Chapter 1372 Finishing Early
“Lin Yang is doing fairly well. Only a third of the time has passed, yet he’s already identified over 100,000 medicinal ingredients.”
“He’s a prodigy, after all!”
“Lin Badao is also doing quite well. He’s clearly a prodigy in cultivation, yet his achievements in alchemy are also very outstanding.”
“The most impressive person is still that girl, Shuying. She’s almost identified 190,000 medicinal ingredients already.”
The seniors were all gathered together. Although there was competition between the branches, everyone was the same in hoping that the Lin Clan would become more powerful and produce more prodigies. After all, the Treasure Forest Pavilion wasn’t owned by just the Lin Clan alone. There were still three other major clans.
With the competition within the Lin Clan already so intense, one could easily imagine just how ferocious the hidden competition between the four major clans was. If the Lin Clan produced a few generations of also-rans, they would definitely be suppressed and consumed by the three other clans.
“Zhang Feng is also very impressive!” someone exclaimed in astonishment.
Everyone looked toward Zhang Feng. In terms of age, this external helper was definitely one of the oldest among the competitors. However, with his age came a wealth of experience. He was incredibly calm and smooth as he identified the medicinal ingredients, his hands so fast that they had become a blur. By and large, he could immediately write down the names of the medicinal ingredients with just a single glance.
However, no one would put all of their efforts into memorizing medicinal ingredients. After all, the most important round was the last one, where they would refine alchemical pills. Thus, even Zhang Feng couldn’t recognize all of the medicinal ingredients. On one side of his table was a pile of medicinal ingredients that he couldn’t identify or wasn’t too sure about.
“He’s actually no weaker than Shuying!” a few elders exclaimed.
“Shuying possesses the memories of an ancestor, so in terms of alchemy alone, she should be peerless among those under 10,000,000 years old. If it weren’t for her cultivation level, she could easily become a level 14 alchemist!”
“After all, identifying medicinal ingredients is only the most basic of foundations. It’s fine to stop memorizing more medicinal ingredients after reaching a certain level. The most important thing is still one’s talent in refining alchemical pills.”
“Mm-hm!” The seniors all nodded in agreement.
“Huh? Look at that young man!” someone exclaimed as they pointed at Ling Han.
The seniors glanced over, and they were all astounded by what they saw.
‘Such incredible speed!’
Before Ling Han was a small mountain of medicinal ingredients that he had already identified. If he didn’t hold them in place with his Origin Power, it was very likely that they would have spilled everywhere already.
“This… There are at least 200,000 medicinal ingredients!” someone exclaimed in a trembling voice.
“Definitely!”
The seniors were all stunned. His speed was even quicker than Lin Shuying’s, and this was something that they couldn’t accept. One had to realize that Lin Shuying wasn’t competing by herself. She had fused the skull of a Lin Clan ancestor into her body, and thus obtained all of that ancestor’s alchemy knowledge. In other words, she had hundreds of millions of years of experience on the other competitors. Who could compare to her?
“If he isn’t messing around, then his ability to identify medicinal ingredients is simply terrifying.”
Everyone nodded in agreement. Of course, it was also possible that Ling Han had a shocking error rate in his identification. If that were the case, it would be useless even if he “identified” 2,000,000 medicinal ingredients, to say nothing of “identifying” just 200,000 ones.
Ling Han was lightning quick in his identification. His divine sense was immensely powerful, and he was able to identify 100 medicinal ingredients at once. Of course, he could also use his divine sense to control his pen and write down the names of the medicinal ingredients.
In his eyes, there were only two types of medicinal ingredients—those that he recognized and those that he didn’t. There definitely didn’t exist any medicinal ingredient that he was unsure about.
Thus, the pile of medicinal ingredients that he couldn’t identify was almost just as large as the pile of medicinal ingredients that he had identified.
Ling Han stopped identifying more medicinal ingredients when the candle burned down to one-third of its length. He had already identified close to 360,000 types of medicinal ingredients. This was also all of the medicinal ingredients that he had learned about and memorized. On the other side of the table was a pile of almost just as many medicinal ingredients. These were the medicinal ingredients that he had never seen before.
