The invigilator was stunned.
Su Hao was dumbfounded.
Mimic Butterfly panicked.
How... how did it break?
It's not going to cost me compensation, is it, gno?
Can't afford it, gno~!
No way, gno~!
Mimic Butterfly felt the problem was huge and couldn't help but panic.
It grabbed Su Hao's hair, trembling.
Su Hao fell into thought.
Normally, if a spirit caused trouble, the spirit master would be responsible for compensation.
Besides,
the situation clearly showed the exam machine was faulty—it'd be generous not to demand compensation from the exam site for the scare.
But since...
Mimic Butterfly had such an independent economic sense.
Then he... naturally couldn't discourage it.
"Don't panic, panicking won't help."
"Ahem, I mean you probably won't have to pay... at worst, you can borrow money from me."
Hearing Su Hao's words.
The invigilator, who had been standing nearby in a daze for a while, finally swallowed the saliva that had pooled in his open mouth and said with some difficulty, "This student, your... your exam is complete, full marks.
"You can... you can go down now."
Under the stunned, shocked, and disbelieving gazes of the surrounding examinees.
Su Hao led Mimic Butterfly toward the rest area at the back.
As he passed the line, Liu Ren grabbed him.
Liu Ren looked like he was about to cry, pointing at the smoking machine, "Old Su, why didn't your Butterfly God hold back? What are those of us behind supposed to do?
"The exam won't get interrupted, right???"
Actually... we did tell Mimic Butterfly to hold back.
But Su Hao didn't dare say that out loud—he was afraid of getting hit.
He could only comfort, "Don't panic, you're not the only one affected."
Liu Ren: "..."
Fortunately, the thing the examinees feared didn't happen.
The broken machine was quickly carried away by a Mountain Ape, and another Mountain Ape brought in a new one, which the staff immediately installed and debugged.
It was done in a few minutes.
Seeing everything was fine, Su Hao turned and left.
He walked to the adjacent rest room.
Passing by a stiff-faced person... Su Hao greeted him.
Lin Mingzheng nodded expressionlessly.
The Clockwork Golem beside him saw Mimic Butterfly and, recalling the aura from when the silkworm broke through back then, couldn't help but step back.
And step back again.
Whoosh—it hid behind the seat.
...
Inside the monitoring room.
The examiner group and representatives from various cities were silent for a long time.
Luo Jinghong was naturally delighted.
He had been keeping an eye on Su Hao and learned a lot about him from Xiong Tianba.
'But, Old Xiong didn't seem to mention this student was already this impressive, huh?'
He was secretly pleased.
But didn't show it.
Afraid of getting hit too.
After a while,
the head of the examiner group burst into laughter, "Good, good, good... What's this examinee's background?"
Luo Jinghong quickly recounted Su Hao's background and past experiences.
Including getting first place in the joint exam, already being a mid-level spirit master, and stepping up during a terrorist attack, etc.
The examiner group leader's smile grew even wider.
Humble origins, yet outstanding, and able to respond bravely and calmly in danger.
A promising talent!
He decided to report it to the provincial guild's higher-ups later.
Geniuses shouldn't be buried.
...
In the rest area, the space around where Su Hao sat was largely empty.
He rubbed his nose, glanced at Mimic Butterfly, who was reaching a tiny hand toward his phone in his pocket, and slapped it down with a smack.
"Hmm?"
"Gno?????"
It looked up, trying to play cute and get away with it.
At the same time, it used telekinesis to envelop the phone, trying to pull it out.
But Su Hao wasn't fooled by the little one.
He flicked it on the forehead, smoothly pulled out the half-extracted phone, unlocked the screen, opened Weibo, and scrolled through the trending topics—all in one fluid motion.
The Nth skirmish of the day ended with Su Hao's victory.
Leaving only a puffed-up Mimic Butterfly staring with big eyes.
After scrolling on his phone for a while.
Liu Ren arrived.
He'd somehow managed to sit on top of the Lava Turtle, looking smug.
"Guess how many dang my turtle got?"
"Not guessing."
"Come on, guess!"
"Not guessing."
