The Attack of the Wastrel

The Yiyuan Pill was a low grade Yellow-Level pill that could help one regain their strength.

When Gu Lingzhi first took this class, a majority of the students had just enrolled in the School last year, so most of them were rookies in Alchemy. For Gu Lingzhi, who could already cultivate high grade Yellow-Level medicine, this exam topic was hardly challenging to her.

When Wen Qing finished his announcements, Gu Lingzhi opened the chest of ingredients beside the furnace.

Qin Xinran also began to cultivate the Yiyuan Pill.

Even though she was extremely confident in her abilities, Gu Lingzhi still focused all her attention on every herb that she was handling so that she would not waste any of them.

While she was examining the ingredients, the students around her had already begun using the furnace to cultivate the medicine.

At the other corner of the classroom, Xin Zhixuan was looking at how Gu Lingzhi was examining the herbs. She tried to imitate what Gu Lingzhi was doing and examined the ingredients as well. However, she could not make anything out of it and did not get any further understanding of the ingredients. She sighed softly before she threw the ingredients into the furnace and began to cultivate the medicine. She muttered to herself, “It’s just a piece of grass, what’s the point of flipping it back and forth, she’s obviously just pretending.”

There were numerous people who followed Gu Lingzhi and tried to examine the ingredients, but after a while, they all gave up just like Xin Zhixuan.

Without the Spirit Tribe’s secret technique of examining herbs, merely staring at the ingredients would be useless.

When Gu Lingzhi was done analyzing the ingredients in front of her, some students who were quick had almost finished cultivating the pills.

Sufficiently prepared, Gu Lingzhi was not in a hurry. She focused on the furnace in front of her and started to examine it as well. Occasionally, she would study the techniques of the people around her, to which they rolled their eyes.

When she lit up the furnace and was beginning to cultivate the pills, there were only a few people in the classroom who had not completed the process.

Qin Xinran had passed the exam earlier, but she stood at Gu Lingzhi’s side as if to protect her, which obstructed some people who were curious as to what Gu Lingzhi was doing.

Gu Lingzhi thought about it, before she thanked Qin Xinran and went back to cultivating medicine.

After understanding the unique components of every ingredient, Gu Lingzhi was extremely successful in making the pills. Her motions were swift and smooth, and those who were watching her techniques were in awe.

“I didn’t think that someone could look so good while making medicine…” a young boy said. Qin Xinran smiled at the boy, which sent shivers down the boy’s spine. He then retracted back into the crowd.

Hmph, did he really think that she could not see him just because he went back into the crowd?

Qin Xinran smiled delicately, but deep down she was thinking about how she could get the boy to accept her challenge at the start of the next semester.

Suddenly, a rich herbal aroma wafted around the room. Gu Lingzhi had successfully made her first batch of Yiyuan Pills.

Opening the Pill Furnace, two Yiyuan Pills of good quality flew out.

Gu Lingzhi used a jade bottle in the Medicine Chest to keep the pills, and immediately began to cultivate the pills using the second furnace.

When she was on her third batch of pills, an aroma much richer than the rest flowed out from the furnace.

Delight filled Gu Lingzhi’s eyes, and the students around her held their breaths.

An ordinary Yiyuan Pill would definitely not have such a strong aroma, the only thing that could cause the Yiyuan Pill to have such an aroma was…

“An enhanced pill, it’s actually an enhanced pill!” someone exclaimed.

Spiritual Medicine cultivated according to recipes often had a fixed grade. However, if an Alchemist is able to refine it purely enough, the Medicine would have imprints that arise from the flames in the furnace, causing it to exceed its current level.

For every flame imprint that a Spiritual Medicine has, its grade increases by one. The enhanced Yiyuan Pill had become a middle grade Yellow-Level one.

To think that an Alchemist that had not even reached the Black Level could cultivate an enhanced Pill!

In an instance, the whole class flared up, hoping that it was them who had techniques that were equally good as hers. Students who had not even passed the exam yet were even more jealous.

Everyone was shocked, but Gu Lingzhi did not stop for them. She continued, starting to cultivate the next batch of pills.

Seeing her reaction, Wen Qing nodded his head in approval.

When cultivating medicine, it was easy to become impatient and sloppy, yet Gu Lingzhi could so swiftly calm herself down from the surprise of cultivating an enhanced Yiyuan Pill and continue on the next batch of pills. Be it Alchemy or Martial Skills, it was an attitude that was rare.

Gu Lingzhi continued to make all ten batches of pills without pausing in the span of less than two hours. At this point, the students who had refused to leave because they wanted to watch Gu Lingzhi practice Alchemy had realized that out of ten batches of pills, none of them had failed.

“Lingzhi, you actually managed to make ten batches of Yiyuan Pills without a single failure,” Qin Xinran exclaimed in surprise. This was definitely the standard of a Black-Level Alchemist.

Gu Lingzhi was stunned for a moment as she had put all her concentration into Alchemy that she had forgotten that she needed to pretend that she was not good at it. She laughed it off, “You know that I’m already a middle grade Yellow-Level Alchemist. Naturally, I would have a higher success rate at cultivating low grade Spiritual Medicine.”

“I’m also a middle grade Yellow-Level Alchemist, but my success rate is only at seventy percent,” a young boy interrupted. “Does your success rate have anything to do with the way you examined the ingredients at the beginning?”

Qin Xinran glared at the young boy who had spoken, how dare he try to find out the secrets behind Gu Lingzhi’s Alchemy skills?

Gu Lingzhi explained, “I guess so, it is important to understand each and every ingredient’s components and unique traits. However, other things are equally as important such as controlling the flames in the furnace. Every step has to be done with precision in order to achieve a higher success rate.”

Although her words sounded like it made a whole lot of sense, but only an Alchemist Master would know that her words were as good as not saying anything at all.

Seeing the doubt and suspicion in everyone’s eyes, Gu Lingzhi did not bother to explain any further and subtly nodded her head before taking the Yiyuan Pills that she had made and put it in front of Wen Qing.

Taking an Alchemy exam was extremely different from taking a Martial Skills exam. They had to use ingredients provided by the school, so the Spiritual Medicine that they had cultivated had to be returned back to the school. On one hand, it could test the skills of the students and on the other, it could provide an unlimited amount of Spiritual Medicine for the school.

She did not pick the Weapons subject, so after today was over, she only had to wait for her exam results.

When she returned to the hostel, she finally felt that she could strip away all the energy in her body and lie down on her bed. She did not even have the energy to turn Qin Xinran away as she walked into the room.

“Lingzhi, is your body hurting? I have a pill that can help you rejuvenate your body, you should have one.”

Gu Lingzhi subtly turned her head and stole a glance at the pill in Xinran’s hands which was emitting a strong medicinal fragrance.