According to the statistics of uncertain historical data, it was discovered that humans before the apocalypse seemed to be very good at taking exams. They were extremely talented and had a huge hobby in this area. They would start practicing taking exams from a young age, and would need at least nine years of practice.
Almost every child before the apocalypse loved taking exams, which was beneficial to their physical and mental health. Every day, they would study how to get high marks on exams.
From the age of seven (according to incomplete data, it was three for some humans), they would formally enter school to take exams. Every day, they would study around the clock for exams, learning things that they would not need in the future.
For example, the English exam. Research showed that 85% of children would not need to use English for more than a day after they reached adulthood.
But just for this one day, these 85% of children would spend at least nine years on learning English.
At first, humans after the apocalypse did not understand this. Later on, they understood that learning English was only for the sake of getting high marks on exams. Getting high marks was the fundamental goal of these children. It was indeed a very noble and beneficial hobby, one that was free from vulgar interests.
Moreover, it was said that before the great calamity, humans had gone through a long period of examination training, and everyone's examination ability was extremely abnormal. Two sheets of paper filled with densely packed numbers could actually be solved in just over two hours.
They could understand many very simple articles with profound meanings that even the original authors could not understand.
The most impressive was the political exam. Even though these people would be supervised by officials for the rest of their lives, they could memorize xxx ideology, xxx theory, xxx representative, xxx honor, and xxx disgrace more skillfully than the officials, to the extent that they could recite them backwards.
There were even many people whose only interest in life was taking exams. After studying for nine years, they were still not satisfied and wanted to take the exams again … And these nine years were not the limit. As long as humans before the apocalypse were interested, they could easily take the exams for thirteen years, fifteen years, nineteen years, twenty-five years … Even if they took the exams for the rest of their lives, it did not matter. After all, they did not know what else they could do in this life.
It was a pity that humans after the apocalypse did not inherit these fine traditions. Apart from a comprehensive exam for graduation, ordinary people did not need to take any other exams.
For most humans after the apocalypse, a simple equation would take them ten minutes to solve.
A 600-word essay would take a few hours to write.
In any case, humans after the Great Calamity weren't good at exams. They couldn't even compare to 1% of the humans before the Great Calamity.
What was even more terrifying was that the test papers placed in front of all the participants were not just one or two simple test papers, but a total of twenty test papers stacked on top of each other.
The content of these test papers was very broad, summarized under the name of world culture.
In reality, it included eight main subjects: mathematics, history, language, physics, swordsman, swordmistress, Yuan Kou, and society … This was already a very simplified subject, unlike those ordinary people who aspired to become scientists who still had to take extremely complicated subjects like quantum mechanics, biology, chemistry, and so on.
The eight subjects listed here were the knowledge that a sword-wielder must master.
Considering that there were a lot of questions, the organizing committee of the Eight Academies Tournament gave these participants 24 hours to answer the questions.
To finish 20 papers in 24 hours, an average of 1.2 hours for each paper seemed to be a lot of time.
It had to be known that a mathematics exam with two full answers would only last two hours, and the number of questions on each test paper could not be compared with the density of questions in the mathematics exam papers before the apocalypse.
But these 24 hours were already very stressful for humans after the apocalypse. In addition to those true top students, there was also the need for sleep. Most ordinary people often needed more than 72 hours to finish these papers.
Although these sword-bearers were the top figures in their respective academies, ranking in the top three of their academies … they were top students in terms of combat, but they were poor in terms of cultural knowledge. Many people couldn't even get 100 points in the comprehensive exam (the total score was 1,000 points).
And according to statistics, the stronger the participants, the weaker their ability to take the exam. There was a certain scientific basis for the so-called "all brawn and no brains".
So in many cases, when the first round of the Eight Academies Tournament ended 24 hours later, there were still many sword-bearers who hadn't even finished answering half of the questions … and most of the questions that had been answered were less than 50% correct.
This exam was simply a huge torture for all the participants, leaving a huge psychological shadow in many of them.
For example, when Yongquan Jiandi took the exam when he was young, he miserably got the last place. Yongquan Jiandi was so angry that he swore to God that if he could ascend to the throne one day, he would force the Eight Academies Tournament to remove this terrible exam item.
But the dramatic thing was that after Yongquan Jiandi really became Jiandi, he excitedly encouraged the Eight Academies Tournament's organizing committee to increase the weight of the exam. The number of papers should be increased, the difficulty of the questions should be increased, and even the difficulty of the questions should be increased. This made the juniors who took the exam later complain incessantly, and they instinctively trembled at the sight of the papers. Even Yuan Kou was not so afraid.
Before the official exam, all the participants had one more step to complete.
