I have to get lucky right away.

Chapter 429 The Exam is Here!
Xu Ping is already eight years old this year. In Confucianism, this age is still for early childhood education in school, but in farming families, this age is already for working in the fields.

This is not child abuse, nor is it due to a lack of labor; it's just that a farmer's cultivation must begin with holding the first ear of grain they planted themselves.

Summer has arrived and the weather is getting warmer. There's a lot to do in the fields. While it's not so much that a child needs to fetch water and apply fertilizer, catching insects and weeding are still not easy tasks.

Fortunately, Xu Ping had adapted to this kind of life. As he reconnected with his bed, he quickly fell asleep to ensure he would have enough energy to work the next day.

"I don't know when I will be able to light the candle in my heart."

Xu Ping muttered to himself, his eyelids growing heavier and heavier. As his consciousness sank, his eyes suddenly lit up.

"Where am I?" With the rationalization patch of the dream, Xu Ping was not too panicked, but rather curious about the environment, which was different from anywhere he had ever seen before.

"This house is quite nice, but the trees in front of it are withered and dry. In a few years, the foundation of this house will be ruined..."

Xu Ping muttered to himself, but the next moment, he felt as if a great terror was acting on him. Before he could react, he was lifted up by his collar.

Xu Ping was immediately terrified, thinking he might have encountered one of the legendary kidnappers, and shouted:

“I am a descendant of the Xu family, a farming clan. How dare you…”

"Smack!" As Xu Ping received a slap on the forehead with a ruler, he was dragged into the house. A man who was eight feet tall, with bulging muscles, but dressed in a scholar's robe stood in front of him, staring at him with a pair of bright eyes.

"Ah..." Xu Ping was taken aback by the appearance, which was remarkably similar to that of the legendary Confucius. He immediately adopted the manners his father had taught him and said, "Master, I am..."

"Smack!" Another strike of the ruler landed on his forehead. It didn't hurt, but it was very crisp. Xu Ping was completely stunned, utterly bewildered as to why he was being punished. But the teacher pointed to a fine sheet of Xuan paper on the table beside him and said in a stern voice:

"This is an important examination area, no noise allowed! All the other students have already started, what are you waiting for?"

"???"

Xu Ping was taken aback by these words, but when he turned his head, he found that there were indeed many familiar classmates sitting at the table, writing furiously. Only then did he remember what the exam was, and his face immediately darkened. He felt that he must have lost his mind at such an important time.

He immediately thanked the teacher, then pulled out a chair, looked at the words on the Xuan paper, and was momentarily stunned—

"The basic process of spiritual practice."

"How can it be so simple? Oh, right, this is a general knowledge exam. Besides the disciples of various schools of thought, some bright children from ordinary families are also participating..."

Thinking of this, Xu Ping felt a sense of mission. He thought to himself that he couldn't bring shame to the farmers. He immediately picked up a brush, but hesitated. Was he really going to write on such good paper?
But considering the importance of the exam, he took a deep breath, mentally rehearsed the draft three times, and then, with a focus dozens of times greater than when he usually scribbled on the ground with a stick, began to write, stroke by stroke:

"The path to self-cultivation lies in learning. Accumulate knowledge to improve oneself, and when wisdom is abundant, the candle of the mind will be lit."

"This is called having a foundation in learning and being able to start thinking. One should seek the Way. The Way is the path one should strive for throughout one's life. Once one attains the Way, one's true nature is settled."

"The path of cultivation is like holding the candle of the heart as a torch, and taking one's true nature as a boat, constantly seeking in the dark sea. Take the desire to learn as fuel to enhance the brightness of the candle flame, so as to illuminate distant places; take the fruits of learning as material to solidify the boat of one's true nature, so as to reach distant realms."

After writing over a hundred words, Xu Ping felt he had gotten a little carried away. He could have used more concise language, but instead he insisted on using lengthy metaphors. Now, however, he couldn't revise it. He could only shake his head inwardly and turn his attention to the next question—"The realm of cultivation."

"We need to learn from this experience and not write a bunch of nonsense again!"

Seeing that the question was still extremely simple, Xu Ping immediately perked up and wrote down the standard answer—

"The candlelight in the initial stage was dim, like a solitary lamp in the palm of one's hand."

"The torch is passed on from the midst of the flame, like a star in the long night."

"In the final realm, the sun and moon shine together, like a thoroughfare across the universe."

After writing three lines, Xu Ping felt that the blank space for the answer was too empty, and he couldn't help but feel a headache. He felt that it was a waste to fill such a small part of such a large blank space.

With mixed feelings, he had no choice but to immediately turn to the third question:

How do I get started?

"This..." Xu Ping suddenly felt at a loss. The first two questions were so simple, but the third question is going to be much more difficult?

Although, to put it bluntly, the key to cultivation is "practice," if it were written like that, he felt it would probably be a complete failure. After all, if simply practicing was enough to get started, ordinary farmers would have already automatically joined the agricultural community!

This question was difficult to answer, but it's an exam, so even if it's difficult, you have to answer it. He thought about it for a while before writing:
“Learn what the sages learned, experience what the sages experienced, do what the sages did, and understand what the sages understood. In this way, you can see where your will lies. If you are sincere in your heart, your mind will be illuminated.”

As he wrote this, Xu Ping suddenly paused slightly, thinking to himself:

"Was I unable to light the candle of my heart last year because I wasn't sincere? Did I not find the future I hoped to achieve through farming? But if I don't farm, what will I do?"

Thinking of this, he hesitated for a moment, and then started a new section after this question:

"If not, perhaps one should broaden one's horizons to know where one's interests lie."

……

"Not bad, right? You filled them all out! Alright, next one!" Mo Ying passed the answer sheets of the dozen or so children in the village to Xiao Lingdang. She glanced at the brat who dared to complain that he couldn't even grow trees properly. Suddenly, an idea struck her. She immediately gave him a nightmare of "getting a beating from his father for failing the exam" before drifting away.

However, halfway there, she realized what was happening and immediately changed direction, flying back to the village where the little brat who had mocked her drawing badly lived. She gave that little brat a dream about being the last in his exam and being ridiculed by all the children in the village, and only then did she head to the next place, satisfied.

Although she seems to be constantly being bullied, Mo Ying's strength is not bad, or rather, it's a bit too strong.

Nourished by Feng Xue's high-quality vital energy, in the folk world, those red-clothed vengeful ghosts would shrink into small balls and pray not to be seen when they saw her. Without magical restraint, even the King of the Underworld might not dare to cause her trouble.

If one were to fully unleash their ghost form regardless of the consequences, dragging the entire city into an illusion would not be difficult. However, because the spirit itself is influenced by the personality of its predecessor, Mo Ying still retains a rebellious and troublesome demeanor...

(End of this chapter)