor students to have too many stationery supplies.

But external power could never replace real strength or bring Song Yi enough of a sense of security.

She looked toward Tie Yuan, who felt no pressure at all. The arrival of final exams had not affected him in the slightest, because neither the school nor his elders had any requirements for his grades.

He even said with particular pride, “I’m already the most learned cub among cubs my age. As long as I can graduate from elementary school smoothly, I should even become the most learned member of the iron-eating beast clan!”

The human race was too competitive. Better to go be a demon beast...

Song Yi pondered, “Is it too late for me to change races now?”

Hmm. She was also a demon beast, just one who had cultivated into human form a little quickly. But how was she supposed to cultivate a beast form?

Her friends fell into an eerie silence. They had only ever heard of demon beasts working hard to transform into human form. They had never seen a human who wanted to cultivate into a beast. Tie Yuan was not human, but you really were a dog!

“Little Yi, you’re working in the wrong direction!” Everyone tried to awaken her from her wild train of thought.

For the sake of exams, you’re not even planning to stay human anymore?

Even Tie Yuan trembled when he heard this. If the human race all ran off to become demon beasts like Song Yi, that would absolutely drive up internal competition among demon beasts. Especially if rare demon beasts stopped being rare, how was someone like him supposed to go out and freeload food and drinks?

Fortunately, Song Yi also knew that changing races in such a short period of time was a bit difficult, so she gave up on the idea.

But she rubbed her chin and thought of a new plan. “I can switch brains with Lu Shan, or find a way to link my divine soul with hers. Then I’ll know the answers she knows.”

Lu Shan, who sat in the front row, suddenly felt the back of her head grow cold. She shifted her body, letting the classmates behind her block Song Yi’s gaze.

The dog-headed strategists had no choice but to continue persuading her. “Little Yi, soul-searching methods are all crimes!”

Although final exams were the most important exams for elementary school students and everyone took them very seriously, gambling away one’s whole life over a single final exam? All they could say was: not worth it. Absolutely not worth it!

Song Yi sighed. “I know that. I was just thinking that maybe there’s a method that doesn’t quite reach the level of a crime, but can still help me survive this tribulation.”

Putting aside the sly old senior Wang Yisheng, and putting aside Tie Yuan, whose grades no one cared about, even within the three-person group of Li Wenwen, Lin Ze, and Song Yi, Song Yi was the child with the weakest foundation, the most wandering around, the highest floating confidence, and the highest teacher expectations.

So, all the pressure came down on Song Yi’s side.

She even made use of her personal connections—which meant contacting her “little junior brother” Qin Ye—to see if he could push forward some burden-reduction work for contemporary elementary school students.

Vacation was about to start. Shouldn’t the children be allowed to welcome the holiday in a relaxed and happy mood?

Even if they could not directly cancel exams, at least they could lower the exam difficulty, right?

Even if it could not be promoted everywhere right away, they could run a pilot program in Cloud City!

Her abacus was clacking so loudly that Qin Ye could hear it all the way from Spirit Capital.

He thought for a moment, then told Song Yi, “Even if you don’t do well on this exam, it’s fine. I’ll help you communicate with the teachers. One exam can’t decide anything.”

Before Song Yi could marvel at how reliable Qin Ye was, she heard him continue, “Once vacation starts, I’ll tutor you myself and work to make sure you get the highest grade in every subject next semester! I absolutely won’t give you a chance to fall behind!”

Reducing the burden was impossible. These little cubs looked like they simply had too little homework.

Expressionless, Song Yi ended the communication.

Damn it. That guy had previously sworn up and down that “you can come to me if you have difficulties in your studies or life,” but he was completely unreliable.

Song Yi herself failed to think of the secret to victory in the exam room, but luckily, she still had the disciplinary department, this major killing weapon. When it came to news inside the school, the disciplinary department was the best-informed. She could refer to other people’s fancy methods of “surviving tribulation.”

She heard about something: there was a special minor sect called the Lingyun Sect that specialized in fate studies. Although it could not compare to the Tianyan Sect, it had especially deep research in the Dao of exam luck!

