Translated by Yuanyulin
Hearing elder Guan Yong’s voice, You XiaoMo breathed a sigh of relief.
Although he didn’t intend to be too low profile this time, he also didn’t want to get involved with the people from the big four families.
After he composed himself, You XiaoMo focused his attention to the low grade magic herb on his platform; it was a level four copper leaf herb. Copper leaf herb belongs to the level four medium grade magic herb, so it won’t take too much soul power to distill it. Nonetheless, it wasn’t too easy either; Copper Leaf herb’s characteristics were rather stiff, so it was a little difficult to be distilled. But to give a magic herb that’s too easy to distill wouldn’t test the true potential of someone. So giving out a Copper Leaf herb as a test worked just fine.
You XiaoMo himself wasn’t particularly interested in the Copper Leaf herb. He has a field of this herb that he rarely used inside his space, but because he already distilled it a few times, so it came in handy for him.
Aside from the copper leaf herb, there was a cauldron on top of the platform. Its color is black, a medium level cauldron. To be able to took at hundreds in one go, the Mage association title is not just for show.
You XiaoMo first released his energy, then put the magic herb into the cauldron. When the Copper Leaf herb fell into the cauldron, he immediately controlled his soul power and wrapped it around the copper leaf herb.
Every time You XiaoMo does refining or distilling magic herb, he only pays attention to it alone, so he didn’t realize that many people were looking at him, but after a while, everybody began to do theirs as well.
The entire hall became quiet again. Occasionally, there was an ‘eliciting’ sound coming out from inside the cauldron. The huge hourglass that was in front of the platform slowly dwindled down while everyone was concentrating. When the hourglass had dropped to only a third left, You XiaoMo looked at the magic herb inside the cauldron that had been distilled into a powdery form, and he couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief.
The powder then became very small. Because he had already distilled it six times, the impurities in the magic herb had been reduced a lot, but he could still tell that there was still impurities left inside the powder, and estimatedly, he still could distill it two more times.
However, increasing the number of distillation mean that the difficulty and time needed would increase, and the soul power consumed also enormous. Not only that, if he couldn’t finish it in the remaining third of the time limit, and stopped halfway, the magic herb would become useless.
You XiaoMo didn’t hesitate for too long, he still has a lot of soul power left, and all that was left was to give it a try to know whether he could do it or not. But he was a little bit surprised, he didn’t expect that he could distill a four level magic herb for so many times. From his past experiences distilling magic herbs, he could never distill it for so many times.
Perhaps it was related to his own high level, because after he became a level four mage, he rarely refined a level three pills, and he basically always use a high grade magic herb. He never really used the low level magic herbs inside his space, and when he refined magic pills sometimes, he never really paid attention to the distillation of magic herb.
When the time in hourglass only has ⅕ left, people were starting to finished theirs one after another. The people who already handed over their distilled magic herbs left the venue and waited on the sideline. Because they were afraid that they would disturb the people who were still distilling the magic herb, the examination would begin after the hourglass had finished leaking out all the sand.
BaiLi XiaoYu, who was always smiling and cheerful, couldn’t help but make a tense face during this delicate moment. His forehead began sweating, and his clansmen who saw him like this couldn’t help but feeling nervous. After a while, BaiLi XiaoYu finally drew back his soul force from the cauldron while wiping his sweat on the forehead. Right now, the hourglass showed that the time was only about a quarter an hour left.
After BaiLi XiaoYu, Tong YueXu also stopped distilling. A gentle smile hung on his face, his condition was clearly much better than BaiLi XiaoYu. After all, he was already twenty years old, and had been promoted into level four mage long ago. His experiences from these past two years were much higher than BaiLi XiaoYu, so it came in handy for this distillation assignment.
“YueXu-ge, how many times did you distill it?” BaiLi XiaoYu who was beside him asked eagerly.
Tong YueXu smiled gently and said: “Barely seven times, how about you?” If he had more time, he actually could do it one more time.
BaiLi XiaoYu’s face suddenly became down, and sadly said: “I only did it six times.”
Tong YueXu patted his head, “Copper Leaf herb is a level four mid grade magic herb, you’re currently only a low level four mage, to be able to distill it six times is already very good. Although other people could do the same six times as you, their grades are higher than you, so you still have the upper hand.”
