Time pa*sed little by little, and some people even pa*sed out completely after reading hundreds of pages. So much information flashed fast in a few seconds, not being able to remember it with divine thoughts and relying entirely on memory, it was just terrifying to think about.
Even if one’s memory is strong, using it intensely for several hours in a row is something extremely difficult to sustain.
After an hour had pa*sed, pa*sing out was already light, and a few of the practitioners who took the written test actually vomited blood on the spot because they were using their brains too much.
Ning Cheng was already completely caught up in deep memory at this point, the content of this exam was indeed somewhat stressful for him, but the pressure wasn’t too great. Once upon a time, every time he took an exam, it was just an hour or two before the exam to read the book. That kind of memory was also very strong, the reason why it was not as strong as now was because he always had a lot of time before the exam, and there was another one where he didn’t need to take a hundred percent, his eyes swept over and he already remembered it.
Nowadays, flashing through a page in about five seconds was still within the tolerance range for Ning Cheng. As long as his gaze touched the area, it would normally be completely remembered. Ning Cheng knew that this ability of his was a very special ability no matter where he was.
In the Yixing Continent even cultivation flights were possible, and although this special ability was astonishing, it would not be as outrageous as on Earth.
At the beginning, Ning Cheng could barely finish reading one page and two sides before a new page of the desktop projection array turned over. At a later stage, Ning Cheng finished reading a new page and there was still time to spare. Although this spare time was only half a second at most, it allowed Ning Cheng to sort out his front memories and rest his brain.
By the time he reached the back, Ning Cheng was not memorising for the sake of the exam at all, he felt that all the things he was reading were extremely useful things.
The shapes and grades of various kinds of spirit herbs, methods of identifying colours and smells, the growing environment and special effects of various spirit herbs, which pills could be refined, and what effects would be produced when combined with which spirit herbs. All these things were memorized by Ning Cheng without missing a single word, and he believed that they would be useful to him in the future.
Once An Yi had also given him a book on the basics of spiritual herbs to read, but the content in that book was not even a tenth of what was here.
Three hours really pa*sed in a flash for Ning Cheng, and when he noticed that the projection on the table in front of him had disappeared, he raised his head with a sense of satisfaction. After looking at the beautiful young woman who was still standing on the round table, Ning Cheng had a good feeling for her.
The key was that Ning Cheng could also tell that this woman’s cultivation level was at least at the Yuan Building Realm, or even beyond.
All the candidates who had taken the preliminary written test also focused their gazes on the beautiful young woman because there was no more projection.
The young woman once again said with a warm voice, “There are still half an hour left, so now we will give everyone half a column of incense to sort out what they have just remembered.”
The examination hall was silent, and half a column of incense time quickly pa*sed before the young woman continued, “Before the written test, please have all the participants write their names and the clan they represent at the top of the white paper.”
After waiting a few more moments, and after presumably everyone had written their names, the young woman then said, “Now, please look at the questions, and on the table in front of each person will be projected the questions for this written test. On the white paper, write down the various properties and main characteristics of the ten Spiritual Herbs given, remembering that you need to be detailed, and compare the level of detail with the Basic Spiritual Herbs chapter you have just seen. Each of these ten questions will be ten points, making a total of one hundred points.”
Ning Cheng panted, such questions were not challenging for him. He had already memorised the Spiritual Herbs chapter just now, so as long as the questions asked were in the Spiritual Herbs chapter, he could definitely write them out.
Ning Cheng looked at the questions and it was true that they were all from the Spiritual Herbs chapter that he had just read. If he hadn’t read the Spiritual Herbs chapter just now, he wouldn’t have known any of these questions, they were all Spiritual Herbs that he had just seen and had never seen in other books before.
But when Ning Cheng saw the tenth question, he was dumbfounded, please write down the name of the first spiritual herb introduced on page 2932, as well as its various characteristics.
It wasn’t that he didn’t know how to do it, he had just memorised not only all the contents of each page, but also the serial number of each page. The point was that as soon as he did this question, it meant that his immensely strong memory was exposed beyond doubt. If he didn’t do this question, he could still have the excuse of having read the Basic Spiritual Herbs chapter somewhere else.
Ning Cheng knew that even if he didn’t do this question, he would definitely be able to enter the Five Star Academy. That seventy-six marker was able to enter, it would be strange if he still couldn’t enter the academy with ninety marks.
If he did this question, he would be making a big splash, with not much benefit. At best, his ranking would change from second to first, and then he would enter the rematch as first, with no substantial reward.
Ning Cheng was not terribly worried about exposing his memory in such a place, the Yixing Continent was different from Earth, it was a cultivation continent. There were all sorts of strange people, and he was not the only one with a strong memory. Moreover, in the future when his divine sense was strong, his memory would become secondary.
What Ning Cheng was looking at was whether there was a substantial reward, and now that there wasn’t any, he no longer wanted to go out of his way to make a splash. After all, he still had the Xuanhuang Pearl inside him, and since the last time the Xuanhuang Origin had reshaped his meridians and fused with him. Ning Cheng believed that ordinary people would definitely not be able to tell that he had the Xuanhuang Pearl, but it was always better to be careful in all matters, since he had achieved his goal, why should he make a spectacle of himself?
