In the evening, Lan Ling rode in a carriage and headed to the Royal City Academy to take the first exam that night.
At the same time, his gambling game with Zhi Ning had already spread to half of the royal city in just half a day.
Because it was simply too explosive. If Lan Ling won, he could kiss any part of Zhi Ning’s body. Instantly countless men had the most vulgar fantasies, without exception all fantasising about Zhi Ning’s most alluring and private parts.
After Zhi Ning returned to the princess’s mansion and calmed down, she already regretted this gambling game. Even if Suo Lun lost, it would still cause huge damage to her pure and clean reputation.
However, when she faced Suo Lun, it was really difficult for her to maintain her previous calm and wisdom. Especially his gaze, which kept staring vulgarly at her hips, and even between her thighs.
Overall though, this gambling game was still advantageous. At least it could make Suo Lun legitimately give up Tianshui City. That was the most important thing. As for her own reputation, she would treat it as a sacrifice made for her brother Zhi Li’s strategy.
“Your Highness the Princess, it is almost time. We should go to the Royal City Academy.” The eunuch said from outside, “There is only one and a half hours left until the first major exam.”
“Let’s go…” Zhi Ning stood up and walked outside. She wanted to witness the destruction of the Suo family with her own eyes at the exam grounds.
When there was still more than half an hour left until the first exam, Lan Ling arrived at the Royal City Academy.
At this time, his gambling game with Zhi Ning had already spread throughout the entire royal city. Instantly he once again enjoyed the feeling of being the centre of attention. Almost all the students were pointing and whispering about him.
The male students were full of mockery. Everyone knew Suo Lun’s grades. He was neither good at literature nor at martial arts. The only thing he was good at was painting. But in order to chase Tutor Niya, he had chosen music as an elective in the arts department, so he had long been last place in the rankings.
Yes, true last place. He had studied at the Royal City Academy for six years, and every year in the end of year exams he had been last.
With his grades, even passing was an impossible task, let alone obtaining the noble warrior medal. He probably would not even dare to dream about it.
The female students looking at Lan Ling had eyes full of sympathy. After all, Suo Lun was so handsome, and now he was about to completely lose his territory and title, becoming completely penniless.
Lan Ling completely ignored these gazes. He entered the noble academy division and directly walked into the exam hall.
The major exam for the noble division of the Royal City Academy was divided into four parts. The first was the basic theory exam, the second was political theory, the third was elective arts, and the fourth was the martial arts subject.
The first two exams were taken together by all noble academies, with exactly the same content.
The third and fourth exams depended on the subjects each student had chosen as electives. For example, Lan Ling would take music for the third exam and archery for the fourth.
The four subjects totalled six hundred points. The first basic theory exam was two hundred points, the second political theory was one hundred points, the third elective arts was one hundred points, and the fourth martial arts subject was two hundred points.
Tonight was the first exam, the basic theory exam. More than two hundred noble students would take it in one large exam hall.
The entire exam hall was very large, fully several thousand square metres. The distance between each student was at least several metres, and they were separated by partitions. Copying was impossible.
Moreover, there were ten spiritual type monks supervising the entire exam hall, and more than ten patrolling invigilator tutors.
Therefore, any possibility of cheating was completely eliminated.
Lan Ling found his seat and sat down. He discovered that it was completely a small cubicle, closed on three sides except for the back.
Taking a deep breath, the content of this basic theory exam was very mixed. It included history, geography, martial arts theory, philosophy, and basic mathematics, all of it.
For other students this might be the easiest exam. But for Lan Ling it was the most unfavourable of the four exams.
Because Lan Ling had only come to this world a few months ago, while this world already had thousands of years of history. The geographical knowledge was also extremely complex and relied entirely on rote memorisation. What Lan Ling lacked most was time.
As the exam time drew closer, dozens of invigilators entered one after another.
Among them, ten were tutors from the Royal City Academy, five were from the cabinet and royal family, and another five were monks from the Divine Dragon Holy Temple.
Princess Zhi Ning represented the royal family and sat in the very centre with one high level monk from the Divine Dragon Holy Temple, supervising the entire exam.
After the exam, the twenty invigilators would mark the papers on the spot, and the scores would be released after one hour. In short, everything was fair, just, and open.
After Princess Zhi Ning sat down on the high platform, she instinctively searched for Suo Lun’s position.
“Dang dang dang…” The bell rang.
The first basic theory exam officially began.
Ten tutors from the Royal City Academy distributed the test papers for the first exam, fully four large sheets.
One each for history, geography, literature and philosophy, and mathematics. The answering time was one and a half hours.
After receiving the four test papers, Lan Ling first glanced over the questions roughly. Immediately afterwards, the other noble students began to groan.
Because this time the questions were very difficult, especially the later literature and philosophy, and basic mathematics. But for Lan Ling, the literature and philosophy of this world were almost derived from ancient Earth. As a student from a key university’s screenwriting department, answering these questions was naturally easy for him.
