Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The dean looked at the scroll in his hand over and over again.
His expression was agitated and incredulous. After checking the scroll a few more times, he lifted his head and announced loudly, “Tang Ritian has a score of 999.”
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone was dumbfounded.
In the next moment, when everyone came to their senses, they collectively gasped.
A score of 999?
That was almost a perfect score. How was it possible?
Everyone’s faces were filled with disbelief. Putting aside that kid’s age, a score of 999 was already unbelievable.
There were many essay questions in the exam. A perfect score of 1000 was impossible, so 999 was the highest score one could achieve. In the history of the academy, only two or three people had obtained that result.
Su Zhengyu’s body teetered, and his face suddenly turned pale.
“How could that be?”
He muttered in a daze, unable to believe what he had heard. Not only did that kid surpass him, but he did so with a wide gap of 17 points!
He would raise suspicions if someone else had graded the paper, but the dean had graded it in front of everyone’s eyes. There could be no mistake.
“Too shocking! He’s only twenty-one years old, right?”
“A top-notch prodigy!”
The grandmaster pill makers were incomparably excited.
The other candidates opened their mouths wide, silently cursing their own luck.
They could attribute his high affinity to innate talent, but now that he had obtained the highest possible score in the written exam, they had to admit that he was actually knowledgeable.
“Damn, that kid is a freak!” They cursed angrily.
Tang Hao stood up rather indifferently and walked to the side of the plaza. Instantly, many pill makers leaned over and whispered to him.
“Hey, little brother, let’s make friends!”
“Little brother, are you interested in joining our Li Family?”
They were very enthusiastic, and some even wanted to poach Tang Hao over.
Su Zhengyu became even more annoyed when he saw that, and he ground his teeth so hard that they made cracking sounds.
After another two hours, the bell rang, and the examination ended. After another hour of grading and sorting, the final results were out. According to the rules, the top one hundred candidates would advance to the next round.
The final round was a practical test. The candidates had to make a pill on the spot.
“For this test, you shall make one clarity pill. You will receive three sets of materials, and you will be eliminated if you cannot produce a single pill with those materials.
“The elders shall grade the best pill you make, and the top twenty shall receive the certification.”
Grandmaster Cang Yun announced loudly.
The candidates spread out in the plaza and sat down cross-legged.
“May the heavens bless us! We must succeed this time!”
Many middle-aged and old men were praying anxiously. If they did not make it into the top twenty this time, they would have to come again next month.
After receiving the materials, Tang Hao checked and confirmed that there were no problems. Then, he took out his pill furnace.
The clarity pill was not a hard pill to make. Many people should be able to make one, but it was hard to make it well. It was a true test of their pill-making skills.
The other candidates also took out their cauldrons. Su Zhengyu noticed Tang Hao’s furnace and was stunned. Then, he laughed out loud.
“Hahaha! That’s a shabby-looking cauldron! Doesn’t your sect have anything better? Look at my cauldron!”
As he spoke, he displayed his own cauldron. It was shining with golden light, and a dragon was coiled around it. It was unusually cool.
Tang Hao looked at Su Zhengyu’s cauldron, then at his own. He felt a little embarrassed.
‘Damn! It’s like comparing heaven and earth!’
Tang Hao’s pill furnace was the same one that he found in the mountain cave near Westridge. Any pill cauldron was incredibly precious on Earth, where resources were scarce. However, in that world, his pill furnace could not compare to the simplest cauldron.
However, Tang Hao was already used to it. That was why he never wanted to change it.
Everyone grimaced when they looked over.
“Damn, what a shabby cauldron! Can you even make pills with that?”
“That guy is a prodigy, right? Why is he using such a shoddy cauldron? He’s not going to make it!”
The other candidates’ cauldrons were glowing brilliantly. They were made out of extraordinary material.
Those who could afford to study pill-making were all rich, and so they had quality equipment. Tang Hao’s equipment was the worst and the shoddiest.
“His sect must be so poor that they can’t even afford a proper cauldron! How pitiful!”
“That’s right! They don’t even have a proper cauldron. It’s too tragic!”
The people from the academy lamented.
In their eyes, it was a sin for such a prodigy to not have a proper cauldron.
“Sigh! It’s too late to change cauldrons now. When it’s over, I’ll give him one. He needs a good cauldron to match his talent.”
The dean looked at Tang Hao with extreme commiseration.
“This stage will be a challenge for him. The quality of the cauldron affects the final product. He’s not going to make a good pill with that cauldron!”
Everyone shook their heads and said regretfully.
“Hahaha!”
Su Zhengyu could not help but laugh out loud. He thought that he would lose to that kid again in this round, but that kid took out a useless cauldron.
That was a big joke!
He was overjoyed. He laughed for a while before starting to make his pill.
“F*ck! So what if mine looks a little shoddy? It’s fine as long as I can use it!” Tang Hao grumbled angrily.
He took a set of materials and placed it in front of him. Then, he lit the furnace and began to make the pill.
He threw in all the materials one by one, refined their essence, and turned them into drops of medicinal liquid. Then, all the medicinal liquid was mixed together and turned into a pill-embryo, which was then burned with fire.
He made his pill quietly and without any movement. Meanwhile, dragons, tigers, and other illusory images appeared from the other candidates’ glowing cauldrons.
The flames made various shapes as they spun around the interior of those cauldrons. It was a dazzling sight.
“That’s the Dragon and Tiger Forging Technique!”
“That’s the Spirit Phoenix Forging Technique!”
Everyone was overwhelmed by the sight and could not help but exclaim in admiration.
However, when they looked at Tang Hao, they were all stunned. There was no movement at all over there. That kid was just sitting there.
Compared to the dazzling techniques of those prodigies, he was too unsightly!
“Ahem! It must be a problem with the cauldron. That’s right!”
“Indeed! He can’t show off with that shoddy cauldron. He’d be lucky if it didn’t explode!”
That was how they comforted themselves.
An hour later, Su Zhengyu’s golden dragon cauldron trembled with a boom. A ray of light shot out, and a pure white pill flew out and landed in Su Zhengyu’s palm.
“My clarity pill is ready. Please appraise it, seniors!”
He held the pill, stood up, and shouted loudly.
He turned his head around and could not help but snicker. That kid’s shoddy cauldron would not make anything proper. Su Zhengyu was sure to win this time.
Soon, the Medicine King Valley prodigy was done with his pill. Mu Feifei was also done a short while later.
The two of them stood up, looked behind them, and heaved a sigh of relief.
That kid had given them too much pressure. Now that they saw that the kid was not going to make it, they were very relieved.
A disciple from the academy collected the pills from them and presented the pills to the elders on the stage.