When she finished, she glanced at Yun Che, who had already answered. Su Meilin remained motionless for several seconds.
The serene expression on her face changed very little, but her eyes revealed genuine surprise.
"He answers so quickly and gets them right while maintaining such a calm expression, as if he were merely answering unimportant questions."
She then speculated about something. Yun Che was reconstructing the answers. That was vastly different from someone who merely memorized recipes and depended on exact recollection.
Someone who understood the principles could face a new situation, and He Zhong’s questions were beginning to explore precisely that difference.
The eighth question appeared when He Zhong raised his voice.
"An alchemist possesses two ingredients with completely opposing spiritual natures."
As he spoke, an image of the two ingredients appeared.
"He does not possess a third ingredient capable of neutralizing the reaction."
He Zhong paused.
"How can he perform the fusion?"
This time, even Guo Han froze. The normally confident young man narrowed his eyes. The question did not provide a recipe. It required an answer to be derived through reasoning.
Zhao Ming began writing before stopping and mentally tearing apart his answer before he had even finished writing it. Then he tried again.
Guo Han also began writing, while Su Meilin remained still for several seconds with her brush suspended in the air.
The dark horse, Yun Che, closed his eyes. In his mind, the principles he had studied began connecting.
Opposing natures, reaction speed, flame control, and finally, the amount of energy.
Then came the secondary principles: the sequence of integration and stabilization.
A solution emerged in his mind. Yun Che opened his eyes and wrote without haste or concern.
The jade tablet glowed, indicating that the answer was correct.
This time, no one laughed or murmured.
Zhao Ming simply stared at the light before Yun Che. His hand tightened around the brush so hard that his fingers turned white.
"How is this possible? Could he have hidden some information?"
The words escaped his lips, and Yun Che, who was sitting nearby, heard them, causing him to turn his head slightly.
"Is something wrong, Senior Brother?"
Zhao Ming opened his mouth but said nothing.
He Zhong was watching Yun Che. The evaluator finally raised an eyebrow.
"Can you explain your answer?"
Yun Che stood up again, and the entire square followed his movement.
"When two spiritual natures directly come into conflict, trying to force the fusion through a stronger flame will only increase the instability."
He pointed at the image.
"The solution is to control the speed of the reaction."
He Zhong crossed his hands in front of his chest.
"How can that be done, in your view?"
"By reducing the initial intensity of the flame and allowing the two energies to approach each other gradually."
Yun Che paused.
"We don’t need to force them to fuse immediately."
His eyes swept across the formation.
"We need to prevent them from destroying each other before they can be integrated."
For several seconds, no one breathed normally.
The answer was simple once it had been heard, but arriving at it was not simple.
He Zhong slowly nodded.
"Exactly. And the answer is quite precise, I must add."
Yun Che returned to his seat.
Su Meilin followed him with her eyes. Finally, her expression had changed, revealing curiosity and respect.
Guo Han displayed the same expression. He slowly lowered his brush and seriously considered the possibility of losing.
Zhao Ming did not have the same thought. He was too irritated to think clearly. His breathing had become heavier, and the confidence had disappeared from his face.
He remembered the words from the previous day.
"He won’t last a week."
Now those words seemed ridiculous.
He Zhong presented another question.
"A disciple begins refining a pill."
The image for the question appeared.
"The ingredients have been prepared correctly."
The image changed.
"The temperature is correct."
Another image appeared.
"The purification has also been completed without errors."
He Zhong paused.
"But during the formation, the core begins to lose stability."
The square once again fell into silence.
"What could be the cause?"
This time, Yun Che did not answer immediately. He observed first.
Correct temperature.
Correct preparation.
Correct purification.
That eliminated several possibilities. Therefore, it could only be the amount of spiritual energy.
Yun Che wrote his answer, getting it right once again, causing the tablet to light up.
He Zhong looked at him with some curiosity, unintentionally letting a question slip from his lips.
"Why?"
Yun Che stood up to explain his theory.
