Chapter 181
13.10 - Class transfer test
translator: xiin
editors: alamerysl & BlueBug
In fact, the transfer test was only held once or twice a year. Longyue College would broadcast the entire process live to ensure the fairness of the exam, but today was the first time it attracted so much attention. When the live stream room was opened, a large number of people poured in. If the Star Net didn't have a high capacity capable of dealing with this sudden influx, the room would probably have collapsed immediately.
The top of the live stream room was full of stars and moons that were bought and sent by the crazed fans, as well as all kinds of fireworks and small gifts sent by the people who entered.
The school's live stream room was sent to the top of the live stream rankings in an instant. Many people came in just to take a look at what kind of weird thing the Longyue College was doing.
Such a scene had also appeared in the original story, but it had only occurred after Hao Songle's reputation as a genius spread out and he had a certain degree of popularity that his promotion test triggered a similar response. But as far as the original situation was concerned, the live stream room was not as hot right from the start the way this one was.
The headmaster was also surprised by the surge in popularity, but when he thought of Marshal Yin Jia, he understood that it was all because of that person who belonged to the Marshal's Palace.
That was indeed the case. After the matter that day kicked up such a big fuss, people quickly realized that the matter involved more than just a conflict between the Marshal's young nurturer and a fellow student because the day after the matter exploded, the Royal Family issued a decree to remove the Speaker, who was deeply involved in many scandals, involving several social and other ** cases. Early in the morning, he was arrested while attempting to flee. The Speaker's family was locked up, their assets seized, and people woke up to find that their universe seemed to have exploded.
Major events happened every day, but it was definitely the first time that such an impactful and vigorous political event had happened at such a fast pace. Very quickly, someone grasped the fact that the Speaker had been involved in some conflict at Longyue College the day before. He had offended the Marshal, and was caught the very next day. The speed of this arrest was very impressive.
Some people questioned whether this incident was simply petty revenge, but the case concerning the Speaker was soon put on stage. People were surprised by what he had done and even more shocked by his viciousness. After all, the person who looked normally like a modest gentleman had used such fierce means behind everyone's backs and was willing to do whatever it took to achieve his goals. After the Military Headquarters investigated, they discovered that the Speaker had a huge amount of money under his name that had all been obtained through corruption and bribery. A month later, many people were still amazed by the amount.
It was precisely because of his connection to the Speaker's case that Xue Ling attracted so much attention during this promotion test. After all, he was the catalyst for this entire incident. Many people had finally discovered that he was the butterfly that had started off this series of events; if he had not broken off the father and son relationship with Hao Yuanliang, many of the things that happened afterwards might never have happened. Hao Yuanliang's family had also collapsed after his departure.
Since the Speaker had been exposed, Hao Yuanliang had no way to escape the blame. Song Yin was imprisoned for poisoning, and Hao Xu, the oldest son in the Hao family had to leave the army early in order to look after Hao Songle, who was now emotionally unstable. Only then did Hao Songle reluctantly regain a little spirit and gradually stabilize his mood. He had also applied for this promotion test. Although Xue Ling was too busy cultivating his spiritual power to pay attention to him, the system still reluctantly paid attention to the protagonist, and found that even without the help of the golden finger, he could magically improve his spiritual strength.
It could only be said that he was truly a son of fate. Even if he had been constantly blocked at every turn and his golden finger taken away, he still had the means to jump up and down and land in front of others.
Originally, there was no need for Yin Jia to take part trifling events such as a promotion test, but when he thought about how Xue Ling had been studying in his study over the past month, he felt that since the child had been working so hard, he would be a bad parent if he didn't go and watch. So he pushed off the entire day's worth of work, and decided to properly accompany Xue Ling.
Xue Ling didn't expect his guardian to be so thoughtful. If Yin Jia hadn't insisted that he study in the study room, Xue Ling was much more willing to shut himself in the space to learn. But he was his father, and had the final say. Now that he wanted to come, Xue Ling couldn't exactly tell him 'if you come you'll distract me', and could only smile as he expressed his welcome and delight.
