Start With Contracting Sprites

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Su Hao carried out the excellent tradition of an examination candidate—when he received the test paper, he skimmed through all the questions from the start to the end.

And then, he realized… That it seemed like he vaguely understood them. It was doable, not too difficult, and a little easy…

Something wasn’t quite right!

Question 1: How many colors are there in a Fiery Jay’s feathers? And where are the colors distributed?

Answer: There are three colors in a Fiery Jay’s feathers—white, red, and black. Out of which, the forehead and a ring around the neck are red. The white feathers are… And the rest are black.

Without even a second thought, Su Hao wrote his answers down right away.

Papers rustled as he flipped page after page. Before long…

“I’m actually done?”

There were quite a number of questions in the Sprite Cultivator assessment test.

They made up a good eight pages. In addition, most of them were free-response questions, so it was very time-consuming to answer them. However, Su Hao practically didn’t even pause when he was writing his answers.

It was only when he was done that he realized that his hand was tired—very much so.

He lifted his arm and looked at the time. Only half the duration had passed.

I’m actually this powerful?

No, this isn’t right. The elimination rate of the Sprite Cultivator license assessment is extremely high every year. Just the written test alone could eliminate nearly 90% of the candidates. How can the test questions be this easy!?

There must be a trap hidden somewhere!

It’s very easy for those who aren’t meticulous enough to lose marks!

Su Hao felt like he had discovered the truth.

He flipped back to the first page of the test paper and checked through his answers one by one.

He checked again and again, not letting go of even a single punctuation mark.

On the platform, when the invigilator noticed Su Hao frowning as he flipped and went through his test paper, he couldn’t help but chuckle and shake his head.

The Sprite Cultivator assessment was simply too difficult for a high school student. Taking part in the written test was nothing more than just familiarizing oneself with the procedures.

Nevertheless, the invigilator was still very appreciative of students who had drawn up their future plans at such a young age.

…

“Rrrring~!”

“Time’s up. Candidates in the first row, please help to collect the test papers.”

“Alright, all of you may leave now.”

Su Hao packed his bag and walked out of the classroom.

The sunlight outside was bright and piercing.

Around him were examination candidates with miserable looks on their faces.

“The questions this time seemed even harder. I’m only confident in 2/3 of my answers. Looks like it’s hard to say how it’ll go.”

“There are too many questions! I still had three questions to go when time was up!”

“How many holes are there on a Little Charcoal Tortoise’s shell? What the hell, I have a little tortoise at home, but I’ve never taken any notice of this in the past!”

“How exactly is that question about the Toxic Hunting Spider supposed to be answered? I still can’t think of any situation where the Toxic Hunting Spider will be poisoned by itself?!”

A chaotic mix of voices rang out continuously around him.

Su Hao’s action of slinging his backpack onto his shoulders was a little stiff.

A question mark slowly popped up above his head.

Were we not doing the same set of questions?

No, the questions were the same. But there were actually people who couldn’t come up with the answer that there were three pairs of symmetrical holes respectively on the left and right of the Little Charcoal Tortoise’s shell?

He even knew that the holes were a medium through which the Little Charcoal Tortoise absorbed and discharged energy. Its function was similar to the green patterns on Silkworm Baby’s back.

Even the lists of key points in basic cultivation plans would mention something as simple as this.

Su Hao didn’t understand at all.

Didn’t any of them revise at all?

Maybe I happened to meet a bunch of mediocre students?

There were quite a number of such candidates in the assessments every year. Without an enormous candidate pool, how could the excellence of qualified candidates stand out?

There was no pleasure without comparison. Even if this was just a bunch of mediocre students, Su Hao’s nerves calmed down significantly nonetheless.

At least I managed to finish all the questions. The probability of passing the written test… It should be alright, I guess.

…

When he got home, what Su Hao saw was a diligent little Silkworm Baby.

It was currently practicing with the spiritual force ball.

“Let me check your progress.”

Su Hao checked the spiritual force ball. The highest record displayed was 75 points for Hard level.

Previously, it was only 72 points.

“Not bad. Looks like you haven’t been slacking off.”

“Gurgle~”

Silkworm Baby peeked at the computer, which was already switched off. Then, it stared hard at a novel and worked on learning to become a new-age Silkworm Baby of culture.

