CHAPTER 15: This Child Is a Genius!

The inner sect trial was held in the grand hall at the mountain’s summit.

At some point, hundreds of pill furnaces had been arranged there. The ancient, unadorned furnaces, illuminated by the dawn’s golden light, exuded a solemn and dignified aura, inspiring an instinctive reverence.

Most of the faces present were unfamiliar. Of the disciples who had entered half a year ago, fewer than ten had qualified for the assessment.

The best pill furnace spots had long been taken. After searching for a while, Yu Youyou and Qi Nanfeng still couldn’t find an open space.

Just then, a voice called out to them—

“Over here, Junior Brother, Junior Sister! Come this way.”

In a secluded corner at the very edge, Senior Brother Zhang—a familiar face from their time working in the herb fields—was enthusiastically waving them over.

“I’ve got two good spots right here.” Senior Brother Zhang pointed at the furnaces beside him with visible excitement.

However, those two furnaces were positioned at the very edge of the peak—just two steps back, and one might fall right off the mountain.

Qi Nanfeng valued his life. “Senior Brother, I don’t think this counts as a ‘good spot’…”

Senior Brother Zhang sighed, looking at him as if he were hopeless. “Haven’t you noticed? This is the most hidden spot in the entire examination area.”

“…So?”

Seeing that Qi Nanfeng still didn’t get it, Senior Brother Zhang glanced around stealthily before pulling open his outer robe—

Beneath, his previously plain white inner robe was densely covered with tiny, meticulously written characters!

“See? I’ve transcribed the most precise ingredient measurements and refining steps. With this prime location, how could I possibly fail?”

Yu Youyou: “…”

Even the cultivation world has exam cheats?

Before long, Qu Qingmiao arrived with the outer sect elders.

Elder Wan, rubbing his half-bald head, had set aside his usual good humor and spoke solemnly. “This assessment will determine whether you can enter the inner sect and become true alchemists. The examination rules are as follows.”

“First, each disciple must independently refine one spiritual pill.”

“Second, an additional test has been added this time—you must use the provided ingredients to refine another spiritual pill.”

Inner sect assessments often included a second test, so the disciples remained calm.

Senior Brother Zhang, armed with his exam cheat sheet, was particularly confident.

With a knowing smile, he looked at the two juniors. “We expected an extra test, so I made sure to transcribe a few more pill recipes. Refining two pills is no problem. Just watch me closely, learn well, and maybe in three years, you’ll pass too.”

Yu Youyou glanced behind her, hesitated, but ultimately said nothing.

The assessment had begun, and Senior Brother Zhang was already in the process of discreetly loosening his robes.

She covered her mouth and gave a small cough, intending to subtly warn him, but he still didn’t notice.

Until a cold voice sounded behind him—

“Zhang Luren, what are you doing?”

Senior Brother Zhang’s hands trembled. With his outer robe hanging open, he found himself facing a terrifying sight.

Qu Qingmiao and the outer sect elders—an entire row of them—had appeared right before his eyes!

“I was feeling a little warm…” Senior Brother Zhang weakly explained.

“Oh? A little warm?” Qu Qingmiao’s expression remained impassive. “Then go cool off by watering the herb fields.”

“Right now?”

“Right now.”

Tears streamed down Senior Brother Zhang’s face as he trudged toward the herb fields.

Even as he left, he still hadn’t figured out why the elders had ignored the famed Su clan genius, nor had they gone to observe the most promising senior disciples.

Why had they come all the way to this remote corner, straight to him?!

He could never have imagined…

That it was Yu Youyou who had lured the ‘ghosts’ over.

Several elders stood before Yu Youyou, their faces unreadable. They seemed silent, yet in reality, they were frantically exchanging voice transmissions.

“She’s actually reached Qi Refining Stage One! How in the world did she restore her shattered spiritual veins?”

