High Priest Song Tan was already mulling things over. The Beast King had completely slipped from his control. He just needed to find a pretext to force him to abdicate, and then he could choose the next puppet Beast King from the flock of useless princes he had been cultivating.
Now, he no longer needed to manufacture a pretext. The Beast King was already courting death, throwing away his own bright future!
Song Tan’s eyes trembled as he watched, his entire body thrumming with the excitement of a wish coming true. He desperately wanted to see the Beast King forced to abdicate.
The Beastmen from the Guiping Beast Country put down their pens one after another, making it clear they had finished their answers.
The Beastmen from the other Beast Countries glanced over, thinking the people of Guiping were just putting on a show. ’Even if you don’t know the answers, you should at least hold your pen and pretend to be working,’ they thought. ’How can you just give up so brazenly?’
When the time was up, the examiners from each Beast Country drew the name of another Beast Country, excluding their own, and began grading the answers of those fifty Beastmen on the spot.
As luck would have it, the five examiners from the Jiuzhou Beast Country were assigned to grade the answers of the Guiping Beast Country’s participating Beastmen.
They couldn’t hide their impatience and contempt, feeling this was a complete waste of their time. They had planned to just glance at the papers and assign the lowest possible scores. But to their surprise, the handwriting on every single sheet was as neat as if it had been carved, yet possessed an indescribably beautiful fluency. Each script had its own unique style, making the examiners feel as though they were admiring works of art.
Forget the content of the answers—the handwriting alone was enough to put everyone else to shame!
As examiners, they were all profound scholars of Beast Text. They examined every character, wishing they could take the test papers home to practice copying the script.
Only after admiring the script did they finally turn their attention to the content. They recognized every character of the Beast Text and understood the literal meaning of the sentences. But why did they feel such an ineffable beauty between the lines?
A smile played on Si Shuo’s lips as she watched the examiners. Each one was holding a white cloth, staring at it, seemingly rooted to the spot.
’Of course,’ she thought. ’In her home country, many lines from its poetry and songs had become timeless classics. The Beastmen they had chosen to be teachers were all quite talented in literature and scholarship.’
’Especially those participating in the competition—they were naturally the cream of the crop!’
The other Beastmen were baffled and couldn’t help but whisper amongst themselves. "What’s going on? Those guys from the Guiping Beast Country barely wrote for any time at all before putting down their pens."
"Is their handwriting so illegible? Why are the examiners staring at it for so long?"
"Don’t tell me the Guiping people used some kind of trick to root the examiners to the spot?"
The clamor grew louder, but it still didn’t affect those within the examination grounds.
Finally, the examiners from Jiuzhou Country picked up their red pens, wrote something on the white cloths, and moved on to the next test.
Their progress was slow. The other examiners had finished their grading long ago, but the Jiuzhou examiners had only gotten to their third or fourth paper.
The other examiners were also quite puzzled. After submitting the tests they had graded, they couldn’t help but wander over to see what was going on.
After a moment of stunned silence, they too became just like the examiners from Jiuzhou Country—rooted to the spot!
After a long while, each examiner finished grading their ten tests. They submitted the papers under the watchful eyes of the crowd, and higher-ranking officials then took over to transcribe the scores.
As the crowd waited patiently, the results were finally about to be revealed. Everyone fell silent with nervous anticipation, as if the entire city had gone quiet, waiting for the thrilling moment!
The host, a Beastman named Qin Bei, waved a pale yellow cloth in his hand and said with a grin, "Brothers and sisters, what I’m holding right here are the results of our Five Countries exchange meeting’s written test! Why don’t you all make a guess in your minds and rank the five countries."
"Our Guiping Beast Country’s Beast King and First Lady have said that any Beastman who guesses the ranking correctly can enter a raffle with fabulous prizes! Please, shout out your predictions! Those who are correct, find one of our attendants to register your name."
"There will be a drawing every day, with prizes including various elixirs provided by the Bai Xiao Witch Doctor! And even if you aren’t chosen, you’ll still receive the divine healing elixir, a Revitalizing Pill..."
The crowd erupted with excitement—the offer was too tempting to resist! They all started shouting their rankings at the top of their lungs, each one a conclusion they’d reached after careful thought and observation.
Bound by the will of the Beast God, none of them dared to lie.
After a short while, the voices of the crowd slowly died down. Only then did Qin Bei continue, "Alright, I’ll announce the results!"
Urged on by the crowd, Qin Bei unfolded the cloth, feigning great surprise. "Wow, this ranking is pretty wild! I bet a lot of you Beastmen didn’t see this coming."
"The winner of the first match of the Five Countries exchange meeting is..."
Everyone’s hearts leaped into their throats. They waited, but Qin Bei just went silent. "Haha, you all seem pretty nervous! In that case, I’ll continue the announcement..."
The crowd glared at him in frustration, still on the edge of their seats, listening with bated breath.
"Ahem, my throat’s a bit dry. I think I need a sip of water!"
Some of the more hot-tempered Beastmen started cursing aloud. Qin Bei didn’t dare drag it out any longer. "First place is the Guiping Beast Country..."
The crowd thought there was something wrong with their ears. What had they just heard? The Guiping Beast Country took first place?
Forget the others—even Song Tan and his followers felt it was impossible!
"Absurd! The Beast King is going to utterly humiliate our Beast Country!" Song Tan said, his face livid.
The group of officials and elders beside him hurriedly asked, "High Priest, what is it? What has the Beast King done?"
Song Tan’s voice was filled with hatred, anger, and resignation, but his downcast eyes gleamed with excitement. "Do you think our Beastmen are capable of winning against the other countries in the Beast Text exam?"
They all shook their heads. "For so many years, our Guiping Beast Country has been struggling just to avoid coming in last. How could we possibly win?"
"Besides, this group of Beastmen is clearly just here to fill the roster. They probably can’t even read the Beast Text on turtle shells and bamboo slips. Without our help, where did the Beast King find so many fakes?"
Once they had finished venting, Song Tan sighed. "Since we don’t have that kind of ability, the only way we could have won is by tampering with the tests or the scores."
As realization dawned, everyone glared up at Beast King Xiao Cheng and Si Shuo on the high platform. "How has the Beast King become like this? Isn’t he afraid of being discovered? If we can figure it out, so can everyone else."
"He’s going to ruin our Guiping Beast Country!"
"The Beast King wants to win the competition and claim the glory, but he won’t even consider whether he or his family has the ability to do so," Song Tan sneered. "It seems we can no longer let him have his way. Otherwise, this entire Five Countries exchange meeting will become an occasion for us to offer up our own faces for others to stomp on."
"High Priest, we will do as you say!" everyone voiced their support.
Song Tan nodded, selected a few powerful guards, and started toward the high platform. He infused his voice with Spiritual Power, letting it ring out: "Beast King, you... you must stop this madness."
"As the host nation, it’s no great shame to lose the first match—we’re all used to it by now. But what you absolutely should not have done is resort to such dishonest tricks..."