Fang Yuan's eyes once again didn't match his smile as a swift nob to the head reminded Wisdom Gu, "It's the Great Love Immortal Venerable to you."
"Bah," Elder Zhuang dismissed, shaking his hand at Elder Peh, "Don't talk about those extraordinary figures and measure normal geniuses in the same sentence."
When in the mindscape, Fang Yuan's main body is in autopilot, so it just nodded along, before Fang Yuan returned.
"You are entitled to your own opinions, Elder Peh, and I respect you no matter what, but I must say, as a practitioner of Wisdom Path, it feels outright disrespectful to see the illustrious Star Constellation resort to the Luck path of all things as her final test."
Elder Peh shrugged his shoulders and bowed; after all, he was only an outer elder, and compared to a rank 8, even a newly promoted one, he still wasn't worthy.
"Let's leave it at that, then, Elder Zhuang. After all, we have a test to proctor and it's getting late."
"Indeed," Elder Zhuang looked at his watch. He snapped his fingers, and the doors to the Constellation High Tower opened.
Fang Yuan's eyebrows raised. Elder Zhuang noticed, "Hehe, part of the deal that invited me into the Heavenly Star Academy was to have free rein over the Constellation High Tower, only being lower in authority than Star Constellation and Director Starlight herself!"
Elder Zhuang held a smug look of pride, as he puffed out his chest and side-eyed Fang Yuan expecting a look of awe, revire, something other than…
"Wow, amazing!" Fang Yuan's eyes were sparkling, but not over Elder Zhuang, rather, "Such a thoughtful and intricate choice of Gu, to think it would combine not just Star Path and Wisdom Path, but Book Path, Information Path, and…"
Something caught both Fang Yuan and Wisdom Gu's eyes, "Is that what I think it is?"
"My analysis can usually only be as good as yours, but there's no doubt in my mind that it's exactly what you think," Wisdom Gu replied.
The two were giving special attention to a particular brick in a random wall of the Tower, which looked like any other brick, but to Wisdom Gu and Fang Yuan,
"It's a piece of Book Mountain itself!" they exclaimed, but their shock didn't end there, tracing the natural formations behind the brick revealed more pieces of Book Mountain, and revealed another surprising discovery,
"There are a few pieces of the Qian Kun Crystal Wall in here as well!"
"We need to analyse this place!" Fang Yuan said resolutely.
"Agreed!" Wisdom Gu replied, but just as they could begin sinking their time into it,
"Little Fang, the test is over here!"
Elder Zhaung beckoned Fang Yuan. he had set up a table in the most conducive spot, and provided the best pen and paper he had on him.
Fang Yuan thought to himself, "There's little time, even if I were this old man's disciple, I still wouldn't be allowed to visit the Constellation High Tower as and when I please, our best shot of gathering data is here and now!"
"But the calculations would be immense this is a true half-step into Rank 9 Gu House, and my intuition tells me that it's not as simple as that, not to mention all the anti-wisdom path methods Star Constellation has installed." Wisdom Gu replied, "and you're forgetting that the more I use my power, the sooner I will have to begin feeding on Lifespan Gu, or your own."
"If that's your primary concern, then just consume my lifespan." Fang Yuan shrugged.
"???" Wisdom Gu was astonished, it even pinched itself to make sure it heard right, "Has Heaven's will already robbed you of your sanity? It was fun while it lasted, I guess, but even the great Fang Yuan had to come up with a dumb idea once in a while, I guess…" Wisdom Gu had wanted to say more, but Fang Yuan had already whacked its mouth shut.
"Joking aside, you do know that by taking your 'lifespan', I'll be actually speeding up the time before your body reverts to being an Immortal Zombie."
"Of course I know," Fang Yuan replied, he was already seated and prepared to take the exam, "But you know that the Qian Kun Crystal Wall is the reason behind why I'm here, I need to know if it's all in this building or are there more still out there, I'm guessing this is mostly from my private accumulation, but I have no idea if Star Constellation has acquired more on her own."
"Hmm," Wisdom Gu did some rough calculations, "It's going to take about a year of Lifespan to calculate, which leaves you with just around 6 months to find a revival method. Are you sure you want to proceed?"
