Chapter 563: Stubborn

Chapter 563: Chapter 561: Stubborn

Since there weren’t many participants, it didn’t take long to determine who was right and who was wrong.

Soon, the review was complete. Long Xingyun stood up and announced, “After our inspection, we received a total of seventy-four submissions. Those who failed to turn one in have been eliminated. Of those submitted, only seventy answered everything correctly! I will now announce all the results.”

“Long Bin, all correct!”

“Long Fan, all correct!”

“Lin Xuan… all correct!”

“Long…”

Long Xingyun picked up the slips one by one and read them out slowly. One after another, the names were followed by a “correct.” It would be more accurate to say most were correct; those who didn’t submit were, of course, eliminated.

After reading through all the names, Long Xingyun held up one particular slip and announced in a heavy tone, “The only person to identify every single item by name was Lin Xuan!”

In other words, the only person who had managed to identify everything was Lin Xuan!

The moment the result was announced, the crowd erupted. Why was Lin Xuan the only one to get a perfect score? Hadn’t they said Long Bin and the others were also completely correct? How could it be that the only one to identify everything was Lin Xuan?

Everyone was stunned. Had their two prized geniuses, Long Bin and Long Fan, actually lost to an outsider in a test of identifying medicinal ingredients?

“I’m sure you’re all wondering what the correct answers were. I will now announce them. They were, in order: a slice of bitter melon, a cabbage leaf, and Illusion Spirit Grass! The bitter melon and cabbage leaf are not medicinal herbs. As long as you wrote ‘no medicinal effect,’ you would have passed that portion. You didn’t need to write down their specific names.”

From the very beginning, Long Xingyun had said that writing the names wasn’t necessary; they only needed to identify the medicinal effects. This meant seeing past the misleading scents and properties to discern the true nature of each item. If an item had no medicinal properties, they simply had to write “no medicinal effect”—a very simple answer.

When this answer was revealed, some of the Medicine King Valley disciples who had already been eliminated exploded with rage.

“What? Two of them weren’t even medicinal herbs? Why were they included? That’s just regular food!”

“Exactly! Weren’t they supposed to be medicinal herbs? Why were two of them not herbs at all?”

“So, so it really was a slice of bitter melon and a cabbage leaf… I-I could taste it… but I wasn’t certain. I just assumed it had to be a medicinal herb…”

…

Many of them were genuinely furious. Including two items that weren’t medicinal herbs and calling them such—wasn’t that a lie? It was a trap, plain and simple! Deceit!

“Silence!” Long Xingyun’s sharp gaze swept across the disciples below, and the uproar immediately died down. “Do you believe everything I say? If I told you all three were Resurrection Grass, would you believe me? If an Alchemy Master lacks their own judgment, what kind of Alchemy Master are they? You weren’t asked to write names, only to identify medicinal properties. If there are no properties, you write that there are none. Your inability to do so is a failure of your own skill!”

“These are things you’ve all eaten before. In terms of difficulty, this was not a hard test. But if my words alone were enough to mislead you, then you are far too naive! An Alchemy Master must trust their own senses, not blindly follow orders. Do you understand? Besides, someone *did* get it right—Lin Xuan, an outsider!”

Long Xingyun’s outburst left the group speechless. It was true that the two food items had been used to confuse them, but the crux of the matter was simple: someone else got it right, so why couldn’t they?

“And among all participants, the only one to answer everything correctly *and* write out the names of every item was Lin Xuan!” Long Xingyun repeated. “Therefore, for this round, we award him a perfect score of ten points. Those who answered correctly but did not write out all the names will receive eight points. All others will be scored based on how many they identified correctly!”

“Lin Xuan!?”

All eyes focused on him once again—gazes filled with surprise, shock, and anger. No one had expected that Long Fan and Long Bin, the two geniuses most likely to become the next Pill King, would fail to identify the items, while the son of a traitor got them all right, even writing down the names!

The expressions on Long Bin and Long Fan’s faces were grim. They had intended to put Lin Xuan firmly in his place, but instead, he had come out on top of them. Lin Xuan had been the fastest to walk up and submit his answers at the beginning. If they hadn’t rushed ahead of him, their names would have been called second and third.

Of course, that meant nothing now; the speed of submission didn’t affect the score in the slightest. Still, this result was a vicious slap in the face. It felt as if they had been lifted up high only to be slammed back down to the ground, and the impact stung.

“Long Bin, I can’t believe we fell a step behind…” Long Fan snorted, refusing to concede defeat. “But it doesn’t matter. We just didn’t write down the names, which is meaningless. All that was required was to taste that they had no medicinal effect. There’s no need to get hung up on it. We don’t normally eat commoner’s food, so it’s perfectly normal that we couldn’t name it right away.”

“That’s right. A win is a win. We’ll just get it back in the next round!” Long Bin was equally defiant. Who could have imagined they would lose over such a minor detail? But it was precisely that detail that made their defeat so hard to swallow.

Using bitter melon and cabbage leaves in a formal assessment was just a dirty trick. If it hadn’t been Long Xingyun and the elders who’d set the test, this crowd would have already rushed the stage to deliver a beating.

In the end, they were just being stubborn. They had eaten these things before; they had simply been thrown off for a moment.

“Don’t think this little trick means you’ve beaten us. So what if you identified them? Does it even matter?” Long Fan said, looking at the silent Lin Xuan beside him, feeling extremely annoyed.

“A win is a win, and a loss is a loss. Can you please stop your whining? It only makes you look more ignorant. Identification is a fundamental skill for an Alchemy Master! Perhaps two of the items were just food, but this was a test of something more: your own experience!” Lin Xuan sneered, then turned away, refusing to waste any more time on these fools.

Long Fan was left speechless. A vicious glint appeared in his eyes, but there was nothing he could do.

“Sister Long, Lin Xuan won the first round. He even solved the trickiest, most peculiar parts of the test… It seems his experience is quite profound.” Long Yuxuan sighed. He couldn’t quite describe the feeling in his heart. The woman he loved most had ended up with another man.

“Yes, he reminds me of Chenyun… so hardworking and persistent.” Long Yuwei sighed, her beautiful eyes resting on Long Yuxuan as she said calmly, “Brother Yuxuan, please don’t dwell on the past. You will find an even more wonderful woman…”

“Perhaps…” Long Yuxuan gave a bitter smile. It was all he could say. The matter had been decided long ago, settled for decades.

From the very beginning, Long Yuwei had never loved him; she had only ever seen him as a brother. But Long Yuxuan had never seen her as a sister. Still, it was all in the past. There was no point in saying anything more. Long Yuwei’s heart had always belonged to Lin Chenyun.

She would never forget that moment of crisis when Lin Chenyun stood before her. No one could harm her. As long as Lin Chenyun remained standing, she would never be hurt!