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

On Friday, at 11:00 a.m., was when the results of the written test, the first round of the Sprite Cultivator assessment, would be announced.

Su Hao was still in school. He took advantage of a break during training to sneak out secretly and accessed the official website on his cell phone right away.

It was mildly overloaded…

“The total score of the written test is 200 marks. As long as you can get 150 marks and above, you’ll be considered as having passed…”

Through the comparison with the few mediocre students, Su Hao’s confidence had already risen from slightly low to medium level.

He should be able to score 150 marks and above.

Su Hao swiftly keyed in his name and candidate registration number. The nervousness came over him as he stared at the loading page.

Suddenly, the page loaded.

There were only two very simple lines of text there.

The first line was his name, Su Hao.

The other line was his score—192 marks!!

“What the f*ck!?”

Su Hao’s eyes widened. He repeatedly checked whether or not he had accessed the wrong site, or keyed in the wrong candidate registration number, or saw the wrong name…

His heart pounded loudly. All his nervousness and worry culminated into a single sentence in the end—”I’m actually this outstanding!”

…

“What’s so outstanding? Su Hao, how can you be so narcissistic!?”

A voice that came out of the blue gave him a fright.

It was then that he discovered that Liu Ren, the pancake face, had already leaned in right beside him, and was less than a palm’s distance away from him.

“What the f*ck!?”

At once, Su Hao used Continuous Backward Jump and zoomed backward more than ten meters away.

Nevertheless, Liu Ren managed to see the website.

Sprite Cultivator license assessment, 192 marks.

192.

One hundred and ninet—

“What the f*ck! Su Hao, you scored close to full marks?!”

Liu Ren approached him at the speed of Charging. He took the cell phone from the dazed Su Hao and took a look.

Then, he erupted into a shout that was akin to Roaring.

“What the f*ck!!!”

…

Chatterbox Liu becoming aware of the news, was equivalent to the whole class becoming aware of it.

Naturally, when the whole class was aware of it, in no time, the entire student body of the Sprite stream became aware that Su Hao had scored an ultra-high score in the written test of the Sprite stream assessment!

“It’s that Su Hao?”

“Is there a second Big Boss Su here?”

“Doesn’t Su Hao achieving such a high score in the written test mean that there’s hope for him in successfully getting an official Sprite Cultivator license? You can even get bonus marks with that in the college entrance examination! Looks like Su Hao will be able to enroll in a key Sprite University this year.”

Despite knowing that the license could give one bonus marks, no one went to take the assessment. Why was that? Because it was too difficult. Investing one’s limited energy into the Sprite Cultivator assessment when the passing rate was so low was a loss.

“A key university?” Liu Ren shook his head. “Do you know what being an official Sprite Cultivator signifies? Bonus marks aside, Su Hao has already nurtured Silkworm Baby into such a strong sprite. There’s hope for him to enroll even into a famous and prestigious school, much less a key university.”

A prestigious school!

An City First High might not be able to come up with even a single student who could enroll in a prestigious sprite school in a whole batch of students. Even Gu Lingyao, who was reputed to be an important seedling, was merely said to have a chance at doing so.

Could it be that Su Hao was more skilled than even Gu Lingyao?

But wasn’t he from a regular family background?

Many students couldn’t help looking at Su Hao, who was standing nearby.

Gu Lingyao had also heard the news. Her eyes were bright and shining. She said, “I heard from my uncle that the Sprite Cultivator license assessment is especially tough. Su Hao, you’ve been studying for a really long time, right? You must have been preparing since you were in junior high. No wonder you could nurture Silkworm Baby so well.”

A lot of people held doubts about Chatterbox Liu’s words. But now that even Gu Lingyao said so, they believed the news right away.

Big Boss Su was truly impressive!

They were schoolmates with someone from a prestigious school!

People’s gazes shifted over to him one by one. Su Hao touched the tip of his nose.

Seriously, was he that kind of person who loved to show off?

Low-profile, have all of you heard of something called being low-profile?

Su Hao hadn’t mentioned it previously because he was afraid that he would score too low. He couldn’t afford to embarrass himself like that.

As for now? His score was high anyway. Even if he couldn’t pass the second round, he would still be just as outstanding.

Since they now knew, then so be it.

After all, the feeling that those looks of admiration and envy brought Su Hao—felt pretty good!