I Have a Golden Crow-Chapter 475 - 341 and Two or Three Things with Master Qing
Having ordered the food and waiting for delivery, Du Yu immediately opened the Great Xia Bookstore’s official website.
In a pile of end-of-term exam result announcements, he found the Four Provinces Exam he participated in.
Sure enough, 60.2 points, ranking first among the four provinces.
It’s honestly kind of magical~
After reading carefully, Du Yu suddenly realized—no wonder everyone’s scores were so low. Task failed, all members get deducted 60 points across the board!
Clearly, the Great Xia Bookstore never intended for students to pass.
No exceptions, all of you, fail the class for me!
Yet, in an end-of-term exam where almost everyone failed, there just had to be one person sticking out, scoring exactly 60.2?
Not only is it abrupt, but it also looks pretty stubborn~
"Worked with teammates to capture 2 extra Ancient Desolate Generals."
"Led the squad to breach the West City Gate from inside, working with students outside the city in a pincer, all members entered the city without casualties."
Du Yu quietly read the bonus points—he and Lin Shiwei had captured surrendering generals, led the charge up the wall, and racked up a bunch of points.
And his proposal to attack from within, coordinating with students outside to break open the gate, also earned him extra points.
In the first stage—the task of breaking the city gate—Du Yu and Lin Shiwei were hands down the standout performers.
Judging by the points for this part, Lin Shiwei even scored more than Du Yu.
Next up was Du Yu’s individual comprehensive score. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖
Kept the Ancient Desolate Corps’ Yang Mingyu around to gather intel.
Rode with a partner, one arrow to instantly kill Guandong leader Liu Chuang.
Archery was godlike, took down the top Guandong Army student Xiang Ying, who had 15 layers of Killing Sand.
These were all technical points; key thing is, all of Du Yu’s opponents were big shots.
The Bookstore’s scoring wasn’t just a simple body count—it factored in the enemy’s strength, plus the student’s overall performance in battle.
Honestly, if it was just by body count, the Shandai Army’s Xiang Qi and others would’ve definitely scored higher.
Too bad that’s not the scoring standard.
And besides, apart from the 60-point deduction, as the first team to join the Ancient Desolate Corps, the Shandai Army got an extra 20-point penalty...
Some Guandong Army and Shaohai Army students also joined the Ancient Desolate Corps, so they got penalized on top of the base deduction.
But as teams that were dragged into battle, they were deducted a little less.
The real tragedy was for Shaohai Army leader Liu Juncai.
As the one giving orders, if her team’s results were good, she’d get a big leadership bonus.
But if the team went the wrong way, the leader naturally bears primary responsibility.
Du Yu, Lin Shiwei and the others weren’t the decision makers, just war generals under Liu Juncai’s command, so they got a few points off their deductions.
There’s another reason their penalties were lighter.
Because in this section, Du Yu and the others also scored for strictly obeying orders!
This is kind of a controversial judgment.
The Bookstore is clearly giving a message: no matter whether your superior’s decisions are right or wrong, on the battlefield, what soldiers must do is obey orders unconditionally.
As for assigning and bearing responsibility, and whatever punishment comes after—that’s settled after the fight.
Also, there was another tragic bunch in the whole exam: the Hening Army.
Back on the bus, Du Yu and Li Mengnan once guessed: maybe the Hening Army would score higher, since doing less means making fewer mistakes.
The weak just can’t choose the wrong path!
Turns out, Du Yu overthought it.
If you can break the gates and reach the General’s Mansion, you get the right to choose, and that’s what earns points.
If you haven’t even qualified to choose, big deductions, bro!
Being weak is one of the original sins.
"Heh." Du Yu glanced over the score sheet and couldn’t help shaking his head with a smile.
No exceptions, off you all go to get chewed out at home!
The Great Xia Bookstore is savage for real—this test really left a mark on us students.
Anyway, Du Yu’s already decided—if there’s an assessment like this next time...
No matter what province you’re from, just watch if Your Highness here will play nice with you or not!
