Chapter 429: Joining the Practical Assessment of the Monthly Exam
“I didn’t expect those seeds to mature so quickly. Is the cultivation really that efficient?”
After turning off my phone, I was still reflecting on my earlier conversation with Sofiry. The seeds matured quickly, partly because of the additional seeds being cultivated, which made her a bit bolder in her approach. She used magic to accelerate the ripening, and so far, there have been no signs of deterioration. The first fruits to ripen have already entered the breeding stage, and Sofiry also remembered my earlier suggestion, preserving some of the fruits, and she was very interested in the Fool Dream Drink, a mixed juice.
Sofiry wasn’t in a hurry about it either, and she learned from Dongli Yiren that our monthly exam was coming up, so she asked me to come by after the exam.
I didn’t explain anything, naturally agreeing to her request.
Back at the villa, looking at the suddenly somewhat ordinary place, I was reminded of the shocking feelings I had when I first enrolled.
Unknowingly, I have become accustomed to it, or perhaps it’s just that I had gotten used to the experiences in that small world. In that world, I stayed in luxurious hotels, slept in shabby inns, and even camped in tents during travels—each of these experiences was indeed novel.
It had been over a month since I last returned; it seemed my bedroom needed some cleaning.
Pushing the door open, I saw no one on the first floor, indicating everyone was quite busy.
After all, the monthly exam was approaching. Although it only happened once a month, for students, it was a significant event.
“Strange, I didn’t see them working this hard last time. Are they all in class?” I wondered aloud, curious.
“Welcome back, Master~” At that moment, a voice suddenly came in; it was the Intelligent Butler of this villa.
“Little Cattle Horse?” I looked down at the cleaning robot, surprised to see they had let it out. “Where is everyone?”
“They went out,” Little Cattle Horse replied succinctly.
“Okay.” I didn’t pursue it further and walked directly towards my bedroom. Little Cattle Horse was just an alchemical item, so it wouldn’t report anything about their whereabouts.
However, as I entered my bedroom, Little Cattle Horse followed me.
“What are you doing?” I nudged the little thing with my toe; it actually wanted to enter my bedroom?
“Master, your bedroom hasn’t been cleaned for over a month.”
“Oh, that’s not necessary; I can handle it myself. You go about your business and conserve some magic power.” I responded.
I was slightly surprised by the Intelligent Butler; its intelligence was quite high, no wonder it consumed magic so quickly.
Watching it leave, I stepped into my bedroom.
Even though it hadn’t been cleaned for over a month, it was still fairly tidy, with no signs of anyone disturbing my things—just a layer of fine dust, and I realized I forgot to put a cover on the quilt when I left. It looked like I would need to change the bedding tonight.
I would naturally take care of the cleaning myself.
After all, the first spellbook I obtained was the Cleaning Spell. Strictly speaking, the Cleaning Spell didn’t quite fit the category of an official spell; it was more akin to that of a minor spellbook. But I didn’t mind and started to use it directly.
As I released the Cleaning Spell, I immediately got inspired. The cleaning energy, originally limited to a small area, now enveloped the entire bedroom. Cleaning the whole room could even be done with just a snap of my fingers.
“Hmm~ I’ve never found the Cleaning Spell this useful before.” I clapped my hands to cancel the spell, realizing that even a small spell could have so many intricacies, like the subtle differences in cleaning various surfaces. It was even possible to replace bathing with the Cleaning Spell, providing the most comfortable intensity for cleansing the body.
While using the Cleaning Spell, my mind started to constantly come up with modification plans for spells, a nearly uncontrollable urge.
After changing to a new quilt, I took out my phone and sent a message in the dormitory group chat.
I originally thought I might see everyone in the dorm, but it turned out none of them were there.
After I sent a message in the chat, a while passed without any responses.
“What’s going on here?” I wondered, puzzled. Did they all turn off their phones and miss a single message?
But I clearly saw Hong Chanyi asking for someone to bring lunch earlier today.
I attempted to send a red envelope as well, and after a while, an unexpected person accepted it—it was Yu Yatian.
