In this way, all the students were tormented by Teacher Pan in the morning self-study period and the first two lessons after that. When all of the Dao talismans lessons were over, they were all amazed that they had actually done three test papers… and even then this wasn’t the most astonishing thing – the scariest was that Teacher Pan had already marked two sets of the review papers in class and was now busy recording down their scores in the teacher’s office.

　　Teacher Pan was truly a teaching pioneer at No. 60 High School… Her prowess was quite formidable.

　　After class, there was an uproar in the classroom block which was focused on Dopey Guo.

　　Dopey Guo was general pretty popular with the other classes… of course, it was all thanks to the gossip he usually shared. The most ridiculous thing, moreover, was that there was actually a Dopey Guo fanclub at No. 60 High School.

　　After hearing that Master Dopey had returned to school, the Dopey fans from every class came almost right after lessons were over to ask about his injury. In fact, this guy hadn’t been hurt at all; if you really needed to think of an injury, then it would be from when the Heavenly Materials sword had left a tiny cut on the back of the hand or the arm of the students in order to seal their spirits.

　　Furthermore, this was the type of injury that could be completely overlooked after applying some ointment.

　　Additionally, to be more precise, a sealed spirit wasn’t an injury, but a condition.

　　Wang Ling sat on a desk at the far end of the classroom and watched the drama unfold with Super Chen next to him. Because his desk was next to Dopey Guo’s, it was now already surrounded and occupied. Wang Ling really hated the feeling of being hemmed in by a crowd, so he simply stayed a little further away and watched the show with Super Chen.

　　“How are you now? How does it feel to have your spirit sealed?” someone asked.

　　Dopey Guo closed his eyes in deep contemplation before replying, “…Hm, this is the first time my spirit has been sealed, and somehow I feel a little empty.”

　　“What’s it like?”

　　“Do you know the feeling of four pissing beef balls stuffed inside a Matryoshka doll to play mahjong together?”

　　“…”

　　Even if he didn’t understand it, Wang Ling felt that this upgraded version of this familiar description seemed pretty awesome.

　　Dopey Guo couldn’t help laughing when he saw the pained expressions around him. “Just kidding, it actually isn’t that serious. I just feel like I’ve suddenly been deprived of my spirit energy, so I’m like a normal person now. But I’m not used to it – even going up the stairs takes effort.”

　　Actually, with the spirit sealed, one could see the difference in physical attributes between a Foundation Establishment cultivator and an ordinary person. In terms of cultivation talent, Wang Ling thought that Dopey Guo was in fact quite normal; even though Dopey Guo was in the elite class, he wasn’t very strong, and was probably barely above average among all the Foundation Establishment students in the whole city.

　　In the last two years, No. 60 High School had been a lot stricter in their selection of freshmen while they made preparations to be upgraded to a key city high school. Therefore, No. 60 High School’s freshmen weren’t the worst like Teacher Pan claimed they were. In terms of pure talent, they were a lot better than students in previous years.

　　Many who entered the school were at the peak late Foundation Establishment stage, like Lotus Sun and Super Chen… Provided that the school had adequate resources, these type of elite students would very likely reach the Golden Core stage before graduation.

　　It was already different for Foundation Establishment cultivators now; as long as they had talent plus sufficient resources, reaching the Golden Core stage within a few years was completely doable, but no further than that. For example, it was far from enough to rely solely on modern cultivation resources to advance from the Golden Core stage to the Nascent Soul stage; it required a lot more time spent on the path of Dao.

　　Therefore, this year’s freshmen were No. 60 High School’s best hope at improving their Golden Core conversion rate and also helping the school to be directly promoted to a key city high school.

　　Although typically there were teachers with more poisonous mouths, none of the teachers in the school dared deny this point. They might criticize their students in various aspects on the surface, but they were secretly very competitive, saying how awesome their students were, what great scores they got and so on…

　　When all was said and done, these were their students; no matter how many shortcomings they might have, if they had even just one shining point about them, their teachers would do all they could do build on it.

　　With five minutes left to the start of the next lesson, someone asked Dopey Guo, “Any new gossip recently?”

　　Dopey Guo replied without hesitation, “Of course, that Society of Saints that popped up recently.”

　　Everyone around him had enlightened expressions; it was obvious from this reaction that everyone had watched and even paid special attention to that Society of Saints ad.

　　Dopey Guo smiled. “This Society of Saints is pretty new; it’s not a private education institute, but a nationally certified organization for gathering elite students from all over. To put it in a way that will be easier for all of you to understand, this Society of Saints is an elite class established by the state for recruiting elite students from schools all across the country. Of course, those who can enter the society are the elite of the elite, and are extraordinarily gifted.”

　　“I see.” Everyone nodded – even though they didn’t quite understand it, it seemed pretty awesome.

　　The image of the spokesperson, Chu Yuanhao, winning single-handedly in a tug-of-war against ten people with the same realm in the Society of Saints ad was still vivid in their minds.

　　Another person asked, “After joining this Society of Saints, do you then belong to the school or to the Society of Saints?”

　　Dopey Guo: “It’s like this: joining the Society of Saints means you’ll have another identity as its member. During your three years in senior high school, you’ll get special lessons and combat training at their school base. In addition to receiving a huge resource subsidy each week, you can also get one-on-one lessons with renowned teachers. But you’ll undertake the college entrance examination as a student of your previous school, so your exams scores will belong to the school.”

　　“Is this a collaboration with high schools nationwide?” someone said.

　　Dopey Guo nodded. “You can think of it that way, but it isn’t that easy to join the Society of Saints. They only accept freshmen, and once they have their eye on you, they’ll send people to your school to discuss terms, then sign an agreement. Of course, you can pay money to take the society’s test yourself… but most likely you won’t pass.”

　　“Then… how much would it cost?”

　　“Five thousand immortal gold.”

　　“F**k! So expensive?” some people exclaimed. “And if you don’t pass?”

　　“Then you’ll have wasted your money.”

　　Dopey Guo shrugged. “But as far as I know, rich families now all want to send their kids there… I hear that if you can get into the top twenty in the Society of Saints, you can get a recommendation for university – you don’t have to take the college entrance exam and you won’t have to be at the Golden Core stage; you can go to whichever university you want.”

　　This caused an uproar for a while – who on earth had set up this Society of Saints? Was he that powerful?

　　There were some who were doubtful. “Where did you get this information? Is it reliable?”

　　Dopey Guo laughed again. “Rest assured, it’s completely reliable. It was one of my uncles in the Society of Saints who told me!”

　　Everyone: “…”

　　Wang Ling: “…”

　　…

　　That night, Dopey Guo went home.

　　He stared at Mother Guo. “Mom, am I your biological child?”

　　Mother Guo: “Of course.”

　　Dopey Guo: “Then I want to take the test for the Society of Saints…”

　　Mother Guo smiled. “In the winter of that year, the snow was especially heavy. I was on my way home with your father when we heard something moving around inside a dustbin on the roadside.”

　　Dopey Guo: “Mom, it’s actually not expensive… it’s just five thousand immortal gold…”

　　Mother Guo: “Your father and I went to take a closer look, and discovered… that it was a dog!”

　　Dopey Guo: “Mom… I won’t take the test…”

　　Mother Guo: “The dog was holding you in its mouth…”