You dare to cultivate without money?!

74: Chapter 56: Passing the Assessment, Heading to Songyang (Seeking Monthly Votes)

74: Chapter 56: Passing the Assessment, Heading to Songyang (Seeking Monthly Votes)

“Zhang Yu!”

“Zhang Yu!”

“Zhang Yu!”

With each call, Zhang Yu suddenly awoke, only to hear laughter in the classroom.

He looked up at the podium and saw the teacher glaring at him coldly, “Get out and stand properly.”

Helplessly, Zhang Yu stood up and walked out of the classroom.

Day after day of high school life left him feeling hopeless.

His grades worsened, his ranking fell, he dropped from the advanced class to the worst class, and the looks from classmates and teachers alike were as if he were a bin of trash.

The loans he had taken out to cultivate the Immortal Path were piling up, suffocating him.

Finally, one day, he found himself on the school rooftop.

Just as he was about to step off, his phone rang.

Zhang Yu answered and heard a voice on the other end, “Hello?

Is this Mr.

Zhang Yu?

There’s a new cemetery plot available in the northern suburbs.

For just two hundred thousand, you can enjoy corpse refinement services after death, with a chance to live another life…”

Zhang Yu chuckled, “Wow, your big data is impressive.

You even guessed I was about to jump?

Too bad you didn’t calculate that I’m penniless and can’t afford your plot.”

The voice continued, “If you’re broke, wouldn’t you still want a way out?

Our company has a Heaven-Mending Plan.

If you’re interested, I can send you details…”

Zhang Yu hung up and continued to gaze at the abyss-like darkness beneath him.

“A way out…”

After a moment of silence, he ultimately reopened his phone to check the website sent by the other party.

A bear plush appeared on the screen and spoke, “Make a wish to the Divine.”

“Just perform a ritual for me, and in five minutes, all your wishes can come true.”

“Absolutely free, zero thresholds, we reject any additional charges.”

“Click it, and give your life a fresh start…”

Watching this, Zhang Yu felt something, a certain painful memory that kept flitting through his mind, yet he couldn’t recall it.

It was a kind of repeated coercion, a constant torment, an anger at being forced to endure misery.

And just before those painful memories could emerge, his emotions and instincts had already reacted.

“Damn!” Zhang Yu shouted angrily, throwing the phone away and raising a middle finger, “Hahaha, trying to trick me?”

“Next life maybe!”

Zhang Yu felt his consciousness fade, and the next moment, he once again awoke in the classroom.

But the memories and emotions about the Evil God grew increasingly intense, gradually reminding him of something.

“I remember, I’m participating in the Divine Assistant personnel exam.”

“This exam seems to be related to the Evil God?”

Zhang Yu felt he had understood the key to this exam and decided to perform well in it.

…

Sun Jiayi was quite arrogant.

Because he was not human, but a god.

Although he was just one of the four billion eight hundred million Gong Cao Little Gods of the Inspection Department, he was still a god, with the authority to assess humans.

Even though the assessments he conducted were merely outsourced jobs paying 14 yuan per hour, he had always been diligent and serious in his work.

This is what it means to be a god.

As a humble god, he dared not forget the worries of Kunxu!

At this very moment, in front of Sun Jiayi, were multiple glowing screens, each showing the content of various exams.

These were instinctual reaction tests to the temptations of the Evil God within illusions in the Spirit Realm for the applicants.

Whether these applicants for outsourced positions in the Inspection Department could withstand the Evil God’s temptations in the illusion was key to passing the exam.

“What’s the point of writing all your family’s assets and background in the resume, applicant from Taitian City?”

“Even if you’re worth over a billion, so what?

If you can’t pass, you can’t pass.

Do you really think I’ll play favoritism because of your family background?”

Sun Jiayi sneered with disdain, watching the hesitant behavior of the applicant in the illusion, and decisively chose to fail them.

“Weak will, unqualified.”

Sun Jiayi was a proud god, and the more privileged the students he failed, the more he felt a sense of pride and job satisfaction as a god.

His focus shifted to the next applicant from Hong’an City.

Their resume was filled with honors from high school, a true top student, a regular at competitions, gifted, exceptionally capable, with endless potential, and likely to enter a top university or even join a significant Sect in the future.

But seeing them struggle back and forth in the illusion for a full ten minutes before barely refusing the Evil God’s temptation, Sun Jiayi mercilessly chose to fail them.

“Hmph, they think their bright future and flashy resume can sway me?

I’m not one of those score-obsessed philistines.”

“Even if you’re a brilliant university student, if I say you fail, you fail.”

“Taking so long to refuse shows weak will; how can you pass?”

His focus shifted again, this time to Zhang Yu’s profile and exam content.

“Hmm, decisively threw away the phone on the rooftop, not bad.”

“Next, if the difficulty increases, what will he do?”

The scenes on the screen continuously shifted, with various temptations from the Evil God appearing one after another before Zhang Yu.

There was an admirer trying to get Zhang Yu to make a wish to the Evil God with her, whom Zhang Yu kicked aside and quickly fled.

There were chases and desperation, with the Evil God tempting him with offers of salvation.

Zhang Yu scorned them, turned, and threw the Evil God Doll at his pursuers, shouting, “Good stuff!

