Painting of the Nine Immortals

“You… you actually got the correct answer?”

The elderly shouted in awe, his eyes full of shock.

At his statement, the entire place silenced. Even a needle drop could be heard.

Correct?

It only took him a few seconds to get the correct answer?!

Everyone else at the scene was also astounded at this, and one by one, all gazes were now on Ling Xian. They were full of disbelief.

Even though the test only asked the alchemist to state the missing spiritual medicine after stating most of the known spiritual medicine, it remained a very difficult test.

This was made obvious by everyone’s actions. It’s been a while since most people came in to take the test, however, no matter how much they pondered their brains out, they could not figure out the last missing spiritual medicine in the Dan of Quick Travel.

Yet from the time Ling Xian sat down to getting up, only seconds have passed. How unbelievable was it for him to think of an answer that fast?

How could everyone not be shocked?

Thinking about the last missing spiritual medicine was not that impressive. With enough time, most of the people here could achieve it. What was truly shocking was the fact that Ling Xian merely used seconds!

You should know that nobody before Ling Xian had figured out the answer in such a short period of time!

Of course this filled everyone’s heart with shock, as they all stared at Ling Xian with shock in their eyes.

However, reality was right before them. Even the elderly was in awe and thus, how could they continue to lie to themselves? No matter how unwilling they were to accept the reality, they had to accept.

Therefore, the way everyone stared at Ling Xian transformed. There was shock, admiration, and fear.

Other than these emotions, those who spoke insulting words to Ling Xian, those who thought he had given up, also appeared ashamed. Their faces hurt, as if they were slapped by someone.

After all, they all thought Ling Xian stood up so fast because he realized he was too dumb to answer and chose to give up. Yet reality had proven otherwise. It wasn’t that he had no abilities to answer, it was that he was far too powerful!

He only needed a few seconds to answer a question that most people couldn’t figure out after so long!

“Unbelievable, in such a short period of time, you have found the answer. This is truly shocking me.” The elder exhaled deeply. Even with his normally unwavering mentality, he couldn’t help but to be astounded by Ling Xian.

Even though to use a few seconds time to figure out the answer to this test was something he could’ve done too, how old was he? And what realm did he belong in?

He was now more than 300 years old and was an alchemist of the third realm. His alchemy skills were immensely profound. Ling Xian, however, was merely a 20 something year old alchemist of the sixth realm.

Yet he’d achieved this greatness. How could the elderly not be shocked?

“You are flattering me, Senior. I am merely a little lucky and thought of it right away.” Ling Xian smiled humbly.

“There is no need to be so humble.”

The elder shook his head and his eyes were full of appreciation, “That was not luck, but capabilities. The Dan of Quick Travel was created by the five clans just for this test. Other than the examiners, there was nobody else who would know the recipe.”

“Also, to enhance the difficulty level, we purposely left the blank medicine to have many different possible options. The goal is to make it unclear to the alchemists which spiritual medicine is truly the one that can be used for increase speed.” The elder stroke his beard and complimented, “And you determined that the last medicine was the Grass of Speed in mere seconds. This tells me about how knowledgeable you are with alchemy and how confident you are.”

Hearing this, Ling Xian smiled and didn’t say anything else.

Just like the elderly had said, there were many fitting options to complete the recipe for the Dan of Quick Travel. Yet he decided on the Grass of Speed, which of course revealed much about his confidence.

The result proved him right, which backed up his supreme alchemy skills.

“Elder, I wonder if I passed the test?” Ling Xian asked with a smile.

“Of course you passed,” The elder’s eyes were full of admiration. The more he looked at Ling Xian, the more satisfied he was, “If I did not pass someone with such amazing test scores, then there would be no need for this contest.”

The corner of Ling Xian’s lips curled up. He ignored the elder’s compliments, “Since I have passed, then can I now go to the second test?”

“Of course, give me the token.” The elder nodded softly and took over his token. He dragged his finger nail across the token and left behind a purple line.

This represented that Ling Xian had passed the initial test.

“Okay, now take this token to the second test.” The elder smiled and pointed to the little street in the east direction.

Ling Xian nodded and picked up his token. He began walking to the east.

Since he passed the initial test, it was now for the second test. If he could pass this test, he would be able to enter the Realm of Alchemy and compete against all alchemy geniuses.

Watching Ling Xian walking away, the elder’s eyes were full of anticipation, “What a great Heaven’s Favorite. I sure want to see if you can answer the question with such insane speed in the second test just like you did for the first.”

“The initial test filling the blank for a Dan recipe, I wonder what the second test will be.”

Ling Xian walked on slowly as he thought about the possible content of the second test. Even though he didn’t really care what the test would be, he hoped it would be similar to the initial test.

Because he felt like it was easy.

Luckily, nobody could read his thought. Or else most of them would be puking out blood from anger. To tell the truth, to other alchemists, finding the one missing ingredient was a very difficult task. The difficulty level was even harder than brewing a high ranked medicinal Dan.

However, to the knowledgeably Ling Xian who also had the Essence of Herbalism, that test was, without a doubt, an easy assignment.

Therefore, he hoped that the second test was similar as the first one. If so, he would be saving a lot of effort.

Once he entered the place for the second time, Ling Xian’s eyes brightened. Because the set up here was exactly the same as the initial test. There were many people here frowning and thinking hard about their problems.

“It looks like the test format for the second test is the same as the initial one. It’s to find the missing ingredient.” Ling Xian beamed and walked before the examiner elder and handed him the token.

This examiner was a middle-aged man. His expression was serious and his face was stern, looking like a cold-hearted judge.

“Hmm?”

Looking at Ling Xian’s token, the middle aged man made a sound. His eyes flashed with shock. It wasn’t that he saw the cultivation level of the man in front of him, it was because of the purple mark left on the token.

Even though all those who correctly wrote the missing ingredient could pass the test, the examiner normally ranked the writers and left a mark accordingly.

The lowest rank was red, the middle was blue, and the highest was purple.

Therefore, when he saw that the token was left with a purple mark, the middle aged man was surprised. This was the first purple line he saw since the test started two days ago.

He looked at Ling Xian deeply but did not say anything. Instead, he pointed to the desk to his west and said in a low voice, “The format of the second test is the same as the initial one. Go over there.”

Ling Xian nodded. He slowly walked to the desk and picked up the spiritual paper.

Then, his brows subconsciously furrowed together.