Yang Yuelan: Where is everyone?
Yu Yatian: They might all be training and didn’t see their phone messages.
Yang Yuelan: What training has them so motivated?
Yu Yatian: Practical training in the virtual dream world.
Yu Yatian: Xiao Han, you don’t know? You just came back from somewhere.
Yu Yatian: This month’s exam includes a practical assessment. Actually, it was already in the last month’s exam, but you missed it.
Yu Yatian: The ones in the dorm are probably practicing in their dreams.
Yang Yuelan: This month’s exam has a practical assessment?
Yu Yatian: Yeah, it’s hard to explain. How about you come over and try it?
Yu Yatian: It’s actually the dream pod you used during the dream communication contest.
Yu Yatian: The location is the practical training hall we often go to for training.
Yang Yuelan: Alright, I’m on my way.
After quickly understanding the situation from Yu Yatian, I became interested in this matter.
I didn’t expect that this month’s exam would actually include a practical assessment, and I was curious about what form it would take.
However, in light of my previous conversation with Teacher Ji, it was not hard to guess that this was a change aimed at enhancing the strength levels of the Child of Fortune peers.
Using the Primordial Dream Pod for practical training was indeed a great approach; at least in the dream world, you could do whatever you wanted, and it even avoided the need for spellbooks.
But I remembered that dream pods didn’t seem to be that widespread, did they?
Could they really be sufficient for so many students to practice?
But thinking about it another way, dream pods were just devices to guide consciousness into dreams, which shouldn’t be too difficult for extraordinary witches.
Moreover… even if it wasn’t enough, that would be the academy’s problem, not mine to worry about. After all, since the academy was preparing for reform, there should at least be foundational infrastructure to support such changes, right?
Embracing this mindset, I directly went out to the practical training hall.
I had been there a few times, but it was unfortunate that I hadn’t learned the teleportation spell yet. So, I could only teleport to a nearby landmark and then fly over on my broom.
When I arrived, I found that I needed to swipe a student card to enter.
I hurried over to ask a senior who was working part-time there and learned that the training hall was currently only open to students below the third year. The third years, who were still following a mandatory curriculum, had a relatively small gap in combat power.
Higher-year students weren’t allowed in for the time being, and if they wanted to practice, they could head to the arena, which was guaranteed to be more exciting than here.
After confirming that I was a new student of this year, the senior warmly led me inside.
However, upon entering, I realized that the setup was completely different from my previous visits.
The previously spacious practical area was now neatly arranged with dream pods. I could see quite a few students chatting and laughing as they walked out.
There were also rest areas and a temporary medical room nearby. According to the senior’s explanation, the dreams experienced in the dream pods varied from person to person; some might not adapt well, while others could become faint or even lose consciousness due to a high pain percentage caused by mistakes. These bizarre incidents had occurred multiple times over the past few months.
After saying goodbye to that senior, my unusual appearance and white hair attracted quite a few young girls’ attention.
Although I knew girls liked to gossip, there were indeed quite a few talking about me right in front of me.
Fortunately, my current appearance seemed to have prevented everyone from recognizing me as the original Yang Yuelan.
Only a few in my dorm, along with Tan Han and some other seniors I knew, were aware of my true identity.
This inadvertently spared me quite a bit of trouble. Thinking back to that time during the academy exchange competition was terrifying, and now, the worst I faced was mere comments about my appearance.
If I had shown up as my original self, I probably would have drawn even more attention.
But since I’ve been so low-key in the Witch Academy, my popularity has probably cooled off by now.
With this thought in mind, I instinctively opened the group chat. It had already become lively, as after my conversation with Yu Yatian, Hong Chanyi and the others quickly joined the chat, but I hadn’t paid much attention while on my way here.
After I chimed in again, letting them know I had arrived, Hong Chanyi immediately called me over to the “five seats.” She had already found a spot with five consecutive seats.
Earlier, it was Hong Chanyi who brought Guan Qiuling and Dongli Yiren here for training, and Yu Yatian had come in later after dealing with something, which is why she noticed the chat messages.
