Chapter 39: Please Come Back

Li Jiansan spoke calmly, “Are you sure you want me to leave?”

“If you don’t get out now, I’ll throw you out myself!” The assessment elder’s expression turned completely cold.

“I hope you won’t regret this.”

With that, Li Jiansan stepped down from the stage and, taking Chu Xier with him, left the place.

Watching Li Jiansan depart, the assessment elder sneered coldly, “These days, it seems any stray cat or dog thinks they can muck about here. Do they really take the Alchemist Guild for such fools?”

Those nearby all wore expressions of shock.

“Seriously? He actually walked away.”

“He did really well in the last round, and Elder Xu Fu even seemed to appreciate him. I didn’t expect he’d be driven out like this.”

At this moment, Yang Zishuo, standing to the side, remarked coolly, “Heh, even if Elder Kui had let him continue, did you really think he’d pass? Don’t forget—he barely glanced at the herbs before putting them down. Do you think he could recognize all the ingredients at a glance?”

“No way, could it be that he can’t even identify a single herb?”

Yang Zishuo scoffed, “I think he never had any real talent. He just got lucky in the previous round. Honestly, with this level of skill, how did he even have the nerve to show up for the assessment?”

“Elder Xu Fu valued him so much before, even wanted to take him as a disciple, but now, look—he’s been driven out. Do you guys think Master Xu Fu will be angry when he sees this?”

“Who knows? With such a poor performance this round, maybe Master Xu Fu won’t care.”

While the crowd was still murmuring, Xu Fu hurried back.

“Have the results for this round been announced?” Xu Fu asked, looking at the presiding elder upon his return.

“Yes, teacher, the assessment is complete. As of now, one hundred and thirty candidates have met the standard. Among them, three achieved over ninety percent accuracy, and Yang Zishuo’s was an astonishing ninety-nine percent!”

“He only made a mistake on the effects of one herb. Teacher, he’s a promising seedling.”

Xu Fu, however, seemed uninterested in this. He asked expectantly, “What about Li Jiansan? How did he do?”

The invigilating elder asked in confusion, “Li Jiansan? Which one is that?”

A disciple standing nearby leaned in and whispered a few words.

The elder’s face immediately darkened. “Why are you asking about him, Master?”

“He demonstrated sixth-rank soul power in the previous round—a rare talent. Tell me, how did he do on the test?”

At Xu Fu’s words, the assessment elder froze.

Sixth-rank soul power! That boy possesses such formidable spirit strength? Was there a mistake?

But he quickly recovered from his shock. Even if the boy had excelled in the last round, he failed even the basic herb identification this time. Driving him out was no great loss.

With this thought, he breathed out and replied, “That one’s results were terrible this round, so I sent him away!”

“What!” Xu Fu was thunderstruck.

“You fool!”

Xu Fu glared at him, his voice brimming with anger. “What exactly happened? Explain yourself—now!”

It was rare to see Xu Fu lose his temper like this. The elder felt a creeping sense of dread.

He stammered, “Well, it’s like this, earlier that boy, he…”

After listening to the whole story, Xu Fu spoke coldly, “Where is his test paper? Bring it to me at once!”

Moments later, Xu Fu held Li Jiansan’s test paper in his hands.

He quickly finished reading it.

“How is this possible? Not a single mistake…”

Xu Fu was nearly speechless with shock. These herbs had been selected from tens of thousands in their collection; among them, even he himself was not completely familiar with a few. Yet on Li Jiansan’s paper, not a single error appeared, and his writing was swift and fluent—as if he had written the entire exam in one go, without a moment’s hesitation.

Good heavens, the knowledge required to answer these questions encompassed tens of thousands of medicinal properties. Even he would need time to recall and record them all—completing it so quickly and so flawlessly, without pause, was simply impossible.

This… this…

The assessment elder’s face flushed red, and he was left speechless. He’d just dismissed the boy as a charlatan, but in the blink of an eye, the boy had produced perfect answers. The humiliation was swift and burning.

He was certain he’d seen Li Jiansan only glance at the herbs, barely looking at them at all.

How could he have answered everything correctly? Even for himself, such speed would be impossible without careful thought.

Could it be that the boy’s knowledge of alchemy far surpassed his own? And yet he had just driven such a genius away? Heaven, how could fate play such a trick?

The assessment elder felt frozen to the core, desperate to slap himself across the face.

“There are places,” Xu Fu suddenly exclaimed, pupils contracting, “where he even matched the properties of the herbs to corresponding prescriptions.”

“And these are all third-grade formulas! My god, at such a young age, to already possess the prescriptions for third-grade pills—if he were properly nurtured, the possibilities would be unimaginable…”

The assessment elder was dumbfounded. “How could this be?”

In such a short time, he answered everything correctly and even provided matching third-grade pill recipes.

Hearing Xu Fu’s words, the elder seemed petrified, his body trembling, face filled with disbelief.

A genius like this was the kind of rarity seen only once in a century. And now, he had driven such a prodigy away, causing the Alchemist Guild to lose him for nothing.

How would he bear the wrath of the Guild?

Xu Fu shot him a scathing look and berated him furiously. “Someone of such talent, and you chased him away? Do you realize the loss you’ve caused the Alchemist Guild? I’ll give you one chance—go and bring him back. If you can’t resolve this, I can’t protect you. Prepare to face the Guild’s anger.”

“Master, I…” The assessment elder’s face was deathly pale, utterly at a loss for words.

If the Guild’s fury descended upon him, he’d be finished. He was but a lowly first-grade alchemist—in the eyes of the Alchemist Guild, he was less than an ant.

Xu Fu barked, “Well? Get out there and find him, now!”

The elder jolted back to his senses. “Yes, yes, I’ll go at once!”

With that, he sprinted away in a panic.

Please, please, let him not have gone far…