“The technique used to process these medicinal herbs is highly skilled, and the amount of herbs she used matches the pill recipe down to the last fraction. This level of precision is terrifying—she doesn’t seem like a disciple who has only studied for half a year.”

“I’m still skeptical that the previous pill was made by her. Let’s wait and see.”

Like the other disciples, Yu Youyou also chose to refine a Fasting Pill. However, to be on the safe side, she opted for the most conventional cockroach-flavored version.

As time passed, a medicinal fragrance mixed with faint spiritual energy wafted from the pill furnace.

The elders’ eyes lit up.

“Just from the scent alone, I can tell this is a perfect Fasting Pill! Even inner sect disciples might not be able to refine it this well!”

“Don’t fight over it—when it’s done, I want to be the first to taste her pill!”

…

The pill furnace opened.

Yu Youyou took out the Fasting Pill she had refined.

She had poured all her spiritual energy into refining the medicinal herbs and couldn’t bear to use even a bit on the pill’s appearance. As a result, what emerged was an utterly bizarre-looking object.

Its color and shape—there was no better way to describe it than simply calling it a lump.

“…”

For some reason, as soon as she took out the Fasting Pill, the elders who had been standing in front of her tacitly took a few steps back.

Yu Youyou was a little puzzled but didn’t dwell on it, as she still had another pill to refine.

The first batch of herbs was chosen by the disciples themselves based on the pill they intended to refine, but the second batch was uniformly distributed by the elders.

The moment the medicine box was opened, she heard someone nearby gasp, and others frantically ask their fellow disciples, “What are these?”

Naturally, the box contained spiritual herbs, but to most outer sect disciples, these herbs were as unfamiliar as the meal menus at the sect’s dining hall lately.

Not every disciple memorized the Comprehensive Compendium of Spiritual Herbs by heart. To secure a place in the inner sect, most chose to repeatedly practice refining the most common elixirs.

Qi Nanfeng scratched his head.

He didn’t like reading and couldn’t memorize many pill formulas, but he loved cultivating herbs.

He actually recognized a few of these rare herbs!

Not long ago, when he helped Yu Youyou harvest spiritual herbs from the barren courtyard, he had encountered several of these uncommon plants. Now, they were all inside the medicine box.

Didn’t that mean he could replicate Yu Youyou’s pill formula?

“But how much of each herb should I use?” Qi Nanfeng regretted not asking Yu Youyou what kind of pill she had planned to refine.

He stared blankly at Yu Youyou’s slender figure, racking his brain but only recalling her saying, “These herbs are enough for three times.”

Three times? To refine three pills?

Qi Nanfeng suddenly raised his head, his eyes faintly excited.

That meant… as long as he estimated the proportions of each herb based on his memory, he could deduce the correct pill recipe?

It was all thanks to Xiaoyu!

Qi Nanfeng’s heart surged with emotion. He made up his mind—he would personally help Yu Youyou sow and harvest every batch of spiritual herbs in the future!

He had no idea that those herbs weren’t meant for refining three pills but for soaking in three medicinal baths…

Meanwhile, Yu Youyou was clueless as to why Qi Nanfeng was suddenly giving her such a strange look, nor did she understand why he suddenly told the elders that the herbs weren’t enough and asked for five full boxes of them.

Oh well, Qi Nanfeng’s thought process had always been peculiar—this wasn’t the first day.

Yu Youyou turned back to examine the spiritual herbs.

They weren’t unfamiliar to her, after all, she had memorized the Comprehensive Compendium of Spiritual Herbs from cover to cover.

“Hmm… quite a few of these could be used for medicinal baths.”

Yu Youyou was tempted.

She stopped a passing elder and asked expectantly, “Elder, may I take any leftover herbs with me?”

The elder gave her an affirmative answer.

Yu Youyou was itching with excitement. She looked at the small mountain of herbs piled in front of Qi Nanfeng and said, “Then I’d like to get some more—”

“No.” The elder saw through her thoughts and mercilessly rejected her. “Unless you, like him, throw all the herbs into the pill furnace.”

