Behind the long rosewood table, of the six academy elders, the elder with the ash-colored beard and the rigid looking middle-aged man with the gray leather hat exchanged a look, nodding towards each other.

“Next person.”

Then, the elder with the ash-colored beard looked at Lin Xi, pointed at the other opening of the tent and released a shout.

Lin Xi opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something, but after thinking about it for a bit, he seemed to have thought of something, quickly walking towards that exit.

The exit led to open tents, these tents most likely here to prevent the test’s contents from leaking out. Everyone who already finished their exam were waiting there.

With just a single look, Lin Xi saw Zhang Ping who was sitting in the left corner.

Zhang Ping’s face had a dispirited and absent-minded appearance, looking like he didn’t do that well. Ignoring the others’ looks, Lin Xi directly walked up to Zhang Ping and quickly asked, “Zhang Ping, what was your test like? Was it also those pieces of refined metal with the runes, choosing a weapon, memorizing those medicinal herbs, and finding out which egg was alive?”

“Yeah.” Zhang Ping looked at Lin Xi with a pale expression. “My test went really badly. From what the lecturer said, I only matched a single pair of the four correctly. Even if I can enter the academy, I don’t think I can enter ‘Natural Arts’.”

Lin Xi nodded. He frowned slightly, and then said a single word.

“Return.”

...

The scenery suddenly changed.

“Lin Xi, do you really have that much confidence in entering the academy, moreover with better results than him?”

Lin Xi and Zhang Ping were no longer in that post exam tent, but rather in the tent before seeing those lecturers. Next to Zhang Ping was Meng Bai, the two of them currently looking at Lin Xi with doubtful looks, asking quietly.

That golden spoon youngster was currently looking at Lin Xi with disdain, sneering.

“Relax, I won’t lose unless I want to lose on purpose.” Lin Xi had a faint smile on his face, “I’ll win for sure.”

“Lin Xi, this is no joke…”

Right at this time, the black-robed middle-aged lecturer shouted with a serious voice, “Zhang Ping!”

Zhang Ping immediately subconsciously bounced up from the ground.

“Wait.” Lin Xi grabbed this extremely nervous youngster. He patted his shoulder, said good luck, and then also whispered by his ears, “Zhang Ping, didn’t you say you want to enter the Natural Arts Department? I remember I saw some recordings, saying that Blackwater Gold needs to be matched with Water Cloud Runes, Black King Iron goes with Golden Phoenix Runes, Golden Steel with Evergreen Runes, Brightsilver Gold with Ancient Vine Runes… I don’t know if it’ll be useful for you or not.”

Zhang Ping stared blankly for a bit, clearly not understanding why Lin Xi would suddenly tell him these things at this time. However, at this time, he didn’t have any time to ask anything else. He gave Lin Xi a look, nodded, and then quickly entered the tent behind the black-robed lecturer.

“It’s coming!”

Soon afterwards, Lin Xi laughed. At the same time, that black-robed middle-aged lecturer with the strict expression shouted, “Lin Xi!”

Lin Xi entered the large tent where the six academy elders were again.

The six academy elders and the single-armed elder who was listening from the side all immediately felt a bit shocked at this time.

No matter which youngster it was, when they saw this type of serious setup and those internal organs, eyeballs, and other things, they would all reveal a bit of shock, but the expression on Lin Xi’s face was instead extremely calm, not all that affected.

Just from this alone, the black-haired man and the middle-aged woman already had favorable impressions.

“You’re Lin Xi? Have you cultivated soul force before?”

It was still that grave and stern black-haired male who spoke. “Come up and take a look at these weapons, which one do you feel is the most fitting?”

“I am Lin Xi, have never cultivated soul force before.” Lin Xi didn’t show much hesitation, walking up. He directly fetched that thin and sharp long sword.

“Alright, lower that sword.” The grave and stern man nodded.

The black-robed witch-like old woman then spoke out, “Give these objects a look, as well as the lines on these scrolls. How do you think these objects match up to the lines on those small scrolls? Match them up the way you think they should be matched together.”

Lin Xi nodded in respect, and then walked up.

It was still those four pieces of refined metal, as well as four small sheepskin scrolls. In a calm and unhurried manner, he placed the small sheepskin scroll with the phoenix tail shaped runes by a piece of black refined metal, placed the withered vine shaped rune sheepskin scroll by the silver refined metal, the sheepskin scroll with the flowing cloud runes by the other black refined steel. Finally, the long green leaf vine shaped runes were placed by that golden refined metal.

When Lin Xi lowered the third small sheepskin scroll, the black-robed old woman’s eyes already revealed a different color.

This place actually became a bit silent.

“Look my way.” The middle-aged woman’s voice finally sounded.

“Have you gotten a proper look?” The middle-aged woman gave Lin Xi a look. She reached out her hands, and then with a quick movement, a great white cloth covered all of those bottles, plants, and dried herbs.

“Tell me, apart from those bottles, how many stalks of medicinal herbs are there, what their distinguishable features are, which positions were they in on my table.” This middle-aged woman looked at Lin Xi and said.