They had to drink a cup of tea in front of them.
Don't underestimate this cup of tea. It was said that it was a magical liquid diluted by scientists, called Chuhe Soup.
This Chuhe Soup had no other ability. Its only function was to isolate the connection between the sword-bearer and the Purple Mansion, so that the sword-bearer could not secretly talk to the Sword Lady through the Purple Mansion.
According to folk rumors, if the Chuhe Soup was drunk without dilution, the effect would not be as simple as making the sword-bearer unable to talk to the Sword Lady in the Purple Mansion.
This kind of medicinal liquid could directly and completely seal the Purple Mansion for a long time. Not only could the sword-bearer not talk to the Sword Lady, but they also could not release the Sword Lady to fight.
This was equivalent to putting a handcuff on the sword-bearer, completely sealing the sword-bearer's combat effectiveness.
In the case that there was no antidote for this kind of liquid, it could only be slowly dissolved by time. This time could be one day, or it could be ten years.
However, the Sword Committee had always denied this rumor, nor did they admit that this liquid had the effect of making the sword-bearer lose his combat ability.
This kind of thing was really too terrifying. If someone used it on a large scale, perhaps all the sword-bearers in the base city would have to wear handcuffs.
The reason why the sword-bearers were allowed to drink the diluted Chuhe Soup was very simple. It was to prevent the sword-bearers from cheating.
These questions might be very difficult for the sword-bearers, but for the Sword Lady who had lived for 1000 years, it was not difficult at all. In a certain exam, the sword-bearer used the power of the Sword Lady to obtain first place, and this method of cheating was quickly blocked.
After drinking the Chuhe Soup, the sword-bearers could only open the exam papers in front of them. Then, the expressions on the sword-bearers' faces became very strange.
Some of the sword-bearers who were previously smiling mischievously now looked as if they had eaten hundreds of bitter gourds.
Some of the sword-bearers who were cold and expressionless had their facial muscles constantly tremble as if they had Parkinson's disease.
After 40 minutes of long-distance shooting, under the control of the cameraman, the camera began to give close-up shots of the main contestants in each city.
The first to enter the audience's line of sight was Ledia, the cutest blonde loli. Her nose and eyes were almost squeezed together in pain … She instinctively ate the ends of her double ponytails into her mouth and kept biting the poor blonde hair hard, just like those examinees who kept biting the end of their pens while thinking in the exam.
The second close-up shot was of the blonde boy, Andreevich.
Contrary to the blonde loli Ledia, Andreevich was very calm and indifferent. There was even a faint smile on his face.
Although the pen in his hand would sometimes freeze, most of the time, it moved very smoothly. Obviously, most of these exam questions were not difficult for this blonde boy.
Many of the audience who saw this scene were very puzzled.
Wasn't the Romanov Family rich in warriors with brains full of muscles?
This Andreevich could fight hundreds of Yuan Kou and even killed hundreds of them. Shouldn't he be a beast among beasts, a man with muscles among muscles?
How could he answer the questions so smoothly!
Next was the Skeleton Trio from Los Angeles. There was nothing much to say about their performance. It was very, very normal. These three children who grew up in an orphanage naturally couldn't have much cultural knowledge. Each of them was scratching their ears and cheeks anxiously like baboons in heat. They couldn't wait to steal a glance at the exam papers of the people around them … Unfortunately, each of them was being watched by more than a dozen cameras at the same time. Once they made any small movements, they would be discovered immediately.
The fourth close-up shot was of Leslie Dracula, who kept banging the table hard, seemingly annoyed by these difficult questions.
The fifth close-up shot was of a skinny bespectacled boy from London. He was also embarrassed, and it was obvious that he was no different from Ladia, who was next to him.
The sixth was of Ashma, the Saintess of Jerusalem … Well, under the protection of a white robe and veil, the audience couldn't even see what the Saintess looked like, let alone her expression.
They could only judge that this Saintess seemed to be at an average level from her pen that would stop moving from time to time.
The seventh was of Liunian Ling … The close-up shot only shook for two seconds before it quickly moved away. But the sharp-eyed audience still noticed that the successor of the Liunian Family, the hope of Yanjing City, did not seem to have any movement to answer the questions. Instead, her eyes were slightly red and swollen, filled with tears.
The last close-up shot was of Guhan, and then the audience was shocked. This was because less than 20 seconds after the close-up shot, Guhan suddenly slapped the side of his table hard, and then the exam papers on the table were sucked into a Void Door. Obviously, it was taken away by the immortal sword wielder in charge of invigilating the exam.
God, it was less than an hour before the exam began, and this Guhan had actually handed in the exam papers!
This pretentiousness is amazing!
The audience was full of praise.