Long Yu frowned as he stared at the instruction for the first part of the exam inside the room, everyone who spoke about this trails had told him how difficult they were he was expecting many things but this, he has to separate and arrange various medicinal plants into stalks of 10 each from a place where they are all dumped in a single place. He would have time of 3 incense sticks to burn to separate and arrange as many as he could and place them on a given place. A single mistake would cause the test to end then and there. He was disappointed at that, he was used to such things as he his master would make him handle various ingredients for Alchemy. Suddenly a stray thought ran through his head, 'Maybe very difficult mixture ingredients will come out, making it difficult to not only separate but arrange them.
With a gulp he prepared for the worst activating his Jade Hands, he began the test, soon couple of trays full of ingredients came in front of him, all herbs and medicinal plants were mixed together. His hands blurred as he separated and arranged them neatly into stalks of 10 and placed them on a tray each labeled with a name indicating the place where each stalk would go. Long Yu was so engrossed in his work that he did not even notice when his time was up, he left out a huff and a deep disappointed sigh really this was underwhelming seriously what a letdown. A score flashed out, 100000, each successful stalk of 10 was 10 points. He shrugged at the score while idly wondering what is the highest score received by a participant. He moved towards the next part of the exam, a cauldron appeared in front of him with various sets of ingredients. He was given 5 different pills to concoct, he had 5 hours to make them.
Long Yu's heartbeat increased he was going to concoct some pills, 'Will I be able to concoct the desired pills, if I fail how will I show my face to my master.' He did not want to disappoint either his mother or his masters. He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself, and then proceeded to start with the test.
He saw the test, he saw the name of the pills he has to concoct, and he trembled before he raised his hands as he shouted out with anger, "Who created this type stupid tests I demand to meet him what is this things I can breeze through with my eyes blindfolded and hands tied behind my back. Where is the legendary test, the test that caused people to tremble in fear having nightmares for decades, why oh why you are such a disappointment? Why…." he ranted on and on for few minutes before he plopped on the ground as he glared at the test before he started taking it.
He saw the five types of pills he had to make,
1) Ki gathering pill
2) Bone mending pill
3) Blood forming pill
4) Marrow cleansing pill
5) Cosmetic pill
He let out a growl as he quickly gathered the required ingredients from a pile of different types of ingredients organizing them in required limits and proportion in order to concoct ten sets of each.
He quickly sat in front of the cauldron as he used proper type of wood which he separated from a pile of different types of woods. He picked the logs from 100 year old 'Checkered tree', a tree with checkered spots on its bark, it was his favorite to as it is smokeless and odorless as such it does not interfere with the pill concoction by polluting the pills.
He lit the Cauldron as he started heating it as he waited for required temperature level in order to concoct the pills, then he quickly drained the essence of the herbs as he poured them inside the cauldron, as he channeled his Ki through the cauldron as he closed the lid and before long a batch of 10 Ki gathering pills. The current cauldron was of same quality as his current cauldron which according to him was at least the only thing that was not a disappointment. Within half an hour he had finished the test. After finishing concocting the pills he inspected them, the quality ranged from 70 to 85%, he was disheartened and sad no matter how much he tried he could not reach the 90% threshold limit, no matter how much precaution or how much focused he was he could not reach it, he wished that one day his pills would cross the legendary threshold and will be purified under tribulation like his First Mistress's does. He pouted every time he concocted pills he felt as if something was missing and whenever he complained to his First Mistress she would simply smile and wave it off saying he will after gaining some more experience and a little bit more insight on Dao. 'Aww how I wished I could gain insight on the Grand Dao of Alchemy, I wish I could concoct like my First Mistress.'
If the people from the sects waiting outside could hear his thoughts most of them would have spurted blood and fainted from jealousy. 'Insight on Dao, some people spends an entire lifetime yet they could never gain an insight, a simple glimpse whereas 7 years old child had a glimpse of Dao, yet was not satisfied at the result.'
He knew that this was the best result as he deposited the pills on denoted region, and after a few minutes the test was over, he felt a tingling sensation on his wrist, as he looked up to see a violet colored band forming just above the band which form when he entered, he did not know the meaning of the band so shrugged and exited the room.
Kyouki and Veronica were startled to see Long Yu leaving looking tired as he dragged himself out of the room within less than an hour since the start of the test. Suddenly a hope blossomed in Kyouki's heart, 'Did the brat failed and ran away from the exam, does this mean we have won.'
Veronica stood up as he went towards Long Yu as she inquired of him with a concerned face, "Brother Long Yu are you alright? How was the test?"
Kyouki: "Oi brat was the test so hard that you ran away from it."
Long Yu stopped and looked towards them as an unholy fire lit in his eyes, "Hard, what part of the idiotic test was hard? I thought after listening to those things about the test I had hoped it would be challenging, but it was underwhelming who does they think they are designing such a worthless test, separation and arrangement, I have been doing that since I was a 5 year old, concocting pills, I had learned concocting them before I was six, my teacher made me learn and practice concocting pills to the point I could do with my eyes closed."
