Gan Song Bai also held Senior Xu in high esteem, he had even gone out of his way to ask around about Grand Teacher Xu, who was the same age as him.
However, there was a limit to his information gathering. He only managed to find out that his name was Xu Jing Zhi (徐镜之) who had an infamously eccentric temper and lived somewhere within an isolated little alley despite not lacking money. It was unfortunate that the eccentric just had to live in such an inconvenient area; it seemed like he really disliked there being any noise.
This Xu Jing Zhi was an expert in concocting medicine. It was to the extent that one could even call him a medicine manufacturing madman. Apart from the disciple always by his side, who's name was Xu Xing Yuan, the expert had no one else.
"Senior Xu, is your intention to let us guess the medicinal herb?" As Gan Song Bai was sizing up Xu Jing Zhi, Director Liu rushed forward and asked jokingly.
Old Man Xu only knitted his brows, "Recognize the medicine by smell. Begin."
"Ah?" Director Liu was dumbfounded. What does he mean? Relying on just the scent to identify? There's no need to go to this extent right…
"Director Liu, it seems like you don't have much confidence. Since it's like this, I won't be polite," Jing Yun Zhao, on the other hand, didn't find the trial to be insurmountable and took out a pen and paper. Moving towards the table, she got closer to the oil paper packs and started sniffing them one by one.
Among them were some herbs with an obvious and strong smell and usually, a moderately experienced doctor would be able to identify the scent. Nonetheless, at the same time, there were also many herbs that pretty much didn't have any scent. Wanting to identify these would be quite a challenge.
However, to Jing Yun Zhao, there was nothing about this kind of test that would put her on the spot.
Her sense of smell had always been sharper since she was young, and as a result of her official ownership of the space plus the absorbing of the spirit jade, it had been upgraded even more. There were many minute details that would not go unnoticed when it came to her nose.
Seeing Jing Yun Zhao advance so quickly, Director Liu could not just stand around looking shocked and soon frantically followed.
Unfortunately for him, sniffing the herbs only made his brain spin in circles stupidly. When he reached the midway point, he had only managed to identify three: Agarwood, mint and Chen Pi. Among the rest, one portion he could roughly guess out its type, while for the other portion, he was completely lost!
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Agarwood (沉香): A fragrant resinous wood used in incense, perfume, and small carvings (Wikipedia) (you don't need a picture of wood to know it's wood, and you won't be able to tell what kind of wood it is off a picture of wood, so I didn't insert a picture of agarwood)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agarwood
Chen Pi (陈皮) aka sun-dried tangerine: good as a snack, should try
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Jing Yun Zhao's speed was very fast, he was even beginning to suspect that the kid was writing nonsense.
Taking only 15 seconds each for 30 types of medicinal herbs; more than 10 minutes later, the first round ended.
(T/N: I know the math doesn't add up, but let's just…roll with it. Author has the highest authority :') )
By then, Director Liu still hadn't fully regained his senses, instead, he had an ominous premonition.
The way they would be competing via medicinal herbs was not supposed to be like this. It should not have been done using smell alone, but using their eyes to identify the herbs! If he relied on his eyes, he could definitely guarantee that he would be able to recognize all these herbs!
"Xiao Liu…15," Xu Jing Zhi didn't even raise his head and directly reported his score with just a glance at his answers.
His answer script was scribbled very messily, obviously telling that he wasn't completely sure of his answers. However, he indeed had some background and expertise, so even if he guessed blindly, he could still get half of them right.
Director Liu let out a breath of relief. Even though the score was somewhat bad, it was still better than he expected.
"Jing Yun Zhao, all correct. Not bad," Just as Director Liu was guessing her results, Xu Jing Zhi announced as he nodded his head in satisfaction.
"Impossible!" Director Liu anxiously rushed forward and reached his hand out to snatch away Jing Yun Zhao's answer script, his entire person turning incredulous and half-witted.
What he saw was a neat and tidy white sheet with words cleanly and nicely written, as well as 30 types of medicinal herbs completely and flawlessly listed from beginning to end. Reading the list of herbs, Director Liu thought back and realized that Jing Yun Zhao had indeed not gotten them wrong.
But how could she have possibly reached such a degree of skill?
"Finished looking? Since you're done, we'll move on to the next round," Xu Jing Zhi completely disregarded Director Liu's thoughts on the matter and threw him a sidelong glance. After his announcement, he swiftly instructed Xing Yuan to remove the herbs from the previous round, then unfolded several tens of small paper packs.
"Here is Tian Ma, Shan Yao, San Qi, Ba Ji Tian, Chuan Bei Mu, Wu Yao, Hong Hua, Du Zhong, Lu Rong and Ginseng. There are 10 herbs, and mixed within it are a few imitations and fakes. To pass this test, you merely need to pick out a single authentic one for each type of herb," Uncle Xing Yuan added on after finishing arranging the test items.