Many of the top-student special edition Guiding Spirit Brushes, jade slips, and other stationery commonly used by Cloud Elementary students came from their sect. It was said that they carried an exam-luck blessing.

Song Yi decided to go investigate.

Boarding students like Song Yi could not leave school on non-weekends, but the disciplinary department could patrol inside and outside the school during the daily school arrival and dismissal periods. And so, she abused public office for private gain and quietly slipped out.

The Lingyun Sect mainly relied on selling stationery for profit. The place to draw lots did not charge a fee, but there was a donation station beside it. Students hoping to achieve good grades were usually not stingy and would more or less donate a little pocket money, forming good causes to obtain good results.

Unfortunately, Song Yi did not have this awareness. She skipped the donation station entirely and headed straight for the lot-drawing spot. Rubbing her hands together, she drew a terrible-luck lot.

Without changing expression, Song Yi said, “This one was for the past. It doesn’t count. The next one is for the final exam.”

Another terrible-luck lot.

“I wasn’t ready that time. My posture was wrong. One more draw should do it.”

It was a bad-luck lot.

Song Yi’s mindset was very steady. See? As long as you work hard, there will be progress! How could her exam luck be controlled by a single lot?

But the Lingyun Sect member’s mindset was not steady anymore. He watched helplessly as Song Yi came in, drew a whole pile of lots with awful exam luck, and then kept drawing because she refused to believe in evil...

If you said she believed in this, she was muttering, “My fate is up to me, not the heavens,” and had taken on the posture of someone who would not stop until she drew good luck. If you said she did not believe in this, why did she insist on getting a good result?

Fate studies also involved probability. With Song Yi drawing this way, it would not be strange for her to eventually draw a good lot.

But her behavior had already made the expressions of the other people drawing lots turn strange. If she could do this, then could they also do this? If doing this worked, then the so-called “accuracy” was not reliable at all!

If Song Yi had not truly been testing it in complete seriousness, the Lingyun Sect would have suspected that she was a plant hired by a competitor.

But even if she was not a plant, they still could not let her smash the Lingyun Sect’s reputation.

A staff member walked to her side and smiled. “Little friend, you’re right. Hard work leads to progress. But is there a possibility that by hard work, it means you should study properly?”

Not compete stubbornly over this kind of thing!

Song Yi thought he had arrived at just the right time. “Uncle, I want to ask, are these lots really that accurate? I clearly have the blessing of so many lucky talismans on me, so why haven’t I drawn a highest-luck lot yet?”

Swish, swish, swish. The gazes of the surrounding people all landed on the staff member, making him feel tremendous pressure.

“If you can’t even draw a highest-luck lot while blessed by lucky talismans, then you’re the one who should reflect on yourself, hey!”

He hauled the little cub who was wrecking the place outside.

Song Yi flailed under his hand, but not because she wanted to break free. Instead, she shouted excitedly, “It came out! I knew it! Highest-luck lot!”

From a distance away, the golden lot was still extremely conspicuous.

Yes. The final lot she had drawn had finally fulfilled her wish.

The staff member held his forehead with a headache and watched the little friend happily slip away.

He felt that Song Yi’s lucky talismans had definitely taken effect. They had just not taken effect on her lot-drawing luck. Instead, she had luckily encountered the even-tempered him.

Although Lin Ze and the others did not know him, after listening to Song Yi’s account, their brainwaves synchronized. “The lucky talismans really did work. They let you encounter someone that even-tempered.”

The result of all Song Yi’s fussing was this: she had even less time to review.

Yet Song Yi’s expression was very steady as she sat in the exam room.

Everyone laughed at her for blindly messing around, while she laughed that everyone failed to see through the truth. In fact, she had obtained some inspiration: this tribulation was not a dead end. Fate could still be controlled in her own hands, and she could seek a thread of life.

The question lay in how to grasp that thread of life. Especially for Literature and History and mathematics, the two subjects hardest for Song Yi.

