Chapter 64: College Entrance Examination

These past fifteen days had been the most comfortable time Su Ling had ever experienced.

There were no debts and no financial burdens.

All she had to do was focus on improving her grades.

However, she would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night with a start.

When she looked over and realized the person in her arms was not her Miao Miao, her heart felt heavy.

But with the company of Su Yao, Mo Ran, and Mo Tong, she temporarily pushed those worries to the back of her mind.

Shao Nian You had completely vanished.

The Superintendent Department in the Upper City had acted with lightning speed.

Any industry related to Shao Nian You had disappeared without a trace, as if it had never existed.

But the security in the Lower City did not seem to improve.

Every time Su Ling and Mo Ran stayed late at school and headed home, they could always see figures engaged in street brawls.

When a whale falls, ten thousand things rise.

The behemoth known as Shao Nian You was gone, but the profits remained.

Countless people were secretly eyeing that piece of fat. Public order in the Lower City actually seemed worse than before.

“Don’t be nervous. Just perform at your usual level.”

Today was the final day of the College Entrance Examination.

The examination lasted three days.

On the first day, they took Physics and Mathematics.

After fifteen days of frantic practice, Su Ling felt comfortable with those subjects and had some confidence.

The second day consisted of History and Biology.

Well, she could only say she managed to get by.

As for today…

Su Ling watched the Witches warming up in the examination hall, and her legs began to tremble uncontrollably.

‘This… isn’t this too much?’

In front of Su Ling, a little girl who only reached her chest was lifting a mountain-like block of iron.

Her expression was relaxed, as if she were lifting a piece of cotton.

“Good luck. I believe in you,” Mo Ran encouraged her.

The examination hall for Sports and Mana Control was significantly more crowded than the previous two days.

Students from the Lower City might not be great at academic questions, but their physical fitness was beyond reproach.

“Candidate 4503.”

The proctor at the front called her name.

Su Ling took a deep breath.

At this moment, she felt like a criminal heading to the execution ground.

The candidates on both sides saw her, and their eyes immediately lit up.

All sorts of gazes swept over her body without any reservation.

Quite a few little girls even gave her wolf-whistles.

“Silence!”

The proctor said with a stern face.

“Pull-ups. Please begin.”

Su Ling looked at the horizontal bar above her head and felt an immense amount of pressure.

‘Su Ling, keep it up! You can do this!’

“Good. 101 reps. Pull-ups: 2.5 points. Next.”

Su Ling stepped down with a flushed face, feeling the surrounding gazes stabbing her like knives.

“You already did very well. Don’t put so much pressure on yourself,” Mo Ran comforted her from the side.

Su Ling knew her performance was decent.

At least it was better than zero points.

For her, every single point counted.

“Candidate 4503.”

“It’s my turn.”

“Mhm, good luck!”

Mo Ran stepped forward with a confident expression.

“1,000 reps. Full marks!”

Mo Ran wasn’t even breathing heavily.

Su Ling’s eyes were filled with envy.

‘Damn it. We’re both Witches, so why is the difference so huge?’

Next came the 10,000-meter long-distance run, the one-ton weightlift, and 1,000 jump ropes.

Fortunately, Su Ling managed to get 2 points, 0.5 points, and 5 points, respectively.

Adding them together, her total score for the Sports category was 10 points.

“I’m satisfied, I’m satisfied,” Su Ling giggled as she looked at her score.

At least it was better than a zero.

Meanwhile, Mo Ran scored 95 points in Sports.

It was terrifyingly high.

It was now noon. Su Yao and Mo Tong had reserved a private room at a nearby restaurant.

“Good luck this afternoon, too — ” Su Yao cheered.

Her gaze, however, kept drifting toward a bottle of wine on the table.

Tsk, she was craving it.

“I’ll let you have a drink once I get into a junior college,” Su Ling said.

She wasn’t even thinking about high-tier universities; she just wanted to score around 300 points so she could attend a junior college.

The results for Witches were released very quickly. Almost as soon as they put down their pens, the scores were available.

Su Ling’s Physics score was 80 points, Mathematics was 75 points, Biology was 50 points, History was 40 points, and with the 10 points from Sports this morning, her total was 255 points.