Fang Yuan stretched his body and prepared himself for the Wisdom Test. "Relax, I'm the Great Love Immortal Venerable. When have I ever failed to consider the ramifications of my actions? But the reward is too great compared to such a little risk, of course, we must seize this opportunity!"
Elder Zhuang raised his hand high, "Alright, your time begins...now!"
As soon as his hand motioned down, a signal to begin, everyone began flipping over the pages, some tackled the questions one at a time, some poured through every page and began with the easiest ones first, but a select few just sat there and did nothing.
Elder Zhuang smirked. He whispered to Elder Peh, "See that boy did not disappoint, he hasn't even made a hand for the pen and paper I provided for him."
"Indeed," Elder Peh nodded, "I didn't expect there to be a few others just like him."
Wu Fei Hong had also decided to take the test alongside Fang Yuan. She sat just behind him, and while she was agonising over the question, she noticed Fang Yuan hadn't even made a move yet. His eyes were closed shut!
"What is he doing? Didn't he say he'll try his best to set a record in all 3 tests? Why is he just keeping his eyes closed?" She was about to give him a piece of her mind when she remembered she was in a test and any communication meant disqualification.
"Damn it see if I care anot whether you fail or pass!" she returned to her paper furiously scriblbling at each question.
Time slowly trickled away, the minutes soon turned to an hour, and the allocated time was almost up.
"1 Minute remaining!" Elder Zhuang announced, at that moment, 1 of the students who had his eyes shut throughout the exam opened them up and, like lightning, began jotting down all his answers.
As the remaining time began trickling down, more and more students began opening their eyes to complete the paper.
Until two examinees kept their eyes closed even at the 30-second mark,
"Damn, this guy." the student next to Fang Yuan, and the only other one with his eyes closed was called, Da Toh Nao. He was an aspiring Wisdom Path expert with a reputation amongst his generation; most called him a prodigy in Wisdom Path, and he was hoping to make a good impression on Elder Zhuang, until Fang Yuan stole his spotlight.
"What's he got that I don't? Except for good looks and charisma, I don't see anything worthy of a Wisdom Path's expert like Elder Zhuang to respect!"
"I'm confident I could answer all these questions in 20 seconds, but…"
Elder Zhuang began counting down from 30
"29"
"28"
"Pick up your pen damn you…" Da Toh mumbled to himself.
"23"
"22"
"21"
"Damnittttttt" Da Toh cursed as his eyes snapped open and he reached for his pen just as the count hit "20"
"Hmph, he's probably too cocky there's no way he can finish the test in less than 20 seconds." Da Toh comforted himself as he began furiously writing out his answers.
The test was quite complex in disguise, true people with an affinity for Wisdfom Path would have noticed that by using a deduction method they would be able to see through the pages, their scores were based on how many questions they got right, but the hidden metric was how fast would it take them from the moment the page opened to the moment the test ended!
Only the few who practised or were gifted in the Wisdom Path noticed the hidden instruction written on the test!
"10" Elder Zhaung became nervous, "Why hasn't little Fang stopped deducing yet?"
"9", he thought to himself, "Did he get too entranced in the method behind the test?
Before he knew it he reached,
"3" Da Toh chucked as he put the pen down, "The self-confident idiot doomed himself! What can he do in 3 seconds!"
"2"
"1"
"0! Pen's down!" Elder Zhuang shouted, but his eyes were glued to Fang Yuan's position, and disappointment and disbelief were in his eyes.
Whilst Da Toh held one of incomparable pride.
Fang Yuan's eyes gently opened, and he made an audible yawn and stretch.
Da Toh couldn't hold it in anymore, "Hahaha, you fell asleep? No wonder you didn't open your eyes even till the very end! How laughable for you to consider yourself worthy of pursuing the Wisdom Path? Go back to Gu refinement, you bum."
Fang Yuan didn't care and yawned again,
"Ho,h, your arrogance knows no bounds" DToh 'soh'sh smugness couldn't be hidden. "Wanna make a bet?"
"Whoever has the lowest score must forfeit their admission and be banned from this school for the next 10 years!"
!!!
Everyone gasped!