Chapter 28
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Chapter 28: Dao Arts and Practical Combat
Freehand Combat Level 2 (0/20) → Freehand Combat Level 3 (0/30)
In an instant, the fifteen moves of Freehand Combat techniques in his mind became even more refined. Even the follow-up variations and seamless transitions between each move became perfectly clear.
The flow of Magic Power for each technique felt as natural as instinct. Zhang Yu sensed that if he were to execute a move now, the Magic Power within him would shift on its own, flowing to his limbs automatically.
“The passive circulation of the Cosmic Orbit Energy Gathering Method also played a role in this process.”
Zhang Yu focused on the circulation of Magic Power within him. He could sense that because Magic Power was constantly coursing through his body, he was now far more adept at channelling it when using Freehand Combat now.
He couldn’t help but marvel at the immense help the Cosmic Orbit Energy Gathering Method provided for beginners. It was not only beneficial for breathing techniques and body refining, but also for practical martial arts.
But the exam was fast approaching, leaving Zhang Yu no time for further reflection.
After a brief breathing session to recover his stamina, he hurried to the Examination hall.
The first test in the afternoon was on Dao Arts, and the second was the Martial Arts Combat exam.
The content of the Dao Arts exam primarily focused on the recognition and application of talismans.
After all, those in the Qi Refining Realm had not yet mastered true Dao Arts and could only use their knowledge and magic power to activate talismans. Consequently, the three years of Dao Arts courses in high school were almost entirely related to them.
The word for talisman itself is a compound. The first part ‘Fu’ refers to a talismanic charm, while the second ‘Lu’ refers to a sacred register. Together, they represent the secret methods by which humans communicate with deities and harness divine power.
[Note: The Chinese word for talisman is 符箓 (fúlù). The source text is explaining its etymology. The first character, 符 (fú), means charm or spell (referred to in the text as 符咒, fúzhòu). The second character, 箓 (lù), means register or list (referred to in the text as 箓书, lùshū).]
***
Inside the computer lab.
Having arrived at the examination hall, Zhang Yu sat before a computer and silently reviewed his knowledge of talismans.
Not far away, Zhao Tianxing frantically flipped through his textbooks, repeatedly memorizing key points he feared he would forget.
Bai Zhenzhen rested her head on her desk for a quick nap, seemingly unconcerned about the upcoming exam.
Just then, a bell rang. The students quickly placed all non-exam materials on a table at the front of the classroom and returned to their assigned seats.
A moment later, the computer screens in front of them flickered to life, displaying the exam.
Question 1: Which of the following talismans belonged to the Great God Reaching Myriad Paths, a great god under the Ministry of Transportation.
The relevant information instantly surfaced in Zhang Yu’s mind.
The Ministry of Transportation was one of Kunxu’s Eight Major Divine Departments. It oversaw all roads, aviation, and water transportation within Kunxu and held the authority to monitor all traffic across the realm.
The Great God Reaching Myriad Paths was a Righteous God within the Ministry responsible for urban roads. Zhang Yu recalled that one of this god’s authorities seem to be recording surveillance data for all city roads and vehicles.
Through the corresponding talisman, one could borrow the power of the Great God Reaching Myriad Paths to access all surveillance within the city’s road network. It was said that this authority could reveal everything down to the smallest detail, as if knowing it three hundred years in advance.
The memory flashed through Zhang Yu’s mind, and he turned his attention to the options below.
There were four choices, all of which were bizarre strings of characters.
A. !★,°:.☆( ̄▽ ̄)/$:.°★
B. (o>ε(o>u(≧∩≦)( ̄ー ̄)X(^▽^)
C. `)`)▍`)*`)(((`)
D. 『』~o(▽`o)=▊=▋=▍
“All four options are the opening sequences of talismans, and judging by their style, they all belong to Righteous Gods from the Ministry of Transportation. Heh, are they trying to mess with my head right from the start?”
“It should be the Vehicle Surveillance Talisman in option D, right?”
Zhang Yu thought momentarily and selected D. The next multiple-choice question immediately popped up.