“This way, this way!”
As soon as I arrived in their designated area, I heard Hong Chanyi’s loud voice. Standing next to her were Guan Qiuling and Yu Yatian, while Dongli Yiren was already lying inside a dream pod but hadn’t yet closed the pod door.
“Wait… is that Xiao Han?” At this moment, several girls next to Hong Chanyi quickly looked at me in surprise, then turned their eyes back to Hong Chanyi.
I looked over at the girls standing beside Hong Chanyi. They looked somewhat familiar; they seemed to be classmates from Class 14, but I had forgotten their names since it had indeed been a while. It was easy to recognize them as part of my class.
“Hello.” I quickly greeted them as I approached.
“Is it really Xiao Han?” The girls excitedly approached, not quite believing it. “Did you dye your hair?”
“No, it’s just that due to some reasons, I ended up like this. It’s not a big deal, but… are you all here for dream practice together?” I casually shifted the topic to their dream practice.
“Yes, yes! We came with Hong Chanyi. The monthly exam is coming up, so we need to cram a bit.” One of the girls said, “Xiao Han, you must have a lot of practical experience… why don’t you teach us?”
“Me? I’d rather not. My practical experience is pretty average; I mainly rely on overwhelming combat power, and I haven’t attended many proper practical classes. You might have to help me out instead.”
“How is that possible! During the last practical monthly exam, you were one of the simulated opponents! I’ve heard you made it really tough for many people, but I was lucky not to hit your stage and got eliminated before that.”
“Huh? What does that mean?” I frowned, not understanding what this classmate was referring to. I remembered not showing up for the last monthly exam, so where did I come from?
“Oh, I forgot you didn’t attend the last exam. You probably don’t know, right? The practical test in the last monthly exam was held in a dream, in a challenge format, and the simulated opponents were the ten representatives from our Witch Academy during the exchange competition.”
“The dream apparatus can actually do that?”
“Yes! I find it very amazing. When fighting the opponent, you can’t feel at all that they are simulated virtual characters. Xiao Han, do you want to try challenging yourself?”
“Is that so? I’m a bit interested.” I expressed curiosity, surprised that the Primordial Dream had such terrifying capabilities. Doesn’t that mean if you enter the Primordial Dream, one’s privacy is completely transparent?
I recalled that the Primordial Dream was under the control of the Primordial Witch, so in principle, it should be fine. A being of such existence wouldn’t bother with someone as insignificant as me.
Moreover, I had heard that the Primordial Witch was so busy with numerous clones that she wouldn’t trouble me unless necessary.
Furthermore, I didn’t have any deep secrets to keep, as my biggest secrets were my Extraordinary Knowledge and the Great Spellbook. Even the Knowledge Tree is inadequate in this regard, but these matters weren’t secret within the academy; even if they were, I had the Academy Head as my backing.
After gathering this understanding, the girls left. They hadn’t arranged to stay in the same place with us, as they were jointly practicing with other classmates, so only the five of us from the dorm remained.
“Come on~ Xiao Han, it’s been so long! Where have you been? You missed the last exam, and I heard it had something to do with a certain Academy Head. Do you have connections in the Witch Academy?” Hong Chanyi pushed my back and nudged me into the dream pod.
Since it had been a while, they also had many questions to ask, but now didn’t seem like a good time to speak.
“How could that be? It’s just a small favor for the Academy Head. By the way, how does this work? It feels a bit different from when we were competing.” I asked.
“Of course, it’s different~ I heard this is the latest model of the dream pod, much better than the dusty old one we used during the matches back then. It’s said that the old version could make people dizzy or disoriented on their first entry, while this one reduces those side effects significantly.”
“Is that so? That’s great!”
“That’s for sure; otherwise, how could it be popular among new students? By the way, this directly plugs into everyone’s student card. After that, you can directly register and link your personal dream account, and then we’ll meet in the dream~”
“Mhm, see you in the dream.” I nodded, taking out my student card and pulling the pod door closed.