Yin Jia was keenly aware that the child did not seem to be very willing to be close to him. Although he wasn't clear why this was the case, he still reached out to rub Xue Ling's head, and decided to have a good talk to him after the test. Was there some sort of misunderstanding between them? After their talk a month ago when they returned from the College, this child had become reluctant to be close to him. He acted so cleverly, yet distant all day long that even Mu Xi wondered if they had caused some misunderstanding.
The promotion test was divided into three parts. The first was to select ores, which was exactly the same as gambling with stones. The school would provide everyone with ores that had already gone through an initial screening in order to ensure that they all had some sort of energy crystals within. But what kind of energy crystal they were, and how much energy they contained were all unknown, and selecting the ores depended on the students' own judgement. Each student could choose three ores, and after they made their selection, they would be graded according to the quality of the ores they had chosen.
This entire process was automatic, basically eliminating any possibility of cheating.
After selecting and judging the ores, they would reach the second part, which required them to purify the energy in all three energy crystals they had obtained.
No matter how pure the energy in the energy crystals were, it would still be mixed with some superfluous substances that increased the loss of energy. Only a purified stone could be sculpted, and the evaluation criteria for this round was based on the purity of the energy crystal. This was also tested with professional machinery, and could not be faked.
The third and final step was to create a set of sculptures with the three purified energy crystals. The set needed to consist of three pieces, and the evaluation criteria for the third part was based on the appearance of the three items as well as their energy output.
The purpose of sculpting energy crystals was to maximize the output and efficiency of energy in the crystals. Before, nobody really pursued the appearance of these objects, nor did anyone remember when people began to demand that they look good. But because of this, every Senior Energy Sculptor was also a very good designer. Their works were often sought after by countless people, and even nurturers would spend a lot of money to buy their works, not because of the pure energy in the energy crystals, but because their works were exquisite and very artistic.
According to the rules, passing all three rounds would allow the student to transfer to a class one rank up. Xue Ling's goal was to enter Class S, which was a jump of three ranks, meaning he would have to do a total of nine rounds.
All of the rounds required a high level of energy and power consumption. If the contestants did not have high spiritual power, promoting to Class S in one go was simply a fantasy.
Xue Ling was the only one applying to transfer to Class S this time, so he was the only one working busily during the first three rounds.
There were limitations on the sculptures required for Class B, so Xue Ling could see that the best ore amongst them all was a B Grade energy crystal. After purifying it, Xue Ling's B Grade energy crystal became A Grade, which shocked many people who were watching the test. Many people began to discuss what degree of success they would be able to achieve if they were the ones doing the test.
The sculpting part of the first set of tests did not consume much of Xue Ling's energy. The energy crystals he had chosen were not big, so he carved a traditional set, namely a necklace and a pair of earrings.
He seemed to breeze through the entire process, and the score the system gave him was very high. Although the teachers felt that there was room for improvement in his sculpture, as a Class C Sculptor, for him to have this level of ability was already very good, so his score was still quite high. Mu Xi was so happy it was as though she was the one participating in the competition.
After a short break, Xue Ling started the second round to jump from Class B to Class A. Other than him and Hao Songle, five other nurturers were taking this test. They all appeared very confident, having prepared for a long time and only choosing to take the test after they were sure they had a good grasp of the required skills.
Xue Ling was very calm from beginning to end. When selecting ores in the first round, he was the first one to finish.
There were numerous messages on the live broadcasting platform, most of which were similar to:
[The small cutie appears to be very confident, finishing his selection so quickly!]
[The selection speed is the same as it was for the previous round~]
[He's really worthy of being my future child~ Your mother is proud of you!]
Of course, there were also people who had doubts about him, and there were also a lot of ugly words. However the messages went by quickly, and there were people who were always willing to report them for bad behaviour, so very quickly, people stopped causing a ruckus.