Question: Which of the following talismans does not belong to the Reporting Talisman category?”
Zhang Yu was taken aback for a moment. “A Reporting Talisman? We never covered that. Is this another question from outside the curriculum?”
Frowning, he randomly chose the one that looked most plausible and moved on to the next question.
He continued this way until he had finished all the multiple-choice questions. Next came the fill-in-the-blank and short-answer sections, and the difficulty of the questions escalated dramatically.
For instance, some questions were like, “Please write a medical examination talisman to respectfully request the Great God of Health and Spring Rebirth from the Ministry of Health to examine your stomach and intestines for any lumps.”
Another asked, “What talisman can quickly subdue three mortals without magic power located 30 meters north? Please draw the talisman. The following are the specific details of the three mortals and their surroundings…”
“Damn it… Can’t I just beat up three mortals myself? Why would I need a talisman for that?”
Just as Zhang Yu was sweating profusely while writing a Detainment Talisman, he heard the sound of a chair scraping across the floor.
He looked up and saw that his classmate, He Dayou, had already finished the exam and was preparing to leave.
Zhang Yu remembered that He Dayou had ranked third overall in last month’s Monthly Exam. Like Qian Shen, he came from an extremely wealthy family.
Unlike Qian Shen, who focused solely on grades, He Dayou loved to flaunt his wealth. He and Zhang Yu rarely interacted.
His early submission was just another way to show off.
This was because Talismans were a subject where money was essential for true mastery, making it the exam with the most obvious dividing line between the rich and the poor.
Many even called talismans the language of the wealthy.
Specifically, the act of drawing talismans could mobilize the power of the Eight Major Divine Departments to accomplish extraordinary feats. These departments were often referred to by mortals as the Eight Ministries of Principal Deities.
However, schools only taught the most basic methods of drawing talismans. To learn more advanced techniques or even talismans not taught in many schools, one had to purchase a Talisman Register.
Besides the hefty price of the Talisman Register itself, there were also membership fees, payments for divine offerings, Faith Level upgrades, and other significant expenses.
In essence, the talismans offered in the Talisman Register were classified not only by a cultivator’s cultivation realm but, more importantly, by money.
Only by spending enough money on the Talisman Register could one attain a sufficient Faith Level to unlock more privileges, master more advanced talisman drawing techniques, and learn various types of talismans.
Only after meeting these prerequisites, one could begin the arduous process of studying and practicing talismans. This included things like one-on-one talismanic dialogues with the Eight Ministries of Principal Deities, guidance from Righteous Gods on talisman errors, or even real-time optimization of talismans under divine guidance during practice. Of course, this rigorous training process was also incredibly expensive.
In short, learning talismans outside of school was an endeavor entirely built on money.
Throughout this process, any violation of the rules set by the Eight Ministries of Principal Deities, such as privately spreading talismans or using them to break Sect laws, would result in punishment. Minor offenses might incur fines, while severe violations could lead to complete financial ruin.
Each time Zhang Yu attended his Dao Art class to learn about talismans, he could not help but lament that it was an utterly unfair and unjust subject. It was the perfect way for wealthy students to boost their scores on the National College Entrance Examination, widening the gap between them and poorer students. No wonder it was called the language of the wealthy.
Yet Zhang Yu had also heard from Zhou Tianyi that talismans were not even the most expensive aspect of Dao Arts.
Many Dao Arts learned after Foundation Establishment required enormous sums of money, enough to plunge even a University Student into deep debt.
Having finally endured the Dao Art exam, Zhang Yu emerged from the classroom to find a large crowd surrounding He Dayou, comparing answers.
He Dayou smiled slightly, pulled out a jade-like plaque, and began scribbling on it with a series of cryptic symbols.
As his magic power pulsed, a golden phantom slowly emerged from the plaque.
He Dayou chuckled. “This is answering talisman of the Great God of Heavenly Knowledge and Myriad Questions’. Ask him anything you like.”
The students watching gasped in awe, their eyes filled with envy.
