Exam Results

The test papers were handed out one by one.

Sun Hecheng called over two novice apprentices who had not signed up and instructed them to take out the herb specimens, hang them on the wall above the podium, and label them with numbers. There were twenty specimens in all.

The wall lamps lit up, illuminating the entire wall as brightly as day.

Sun Hecheng said in a deep voice, "These twenty medicinal herbs are today's test questions. Write the name of each herb beside its corresponding number on the blank test paper, and describe its preliminary processing method in as much detail as possible. Each herb is worth five points, for a total of one hundred. You have one hour. Begin."

Bai Xiaowen narrowed his eyes and looked over. With his Insight Talent, identifying herbs posed no pressure at all. There was no way he could get them wrong.

Preliminary herb processing referred to the preparations an Alchemist needed to make before concocting a potion. This work was actually quite particular. Even basic washing involved dozens of different cleaning solutions, each suited to different types of herbs. Using the wrong solution and damaging a herb's quality would inevitably affect the success rate of potion brewing. An assistant like that was certainly unqualified.

In the Alchemy Department, there was a thick Pharmacopoeia Compendium. Like the Oxford Dictionary from another world, it was a reference book for consultation. The Pharmacopoeia Compendium did not record precious formulas, but it contained every imaginable method of preliminary herb processing, covering countless categories.

The sheer thickness of the Pharmacopoeia Compendium was enough to intimidate anyone. Many apprentices spent years in the Alchemy Department and still only understood bits and pieces of it. When they first entered the profession, quite a few people were ambitious enough to want to memorize the entire Pharmacopoeia Compendium. Yet after a few months, they often found themselves forgetting faster than they could learn and could only give up in frustration.

Bai Xiaowen, who possessed a Super Brain, was not among them. He had merely read through the Pharmacopoeia Compendium once, yet all of its thousand-plus pages of densely packed tiny print had been imprinted in his mind. His brain had surpassed the realm of "genius" and was practically monstrous. He could be considered a humanoid walking computer—one with top-tier specifications.

Bai Xiaowen swept his gaze across the twenty herbs and immediately understood. The test setter had put considerable thought into it. Of the twenty herbs, ten were relatively basic, five were somewhat more difficult, and the final five were obscure and rarely seen. If Bai Xiaowen had not memorized the Pharmacopoeia Compendium backward and forward, he truly would not have been able to answer them all.

Sitting in the very front, Fan Renjie wrote with confident scratching strokes. He was moving quickly and had already reached question eleven.

Only ten minutes have passed, and I've already finished half of them. I'm confident I'll get those points. This exam is practically in the bag. Fan Renjie looked up at specimen number eleven hanging on the wall, his brows knitting slightly before relaxing again with a hint of excitement.

"The eleventh herb is somewhat uncommon, but I've seen it before! Good. If they were all as easy as the first ten questions, how could they widen the gap and show who has real skill?"

Fan Renjie swiftly wrote down his answer for question eleven. He stumbled somewhat through questions twelve and thirteen, but he still managed to write answers that were basically complete.

However, question fourteen stumped him.

The herb in specimen fourteen seemed familiar, but he simply could not remember its name. As for its processing method, Fan Renjie was even less certain.

"It looks like Mageroyal. It should be processed by roasting? No, the leaf edges of this herb are smooth, unlike Mageroyal's serrated leaves. Its leaves are also thick and faintly glossy. The life energy particles should be stored within the leaves, so roasting would definitely damage its quality."

Fan Renjie could not make up his mind. He could only place a question mark before number fourteen and turn to question fifteen.

Yet question fifteen also looked familiar, but he just could not recall it.

"Damn it, why is this so difficult?" Fan Renjie clenched his teeth in secret and glanced around. Many of the other apprentices looked anxious. Some chewed on their penholders, while others scratched their heads. It seemed they had all been stumped as well.

Fan Renjie secretly felt relieved. It did not matter if he performed poorly, as long as everyone else performed even worse.

With a sliver of hope, Fan Renjie looked at the final five questions, and his expression immediately fell. He had never seen any of the last five herbs before! Perhaps that massive Pharmacopoeia Compendium, thick enough to use as a brick, contained these obscure herbs, but this was an exam. He could hardly flip through a book to look up the answers.

A chair scraped loudly.

Fan Renjie jumped, following the sound with his eyes. His brows immediately furrowed.