Xue Ling had no idea that he had already been recognized as everyone's 'Baby' on the Star Net, with everyone wanting to be his father or mother. While the other examinees were still choosing their ores, he had already submitted his ores to be extracted and tested.
This part of the test was mechanized, with quantum computers doing all the work. Xue Ling went straight into the next room and waited for his energy crystals.
Shortly after he came in, Hao Songle also followed him inside. He didn't seem to want to say hello to Xue Ling, simply looking at Xue Ling coldly, no longer putting on his white lotus hat. Now that he couldn't afford to provoke Xue Ling, he chose to hide.
Since the other party hadn't come to provoke him, Xue Ling naturally had no interest in dealing with him. He turned to pick up his own energy crystals and purified them. They were unable to see their scores until the end of the test, so neither of them knew what kind of reaction the stone Xue Ling had just brought out had triggered.
The live stream room blew up again. A Grade energy crystals were already considered very advanced. Ordinary people would need to half a year's savings to purchase one, but Xue Ling had casually chosen three of them. How could they not blow up?
At first, some people consoled themselves by saying that there must be many high-quality energy crystals in these ores, but after the rest of the students finished choosing their ores and having them judged, they found that none of the other stones were better. The really good ones had all been picked out by Xue Ling.
Some people began to send messages like crazy, suspecting that Xue Ling was cheating. He must have known exactly where the ores were in advance in order to pick them so accurately! There must be a conspiracy!
And then, the person who had posed these questions was quickly hit in the face with the facts, because it was pointed out that in the last round of ore selection, the best energy crystal was B Grade, and they had all been chosen by Xue Ling. It was clear that his ability was strong, and it was not cheating.
For the first time, the school also issued an announcement against this rumor, saying that the ores had been transported directly from the mining planets and the school's philosophy was to be fair and just. Cheating because of power or other such things was something they disdained to do.
Even if that was the case, some people expressed their indignation.
But soon they were beaten up again by the results of the next round, because Xue Ling had finished his purification process and the machines had evaluated the results of his purifications. The energy purity of each stone reached 95%. Even the teachers at the school might not necessarily be able to achieve this level of purification. The live stream began to attract some powerful Senior Sculptors after they heard that there was a genius here who could purify an energy stone to 95%. They put down the work they had on hand and came over, wanting to see exactly what level of ability Xue Ling ultimately had.
Xue Ling did not disappoint them. After the third round of sculpture, the energy utilization rate of his works also reached 95%.
As soon as these figures come out, the screen for the live stream was filled with so many comments that people watching the broadcast couldn't even see Xue Ling's face at all.
The small flying camera robot that was in charge of video and photography exhibited Xue Ling's works from all 360 degrees. Compared with the previous sculptures, Xue Ling seemed to have spent more effort on the creation of this set, and the three energy crystals had been made into hair ornaments; two phoenix hairpins and a small phoenix crown. The birds in the sculptures were vivid and were already at the level where they could be sold on the market.
This act of directly, mercilessly showing his strength gained Xue Ling another round of new fans; at the end of the day, this was a world where strength was king. At first, they paid attention to him because he was a hot topic, and because he was the nominal adopted son of the Marshal Yin Jia, but now they were completely attracted to him and sold by his skills.
Xue Ling once again rose from Class B to Class A with a very high score. He passed the test along with Hao Songle and two other nurturers. The three remaining nurturers' final scores had not reached the threshold, and they failed.
There was not much time to rest and recover before Xue Ling had to begin the Class A to Class S test.
Taking the test along with him was a nurturer who had two dimples in his cheeks when he smiled. He looked very kind, and since they were meeting for the first time, the nurturer greeted Xue Ling warmly.
And was directly ignored by Xue Ling.
in case you guys missed it, we now have TWO! fluffy beastmen novels, (translated by Callis) and (translated by RainbowTurtle)~ you guys are missing out if you aren't reading 'em!