Chapter 166
Chapter 166
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 166
Chapter Title: Peach Blossom Haven (2)
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The Magistrate Examination was a rather unique kind of test.
The most distinctive feature was that as long as you avoided failing the first exam, you were unconditionally qualified for the second.
Whether your written score averaged 43 or 61 made no difference.
In fact, this much was perfectly understandable.
After all, there were exams in the world that operated on a simple pass-fail basis.
But the puzzling aspects didn't end there.
The Magistrate Examination selected successful candidates by combining scores from the first and second exams.
This naturally led to one obvious question.
If that was the case, why not just rank candidates by score from the start instead of using pass-fail for the first round?
In practice, whenever the second exam season rolled around, Peach Blossom Haven headquarters overflowed with examinees from every corner of the Immortal Realm.
Everyone except those who'd slacked off, failed the cutoff, and dropped out after the first round showed up for the second. It was only natural.
Innkeepers let out cries of joy, while administrative officials wailed in agony.
The root cause of all these issues was that the Magistrate Examination was an institution created far too long ago.
Its official name, the Court Public Recruitment Exam Dragon Clan Track, was holding its 342nd iteration this year.
Considering it was held once every century, that meant it was an antiquated system over 34,000 years old.
Naturally, it wasn't a system that had been reformed just once or twice.
In its early days, the Magistrate Examination used absolute evaluation.
Both the first and second exams were pass-fail.
The passing criteria were, of course, decided by the White-Picking Black-Shattering General.
The White-Picking Black-Shattering General was an extremely strict individual.
He was that way with himself as well as others.
His very ascending name, bestowed by Heaven, meant "plucking the white and shattering the black."
The White-Picking Black-Shattering General's merciless standards butchered the examinees.
After 500 straight years with zero passers, the magistrates could no longer hold back and rose up in unison.
The manpower shortage had become far too severe.
In the end, the White-Picking Black-Shattering General showed great magnanimity.
The Magistrate Examination was reformed into a quota system.
The first exam retained its pass-fail format, while the second exam would determine success by score ranking.
In exchange, they introduced a cutoff score for the second exam.
But the magistrates' overwork wasn't resolved in the slightest.
Because in every exam cycle, they routinely failed to fill even a tenth of the quota.
This time, it was again the White-Picking Black-Shattering General's fault.
His excessively high failing standards caused first-round passers to drop like flies.
The history of the Magistrate Examination system was a history of reforms.
The White-Picking Black-Shattering General steadfastly upheld his own standards, while protests from manpower-starved magistrates poured in.
Among all of Peach Blossom Haven's institutions, the Magistrate Examination held the undisputed record for most reforms.
After dozens, hundreds of revisions, the Magistrate Examination finally took its current form.
It had been patched together so many times like a ragged quilt that no one even remembered what the original system looked like.
But there was one thing the White-Picking Black-Shattering General never compromised on.
The difficulty of the practical exam.
*****
The Dragon's Eye held the authority to distinguish truth from lies.
But it didn't work on just anyone.
Excluding nullification barriers, there were two known ways to evade the Dragon's Eye's power.
The first method.
Simply possess a Dragon's Eye yourself.
It had zero effect on fellow dragons.
The second method.
Reach an overwhelmingly superior realm.
Generally speaking, if there was a two-realm gap between opponents, the Dragon's Eye's power became useless.
So the White-Picking Black-Shattering General's ruthlessness in sending a Silvery Mystery Realm cultivator into the second exam hall was nothing short of impressive.
For reference, the Silvery Mystery Realm cultivator was in charge of the oral recitation.
The practical exam's content involved using the Dragon's Eye's power to discern the truth of what the oral reciter said.
The Silvery Mystery Realm cultivator began the recitation.
“Now, I will read the confidential case record of fraudster ‘A.’ Listen carefully and determine its veracity. Let's begin. Fraudster ‘A,’ who was acquainted with...”
The Silvery Mystery Realm cultivator read the case record at a steady pace—not too slow, not too fast.
He had memorized both the original record and the practical exam version, which had been partially altered for the test.
In other words, he knew exactly what the truth was.
The examinees' task was simple.
Discern the truth or falsehood of the record from the oral reciter's words and infer the original.
It was no different from testing a lie detector's performance.
As the Silvery Mystery Realm cultivator's recitation continued, the examinees' faces gradually turned ashen.
The two-realm gap rendered the Dragon's Eye's power completely ineffective.
Only a tiny fraction of examinees could distinguish the veracity of the recitation.
Seoran was one of them.
“Fraudster ‘A’ conspired with accomplice ‘B’...”