Muttering to himself, Du Yu glanced at the ranking rewards.
No surprise, the prizes were insanely generous: Demon Lamp Po x7, Library Ring x1, custom Demon Soldier/Demon Pet x1.
"Damn~" Du Yu checked carefully again, making sure it was really 7 Demon Lamp Po.
Moneybags, huh? These rare and precious Demon Lamp Po, handing out 7 just like that?
Acting like Demon Lamp Po are cheap or something!
This crap—any Demon Tamer would rip their scalp off to get these cultivation materials.
For a moment, Du Yu looked a bit weird.
If he sold these 7 Demon Lamp Po, he could probably pay off the entire mortgage on Prince Du’s Mansion, right?
Tsk, tsk...
The Great Xia Bookstore really slapped us hard this time, but then followed it up with some sugar—sweet as hell!
Dear Bookstore Daddy, feel free to slap me again...
And it makes sense: most top students in this round are Demon Tamer·Peak Stage, at the key point of condensing Demon Souls and charging towards Great Demon Tamer!
Whether you become a god or a saint depends on this step!
With these cultivation materials, the odds of advancing would be way higher.
The problem is—while you’re all racking your brains gathering Demon Souls, I’m already a Great Demon Tamer!
Clutching a whole haul of rare Demon Lamp Po, I actually have no use for them. How is that fair~
Du Yu stuffed his phone into his pocket and let out a light sigh.
With this many Demon Lamp Po, the other reward—the Library Ring—must be pretty high-quality too.
What Du Yu cared most about, though, was the custom Demon Soldier!
Top scorer in the Four Provinces Exam—don’t you think I deserve at least a Cold Jade-Level Demon Soldier?
That kind of Demon Arrow Array—just the thought is exciting!
Du Yu was feeling much better, and hadn’t been waiting long at home before the food delivery guy arrived.
Stir-fried bamboo shoots, cold lotus root slices, celery with shrimp, and finish it off with some egg drop soup.
After showing off his skills, Du Yu flipped his left hand, and a character suddenly floated up in his palm.
Ghost Firefly form: Ghostly Firefly Talisman Guard!
"Pfft~"
The "Yu" character instantly grew, like a shield.
Honestly, it was a shield—but Du Yu was using it as a serving tray...
Carefully, Du Yu set down the three dishes and one soup as the Mountain and Sea Bell glimmered quietly.
"Master Qing, food’s ready." Du Yu called softly, holding the "Yu" character in front of the main room’s door.
Being Lord of Mountains and Seas does have flair.
"Click."
The Jinping Vine opened the door, and the woman standing behind it couldn’t help but chuckle: "You sure have your ways."
"Hehe." Du Yu trotted into the hall and set the dishes out one by one.
With each dish placed on the table, Yang Qingqing sensed something off: "How come the Ghost Firefly rune is a Chinese character?"
"I told it to change. After Little Ghost Firefly hit Spirit Level, its control over its body and demon skills got a lot stronger."
"Keep it up." Yang Qingqing came forward and reached to hold the "Yu" character.
She was secretly amazed, then said, "Summon the Ghost Firefly, let me see."
"Okay." Du Yu reached for his chest, changing his habit, starting with small details.
This time, the Divine Ghost Firefly didn’t flow out from Du Yu’s forehead, but rapidly formed outside his chest.
"Hm?" Little Ghost Firefly looked around, its pair of firefly-green torch eyes shining brighter.
It flew over to Yang Qingqing and happily waved its torch.
Yang Qingqing admired the Divine Ghost Firefly covered in Chinese character tiles, her beautiful eyes slightly narrowed.
After observing for a bit, she spoke: "Du Yu, Ghost Firefly Fire, Tai Sui God, Desolate Silver Lynx."
Du Yu thought, Uh oh. Normally people wouldn’t spot the secret, but Master Qing knows him too well.
"Yan Ruyu." Yang Qingqing raised her hand, her slender jade fingers brushing the Divine Ghost Firefly’s chest, slowly following the trail of characters down.