“Then never mind.” Wastefulness was disgraceful. Yu Youyou had no choice but to give up.

Even so, when refining her pill, she couldn’t bring herself to use those valuable herbs. Instead, she frugally chose a few other plants.

Her choice was the rarely seen Anti-Itch Pill.

For cultivators, mosquitoes and insects couldn’t bite through flesh tempered by spiritual energy, and they wouldn’t even feel itchiness—so Anti-Itch Pills were considered utterly useless and extremely rare.

But Yu Youyou, who had suffered through an entire summer plagued by mosquito bites, could not live without them!

More importantly, the Anti-Itch Pill only required three ingredients, meaning she could keep the rest of the herbs all to herself!

….

The examination lasted from dawn until dusk. In the end, all the refined pills were presented to the elders for evaluation.

The first round of pills from the disciples—all of them Fasting Pills.

Dozens of elders examined them one by one, some frowning, others nodding in approval. To ensure precise judgment, each held a silver needle, piercing the pill’s outer layer to taste its quality.

Until they came across a suspiciously certain something.

The elders simultaneously lowered their silver needles. Without even looking, they unanimously rated it high-grade and hurriedly signaled for the attendant to take the thing away.

“Ahem. Merely looking at the pills isn’t enough to determine the true difference between them—we must examine the second pill to assess the disciples’ knowledge of herbs and pill formulas.” Elder Wan cleared his throat, smoothly covering up his earlier aversion to the unsightly pill.

“Bring forth the second batch of pills.”

Very few had successfully refined a second pill—most disciples, unfamiliar with the herbs, had produced pills with clashing properties, rendering them complete failures.

But this was within the elders’ expectations.

“The Su boy’s Tranquil Mind Pill is quite good. High-grade.”

“Hah. The Li boy’s pill may look pretty, but it has no medicinal properties. Low-grade.”

…

The elders evaluated each pill in turn. But when they reached the final two medicine boxes, their expressions twisted into deep frowns.

The pill on the left was only the size of a soybean, and what was worse—it was still outrageously ugly.

Just from its color and shape, anyone could tell whose handiwork it was.

Elder Wan muttered, “Why is it so small?”

Another elder beside him explained helplessly, “She only used three types of herbs, and only half a portion of each. The rest of the ingredients… she took them all with her.”

“…” Wasn’t this outright exploiting the sect’s resources?

“This pill has excellent medicinal effects, and the fact that she could refine a pill with only three herbs shows her deep understanding of ingredients and pill formulas. However… it’s just too ugly. Let’s classify it as…”

Elder Wan paused. His eyes told him that this rat-dropping-looking thing didn’t deserve to be called a pill at all. It was best to rate it as inferior.

But his century of alchemy experience told him otherwise—this rat-dropping-looking thing was brimming with spiritual energy. The three herbs had been refined to perfection, with not a single flaw in its efficacy.

“…Let’s classify it as high-grade.”

Not wanting to subject his eyes to further torment, Elder Wan swiftly moved past Yu Youyou’s ugly pill and prepared to examine the next one.

But the moment he turned his head, his eyes hurt even more.

Sitting inside the medicinal box was a pill the size of a fist.

“…What is this?”

“That kid from the Qi family used six portions of ingredients to refine this pill, so… it turned out a little big.”

“You call this ‘a little’?”

Elder Wan clenched his fist and placed it next to the enormous pill. Good heavens—it was bigger than his fist!

Thinking about the Qi family’s generous donation of spiritual fields to the Pill Cauldron Sect, Elder Wan endured his distaste and began inspecting the pill.

To his surprise, he was met with an unexpected delight. “This actually seems to be an original pill formula of his own creation. Although the refinement failed, the combination of ingredients is seamless. If we study it carefully, we might be able to develop a brand-new pill formula!”

“High-grade, he must be rated high-grade!”

“This child is a genius!”