You can wish for anything with this!”

There was a giant rag doll chasing Zhang Yu, threatening him with terrifying power to form a pact.

Zhang Yu kept running while calling the constables, and when they arrived, he even wanted to go confront the Evil God with them.

But…

in front of the screen, Sun Jiayi was no longer watching his performance because someone was contacting him.

Looking at the contact window where Zhang Pianpian, bearing the identity of deputy team leader agent of the Songyang City’s Inspection Department Patrol Team, appeared, he frowned slightly and said, “What does this colleague need?”

Zhang Pianpian said, “There’s a candidate named Zhang Yu.

I hope…”

Sun Jiayi waved to reject, but saw the other party had already activated a talismanic book, directly using a talisman.

“You dare cross the Spirit Realm and directly use a talisman on me, the dignified Gong Cao God?”

“How bold of you!”

But upon seeing the specific talisman used, Sun Jiayi immediately relaxed, “A Goodwill Talisman?!”

The Goodwill Talisman is a type of talisman that rapidly increases a god’s goodwill.

Its principle doesn’t require the god’s name, information, or account; simply activating it upon contacting the god directly deposits money into their account, automatically hiding the transaction record.

Realizing the effect of the Goodwill Talisman, Sun Jiayi’s once serious expression softened.

“I didn’t expect a mere mortal to understand talismans so well, even mastering the Goodwill Talisman.”

And noticing the change in his account balance, his face broke into a smile, appreciating, “A high schooler with such reverence for god, showing strong faith.”

“What do you need me to do?”

This didn’t surprise Zhang Pianpian.

From her two years of using talismanic books and studying talismans, faith level was determined by top-ups.

Learning talismans relied on top-ups.

Asking for True God tutoring also required top-ups…

so talismans equaled top-ups!

However, even topping up to gods required proper methods, like talismanic book top-ups, private transfers, public transfers, Goodwill Talisman…

Each channel was worlds apart, involving different levels of talisman expertise.

Zhang Pianpian said, “I’d appreciate it if this god could slightly lower Zhang Yu’s exam difficulty…”

Sun Jiayi responded dismissively, “Oh, a 14 yuan per hour job, how hard can the exam be?”

…

In the illusion.

Zhang Yu looked at the world before him, his eyes full of confusion.

Now he was in a white room.

Floating in the center of the room were the words: “The Evil God tempts you, will you accept?”

Below it floated two options: Yes and No.

No way…

This is a trick question, isn’t it?

Because the question seemed too simple, Zhang Yu couldn’t respond.

After contemplating for a full ten minutes and failing to detect any traps, he nervously chose ‘No.’

The notification of his exam pass immediately appeared before him.

A bewildered Zhang Yu exited the Spirit Realm, still unsure of what transpired.

At that moment, his phone rang.

Zhang Yu answered, and Zhang Pianpian’s voice came through, “You must have passed the exam, right?”

Zhang Yu immediately voiced his doubts.

Zhang Pianpian explained, “Oh, I made a payment to the on-duty Gong Cao Little God to slightly lower the exam’s difficulty.”

A little?!

Is this what you call a god?

Zhang Yu was shocked, “Can you bribe gods with money?”

Zhang Pianpian: “Of course not.”

Just as Zhang Yu was about to relax, Zhang Pianpian continued, “Spending money only makes it possible to bribe gods; it depends on how much you spend and how you spend it, which relates to talisman skills.”

Zhang Yu: “But…

they’re gods!”

“In Kunxu, gods are paid for jobs; money can indeed move gods,” Zhang Pianpian said matter-of-factly, “Without money, how would the Eight True Gods operate Kunxu?

How would they govern the world?”

Zhang Yu was speechless, realizing a deeper understanding of Kunxu.

Recalling what she’d said earlier, Zhang Yu asked, “Didn’t you say the exam tested Dao Heart and will?”

Zhang Pianpian calmly said, “Yes, it requires enough Dao Heart and will to persist until…

I manage to locate the Gong Cao on duty for your exam in the Spirit Realm and use a talisman to deposit money into his account.”

She continued, “Well, I have your work ID and talismanic book ready; let’s meet at your high school entrance.”

“Now…

we can have a talk with the Songyang High School student council.”

So Zhang Yu hurriedly dragged his tired self onto the bus, and an hour and a half later, arrived at the school stop, spotting Zhang Pianpian from afar waiting at the intersection.

She handed a black-and-white item resembling a manual to Zhang Yu.

“This is your talismanic book.

You can use a talisman for free once daily and get discounts for learning Inspection Department talismans through it…”

She pointed to the strange symbols on the book and said, “These are the Inspection Department’s markings; show it when in trouble.”

Zhang Yu carefully held it, thinking, “So this is a talismanic book.

The cheapest ones cost nearly a hundred thousand, right?”

A talismanic book is key to learning talismans, which relate to high school Daoism scores.

Zhang Yu had heard of students even mortgaging organs to buy one.

“They really provide this upon entry?

This Inspection Department is wealthy.”

“Azhen would probably kneel and call me ‘father,’ begging to play with it?”

—-

A new month, asking for monthly votes, thank you all for your support.