Jia Xiu Began Preparing for Battle

By the window in the inn's first-floor hall, Jia Xiu was tinkering with his new contraption.

A copper pot.

A genuine handmade piece, hammered out blow by blow by Ram himself.

The evenly spaced, dense hammer marks on its surface gave it a rather textured look.

Jia Xiu lit one of his modified Flame Arrows in the hollow beneath the pot. It could not be fired, and its power was pathetic, but it could burn continuously.

An alcohol block substitute.

He added water, onions, carrots, and celery to the pot—the three-piece odor-removal set. He should have used scallions, ginger, and cooking wine, but unfortunately, he had none.

He had already learned that Saint Dero's final exam was not eliminatory. Reaching this stage basically meant they had passed, so he decided to make something for himself.

After visiting several restaurants in Larven, Jia Xiu had come to deeply understand that if one wanted to eat well in Larven without bleeding money, the only option was to cook for oneself.

Then, at the market, Jia Xiu was delighted to discover chive blossoms for sale. He immediately decided to make his own chive blossom sauce and have hotpot lamb.

Ram and Mia had gone to buy vegetables and meat. Mia was in charge of calculating, while Ram was in charge of carrying. They were building their rapport before entering the laboratory.

As for why someone had to carry everything, it was because Ram could really eat.

Mia had also contributed mushrooms she had grown herself. They came in every color imaginable and looked exactly like the kind that would leave you lying flat after eating them.

But Mia insisted that the mushrooms were not poisonous and had named them Mia's Delicious Mushrooms.

At that moment, Jia Xiu was testing the copper pot while Bubu sat beside him, hugging a White Demon Goat horn and sucking out its magic.

Just then, a hunched old granny walked in. She looked around the hall before finally fixing her gaze on Jia Xiu.

Jia Xiu immediately noticed that sharp gaze.

He felt a little nervous. Had his impersonation of Hannas been exposed? Had some examinee's parent come looking for him? Hadn't the academy issued a notice saying the final batch would be graded as though no 5% had been deducted?

The old granny shuffled over to Jia Xiu and lowered her voice. "Jia Xiu, it's me. Your mentor."

Jia Xiu was utterly baffled, but Bubu recognized her first.

"Marg—"

"Shh..." Margaret immediately cut him off.

"Mentor?" Jia Xiu asked quietly as well. "How did you become like this?"

"A transformation spell, to avoid suspicion. Someone has set you up for the final exam. I came to warn you, then I'm leaving."

Jia Xiu was shocked—not because someone had set him up, but because Margaret actually cared more about his exam than he did, even using a transformation spell to come warn him.

Margaret spoke rapidly. "Your group for this round has been decided. Your teammates are Ram and Mia. Not one of you is reliable. It seems the golem could not figure out how to separate the three of you, so it could only put you together. What bad luck."

"Isn't that pretty go—" Jia Xiu did not get to finish saying "good" before she interrupted him.

"In the previous round, one of them was filing taxes and the other was committing robbery. Do you think those are ideas normal people could come up with?"

"Well, actually..."

"During the exam, don't be so softhearted about looking after those two. Focus on performing well yourself. I can only keep an eye on you; let their own mentors worry about them."

"I was originally going to—"

Just then, the inn door was pushed open again, followed by heavy footsteps.

As Margaret listened to those footsteps draw closer, she turned around.

Mia and Ram?

Speak of the devil.

Before she could react, Ram spoke. "Boss, we're back with the groceries. Who's this granny?"

Boss? He was calling Jia Xiu that.

Boss!

In that instant, everything from the past few days of exams connected in her mind.

Why had three such outrageous examinees appeared in one class?

In essence, there had only been one!

Margaret's pupils shook. Her trembling finger pointed at Jia Xiu, not because she was too immersed in playing an old woman, but because she was emotional. No technique, just pure feeling.

"Those insane ideas of theirs were all yours!"

Jia Xiu nodded awkwardly.

He had actually wanted to admit it earlier, but Margaret had not given him the chance.

"And you still want to take them through the final round."

Jia Xiu nodded again.

It was not that he insisted on taking them along. They were simply offering too much.

After taking a moment to recover, Margaret realized something else.

"So I'm the mentor who has to worry about those two!"

"Don't get worked up. What if you revert to your original form if you keep talking? Your transformation spell would have been for nothing. Since things have come to this, let's eat first."

The water in the copper pot bubbled furiously. Freshly sliced lamb, Mia's Delicious Mushrooms, potato slices, and cabbage leaves churned in the broth.

Ram struggled to fish things out with a spoon and fork. He was deeply puzzled how Jia Xiu could so easily pick up food with two thin wooden sticks.

"So you mean Mia is a mathematical genius, and Ram is very lucky and also quite skilled with his hands."

As Margaret spoke, she dipped a slice of lamb into the chive blossom sauce and put it into her mouth. She had not even known chive blossoms could be eaten, but they tasted unexpectedly good.

"That's right. Ram made this pot. Add the two of them to me, and won't we be producing paper after paper? If the laboratory gets results, won't you improve along with us?"

Jia Xiu really wanted to cook two pieces of tofu. Once the exam was over, he would see where he could get some bittern or gypsum.

"We can discuss that later. First, let's talk about Gudrian, the one you'll be facing in the exam..."

In a few minutes, Margaret explained the whole situation.

"You mean some psycho failed to beat me in the exam and lost his mind?"

"Yes."

"Then he should come to me. Isn't it just first place? If he can get first place, he can control his score. The price is negotiable. Why pull all this nonsense?"

Jia Xiu had never understood people who acted like they would die over a slightly worse grade. Good enough was enough.

If that value system had not been forced on them by their parents, then it was simply absurd.

Margaret had already grown somewhat used to Jia Xiu's shamelessness.

"The key issue now isn't Thomas. It's Gudrian. He is a teacher who enjoys actual combat. He spent many years in adventuring parties when he was younger. He is an Arcane Archer who uses a bow, with magic as support—explosive arrows, strong acid arrows, binding arrows, tracking arrows, and all sorts of arrows with different effects."

"Is he strong?"

"Quite strong. And the spell circles he prepared this time are not low. He only has two third-circle spells; all the rest are fourth-circle."

Margaret took out the spell list Gudrian had prepared.

Jia Xiu took it and looked it over. The spell circles really were high. There was not a single spell on it that he knew.

"Damn—can we use summons in this round? For example, my summon is Bubu."

"This is not the time to think about exploiting loopholes!"

"Then do you have any suggestions?"

"There is basically no hope of beating him head-on. In the academy's hundred-plus-year history, there have only been two cases of examinees defeating their mentors. Those two groups later produced six legendary figures."

"Maybe we'll be the third."

Margaret rolled her eyes. She did not say outright that winning was not about one person being strong; all three had to be strong.

"My suggestion is to hide. Hide for ten minutes, and use all kinds of disruptive spells to interfere with his accuracy. There's no shame in it. Dodging beautifully in a battle against a mentor is also a skill. Besides, Gudrian is not in good health. He probably has lingering problems from injuries he suffered when he was young. He gets sick often and lacks stamina, so disruptive spells will be very effective."

"You said he gets sick often?"

An idea began to take shape in Jia Xiu's mind.

He turned to Mia. "As a Spore Society druid, don't you know any fungi that can make people sick? Like making him break out in ringworm all over, itching everywhere—scratch here and it oozes pus, scratch there and it bleeds; blisters on his toes, toenails falling off, mouth ulcers, cauliflower-like growths, wounds growing hair, and a moldy smell?"

Before Mia could speak, Ram could not take it anymore.

"Boss, we're eating. Can we talk about that later?"