Chapter 6 – Test of Luck
Chen Chang Sheng stopped walking and turned towards the teacher. He was rather confused by his anger. He then realized where the anger came from. The previous students who failed this part of testing all backed out disappointingly. As a result the instructor thought he would’ve done the same. However, Chen Chang Sheng kept on walking regardless of the results. This of course, didn’t make the teacher too happy.
Chen Chang Sheng didn’t want to waste his precious time on useless arguments and debate. He bowed sincerely to the teacher and explained plainly, “Sir, I’m not trying to cause trouble.”
That teacher wanted to scold him for trying to cause trouble in the testing field, but suddenly Chen Chang Sheng defended himself before he said anything. He was so shocked that he was stuck between his words. The teacher coughed a little and yelled, “Then why aren’t you leaving yet!”
The young students behind Chen Chang Sheng in line were already waiting impatiently. They realized that he didn’t have any intention to leave and thought he was trying to slow down the process to get back at the academy. They got irritated as well and start to yell at Chen Chang Sheng with the teacher. Some of them even mocked that he had mental issues.
Chen Chang Sheng heard the words and mockery, but his expression didn’t change a bit. His calmness was rather rare in a fourteen year old youngster. He looked at the teacher and bowed again with manner, “I have yet to cultivate, but I can still apply for Heavenly Academy.”
The teacher was stunned. He didn’t know what the youngster was trying to say. He has yet to reach the Purification stage then how was he qualified to enter the exam? There was no exception in recent years. Even if there was, then why would he be the exception?
Chen Chang Sheng continued, “According to the eighth note of the fourth ruling of the seventeenth chapter of the Law of Heavenly Academy, the only needed qualification to enter the school is to pass the written exam. Eleven years ago, there was such a case in the Ministry of Personnel.”
Looking at Chen Chang Sheng’s inexpensive clothing, the teacher instinctively wanted to rebuke him for lying. It was not because he disliked the poor, but rather he couldn’t believe that the poor youngster in front of him was more knowledgeable than he was about the Law of Heavenly Academy. What note? What ruling? Was it actually mentioned in the law? Then how come he had no memory of it?
Just when the teacher was about to call people to drag this youngster out of the field, he heard the words “Ministry of Personnel”. He was surprised and didn’t order the guards.
The Ministry of Personnel used to be an insignificant department under the Zhou Dynasty. However, after the Divine Empress came to power and after her famous subordinate Zhou Tong took care of the place, the once unnoticeable Ministry of Personnel changed drastically. Countless officials who were loyal to the previous royal clan died mysteriously in the seemingly ordinary buildings of the department. Slowly, this name was feared by all officials of the Zhou Dynasty.
Although Heavenly Academy wasn’t in the territory of the Ministry of Personnel, it nonetheless feared it. The thing that worried the teacher the most was that the Ministry of Personnel wanted to eliminate their bad name. As a result they did everything legally. If there was actually a ruling in the Law of Heavenly Academy mentioned by the youngster and he dragged the youngster out, then he would be in deep trouble……..
Looking at the calm expression of Chen Chang Sheng, the teacher suddenly felt insecure. After a few moments of hesitation, he yelled at the back of the crowd and turned away and left. The mocking and yelling of the crowd stopped and turned to whispering. No one knew what was happening.
After a while, the teacher finally returned. The expression of his eyes toward Chen Chang Sheng was complicated.
Chen Chang Sheng knew that he probably went to check the Law of Heavenly Academy and saw the note he mentioned earlier. He read the entire Three Thousand Scriptures of The Way when he was young and memorized the countless literatures from front to back. He even read laws and manners of different countries countless times. Of course he wasn’t wrong.
“Even if you continue testing, you have no chance. Why waste your time?”
The teacher said strictly to Chen Chang Sheng with no expression.
Chen Chang Sheng answered, “I still want to try.”
The teacher said, “You have yet to reach Purification, how are you going to answer the questions? Furthermore, your mind will be damaged by doing so. Are you sure you want to try?”
What the teacher said was true. The most important thing after Purification was that physical strength will increase as well as mental abilities. This was an obtained ability and cannot be changed by mortal force. Without Purification, it would be impossible to solve such difficult questions. They could even damage one’s mental ability if they try to force it. Therefore the Sensory Stone on the table became a necessary stage in the entrance exam. People who couldn’t emit light from the stone will be eliminated from the test. This had already became a tradition or common sense. Therefore no previous failures said anything until Chen Chang Sheng appeared.
Chen Chang Sheng bowed once more and said “I’m sure.”
The expression on the teacher face wasn’t good. He thought that Chen Chang Sheng read the ruling out of luck from somewhere and wanted to waste his and everyone’s time. Then he let Chen Chang Sheng go. Even if his mental ability got damaged from doing so, it would be his own fault.
“Then go.”
Chen Chang Sheng bowed one last time and said no more. He walked out of the bamboo scaffold and continued walking toward the building of Heavenly Academy.
Then the teacher said no more and looked at the rest of the students. His expression was frozen and said, “Next.”