The other children were writing furiously, yet Song Yi had not written a single word. This made the proctor repeatedly cast his gaze toward her, hoping to give her a small reminder: time is limited, don’t just give up! There must be some questions you know how to do, right?

But Song Yi seemed to notice nothing.

When more than half the exam time had passed, Song Yi was not anxious, but the teacher was anxious. He walked to her side and coughed heavily.

Song Yi simply closed her eyes, blocked her ears, and withdrew her five senses from the surrounding environment, taking on an attitude of “don’t bother me unless there’s a problem.”

The proctor: ...

Little friend, this is a mathematics exam, not a Meditation exam!

What was he supposed to do with this?

Time continued to pass. Song Yi was like an inveterate troublemaker, simply refusing to react to the outside world and simply refusing to answer the questions.

Only ten minutes remained until the end of the exam. Just then, the aura around Song Yi suddenly changed.

The proctor, who had been preparing to leave helplessly, sensed the change in the spiritual energy in the air and abruptly turned back.

He saw a wondrous spiritual energy vortex forming with Song Yi at its center. Just standing beside her gave one the feeling of thoughts flowing freely, as if everything had suddenly become clear.

This was enlightenment! The teacher realized it at once.

Song Yi still had not opened her eyes, but the Guiding Spirit Brush in front of her moved rapidly. Under the blessing of an enlightened state, these exam questions were nowhere near enough to look at.

Yes, this was the thread of life Song Yi had found for herself: there was no time to review, and no one in the exam room would help her cheat. But if there was no “one,” there was still the Heavenly Dao!

She had thought of the feeling from the last time she entered a state of enlightenment, when every difficult problem was solved as if cutting through bamboo. This was her chance.

Of course, enlightenment also depended on “feeling.” It was not something that would come just because she said it would. But for Song Yi, this kind of feeling was easier to find than the feel for answering questions.

Just now, she had been searching for that flash of inspiration.

There was a chance of failure, and she had also already prepared herself to eat a serving of stir-fried bamboo shoots with pork.

For someone like her, who came from the Old Era, she had to be a little harsher than others. She even dared to gamble with life and death, so a mere serving of stir-fried bamboo shoots with pork was nothing to fear.

Fortunately, in the final ten minutes, she still succeeded.

The entire exam room was drawn in by the phenomenon on her side, and there was even a bit of commotion.

No way. Someone could reach enlightenment while taking an exam? Was there really someone who liked exams this much?

The proctor said in a deep voice, “Everyone focus on your own questions.”

The proctor himself was more baffled than anyone, because he had seen it clearly: Song Yi seemed to have been waiting for exactly this enlightenment to arrive.

But was enlightenment something a person could control by themselves?

Controlling enlightenment to use it for an exam? That was even more ridiculous.

If he had not seen it with his own eyes, he would not have dared to believe it was real.

But as the proctor, he still had to act as if he had seen the world. As if reaching enlightenment in the exam room was nothing more than an ordinary little matter. Everyone should just do whatever they were supposed to do.

What else could he do?

Was he supposed to interrupt Song Yi’s enlightenment process and tell her: classmate, this is cheating?

There was no rule saying one could not reach enlightenment during an exam, right?

She had opened a cheat with her own strength.

The classmates sitting near Song Yi were the most shocked, and also reacted the fastest. What are you staring for? Hurry up and answer questions, check your work!

Song Yi was the greatest beneficiary of the enlightenment, but the surrounding classmates all received its favor. Under the special baptism of spiritual energy, they felt sharp-eyed and keen-eared. It was more effective than swallowing any pill.

Profit, profit.

At the same time as the bell signaling the end of the exam rang, Song Yi put down her brush, turned in her jade slip, then clasped her hands behind her back with the corners of her mouth raised. “Mwahaha, I told you, my fate is up to me, not the heavens. As expected!”

After saying this, she drifted away.

Everyone looked at her back as she stood against the light as if they were looking at an enlightened expert.

Mm. If she were a little taller, she would have even more of the bearing of an enlightened expert.

But right now, she still looked more like a petty person flushed with success. Literally, a “little person.”

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