Assessment

Shen Wen's steps suddenly halted as he turned to look at Cao Ying.

He reached out and gave her fair cheek a gentle pinch, feeling both amused and annoyed. "You, in your eyes, is your husband just some lecherous ghost who flirts everywhere?"

Cao Ying swatted his hand away and gave him a charming roll of her eyes, yet her tone was a flat statement. "Isn't that the case?"

"My Young Master Shen. I have heard some old stories." She paused and slowly added a sentence, "For example, a certain person, when they were still very young, once solemnly vowed... that they would marry Elder Xuan Yi."

The expression on Shen Wen's face instantly froze, a rare flash of embarrassment crossing it.

That was from when he was twelve or thirteen, shortly after he had arrived at the Pill Tower.

At that time, he was constantly thinking about the 'Marrying Wife System'.

Coupled with the fact that Old Monster Lin never let him interact with girls his age, he had said that if all else failed, marrying Aunt Xuan would be fine too.

He was certain he had only said this to Old Monster Lin; at the time, the Old Man had laughed heartily, treating it as the wild words of a child and paying it no mind.

"You... how do you know?" Shen Wen looked at Cao Ying, his eyes filled with surprise. "I should have only mentioned it once to the Old Man; he certainly wouldn't go around blabbing..."

Cao Ying's expression became a bit strange, a mixture of sympathy and amusement. "Elder Lin indeed didn't go around blabbing."

"However, during a small gathering of Pill Tower high-ranking officials a few years ago, several Elders were talking about funny stories regarding their respective disciples. Elder Lin was likely in high spirits and shared this as a joke."

She looked at Shen Wen's face, which had instantly darkened, and pursed her lips. "Of course, the various Great Power Elders present at the time also just laughed it off; no one took it seriously."

Shen Wen only felt a wave of speechlessness.

He had always thought he had a good reputation outside, but it turned out he had been thrown under the bus by his unreliable Master long ago.

"That Old Man..." Shen Wen shook his head helplessly, finally understanding where Cao Ying's complex and picky attitude had come from when she first heard she was to marry him.

Perhaps, in the initial information Cao Ying and even the Cao Family received, besides being talented, Shen Wen was also a "frivolous brat who had spoken wildly and coveted the Great Power Elders since childhood."

Seeing his depressed face, Cao Ying laughed instead and took his arm. "Alright, that's old news. Who would care about it now?"

"Perhaps Elder Xuan Yi herself has long forgotten."

"For now, you should think about tomorrow's assessment. One set of ingredients... are you really sure?"

Shen Wen composed himself and nodded. "Yes. I originally planned to figure out how to obtain an Elder seat in the Pill Tower as quickly as possible after the assessment was successful."

"Now that they've given me this opportunity, I naturally have to take it."

...Pill Tower core area, Myriad Medicine Plaza.

In the center of the square today, an ancient stone platform stood quietly, surrounded by a crowd so dense that not even water could trickle through.

On the high platform sat several figures with deep auras; they were the chief examiners for this assessment.

The Dan Ta Three Giants: Xuan Kongzi, Tian Leizi, and Xuan Yi, as well as two senior Elders from the Little Pill Tower.

Below the platform, Alchemists who had heard the news gathered in a dense mass.

There were many Sixth-Rank and Seventh-Rank Alchemists, and even some young faces squeezed in the back, standing on tiptoe to watch.

Everyone's gaze was focused on the figure in black robes at the center of the stone platform.

Shen Wen stood quietly in the center, his expression calm.

Xuan Yi rose from her seat, her clear gaze sweeping across the field. Her voice was not loud, but it clearly reached everyone's ears: "Before the assessment begins, there is one thing that needs to be clarified first."

She paused slightly and continued, "For this assessment to refine the 'yi shi pill', due to an oversight in the Pill Tower's warehouse, the core main material 'xuan yuan fetus spirit grass' and some other auxiliary materials can currently only be provided as a single complete set of ingredients."

As her voice fell, the square first went silent.

Immediately after, a slight uproar rose like a tide from all directions.

"One set?" A middle-aged Seventh-Rank Alchemist couldn't help but exclaim. "For a Grade 8 assessment, it has always been the rule to prepare at least two sets of ingredients to prevent mistakes!"

Someone nearby chimed in, their voice filled with confusion: "This... how could the Pill Tower make such an oversight? And it's for Great Master Shen Wen's assessment..."

Xuan Yi's expression remained unchanged. Waiting for the discussion to subside slightly, she spoke again: "This is due to inadequate preparation by the Pill Tower. As compensation, there will be no time limit for the initial thinking and preparation phase for this assessment; you can take your time during the refining process. However—"

She looked at Shen Wen, her tone solemn: "There is only one set of ingredients. If the refining fails, the assessment will be considered as not passed."

No limit on thinking time?

Hearing this, the expressions of many Alchemists below the platform became subtle.

The assessment did have a total time limit. While the initial thinking time was important, compared to actually losing a backup set of ingredients, this compensation was as light as a feather.

"What kind of compensation is this..."

"Only one set of ingredients, and it's for an Eighth Grade Pill as difficult as the 'yi shi pill'. This difficulty is simply too high!"

Voices of doubt gradually rose, starting as whispers and then merging into clear discussions.

Many Alchemists frowned, and their gazes toward the examiners on the platform became scrutinizing.

Within the crowd, some people's eyes flickered, and the corners of their mouths curled into slight, unconscious smiles.

"Heh, one set of ingredients... are Eighth Grade Pills that easy to refine? Let's see how he handles this." Someone whispered to a companion, their tone filled with undisguised schadenfreude.

"Famous at a young age, too much in the spotlight; someone's bound to be displeased. This time, he's probably hit a brick wall."

"If he really fails, then it would be..." The words were left unfinished, but the meaning was clear.

The atmosphere in the field suddenly became complex due to the change in the number of ingredients.

Worry, doubt, mockery, indifference... various emotions permeated and intertwined among the crowd.

On the platform, Xuan Kongzi and Tian Leizi remained calm, showing no emotion. The two Elders from the Little Pill Tower slightly closed their eyes, seemingly resting.

All eyes eventually fell back to the center of the stone platform.

Shen Wen raised his eyes to meet Xuan Yi's gaze. No tension or anger could be seen on his face; he only nodded calmly.

"I understand."

The next moment, just when everyone thought Shen Wen was going to think, the heaven burning cauldron floated out, and the Fallen Heart Flame appeared in Shen Wen's hand.

It fell directly into the heaven burning cauldron, causing the surrounding Alchemists' eyes to narrow.

Opening the furnace already?

Does Shen Wen intend to start refining directly? Is he that confident?

One must know that for a Medicinal Pill like the yi shi pill, even an ordinary Grade 8 Alchemist might not succeed, and they usually need to think for a while.

To avoid making mistakes during the refining process.

"Enter!"

At the same time, with a wave of Shen Wen's hand, hundreds of ingredients continuously flowed into the cauldron amidst gasps of surprise. The originally single cluster of Fallen Heart Flame instantly split into hundreds of parts to burn the ingredients.