Chapter 8: Exam
Early the next morning, when the family gathered together for breakfast, Yang Tong asked, "Father, since the energy of beast crystals cannot compare to standard crystal stones, why does the government collect beast crystals?"
"It is very simple, because the cost of beast crystals is lower. Nowadays, the source of standard crystal stones in our Huangyu Kingdom mostly comes from crystal stone veins. This kind of crystal stone is a non-renewable resource, and even if it can regenerate, it cannot do so in the short term. Therefore, under these circumstances, the government saves the consumption of standard crystal stones as much as possible," his father answered.
"But crystal stone resources have been mined for over seventy million years; shouldn't they be almost depleted? If the crystal stones run out, what will happen then?" He had long wanted to ask this question. What he couldn't understand was this: human civilization on Earth had only existed for a few thousand years, and even in such a short time, the change of dynasties was so frequent. Yet here, the Huangyu Kingdom had a history of over seventy million years since its founding. This was simply an incredible miracle—that a dynasty could exist for such a long time was inherently contrary to common sense. Or rather, it did not conform to his own cognitive common sense. In such a long time, had no one rebelled? Of course, he would not ask this question.
"Hehe, long ago, the empire to which the kingdom belongs developed artificial crystal stones. Therefore, current crystal stone mining is selective: mining a portion and then sealing it, waiting for that part of the crystal stone mine to recover before mining again. With this step-by-step tiered mining, combined with artificial crystal stones and a large amount of beast crystals, there is naturally no need to worry about energy. Instead, it is our human spirit tool technology that has been stuck at the ninth grade and cannot be upgraded to the tenth grade. The social status of Divine Sense Masters has therefore been increasing day by day," his father sighed, thinking in his heart that it would be great if he could have an awakening and become a Divine Sense Master.
"Forget it, Father. Right now, what we use at home is just a first-grade spirit tool, and the most advanced spirit tool in the whole county is only third-grade. Who knows how powerful spirit tools above third-grade are? Why are you worrying about nothing?" Yang Tong scolded him without giving him any face. It was easy to imagine that true high-tech items were basically concentrated in military weapons, and what civilians could use was just like this.
"Wrong, soon our family will have a second-grade spirit tool—a Type B spiritual energy rapid-fire gun," his father retorted.
He nodded and did not ask further. He could guess that it must be the advanced weapon purchased through that fat uncle yesterday to deal with the savage beast siege.
After eating, Yang Tong did not go out. He did not ask his family for beast crystals because he could not explain their use, and to obtain beast crystals himself, he had to improve his own strength. There was also the elementary graduation exam tomorrow; the cultural course exam was simple, but the martial arts assessment was the most important.
Furthermore, the academy offered generous scholarships for outstanding graduates. It was said that the first place winner would receive ten advanced-level low-grade beast crystals!
He was very covetous of these ten advanced-level low-grade beast crystals. One must know that low-grade beast crystals were divided into three tiers: low, medium, and high. The energy gap between each tier was about fifty to seventy times. This was mainly because of the different species of savage beasts, so the energy of the beast crystals produced also varied within the same tier. Standard crystal stones were different; each standard crystal stone was slightly higher than an advanced-level low-grade beast crystal, but not by much. However, the energy contained in standard crystal stones was definitely much higher than that of low-level low-grade and low-level medium-grade beast crystals.
Another day passed practicing boxing. Early the next morning, he took his father's disc motorcycle to school.
"Do well on the exam, understand?" his father called out to him.
"Don't worry, Father," he replied, waving his fist.
The cultural exam was simple and finished in two hours.
The most important part was the martial arts exam. Generally, the cultural exam only required a passing grade, unless the youth was interested in developing in that direction or had talent in that area. Generally, in an environment like the county, such situations rarely occurred. Only in the favorable environment of big cities would there be various directions for cultural majors. In the county, more emphasis was placed on the martial arts exam; if one could not pass it, no matter how good the cultural exam results were, one could not graduate or enter a higher-level academy to study.
The martial arts exam was on the school playground. At this moment, the playground was divided into several areas, and the assessment was conducted in batches. First was the martial artist rank verification, testing strength, speed, and reaction separately. Besides that, there was a combat exam, which was the most time-consuming. However, during these few days of exams, the entire academy's other grades were on holiday, so it did not seem crowded or troublesome.
Yang Tong was now waiting for the exam with his classmates from class five.
His seatmate, Feng Xiaobo, asked, "Yang Tong, what place do you plan to take?" Feng Xiaobo had been seatmates with him for the past few years and understood his strength better than other classmates in the class.
"Of course, taking first place is the best," he did not hide it at all. At his age, he was not afraid of attracting too much attention.
"Then you need to work hard. You have quite a few opponents. I heard that not only does our class have Rank Three martial artist trainees, but there is a freak in class seven who can actually defeat a Rank Four trainee as a Rank Three trainee," Feng Xiaobo replied.
"Are you talking about the monitor of class seven, Di Xuanluo?" He had also heard of this well-known king of the same grade. Unlike his usual low profile, this Di Xuanluo had extremely high talent and was about to break through the Rank Three trainee level. He was strong and robust, and he was also the only son of the county's wealthy businessman, Di Jinxin.
Do not think that a Rank Three trainee is anything amazing. You must know that he and the others were only twelve years old, exactly at the age of growing, but they had not reached the explosive period. Only when they entered the intermediate academy would they reach the stage of strength explosion. It was very rare to be able to reach Rank Three trainee at this age.
"Our class five only has five Rank Three trainees, while class seven has six. We will encounter them in the combat exam. I have a childhood friend in class seven, and I heard that the Rank Three trainees in class seven are all Di Xuanluo's subordinates and are very obedient," Feng Xiaobo said.
Yang Tong understood the meaning of this sentence. Di Xuanluo could suppress these five classmates of the same rank, relying absolutely not just on his father's influence and financial power, but more on his own strength.
"Next, Yang Tong," the exam teacher called out.
He walked to the teacher's side and looked at the testing equipment in front of him. He was not unfamiliar with this equipment; it was used to test strength.
"Now you need to use all your strength, aim at this target, and punch ten times in a row, keeping the frequency within five seconds. Do you have any questions?" the testing teacher asked, pointing to the test position.
"No questions," he shook his head. This testing equipment was much more advanced than the one at home; it could test a person's strength data within ten punches, such as explosive power, standard force, and so on.