[Bonus chapter for 200 golden tickets]
The qi swirled around the exam space that looked more like a purgatory of hell. The moment all pillars had an examinee, the atmosphere shifted. One would think they were about to go into battle instead of taking an herbology exam.
Soon, an image flickered to existence before everyone, each with their own. Ryu soon realized that his Spiritual Sense could no longer leave the radius of his pillar, nor could he sense other life forms. However, there was also something stopping him from observing the image itself. He could only tell, faintly, that it was of some sort of Common Grade herb.
"I'd like to welcome you all to this round of exams." The bright voice of what sounded like a youthful, yet mature woman entered their ears. "I won't bore you with the details like which round this is, but for those of you who are new, I will explain a few things before you all begin.
"First, I'll begin with the importance of this exam. A few thousand years ago, the rulers of our Realm, the Kings, Queens, Emperors and Empresses of the Martial Plane, began to prepare us for an impending invasion. According to their information, the blossoming of this generation will be of utmost importance to our success or failure in defending against this threat.
"It might seem that for a threat of this caliber, battle prowess is most important. However, our leaders have much better foresight than we do. They understand that without the evolution of our Professions, our battle prowess will become equally as limited. As a result, they've chosen to invest in certain Professions with the help of these Exam Realms.
"Your role here is only to use the resources given to you to improve your comprehension of Herbology to one day become the pillars that uphold our Realm. Do not let failure weigh you down! Learn, improve, adapt. We're all rooting for you! Good luck!"
The moment the energetic woman's voice faded, the veil around the image that floated before Ryu disappeared. However, while others dove into their exam as a timer began to tick away, Ryu paused, a deep frown setting into his handsome features.
Unfortunately, he simply didn't have enough information to address his worries. This so-called invasion was likely the same event brought up by the Zu Clan Ancestors, but how could Ryu trust that a group of individuals power hungry enough to eradicate his home Shrine Plane, the Martial Plane, had now turned over a new leaf to begin looking after the youths of their generation?
Ryu sneered. 'If you'd like to help me so badly, who am I to turn my nose up at your offer?'
Ryu's mind sharpened as he focused on the floating image before him. Some of the faster individuals had already moved on to their second or third image, while the slower were just completing their first.
The concept of this first round was simple. An image of a Common Grade herb was presented. However, this image was purposely flawed. It was a spliced together image of numerous herbs. The examinees were tasked with pointing out the flaws and naming the Common Grade herb.
The issue here was that it was a spliced herb. This meant that what was a 'flaw' and what was not was dependant on numerous factors. An examinee had to first analyze the image and decide what herb made up the largest percentage of the image, then name everything else as a flaw. This was several orders of magnitude more difficult that simply naming an herb. Just to clear one image, one had to understand several herbs not as a whole, but down to its individual parts.
'This image is spliced with two different herbs, 90% of which is Spice Primer Root and 10% of which Bear Bane Root.'
Both were root type spiritual herbs. Spice Primer Root was known for its ability to enhance cooking by making spices and herbs taste more aged. It was especially good for use in low quality Spiritual Wines and Beers due to its ability to cut down the time needed for the aging process as well. Bear Bane Root was good for shooing away mammalian type beasts, especially ones with a hibernation cycle. It was able to accelerate the chemical reactions that signaled to beasts it was time to hibernate, making them more languid and slowing their reaction times.
Ryu recognized them immediately. Though he wasn't using his Heavenly Pupils, his mind was on another level after fusing with the Embryonic Origin Flame. His memory was already excellent, but it became even more so after this event. He could recall memories even from when he was a child with absolute clarity.
Like this, Ryu unknowingly fell into a Breath of Earth state. Before, he could only hold on for half an hour, but now that his Mental Realm had doubled in size, holding on for two or even three hours was no problem. He tore through the exam with a practiced ease. He went so quickly that his hands blurred as he quickly picked out flaws and named herbs, even the shifting images couldn't keep up with his speed.
At some point in time, those on pillars near Ryu couldn't help but look over. Though Spiritual Sense was blocked, their eyes worked just fine. The most irritating part was that they couldn't even accuse Ryu of randomly answering questions to look cool. The purpose of the pillars below their feet was to move along with the examinee's completion percentage. If one got a question wrong, they would move back, if they got one right or partly right, they would move forward a certain amount. But, Ryu hadn't moved backward even once!
The questions continued to become more difficult. At first, there were only two herbs spliced together with exaggeratedly different percentage makeups. However, soon, the 9:1 ratios Ryu began with became 8:2, then 7:3. Eventually, herbs began to show up as 55% and 45%. The percentages became so close that deciding which herb was the principal herb and which parts were flawed became as difficult as scaling a mountain even if you recognized both herbs immediately.
However, it didn't stop there. After reaching that threshold, two herbs became three, then four. Eventually, even ten herbs were being spliced together at varying percentages. Ryu didn't even realize it, but he had already gone past the threshold needed for the first round of this exam. One was only supposed to move forward thirty-three meters to pass the first round, but Ryu was already past the hundred-meter mark that was required to pass the whole exam!
Somewhere, maybe on a different Plane, the energetic woman watched all of this happen. She was tired of spitting up her drink, so she placed her glass of Spiritual Wine a long ways from herself.
Of course, she knew that she could also complete this exam with such flying colors, but she was, without exaggeration, hundreds of times older than Ryu and had long since become a Heaven Grade Herbologist. Even with her level of genius, she had never been able to do this at Ryu's age.
To be fair, Ryu was actually over a thousand years old mentally, so it wasn't an exact comparison. But, even if the lady knew this, she would still be embarrassed because she was over ten thousand years old.
'Oh boy… How do I deal with this one?...'