BaiLi XiaoYu found this argument was just, so he brightened up in an instant, “What YueXu-ge said was true, I’m much better than them.”
Tong YueXu laughed, XiaoYu was this kind of person, if you say good words to him, he will immediately forget all the bad things. While he thought about this, he couldn’t help but look towards You XiaoMo’s direction. When he saw that he hasn’t finished yet, he couldn’t help but wrinkling his eyebrows.
Not only him, other people also realized this fact, now the time had almost come to an end, yet there were still two people who haven’t finish distilling. They didn’t get surprised about Teng ZiXin, but what they didn’t expect is, the other person actually wasn’t Tong YueXu, but rather the dark horse of this examination, You XiaoMo.
Some people saw that his face was still bright and rosy, while others didn’t think so. Numerous speculations came one after another, like perhaps his distilling speed wasn’t fast enough, so he lagged behind.
Almost at the same time, he and Teng ZiXin finally finished.
A murmur of voices suddenly broke out from the crowd, although they felt that You XiaoMo’s distilling wouldn’t beat Teng ZiXin’s, but they were still curious about how many times he had distilled the magic herb.
Teng ZiXin obviously also noticed this situation. She couldn’t help but be surprised that this youth called You XiaoMo would actually finish at the same time as her. She didn’t really pay attention to You XiaoMo before. Just like everyone else, she also thought that there would be no way that You XiaoMo would be able to distill many times.
Elder Guan Yong looked at the time on the hourglass that had finished, stepped forward and announced, “The examination time is over. All examinee please come to the front. Just like before, please come in a group of five, bring your distilled magic herb and put it inside the measuring device. Let’s begin.”
When he finished his speech, some mages began to rush forward while bringing their distilled magic herbs and put it in. Many of them were rather confident. You XiaoMo just stood on the outside and watched. When the five mages put their magic herbs inside, the device began to shine, and then a green flame twinkled from the quart’s glossy part on the device. The green flame has a tinge of autumn color in it, from light ones to deep ones, and then four to five seconds later, a number appeared on the quartz part. The deeper the color, the higher the number would become. The highest one on the first batch was five times, and all five of them passed.
When they went down, other batches went up. The opening batches’ numbers weren’t high, and up until later, the frequencies were just between five to six times, there wasn’t anyone yet who did it seven times. Out of his habit, You XiaoMo actually wanted to wait until the very last so he won’t draw any attention, but he didn’t expect that BaiLi XiaoYu and others have yet to move too, so by the time the person in front of him had finished, the only five people left were them. So it attracted even more attention.
When five geniuses stood together, ah nope, four geniuses stood together, he felt really special.
Chai Jun wasn’t counted, he was already twenty four years old, but still a level four middle grade mage. He wasn’t even as good as his two seniors.
“Come here, the five of you.”
Elder Guan Yong’s line of sight fell onto the last five people, his voice was calm yet filled with anticipation.
The first man who walked up was Chai Jun, he looked at You XiaoMo with challenging eyes, and then walked to the measuring device and put his magic herb inside. After four seconds, the device suddenly appeared with the number ‘six’ on top of it.
Elder Guan Yong took a look, and then plainly announced: “Chai Jun, passed.”
Chai Jun’s talent was only average, compared to his twin brother, their differences were far, and if you compared both of them, Chai Jun appeared to be insignificant. However, Chai Jun himself never thought anything about it. On the contrary, he was so proud of his brother Chai Zheng. If something happened, he would say his brother’s name Chai Zheng, like how you would for a proud ancestor.
After the test, Chai Jun arrogantly lifted up his chin, and glanced at You XiaoMo with disdain and ridicule.
You XiaoMo looked away, this guy really is a typical idiot. He only did it six times, there wasn’t anything to show off. He suddenly felt his decision was really right, he should beat down this kind of idiot.
As he thought about this, he took out the jade bottle filled with the powdered magic herb out from his robe.
When he walked up, more than ninety percent of people’s gazes all fell upon him. The sudden appearance of the black horse. Finally it was time for him to prove his own strength. They were waiting to see what kind of surprise he could give them.