Ning Cheng quickly finished the nine questions, leaving the tenth question unfilled by him.
Seeing that half an hour was about to pa*s, this ******** suddenly spoke again, “This written test is the same as the previous ones, there is an additional question, and the additional question is also ten points. The extra question will be recounted by me orally, please listen to the question.”
Only then did Ning Cheng understand that the full score was one hundred and ten points, and if he would do the extra question, he would not continue to pretend that he could not do it as long as it was not particularly striking.
Seeing that all the people had prepared their paper and pens, this ******** then said in a slow voice, “What we have just looked at is the basic Spiritual Herb chapter, now the extra question we are giving is the simplest Spiritual Herb equipping question. The question is as follows, there are now ten different kinds of spiritual herbs, if you need to pick six of them to make a potion, how many ways are there to pick them?”
This question sounded so simple that some people were already excited to take their pens and combine them on white paper.
Ning Cheng, however, froze, there was still a question on permutations and combinations? This question took him less than three seconds to work out that the result was two hundred and ten types. However, it would be a big mistake to think that this topic was easy. In just a few minutes, it was difficult to list two hundred and ten different combinations.
Sure enough, those candidates who started to arrange them one by one with a pen immediately realised the difficulty of the task, which was not just a matter of a few or a dozen, but even more than a few dozen.
The last bit of time pa*sed quickly, and very few of them were really able to work out the results as Ning Cheng generally did.
“Time is up, please use the jade token you entered the written examination hall with to press the answer sheet, after five breaths, the answer sheet will be directly transported away.”
Hearing that after five breaths, the answer sheet would be teleported away, those candidates who were still arranging the method of Spiritual Herb selection, hurriedly wrote a random number and pressed their jade token onto the answer sheet.
Ning Cheng had finished answering the questions long ago, and only after his test paper was teleported away did he follow the many participants of the preliminary rounds as they crowded out of the examination hall.
Just as Ning Cheng walked out, Ji Luofei, who had been waiting for a long time, had already rushed over, “How did you do on the written test?”
“There should be no problem getting on the list, the list will be out in a moment, let’s go wait outside the big screen.” Ning Cheng pulled Ji Luofei out of the crowd.
……
Outside the six huge formation screens in Mo Ze Grand Square, there were already people gathered around at this time. All of them were waiting for the examination results to come out.
As the five preliminary written exams had all been completed, all the people began to talk about the topics. When others heard that the fifth one was to memorise nearly five thousand pages of the Basic Chapter on Spiritual Herbs in three hours, without using divine thoughts, they were all staggered. Immediately afterwards, some people said that the previous games were also about memorising around four thousand pages of material foundations. Those who didn’t go to the preliminary rounds were left without the idea of what-ifs; there are absolutely no what-ifs in this kind of exam.
“Big brother Yiyang is definitely number one this time, I reckon when the ninety-four marks come out, those teachers who are marking the papers won’t believe it.” A young girl wearing a pink dress not far from Ning Cheng covered her mouth with her hand and said with a soft smile.
“Do you still need to say that, look at the third place which only scored seventy-six points, it’s too far away from Senior Brother Leng.” Someone next to the young girl immediately echoed.
A man dressed in white hastened to arch his hand modestly and said, “The results of the fifth match have not yet come down, it is still too early to say first at this time.”
“Big brother Yi Yang, you’re 100 percent first. I reckon you’re the only one with pure spiritual roots who is still willing to take the preliminary written test.” The young girl disagreed with the white-clothed man’s modesty.
“That’s certainly true, that’s strength. If it was someone else with pure spiritual roots, there is absolutely no way they would have participated in the preliminary round. What is the purpose of the competition? Isn’t it just to be selected by the Five Star Academy? Senior Brother Leng’s pure wood spirit root, just about any five-star academy would snatch it up.” Another person on the side echoed.
“I heard that Ling Naixin, who represents Thunder Five Star Academy, is also a pure spirit root, she would have been a core disciple of Thunder Academy, but like Senior Brother Leng, she must also sign up for the preliminary written exam.” A grey-clothed teenager spoke out, sort of refuting the young girl in the pink dress.
“Ling Naixin? The one who scored eighty-five points in the written test for the third preliminary round in a single match?” Someone asked in amazement. It was obvious that they hadn’t expected both high scores to be pure spiritual roots.
“Even if that Ling Naixin is a pure Spiritual Root, she only scored eighty-five points, she will be ranked second in the overall ranking later, and big brother Yi Yang will be first.” The young girl in red still strongly supported her big brother Yiyang.
More and more people joined in the discussion around them, and the man in white even clasped his fist and humbled himself on all sides, but his proud and smug eyes made it clear that it was only natural for him to get first place.
Ning Cheng also sort of understood that this man should be Leng Yiyang, who had scored ninety-four points in the preliminary written test. He thought of Shui Yu who had flown down from the restaurant earlier, who was also dressed in white at that time, and couldn’t help but mutter, “It’s true that if you want to act tough, wear white.”
“What to pretend to wear white clothes?”
Ji Luofei had just asked, when she heard someone say loudly, “The fifth formation projection screen is lit up around the fifth written test results are about to come out.”