"Well, how should I explain this so that it is easier to understand? The amount of energy used during the formation was never specified as being correct."
He Zhong said nothing.
"An insufficient amount cannot sustain the core."
Yun Che paused before continuing.
"But an excessive amount also causes instability."
He looked at the other participants with a faintly provocative smile on his face.
"An alchemist doesn’t just need energy, right?"
His voice remained calm.
"He needs precise and meticulous control."
He Zhong’s expression became serious.
"Correct."
This time, no one spoke.
Even Qin Ruolan remained motionless. Her fingers had stopped on the table. The evaluation was taking a turn she had not expected.
Yun Che had entered the Refining House as a complete unknown, a disciple from the Massage House, someone who, according to his fellow disciples, had never refined a pill.
And yet, he was answering the advanced questions as if he had studied alchemy for years.
A question arose in Qin Ruolan’s mind.
What exactly did you do during those ten hours? What kind of monstrous genius are you, Yun Che?
He Zhong raised the final tablet.
"This will be the most difficult question of this stage."
The atmosphere seemed to freeze.
The disciples straightened their backs. Zhao Ming took a deep breath. Guo Han narrowed his eyes.
Su Meilin became completely still, and Yun Che raised his gaze when the question finally appeared.
No one wrote for five seconds.
Guo Han continued staring at the tablet. Zhao Ming deeply furrowed his brow, and Su Meilin moved her face closer to the formation.
Yun Che read and reread the question several times before realizing it.
After nearly a minute, he realized that something was wrong.
Not with the answer, but with the question itself.
If it had been an ordinary question, no one would have noticed. Yun Che was no longer merely reading words.
He was analyzing the structure.
The conditions presented were insufficient.
A fundamental piece of information was missing.
He slowly raised his eyes.
"May I ask a question?"
Everyone turned toward him.
He Zhong nodded after considering it for a moment.
"Speak."
Yun Che pointed at the formation.
"This condition is incomplete."
A murmur spread across the square.
He Zhong narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Why do you think that?"
Yun Che stood up.
The sound of the chair sliding across the stone seemed far too loud in the silence.
He walked toward the formation.
"It is impossible to determine a single answer without knowing the spiritual nature of this ingredient."
He Zhong remained silent.
Yun Che pointed at the first condition.
"If it has a cold nature, we will have one solution."
He pointed at the second.
"If it is neutral, we will have another."
Then he pointed at the third.
"And if it possesses a hot nature, the method will need to be changed again. So, without knowing this particular point, how am I supposed to proceed?"
The disciples were completely motionless.
Zhao Ming no longer looked irritated. He was now confused.
Guo Han stared at the question with almost obsessive concentration.
Su Meilin was the first to understand.
Her eyes widened slightly.
He was right.
Yun Che turned toward He Zhong.
"Therefore, the question does not have a single answer as it has been presented."
Silence.
He Zhong looked at the tablet and then at the formation.
Finally, he slowly raised his face and laughed.
"Correct. You are right, young man. A brilliant analysis."
The words spread across the square.
No one spoke.
Yun Che returned to his seat.
But something had changed.
Until that moment, some disciples had still been searching for an explanation for Yun Che’s monstrous performance.
Perhaps he had studied beforehand.
Perhaps he had been lucky.
Perhaps the questions were easier than they appeared.
Now there was no way to hide reality.
Yun Che had found an error in the evaluation itself, not because he had memorized an answer,
but because he understood the principles well enough to recognize when a question was wrong.
Qin Ruolan looked at him for several seconds.
Her face remained serene, her firm breasts unmoving, but there was a different intensity in her eyes.
Zhao Ming’s expression hardened. Guo Han slowly lowered his gaze, and Su Meilin remained silent.
None of the disciples looked at Yun Che as the young man who had entered the Refining House from the Massage House anymore.
Now they looked at him as an opponent.
The evaluation was not over yet, but the humiliation that was supposed to fall upon Yun Che was beginning to change direction.
And no one in the square yet knew how far this would go.