Somebody who didn’t pass the Sensory Stone Test but continued on to take the entrance exam; in more than a decade, Chen Chang Sheng was the only one. The youths that observed the scene from a distance had an incomprehensible feeling well up within them. Those who knew a little more did not make much of it—to take advantage of a loophole was only taking advantage of a loophole. Without having purified, regardless of if it was memory or analysis or calculation ability, it would all be normal. It was simply not possible to work on the Heavenly Academy’s entrance exam. Chen Chang Sheng’s actions were at best an amusing interlude.
That building was the Heavenly Academy’s “A” building. When seeing Chen Chang Sheng enter that building, many people did not regard him much. Only that youth, who had already finished his examination and as expected entered the Heavenly Academy, took notice. That black clothed youth called Tang 36. In fact he stared very intently at Chen Chang Sheng. He also did not think Chen Chang Sheng could pass the exam, but he appreciated Chen Chang Sheng’s serious, even stubborn, strength, because he also had that sort of personality. At this time, the Heavenly Academy’s Vice Principal appeared by his side. Smiling, he asked: “Do you think that kid has a chance? I don’t think so. Who was the last ordinary person to enter the Heavenly Academy? That was Wang Ce. But on this continent, several hundred years have passed since a person like Wang Ce appeared.”
Wang Ce was once a legendary individual on the Continent. In the final years of the First Emperor, he entered the Heavenly Academy at the age of 16. He was a person that had never cultivated before. After he graduated from the Heavenly Academy, he served as a common secretary in the Imperial Court right up until he was 40 years old. When he was 40, suddenly one night in the capital there was a long whistling noise. Wang Ce had in one night comprehended the Way and began to cultivate. In a few short years, he had arrived at the summit. In the end he became the second-in-command of the allied armies in the war against the demon race. In the campaign that defeated the demons, he played a decisive role. Up until the present, his portrait was still hanging in the Ling Yan Pavilion.
The world had not seen Wang Ce for a long time.
Tang 36 spoke: “I also do not think he can pass, nor do I think that he is the next Wang Ce, but I think that if one wanted to become an existence as great as Wang Ce, one would have to at least be like that youth. Possessing a spirit that doesn’t know the meaning of defeat as well as living a strict life style—I never thought geniuses were anything much. The scariest people are those who are very hard on themselves.
The Vice Principal shook his head and said: “When Wang Ce was in school, on cold days when the ground was covered in snow, he would be eating frozen porridge while his hands never left his books. Can that kid study to that extent?”
Tang 36 replied: “At least that kid is much stronger than all those other mediocre people.”
The Vice Principal glanced at Tang 36 then said: “As expected of Tang Tang, whether it’s things or people his opinion is different from everybody else.”
Tang 36 wrinkled his brow and said: “Please call me Tang 36.”
The Vice Principal chuckled and replied: “Entering my Heavenly Academy, this name of yours will have to change again.”
Tang 36 sternly said: “That is inevitable.”
The Vice Principal glanced at the building and smelled a very faint but beautiful fragrance coming from the window. He asked: “Will you continue to wait?”
Tang 36 replied: “Yes.”
The Vice Principal asked: “Why?”
Tang 36 replied: “Although he can’t pass, I’m interested to know how many points he can score.”
……
……
The examination book on the table was extremely thick, almost like a small mountain. Chen Chang Sheng did not know the exact specifics of this book, so of course he was a little anxious—the entire world knew that the reason the Heavenly Academy was extremely difficult to enter was because its entrance exam encompassed everything. From the true meaning of the Way to debates on the Book to the art of war, everything was included. There were even often questions on agriculture. Even if someone had the reached the peak of purification, if they wanted to finish all the questions by the time the incense burned down, it would still be an arduous task, to say nothing of a normal person.
Chen Chang Sheng sat before the table and closed his eyes for the period of five breaths, and then opened his eyes and opened the examination book to the first page. As he was performing this action, his mood was very complicated. Of course there was a little curiosity about the unknown as well as some disquiet that emerged from who knows where, and there was also a little expectation.
His fingers suddenly stopped moved. In his bright eyes was reflected a hint of suspicion.
Everyone said the Heavenly Academy’s test questions were very difficult. If it was testing on comparing religious passages, it would often be taken from the most obscure and hard to find passages, but why…did this first page’s first question seem so familiar? Cen Jia Zi and the Seventh Pope 31st debate on true meaning? When did he last see this? It was when he was three years old…this was a small and unremarkable passage from the Southern Classic Huainan commentary. But he had already seen this commentary and memorized it, and when he was 5 and 11 he read it and memorized it all over again.
Why it was familiar, it was because these words had been engraved into his heart.
Chen Chang Sheng was a little puzzled, but he was still a youth, so he was even more pleasantly surprised. He stopped thinking about it and took up his brush and began to use the chapters and passage within his mind. Those penetrating insights of those great masters he copied onto his paper. Then he turned to the second page and he was not surprised to see once again familiar passages.
The Great Way encompasses all things, the Heavenly Academy’s test questions were contained entirely in the 3000 books of the Way.
Those 3000 books, he knew so well he could recite them backwards.
This sort of test, how could it be difficult for him?