Fictional Transcension System - Chapter 34 Devilish Question

As the apothecaries took each of their turns one by one, each completely shocked or humiliated as they returned to their seats, Zhang Xuan smiled broadly. If he had not managed to convince the examiners to change the method of examination, he would be hard-pressed on the harder questions. After all, who knew if the examination content would be within the books he had read before. Being able to see through their pill forging was a breeze, possessing the Library of Heaven’s Path, and allowed for Zhang Xuan to not only pass the exam with ease, but also perform some face slapping.

By now, Zhang Xuan had already gotten eight of the ten apothecaries to admit defeat. Glancing over to the remaining two examiners, Zhang Xuan’s eyes flashed with excitement. During his cheeky outburst from earlier, he had noticed that not only had the two apothecaries not stand up and berate him for his words, the cloaked one had even allowed for him to speak, silencing the other apothecaries. Just this alone already showed that both of them were rational people who most likely had years of tempering and experience.

“So who will be going next?” Zhang Xuan bowed slightly before asking. While he was rude and nasty towards the other apothecaries, Zhang Xuan held a certain amount of respect for the two remaining apothecaries.

Elder Bai looked over towards Lu Fengyi. Noticing that the boy had no intention to move, Elder Bai sighed before answering the examinee, “I shall be going next.”

Elder Bai stepped down from his chair before striding over to the centre of the room.

“I shall be troubling elder then.” Zhang Xuan clasped his hands before gesturing towards the cauldron.

Elder Bai nodded before beginning to forge a pill. His hands coiled as each of the ingredients were placed inside the cauldron with an almost rhythmic order to it.

While the timing was strict, meaning that even the slightest lapse of attention could cause a disaster, there was still ample time to employ techniques that would boost the power of the pill, possibly raising it several grades just by technique. If a master apothecary and an apprentice were to compete in pill forging, even if both parties were to make no mistake, just the sheer advantage that technique would provide would allow the master apothecary to win by far. This was what separated the apothecaries by level.

As the final ingredients were being placed in, Elder Bai suddenly turned up the intensity of the flames by over two folds, instantly searing the cauldron a bright red. All the spectating apothecaries stared in shock as the witnessed the scene.

“How is this possible? Is he not afraid of an explosion?”

“I’ve heard of his technique before! By raising the heat of the cauldron in the final few seconds, he can increase the power of his pills.”

“I’ve always heard that Elder Bai does dangerous pill forging, however witnessing it today is truly too different from the rumours.”

Lu Fengyi looked oddly at the forging technique. While it was true that Elder Bai’s actions would raise the quality of the pill he was currently creating, it was definitely not a good technique to use upon pills that revolved mainly around Yin energy. If the Yang energy from the flames were to clash too hard with the Yin energy, there would be harsh consequences. It seemed that he would have to remind the elder later on.

Grasping his hand into a fist, a pill flew out from the cauldron and landed within Elder Bai’s palm. He placed it into Zhang Xuan’s hand before stepping back, “It’s your turn now.”

Zhang Xuan nodded before beginning, “I can see that you have good technique, allowing you to forge even inscribed pills, and while I did not find many major flaws, there are a few things that I can point out. Firstly, when you increased the…”

Minutes later, Zhang Xuan finished listing some minor flaws in Elder Bai’s forging. While Elder Bai was rather proud of his pill forging technique that he had personally crafted several decades ago, he knew how to take criticism. Realising that the list of flaws were quite accurate and clearly addressed many of the problems he would face while forging pills, Elder Bai clasped his hands in surprise before speaking, “Well done. You have passed my part of the examination. Thank you for the pointers.”

As Elder Bai walked up and sat back into his seat, he leaned over to Lu Fengyi before whispering into his ear, “Be careful. This man has a deep understanding of pill forging and everything to goes with it. Don’t be arrogant before him, otherwise you may suffer like the other apothecaries.”

Lu Fengyi nodded before walking towards the centre, face still hidden deep within his cowl. Stepping up to Zhang Xuan, Lu Fengyi dipped his head slightly before beginning, “Examinee Zhang Xuan. Although you may not know, I just became an official apothecary not too long ago, so I do not know much about pill forging. However, my understanding of the theory is quite deep so would you mind if I asked you questions instead?”

Zhang Xuan nodded, slightly surprised that the authoritative cloaked figure was actually a junior like him, before assenting to the suggestion. Since this apothecary was a junior, he would probably not know a large amount of theory despite his claims, meaning that as long as nothing out of expectations came up, there shouldn’t be a problem dealing with this apothecary.

Seeing that Zhang Xuan agreed, Lu Fengyi smiled devilishly beneath his cloak, “Well then. Let us begin!”

“Never heat the fundamentals of a pill beyond repair or risk destroying one’s cycle of qi upon circulation of the ten thousand visions. Please explain what the given quote means.”

Originally, when the apothecaries heard that the cloaked man was but a junior apothecary, they were about to burst into anger as they remembered the authoritative tone that he had taken with them, however as Lu Fengyi asked his question, they were instantly shocked into confusion.

‘What the hell is this question? I have never read about this quote before!”

“Could it be that you are spouting spouting bullshit?”

“How else would all of us not know anything about it?”

Zhang Xuan searched his memory for an answer, however no matter where within the Library of Heaven’s Path he looked, he could not find the quote or a response to the question. While he could try to interpret it himself, it was likely that he would fail and he might incur the previously mentioned punishments.

Shaking his head to dispel the thoughts, Zhang Xuan knew that if he did not answer at all, he would definitely fail. The only method now was to bluff his way through!