Chapter 196: Chapter 194: The Person Who Killed the "Lion" Leaves Indifferently_1
The final verification method had already been employed on the spot, and it was the Liu Family's butler himself who opened the Pill Furnace.
Throughout the process, he did not touch it with his hands, using only a tiny stream of True Qi. There was no possibility of replacing the medicinal materials or turning them to ashes.
Dead silence!
The entire examination hall was enveloped in dead silence.
The scene unfolding before everyone's eyes was undeniable proof that Fang Ren had successfully refined an Upper Level fourth-order elixir in 14 minutes and 36 seconds.
When Butler Liu witnessed this scene, he too gasped in shock. To tell the truth, when he stepped on the stage earlier, he had never imagined that Fang Ren could actually refine a fourth-order elixir.
He had thought that Brother Lin had asked him to help with the inspection on stage because he wanted him to prepare a good excuse for Young Master Fang in case cheating was detected, to find a reason that would make people feel there was an understandable and forgivable cause for Young Master Fang's cheating on the spot.
But now, it was clear that this was not what he had imagined at all. It was a complete overturn of his entire life's understandings!
A fourth-order elixir! And an advanced one at that!
What's most important was that it was refined within fifteen minutes!
And the most, most, most important thing was that this Young Master Fang was only 22 years old this year!
Any two of these three conditions combined would already be enough to shake the entire Human world, yet Fang Ren held all three to himself!
Is this talent?
No, this must be the reincarnation of a Pill God!
Butler Liu looked dazedly at the Pill Furnace shards that held nothing but water, then at the golden pill in the hands of the Seventh Elder, completely stupefied.
The audience in the stands wore expressions of disbelief, some even feeling as if they were dreaming.
The examinees on the field were even more breathless at this moment, as this event had overturned all their previous understandings of elixirs.
And Bai Qi, standing there, watched Fang Ren with a dazed expression, involuntary recalling the words Fang Ren had said to her after stepping on stage. He said he wouldn't cheat... she thought it was just a lie to deceive her, but it turned out to be true.
"Big... big bro..."
Chen Cheng's arm, which was draped over Lin Bozhong's shoulder, started to tremble, and the smile on his face shifted from stupefied to crazy, as he blurted out an expletive, "You damn did not lie to me!"
This time, he even forgot to activate his True Qi to block the sound, and his crude words spread throughout the entire venue.
The expressions on the butlers' faces from the Wang family and Cao family were not much better than that of the crowd. This was nothing like the script they had in mind.
Wasn't Young Master Fang a discarded piece with no talent at all?
If it wasn't for the marriage arrangement with the princess, he might have never been known by the people of Tianjiang!
How did he suddenly become an extraordinary genius of the Elixir Field?!
…
After a pause of about 5 or 6 seconds, Butler Liu slowly recovered from the shock, swallowed hard, and announced, "Examinee: Fang Ren, upon verification, did not cheat! The Upper Level fourth-order elixir shall be duly recorded in the score!"
Wow——
The entire audience was astonished.
"My god! How is this possible... How could such talent be discarded by the Fang Family?!"
"I feel like I'm dreaming! How could Young Master Fang of the Fang Family possibly be a student from a low-ranking school? Even the chairman of the Orchid Bamboo Guild wouldn't be confident in successfully refining an Upper Level Fourth-order elixir!"
"Madness! Could it be that today I have witnessed the rise of an unprecedented genius?"
…
"This is impossible!"
Just as the scene became noisy, Ah Si, not too far away, contorted his face into a vicious snarl, tore at his throat, and pointed at Fang Ren, bellowing, "How could he possibly refine a Fourth-order elixir! This is impossible! Since the dawn of the Cultivation Era, any genius who could refine a Fourth-order elixir had to be at least 60 years old! He must be cheating! Definitely!"
The Seventh Elder immediately unleashed a strand of True Qi, pressing Ah Si completely to the ground, "Audacity! Are you questioning the verification results of Butler Liu?"
Ah Si was utterly disheveled, pushed to madness. His bloodshot eyes shifted from the Seventh Elder to Butler Liu and finally settled on Fang Ren. The look of resentment on his face gave way to a twisted smile.
"I get it!" Ah Si's smile was cruel, "I get it! It's because he is Young Master Fang of the Fang Family, isn't it? So all of you are covering up his cheating! It must be so!"
His savage howls spread throughout the venue, and the gazes that many people cast at him were filled with contempt.
At this point, couldn't they see whether there was any cheating?
Fang Ren had no chance to cheat, nor did anyone have the opportunity to help him cheat. And even if, hypothetically speaking, as Young Master Fang he were to cheat here, wouldn't that mean his brain had been filled with seawater?
Even if he succeeded in cheating here, what would he do in the final round of the competition?
Members of the Tiandao Sword Sect were present, figures from the leading Tianjiang families were also around, and even Madame Xuan would arrive there with the Nine Heavens Corps. Should Young Master Fang lack genuine strength and still cheat, the consequences thereafter would mean shaming the entire Fang Family before the entire world!
"What more do I need to do to prove my results?" Fang Ren looked at the Seventh Elder as he spoke.
The Seventh Elder hastily replied, "Young Master Fang's results are legitimate! You need not prove anything further!"
As he said this, the Seventh Elder turned to the proctor responsible for scoring, "Why haven't you recorded the results yet?"
"Yes!"
The proctor immediately snapped back to reality and picked up a pen to write a series of characters on the paper.
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Seeing the proctor record his results, Fang Ren turned to Bai Qi in the audience and said, "Let's go."
With that, he turned and walked out of the examination area, facing the gaze of everyone, at a steady pace.
His walk was neither fast nor slow, his facial expression indifferent, neither troubling himself with the ridicule of the crowd nor seeking to punish Ah Si for slandering him.
In the vast grassland, they were like a swarm of disgusting flies buzzing behind the mosquito net, but though he had the means to eliminate them, he didn't care to do so.
He had come not to swat at flies for a comfortable sleep but to conquer the grassland lions and claim the throne, a rakshasa on a hunt.
Nor had he come to flex or slap faces; he was simply taking a test, earning his ticket to see the person he cherished most.
This was not his stage for showing off. The final round, filled with monsters and freaks, was where he would make his mark.
…
Bai Qi watched him leave so indifferently, a fleeting sense of bewilderment crossed her heart.
He's just leaving like that? Does he not care about the people who jeer and curse at him?
In her brief moments of distraction, she seemed to see a figure, the one she initially aspired to be…