One stick of incense later, the Sixty-sixth Seat announced the end of the first phase of the examination.
He immediately proceeded to post the results of all thirty-seven candidates present onto a massive wooden board.
Among them, Lin Xiaoyue stood proudly at the top with a perfect score of 10, while Yun Heng sat in the lower-middle of the pack with a score of 6.
“The average score is actually above 8. The quality is indeed high.”
As he handed over his duties to the Fifty-second Seat, the Sixty-sixth Seat let out a low sigh of admiration.
In truth, it made sense. Those who were just trying their luck or felt they lacked the strength had already left before the exam even began.
Most of those who dared to remain in the presence of the Young Master of the Yun family were confident in their abilities.
However, looking at Yun Heng’s ranking, the tall and thin examiner from the Fifty-second Seat began to worry—how was he supposed to lower the difficulty of the second round to boost the Young Master’s score?
He couldn’t make it too obvious either. If anyone found out, his salary for the month would certainly be forfeited…
“I don’t think you need to worry so much.”
The Sixty-sixth Seat pulled a few peanuts from his pocket that he had just swiped, chewing on them. “I suspect that kid is controlling his score.”
There was a fifteen-minute break between each stage of the examination.
Since they were accustomed to setting up sound-isolating barriers for their conversations, they did not have to worry about the candidates eavesdropping.
“Oh? Why do you say that?” the Fifty-second Seat asked curiously.
“He’s acting too naturally.”
The Sixty-sixth Seat tilted his head and thought for a moment. “It’s not our first day invigilating. We’ve seen thousands, if not ten thousand, candidates with the strength of a score of 6.”
“The way Young Master Yun frowned in thought, his mid-test ‘revelations,’ and even his hesitation when turning in the paper… his expressions and movements were so natural they were practically textbook.”
As members of the seventy-two seats general division of the demon inspection department, all three were powerful experts who had fought against the demon race thousands of times on the front lines.
Their observation and reasoning skills were undoubtedly top-tier among cultivators of the same rank.
If they weren’t, they would never have survived their repeated encounters with the cunning demon race.
“Let’s see. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll lower the difficulty for the third round,” the Fifty-ninth Seat said softly when he saw that the Fifty-second Seat was still hesitating.
“Keep the deduction phase as normal as possible. You can even increase the difficulty if you want. After all, this is the most crucial skill a newcomer will need in the future.”
“You’re right. We can’t increase the mortality rate of newcomers just for some young master,” the Fifty-second Seat agreed, his gaze instinctively shifting to Lin Xiaoyue.
Especially toward this genius newcomer whom “Sister Hua” had specifically praised.
***
At 11:00 PM, the second round of the examination began on time.
The Fifty-second Seat distributed thirty-seven special jade slips.
Inside each was an illusion recording of a “demon disaster scene,” including bloodstains, claw marks, residual demonic aura, and scattered accounts from villagers.
The requirements for the exam were extremely strict.
They not only had to infer the type of demon, its approximate cultivation, and its behavioral characteristics based on the traces at the scene, but also reconstruct the chronological order of the attack and the demon’s movement route.
Furthermore, they had to identify the most likely hiding range, providing the specific distance in miles and the reasoning behind it.
Beyond that, the candidates had to decipher the strange accents and dialects of the local villagers. Otherwise, they would be forced to discard that information.
Moreover, Yun Heng noticed that not only were the accents heavy, but the villagers’ reports were also filled with contradictory and useless information.
One would say they saw a red light, the next would say there was no red light; the person on the left said the ground shook, while the person on the right said the sky was falling…
It could be said that this second round of testing was a truly objective evaluation of a cultivator’s overall quality.
Observation, logic, experience, language, and non-conventional thinking… if any of these were missing, the score for this round would not be high.
Fortunately, Yun Heng possessed ten thousand years of experience and dealt with the demon race frequently. It took him only a little more than one stick of incense to roughly reconstruct the truth.
This time, however, he was in no hurry to turn in his paper. Instead, after finalizing his answer, he looked toward Lin Xiaoyue.
