After careful consideration, Li Mu dismissed the idea of starting a pre-examination class.
The Imperial Examination was a channel for the Imperial Court to select officials. It was a very serious matter. If he really did that, he would be looking down on the Imperial Court. If a cultivator wanted money, it was very simple. They could draw a few Fu-lu and sell them to mortals. They would be able to obtain countless gold and silver items.
The three examinations from two days ago had been completed. From now on, the fate of all the examinees in the Imperial Examination was decided.
The results of the three examinations would determine whether or not they could pass the Imperial Examination.
As for the Combat Examination, it would not affect the final results of the Imperial Examination. The Combat Examination was a separate subject. Those who performed well in the Combat Examination would receive more attention from the Imperial Court. They would have more opportunities to hold important positions in the Imperial Court in the future.
For the last question, Li Mu did not hand in his paper early. Instead, he waited for Li Si to come out after the gong sounded.
Seeing Li Si come out, Li Mu walked over and asked, "How was it?"
Li Si said, "There are a few questions that I don't know how to answer, but it's not a big problem."
After saying that, he looked at Li Mu strangely and asked, "You really didn't come up with the Imperial Examination questions?"
Out of the three questions, he felt that the only difficult one was the criminal law.
The laws that he memorized were almost useless. Fortunately, he had many years of experience as a constable in Yangqiu County. Even if he had never solved a case, he had seen Lord Zhang solve a lot of cases.
Moreover, the law was used to maintain social justice. There were many questions that did not need to follow the law. A normal person could make the correct judgment based on their intuition.
As for the Mathematics and Policy questions, other than a few, he could easily answer most of the questions. It was not because he was proficient in these two questions, but because these questions were all in the key points that Li Mu had highlighted for him.
He could not help but suspect that Li Mu was the one who came up with the imperial examination questions.
Li Si was not a big problem, so Li Mu did not need to worry about him.
For Li Si, it was enough as long as he did not fail the rankings. With his cultivation, he would at least be able to obtain an evaluation of "B" in the martial examination tomorrow. His future development would even be above that of his father-in-law.
The combat examination wasn't a competition between examinees. Instead, the examiners would assess the students' abilities based on their performance.
The results of the combat examination, from top to bottom, were divided into 'A', 'B', 'C' and'D '. Each grade was further divided into three sub-grades.
At noon on the third day, all the examinees gathered at the examination grounds.
The examinees who had never cultivated before did not need to participate in the combat examination. They could just watch from the sidelines. There were thousands of examinees in the Imperial Examination this time, and there seemed to be close to a thousand cultivators.
The combat examination was held by the Ministry of War. Among the three provinces and six departments of the imperial court, the Ministry of War was a very special department.
Since the establishment of the Great Zhou, the purpose of the Ministry of War's existence was to defend against foreign invasions. They rarely participated in ordinary national affairs. All the generals of the Great Zhou were under the command of the Ministry of War. They led troops to guard the borders of the Great Zhou, guarding against the Ghost Realm and Yao Nation. They usually did not leave easily.
The reform of the Imperial Examination this time had a great impact on the other three academies. However, it did not affect White Deer Academy much.
White Deer Academy nurtured talented generals. After the students of White Deer Academy left the academy, they would go to guard the borders instead of staying in the Divine Capital. Naturally, they would not form factions in the imperial court.
The officials of the Ministry of War all had deep cultivations.
The Minister of War was the dean of White Deer Academy. He was also the only seventh level expert among the officials of the imperial court.
The two assistant ministers were both sixth level cultivators.
The few directors of the Ministry of War were fifth level cultivators. Even the small Minister Counsellor was at the peak of the fourth level.
The one in charge of the combat examination this time was the Left Assistant Minister of the Ministry of War.
The thousand examinees with cultivation were divided into ten groups. Each group had about a hundred people. There would be two examiners in each group. They would evaluate the overall strength of the examinees and give the final results.
The Ministry of War nurtured talented generals and placed great emphasis on the actual combat ability of the examinees. The method of the combat examination was also very simple.
Without using Fu-lu or Dharma treasures, the examinees had to rely on their own cultivation to attack the examiners. The longer they could last against the examiners, the higher the result they would receive.
On the drill ground, one of the examiners in Li Mu's group pointed at the examinee at the front of the group and said, "You, come out. Choose a weapon and attack me with all your strength."
That examinee looked refined. He was only in the Soul Refinement Realm. Moreover, he looked like he had just refined two or three souls.
He picked a sword from the weapon rack at the side and swung it straight at the examiner.
Bang!
Just as he got close to the examiner, the sword in his hand was kicked away. He stood there blankly.
The examiner glanced at him and said indifferently, "Your Majesty Ding."
Beside the drill ground, a clerk recorded the examinee's result.
The examiner shook his head in disappointment. He looked at the next examinee and said, "You, come out."
The second examinee had already refined five souls. It was clear that he had learned the Rock Leap Technique. His footwork and figure seemed to have some kind of routine. He managed to last a few more moves against the examiner.
After sending him flying with a kick, the examiner said calmly, "Your Majesty Ding, next."
"Your Majesty Ding, next."
"Your Majesty Ding, continue …"
…
Li Mu stood in the crowd and watched the examinees in front of him take the test one by one.
Their results had a lot to do with their cultivation. Generally speaking, if they were in the Soul Refinement Realm, they would be classified as Grade-D. As for whether they were Grade-D, Grade-D or Grade-D, it would depend on their performance in the test.
