Chapter 57: Pass the Exam, Head to Songyang City

Chapter 57: Pass the Exam, Head to Songyang City

"Zhang Yu!"

"Zhang Yu!"

"Zhang Yu!"

With each call, Zhang Yu suddenly woke up to the sound of laughter in the classroom.

Looking up at the lectern, he saw the teacher glaring at him coldly. "Get out and stand in the corridor."

Zhang Yu stood up reluctantly and walked out of the classroom.

Day after day of high school life, he felt no hope.

His grades were getting worse, his ranking lower, and he had dropped from the Model Class to the worst class. Both his classmates and teachers looked at him as if he were a pile of garbage.

The loans he had taken out to cultivate the Immortal Path were piling up, suffocating him.

One day, he found himself on the school rooftop.

Just as he was about to step off, his phone rang.

Zhang Yu answered, and the voice on the other end said, "Hello? Is this Mr. Zhang Yu? We have a new cemetery plot in the northern suburbs. For just 200,000, you can enjoy post-death corpse transformation services and get a chance to live again..."

Zhang Yu laughed bitterly. "Your data is really impressive, guessing I was about to jump. Unfortunately, you didn't figure out that I'm flat broke and can't afford your cemetery plot."

The voice continued, "If you're broke, don't you want a comeback? Our company has the Sky-Repair Initiative. If you're interested, I can send you the details..."

Zhang Yu hung up and looked down at the darkness below, which seemed like an abyss.

"Comeback..."

After a moment of silence, he finally opened his phone again and looked at the website the caller had sent.

A bear plushie appeared on the screen and said, "Make a wish to the divine."

"By performing the Contractual Ritual for me, all your wishes will be granted in five minutes."

"Completely free, zero thresholds, no extra charges."

"Click once, and your life will be transformed..."

Watching this, Zhang Yu felt something stirring in his mind, a painful memory that he couldn't quite recall.

It was a feeling of being constantly forced, constantly tortured, and constantly pushed to endure.

Just as these painful memories were about to surface, his emotions and instincts reacted first.

"Damn it!" Zhang Yu shouted, throwing his phone away and flipping the bird. "Ha, trying to trick me?"

"In your dreams!"

Zhang Yu's consciousness jolted, and he found himself waking up in the classroom again.

But the memories and emotions related to the Ebon Deity grew more intense, gradually bringing back some memories.

"I remember, I'm taking the Divine Assistant qualification exam."

"This exam seems to be related to the Ebon Deity?"

Zhang Yu felt he had grasped the key to the exam and decided to perform well.

...

Sun Jiayi had a proud heart.

Because he was not human, but a deity.

Although he was just one of the 480 million Registrar Deities in the Inspection Division, he was still a deity with the power to review humans.

Even though he was only assessing part-time workers earning 14 yuan per hour, he always took his job seriously.

That was what it meant to be a deity.

A deity, even in lowly status, never forgets his duty!

At that moment, multiple screens in front of Sun Jiayi were displaying the content of various exams.

These were the instinctive reactions of candidates in the Spirit Realm, facing the temptations of the Ebon Deity.

The key to passing the exam for the Inspection Division's part-time workers was whether they could resist the Ebon Deity's temptations in the illusion.

"What does this candidate from Taitian City mean by listing his family's assets and background in his resume?"

"So what if his net worth is over 100 million? If he fails, he fails. Do you think I would show favoritism because of your family background?"

Sun Jiayi sneered, dismissing the candidate's hesitation in the illusion.

"Unsteady will, failed."

Sun Jiayi was a proud deity, and the more privileged the candidates he dismissed, the more he felt his divine pride and the satisfaction of doing his job well.

His attention turned to the next candidate from Hongan City.

The candidate's resume was filled with honors from his first and second years of high school, a top student, a regular in competitions, a shining talent, and a promising future, possibly even entering a top university or a great sect.

But watching the candidate struggle in the illusion for ten minutes before finally rejecting the Ebon Deity, Sun Jiayi was merciless in his assessment.

"Hmph, thinking a bright future and a shiny resume will make me go easy on you? I'm not some commoner who only cares about scores."

"Even if you are a college student, a prodigy, in my hands, if I say you fail, you fail."

"Taking so long to reject, your will is clearly not strong enough. You won't pass."

His attention shifted again, and this time, Zhang Yu's information and exam content appeared before him.

"Hmm, he decisively threw away his phone on the rooftop. Not bad."

"Next, the difficulty increases. Let's see how he handles it."

The screen showed various temptations from the Ebon Deity, one after another.

A beautiful woman asked Zhang Yu to make a wish to the Ebon Deity with her. Zhang Yu kicked her away and fled.

When he was being pursued and cornered, the Ebon Deity offered to save him. Zhang Yu ignored it, threw the Ebon Deity doll at his enemies, and shouted, "Great stuff! Make any wish you want with this thing!"

