Strongest Abandoned Son

Ye Mo saw that the judges had started looking at the jade slips. There were thousands of them, but it wasn’t a huge workload for them.

Most contestants were discussing the questions at the waiting area.

Mu Yiqing squeezed through the crowd to get to Ye Mo and said, ”Martial Brother Ye, how many did you recognize? I only recognized five.”

Ye Mo heard this and knew Mu Yiqing had been disqualified for sure. Five herbs and not even an recipe - there was no way Mu Yiqing was going to pass.

”You recognized five of them! I only recognized three,” another contestant said with dejection.

”Yes, these herbs are too hard. We rarely get to see them at all. I’ve only recognized six,” someone else said, but he was clearly satisfied with his result.

Ye Mo nodded. Six herbs were enough to form a simple recipe, but he was soon caught up in the conversation of others and eavesdropped.

”Martial Brother Cai, what were those spirit herbs? They were really uncommon,” a beautiful woman in her thirties asked a man, who also didn’t look very old. She looked very fond of him.

All the contestants around them stopped talking and formed a circle around the Martial Brother Cai, waiting to hear his answer.

Ye Mo studied this Martial Brother Cai. He didn’t seem very old, but he was already at false core state. He was probably in his 40s to 50s, despite looking like he was in his 30s.

Seeing Ye Mo study this guy, Mu Yiqing said quietly, ”He’s Cai Sheng, the core disciple of the Heaven Pill Sect. He’s only 49. He’s a famous pill concoction genius in the North Far State. He even ranked tenth on the pill concoction hall of fame!”

No wonder he was so popular! Ye Mo also wanted to hear how many herbs the guy had recognized.

Martial Brother Cai seemed very polite. He smiled and saluted with his fist, ”This year’s questions are a bit hard indeed. All the herbs on there were uncommon. To be honest, I don’t think these questions can reflect a pill master’s abilities. Some people are very good at pill concoction, but they weren’t able to recognize these rare herbs.”

This immediately was confirmed by everyone. Some people were very good at pill concoction, but they didn’t know many uncommon herbs. The test’s questions weren’t very good indeed. Ye Mo thought that guy was quite smart. His words had resonated with everyone. He got on everyone’s good side without doing anything.

When the voices quietened down, Cai Sheng continued, ”But we also need to be understanding with the Pill Association. There are too many contestants this time. A question like this is simple and can reach their goals in the shortest time. So those friends who have real skills don’t need to mind it too much. You just need to know yourself that you’re truly skilled.”

There was another round of applause from the people around him. Clearly, they all agreed.

Ye Mo realized the guy first had spoken for the contestants, and then spoken for the pill association’s sake - he really knew how to react.

”Cai Sheng, stop saying good things! You’ve ended up saying good things for both sides. Now, we want to hear the answer to the question. You don’t need to comfort us and then comfort the pill association!” a man said impolitely. Clearly, he didn’t like the way Cai Sheng had spoken.

Cai Sheng wasn’t angry at all. Instead, he smiled and said, ”You’re right friend. I was lucky enough to have read a book left behind by an Qianbei. Thus, I was able to recognize ten herbs.”

Ye Mo heard this and his heart sunk. Cai Sheng had recognized ten! He was so good. Yet, this guy had only ranked tenth in the pill concoction hall of fame. It seemed like it would be really hard for him to get into the top ten while conserving his real strength. Ye Mo just hoped that the next question didn’t have content from Things on it.

Cai Sheng clearly hadn’t read Things, but he could recognize ten herbs, which meant that there were really a lot of capable people in the cultivation realm. Of course, Ye Mo would never believe that Cai Sheng had just read some book left behind by a Qianbei. He didn’t understand how the Heaven Pill Sect worked, but it was probably not a simple sect.

As soon as Cai Sheng said this, everyone was shook.

”Martial Brother Cai is so good! You managed to recognize ten. I think that even if you hadn’t written the recipe, you would still pass.”

”I think Martial Brother Cai can improve and get into top three this time.”

”Martial Brother Cai, what were those ten herbs? What do they do?”

…

Just when Cai Sheng was about to speak, a sneer interrupted him. Everyone looked at where the sneer came from.

A woman in a pink dress said in contempt, ”You’ve only recognized ten herbs? What’s there to show off about?! Looking at you, I thought you would have recognized 12, or have made a heaven level pill recipe.”

Clearly, the pink-dressed female was targeting Cai Sheng. Those who wanted to defend Cai Sheng saw the sect logo on her clothes and shut their mouths. The Immortal Herb Valley wasn’t something ordinary cultivators could mess with.

However, Cai Sheng wasn’t angry. He saluted with his fists. ”So it’s Martial Sister Guang from the Immortal Herb Valley. My insubstantial knowledge made Martial Sister Guang laugh. I believe you’ve recognized 12 types of herbs.”

The pink-dressed lady said calmly, ”Cai Sheng, you don’t need to act like this. I’ve only recognized ten, but my Martial Sister recognized more than you.”

”This woman is called Guang Wei, she’s from the Immortal Herb Valley. She ranked 17th on the pill concoction hall of fame, but her martial sister is famous. Qin Muxin, she ranked 22nd, but that was 10 years ago,” Mu Yiqing explained to Ye Mo.

”Martial Sister Qin, come here,” the pink-dressed lady waved her hand to someone in the distance.

A blue-dressed woman saw this and immediately walked over. She said to Guang Wei, ”Martial Sister Guang, you-”

”Martial !ister Muxin, say the names of the 12 types of herbs. Otherwise, some people think they’re number one in the world after just recognizing 10.” Guang Wei then glanced coldly at Cai Sheng.

Cai Sheng smiled bitterly, but she didn’t speak.

”Martial Brother Ye, this blue-dressed lady is Qin Muxin of the Immortal Herb Valley, a definite genius,” Mu Yiqing said again.

Ye Mo studied Qin Muxin. She appeared to be in her 20s. Her new-moon-like eyebrows with her flower-like face seemed very peaceful, like a poppy in the depth of a valley. Her dark silky hair laid on her back with a few loose strands around her ear.

The first feeling she gave Ye Mo was that she was pretty, but she didn’t like to talk. She wasn’t cold, however. He just couldn’t connect this serene water-like girl with the 5th cultivator on the foundation establishment state hall of fame.

Those on the foundation establishment state hall of fame weren’t easy to mess with. How could they not have very powerful means? Was she really strong at fighting too?

Qin Muxin walked over calmly and said, ”Martial Zister Guang, I could only recognise 11, not 12.”

”11 is 11. Still better than 10!” Guang Wei said.

Cai Sheng was like a gentleman. He walked up to Qin Muxin and saluted her with his fists. ”Martial Sister Qin, please enlighten me. I will be very grateful.”

Qin Muxin nodded and said, ”The ones I recognized were the Firefox Flower, the Earth Dragon Root, the Spirit Attraction Grass, the Moon Attraction Ice, the Yellow Wall Tail, the Socket Wood Skin, etc.”

Two of them were indeed in Things. It seemed there were quite a lot of knowledgeable people out there.

”I wasn’t able to recognize the last one,” Qin Muxin said.

”The last one was the Sea Mud Flowerless Weed,” another voice said.