After lunch, Xiang Yu didn’t head straight back to the spirit vein. Instead, he decided to tackle the remaining Secondary Professions Pavilion matters that had been weighing on his mind. He needed to wrap up the entrance examinations for the schools that were still waiting.
He made his way to find Liu Qing, catching her as she was organizing some paperwork near the pavilion’s main office. "Tell everyone who’s interested that I’ll be conducting the entrance tests for the remaining schools today," he instructed. "That’s alchemy, appraisal, and farming."
Liu Qing nodded eagerly and immediately set off to gather the candidates.
Xiang Yu glanced up at the afternoon sun with a slight grimace. This was supposed to be his formation making time, and his heart genuinely ached thinking about missing out on crafting another defensive formation for the sect. Still, he forced himself not to dwell on it too much. His formation making skill was already past the halfway point to breakthrough and would advance after the next reset regardless of whether he practiced today or not. At least he wouldn’t be losing out on experience points completely.
Within a few minutes, an eager crowd of disciples had assembled in the pavilion’s central courtyard. Their faces showed a mixture of nervous anticipation and determination. Xiang Yu quickly sorted them into three distinct groups based on their chosen professions, with each cluster gathering in different sections of the courtyard.
He decided to start with the alchemy group, knowing that this test would probably take the longest to complete properly. The group consisted of about a little over fifty disciples, all looking at him with bright, expectant eyes.
Leading them into the alchemy school building, Xiang Yu had already learned his lesson from the blacksmithing disaster earlier. He absolutely would not let these students attempt to actually refine pills. First, because creating pills was exponentially more difficult than forging weapons, and probably impossible for complete beginners. Second, and perhaps more importantly, he didn’t want the buildings getting destroyed by furnace explosions before they’d even properly opened.
His martial aunt was planning to hold her wedding ceremony in this very pavilion, and she had been the one funding the entire construction project. It would be disrespectful to damage the place before she’d even had a chance to "officially" open it. In fact, they might even bring bad luck by already using the facilities before the proper ceremony. He really hoped his martial aunt wouldn’t hold a grudge about this.
For the alchemy test, Xiang Yu had prepared something entirely different. He reached into his spatial ring and withdrew a massive stack of thick, leather-bound books, each one substantial enough to serve as a weapon in its own right.
Standing at the front of the classroom, he held up one of the enormous volumes for everyone to see. "This is a herb encyclopedia," he explained, his voice carrying clearly through the room. "It lists all the herbs that I know and their effects, properties, and interactions. Well, ninth-grade herbs that is."
The disciples leaned forward, studying the intimidating tome with a mixture of awe and trepidation.
"Your task is actually quite simple," Xiang Yu continued, gesturing toward the back of the room where numerous wooden crates sat stacked against the walls. "Each one of you will take a copy of this encyclopedia. The herbs listed in these books can be found in those crates back there. Your job is to use those herbs, with the help of this reference guide, to create a potion of any kind."
He suddenly remembered something, then added quickly, "Of any kind except poison."
Without waiting to check if they fully understood the instructions, Xiang Yu began walking toward the exit. "You have until I come back. Your time starts now."
The moment those words left his mouth, the disciples rushed forward like a stampede, each scrambling to grab their own copy of the heavy encyclopedia. Some nearly collided with each other in their eagerness, while others immediately began flipping through the pages with intense concentration.
Just as Xiang Yu reached the doorway, he paused and turned back to address the frantically working students. "Just so you know," he said with a slight smile, "mixing herbs with positive effects doesn’t always equal a positive effect."
With that ominous warning hanging in the air, he stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him, leaving the alchemy candidates to their fate.
Next up were the appraisal and farming candidates. Xiang Yu found himself at a bit of a loss when it came to testing the farming applicants. Unlike the other professions where he could devise hands-on practical demonstrations, farming knowledge was more theoretical and experience-based. After a moment of consideration, he decided to simply give them a written examination.
They would be going in completely raw, unlike the medicine students who had at least observed his treatments beforehand. This meant many were probably going to fail miserably, but it was likely more accurate this way as it wasn’t testing memorization ability.
…
At the Blade Pavilion, Elder Guo stood before Elder Feng Wuying’s secluded chamber.
"Aren’t you going to knock?" a voice was heard from inside the room, and the door slid open.
"Martial Uncle... weren’t you in seclusion?" Elder Guo asked with surprise as he walked in slowly, carefully leaving his shoes at the door.
"I was, until I heard someone breaking through," the elder replied calmly as he placed a second meditation mat in front of him and began pouring tea. "Was that you?"
"No, it was Junior Sister Huang," Elder Guo spoke as he settled onto the mat, accepting the offered tea and taking a few careful sips.
"Still calling her that?" the elder asked with a knowing smile.
Elder Guo paused for a moment, the teacup frozen halfway to his lips. He then gulped down all the remaining tea in one decisive motion, set the cup down firmly, and looked directly at his martial uncle with unwavering determination.
"I want to change that..."