Suddenly, her finger stopped, and she turned to look at Du Yu: "Xiaobai is just a nickname, huh?"
"Yeah." Du Yu felt a little embarrassed.
Yang Qingqing finally solved the mystery in her mind.
She’d always thought—with all those names like Fu Jianzhou, Hua Mantang, Forbidden City—how could the Dust Spirit Immortal Deer get stuck with "Xiaobai" as a name?
"Bai Yujing—is that the order?" Yang Qingqing’s eyes flashed, and she spoke softly, "It sounds beautiful. How would you explain it?"
Du Yu: "A city made of white jade, flawless and ethereal, the kind of immortal paradise I imagine."
Yang Qingqing looked at Du Yu, speaking gently: "Why didn’t you tell me before?"
"Because it’s too pretentious—this is clearly a place name, not a Demon Pet name at all."
Du Yu scratched his head and went on, "I always thought, when Xiaobai becomes a Demon Saint and creates its own Demon Spirit Realm civilization, then we’ll call it that."
Yang Qingqing nodded in agreement: "Quite an ambition, I see."
Du Yu grinned sheepishly.
Yang Qingqing: "Maybe it’s related to the demon fire inside you, but most likely it’s because of your identity as a Paper Crane Disciple."
Master Qing was speaking the social consensus.
Paper Crane Disciples not only level up at warp speed, but their Demon Pets also grow crazy fast.
Especially when it comes to power, they get developed to a much higher degree, sometimes even mutate—a lot of them are a cut above other Demon Pets of the same level, overall.
By now, the top spots on Celestial Lists of all Eastern Great Xia provinces and cities are basically monopolized by the Paper Crane Disciples’ epic Demon Pets.
But it depends who you’re comparing with.
Up against Du Yu, being a bit stronger than ordinary Demon Pets of the same level is useless.
Not only is Du Yu the First Disciple—even the Sect Leader lives inside his body. He profits way more than any other disciple.
Yang Qingqing advised, "Better keep a low profile—change it back."
"Okay, Master Qing. I’m just fooling around at home—when I go out, I’ll switch to a different ’skin’." Du Yu replied quickly. "Let’s eat, Master Qing, or the food will get cold."
"En." Yang Qingqing came to the table, looking at the three dishes and soup—no staples, the only meat was shrimp.
But she was satisfied; this disciple really knew her taste.
What she didn’t like was, Du Yu had only brought the food, and hadn’t brought any chopsticks.
It wasn’t until Du Yu was about to eat that he realized the problem!
"I’ll go grab some from the backyard!" Du Yu jumped up.
"Here." Two twigs shot out from Yang Qingqing’s palm. She snapped them and handed them to Du Yu.
Poor Heaven Returning Wood, a proper Demon General, gets its twigs broken off to use as chopsticks...
Seeing Master Qing move her chopsticks, Du Yu quickly picked up a shrimp, "By the way, Master Qing, I have good news and bad news—which do you want first?"
Yang Qingqing looked at Du Yu in both annoyance and amusement, but was also a bit curious.
She replied casually, "Bad news."
Du Yu looked sheepish: "Great Xia Bookstore just published the Four Provinces Exam results. I only got 60.2—barely passed."
Yang Qingqing observed Du Yu for a moment; her student didn’t look crushed or discouraged at all.
She was pretty satisfied, and said, "Summarize the problems and reflect. Accepting failure is also a kind of growth."
Du Yu: "Yes, Master Qing."
Yang Qingqing: "And the good news?"
Du Yu: "I got first place."
Yang Qingqing: "..."
Du Yu added weakly, "First place in all four provinces."
Yang Qingqing waved her hand—wind and waves whipped up!
"Eh?" Du Yu yelped as his body went flying.
At the house’s gate, the Jinping Vine swung open right on cue, letting the perfectly coordinated Du Yu get launched out of the main room.
"Thud!" Du Yu was dumped out into the courtyard.
Yang Qingqing picked up a shrimp and glanced at the yard, expression bland.
Heh,
Gotten pretty bold, eh?
Daring to tease your teacher now.