As long as she could score 15 points in Mana Control this afternoon, her spot in a junior college would be practically guaranteed.

And Mo Ran was truly an Academic Genius.

Physics was 95 points, Math was 90 points, Biology was 99 points, and History was a perfect score.

Combined with her 95 points in Sports, her total was 479 points.

479 points! As long as she scored above 71 points this afternoon, getting into a Witch Academy wouldn’t be a dream at all.

Su Ling was genuinely happy for Mo Ran.

Mo Ran’s hard work over the past fifteen days was no less than her own.

This score was exactly what she deserved.

“Good luck!”

“Mhm, good luck!”

They clinked their glasses together.

Time passed quickly.

After Su Ling and Mo Ran took a short nap, it was time to enter the examination hall.

They looked at each other and entered the final exam with apprehensive hearts. Su Yao and Mo Tong waited anxiously outside.

The wait felt incredibly long.

It wasn’t until dusk that the figures of Su Ling and Mo Ran slowly appeared.

Su Ling’s face was pale, and she looked completely overextended.

Seeing this, Su Yao hurried forward to support her.

“Hehe… 20 points!”

Su Ling said with a proud look, as if she were a general returning from a victorious campaign.

She had practically bet her life on the final Mana Control exam.

One had to know that when Mo Ran tested her before, her average score was only about 10 points.

20 points was almost her absolute limit.

After saying this, Su Ling looked satisfied, rolled her eyes, and fainted on the spot.

“Ling Ling!”

Su Yao panicked instantly.

However, after checking and realizing she had simply passed out and was in no danger, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

“Xiao Ran?”

At that moment, Mo Tong noticed that Mo Ran seemed a bit despondent and couldn’t help but ask.

“Sister, I scored 80 points.”

“That’s a good thing! Wait, 80 points? That means…!”

Mo Tong’s mouth hung open in shock.

This meant that Mo Ran could get into a Witch Academy.

A wave of immense excitement instantly hit Mo Tong.

She hugged Mo Ran and started spinning her around in joy.

A Witch Academy!

A Witch Academy!

That was a place that trained Transcendent Witches!

Once one graduated, they would belong to a different social class and begin a completely new life.

However, Mo Ran wasn’t as happy as one might imagine.

She looked at the unconscious Su Ling lying in Su Yao’s arms, her heart filled with mixed emotions.

She realized that the time for them to part was approaching.

During these past fifteen days, without even realizing it, she seemed to have grown accustomed to this girl’s presence.

At this moment, she felt a sense of loss.

Outside the examination hall, there was both joy and sorrow.

Some were starting new lives, while others continued to walk their original paths.

***

“Sigh, seeing them reminds me of the day of my own College Entrance Examination.”

Looking at the various scenes of life unfolding below the window, a blonde girl couldn’t help but sigh softly.

“Te-teacher? Why are you here?”

At that moment, the door was suddenly pushed open, and a clumsy red-haired girl burst inside.

“Qing Quan, you’re the same as always.”

The blonde girl glanced at the intruder. Seeing the girl’s fiery red hair, she was momentarily stunned.

“Wait, why did you dye your hair that color? It’s hideous.”

“Th-that’s none of your business!”

Qing Quan’s face turned beet red.

However, the person in front of her was the principal of Andromeda Witch Academy and her own teacher, Fiona.

“By the way, you haven’t said what you’re doing here. Could it be you’re here to see if there are any good prospects this year? I looked at the scores; the highest is only 596 points. Not that great.”

Qing Quan looked at the score sheet and sighed.

It really was getting worse every year.

The highest was only 596 points.

Back in their day, perfect scores were everywhere.

Of course, true geniuses entered through special recruitment or recommendation letters from Great Witches.

The College Entrance Examination was merely an upward channel for ordinary people.

“I received three recommendation letters. Interestingly, they all recommend the same person.”

“H-how many? Three?”

Qing Quan shouted out loud.

Three recommendation letters meant three Great Witches!

To be recommended by three Great Witches at once, what kind of peerless genius must she be?

