NOVPUBThe sun outside the window gradually ascended, and the test papers on the main conference table were further filtered, making the previously qualified candidates seem far from the worst.
They were all notorious villains in the empire.
A test paper scored 69 belonged to [Meat Slag] Graf, a giant body, with cuts and brands in many places. There was a deep knife wound at the corner of his mouth. He was both a torturer and a meat dealer. He would capture humans and dismember them, then sell their body parts in the black market, but there was no direct evidence.
Only, the residential area where he lived, according to statistics, had a much higher disappearance rate than normal. There were rumors that he inflicted unimaginable torture on his victims in a dark room. His brutal nature and his interest in pain far exceeded his interest in wealth.
The next high-scoring test paper with a passing grade was 78 points, [Poison Stinger] Volter, slender figure, pale skin, with a black eyepatch on his left eye.
"He had a few rings filled with poison on his fingers. He is a notorious poison master who lives in the border residential area of the imperial city, infamous for producing and selling deadly poison."
"It is said that he experimented on innocent vagrants to test new poisons. He’s cold-blooded, cunning, and has no regard for life."
"Isn’t this a good character?"
Without much discussion, Caius put his test paper and resume on the qualified side.
"Is there no sealer?"
The Grand Priest next to him flipped through many resumes that had already passed. Their professions were all different, but none of them seemed obviously like the sealer type as the Bishop of Nirvana.
"Sealers are rare, there are not many priests within our branch who are proficient in sealing magic, apart from the Bishop of Nirvana and the Saint of Nirvana."
Even if one has an affinity for sealing-type magic, mages who specialize in sealing others tend to have their psychological and spiritual issues.
However, most evil sealers would still be attracted by the Bishop of Nirvana.
As they were speaking, Grand Priest Caius seemed to have received a test paper, causing his eyes to flicker.
The test paper had a score of 91. Caius soon found his resume —
[Eye Collector] Toles, a scholar with multi-layered glasses. His pockets were always filled with the eyeballs of various creatures, his eyes shimmered with a glow that seemed not of this world. He believed eyes were the windows to the soul. He would capture various creatures, extract their eyes for research. But there was a time in the town when blind victims were often abandoned on the streets, but he was never too far from the crime scenes, yet he always had a solid alibi.
This was the highest score so far.
"He has been under many accusations, but no evidence was ever substantiated. This alone is evidence of his ability."
Without much discussion, the paper was placed in the qualified column.
He continued to flip through the stack.
After more than ten minutes.
He finally found a test paper that could match up to the earlier one.
[Blood Throat] Ji Ya, tall and thin, dressed meticulously, with a bright red scarf buried under her collar. She is a notorious singer. Audiences who have heard her perform always end up tearing their own throats, biting their tongues to commit suicide, or other bizarre occurrences. But she denied ever using Music Rhythm Magic, taking pride only in her artistic skills.
85 points, quite high as well.
"Her personal combat ability is exceptional, and her methods are secretive. She might be at sixth order, on par with us, the grand priests," Caius appraised.
One’s talent and strength were also a factor, and these would be closely related to the final assessment.
Until the papers scattered on the table gradually thinned.
In the end, they were clearly classified into two categories, qualified and unqualified, with a few remaining occupational ones left on the round table.
Grand Priest Caius rested his chin in contemplation.
It seemed that he was waiting for the other two grand priests to finish reading the remaining files, and then ask for their opinions.
Even though he was the main examiner for the three rounds of examinations, and the other two grand priests were responsible for other work, they could provide helpful opinions as they came to assist.
"Take a look at these two."
Grand Priest Caius laid out a test paper and resume on the table.
The other two grand priests’ gazes followed his fingers.
The first paper didn’t score high, only 62 points.
From a woman named Sikder.
Perfect score on the objective questions, but on the subjective ones, apart from some conceptual questions, the rest were all left blank. In any case, she still passed.
"Pay attention to whether she is a spy sent by the Church of the Goddess of Destiny, because there are some questions that overly righteous people can’t answer. The more answers she missed, the more likely she is to be a spy, using the blank answers to avoid exposing her flaws," one of the grand priests said thoughtfully.