He huffed and stomped towards the next area in order to take the Array Master's test. Leaving a bug eyed Kyouki and smiling Veronica who waved at him while saying, "All the best for your next test Long Yu.", she waved at him, which caused him to turn towards Veronica as he gave a bright smile towards her as he waved back to her while saying, "Thank You Sister Veronica."
Koyuki could no longer help but question Veronica, "How how do you deal with him?"
Veronica just shrugged as she replied, "If you want to keep your sanity intact just go with the flow, after the things I have seen him do it is better to go with flow thinking it as a normal occurrence or try reasoning and lose your sanity.", after all a woman who was always liked to maintain a calm and collected speaking only when necessary was now a chatter box with all the stress. Yup she will be taking a long holiday from the world of cultivation for the sake of her sanity and she is sure her teammates will do the same.
Koyuki just nodded before bursting out into laughter before bringing out a bottle of wine from her space ring, "Well do you care for a drink."
As the two got themselves drunk in order to escape reality, Long Yu was currently busy with another disappointing test but unlike the 'Alchemy test', this consisted of three parts, Identification, Dismantling and Creation, and just like Alchemy he finished under one hour.
He came out of the test room and he looked towards the only teammates who did not take any test. He scrunched his nose at the terrible smell, he wanted to vomit, he saw both of them sleeping with drool on their flushed face as they snored loudly, he saw a couple of bottles laying around them. He held his nose as he picked up the bottle with a little bit of strange liquid in it he took a sniff and sudden nausea along with dizziness hit him causing him to drop it shattering the bottle. He somehow made to a place very far away from them as he tried to calm himself down, he was feeling unwell.
With some difficulty he pushed down the feeling of nausea, as he looked with tears in his eyes, 'what were they doing?', suddenly a memory of a story his aunty told him, how a cultivator was lost in a place with no water and when he finally reached near the city he was so thirsty that he could not move a single muscle, but then he noticed drainage water flowing he somehow dragged himself towards it and drank from it to save his life. 'No I was so selfish and self absorbed that I never noticed that my teammates were thirsty, they did not want to take my resources so they drank from sewage', a strangled sob escaped his throat as he felt ashamed of himself he had felt his teammates, his mother was surely ashamed of himself, tears flowed freely from his eyes as he started sobbing he did not know what to do.
Ryofu had just finished her test and she came out within two and a half hour mark unlike Long Yu who had a Violet color band on his wrist, she had a Yellow colored one on her left hand. As she came in a sobbing voice came in to her ears and in front of her was two drunkards snoring away like no tomorrow he turned her head only two see a crying Long Yu who held onto his knees as he kept on crying. She knew for some unknown reason they felt attraction to him whenever he removes his hood, a horrifying thought ran through her mind, 'no it cannot be my rival cannot do something degrading.', but she needed to confirm it so steeling her nerves she made her way towards Long Yu while she inwardly prepared herself if the worst happened she would simply exact vengeance for Long Yu's honor.
Ryofu: "Long Yu are okay, why are crying please tell me if something happened to you big sister Ryofu will help you."
Long Yu somehow spoke between his sobs, "Wig shis, I failed to welp my teaw-~wah~-mates, ~wah~ they did not watel, sho they drank sewage water ~wah~, I am such a failure I ~hic~ failed to notice it.", all the while crying loudly, "Now they are sick, ~hic~ I do not know what to do ~wah~."
Ryofu had a terrible headache on hearing him, she took out a water bottle from her space ring as she made Long Yu drink water from it as she consoled him by rubbing his back, Long Yu had his hood down exposing his face, 'such a smooth skin', she idly wondered as she gently caressed his skin, as she was sitting in close proximity almost hugging, his smell entered her nose making her feel dizzy, she so wanted to cuddle him now, he has such heavenly smell only to be brought out of her fantasy by a concerned looking Long Yu, "Sister Ryofu are you alright you looked unfocused and drooling."
Ryofu was ashamed of herself what was she doing and thinking, since when was she a pedophile, but Long Yu looked so irresistible to her, just thinking about it made her feel sick.
Ryofu just cleared her throat as she went on to explain Long Yu how they just took some medicine to get away from some stress, something recommended from their sect and only adults can have and they did not drink anything remotely resembling sewage water. After much needed convincing from Ryofu Long Yu felt relieved that it was never his fault to begin, and soon a bright smile blossomed on his face causing Ryofu to blush and turn her head, Long Yu himself felt a little scared as he pulled hi hood down covering his face as he scooted a little away from Ryofu, he did not know why he was feeling a bit unsafe to be so near her.
Meanwhile in Ayindril,
It looked as if a 'Death Goddess' has descended as a very deadly aura reeked of death and destruction emanated from Xiao Xiao and Nuwa and to some extension from Veena and Celestia as they kept murmuring the different types of torture they will inflict on those 'harlots' who got drunk and made Ryuu cry, and also against Ryofu who tried to take advantage of him.
Antariskh and Sylvana, even though they themselves were enraged as they did not like their baby brother going through such experience, but currently the wisest thing according to them was that they used their father as meat shield as they stood behind him, away from their mothers and aunt, while Shamiran with a creepy smile was busy writing down every possible torture methods which spouted from their mothers and aunt's mouth.