30: Chapter 30 Coercion!

County Academy, inside Instructor Liu Zhixing's office!

As soon as Instructor Liu Zhixing's voice fell, the entire office fell silent.

The Geng Class students who had been summoned were all bewildered.

They had not expected that Instructor Liu Zhixing had suddenly summoned them here to make them voluntarily give up the County Exam.

It must be known that although these people could not be considered geniuses, they still possessed some Aptitude for Cultivation to be able to get into the County Academy.

Many, even if their Aptitude was poor, still buried themselves in hard work to Cultivate the Dao, pondering their Cultivation Technique day and night, just for a glimmer of a chance to get into the Prefectural Academy and change their fate in a Heaven-Defying manner.

Yet Instructor Liu Zhixing, as their teaching Instructor, not only did not encourage them to do their best in the exam at this moment, but instead made them give up the opportunity for the County Exam to become ordinary guards at a trading firm?!

"Teacher, this, this matter..."

"Teacher, tomorrow is the County Exam. If you make us give up the County Exam now, wouldn't our years of hard work go to waste?!"

"Teacher, I want to participate in the County Exam!"

Several students turned pale, unable to help but argue, their eyes filled with disappointment and unwillingness.

"Stupid!!!"

Just then, a cold and arrogant voice suddenly rang out.

The students turned their heads upon hearing the sound, only to see that the person speaking was none other than the Class Jia senior student, Liu Qingyun, who was standing to the side.

Everyone knew that Liu Qingyun was not only a top student in Class Jia of the County Academy but also the biological son of Instructor Liu Zhixing. Relying on his family background and his father's power as an Instructor, he had always been arrogant, overbearing, and looked down on others in the County Academy.

At this moment, he tilted his head slightly, his brows filled with disdain, scanning the room with a condescending posture. He sneered coldly and spoke indifferently: "Do you really think this Five Prefectures Joint Examination is as simple as a normal County Exam?"

"In the past, the County Exam was merely a competition among a thousand people in Wurong County, with a very high tolerance for error. But now, the joint examination covers one hundred and eighty counties, gathering hundreds of thousands of Cultivating students, with geniuses and prodigies emerging one after another."

His gaze swept over the Geng Class students and finally landed on those with mediocre cultivation. His body shook, and a burst of Late Stage, nearly Perfection True Qi erupted from him. His mockery was undisguised: "With that Early Stage Qi Condensation cultivation of yours and Low Grade Martial Bone, you are still at the bottom within a single county. Placed among the tens of thousands of geniuses in the five prefectures, you are nothing but ants and dust."

"If you run to take the exam without knowing your own strength, what can you get other than becoming a laughingstock and humiliating yourselves?"

"My father is kindly paving a way out for you, letting you enter the Jubao Trading Firm to make a stable living; this is already an exceptional display of compassion. Yet some of you are ungrateful, stubborn, and insist on being obstinate!"

After hearing Liu Qingyun's mockery, the faces of the students in the room turned red and pale.

They knew in their hearts that although what Liu Qingyun said was harsh, it was not entirely wrong.

After all, with their Early Stage Qi Condensation cultivation, it would be difficult to get into the Prefectural Academy even with the results of previous County Exams.

Moreover, the difficulty of the Martial Examination for this Five Prefectures Joint Examination was bound to be even harder and more cruel, making their hopes even slimmer.

However, many students were unwilling to have their years of hard work abandoned in one day and give up before the County Exam. They wanted to resist, but they were intimidated by the power of Liu Qingyun and Instructor Liu Zhixing. They dared to be angry but dared not speak, and could only lower their heads, hesitating.

In the crowd, only Chen An looked at the performance of Instructor Liu Zhixing and his son with a calm expression.

If others couldn't see it, how could he not see what scheme Instructor Liu Zhixing and his son were plotting?!

Instructor Liu Zhixing was not showing compassion for the students or planning a way out for them at all. It was clearly because he feared that the standards of this Five Prefectures Joint Examination had risen sharply. Once the exam started, this group of students with mediocre Aptitude from Geng Class would most likely all fail. The bottom-ranking results of the class would directly drag down his Instructor performance evaluation, salary grade, and career advancement.

It was precisely because of this that he specifically singled out students like them, with ordinary bones, low cultivation, and ordinary family backgrounds, to force everyone to voluntarily give up the exam, thereby lowering the base number of failures and whitewashing his own teaching record.

As for what Instructor Liu Zhixing said about personally recommending them to be guards at the Jubao Trading Firm?!

Based on his understanding of Instructor Liu Zhixing's teaching ethics and character, he dared to say that if there was no trickery involved, he would eat that written agreement on the spot!

Seeing that the students were hesitant and no one was willing to stand up and give up the County Exam, Instructor Liu Zhixing's expression sank slightly. A trace of gloom flashed in his eyes, but it quickly faded, replaced by a hypocritical look of being earnest and compassionate towards the students. He spoke slowly: "I know you are still young, impatient, obsessed with the path of the Martial Dao, and unwilling to see reality!"

"But I think you yourselves know clearly what the outcome will be if you participate in the County Exam with your own cultivation?!"

"The Jubao Trading Firm is one of the top trading firms in the county. The salary is generous; you get a salary of twenty yuan crystals a month, which is two hundred and forty yuan crystals a year. Isn't that much better than forcing yourselves to take the exam and ending up with nothing?!"

"You also know that ordinary commoners struggle to earn even one hundred yuan crystals a year even if they work themselves to death. And you, as beginners, don't need to venture out and fight; you only need to sign a document to steadily secure this generous job and live a worry-free and stable life from now on!"

"This is the treatment that this Instructor has worked so hard to secure for you. Outsiders wouldn't be able to get it even if they begged. Think about it yourselves; once this opportunity is gone, you won't find it again!"

Pfft!!!

Suddenly, a scoff broke the dull silence in the office.

Everyone looked up sharply upon hearing this, their gazes turning towards the source of the sound in unison.

Seeing the person who laughed, they couldn't help but be slightly stunned.

As for Chen An, they had naturally known him as a classmate for several years.

It was just that, in their impression, this Chen An was said to be a loner who rarely interacted with classmates, except for being childhood sweethearts with the County Academy's top student, Shen Qinglan. Moreover, his cultivation was only at Condensing Qi Stage 2, making him the bottom-dweller of Geng Class.

No one expected that Chen An would actually dare to laugh at this moment. Wasn't this openly defying Instructor Liu Zhixing's face?!

For a moment, everyone's gaze in the office fell on him. Some were surprised, some were weirded out, some secretly admired him, and some, like Liu Qingyun, were gloomy and waiting to watch a good show.

Facing the gazes coming from all directions, Chen An remained calm and smiled composedly. He spoke unhurriedly: "Sorry, everyone, I just suddenly thought of an interesting thing, so I couldn't help but laugh. Please continue, continue!!!"

Beside him, Instructor Liu Zhixing's face was already livid. He was so angered by this understated remark that his heart was burning with rage. His expression was as cold as frost as he stared fixedly at Chen An and said coldly: "An interesting thing? In front of this Instructor, in such a serious setting, you dare to laugh and talk casually. Do you still have any respect for this Instructor?!"

"Of course..."

Facing Instructor Liu Zhixing's cold and stern questioning, Chen An remained calm and composed.

He raised his head, his eyes meeting Instructor Liu Zhixing's sharp gaze with a hint of mockery. The corners of his mouth curved into an arc, and he said: "None!"