False.
Person ‘B’ was a victim, not an accomplice.
“As the investigation began, accomplice ‘C’...”
True.
Person ‘C’ was fraudster ‘A’s accomplice.
“Fraudster ‘A’ fled to the western ‘Sector K5’...”
False.
But it wasn't clear exactly where the lie was.
The hideout might not have been ‘Sector K5,’ or the entire flight might be fabricated.
Once the recitation was finished, the reciter left the exam hall.
Seoran quickly reviewed her answer sheet.
Being subjective made it all the more crucial to be careful.
A new oral reciter entered.
This time, it was a Radiant Crimson Realm cultivator.
In terms of difficulty, the previous Silvery Mystery Realm one was "hard," and this one was "medium."
Numerous oral reciters came and went.
Supreme Star Realm, Radiant Crimson Realm, Silvery Mystery Realm—their realms varied.
And finally, the practical exam ended.
The examinees left the hall with expressions all their own.
*****
The Personnel Division of the Supreme Court inside Black Ebony Palace.
The grading staff bustled about.
Subjective questions were already a pain to grade, and there were so many examinees besides.
They couldn't afford a moment's rest if they wanted to finish on time.
One Inrang clan staffer peered into an answer sheet, muttering nonstop.
“True, false, false, false, false, true, false...”
Her role was preliminary grading.
She just needed to check the truth-falsehood markings.
The real grading was her colleague's job next to her.
The Inrang clan staffer moved like a machine.
“True, false, false, true, false, true, true...”
Her colleague sitting beside her spoke up.
“Can't you grade quietly? Is the world gonna end if you do?”
“I keep mixing them up if I don't. Ah, I forgot where I left off...”
“Sigh, never mind.”
The Inrang clan staffer started muttering again.
“True, false, false, false, true, false... Huh?”
“What now?”
“This person got every truth-falsehood right on question 12.”
Her colleague leaned over and said,
“Question 12? That's the one with the Pure Selection Realm ascetic as reciter, right?”
“Yeah, the one everyone so far got wrong.”
“How'd they nail it all? Lucky guesses?”
The Inrang clan staffer shook her head.
“This question has over 50 items. And wrong truth-falsehoods deduct points immediately. Who'd blindly guess knowing that? Better to leave it blank.”
“Right, deductions for wrongs... How did they do it?”
“Looks like they solved it with skill.”
Her colleague said,
“Does that even make sense? A Supreme Star Realm cultivator's Dragon's Eye working on a Pure Selection Realm ascetic? That's a three-realm gap.”
“But it wasn't fully effective, apparently. Question 12—just truth-falsehoods filled in, rest blank. Couldn't grasp the details.”
“Kinda wasteful. Truth-falsehoods are low partial points.”
The Inrang clan staffer said,
“Partial points? Examinees slave away for years to bump their written score by one point.”
“True enough. But seriously, why make a question everyone bombs? No discrimination power... Hm...”
“Why'd you trail off?”
The Personnel Division chief answered in place of the tongue-tied colleague.
“You two seem pretty leisurely. Chatting away like this. I assume all your grading's done?”
The Inrang clan staffer replied in a shrinking voice.
“Sorry, not quite yet...”
“A little left?”
“Yes...”
The chief said with a beaming smile.
“Then could you hurry it up?”
“Yes...!”
“Good. Much obliged. Truly touching.”
Once the chief left, the two worked in silence.
The Inrang clan staffer passed her preliminary-graded sheet to her colleague.
Then she began grading the next one.
A moment later, her colleague whispered tensely.
“Hey, take a quick look at this.”
“What?”
“That answer sheet from before, the one who aced question 12's truth-falsehoods.”
The Inrang clan staffer cautiously glanced at the chief, then leaned over.
An unbelievable score was written on the answer sheet.
The practical exam score was a whopping 70.
The Inrang clan staffer shot to her feet in shock and got scolded by the chief.
*****
Damcheong earned qualification for the third interview.
Her final scores: written 43, practical 59.
Averaged out to 51—safely in passing territory.
As they headed to the interview room together, Seoran said,
“Lady Damcheong, one final check. Oh, we opened the door and the interviewers are visible. What should we do?”
“Hello! Number 152, Damcheong here!”
“Perfect. Honorifics crash course successful.”
Damcheong said,
“Hm, I'm still so nervous...”
“It's fine. The third interview is basically a formality. As long as you don't strip naked going in, you pass.”
“Even so...”
Seoran soothed the tense Damcheong well.
Of course, she herself wasn't tense at all.
She had no doubt she'd pass.
Seoran's final scores: written 61, practical 70.