“There are a total of fifteen stalks of medicine, five of them are grown inside the vessels, living, ten of them are dried… the leftmost stalk is a yellow dried medicinal herb, one foot in length, the very top has three small black fruits. Then, next to it is a stalk of living herb, planted in a celadon pot, a bit similar to a rose, the flower purple-colored, stem full of small pricks…”

Not only the middle-aged larger woman, even that old-fashioned man who wore the gray leather hat revealed a bit of a stunned expression.

Lin Xi was still continuing. The larger middle-aged woman’s eyes were already filled with emotions and even a look of zealotry. She suddenly interrupted Lin Xi, saying with an extremely serious voice, “You memorized these medicinal herbs deliberately right from the start? Otherwise, no matter how good your memory is, there is no way you could have remembered them so clearly in such a short time without any errors!”

Lin Xi was a bit shocked. He knew that his performance was too great, instead incurring the middle-aged woman’s suspicions, but he wasn’t flustered, only calmly replying, “That is not entirely the case… it is only that those internal organs, eyeballs, and other objects were a bit frightening, so they immediately drew my attention. Then, I saw those medicinal herbs were rather interesting, never seen them before, so I gave them a few extra looks, thus remembering them clearly.”

“Which medicinal herb do you feel is more interesting?” The larger middle-aged woman took a deep breath. She gave Lin Xi a look, her voice even changing slightly.

Before Lin Xi replied, an aged voice suddenly sounded, “Only a single one of these five eggs is alive, can be bred. See if you can pick it out.”

Pfft

When he recalled the words this elder with the serious and wizened expression spoke before, Lin Xi couldn’t help but laugh slightly.

“What are you laughing at?” The wizened elder’s brows shriveled together. Everyone’s eyes were like torches, all of them staring at Lin Xi.

“It’s nothing.” Lin Xi laughed with an innocent expression. He pointed at the red shelled egg among the five. “I just felt like this egg is like an ordinary chicken egg, and it is one that has already been cooked through. I was wondering if your respected self just randomly grabbed an egg that was prepared for breakfast here, which is why I…”

The wizened elder’s eyes immediately widened, sucking in a cold breath of air. “You really feel like this egg is an already cooked chicken egg?!”

“Yes.” Lin Xi nodded, a smile hanging from the corners of his lips.

The wizened elder took another deep breath, looking at Lin Xi with an extremely serious expression.” Then which one do you feel like is living, can be incubated?”

“If I had to guess…” Lin Xi nodded towards the largest egg, “Then I’ll choose that one.”

The wizened elder swallowed. He looked at Lin Xi. “En, very good…”

“Let me ask you a question.” At this time, the rigid looking middle-aged man adjusted his hat, looking at Lin Xi and began to ask his question.

Lin Xi immediately became nervous, because this rigid looking middle-aged man didn’t ask him any questions before.

“From when you first walked into this tent to when I asked you this question, how much time do you think passed in total? During this amount of time, roughly how many times has your heart beated?” The rigid looking middle-aged man asked Lin Xi without moving in the slightest.

Lin Xi suddenly released a breath of relief, because his fists that had clenched from momentary nervousness also loosened.

When he entered this world, he hadn’t learned too much about other things, but time… in this world, there might not be many people who can calculate it more clearly than him. Moreover, before, he even carefully calculated everything, so this could be said to be his strongest suit.

This world’s ‘one breath’ was called ‘one second’ in his previous world. The ‘one minute’ from his past word is equivalent to this world’s ‘one halt’. From when he first walked into this tent until now, three minutes and forty something seconds had passed, while his heartbeat, was roughly sixty to sixty-five a minute.

“From the start until now, I feel like three halts and forty something breaths of time had passed. My heart has beat a total of two hundred twenty something times.” Lin Xi calmly replied.

The rigid looking man also took a deep breath, his eyelids dropping, no longer saying anything.

“Let me test your literary talents a bit.” The elder with the ash-colored beard woke up, hurriedly asking, “Finish a poem for me, the first half is ‘Do not worry about the road ahead while ignoring the self’.”

“...” Lin Xi stared blankly, his body trembling slightly.

It wasn’t that he didn’t learn about this before, but rather that this poem was just too familiar to him.

“It isn’t easy, it is fine if you cannot answer it as well.” The middle-aged large woman and the others looked at each other, seeing this type of intention from the other side’s eyes. This was especially the case with that middle-aged larger woman who already wanted to speak out in consolation, have Lin Xi quickly step down to wait for his examination results. However, what none of them expected was that Lin Xi, who seemed like he couldn’t answer, instead suddenly slowly said, “Who under the heavens doesn’t know the lord.”

“Do not worry about the road ahead while ignoring the self… Who under the heavens doesn’t know the ruler![1]” The elder with the ash-colored beard suddenly stood up, even the face of the single-armed elder listening from the side revealed a clear expression of being moved, his lips trembling slightly, as if he was reciting this poem.

“Who under the heavens doesn’t know the ruler! Excellent breadth of spirit!” Only after the elder with the ash-colored beard stood up for a moment did he completely snap back to reality, shouting as if no one was here.

“You can go on.” The larger middle-aged woman looked at Lin Xi, nodding her head in a meaningful manner.

1. I only did a rough literal translation here, but the meaning is something along the lines of do not worry about not having intimate friends with you from today on, there is no one in this world who doesn’t recognize you (the ruler), all of them willing to become your friend