“What’s her name? Is she this year’s top scorer? Wait, not necessarily. Let me see if there’s anyone who scored exactly 300 points.”

Qing Quan hurriedly searched the score sheets.

Geniuses with recommendation letters would often take the College Entrance Examination just to meet the minimum requirement of 300 points.

Every year, students with recommendations would take exactly three subjects, get full marks in each, and not a single point more or less.

It was a display of absolute confidence in themselves.

However, as Qing Quan flipped through, she found many students with 300 points, but almost none who had scored perfectly in exactly three subjects.

She was suddenly confused.

‘What’s going on?’

“Her name is Su Ling, from Pancheng Street in the Lower City.”

“The Lower City?”

Qing Quan nearly choked on her own saliva.

She found Su Ling’s information based on the name.

When she saw Su Ling’s scores, she fell into a dead silence.

“Te-teacher, did you misread something?”

Qing Quan felt her vision go dark as she stared at the scores.

Was this a human score?

Sports: 10 points?

‘Sister, I couldn’t even score a 10 if I used my pinky to take the test.’

Mana Control: 20 points?

And History: 40 points?

‘Wait, are you really a local?’

Qing Quan remembered that this year’s history section was mostly common-sense questions.

Any native Witch should have been able to answer them correctly.

“Haha, interesting. Interesting.”

Fiona was stunned at first when she saw the scores, but then she burst into laughter.

She had seen many geniuses, but this was the first time she had seen someone like Su Ling. It was actually more amusing.

“Teacher, are you sure she isn’t just someone with connections?”

“Even if she has connections, that’s her own ability.”

Fiona had read those three recommendation letters.

One was from Meng Lingneng, saying it was for compensation.

One was from Ji Lingying, with a ridiculous reason stating she simply liked Su Ling’s looks.

And the one she cared about most was from an old woman who had been in seclusion for a long time.

She hadn’t expected that person to break her silence and give Su Ling a recommendation letter.

It was interesting, truly interesting.

Three Great Witches with completely different identities who didn’t even know each other had simultaneously recommended a little Witch.

To be honest, in Fiona’s several hundred years of life, this was the first time she had seen such a thing.

Seeing Qing Quan’s expression, which looked as though she had swallowed a fly, Fiona couldn’t help but roll her eyes.

“The recommendation system doesn’t take away resources from ordinary people, so why are you making that face? If she can get three recommendation letters, that’s her own skill. Anyway, I just came because I was curious. Don’t go around blabbering about this. You have a big mouth and can’t keep a secret.”

“Wh-who has a big mouth!”

Qing Quan got defensive.

This was slander!

“School is about to start. If you have time, you can come back and help out. The Astral Grand Competition is in urgent need of staff right now.”

“The Astral Grand Competition? Right, Teacher, I’ve been meaning to ask. What’s the point of organizing this competition? It’s a waste of time and effort,” Qing Quan grumbled.

“Hee, it’s for fishing.”

“Fishing? Is it a fishing competition?”

Fiona looked at her foolish student and felt a bit tired.

“I suppose you could say that.”

“Wow, what kind of fish are you catching? Is it a Heaven-Swallowing Whale or a Space Shark? It couldn’t be a Dimensional Octopus, right? I remember those things are from the Second Universe. Hundreds of Great Witches couldn’t even — “

“Stop, stop, stop! See, I told you that you have a big mouth.”

Fiona annoyed gave Qing Quan a flick on the forehead, making the latter clutch her head with a look of grievance.

However, Fiona was now stroking her chin in thought.

She had been worrying about what the event for the Astral Grand Competition should be.

A combat tournament?

Forget it, The Company had hosted countless ones, and the audience was already bored.

Racing?

That was also The Company’s specialty.

They just held Star Sea Racing last year, and she heard there was an accident where an Industrial Planet was blown up.

The Company had to pay a lot in compensation for that.

A cooking competition?

Mhm, not much of a spectacle.

But Qing Quan’s rambling just now gave Fiona an idea.

‘Fishing, huh… Hehe, that’s not bad. The sea of stars is also a sea. What’s wrong with a bit of fishing?’