He felt that the woman’s resume had no problem and couldn’t see any signs of fabrication.
"If she is a spy, that would be even better. Once we confirm her identity, you know what awaits her, no need for me to say it."
"That’s what I think too."
After Caius confirmed his colleague’s opinion, he put it in the qualified column.
However.
They were slightly stunned when they noticed another test paper under Sikder’s test paper.
They even doubted if they had read it incorrectly.
On the second paper, the score seemed to be rather exaggerated, a full 98 points.
A young man named Rocky from Lilom City in the Xi Nan Province wrote it. His personal history was clean; he was a native imperial citizen.
His understanding of the Rebirth Church was exceptionally profound.
His answers to the conceptual questions were almost perfect, and his responses to subjective discussion questions were also impeccable.
"Was there a problem with the priest who marked the paper?"
The Grand Priest beside him, Caius, raised his eyebrows.
"All papers scoring below 60 or above 90 are reviewed by at least two graders."
Caius answered indifferently.
This could only mean that the examiner who checked also gave the same 98 points.
"But after I read it personally, there was indeed no problem with the grading. It is written with an air of sanctimony, but the only thing that can be seen throughout is the word ’evil’."
"For example, you see this question—"
[If you capture a priest from the Church of the Goddess of Destiny, please elaborate on how to subdue him.]
As Caius pointed to a discussion question.
This question didn’t carry many points because it was relatively simple.
The usual answer was to inflict extreme physical and psychological humiliation, torture with extreme punishment, threaten with their family and friends etc.
But this fellow was different.
He wrote about using love to touch the other party’s heart, to sincerely join our side.
He gave a detailed explanation based on the situation given in the question. He would not torture, but first cultivate three other followers with potential to be professional torturers. After the meet-and-greet session where there was punishment but no interrogation, he would give the prisoners their first chance to choose—whether to have a good conversation with him, or to carry on living with the torturers for another four days and four nights.
"Indeed, compared to interrogating for information, total transformation yields much higher benefits."
"But its operational difficulty is also extremely high; not everyone has his level of speech skills, infectiousness, and judgment ability."
"There is no doubt about his degree of evil."
The two priests also browsed through this paper with increasing curiosity about his high-scoring answers, gradually affirming the palpable distinction between him and the side of the Church of the Goddess of Destiny.
"Where did he lose most of his points?"
They looked at each conceptual question and discussion question. This candidate, Rocky, did not lose points anywhere.
"Go back a few pages."
Grand Priest Caius said.
As per Caius’s guidance, they flipped back to the first page and at last, found where the nearly perfect paper lost its points.
It was a multiple-choice question.
It required the candidates to pick the name of the Bishop of Nirvana from three options.
Rocky did not provide an answer.
"Is there actually someone who forgot Lord Asksan’s name? He would have a one-third chance of getting it right even if he guessed."
One of the priests evaluated with regret and confusion.
"Hehehe, no problem, he answered the following questions quite well, perhaps he simply did not have the chance."
The other priest shrugged it off.
It was common in exams for candidates to leave uncertain questions blank at first, planning to return to them after finishing the remaining questions.
Of course, it was also possible that they ran out of time to review them after finishing the other questions. 𝑛𝘰𝑣𝘱𝑢𝑏.𝘤𝑜𝘮
"This young man undeniably qualifies, even if his records seem ordinary, its nature is clear at a glance. But his abilities themselves are weak, I am slightly worried he won’t pass the final examination."
"Weakness has its benefits too. It doesn’t stir up a lot of trouble. Even if he doesn’t pass the exam, we can still control him. At least we can’t let him work for the Hegemony Branch."
"There are indeed some talents this time. The Hegemony Branch can only pick the garbage that we don’t want."
The only variable in the examination is an overly outstanding candidate stirring up trouble for the entire examination scheme. But at present, there was no candidate posing such a threat; each had their own critical flaws and shortcomings.
Once Caius confirmed that every document in the "Qualified" folder had been approved by all the priests, he stood up to sort out the heavy paperwork.
"The successful candidates for the written exam have been confirmed. The retests and final examinations for them will commence in the afternoon."
He handed the documents to a priest in charge of records in the distance, instructing him to finalize the remaining matters.
