Chapter 188: Chapter 186: Three Elderly Grandfathers_1
The three elders who had just spok were all from the Tianjiang clan, a group of siors. Although their family's strgth wasn't on par with the Bai or Fang Families, it wasn't much less.
Among the aristocratic families, the Bai Family took the lead, with the Fang Family following. All other families were ranked behind them. And the three elders behind Bai Qi were the chief stewards of the Liu, Wang, and Cao Families respectively.
Bai Qi glanced at the group of noble studts in the field but didn't recognize any familiar faces. Logically, she should have se the younger gerations from these three families, but in her memory, those young members of these families were at Tianjiang University, while of the competing universities here were from Tianjiang University.
"The champion of this regional competition seems certain to be West Peak, under Old Brother Liu's hand," joked the elder from the Wang's family as the three chatted.
"Ah, I don't know about that; I think the little gius from Wang's family who has yet to show his face has a better chance of taking the first place" replied Old Master Liu with a smile.
...
Bai Qi, listing to the three elders' conversation, realized they were not there for some direct descdants of their families, but rather for some younger members with relatively lower status. That's wh she understood why there was not a single face she recognized in the field.
From the conversation of the three elders, Bai Qi discovered they never mtioned the issue of the Sevth Elder referring to Fang R as "Young Master Fang." She didn't know if they hadn't heard it, or if they were chatting themselves wh the Sevth Elder and Fang R were talking, or if the Sevth Elder used some method to confine the sound of the conversation to a small area.
While Bai Qi was listing to the elders, the Sevth Elder had already rushed to Fang R's side, speaking with a worried expression, "Young Master Fang, I will change the medicinal ingredits for you now. After the exam, I will definitely punish those scoundrels severely."
Fang R looked at the Sevth Elder, whose face was filled with panic and complexity, and waved it off, saying, "It's fine, these ingredits will do."
The Sevth Elder was conflicted for a momt. To him, Fang R's words meant that since cheating was inevitable, it didn't really matter whether the medicinal ingredits were of good or poor quality.
"Very well th, Young Master Fang, I assure you that these ingredits will be returned to the Ctral Area intact," the Sevth Elder said.
Fang R glanced at him and th looked at the audice in the distance before speaking, "Calling me Young Master Fang outright like this, ar't you afraid that others will see through my idtity?"
"No, elder has used a special method to isolate our voices," assured the Sevth Elder.
Upon hearing this, Fang R felt relieved and said, "Th, those ingredits, don't bother returning them to the Ctral Area later, just give them to me."
He chuckled to himself. He was utterly at odds with the Ctral Area! Return the ingredits? Impossible.
"But... Young Master Fang, what do you need them for?" asked the Sevth Elder, startled.
"Later, I'll give you an 'Entering Void Elixir'; give me the ingredits," said Fang R.
"An... Entering Void Elixir?" the Sevth Elder's eyes bulged.
One such elixir was far more valuable than those ingredits. After all, ev if all the ingredits were put into the Pill Furnace, the chance of a successful concoction was still very slim, but obtaining an Entering Void Elixir directly could buy twice the amount of ingredits.
"If you remain silt, I'll take it as your agreemt," said Fang R. "Alright, fetch me a Pill Furnace; I didn't bring one with me."
"Certainly, elder will fetch it for you right away."
The Sevth Elder nodded repeatedly and turned to return to the cter of the field, requesting an examiner to sd a Pill Furnace to Fang R, and th glanced at the time.
The onlookers were confounded by his actions, and they all probably had some speculations: How could a useless studt from Yangming University get the Sevth Elder to bow and nod repeatedly? It simply wasn't possible, his idtity must be far from ordinary.
After this sce unfolded, the jeers directed at Fang R slowly subsided. If the Sevth Elder had sought out Fang R for an issue earlier, th what did this bowing and nodding signify now?
Although they were all somewhat astonished by the studt from Mediocre University, the idea of that guy attempting to concoct a fourth-order elixir was still considered an absurd joke in their eyes.
"Time's up! The exam officially begins!"
As the Sevth Elder's voice fell, the tire exam vue burst into activity, with every candidate's face turning tse and serious.
After all, the results of the alchemy exam were tied to time—the faster, the better. No one wanted to waste a second on trifles, perhaps affecting the grade of the elixir.
As soon as Fang R obtained the Pill Furnace, he didn't say a word, just filled it up with water.
Th he threw a Cold Fire underneath the Pill Furnace and finally rolled various medicinal herbs into a ball with his hands, stuffing them into the Pill Furnace.
In an instant, only a red paper was left on the g from the eight precious herbs in front of him.
This sequce of actions took less than thirty seconds, but it baffled everyone prest.
What kind of operation is this?
Is this alchemy or cooking rice?
Ev cooking rice wouldn't be done like this; using Cold Fire to cook rice, it wouldn't be done until next year.
"Do you know how to do alchemy? Filling the Pill Furnace directly with water, wouldn't the herbs be boiled into soup? And using Cold Fire, ev soup can't be cooked! Simply clueless about alchemy!"
"This guy is clearly fuming with embarrassmt, just wanting to spoil the herbs and pretd to be more than he is,"
"But I don't understand, if this guy is clueless about alchemy, why did the Sevth Elder treat him so specially?"
"Were we wrong before? The Sevth Elder never meant to be polite to this guy?"
...
While a group of studts were discussing, the three elders behind Bai Qi also began to discuss the matter.
"It seems I was wrong before, this guy from Yangming University is nothing like I was wh I was young, he can't take a bit of hardship," the elder from the Cao Family said with a frown, looking at Fang R in the field: "He's just needlessly destroying valuable resources!"
"Such a waste of public resources, to call him petty isn't too much," the elder from Wang's family also frowned and said, "But I can't understand why the Sevth Elder from the Orchid Bamboo Guild was so polite to a studt just now? And why were their conversations isolated by True Qi?"
Old Master Liu frowned and cast his gaze onto Bai Qi, who was sitting not far in front of him, and said, "If I remember correctly, that studt from Yangming mtioned something about cheating as soon as he tered the vue, could it be related to the Sevth Elder of Orchid Bamboo?"
Following Old Master Liu's words, the elders from both the Cao and Wang families also turned their gaze toward Bai Qi.
This girl was the attdant of that young man, and it was just the two of them who had discussed the cheating issue earlier, which inevitably led the three of them to think of some disgraceful tricks.
If the young man really dared to cheat on this occasion, and the Sevth Elder of Orchid Bamboo dared to shield him, the three of them would stand up for all the studts prest and sure justice.
"Young lady, come here for a momt," Old Master Liu took a step forward and spoke to Bai Qi.
Bai Qi was tak aback, not expecting Old Master Liu to speak to her at this momt.
Meanwhile, not far away, Lin Bozhong and Ch Chg saw Bai Qi sitting alone in the stands and, fearing she might feel lonely, began to walk towards her.