Chapter 873: The End Was Not Near!
Su Wuxian took out Qin Haodong’s examination paper again. He said, “Qiong’er, I’ve just seen this paper. Not only did he come up with this creative method for the first question, but he has his own opinions about the following questions. ”
“This is not a paper with 0 marks but a paper with 100 marks or higher!”
As soon as he said that, everyone present was stunned.
Who was Su Wuxian? He was the President of the Alchemist Association in the Tortoise Academy, a Level Seven Alchemist. His standards had always been extremely high. No one had ever heard him speak so highly of anyone.
“I… I…”
Fang Qiong’er lips moved a couple of times, but in the end, she didn’t say a word.
“Qiong’er, it’s our fault. This student named Qin Haodong is definitely a genius. Our Alchemist Association can’t give up such a talent. I’ll invite him back now.”
After that, Su Wuxian was about to walk out of the examination room. Fang Qiong’er shouted, “Mr. Su, wait a minute.”
“Qiong’er, what’s wrong? Is there anything else?” Su Wuxian turned around and asked.
“Mr. Su, since I made the mistake, let me correct it! I’ll invite Qin Haodong back and apologize to him in person.”
It was extremely difficult for Fang Qiong’er to say these words. However, although she was arrogant, she was not a person who would cling to her mistakes instead of correcting them. Since it was her fault, she would bravely bear the responsibility.
Su Wuxian nodded his head in satisfaction. Being willing to correct her mistakes, the nature of his disciple really wasn’t bad.
He said, “Well, go ahead. It’s our Alchemist Association’s fault. When you go there, in addition to apologizing, tell Little Qin that our Alchemist Association will waive all his examination expenses.”
“Although the money is not much, it’s enough to express our apologies.”
“Got it, Mr. Su!”
Fang Qiong’er agreed and rushed to the dormitory according to the address left by Qin Haodong.
Seeing her leave, Ma Yan said to Su Wuxian, “President Su, what about our examination papers?”
According to the usual practice, after handing in the papers, Fang Qiong’er would immediately grade them and announce the results on the spot. But now that Fang Qiong’er had left, what should they do?
Su Wuxian said, “If there isn’t anything urgent, you all can wait here for a bit. If there is something that needs to be dealt with, I will have someone inform you about your results.”
The candidates present nodded. No one left. They all were waiting for Fang Qiong’er and Qin Haodong to come back.
When Qin Haodong returned to the dormitory, the Little Witch and Zhao Xingyue had gone to class, leaving him alone in the house.
He pulled up a chair and sat in the yard, looking up at the distant sky. At this moment, his longing for his family filled his mind.
He had already been in the Lingwu Continent for two days. His family must have been extremely anxious when they found out that he had gone missing. He wondered how the little fellow was doing and if she would miss her father.
He wondered how his women were doing. Would they feel very sad?
In this way, he kept looking dazedly at the sky. No one knew that how long he sat like that. There was a knock at the door.
Fang Qiong’er came to Qin Haodong’s dormitory. She saw him sitting alone in the yard through the fence. His eyes were deep and sad as if full of vicissitudes of life.
She had never seen anyone with such a sad gaze in all her years. Her heart skipped a beat. What had he experienced at such a young age?
After a pause, Fang Qiong’er knocked on the gate when she saw that Qin Haodong was still in a daze and did not notice her arrival.
Qin Haodong came to his senses. He opened the gate of the courtyard. When he saw Fang Qiong’er, he said, “You are here. Let’s begin!”
Fang Qiong’er asked in surprise, “What do you mean by ‘begin’?”
Qin Haodong said playfully, “Aren’t you here to apologize to me? Let’s begin now. If your apology is sincere, I will forgive you!”
“You…”
Fang Qiong’er was so angry that her eyes widened but she was at fault in this matter. In the end, she gritted her teeth and said, “I’m sorry. I judged today’s examination paper too arbitrarily. I misunderstood you. I apologize.”
“Not bad. You are very sincere!” Qin Haodong nodded and then said, “What else?”
“I’ve apologized. What else do you want?” Fang Qiong’er said angrily.
In her memory, this was the first time she had apologized to someone. She didn’t expect that this guy was still not satisfied.
Qin Haodong said with a cheeky smile, “It’s okay. You’re sincere but don’t you have any material compensation?”
“You…”
Looking at this person’s teasing eyes, without any trace of the earlier vicissitudes in his eyes, Fang Qiong’er said angrily, “My teacher said that our Alchemist Association was wrong and as compensation, your future examination expenses will be waived.”
“It’s good. Let’s go. I’ll go back with you.”
Qin Haodong nodded with satisfaction. All the exam expenses were waived. His goal today was to get the Level Five Alchemist Medal in one fell swoop, which meant that he could save 50 top-level Spirit Stones. That was a big sum of money.
Fang Qiong’er snorted and turned around to lead the way back to the Alchemist Association with Qin Haodong.
When Su Wuxian saw that Fang Qiong’er brought back a handsome young man, he knew that it must be Qin Haodong. He stepped forward and said, “Young man, I am Su Wuxian from the Alchemist Association.”
“We made a mistake just now and misjudged your result. Now I am apologizing to you.”
Qin Haodong said, “It doesn’t matter. Senior sister has apologized to me just now. Everyone makes mistakes. If you know your mistake, change it. Thus, you are a good person.”
