Soon dressed himself in a new set of robes, but the purples marks on his face still reminded him of the grueling fight he had the previous day. Shin seemed to be stronger both in mind and body today.
"Shin, hold these" Ming Rui handed over the dan "This is Ni yuan dan, this should be helpful when you are in bone forging realm".
Ming Shin got excited "Thank you mother". He probably guessed his mother traded these with some herbs. Where did he know that pills were so rare that even in Ye clan, it would only be reserved for the best performing candidates.
After all, pill masters are too rare even to make such low level dans in such a remote town. While Shin was holding on to these, the former handed a jade bracelet which looked old a worn out with six beads of which two seemed to have lost color.
"My baby, I want to have you this lucky charm. This was given to me by your father when we met. This shall protect you in times of a crisis" Ming Rui carefully put on Shin's wrist.
Ming Shin has seen many such lucky charms in the village and it is common to pray to a big tree located at the center of Juuko. Some of the tree bark is usually scraped and mixed with the threads which makes the lucky charm holders at peace.
But never has he seen such an old and worn out one. But still, he was happy and wanted to to keep it as his parents memory soon after he leaved the city.
"Mother, I'm definitely going to do my best in the exam today !!" Shin radiated with confidence.
"I know" she ruffled his hair and smiled.
"Mom, you look so beautiful when you smile" Ming Shin praised.
"Bad boy, enough teasing your mother. Go, do your best" Ming Rui laughed happily.
'Well, if he passes the test, then even if I am far away accompanying Miss Ye Ling in another town, at least the Ye clan will look out for him in Henji' she thought.
Looking at the young boy's back, she had a pained expression, gritted her teeth and made her way towards the assessment center.
The third day of the assessment and the crowd was mostly at the Hei pavilion today. After getting word of mouth, various villagers flocked to the third layer to trade for various high quality monster meat, clothes, jewelry and books etc.
There were even some wooden swords and weaponry made for training purposes being in high demand. Meng Kai actually got herself one after seeing Shin's heroic performance yesterday. She vowed to train hard and beat up his opponents.
The medical assessment was actually not given much prominence by the villagers. One of the reasons being, there is no proper education regarding various herbs, effects and knowledge.
The other being, many people do not want to go to a city just to become some herbal boy or girl who shall take numerous risks while collecting them with little money or growth. In the past five years, Ming Rui mainly taught Tai Xue, Ming Shin and Meng Kai after receiving some medical books from Ning Shu in the past.
Apart from these three, roughly 150 young people from the villages all together chose to be herbal boys or girls. The middle aged and elderly women were more willing to do it too with proper guidance.
The criteria for medical exam is to be less than twenty five years old. After all they want to cultivate the young people and the remaining ones to be strong enough to face various threats while collecting the herbs.
All of this amounted to only 127 people eligible to take the assessment. Phase -1 of the assessment started when everyone was presented with a bunch of herbs and to identify them and also their usage. Many participants were actually aware of the various herbs but not many actually cared before to know their effects.
After some heavy sweating and internal cussing, the test finished after thirty minutes. Soon the results were announced. 36 people were able to identify at least 25 out of 30 herbs and explaining their bare minimum effect.
Tai Xue and Ming Shin both placed first with perfect score. Both of them looked at each other with a smile. Since today's assessment is mainly concerning of the Ye clan, Ye Ling was paying much attention to every detail.
When the results for phase -1 were announced, She caught sight of Tai Xue. "Ah !! Aunt Shu, it's that girl I saw at the village entrance ". Ye Ling was pleasantly surprised to find her again.
"Yeah, not a bad seed indeed. She is talented enough to be as your follower" Ning Shu commented.
"But then again, why is that stupid boy again in today's exam?" the former wrinkled her brows.
" Was my identity leaked yesterday when I sent the healing cream? Now, he wants to join the Ye clan because of me? why is he so persistent? Hugh wants to eat swan meat" Ye Ling was overthinking.
Rin Meihun's face was twitching 'No, that might not be the case' while Ning Shu almost coughed up blood 'If you know that boy's father, where is it toad lusting after swan meat?'.
"Cough Miss, you are overthinking. That boy's mother is Ming Rui who shall be your entourage soon" Aunt Shu replied helplessly.
"Ohh? So he was taught by senior Ming Rui? I heard that Ye's main branch already offered her a deacon position. I hope she's worthwhile to be as my follower" Ye Ling was introspective.
'Hoh? So, that's the woman Ye Guang was after?' Rin Meihun's eyes seemed to contain rage and Ning Shu had to cough and lighten the atmosphere. Ye Ling was confused to why he seemed to be angry all of a sudden.
For only a few knew what happened three years ago. Ye Guang who left to Sho city still couldn't stop his atrocities despite going to a third rate sect in the city. There he met a pretty woman who was wounded after an intense fight and was recovering.
He forced upon herself in the weakest moments and she was humiliated to death. She was later fount out by her sect disciples and found the culprit due to her recording his name and details on the surrounding rocks before dying.
Apparently she was Rin Hua, Rin Meihun's elder sister. After knowing this Rin Meihun in a fit of rage attacked the Crimson Sword sect demanding Ye Guang to be handed over. The Rin clan was well known for their tacticians and merchants, so the sect did not want to clash with them.
But the Ye clan lord offered many pills and precious herbs in compensation to the sect to keep him safe. Knowing all this, Rin Meihun frenzy attacked the sect when he was forcibly nrought back by the clan and demoted to Pitu village.
If not for the Ye clan possessing sole hegemony over pill and herbs distribution and having a huge backer from other cities, the Rin clan would have decimated them ages ago.
'It's all the Ye clan lord's fault for his pampering and arrogance. Ye clan shall pay for it' his eyes possessed a chill. Ye Ling is the only one who adored him as a big brother and keeping him sane.
'Even Ling 'er should hate the main branch, so Ye clan's destruction should not matter much to her' he was calculative. Ping Lao was the only one who could understand his pain, as he raised both of them since they were kids. If not for the young master's safety, he would have long ago killed his way to the beast.
Rin clan is the one which deals with wisdom and tactical warfare, business and money. Though it is only a subsidiary branch in Henji, it has much stronger roots in the Kanu country.
Phase 2 of the assessment started shortly. On a piece of paper, various complicated diseases or ailments were mentioned. The top fifteen candidates who provide the best treatment for them with the finest scores shall be selected.
The assessment commenced soon and both Ming Shin and Tai Xue only took a momentary time to carefully identify the best procedure for treatment. Many of the 36 candidates who passed were oozing with cold sweat as there were some diseases unheard of in their village mentioned.
One had to not only be knowledgeable but also able to deduce the unknown in sudden circumstances if one were to be a medic. Majority of them were herb picking boys and honestly have not remembered much about diagnosis.
After quarter of time, the assessment finally came to a halt. The crowd were not too much, but still the participants were drenched in sweat. Soon the results were announced.
Ming Shin was leading the top with absolute score and Tai Xue just fell short of a point. Out of the remaining thirteen candidates, seven of them were from Juuko village. These results made the fellow villagers cheer and even Shin clenched his fist in excitement.
'Great !!' Ming Rui sat upright straight and proud.
" Good work everyone for qualifying this assessment. We hope you become more educated and become a great pill master one day" the announcement was made.
Many people scoffed at his remark. How rare is to become a pill master. Even within the Ye clan, there are only three pill masters with only one person being level -2 pill master.
Everyone was immersed in joyous feast and festivities now that all the assessments were complete. Tomorrow shall be the day, when final announcement of all the candidates ready to return with the convoy shall be named.