Emily Thompson stared in disbelief at the foul-smelling, brown-black object in front of her, then turned her head to look at Henry Martinez.

"You must be joking with me!"

Henry Martinez replied unhurriedly, "Of course, you have every right to think so."

"But how could there be such a requirement!" Emily Thompson shouted. "I've never heard of a cultivation technique that requires someone to eat shit!"

"Yeah, but hadn't you also never heard of Vajra Demon-Subduing before? There are plenty of things you've never heard of. Have you ever heard of the Soaring Dragon Scale Flash? The Demon-Breaking God-Exterminating Drill? The Nineteenfold Pure Spirit Lock Golden Exquisite Pagoda?"

Henry Martinez rattled off a series of names, and Emily Thompson could only shake her head repeatedly, until she started to doubt herself—maybe it really was necessary to eat shit to cultivate Vajra Demon-Subduing... But this was just too hard to accept.

Emily Thompson was torn, glancing down at the vile thing on the table, then thinking of the ambition she’d set for herself since childhood, and at times recalling her mother’s unwillingness at her deathbed...

Unknowingly, time ticked by, and Emily Thompson suddenly found her vision blurring—two silent streams of tears had already fallen.

"No, this isn't right." Emily Thompson sobbed. "I don't believe it, I don't believe this is real! You must be lying to me, you must be lying! Vajra Demon-Subduing would never require such a perverse condition, you're tricking me!"

Emily Thompson just cried, but in her heart, she had finally made up her mind. Just as she was about to wipe away her tears and press on without hesitation, she saw Henry Martinez trembling slightly in the corner, the sword hilt knocking against the beam, making a sound like applause.

"Congratulations, you've finally passed this round's IQ test."

Emily Thompson was a bit stunned, wiping her tears and asking in a nasal voice, "Huh?"

"You passed." With that, a flash of sword light appeared from Henry Martinez, and a gentle breeze swept through the room, instantly clearing away the stench and causing the test material on the table to crumble to dust.

Emily Thompson was dazed for a long time before she realized what had just happened.

"You—you really were tricking me!?"

"I didn't trick you. First, I never said you had to eat shit to cultivate. I was just constantly misleading and hinting, but every time I left a loophole for you to catch—too bad you didn't notice. Second, even if you hadn't realized the truth by the end, I would have stopped you. After all, a mount that's eaten shit would be a bit embarrassing for its owner..."

"You!?"

"This was a test," Henry Martinez explained. "There really is a Vajra Demon-Subduing technique, but it requires the practitioner's IQ to be above the passing line. Grace Bennett designed this test to quickly determine if someone is suitable for cultivation. Judging by your result, you passed. However, based on the time you took, your IQ index is calculated at 3.3, which is mildly intellectually disabled—just barely meeting the minimum requirement for Vajra Demon-Subduing."

"You're the one who's mildly disabled!"

"Sorry, my IQ index is 9, ranking second out of ten on the Kyushu IQ scale, above 99.99% of humans, on par with the designer Grace Bennett. Of course, as a Celestial Sword from beyond the heavens, that's only to be expected."

"Pah! With your broken sword!?" Emily Thompson fumed. "Let me ask you, what's 3154 times 3154?"

Henry Martinez blurted out, "9947716... But I have a question: when you asked me that, did you know the correct answer yourself?"

Emily Thompson immediately fell silent.

"I think I need to make a slight adjustment to your IQ score."

"Don't adjust it!" Emily Thompson couldn't stand the humiliation and quickly changed the subject. "Anyway, since I meet the requirements, teach me Vajra Demon-Subduing!"

Henry Martinez said, "Sorry, I can't."

"What!?"

"I've never practiced it, so how could I teach you? That was just to test your IQ."

"I'm going to kill you!"

"You can't take your frustration with the test results out on the examiner."

"I..." Emily Thompson couldn't take it anymore and jumped out of bed to chase Henry Martinez, but the moment she got up, a sharp pain shot through her waist.

"Ahhhhhhh!"

Chapter 007: Taking Care of a Sick Mount Is a Master's Duty

May 15, 2017

Taking care of a mount is truly not an easy job.

Especially when the mount has a rather low IQ index... Even just taking an IQ test could worsen her back injury. Even with all of Henry Martinez's experience, he had to admit this was an eye-opener.

Still, taking care of a mount was not without its interesting moments. In all his decades as a human, he had focused solely on cultivation, never distracted, and saw nothing in his world but his longsword. After being reborn as a divine sword, he was always surrounded by top figures like the Nine Immortal Lords, and never needed anyone to look after him—on the contrary, as a naive Celestial Sword, he often needed others to watch over him.

Now, being able to take care of a mildly intellectually disabled human girl, Henry Martinez actually found it rather amusing—he could just about count it as part of enjoying life.