Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“First question.”

“Among the eleven flying sword blueprints mentioned below, seven of the flying sword blueprints are for the same model, while the remaining four flying sword blueprints are for different models, according to the difference in the design, choose the seven blueprints which are for the same model.”

“Of the aforementioned seven blueprints, please answer as to which model of flying sword they belong to as well as the inventor’s name and the refining sect of the very same flying sword. Furthermore, please list three exercises which could best unleash the strength of the flying sword.”

“There is a total of three errors in the aforementioned seven blueprints, please indicate them separately and correct them as well.”

“In accordance with the aforementioned seven sub-blueprints, draw the complete blueprint.”

“In accordance with the complete blueprint previously answered, please draw the spiritual energy flow diagram.”

“…”

The Refiners’ Registration Examination wasn’t as simple as the College Entrance Examination. There weren’t any multiple choice sections or fill in the blanks questions; each question covered one of the most complex and comprehensive topics.

Having seen the difficulty of the questions, countless examinees drew a lump of cold air at the same time.

Taking a glance at the examination hall, one could see a painful look on faces of thousands of examinees through the transparent eggshells.

However, Li Yao wasn’t among them.

Due to “stealing” the time in the Heavenly Refining Tower under the Super Perceptive State, his basics were rock solid, and with the modification of the 1st Generation Tai’e Crafting Furnace as well the development of Demon Beast Detector, he had accumulated a wealth of experience in designs.

As far as he was concerned, whether it was the blueprints or the spiritual energy flow diagrams, it was a piece of cake.

Li Yao’s ten fingers bounced like crazy as though they were striking some imaginary zither strings. His speed of answering the questions in the hologram one after another didn’t slow down the least bit. It only took, at most, a dozen seconds to answer each question, and quite easily at that.

The Refiners’ Registration Examination was known for its difficulty and the astonishing number of questions.

Whereas the time allocated for the entire exam was only five hours; a vast majority of examinees were able to answer only 80% of the questions in this allocated time period.

Li Yao, on the other hand, only took three hours and nine minutes to complete the entire test.

Having double-checked the answers, Li Yao clicked on the submit button and drilled out of the eggshell-like cabin.

He had submitted the paper in advance!

As Li Yao stretched his body, he noticed another cabin gradually opening on the opposite side. The examinee who came out was none other than the long-haired teenager he had previously encountered.

Realizing that Li Yao had actually submitted the paper a few seconds earlier than him, the long-haired teenager was caught by surprise first before he raised the corner of his lips into a smile that carried a sliver of curiosity and delight. His eyes didn’t conceal its fiery look.

Li Yao too curiously looked at the long-haired fellow. Especially his slender and delicate hands which were almost the same as his.

Someone who was from Deep Sea University and so young should be the Tenth Star, Jiang Shaoyang.

Li Yao licked his lips as he the veins on the back of his hands bulged.

“Wow, someone submitted the paper in advance!”

The front of the examination cabin was transparent. Many of examinees who were immersed in the sea of questions inadvertently raised their heads. Much to their surprise, two examinees had submitted the paper ahead of the schedule and more than one hour earlier at that. They could not help but feel aghast.

Soon, someone recognized that one of two was none other than the refining genius, Jiang Shaoyang.

The Deep Sea University holds exchange events with major universities every year. Everyone was well aware of Jiang Shaoyang’s over the top intelligence, thus, no one was astounded by Jiang Shaoyang’s submission in advance.

However, who was the other guy standing opposite to Jiang Shaoyang. Apparently, he had submitted half a minute earlier than Jiang Shaoyang.

The vast majority of the people had only heard of Li Yao; they had never laid eyes upon him.

Only a few examinees who were from the Wasteland recognized Li Yao. They could not help but break into laughter; their first conclusion was, “So it turned out to be him! He must have found the questions too hard and given up!”

In the control room, the three examiners had also noticed that someone had submitted in advance.

The identity of the two soon appeared on the hologram.

Noticing Li Yao’s name, Zhu Yueqin exclaimed in surprise before glancing at the two examiners with a faint smile.

Dong Liuqi and Yan Tianhe were extremely embarrassed.

Dong Liuqi coughed forcefully as he caressed his chin with his six fingers.

Yan Tianhe was, even more so, flushed red to his ears. In his heart, he was rather somewhat disappointed by Li Yao, he could help but shout in his heart, ‘So much self-confidence and yet so poor.

‘So what if your level is poor. At any rate, you should have a correct mindset and stick to the end, no matter what’s the result is!

‘How can you give up in the middle just because you find the questions difficult?’

“Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!”

The master crystal processor quickly started operating; its computing power soared to limit as it examined the answers of the two.

At the center of the examination hall, Li Yao and Jiang Shaoyang looked at each other for three seconds and respectively noticed the eyes of other party burning with eagerness.

One after another, the two tacitly walked out of the examination hall and came to the back of the waiting area.

“Do you wanna have a bout?”

After being silent for half a minute, the voice of the two with a provocative tone simultaneously rang.

Jiang Shaoyang smiled, straightened his long hair and said in an elegant manner, “How should we compete, you are welcome to use any method.”

Generally, if a man had long, shoulder-length hair, rather than appearing feminine, he would appear slightly unkempt.

Very few people were like Jiang Shaoyang, even when they straightened and combed their hair, appeared to be handsome and confident, full of zeal and vigor.

Li Yao replied, “How about each proposes a topic? You first, I will follow your lead.”

Jiang Shaoyang nodded. Looking left and right, he got up and brought a box of toothpicks from the cafeteria, placed a coffee table between the two before pulling out two toothpicks and handing one to Li Yao.

Jiang Shaoyang said while waving the crystal processor provided for the exam on his wrist, “First, let’s see who can remove more components from the crystal processor with a toothpick in three minutes.