In the combat test, they could use their own Dharma spells and Abhijina, but they could not rely on Fu-lu Dharma treasures or other external objects. Li Mu could tell that the Ministry of War was very concerned about the examinees' actual combat ability. Even if they were only in the Soul Refinement Realm, if they were able to last a few more moves against the examiner, they might be evaluated as Grade-C.
If they were in the Soul Condensation Realm but only had Dharmic powers and were defeated in one or two moves, they would only be given Grade-D.
The examiner did not bully the examinees. When he encountered Soul Refinement Realm examinees, he would only use the Dharmic powers of the Soul Refinement Realm. When he encountered Soul Condensation Realm and Spirit Condensation Realm examinees, he would raise his Dharmic powers to maintain the same level as the examinees.
However, the difference between cultivators of the same realm could sometimes be so great that it was unimaginable.
This examiner was very experienced in actual combat. Even if they were of the same cultivation level, he could easily crush these examinees.
This must have been trained from hundreds of battles. From the murderous aura emanating from his body, it was not hard to guess that he had been on a real battlefield before.
Be it Soul Refinement Realm or Spirit Condensation Realm examinees, they were powerless against him.
As for Transcendent Realm examinees, Li Mu had not seen them in this group yet.
This kind of crushing battle started and ended quickly. Soon, it was Li Mu's turn.
The examiner looked at Li Mu and asked, "What's your name?"
Li Mu walked out and said, "Li Mu."
If there was no important matter, officials of the Ministry of War would not attend court. Only now did the examiner know that the person in front of him was Li Mu, the one who had been causing chaos in the Fairy's Capital recently.
This person's cultivation level had clearly reached the Middle Realm. The examiner suppressed his Dharmic powers to the Fourth Realm and said, "Choose a weapon."
Li Mu said, "I'm used to using my fists."
The examiner did not waste any more words. He said calmly, "Then let's begin."
As soon as he finished speaking, Li Mu's figure disappeared.
Bang!
He punched out and the two fists collided. Both of them took a few steps back.
The examiner's expression changed. He had thought that Li Mu, as a favored official of His Majesty, whose cultivation level had been forcefully raised by His Majesty, was just for show. However, this punch made him realize that the Dharmic powers in his body were solid and deep. In other words, he truly had the strength of the Fourth Realm.
The examiner laughed loudly. "Finally, I've met an interesting one!"
With that, he took the initiative to attack Li Mu.
Seeing that the examiner had no intention of using his Divine Powers, Li Mu was too lazy to use them. He fought bare-handed with the examiner.
This person was indeed experienced in battle, but Li Mu's Fighting Formula was not to be trifled with. The examiner used his consciousness and experience to fight, while Li Mu used Daoist techniques to drive his body's instincts.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Dust flew up from the drill ground. Neither of them used any Divine Powers. They fought purely with their physical bodies.
The more the examiner fought with Li Mu, the more shocked he became. From the beginning, he had been searching for Li Mu's weakness, but until now, he had not been able to find it.
Li Mu's battle experience was not at all inferior to his. In fact, he was even more experienced than him.
As long as he revealed the slightest weakness, he would pursue and attack relentlessly. Gradually, as an examiner, he was actually at a disadvantage.
The examiner was shocked. The surrounding examinees all stared with their eyes wide open.
Especially the examiner who had just been completely defeated by the examiner. He knew very well how terrifying the examiner was. However, such a terrifying existence was actually being suppressed by someone and could only passively defend …
At the side of the field, another examiner watched for a while. He laughed loudly and said, "Examiner, let me help you."
With that, he flew into the fray.
Fighting one against two, one of them was already in the Divine Powers realm, while the other had suppressed his strength to the Divine Powers realm. The pressure should have increased greatly. However, to Li Mu, there was not much of a difference. Under the effects of Dao techniques, his body was completely relying on instinct. With one more person, the only difference was that the speed at which his mana was depleted would be faster.
Seeing that the two examiners had attacked at the same time and could only barely salvage the situation, not only were the surrounding examinees shocked, even the examiners from the other two groups not far away had gathered around.
"Who is this person? How can he be so fierce?"
"Fighting one against two, and still have the upper hand …"
"There are no flaws in his body. He must have extremely rich battle experience."
"The fierce generals in the army are only so-so. If he was at the border, he would definitely be a fierce general …"
…
On the drill ground, besides the officials from the Ministry of War, officials from the Ministry of Rites, Ministry of Appointments, Imperial Clan Court, and the Hall of Governmental Affairs were also swiftly supervising.
The commotion here very quickly attracted the attention of the officials.
When Liu Yi walked over and saw that Li Mu was suppressing the two officials from the Ministry of War, he almost thought that his eyes were playing tricks on him.
In his heart, Li Mu had always been a civil official.
He was skilled in mathematics and was proficient in criminal law. The path of policy and inquiry was his forte. He had taken most of the credit for the establishment of the imperial examination system.
In the Hall of Governmental Affairs, he had chatted and laughed with his subordinates. He had looked extremely refined.
Looking at this moment, the two officials from the Ministry of War, fierce generals who had killed countless enemies on the battlefield, were actually unable to retaliate in the slightest under his hands. One could not help but wonder who was the examiner in this competition …
In a place further away, an official from the Ministry of War glanced over and said to another examiner beside him, "If this continues, how long will the examination take? Why don't we also learn from them and test two people at once?"
The other official nodded. Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly paused and said in shock, "That's not right. The two people being suppressed and beaten seem to be Director Chen and Minister Counsellor Ma …"
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