A massive rag doll deity chased Zhang Yu, threatening him with terrifying power to make a pact. Zhang Yu called the police while running, and when they arrived, he even tried to join them in fighting the Ebon Deity.

However, Sun Jiayi was no longer watching Zhang Yu's active performance because someone had contacted him.

Seeing Zhang Pianpian's name and her position as acting deputy captain of the Songyang City Inspection Division patrol team, he frowned. "What does this colleague want?"

Zhang Pianpian said, "There's a candidate named Zhang Yu. I hope..."

Sun Jiayi was about to refuse but saw that Zhang Pianpian had activated the Talisman Codex and cast a Talisman Spell.

"You dared to cross the Spirit Realm and cast a Talisman Spell on me, a deity?"

"You have some nerve!"

But when he saw the specific Talisman Spell, Sun Jiayi relaxed. "A Devotion Talisman?!"

The Devotion Talisman was a spell that could quickly increase a deity's favor.

It didn't require the deity's name, information, or account details. As long as it was cast during contact, it would directly transfer money to the deity's account and hide the transaction.

Seeing the Devotion Talisman's effect, Sun Jiayi's serious expression relaxed.

"I didn't expect a mere mortal to understand Talismans so well, even learning the Devotion Talisman."

Noticing the change in his account, he smiled. "A high school student showing such devotion, your faith is truly strong."

"What do you need from me?"

Zhang Pianpian was not surprised.

From her experience using the Talisman Codex and learning Talismans, she knew that faith levels could be boosted by recharging, learning Talisman Spells required recharging, and hiring a Divine Assistant also required recharging. So, Talismans were all about recharging!

However, recharging for a deity required the right method, whether through the Talisman Codex, private transfers, public transfers, or the Devotion Talisman. The effectiveness varied widely, depending on the level of the Talisman Spell.

Zhang Pianpian said, "Could you please lower the difficulty of Zhang Yu's exam a bit?"

Sun Jiayi dismissed it. "A 14-yuan-per-hour job, how difficult can the exam be?"

...

In the illusion.

Zhang Yu looked around the white room, his eyes filled with confusion.

A line of text floated in the center of the room: "The Ebon Deity tempts you. Will you accept it?"

Below were two floating options: "Yes" and "No."

Isn't this a trick question?

The question seemed too simple, making Zhang Yu hesitant to answer.

After ten minutes of contemplation, unable to find any trap, Zhang Yu nervously chose "No."

The next moment, a notification appeared, indicating he had passed the exam.

Still confused, Zhang Yu exited the Spirit Realm.

At that moment, his phone rang. Zhang Pianpian's voice came through. "You should have passed the exam, right?"

Zhang Yu expressed his doubts.

Zhang Pianpian explained, "Oh, I paid the on-duty Registrar Deity to lower the difficulty a bit."

Just a bit?

This is a deity?

Zhang Yu was shocked. "You can buy off a deity with money?"

Zhang Pianpian: "Not exactly."

Zhang Yu was about to breathe a sigh of relief when Zhang Pianpian continued, "Money can increase the chances of buying off a deity, but it depends on how much and how it's spent, which relates to the level of the Talisman Spell."

Zhang Yu: "But... that's a deity!"

"In the Kunxu Realm, deities work for money. That's how the Eight Divine Authorities run the Kunxu Realm and govern the world", Zhang Pianpian explained matter-of-factly. "Without money, how would the Eight Divine Authorities function?"

Zhang Yu was speechless, realizing he had a deeper understanding of the Kunxu Realm.

Recalling what she had said earlier, Zhang Yu asked, "Didn't you say the exam tests Dao Heart and willpower?"

Zhang Pianpian replied calmly, "Yes, you need a strong Dao Heart and willpower to persist... until I found the deity responsible for your exam in the Spirit Realm and used a Talisman Spell to transfer money to his account."

She continued, "I'll bring your work ID and Talisman Codex. Let's meet at the entrance of your high school."

"Now, we can talk to the Student Union at Songyang High School."

Zhang Yu hurriedly boarded a bus, arriving at the school station an hour and a half later. From a distance, he saw Zhang Pianpian standing at the intersection.

She handed him a black-and-white book-like object.

"This is your Talisman Codex. You get one free use of a Talisman Spell per day, and you can get discounts on learning Talisman Spells from the Inspection Division..."

She pointed to the strange symbols on the Talisman Codex. "The symbols on the Talisman Codex are the mark of the Inspection Division. Show it if you're in trouble."

Zhang Yu carefully held it, thinking, "This is a Talisman Codex. The cheapest ones cost almost 100,000, right?"

The Talisman Codex was crucial for learning Talismans, and Talismans were related to high school Taoist Arts scores. Zhang Yu had heard of high school students mortgaging their organs to buy a Talisman Codex.

"This thing is given to us upon joining? The Inspection Division must be rich."

"Azhen would kneel and call me 'dad' if she saw this, begging to play with it."

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