NOVPUBToday was the final exam for the study of prayer.
The Royal Law University’s final exams weren’t like the "exam week" Aiwass had experienced in his previous life—all subjects were completed and then everyone took their exams over a few days. Instead, they were flamboyant and distinct for each course.
The format and grading criteria were determined by the lecturers themselves, as long as the Dean signed off in agreement. Explore more adventures at freewebnovel
Miss Maya, a bit lazy and averse to trouble, simply issued a test full of fill-in-the-blank and short answer questions, testing who to pray to and how to pray under various circumstances. She handed it to Aiwass and the others during the last session of their class. She was in charge of proctoring the exam herself.
The content on the test wasn’t voluminous. If one wrote without stopping, it could probably be finished in less than half an hour.
There were no particularly tricky questions meant to vex the students, nor any complex scenarios that would fry one’s brains.
The questions on the test were all realistic situations that priests might very well encounter in their work—
For example, if Xiaoshuai bit the dust at thirty years old, having been stabbed to death, how should his funeral prayer be conducted; or if Xiaomei were to be remarried, how should her wedding prayer be conducted; or if Old Shuai passed away from illness after Xiaoshuai bit the dust, leaving his family wiped out, then how should this funeral prayer be conducted;
Or if a priest wanted to track someone down through a prayer ritual, what should be done; or if a priest wanted to lift someone’s petrification state through prayer, how should that be done; even in the short answer questions, there was a scenario about enabling post-menopausal middle-aged women to become pregnant again, and to whom and how one should pray.
Aiwass even saw questions that were quite characteristic of Miss Maya’s style. For example, the final big question was about having a complex, yet error-prone mathematical calculation, like a tax return form, which one couldn’t calculate on their own and was too confidential to entrust to others. In this scenario, how should priests use Prayer Arts to solve this problem?
—The answer was, respectfully shake up an Angel Envoy from the Path of Balance for help.
This question was quite misleading.
Though the Path of Wisdom may imply intelligence, it is actually closer to philosophy, logic, and strategy. While the Path of Wisdom also encompasses some theoretical mathematics... tax dealings, which fall under applied fields, definitely belong to the Path of Balance. An envoy from the Path of Wisdom wouldn’t give a fig about your problem.
Set up the ritual properly, place the offerings, explain the situation clearly, and then place the form that needs filling onto it. If the envoy thinks it’s fine, they’ll helpfully fill out the numbers for you.
It’s sort of a calculator in that sense.
If there’s no response, it means the envoy is in a bad mood today. You just need to try shaking up another one, just don’t summon the same envoy again.
Anyway, for high-level Transcendents, this level of calculation is a mere glance away.
Like Aiwass—he had arrived several months late and thus hadn’t planned on scoring a seven-petal flower. According to his predictions, scoring about five petals was quite sufficient for him.
However, after that promotion last night, he felt a substantial enhancement in his cognitive abilities. Even the knowledge he had memorized before the promotion was now clearly surfacing in his mind. He practically never stopped writing and effortlessly finished the test. After turning it in, he wheeled himself to the doorway to bask in the Sun while waiting for Lily.
He was absolutely certain that he would score full marks.
At the University of Law, except for the first two faculties open to ordinary humans, the exams in other faculties weren’t calculated based on a curve or percentage.
Because they didn’t need to "screen for talent," they only needed to educate these students.
From this perspective, their final exams were more akin to certification exams.
The test setters wouldn’t deliberately concoct difficult questions to separate the students’ abilities—all the knowledge was within a reasonable scope. As long as one truly mastered the knowledge, no matter how many others did as well, those people could score high marks or even full marks.
In the study of mysticism, either you know it, or you don’t. There’s no "I know it better than others."
Even if in a class, one student was closest to mastering Illumination Art or Blessing Skill, if he really didn’t grasp it, no matter how close he was, that was still a fail. But if he had no clue about Illumination Art before and suddenly learned it one day, then that was a pass.
Generally, the school’s expectation was for students to reach the peak of the first Energy Level or the second Energy Level upon graduation.
If one reached the second Energy Level by the time of graduation, having started as a novice to the Transcendent when entering school, then it meant that by about thirty years of age, reaching the third Energy Level was virtually guaranteed. That would be considered a national pillar.
After a while, Miss Maya meandered out by herself.
"Do you know how you did on the exam?"
Maya ran up behind Aiwass and asked with a cheerful grin.