As Zhang Yu’s gaze was fixed on the jade tablet in He Dayou’s hand, Bai Zhenzhen’s voice sounded from the side. “That’s the Talisman Register, isn’t it? He even got it with a jade skin. This guy must have been preparing to show off like this for ages!”
Zhang Yu turned his head and saw Bai Zhenzhen beside him, her face contorted with resentment and jealousy.
Zhang Yu asked, “How did your exam go?”
Bai Zhenzhen replied with dissatisfaction, “How else could it have gone? At least a quarter of the talismans were ones we’d never even learned.”
“The National College Entrance Examination from two years ago had 20% content beyond the curriculum, and this year it’s pushing 25 %? At this rate, by the time we take the exam, will half the questions be on material we were never taught? They have no shame at all.”
“I’d better not run into those damn rich kids during the Martial Arts Combat exam. If I do, I’ll beat them so badly they fail.”
Across the way, He Dayou seemed to sense the gazes of Bai Zhenzhen and Zhang Yu. He turned and gave them a slight smile.
Bai Zhenzhen immediately put on a calm and indifferent expression, nodding slightly in return.
A few moments later, the next exam was about to begin. He Dayou and several of his companions walked together toward the Martial Arts Combat Examination Field.
He Dayou was the kind of person who could write an elementary school essay titled “My School Board Director Dad.”
This was because his father really was a school director at Songyang High School’s Board of Directors.
Though he was raised in luxury, He Dayou did not consider his life easy. He was merely one of his father’s thirty-odd children.
He had become one of only two high school students and one of the two Cultivators among them after enduring countless evaluations, constant competitions, and repeatedly meeting the family’s KPIs (Key Performance Indicator).
As for his other, mortal siblings, they had all long since gone to work in his father’s company to pay off the debt of their upbringing.
He firmly believed that although he was a rich kid, his achievements were ultimately due to his own hard work and talent.
He had earned his father’s investment through his own efforts, so why shouldn’t he be able to flaunt his wealth?
He saw the poor as fools who did nothing but whine and blame fate, thinking he had only gotten this far because of a rich dad. What a bunch of childish, laughable idiots.
With this mindset, He Dayou had always looked down on those who were both poor and performed poorly in their studies.
But after he entered Songyang High School as the school director’s son and gained a deeper understanding of its unspoken rules, he gradually began to look down on the poor who achieved good grades as well.
He sneered at the thought that good grades were ultimately just a temporary thing. These poor people simply did not understand. From the moment they were born, they never had a real chance to get ahead.
Perhaps they and their kind could no longer even be considered the same species.
Carrying these thoughts, He Dayou maintained his rank as third overall in his class, flaunted his wealth from time to time, and lived a peaceful school life, just waiting for the moment he would be admitted to a top-tier university.
Until one person’s transformation shattered his inner peace.
Watching Zhang Yu’s increasingly desperate efforts over the past half-month, which had even spurred the entire class into a competitive frenzy, made him feel disgusted.
He thought of him as just another poor wretch, counting out his loan payments on his fingers each month, rushing off to a part-time job right after school to earn a few hundred or a thousand yuan of pocket change, all while scrimping and saving in his cultivation, dreaming of getting rich overnight and attaining eternal life.
They had no idea who their real competitors were in the National College Entrance Examination.
And yet they still ran around campus, making a fuss.
Truly, their poverty was ugly.
He Dayou could not stand the sight of Zhang Yu’s frantic efforts, as if hard work alone could allow him to triumph over the wealthy like them.
This feeling intensified after he heard the rumor that Zhang Yu had been accepted as a disciple by a Golden Core True Person, so the school board director’s son made a special point to use his connections to confirm the news.
When he confirmed that Zhang Yu had not, in fact, been accepted as a disciple by any Golden Core True Person, his disgust for the boy reached its absolute peak.
Was he deliberately not clarifying the rumor, hoping to ride on someone else’s coattails?
Therefore, he decided to use the combat exam as an opportunity to teach this poor wretch a lesson and make him understand his true place in the world.
