Chapter 90: Assessment Hall

"You..." Wen Xue's chest swelled and she felt like she was about to burst.

I could tolerate him openly hitting on me, and I could tolerate him deliberately dragging his feet... But if he wanted to impress her, shouldn't he at least pretend to be knowledgeable and educated?

And now this! He kept saying he wanted to be tested as an alchemy apprentice, but he didn't even know what the test covered or what books to study. Could he be any more blatant in his ignorance?

"What's wrong? You don't know either? If you don't, I'll just ask someone else!"

Seeing her behaving like she was having a fit, Zhang Xuan's face was full of frustration.

Is something wrong with this woman? If she knew, she should just explain. If not, then fine. Why was she so startled and acting like she was having a seizure?

Seeing his look, as if saying, "Don't try to fool me if you don't understand," Wen Xue almost lost her mind.

Fine, let him keep up his act. Soon enough, he'd make a fool of himself!

"To be tested as an alchemy apprentice, you must memorize the properties and characteristics of 100,000 types of medicinal herbs, as well as the history and origins of alchemists..." Wen Xue explained, barely suppressing her rage.

Alchemy is a profession that deals with medicinal ingredients. How could one refine elixirs if they couldn't even recognize or distinguish the ingredients?

The continent was vast, and medicinal ingredients were countless. While 100,000 types might seem like a lot, they were actually just the most basic. Some alchemists spent their entire lives working with ingredients and still couldn't recognize many of them, let alone an apprentice.

"Is that all? That's quite simple! Where are the books on these medicinal ingredients? I'll go take a look now!" Zhang Xuan was taken aback when he heard the explanation.

As long as there was a book, the Library of Heaven's Path could form a record, which would then be imprinted into his mind as knowledge.

If that was all the test covered, it would be quite simple for him.

This was an ability infinitely more powerful than a photographic memory.

"Simple?"

Wen Xue's mouth twitched. If she hadn't remembered that he was a customer and she was merely service staff, she would have already lashed out.

Each medicinal ingredient had different properties, and when combined with others, they produced various reactions. Simply memorizing 100,000 ingredients was daunting enough, let alone all their attributes. Even she, with her confident memory, hadn't been able to recall everything after years of study, and the test was notoriously easy to mix up!

And he, a mere playboy who only knew how to chase women, dared to call it simple?

Go ahead and pretend. Let's see how you manage to salvage this later!

"Books for the apprentice assessment are sold there. Come with me!"

Concluding that he was just bragging to get her attention, she no longer felt as angry. She gave a cold smile and led the way.

Soon, they arrived at a spacious room with "Assessment Hall" written prominently above the entrance. A middle-aged man sat by the door, reading a book.

The Assessment Hall was strictly for testing alchemy apprentices; unauthorized entry was not permitted.

This middle-aged man also aimed to become an apprentice. He had been trying for over twenty years without success, studying while working, just like Wen Xue.

The fact that he hadn't passed the assessment in twenty years demonstrated its difficulty.

"Uncle Li!" Wen Xue stopped.

"You're here. Are you looking to buy books or take the assessment?"

"Not me, it's this gentleman. He says he wants to be tested as an alchemy apprentice!" Wen Xue sneered inwardly, pointing at Zhang Xuan.

You said you wanted to be tested, right? I'll sign you up now. You know nothing, so let's see how you handle it later!

The apprentice assessment was personally set by an alchemist. Rushing in knowing absolutely nothing would be seen as a provocation, sure to anger the alchemist. He'd have a lot to cry about then...

"You want to take the assessment?"

The middle-aged man looked at Zhang Xuan, his brow furrowed.

He himself had studied for over twenty years and still couldn't pass, yet this young man looked barely eighteen or nineteen. What could he possibly test for?

"Yes!" Zhang Xuan nodded.

He could only access the Alchemist Guild's elementary library by becoming an alchemy apprentice. There was no other way, so he might as well "play along."

If the two of them knew his true intentions, they would surely spit blood and drop dead on the spot.

They studied and recited every day, spending years, even decades, yet couldn't achieve it. And he, who hadn't read a single book, wanted to take the test and "play along"... Was such pretense really acceptable?

"The registration fee is two thousand gold coins. It's refundable if you pass, but non-refundable if you don't," said Uncle Li, the middle-aged man, after confirming Zhang Xuan's intent. "This is to prevent people who know nothing from wasting our time!"

"Alright!" Zhang Xuan casually produced two thousand-gold notes and handed them over.

After his successful gambling and swindling Yang Mo, he was quite wealthy now, so two thousand gold coins were nothing to him.

"He really is a rich playboy!"

Seeing him casually produce the money without a moment's hesitation, Wen Xue became even more certain of her judgment.

Two thousand gold coins. For them, it would take a long time to save that much. Yet, this man simply pulled it out to get her attention. What else could he be but a rich playboy?

Unfortunately, no matter how much money one had, if used in the wrong way, it wouldn't achieve the desired effect; it would only make them a laughingstock!

"Alright!" Uncle Li took the money and nodded, then had Zhang Xuan fill out a form with his personal information. "There's an assessment session today, but it starts in two hours. You can come back then!"

"Two hours?"

It took an hour just to walk one way from the school to here, so returning was out of the question. He turned to the middle-aged man. "Do you have any books for the apprentice assessment here? Can I stay and read for a bit?"

"Trying to cram at the last minute, are we? You can! All the books in that room are for sale or for reading; choose as you please. However, only thinking about studying two hours before the test might be a bit too late!" Uncle Li pointed behind him.

Zhang Xuan looked, and indeed, behind Uncle Li was a long row of densely packed bookshelves, numbering over a dozen, with tens of thousands of books.

"So many?"

No wonder the apprentice assessment was so difficult. Forget memorizing them all; just reading through all these books would be enough to exhaust anyone to death!

"I'll just browse, no need to buy them..." Zhang Xuan said as he walked into the room.

For him, books didn't cost a thing. A casual flip was all it took for them to be imprinted into his library and become his knowledge. Why would he buy them?

"He's quite resilient. Fine, I'll waste my time on him today and see how long he can keep up this act!"

Wen Xue didn't leave, watching him pretend to browse the enormous collection of books. She gave a cold smile.

Honestly, she had seen shameless people before, but never anyone quite this shameless!

He clearly knew nothing, yet he had the audacity to sign up for the alchemy apprentice assessment. That might have been tolerable, but then he openly declared he was going to read up on it...

If he wasn't just putting on an act, anyone seeing so many books would surely feel intimidated and consider it an impossible task!

Nearly ten thousand books... Just moving them would take half a day, let alone reading them all!

Since he was so shameless, she would just quietly watch him make a fool of himself.

Even if it meant her salary was docked today, she was determined to see him humiliate himself!

In two hours, she'd see how he explained himself!

Wen Xue was thoroughly infuriated by him and was determined to see this through.