“Second, also with the same toothpick, let’s see who can reassemble them in the shortest period of time.”

As Li Yao weighed the toothpick a bit, his eyes sparkled.

The toothpicks used in the military bases were naturally far from high-end goods. Maybe they were taken from the soldiers’ mess; they were very fragile and would break with the slightest force.

Whereas the crystal processor was a very sophisticated piece of magical equipment. Generally, seven or eight different kinds of tools were needed to disassemble it completely.

Disassembling a crystal processor with a toothpick was tantamount to nonsense.

Nevertheless, Li Yao was extremely excited. His eyes flickered with a fiery gaze as he nodded his head without an ounce of hesitation, “Alright.”

The two took their crystal processors off and placed them on the coffee table before they slowly and methodically started exercising their fingers, apparently, warming up. When both saw the incredible flexibility of other party’s fingers, both felt a bit aghast.

“Ready?”

“Bring it on.”

“Let’s start!”

Almost instantly, a storm was set off on the coffee table. Two pairs of hands almost turned into four whirlpools that sucked in the two crystal processors all of a sudden. The movement of their hands was so fast that only vague, trailing afterimages were visible, all one could hear was “Click! Click! Click! Click” subtle sounds coming.

One after another, components that were even smaller than a fingernail jumped out from the whirlpools and accurately fell into a nearby tissue box respectively.

After three minutes.

“Time’s up!”

The whirlpools came to standstill before they turned back into two pairs of red hands; apparently, the muscles had become red from heat. The toothpicks in between their fingers had almost been completely worn down, whereas the crystal processors had almost been dismantled into their most basic components.

“Three hundred and thirty-five.” Li Yao smiled and said; he simply didn’t need to count.

“That’s impossible!”

Jiang Shaoyang happened to have his eyebrows raised with a look of surprise plastered on his face. Again and again, he carefully gauged Li Yao from head to toe, as if he was looked at a monster, “I’ll be damned, just thirteen less than me? You are good! You’re truly good!”

In the blink of an eye, Li Yao’s smile froze. He picked up Jiang Shaoyang’s tissue box and weighed it a bit before his face became pale. Li Yao clenched his teeth and didn’t speak a word while he removed thirteen components from his crystal processor.

“Alright, now everyone has three-hundred-and-forty-eight components, let’s assemble!”

“Let’s go!”

As Jiang Shaoyang slapped the table, the crystal processor components in the tissue box seemed to have come to life as they gracefully rose and jumped into his hands one by one; meanwhile, the toothpick was like the most exquisite embroidery needle that fluttered up and down like a butterfly. The broken crystal processor at naked-eye speed got a new lease of life.

Li Yao sneered before he began the assembling process, however, his next course of action came as a surprise to Jiang Shaoyang.

Li Yao broke the toothpick into two and held each part in his hands before he poured all the components out of the tissue box, and started assembling with both hands at the same!

After six minutes fifty-four seconds, a “Beep” sound rang from Li Yao’s crystal processor before a holographic screen was projected.

Compared to Jiang Shaoyang, Li Yao was nine seconds faster.

This time, the complexion of Jiang Shaoyang was as pale as that of a corpse; he was completely dumbfounded!

Jiang Shaoyang blankly stared at the crystal processor in Li Yao’s hands. He was distracted for an entire minute; only then did he awake from the shock; he had never been this shocked in his entire life. His lips parted but he didn’t know what he should say and once again became muddle-headed for half a minute before he stuttered, “Next… next is your turn!”

Li Yao thought for a while before he brought a dozen of toothpick boxes from the cafeteria, “First, we will simultaneously throw these toothpicks into the air with our spiritual energy, then grab them and build a tower with them. After three minutes, we will check whose tower is the tallest.

“Second, without using our spiritual energy, we will blow on each other’s tower like an ordinary person to check whose tower is stronger.”

Jiang Shaoyang rolled his eyes before he repeatedly nodded, “Not bad, it’s a bit interesting. On one hand, we can test our hand speed, while on the other hand, we can test who has better mastery over the structure. Very interesting, come on!”

Twelve toothpick boxes, with opened lids, were placed at the center of the coffee table. The two lightly placed their hands on both sides of the table and at the same time, gently infused their spiritual energy.

Ripples began to appear in the water cups placed on the table.

Thousands of toothpicks, with the infusion of spiritual energy, flew into the air, like a goddess scattering flowers from the high heavens.

At the same time, both got up, while four hands transformed into grey shadows that enveloped a majority of the toothpicks.

“Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!”

Along with the deft movements of the fingers, two towers built from toothpicks sprung up like mushrooms after a rain; they rose straight from the ground and constantly reached new heights.

After the three minutes, both came to a stop and held their breath.

Only now did they have the spare energy to marvel at each other’s work.

The base of the tower built by Li Yao was octagonal in shape, while the middle part had a tic-tac-toe like structure and the top part was in the shape of a triangular pyramid. At the tip, there was also a toothpick pointing at the sky, like a lightning rod; it was used to increase the height.

Counting this “lightning rod”, the total height of Li Yao’s tower was over fifty centimeters, and its structure was extremely solid.

Had he not run out of the toothpicks, he could’ve continued building the tower.

On the other hand, Jiang Shaoyang’s toothpick tower was like a corn. It was round in shape and had seven irregular holes on its circumference, seemingly air was leaking out from all sides; the tower looked shaky and unsteady.

“My tower is 2.75 centimeters shorter.”

Jiang Shaoyang’s voice was filled with frustration but also mixed with a subtle excitement.

As if he had finally met an opponent with whom he could use his entire might to battle. A bloodthirsty aura was emanating from the depths of his bones.

“Next, let’s check whose tower is sturdier!”