Hearing these words, Fang Qiong’er was so angry that her eyes widened. “He’s acting like an elder. What’s the big deal?”
Just now, she had figured out that Qin Haodong must have gotten that method from another place and happened to get the question right. In terms of alchemy skills, he was definitely not as good as her.
“Everyone makes mistakes. Good point,” Su Wuxian said. “Little Qin, I just read your paper. Your thoughts are unique. Your attainments in alchemy are quite deep. May I know who your teacher was?”
He and Fang Qiong’er had the same idea. They thought that Qin Haodong must have an amazing teacher who happened to get the prescription.
How could Qin Haodong not know what he was thinking? However, this happened to help him hide his identity. As he had said to Zhao Xingyue before, he said, “My teacher is a strange person. He has been living in seclusion in the mountains and has passed away.”
“Oh!”
Su Wuxian nodded his head, finding nothing strange about this matter. After all, there were many hermits in this world.
He then added, “Little Qin, I have just corrected your paper. You got full marks in this exam and won the Level One Alchemist Medal.”
When they heard this, all the other students who were gathered around were envious. Their papers had not been marked yet but Qin Haodong had already passed with full marks.
Embarrassment flashed across Ma Yan’s face. He just said that Qin Haodong would definitely not pass the exam but now Qin Haodong got full marks all of a sudden, which made him feel hot and bothered.
To everyone’s surprise, Qin Haodong did not look happy at all. Instead, he continued, “President Su, I want to take the exam to become the Level Five Alchemist. Can I take the exam?”
Fang Qiong’er glared at him. This guy was insatiable. He actually wanted to take the exam for the Level Five Alchemist. He only obtained full marks for the exam of Level One Alchemist. Did he really think he was so great?
The others also talked about it. Although it was amazing for an Alchemist to get full marks, there was a huge gap between each level of Alchemists. There was no comparison at all between Level One Alchemist to Level Five Alchemist.
Including Zhang Dapeng, who had a good relationship with Qin Haodong, no one was optimistic about him passing the exam of the Level Five Alchemist.
Su Wuxian said, “Little Qin, you have just entered the academy. You still have a lot of time later. Don’t be in such a hurry.”
“There is a huge gap between each level of Alchemists. It is not so easy to pass the examination. I advise you to study in a down-to-earth way for a period of time before continuing the examination.”
Qin Haodong said, “President Su, that’s too troublesome. I think it’s better to pass the exam of Level Five all at once today.”
“Troublesome…what big words. Do you really think you’ve been possessed by the Medicine God?”
Although no one rebutted Qin Haodong, Ma Yan felt that he had lost his dignity just now. Now that he had the opportunity to regain his dignity, he couldn’t help but ridicule Qin Haodong.
Su Wuxian still wanted to persuade Qin Haodong, but Fang Qiong’er said, “Mr. Su, I want to compete with him in the alchemy exam. If he defeats me, he will pass the exam of the Level Five Alchemist, is that okay?”
This girl had always been an outstanding and proud girl. After apologizing to Qin Haodong today, she felt uncomfortable and wanted to find an opportunity to regain her dignity.
As her teacher, Su Wuxian naturally knew what his student was thinking. He thought for a moment and said, “Well, you can compete with him. Qin Haodong, what do you think of this idea?”
For Qin Haodong, as long as he could take the exam, it didn’t matter what the form the exam was. He said calmly, “Okay, but how do we do it?”
Su Wuxian said, “Open the furnace and refine pills. As long as you can successfully refine a furnace of Level Five pills, even if the quality is not as good as that of Qiong’er, you will pass the exam.”
In his opinion, Qin Haodong’s alchemy skills were certainly not as good as that of his disciple, so he lowered the standard.
Qin Haodong said indifferently, “Any kind of pills?”
Su Wuxian said, “As long as they are Level Five pills, you can choose any kind you like.”
Fang Qiong’er raised her head and said, “I’ll refine whatever pills you would like to refine, in case you lose, and say that I bully you in terms of difficulty.”
Qin Haodong smiled and said, “Then I choose to refine the Cultivation Pill.”
Among the Level Five pills, the Cultivation Pill was the best, which was generally difficult to refine. Once it was refined, the price would be relatively high, which was why he chose to refine the Cultivation Pill.
The expressions of Su Wuxian and the others changed after they heard what he said. Originally, they thought that he would choose a kind of pill that was not too difficult to refine. After all, the most important thing was to pass the exam. They did not expect that this young man would actually choose such a difficult Cultivation Pill.
A scornful smile flashed across Fang Qiong’er’s face. In her opinion, Qin Haodong chose the most difficult kind of pills so that neither of them could make it. Even if both of them lost in the end, he could save some face.
However, with her ability, even if it was a little difficult to refine the Cultivation Pill, she would still be able to do it with all her might.
When Su Wuxian saw that neither of them had any objections, he said, “Alright, then you two can refine the Cultivation Pill together.”
“Wait a minute.”
Qin Haodong stopped Su Wuxian.
Fang Qiong’er sneered, “What? Are you regretting it? Do you want to switch to a simpler kind of pill?”
“No, no, I just want to ask. What should we do about the ingredients used during the competition?”
Su Wuxian lightly smiled, “I already said your examination fees will be waived, so these ingredients will naturally be borne by our Alchemist Association.”
“In that case, I’m relieved.” Qin Haodong asked again, “What about the pills refined by me? Do they belong to me or to the Alchemist Association?”