High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 931: Chapter 279: Written Test

The Curse Course exam was divided into two parts: a written test and a practical operation.

Unlike the written test, the practical part inherently carried certain risks, including but not limited to magic out of control, prey out of control, etc. Therefore, this practical type of exam was scheduled after the written test, that is, in the twentieth week, to minimize the possibility that injuries sustained during the practical could affect the written test results.

Zheng Qing’s written test for the Curse Course was arranged in East 101 of the main teaching building.

Similarly, for the students of Astronomy Class 08-1 and even the first-year students of Jiuyou Academy, their written tests were all on the first floor of the main teaching building, but the students’ seating was randomly scrambled, with only a few familiar faces in each exam room.

This inadvertently lessened Zheng Qing’s pressure somewhat.

After all, he was now bearing the title of ’Big Arcana Sequence-World,’ wherever he went, he would attract everyone’s curious or questioning glances. Compared to dealing with endless questions from acquaintances, he preferred being stared at by strangers.

At least strangers, out of politeness or other reasons, wouldn’t blatantly approach him to ask if he was Old Yao’s illegitimate son.

Every time he thought about this, Zheng Qing couldn’t help but feel a surge of frustration—although he couldn’t be described as strikingly handsome, he was fair and clean, with delicate features. How could anyone associate him with Old Yao’s dark yellow, wrinkled walnut face?

It was absolutely ludicrous!

...

The exam room contained sixteen seats, arranged in four rows of four, spaced quite far apart.

There were three invigilators: a black-robed teaching assistant, a black-robed researcher, and a gray-robed school worker, all with unfamiliar faces.

Veterans had said that years ago, the school had considered allowing fourth-year veterans to serve as invigilators for the first years, but found cheating extremely difficult to control in practice, and eventually abandoned the policy. This caused Zheng Qing and others to clench their fists in regret and vehemently criticized the predecessors’ unbridled conduct.

The three invigilators each had their own duties.

The gray-robed school worker was responsible for verifying the identity of the exam candidates at the entrance to prevent impersonation; the black-robed teaching assistant moved around within the exam room, randomly checking each student’s ID card, occasionally casting a surveillance spell on a certain student to ensure the entire exam room was clean. The black-robed researcher sat at the lecture desk throughout, watching the students and supervising the other two invigilators.

Fifteen minutes before the exam started, the invigilators urged the students to hand over textbooks, notebooks, law books and other irrelevant items.

Even the timers were not allowed to be kept.

The school provided special scratch paper, feather pens, and erasers for the exam. In front of the exam room, on the lecture desk, there was also a half-meter tall big clock, silently recording the time, ensuring that everyone could clearly see the time without affecting the candidates.

Five minutes before the exam started, the invigilators, supervising each other, took out the exam papers that had been sealed with multiple seals.

Each invigilator had their own unique way of unsealing them.

After receiving the exam papers and confirming they were intact, the gray-robed school worker first read out the exam discipline.

Then, under the direction of the black-robed teaching assistant, sixteen exam papers slowly rose from the lecture desk, floating leisurely towards the students like miniature white magic carpets, stopping in the air slightly in front of and above the students, gently undulating.

Zheng Qing took a deep breath, lifted his eyelids, and stared intently at the exam paper in front of him, occasionally glancing out of the corner of his eye at the pointers on the big clock on the lecture desk.

The second hand ticked away.

”The exam begins!”

On the stage, the invigilating researcher called out sternly, his law book slamming heavily on the lecture desk: ”Bang!”

Accompanied by that crisp sound, the test paper in front of Zheng Qing immediately lost its support and slowly floated downwards.

Naturally, Zheng Qing wouldn’t foolishly sit in place and watch the paper fall—he had heard from many veterans that once the invigilator announces the start of the exam, ownership of the test paper transfers from the invigilator to the examinee, and at this point, it’s completely acceptable for an examinee to touch the test paper.

Long story short.

Zheng Qing swiftly stretched out his hand and firmly grasped the test paper, pulling it onto the desk and leaned forward to read—

’2008-2009 academic year, first semester final exams, first year of university, Curse Studies (Jiuyou Edition)’

’Instructions—’

’This test paper is divided into two parts, Part I and Part II, totaling 15 pages. Part I contains compulsory questions (120 points), Part II contains optional questions (30 points). The full score is 150 points, and the exam time is 180 minutes. Please use the 0.57 mm feather pen provided; bringing personal brushes, feather pens, or pens of other specifications is strictly forbidden. Before answering, please make sure to sign your true name on the front page. After completing the exam, the test papers will be collected by the teaching assistants.’

’Please adhere to the exam discipline rules set by the invigilators.’

Tsk, it feels similar to the instructions in the exam I dreamed of, Zheng Qing silently muttered to himself.

Turning to the second page, the 24k blank page only had four bolded characters—

’Cheating is prohibited’!

The young state-sponsored student curled his lips and turned to the third page.

Then, he finally saw the first question of the Curse Course—

’1, Please list at least two binding spells, and write the accurate spell formula (2 points); 2, Select one binding spell formula for a detailed explanation, analyzing its working principle (3 points); 3, Describe the taboos of using one of the spells (1 point).’

Immediately, an image of a roaring silverback gorilla and a small witch fainting grandly amid the gorilla’s roars sparked in Zheng Qing’s mind. With a smirk, the feather pen prepared for the exam eagerly sprang from the ink bottle and began briskly writing on the blank spaces of the paper.

Just like the first question, most of the written questions in the Curse Course were quite standard, nothing beyond the spells Zheng Qing had learned this semester and related trivial knowledge. Old Yao had emphasized these more than once.

The only part that Zheng Qing was uncertain about was the third major question in the second part of the optional questions.

The optional questions all pertained to material beyond the standard curriculum, for example, the first question required students to describe their state and effect while using the Yuan Chen Guardian Spell—this was highly subjective.

And the third major question in the optional section was absolutely baffling.

That question asked students to explain what a ’curse’ is—Zheng Qing felt this was as vague and general as asking him to explain what a ’foreign language’ is.

The over two hours of the exam went by in a blink.

After the invigilators had sorted the test papers and left the examination hall, Zheng Qing had not yet had a chance to stand up when suddenly a large group of unfamiliar faces crowded around him.

”Zheng Qing, what did you write for question twenty-five in Part I...”

”Zheng Qing, did you have enough time to answer? I feel like I didn’t have time to write the second part...”

”Brother Qing, Brother Qing, do you think we need to write about team battles for the third question on common scenarios of using Chaos Spell...”

”What’s there to ask about the Chaos Spell? We should discuss the casting elements of the Yuan Chen Guardian Spell in the second part’s question.”