Aiwass didn’t answer, but countered, "Aren’t you assured it’s all good?"
"I’ve set up a spiritual guardian inside to monitor the exam. I’ve given it the rule ’if anyone is observed to do something inconsistent with a test-taker’s action, knock them out cold’," Maya replied lightheartedly. "That’s also a way to solve problems with Prayer Arts."
"What if I used Prayer Arts to fill out the test directly, would that be considered cheating?"
"Yes, but I’d still give you full marks."
Maya said with a smile, "But you mustn’t tell them that, okay?"
As she spoke, Maya took out a small notebook the size of a palm.
That was Aiwass’ student handbook and also served as his diploma. It would be given to him when he graduated.
At the moment, behind the "Prayer Studies" section for the first year, a seven-petal flower had already been stamped. Similarly, behind Aiwass’ "Modern History" and "Elvish Language," there was already a seven-petal flower.
"I have finished marking your paper," she said.
Miss Maya exclaimed, "You’re not going to get perfect scores in everything, are you?"
"No, I won’t," Aiwass assured, "My Irisian Language is still not great; I’ll be happy just to pass."
"And what about Star Antimony Language?"
"No major problems."
"That’s to be expected. Having to learn three languages in the first year, I thought the pressure was huge. But for us, it’s sufficient to just have a basic grasp of Irisian and Star Antimony Languages—basically being able to understand the books with a dictionary and manage everyday communication. However, Elvish Language really needs to be studied thoroughly."
Maya spoke earnestly, "After these two terms, we won’t test you on Irisian and Star Antimony Languages anymore. But Elvish Language will continue to be taught until you graduate, and even after graduation, you will need to continue studying it."
"Like the book I plan to lend you... that’s written in Elvish, too. If you don’t have a deep enough grasp of Elvish, then even if you get your hands on such books later on, you will find them difficult to read," she said.
Aiwass was her favorite student—not just because he became a bond, reestablishing her connection with her brother Samuel, whom she hadn’t communicated with in many years; nor solely because Aiwass was recognized by the Red-Hilted Holy Sword, or because he was good-looking.
Of course, these reasons might all play a part. But they weren’t complete.
To tell the truth, it was actually because Aiwass was extremely talented.
She had no children of her own, and neither did Samuel, though for different reasons—at least she chose not to marry, while Samuel’s reasons were unknown.
But she didn’t dislike children. In fact, she had adopted one. Or it might be said that few Transcendents on the Path of Devotion disliked children.
Because raising children in itself was part of the Path of Devotion—parents sacrificed their own flesh and blood, time, energy, and money for the sake of others.
As Professor James’ adopted son, Aiwass had lost his parents a long time ago. This evoked feelings of pity in Miss Maya.
At the same time, Aiwass had reached the third energy level at just eighteen years old... As long as nothing unexpected happened, such as a premature death or damage to his soul, it was certain that he would reach the fifth energy level.
——And that would place him among the most outstanding people in the world!
Although Miss Maya was not Aiwass’ mentor, she took pride in his achievements as well.
It was as if he were her own child. He was also well-behaved and sensible, attractive and adorable, with exceptional talent...
The only pity was that Aiwass had a good relationship with Mina. This made it awkward for her to complain about her brother in front of Aiwass. It would be rude.
She had said that she would let Aiwass take a look at her Codex Book if he went to visit her brother. That wasn’t really because she wanted to know about Samuel’s situation. Otherwise, even if she didn’t like Mina, taking a look wouldn’t be a big deal.
Maya was simply looking for an excuse to let Aiwass have a look at her book.
She had taken a walk but ended up returning to proctor the exam. When the final exams were over, she packed the papers she had yet to grade into her bag and took Aiwass back home with her.
Home was actually just her dormitory.
Though Lady Maya was also a bishop, she wasn’t like Samuel; she wasn’t assigned her own church. She was a bishop who taught full-time... However, on account of her distinguished status, she also lived on Roning Street.
Aiwass lived at 14 Roning Street, while Maya lived at 38 Roning Street.
From Aiwass’ home, it was about a fifteen-minute walk west to Maya’s place.
But as soon as he entered, Aiwass was stunned—
He first thought he had arrived at Meg’s dormitory.
"...Why are there so many bottles of alcohol and junk food?!"
"Aaaaah, I forgot to clean up!"
Maya shrieked, holding her head like a groundhog.
