Scripture of Days Past

Three days later, the first monthly examination was finally set to begin.

With a spot in the advanced school on the line, all of the trainees were taking it very seriously.

The monthly examination was quite different from the imperial martial examination. In the Demon Vanquishing Department, combat prowess was important, but so was one’s knowledge on how to deal with all types of fiends, demons, and ghosts.

As a result, the written examination carried equal weight to the sparring matches in the monthly examination.

On the first day of the examination, all of the trainees had to complete test papers on beast fiends, spirit fiends, ghosts, demons, evil deities, and cults. Their scores on those tests would make up half of their final score for the monthly examination.

As for the second half of the examination, it consisted of the sparring matches that would take place the following day.

Early that morning, all of the trainees had already woken up. Zhang Haizhu was doing some last-minute cramming, frantically reading through his notes, but he was failing to absorb any of the information.

”It’s too late to be studying now, you idiot,” Jiang Longyu jeered.

Zhang Haizhu was so nervous that he wasn’t even in the mood to bicker with Jiang Longyu. He merely continued to read through his notes in tense silence.

Li He was meditating while seated on his bed, but the tension in his shoulders clearly showed that his meditation wasn’t having its usual calming effect.

Before long, Chu Qiguang also returned to the room and began preparing the stationary he needed for the written tests.

”How did your preparation go, Brother Chu?” Zhang Haizhu asked.

”What preparation?” Chu Qiguang asked with a shrug. ”I haven’t even gone through my notes for quite a few days now. I’ll just have to see how it goes.”

”It’s not like you even need to study,” Zhang Haizhu sighed. ”With your eidetic memory, I’m sure you’re going to do great anyway.”

”There’s no point in trying to memorize notes,” Chu Qiguang said. ”Didn’t you hear what the lecturers said? The written test isn’t about memorization. Instead, they’re testing how we’re going to react when we encounter different types of demons and fiends. It’s a test of logic and reasoning. I do have a good memory, but that’s not going to help me much here.”

Chu Qiguang’s words gave Zhang Haizhu a sense of reassurance. If even Chu Qiguang wasn’t going to do well, then he wouldn’t feel so bad if he also performed poorly.

These idiots don’t even know what the tests are going to be like! I’ve been given test papers from past years by the lecturers to study, so I’m better prepared than all of them! Jiang Longyu thought to himself gleefully.

The four of them made their way to the examination venue together, where they were each assigned to a desk. The lecturers handed out the test papers, then announced that everyone could begin.

This was Chu Qiguang’s first time taking a Demon Vanquishing Department test, but he had taken plenty of tests in his past life, so he wasn’t nervous in the slightest.

He examined the test paper and quickly developed a rough idea of what he was dealing with. So we’ve got fill-in-the-blank questions, multiple-choice questions, then short-answer questions.

Sure enough, written tests had always been quite similar throughout the ages.

The fill-in-the-blank questions tested trainees on how well they remembered the content taught in the lessons on demons and fiends. Since this was essentially a memory exercise, Chu Qiguang naturally had no trouble with this section at all.

The multiple-choice questions were a little more interesting.

Mr. Wang, a Hundred-man Commander of the Demon Vanquishing Department, is out hiking with a friend when he spots a group of villagers holding a ceremony to worship a mandrill. What should he do?

A. Directly intervene and stop the ceremony.

B. Report the matter to the local authorities and have them take care of it.

C. Observe the ceremony in secret to gather leads with the goal of killing the mandrill.

The mandrill was a type of humanoid beast fiend whose entire body was covered in a thick layer of fur, regardless of the season.

Their reverse-jointed legs gave their lower bodies an insect-like appearance, and they were capable of communicating with wild beasts, plants, and insects.

According to legends, mandrills were originally travelers who became lost in the mountains. In some places, they were worshiped as envoys of the gods.

Mandrills are only beast fiends, and under normal circumstances, beast fiends encroaching on villagers doesn’t fall under the Demon Vanquishing Department’s jurisdiction. Hence, Mr. Wang should only have to report the matter to the local authorities. However, mandrills are different from normal beast fiends in that they create a culture of worship, and that’s cause for the Demon Vanquishing Department to intervene.

According to standard protocol, cult followers are often too set in their beliefs to be dissuaded or communicated with effectively, so there’s no point in wasting time trying to reason with them. Instead, the objective should be to destroy the object of their faith. Hence, I should choose C: Observe the ceremony in secret to gather leads with the goal of killing the mandrill.

Chu Qiguang had developed top-notch logic and reasoning skills from all the studying he had done in his past life. Combined with the eidetic memory that he had been blessed with in this life, he was able to breeze through the test. Before long, he har already reached the final question, which was based on a real case that had taken place in the East Sea Province over twenty years ago.

Hibiscus County in the East Sea Province was renowned across the entire empire for producing the finest porcelain. Over twenty years ago, one of the county’s porcelain artisans had been killed along with his entire clan. An exhaustive investigation was launched into the case, and many parties were discovered to have been involved, including the yakshas, the Holy Fire Sect, and the dragon race.

Various leads were provided in the question, and the trainees were required to give a final verdict on the case.

Chu Qiguang couldn’t help but smile after seeing the case in question. During all his reading in the archive building over the past month, he just so happened to have come across records of this particular case.

As it turned out, the porcelain artisan killed in this case had secretly been a pirate, and he had once slain a dragon out at sea. However, unbeknownst to him, that dragon was the descendant of a flood dragon of the East Sea dragon race.

The flood dragon was furious, but that incident had happened to be the porcelain artisan’s final job as a pirate. After that, he went into retirement and began focusing solely on his porcelain business.

The flood dragon wanted vengeance, but he was unable to enter the Great Han Empire. The empire’s southeastern coastline had always been heavily guarded precisely to prevent infiltrations and invasions from the dragon race.

The flood dragon was quite familiar with the cult, the Holy Fire Sect, so he hired the sect for treasures worth a hundred thousand taels of silver to kill the porcelain artisan and his entire clan.

The Holy Fire Sect took on the job, but they didn’t want to send any of their disciples into the Great Han Empire and risk their lives. Thus, they hired a yaksha out at sea for ten thousand taels of silver to carry out the job in their stead.

The yaksha was very adept at shapeshifting, but he didn’t want to take the risk either, so he instructed one of his fish fiend subordinates to complete the assassination assignment.

The fish fiend was afraid of coming under the scrutiny of the Demon Vanquishing Department and the Heavenly Master Religion, so she took on the human form of a beautiful maiden and married into the porcelain artisan’s family before killing them all.

With this knowledge, Chu Qiguang already knew the answer to the question, and he began writing down his answer with complete confidence.