Chapter 56: The end of the test 2

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He didn't tell him if his pills were passable or not, but rather if they were good enough.

Being an experienced alchemist, he could tell by sight how well a pill had turned out.

The reason he checked their purity was to see how well-crafted the pill was.

And he had to admit, the first one had impressed him.

Without wasting time, he examined the second pill, and his eyes filled with surprise.

"Is this one also 49% pure?" he thought, astonished.

Earlier, he had thought the participant was lucky to produce one with such high purity, but seeing that he had created a second one just as good, he couldn't help but praise him internally.

"This boy has some skills..." he thought to himself as he proceeded to take the third pill.

As soon as he picked it up and examined it, his expression changed once more.

This time, however, it was not an expression of surprise, but of doubt.

"49% once again?"

For a moment, he didn't know how to react to this.

Creating one out of five pills with good purity was one thing, but creating three was another.

It was normal for adept alchemists to create multiple low-grade pills with such good purity, but it was not normal to see an alchemist who had yet to reach the adept level do the same.

Moreover, the purity percentage was identical, and with his spiritual energy, he could tell they were all at the same level, none being slightly more or less pure.

It was as if they were copies of a single pill.

For a moment, the examiner thought he had mistakenly taken the same pill three times, but seeing the other two he had examined still on the table, he had to dismiss this idea.

"Maybe it was just a coincidence," he thought to himself.

Though it was uncommon to see pills identical in every aspect, it wasn't impossible either.

He placed the third pill on the table and picked up the fourth.

Just as he picked it up, he couldn't help but notice there was no fifth pill on the table.

Everyone had refined all five pills, with some refining all five well, and others only some of them well.

Thinking that perhaps he hadn't had time to prepare it, he proceeded to examine the fourth pill.

And this one also turned out to be 49% pure.

"..."

At this point, the examiner didn't know if it was a coincidence or not that all these pills were identical in every aspect.

From their shape to their purity, they were identical in the smallest details.

This level of skill was very rare to see even among alchemists at his level.

It wasn't difficult to create pills of this purity, but pills that were almost identical were difficult even for someone like him.

'A genius.'

He couldn't help but look at Ethan with an expression of surprise as he asked,

"Boy, if I may ask, who is your teacher?" he asked, curious to know who was so skilled to instruct such a genius.

Hearing the question, Ethan couldn't help but frown a bit.

'Teacher? Since when do I have a teacher? What should I say, that the system is my teacher?

Shaking his head, he replied composedly,

"I don't have a teacher."

The examiner did not expect this answer and quickly asked,

"Then where did you learn to refine?"

"I learned on my own from textbooks," Ethan said.

"You learned from textbooks?

What nonsense, how could that be? If everyone could learn just from theory, there wouldn't be so many who fail the exam," he thought, still unsure of Ethan's response.

"Boy, don't lie to me. It's impossible for you to become so skilled just by reading books," the examiner said, a bit displeased.

He thought Ethan was lying to him.

After all, it wasn't possible for someone to reach this level at such a young age, just by reading books.

"If this were true, wouldn't it mean others have been reading different books all this time?"

In the end, Ethan had to come up with an excuse to justify his skill in pill creation.

At first, he didn't understand why the examiner was asking him those questions; after all, he had only created four low-grade pills.

Who would have thought these pills were at the maximum limit of low grade?

He said he had spent several years to reach this point and had been a bit lucky to create them with such good purity.

The examiner was still not entirely convinced of his answer but thought that indeed with some talent and several years of dedication one could reach this level.

Thus, mistakenly thinking Ethan was a hard worker who had managed to get this far on his own, he complimented him and directly gave him a top score.

Although the top score could only be obtained by successfully making five out of five pills, Ethan's case was a bit special, and after discussing it a bit with his colleagues, he decided to directly give him a silver two-star badge.

None of the other examiners had a problem with this; in fact, to the middle-aged examiner's surprise, the fifth examiner agreed immediately without even looking at Ethan's pills.

Ethan, who at the moment was outside the medicine pavilion, looked at the silver badge in his hand with a complicated expression.

After a while, he shook his head and put it away, thinking,

"Haa, my talent is so overwhelming that even trying to stay low, I still managed to get a good result,"

he said to himself as he walked with light steps, in an upright posture, as if he was alone on top of the world.

Unbeknownst to Ethan, another person had a desolate expression at that moment.

Xun Wei, who was satisfied with having successfully created five pills, came to the board to see the results and admire his first place.

But as soon as he saw the results, his face changed when he saw his tag number was not in first place, but second.

[N.1: 69]

[N.2: 05]

Xun Wei "..."

"Who the hell is 69?"

.

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FRANK_LEE_JUNIOR:

Here's today's chapter. I hope you enjoyed it.

As usual, if you have any comments, suggestions, or errors to report, you know where to do it.

See you tomorrow.