He had clearly learned and memorized 400,000 types of medicinal ingredients, so why had he only identified 360,000?
This was because the other 40,000 were all incredibly rare and valuable medicinal ingredients. As such, how could the Lin Clan provide everyone with these medicinal ingredients?
In any case, was 700,000 medicinal ingredients still not enough? Even if they could gather all 810,000 types of medicinal ingredients, it would simply be impossible for anyone to identify all of them within the time limit.
Of course, this was apart from the freak, Ling Han.
He still had one-third of the time remaining, yet there were already no more medicinal ingredients for him to identify. As for those that he couldn’t recognize, there was nothing more he could do.
“I’m done. You can come over and check them now,” Ling Han said.
Those who were still diligently identifying the medicinal ingredients almost fell off their chairs in shock upon hearing this. In fact, the slowest person had only just identified a little over 10,000 medicinal ingredients. It could be said that they had only made an inch of progress. However, Ling Han was already done? Was he trying to frighten them to death?
Even Lin Shuying, Lin Yang, and the others shuddered in astonishment. Their concentration and emotional state were all somewhat affected. Meanwhile, Zhang Feng was still as calm and composed as always. His hands were incredibly steady.
The seniors were all a little flustered. They had held this competition numerous times before, yet no one had ever finished identifying all of the medicinal ingredients within the time limit before. Thus, they only came to their senses and retrieved Ling Han’s table after faltering for a moment.
They naturally put all of the unidentified medicinal ingredients back into the sack. They then started to check the remaining medicinal ingredients in curiosity.
Correct, correct, correct… The one dozen or so seniors checked together, so their speed was naturally very quick. However, the shock on their faces became more and more evident. This was because Ling Han had not made a single mistake.
After a long while, they finally finished examining all of the 360,000 medicinal ingredients. Not a single one had been incorrectly identified.
The seniors looked at each other, and they could all see the look of disbelief in each other’s eyes.
One had to realize that Ling Han had finished identifying the medicinal ingredients before the time limit had run out. Moreover, he was still under 500 years old. In other words, he definitely hadn’t spent a long time learning and memorizing medicinal ingredients. If he was given another 500 years, how many medicinal ingredients would he be able to identify?
500,000? 600,000? 700,000?
‘Gasp! What a freak!’
They had already wanted to recruit Ling Han before, but their desire to recruit him was naturally 100-fold more intense now. Although identifying medicinal ingredients didn’t correlate to one being a freakish alchemist, Ling Han’s freakish abilities still meant that he was worthy of heavy investment and nurturing.
The candle finally extinguished, and everyone stopped what they were doing. Meanwhile, people started to walk around and tally the results.
The Beisha Branch had gathered many people for this task, and thus they were able to tally the results of all the competitors in just a few hours.
“First place goes to… Lin Shuying! She identified a total of 470,000 medicinal ingredients, making a total of 19 mistakes,” Lin Xin announced.
Commotion swept through the crowd as this was announced. This was absolutely incredible! She had actually identified 470,000 medicinal ingredients! Moreover, she had only misidentified 19 of them. As expected of a prodigy who had been rumored to receive the memories of an alchemy grandmaster.
Lin Shuying tilted her head up in pride. This result was well within her expectations. This was just how impressive she was!
“Second place goes to… Zhang Feng! He identified a total of 380,000 medicinal ingredients, making a total of 297 mistakes,” Lin Xin continued to announce.
There was excited chatter in the crowd. This was also very impressive. Although Zhang Feng was older, how could he compare to someone who had received the memories of an alchemy grandmaster?
“Third place goes to… Ling Han! He identified a total of 360,000 medicinal ingredients, not making a single mistake!”
Pu!
Everyone spluttered in shock. ‘Not a single mistake? Oi, oi, oi, that’s far too shocking, no?!’
Moreover, Ling Han had finished his identification with one-third of the time remaining!
Not only that, but he was also under 500 years old!
If he was given another 500 years, wouldn’t he be able to flawlessly identify 720,000 types of medicinal ingredients?
Such a freak actually existed in the world?!
Lin Shuying couldn’t help but swallow her pride and glanced at Ling Han. Only this kind of prodigy was worthy of becoming her partner.