Beast Taming: My System is Bugged-Chapter 112 - 111: Future Exam Paper

After a tense and exciting round of score tallying,

the provisional class rankings were out.

Gu Ming’s rank had improved slightly, reaching seventh place.

Cyan Treasure had 20 Speed points, 36 Power Points, and 99 Mana, for a total of 155 points across the three stats. Cyan Treasure had already improved drastically, but the other students in his year were just insane. They were chugging potions and training relentlessly—a testament to hard work, sweat, and the power of money.

The written exam was being held today. The scores of 500 or 530 that everyone had been talking about were all based on the written scores from the last final exam combined with their current three-stat scores.

In other words, the scores for this written exam weren’t even out yet. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

The comprehensive combat and cultivation exam wasn’t until tomorrow.

"Stop calculating scores. Don’t let it affect your exam. All of you, get to the test."

The homeroom teacher walked over and rapped a few of the students in the crowd who were calculating scores on the head, telling them not to discuss their rankings here.

"You haven’t even taken the written exam, and you’re already making up rankings. Did I announce anything? Don’t get ahead of yourselves. Focus up."

The students clutched their heads and scurried away.

Just as Gu Ming was about to follow, his homeroom teacher, Ling Jun, stopped him.

She said, "Gu Ming, your journal publication will get you extra points—an estimated four points, which count toward the monthly exam. Your teacher has high hopes for you!"

"Also, if you have any other publications, don’t forget to submit them. They all grant extra points."

The homeroom teacher winked. She had clearly gotten wind of it from Teacher Zhang—the plan was to groom Gu Ming for international competitions. The principal was also on board with the idea.

In that case, Gu Ming was on a different track from everyone else.

While everyone else was battling for points in the great arena of the college entrance exams, Gu Ming was following the path of Cultivation Technique improvement and creation.

Of course, it didn’t have to be limited to improving Cultivation Techniques.

Finding herbs, diagnosing illnesses, and solving difficult medical cases were also challenging assessment points for Beastmasters on the Cultivation track in international competitions.

It was an elite competition divided into multiple comprehensive exams. Improving Cultivation Techniques was just one of the more distinguished paths, and Gu Ming didn’t necessarily have to take it.

However, judging by the current nationwide trend of the Green Treasure Breathing Technique, more and more Zero-star Pet Beasts were beginning to practice it on the side. This was a testament to Gu Ming’s excellent ability to create Cultivation Techniques.

Although this Breathing Technique had high requirements for a Pet Beast’s aptitude and self-control, and many Zero-star Level Pet Beasts couldn’t practice it at all, that didn’t stop it from being an outstanding Cultivation Technique.

At this point, his homeroom teacher patted Gu Ming on the shoulder, her gesture full of unspoken meaning.

Gu Ming naturally knew what she was trying to say.

He had recently finished writing his paper on the Spiritual Technique, "Cyan Pine", and had given it to Teacher Zhang for a preliminary review and evaluation.

After making only minor revisions, he had followed Teacher Zhang’s advice to play it safe and submitted it to the Five-star Level journal, "Array General Knowledge Monthly".

Four days had passed since the submission. It wasn’t progressing as quickly as his last submission to the Flood Dragon Monthly Report, which made Teacher Zhang a little anxious.

He brought this anxiety with him to the office, where Ling Jun naturally picked up on it.

That was how she also learned that the Tri-Colored Holy Light that had appeared at the school that day was Gu Ming’s achievement.

When word of this reached the principal, he practically exploded, regretting that he hadn’t signed a potential star like Gu Ming sooner.

"Teacher, my new manuscript hasn’t been accepted yet."

"Bah, a manuscript that can enter the Hall of the Great Dao could get rejected?"

"After all, it’s just a Tri-Colored Holy Light Cultivation Technique. The editors of the Five-Week Journal might not be impressed," Gu Ming said, shaking his head.

"I don’t believe it, unless that journal isn’t short on submissions," his homeroom teacher replied, shaking her head.

A Tri-Colored Holy Light was a Cultivation Technique that countless people dreamed of but could never create, no matter how hard they tried.

Gu Ming knew that even for a Five-star Level journal, acquiring such a Cultivation Technique wasn’t as simple as just putting out an open call.

