It's Perfectly Normal for my Slime to beat up a Dragon, Right?

Although the third option was a bit tempting, it only seemed like a good deal on the surface.

In practice, it was... an even better deal!

Unfortunately, aside from Old Man Ye, the other two chief examiners were also Gold-rank.

Even if he became Silver-rank, he'd definitely be reincarnating on the spot...

Chen Shu obediently got in line.

A few minutes later, the System's reward was distributed — it had clearly determined he'd chosen the first option.

A massive amount of Beast Taming Power appeared out of thin air, but because of his bottleneck, it couldn't be directly absorbed into his body.

Instead, it transformed into a large quantity of heaven-earth spiritual energy, continuously pouring into his body like white mist.

At that moment, Chen Shu was on fire!

"Holy crap — Old Xie, Xiao Xing, why is there fog?!"

Chen Shu was a bit dumbfounded. His vision was completely obstructed.

He'd long since researched Lieyang Hills — there was no way fog would appear here without reason.

The two heard this and looked over — their bodies immediately shuddered, and they executed a tactical retreat leap.

Xie Sunan's face turned into his classic question-mark expression as he said, "What kind of performance art are you pulling now?!"

Xu Xingxing swallowed hard and said, "Chen Pi, did you swallow a nuke..."

"Swallow my ass!"

Chen Shu's mouth twitched. Could you be any more ridiculous?

That thing — was a human even capable of swallowing it?

The commotion from the three of them was quickly noticed by the others around them.

When they saw Chen Shu wrapped head to toe in white mist, everyone panicked...

What the hell was that thing?!

"Report! Someone's self-immolating!!"

The people around him immediately backed away from Chen Shu, terrified of getting caught up in it.

Some even summoned ice-attribute contract spirits, wanting to help Chen Shu cool off.

Chen Shu spoke up: "Who the hell are you calling self-immolating?!"

"That voice sounds kind of familiar..."

"It's the Nanjiang Bandit!!"

"Holy crap, could it really be Chen Shu?"

"Has the Heavens finally come to collect this monster?!" [2]

The crowd instantly exploded. If it had been some ordinary person self-immolating, it probably wouldn't have caused such a commotion.

But the Nanjiang Bandit's name recognition was way too high!

From swaddled infants to ninety-year-old grandpas, you could say there wasn't a soul who didn't know him!

"Silence!"

Ye Qing furrowed his brow, and a terrifyingly enormous black bear appeared. Its dreadful aura made everyone tremble, instantly bringing the scene under control.

His mouth twitched. You little punk really could stir up trouble anywhere — today was the gaokao, for crying out loud!

Ye Qing opened his mouth and asked, "Chen Shu, what exactly is going on with you?"

"Dunno!" [1]

Chen Shu shrugged, looking completely innocent.

I really wasn't trying to cause trouble here, just breaking through a bit — is there a problem?

The massive Beast Taming Power from the System reward continued battering against the bottleneck, white mist everywhere.

In an instant, he became the flashiest guy in the whole venue!

"Old Ye, I could swear this guy is breaking through."

Another Gold-rank beast tamer spoke up.

The moment the words left his mouth, he himself began doubting reality, because it was simply too absurd.

"Bullshit — he hasn't even been cultivating..."

The moment those words landed, all three chief examiners fell completely silent...

You've gotta be kidding — he was just standing in line, and breaking through really was as simple as eating and drinking for him?

"Unscientific! Unscientific!"

Everyone else cultivated through proper seated meditation — how did the art style get this bizarre when it came to you?

"Old Ye, how do we explain this?"

The other two chief examiners were completely at a loss. In hundreds of years of gaokao history, nothing like this had ever happened.

"How the hell should I know?!"

Ye Qing rubbed his forehead. He remembered Chen Shu saying he'd become Black Iron before the gaokao.

But you little shit never mentioned you'd do it on the spot!

"Teacher..."

Chen Shu raised his hand and said, "I think we should just continue with the exam!"

"As a third-year high school student, breaking through to Black Iron rank on the spot — that's reasonable, right?"

"..."

The moment those words came out, everyone stared at him in dead silence. Though they said nothing, they somehow said everything.

Reasonable his ass?!

