Taking a Master at Hundred Flowers

Li Zicheng struggled through the crowd, intending to stop Jiang Shuo, but he was ultimately one step too late. He reached out to pull back Jiang Shuo's submitted answer sheet, but just as his fingertips touched it, the Old Man curled up in the rattan chair abruptly opened his eyes. With a snap, his paper fan closed and struck Li Zicheng's hand like a dragonfly skimming the water.

Li Zicheng winced in pain and resentfully withdrew his hand, looking at Jiang Shuo with complaint. "Why were you in such a hurry? If you really weren't confident, you could have looked at the others' answers."

"These ten medicinal herbs are very ordinary. I know all their names," Jiang Shuo said with confidence.

The Hundred Flowers Sect, renowned throughout the Jianghu, naturally had its reasons for choosing these ten herbs as the test. They were not especially precious or rare, but their medicinal properties differed greatly—enough to weed out those examinees who had only skimmed a few books, with a half-empty bottle sloshing about. Thus, most people in the courtyard were racking their brains, their faces clouded with worry. Hearing Jiang Shuo's words, they all turned to look at him, secretly wondering who was so arrogant as to make such brazen boasts.

Had Li Zicheng not known something of Jiang Shuo's character, he might have thought Jiang Shuo was simply talking nonsense as well.

He quietly tugged at Jiang Shuo's sleeve and lowered his voice. "Are you really sure?"

"More or less." Jiang Shuo did not dare overstate things, since he could not be certain whether Chiyun Village and the outside world used the same name for one particular herb.

"Then help me check mine."

Taking Li Zicheng's answer sheet and giving it a quick glance, Jiang Shuo immediately knew that Li Zicheng had indeed prepared before coming, but cramming at the last minute had left his foundation unsteady. "The third herb is White Aconite, not Star of Yunnan. Both have flattened round tubers, yellowish-white or pale brown surfaces, and Ordinary People often confuse them. But if you look closely, White Aconite's tuber is rough, with a stem scar at the upper end. Star of Yunnan's tuber, on the other hand, is smooth, with a sunken stem scar at the top..."

Jiang Shuo corrected them one by one before handing in the answer sheet. His eloquent manner left Li Zicheng utterly astonished. How was this fellow who treated illnesses even more skilled than me, the one who came here to study medicine? By the end, he could not help but concede defeat wholeheartedly and gave Jiang Shuo a thumbs-up.

Jiang Shuo rubbed his nose rather awkwardly and said modestly, "I saw these in books when I was little. It's nothing special."

In Chiyun Village, apart from a few ancient books that expounded principles, everything else was medical literature. Playfulness was in a child's nature, and at first Jiang Shuo would not even look at those knotty, obscure medical texts. Although Chiyun Village's scenery was beautiful, with its mountains and waters, anyone would grow tired of it after seeing it too often. Later, when Jiang Shuo had played himself out and had nothing to do, he began idly leafing through medical books. From childhood to adulthood, after long exposure, his mind had accumulated a great deal of medical knowledge.

What had been meant as modesty sounded exceptionally grating to the other examinees.

The questions they had racked their brains over without finding an answer to were, in his mouth, not worth mentioning. Was that not naked humiliation?

"Arrogance invites loss, while humility gains benefit—such is the way of Heaven. Little brother, you are young, yet you boast so extravagantly without regard for reality. Is that not like the frog at the bottom of a well, thinking the sky no bigger than its mouth?" A young man stepped forward. A seven-piece ornament carved from green jade hung at the front of his robe, and he held a landscape folding fan. His bearing was extraordinary, and he was clearly born to an uncommon family.

"Isn't that Magistrate Chen's son?" "He wants to enter the Hundred Flowers Sect too?"...

The moment Young Master Chen appeared, he drew the entire crowd's Line of Sight. Everyone whispered among themselves, discussing him animatedly. Some even had flickering eyes, their minds turning toward currying favor with him while they had the chance.

Young Master Chen handed in his own answer sheet, lifting his chin slightly as he looked down on Jiang Shuo. The pride of someone standing high above came naturally to him.

Jiang Shuo showed no fear and stared directly at him. His own unintentional words had brought deliberate hostility upon him; clearly, it was the other party whose mind was twisted.

"What, was I wrong?" Young Master Chen raised the tip of his brow slightly, faint anger and displeasure hidden within his expression.

"Of course you were wrong. Every word I said was true, without the slightest exaggeration." Jiang Shuo's blunt words frightened Li Zicheng into hurriedly tugging his sleeve twice, but Jiang Shuo ignored him completely.

"You mean I am not qualified to judge you?" Young Master Chen's shoulders shook as he smiled with great interest. "Both our answer sheets have been submitted. Why not wait for the results and compare them? Then we shall see whether I am qualified."

Just as Li Zicheng wanted to stop him, Jiang Shuo agreed. "No problem."

Though he was not particularly proficient in medicinal theory, he could still clearly recognize these ten herbs.

"Humph. You overestimate yourself." Young Master Chen snorted softly and walked to a more spacious street corner. Servants had already brought him a chair and set up a canopy there.

The Old Man curled up in the rattan chair opened his left eye and glanced between Jiang Shuo and Young Master Chen. Now this was interesting.

Before long, a Middle-aged Man emerged from the main hall. He walked to the Old Man, bowed, and said, "Elder Bian, thank you for overseeing this." Then he went to the table and called out loudly, "The time for three incense sticks has ended. Answer sheets will no longer be accepted."

A burst of noisy commotion immediately rose from the crowd. Many people had been so absorbed in agonizing over their answers that they had forgotten time was slipping away. Throwing caution to the wind, they squeezed forward with unfinished answer sheets in hand. Having a score was always better than none, but because they were too late, every one of them was turned away.