As for basic mathematics, it might be relatively difficult for the candidates of this world. But for Lan Ling it was the kind he could answer with his eyes closed.
Because the basic mathematics of this world had been created single handedly by His Majesty the Dragon Emperor, who was probably a liberal arts student. Moreover, mathematical progress in this world over the past few thousand years had not been great.
So, to put it bluntly, Lan Ling’s mathematics level even surpassed that of the Dragon Emperor. Therefore, the so called difficult questions in this mathematics exam were at most at the level of a junior high school student on Earth.
However… the geography and history questions that were easiest for other students in this world were instead the hardest for Lan Ling. After all, he really had no time to memorise several thousand years of history and geography spanning tens of thousands of miles.
“Dang…” Another bell rang. Everyone began to answer the questions.
Lan Ling did the easy parts first. In less than twenty minutes he had completely finished the basic mathematics section and guaranteed full marks of fifty points.
Then he spent another thirty minutes finishing the literature and philosophy questions. He did not dare guarantee full marks, but forty five points could be guaranteed.
After completing half of the test papers, he had used less than one third of the time.
Next he began answering the history and geography sections.
The history section was also fifty points. Lan Ling first answered all the questions he was sure about, which was about thirty five points. The remaining fifteen points he had little confidence in.
After all, the historical knowledge of this world consisted of dozens of thick books. In just a few months Lan Ling could not possibly have memorised them all.
“Demon star, do you know how to answer these questions?” Lan Ling immediately thought of the demon star.
The demon star was silent for a moment, seemingly a bit speechless. Then it answered, “I have no idea at all.”
No choice. Lan Ling could only rely on himself. The remaining fifteen points would all have to be guessed and bluffed.
He spent a full hour on this history test paper. There was still about one hour and ten minutes of exam time left.
Finally he began answering the geography related questions.
Perhaps teachers from other countries’ academies did not attach so much importance to geography. But the Furious Wave Kingdom definitely did, because in the past hundred years its territory had been continuously expanding. Many territories that originally belonged to the barbarians had constantly become part of the kingdom.
Moreover, for the Furious Wave Kingdom, geography had always been intertwined with military affairs.
Using the same method, he finished all the questions he was confident about in the shortest time. This time it seemed even worse. In the geography test paper he was relatively confident about only thirty points. The remaining twenty points he had little confidence in.
For the questions he was not confident about, he could only rely on one word: guess.
Relying on his first instinct, Lan Ling answered all the remaining uncertain questions.
At this time, there was about half an hour left until the end of the exam. Lan Ling looked up and saw that many people had already handed in their papers. Moreover, many noble students looked very relaxed, because passing was enough for them to graduate smoothly.
Even for some students who needed to inherit noble titles, they could just come back and retake the exam next year at worst.
The only one who was different was Lan Ling. If he did not achieve the highest excellence, he would lose his title and the hundred year foundation of the Suo family.
Gradually, almost all the students had handed in their papers and left, while Lan Ling was still answering and checking.
Seeing this scene, all the students without exception thought that this waste Suo Lun only knew how to chase girls all day. Even in the simplest basic theory knowledge exam, let alone passing, he had never scored more than eighty points out of two hundred. So not finishing was normal.
Zhi Ning saw this scene and slightly pursed her lips in a disdainful faint smile. As expected. This waste Suo Lun only had skill with his mouth. Even the simplest basic theory exam was so unbearable for him.
Finally, when there were only a few minutes left until the end of the exam, Lan Ling put down his pen and handed in his test papers.
…
Next, the twenty invigilators would mark and score the papers on the spot and announce the scores immediately.
All the candidates left the exam hall and waited outside for the results. At most it would not exceed one hour before all the scores were out.
Of course, some students did not wait at all and went home by themselves. But most of the noble students who stayed behind were probably not waiting for their own scores, but for Suo Lun’s score.
Although in all the students’ hearts Suo Lun had zero chance of passing the graduation major exam and would definitely lose his title and territory.
But since they had nothing to do, they might as well watch a show.
…
In less than one hour, the marking by the twenty invigilators in the exam hall had all been completed.
Finally, it was submitted to the monks of the Divine Dragon Holy Temple for final supervision and review. After confirming the results were correct, the scores were announced on the spot.
Another two quarters of an hour passed. All the scores were written on a large list and posted outside.
The moment it was posted, more than a hundred noble students present all surged forward. No one looked at their own scores first. They all looked at Suo Lun’s score.
Who told Suo Lun to open such a huge gambling game that the entire royal city knew about it?
Before the scores came out, Lan Ling had estimated his own score at about one hundred and sixty eight out of two hundred.
After the list was posted, before Lan Ling had time to look, he immediately heard a burst of exclamations from the side.
“How is that possible? Suo Lun actually scored one hundred and seventy two points? Did my eyes go blurry?” Among them, one noble student exclaimed in disbelief.