Bai Xiaowen had stood up. He strode to the podium and handed in his paper directly.

"So soon?" Fan Renjie's eyes nearly bulged out as he looked up at the clock on the wall. Half the allotted time still remained!

Bai Xiaowen's early submission sparked suspicion among quite a few apprentices.

"A novice who's only been in the trade for a week handed in his paper so quickly. There's probably only one possibility..." Fan Renjie sneered inwardly. He probably couldn't answer a single question and handed in a blank paper! Hmph. If he knew this would happen, why sign up in the first place? What a humiliation.

Thinking that way seemed to improve Fan Renjie's mood considerably. He racked his brains, guessing where he had to, until he filled all the blank spaces on his paper. After checking it over once more, he finally handed it in when the clock struck nine.

Sun Hecheng collected over a hundred test papers and waved his hand. "Get back to work. I'll grade them here, so there's no need to rush."

The apprentices moved the tables and chairs back into place, then returned to their respective tasks. However, their attention was clearly not on the work in their hands. It was entirely focused on Sun Hecheng.

Sun Hecheng graded quickly. He merely glanced at many papers before tossing them aside without even assigning a score. Clearly, those papers had not even reached the passing line.

Fan Renjie found a spot close to Sun Hecheng and lazily wiped down a medicine cabinet, both eyes fixed on the tip of Sun Hecheng's pen. He was secretly nervous. So far, Sun Hecheng had graded over thirty papers, and only six had scored above the passing line.

With a rustle, another paper filled with writing was pulled over. Fan Renjie's heart jolted. It was his paper.

Sun Hecheng swiftly marked check after check. The first ten questions were all correct. Then he turned to the later pages, and his grading speed slowed considerably.

Fan Renjie was thrilled. That meant his paper was worth grading. He would definitely pass.

Soon, Sun Hecheng flipped back to the front page and made a bold stroke after the name "Fan Renjie."

Seventy-six points!

Fan Renjie secretly let out a long breath. It was the highest score so far, and he was almost guaranteed to make the interview. As long as he got into the interview, there was still plenty of room to maneuver. An elder in Fan Renjie's family was a retired employee of a potion shop. If he asked the old man to pull a few strings, it would basically be a sure thing.

Sun Hecheng raised his eyes slightly and noticed Fan Renjie. He tapped the table with the barrel of his red pen. "What are you looking at? Get back to work."

Fan Renjie hurriedly agreed, suppressing his excitement as he turned and headed toward the other side of the medicine cabinets. Then he suddenly saw Bai Xiaowen.

Bai Xiaowen was washing apparatuses at the clean water basin, looking calm as though he had never signed up for the exam at all. Yet in Fan Renjie's eyes, that calmness carried an entirely different meaning.

"Haha, Bai Xiaowen, how did it go? Did you realize there was no way you'd make the interview, so you hid here because you were afraid people would laugh at you?"

Bai Xiaowen shot Fan Renjie a sidelong glance. His thin lips curled into a cold smile.

"If I can't make the interview, then who can?"

"Oh, still refusing to admit defeat? If you make the interview, I'll write my name backward!" Fan Renjie snorted.

"How you write your name is none of my damn business." Bai Xiaowen looked utterly disdainful.

"Hehe, then let's do this. We'll make a bet," Fan Renjie said, raising his voice slightly. "If you make the interview, I'll quit my job! If you don't, get the hell out of here! Dare to bet?"

Bai Xiaowen's gaze flickered, as if he hesitated for a second. "Fine, let's bet. I'm just afraid some people will refuse to honor the wager after losing."

Seeing Bai Xiaowen's apparent "timidity," Fan Renjie sneered. "Come over and be witnesses, guys. A real man's word is his bond. Whoever reneges is lower than a pig or a dog!"

Seven or eight apprentices crowded over and readily agreed to bear witness. They were all young men in their early twenties, and none of them minded making a spectacle bigger.

The clean water basin was quite far from Sun Hecheng, with two rows of medicine cabinet shelves between them, so the apprentices behaved without much restraint.

Bai Xiaowen finished washing his apparatuses. Without saying much to Zong Jie and the others, he carried a basket of test tubes away.

The wall clock chimed. It was nine thirty.

A cough sounded from the podium. Sun Hecheng stood up, holding a thin stack of test papers. "All right, we'll announce the results now."