Liu Ren wanted to keep it to himself, but couldn't hold out for two seconds before blurting out, "589 dang, almost full marks, hahahaha—"
His chubby face jiggled with laughter.
Even Su Hao couldn't stand it.
He threw out a soul-searching question.
"So how many dang did my Mimic Butterfly get?"
"Uh..."
Liu Ren's laughter cut off abruptly.
Caught in a soul-searching dilemma.
Premise: The Clockwork Golem could fully handle 1024 dang.
So the question is: How many dang did Mimic Butterfly actually get?
Liu Ren couldn't answer.
Liu Ren was defeated.
Liu Ren Orz.
...
The spiritual power exam ended in the morning.
Lunch was provided by the exam site.
Three vegetables, two meats, and one soup.
Looking at the cheap boxed lunch in his own hand.
Then at the high-grade jade powder in Mimic Butterfly's hand—worth several tables of food in one serving—Su Hao fell into thought.
Why do spirits eat so well?
While spirit masters can only gnaw on ordinary food?
Reform, reform is needed!
The hour including lunch was the break time.
In the afternoon came the spirit battle exam.
The venue was still near the Spirit Plaza, in several battle halls.
Yesterday, the school had already organized them to log into the college entrance exam website, randomly draw, and choose their opponent from the three spirits drawn.
A3 Exam Zone, Battlefield 007.
There were a few people ahead of him. Except for one whose spirit was at the entry level and was dealt with swiftly, the others took considerable effort to defeat their opponents.
But it didn't take long.
It was Su Hao's turn.
An iron cage containing a wild Blade Leaf Lizard was brought to the battlefield.
It was probably a spirit from the new world, recently captured, and full of aggression.
He assessed it, taking another glance.
101 spiritual power points—already at the limit.
"Examinee, send out your battle spirit," said the middle-aged referee, glancing at him a few times.
Su Hao's gaze lingered for a long time on the Six-Eyed Flying Fish behind the middle-aged man.
Then he glanced at the other referees' spirits.
—Referee spirits were there to prevent accidents, like wild spirits attacking examinees.
But those spirits were only at entry, intermediate, or advanced levels.
The Six-Eyed Flying Fish not far from him was at the elite peak level.
Its cultivation level ranked among the top three of the elite-level spirits he'd seen.
Su Hao's mouth twitched.
That was way too deliberate.
Were they afraid he'd kill the wild spirit?
He'd heard that defeated wild spirits were taken backstage, treated by spirit healers, and within three to five minutes were bouncing around again, appearing before other examinees—reused.
Killing them would indeed be bad.
But Mimic Butterfly didn't know its own strength.
(Mimic Butterfly: ???)
He thought for a moment, spread five fingers, and two marks appeared.
An instant later,
a Water Spirit Steed, frozen in a running pose, appeared before him, dashing over ten meters before stopping.
It turned its head back, a horse face full of confusion.
Su Hao pointed a finger at the Blade Leaf Lizard, "I choose you, Water Spirit Steed."
"Xilu~?"
"Xilu~!"
It meant, 'You're putting me in such an important fight?'
After receiving Su Hao's confirmation, the Water Spirit Steed was both excited and serious.
It pawed the ground, staring at the Blade Leaf Lizard in the cage.
Finally,
the Blade Leaf Lizard was released.
The referee waved the flag, "Battle... begin!"
In an instant,
the Water Spirit Steed opened its mouth and spat out a water bullet, then without pause, spat out a second, third, fourth...
Water bullets shot forth.
The Blade Leaf Lizard, just out of its cage, only had time to raise its arm before being hit by the incoming water bullets.
Boom, boom, boom, boom—
Dust filled the air.
The Blade Leaf Lizard, having lost its combat ability, looked...
Miserable as hell.
Su Hao: "..."
Did I... mess up again?
—
Boo hoo hoo~
You can say I'm short, say my writing's bad, but calling me wordy... I really don't accept that!
The last chapter covered two types of tests, the examiner group, other students' performances, then the protagonist... so many scenes.
I can't just jump into action without setup, audience, or buildup, can I? o(╥﹏╥)o