Yun Heng was very curious about how she would perform in this round.
To his surprise, Lin Xiaoyue completed her answer at almost the same time. She once again walked forward as the first person to confidently submit her jade slip.
‘That speed…’
Yun Heng’s frown deepened.
He now had two suspicions. Either Lin Xiaoyue was his best friend’s sister and had been lying earlier, or she was a mole sent by the demon race.
But if it were the latter, was the demon race really bold and meticulous enough to send someone at the Foundation Establishment Stage to sneak into the headquarters of the demon inspection department?
And… if this guess were true, how could a demon bypass the aura verification of three genuine peak Integration Stage powerhouses?
In his past life, Yun Heng had personally experienced how terrifying that process was.
If Ling Yao hadn’t also been at the peak of the Integration Stage and had him by her side assisting with formations and divine abilities, she would have been locked in the locking demon tower long ago.
Therefore, the probability of that guess was a pitiful 0.001%.
But if it were the former… why would Lin Xiaoyue lie and say she didn’t know Yue Wuhen?
Yun Heng was certain that “Yue Wuhen” could not possibly be a fake name used by his friend. In his past life, he had seen that name’s brilliant golden glow on the War Merit Wall more than once.
That was golden liquid containing a soul aura, refined by the joint efforts of the chief constable of the southern prefecture and Elder Lan of the West Ridge—two of the “Four Crazies” who were as famous as Yun Wangji. It was impossible to fake.
Thinking through and eliminating various possibilities, the only conclusion Yun Heng could reach was that perhaps Yue Wuhen hadn’t been born yet. After all, their acquaintance had taken place 1,000 years in the future.
But that raised another doubt: Yue Wuhen had once mentioned that he was older than Yun Heng…
Yun Heng couldn’t figure it out. He really couldn’t.
“Time is up. All candidates, please stop.”
The rules of the evaluation stated that jade slips would be forcibly collected when the time expired. Yun Heng didn’t even have a chance to modify his work before his jade slip was taken away.
‘This is bad…’
Yun Heng pressed a hand to his forehead.
The Fifty-second Seat graded the papers very quickly. In just 5 breaths, the scores of the thirty-seven candidates were displayed on the wooden board.
Lin Xiaoyue was still at the top, her total score reaching 20.
And Yun Heng had jumped from the lower-middle pack all the way to second place with a total score of 16.
“…That impressive? Is this for real?”
The crowd was in an uproar. Some cultivators even began to whisper with their fellow townsmen, suspecting there was some backroom deal.
Average scores in the deduction phase were never very high.
After all, most of them had grown up in the Penglai prefecture; forget seeing a real demon, they had only ever read about “demonic aura” in storybooks and ancient texts.
Being able to get 3 points was cause for celebration. They hadn’t expected to see two perfect scores today.
“For the sake of fairness, I will display both answers alongside the reference key. You may judge for yourselves.”
The Fifty-second Seat did not stop the candidates’ whispering. He simply projected the contents of Lin Xiaoyue’s and Yun Heng’s jade slips into the air and distributed the reference key to every candidate.
Once the candidates completed their comparison, the way they looked at Yun Heng and Lin Xiaoyue gradually shifted.
“…They’re both freaks.”
Someone offered a candid assessment.
Lin Xiaoyue’s answer was one thing; though it was a perfect score, it could be described as standard.
It still lacked several details compared to the reference key. But Yun Heng… he could only be described as a “monster.”
Not only had he perfectly reconstructed every detail, but within those brief two sticks of incense, he had also created a detailed pursuit plan for every area where the demon might be hiding.
Combining the local environment and ecology, he formulated traps and temporary formations that looked highly likely to succeed at a single glance.
Both the candidates and the examiners began to wonder if Yun Heng really intended to capture a Great Demon, would he even need “martial force”? He could probably just crook his finger and lure the creature in like a dog…
If anyone had been thinking of making snide remarks about the Changsheng Yun family being able to get the answers in advance, after seeing the paper Yun Heng submitted, they now only thought about memorizing as much of it as possible. It might come in handy once they started the job.