Perhaps they only received one such Tri-Colored or Four-Colored Holy Light Cultivation Technique each month, or maybe even none at all.

Most of the time, the techniques these journals accepted were ones that hadn’t even been fully completed yet.

In other words, Cultivation Techniques and Skills that had not yet been accepted into the Hall of the Great Dao.

Techniques that were barely functional, or even completely non-functional—mere concepts or ideas—could get published in a Five-star Level journal if the author had an impressive track record.

For example, experience creating a Six-Colored Holy Light or a Five-Colored Holy Light Cultivation Technique.

It was precisely this kind of senior experience that led editors to solicit manuscripts from them by default.

In a High-star Level journal, almost sixty to seventy percent of the content consisted of works solicited by editors from top-tier authors.

The remaining thirty to forty percent was what the editors found by fishing for a needle in the haystack of their submission inbox.

Sometimes, an editor would just glance at the author’s name, identity, age, and track record, and then immediately reject the submission.

Others might be a bit more professional and actually look at the content of the research.

If the content was too outrageous and clearly impossible to achieve, it wasn’t unheard of for it to be rejected outright.

This was exactly what Gu Ming was worried about: that the editors of the Five-Week Journal would look down on a paper about a Tri-Colored Holy Light Cultivation Technique and reject it to maintain the journal’s academic standing.

Even now, with the Hall of the Great Dao appearing less frequently and multi-colored Holy Lights becoming rarer, making it harder for the Five-Week Journal to get submissions, it was still possible they would reject it for the sake of their academic prestige.

His homeroom teacher felt the probability of that happening was low.

However, she didn’t realize that the very scenario she was dismissing might actually be happening.

Just then, after encouraging Gu Ming, his homeroom teacher sent him off to take his written exam.

Gu Ming immediately went with his classmates to the written exam. The test would take the entire day, with several subjects being tested back-to-back.

Thanks to the Spiritual Techniques that Beastmasters cultivated, they could sit still for long periods and had enough Endurance to write furiously on exam papers for hours on end without getting too tired.

This written exam, in fact, was also a test of how far a Beastmaster had progressed in their Spiritual Technique Cultivation.

If your Spiritual Technique Cultivation wasn’t up to par, you definitely wouldn’t be able to endure such a high-intensity written exam.

This was also the difference between the second semester and the first semester of senior year.

Previously, the written exams were split over two full days. Now, it was basically a five-hour continuous exam, starting at nine in the morning and ending at two in the afternoon.

After entering the exam hall, Gu Ming picked up his pen and paper and began to write furiously.

As a top student, Gu Ming hadn’t just been focusing on Cultivation; his schoolwork hadn’t fallen behind in the slightest, so he answered the questions at lightning speed.

Even a marathon exam covering multiple subjects couldn’t faze him, not to mention his Skill Level in "Cyan Pine" was high, infinitely close to the Master Level.

Gu Ming just had to perform a mental Visualization of the Cyan Pine, and his entire Essence, Qi, and Spirit would be invigorated.

Four hours later, Gu Ming finished all the exam papers. As he flipped back through them to check his answers, he casually glanced at the system’s perspective.

Given the system’s usual M.O., it definitely wouldn’t be showing him the questions he was seeing now, but rather the questions from 32 years in the future.

Gu Ming called up the system and checked the plot’s bullet-comment area.

"Question 1: In what year was the self-adaptive Cultivation Technique created?"

In reality, Gu Ming’s first question was: If a baby Water Attribute Snake Pet has diarrhea, what Attribute of medicine should be used to treat it?

’So these really are questions from the future. I can still manage to answer the first one, but the ones after that...’

Gu Ming’s brow gradually furrowed. He couldn’t answer them, but the amount of information revealed between the lines was nothing short of explosive.

After the exam was over, everyone came out and stared up at the sky.

Some students gathered with friends they knew to compare answers. Gu Ming’s deskmate, Wang Teng, didn’t hesitate to grab him and ask how to solve the last major question, but Gu Ming just gave him a vague, noncommittal answer.

At that moment, Gu Ming’s mind was completely filled with the questions from the future.