Even sci-fi movies wouldn't dare shoot a scene like this...

In the end, Ye Qing furrowed his brow and made a decision.

"Stay in line! Continue the gaokao!"

So everyone lined up again, while Chen Shu remained shrouded in white mist, silently queuing.

People around him kept glancing over, feeling nothing but absurdity in their hearts.

Was this really not a dream?

They'd even already come up with a Tomorrow's Headlines title: INHUMAN!! Nanjiang Bandit Breaks Through While Queuing for Gaokao, Personally Feels It's Very Reasonable... [3]

It wasn't just the examinees — even the proctors and the Spirit Suppression Army kept looking over!

The gaokao came every year, but if you missed the scene unfolding before your eyes, that was a lifetime of regret.

"Really never seen the world."

Chen Shu curled his lip, noticing people constantly taking sneak photos of him with "click-click" sounds!

The Potential Rating assessment that should've been done in two hours — three hours in, and it still hadn't finished.

Finally, it was Chen Shu's turn.

The proctor responsible for recording scores swallowed hard, looking at the person shrouded in white mist up close.

By now the white mist was about to dissipate, and he could faintly make out Chen Shu's calm expression.

The proctor first pulled out a camera and snapped a photo, then said:

"Ch-Chen Shu... student, please display your contract spirit panel..."

Chen Shu displayed the Slime's panel information — of course, all the various skills were hidden.

A large "E" appeared, which made the proctor somewhat bewildered.

Rumors said the Poop Monster was S-rank, textbooks said Slimes were F-rank.

What the hell was this E supposed to be?!

"Just record it accurately."

Ye Qing walked over and spoke.

He hadn't expected Chen Shu's Potential Rating to be so low either — a contract spirit like that could win the championship?!

"Wait..."

Chen Shu immediately cut in.

Just as a bunch of people were staring at him in confusion, he waved his hand and said:

"Let me break through first, hold on a moment."

"..."

Saying this, the heaven-earth spiritual energy swirling around his body was rapidly absorbed inward.

The aura of breakthrough immediately appeared within Chen Shu's body.

"Everyone back!"

Ye Qing immediately ordered, making people keep their distance from Chen Shu. Whenever this guy was around, some kind of ridiculous twist was bound to happen.

Boom!

In an instant, a Slime appeared — without using Gigantification, but its four-and-a-half-meter height still carried overwhelming pressure.

And the dazzling golden light radiating from its body made it impossible to look at directly.

It was another bloodline evolution!

Of course, this wasn't gifted by the System but came with the breakthrough.

"Holy shit, he actually fucking broke through?!"

The examinees below cried out in alarm. Though they found it absurd beyond belief, the envy in their hearts was practically overflowing.

Breaking through to Black Iron before the gaokao — that basically locked in Huaxia Academy!

"This is unjust! His contract spirit is this fierce, and his cultivation speed is this fast! Can the gap between people really be this huge?"

"Suddenly the gaokao feels utterly meaningless..."

The crowd exchanged glances, tilting their heads at forty-five degrees toward the sky, depressed as hell...

You've stolen the whole damn show — what's the point of the rest of us even showing up?

[1] 母鸡啊 (mǔ jī a): Literally "mother hen" in Mandarin, this is a Mandarin speaker's humorous transliteration of Cantonese 唔知啊 (m4 zi1 aa3, "I don't know"). Popularized as internet slang on Chinese social media, it's used playfully to mean "dunno" or "beats me."

[2] 老天爷收妖孽 (lǎotiānyé shōu yāoniè): In Chinese folk belief, when monsters and demons cause too much trouble in the mortal realm, Heaven sends divine retribution to "collect" or "recall" them. The crowd treats Chen Shu's breakthrough mist as Heaven finally coming to deal with the infamous "Nanjiang Bandit" — framing him as a supernatural menace that even the celestial bureaucracy has taken notice of.

[3] 明日头条 (míngrì tóutiáo): A parody of 今日头条 (Jinri Toutiao), China's dominant AI-driven news aggregator app by ByteDance, notorious for sensationalist clickbait headlines. The narrator constructs an imaginary "Tomorrow's Headlines" framing Chen Shu's absurd behavior as viral breaking news.

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