Volume One, Chapter Fifteen: He Cheated

When Jiang Heng returned, everyone else had already been sent away, so they all said he had missed quite a spectacle.

Missed it or not! Otherwise, he would have been the star of the show.

If that were the case, it was better to forget it! He didn’t want to end up like a leftover cuckold, wearing a green hat and raising someone else’s child.

“Hehe, Gu Lan sure is lucky in love! A beautiful wife and concubines—must be a sight to behold!” he said with a grin.

Everyone laughed, “Such a blessing depends on who you are. With Gu Lan’s status, trying to have lovers on both sides isn’t really a blessing at all!”

Having multiple wives and concubines is something only those with wealth can manage. You, a poor commoner who barely got into the academy by borrowing money, trying to imitate that lifestyle is sheer folly.

They laughed for a while, then the instructor announced the start of the trial. Everyone rushed into Wansen Mountain to complete their tasks, tossing Gu Lan’s scandalous rumors to the back of their minds.

This assessment was tough: their alchemy institute team had to gather all the spiritual herbs needed for six prescriptions within three days.

These formulas were all different, and the varieties of herbs were numerous, living in separate regions. Different regions also meant different groups of beasts. So the task was truly difficult.

But Jiang Heng felt no pressure. His bracelet space already contained eighty percent of the herbs. He could focus on finding the species he didn’t have first, then supplement the rest with what he already possessed if time ran short.

Still, he wanted to complete the task mostly on his own.

Three days flew by. Jiang Heng found sixty-four kinds of spiritual herbs and killed eleven spirit beasts that lived symbiotically with the herbs, including a level-two beast.

Yet, even so, he hadn’t collected all the herbs—he was missing four.

Though he had two of those four in reserve, he decided not to cheat. He had already tried hard and still hadn’t finished. He didn’t believe anyone else would do better than him.

At the rendezvous point, most people looked disheveled; some were even injured.

“Wah! I only found twenty kinds of herbs—not even half!” one wailed.

“Tell me about it,” sighed another. “I’m missing nineteen.”

“You’re lucky. I’m short twenty-six.”

The scene was one of despair.

“Jiang Heng, how many did you find?” Ye Feng asked, his classmate.

He thought Jiang Heng must have been too devastated by the blow before the trial to focus on gathering herbs. Otherwise, why was he silent when everyone else was talking?

Jiang Heng smiled faintly. “Not bad. I didn’t get them all, but not far off.”

“Really?” Ye Feng didn’t believe him. They had teamed up but no one had completed the task. How could Jiang Heng do it alone?

“Master Jiang, you’re joking, right? This trial is so hard, I doubt even one in a hundred finishes it.” Ye Feng’s mouth curled with mockery.

“You don’t study much anyway; you probably can’t even recognize the herbs in the prescriptions. Yet you tell us you almost collected them all? Ridiculous! Ha ha ha!” He burst into laughter.

It was indeed laughable. Jiang Heng, besides a good family background, had nothing else.

Ha! Even if his ancestors were Golden Core cultivators, what of it? Cultivators sever attachments and don’t care much about descendants. His father disappeared, his mother was gone—he was a complete orphan.

Now, even the woman who had been chasing him had left, announcing her betrayal to the world in such a blatant way. The poor guy must be wearing a green hat so thick grass might grow on it.

Ye Feng chuckled with pride, and the others laughed heartily.

Jiang Heng took it in stride. These were classmates for a few years, but after that, everyone would go their own way. No need to stay together forever.

What mattered, anyway?

The trial results were verified on the spot. Upon returning, the instructor called everyone up one by one to display their harvest.

“Qian Gui: fifty-seven expected, thirty-two found, Grade C.”

“Guo He: sixty-one expected, forty-seven found, Grade B.”

“Zhang Caiying: fifty-three expected, thirty-nine found, upper Grade C.”

“...”

“Ye Feng: sixty-two expected, thirty-one found, Grade C.”

“Jiang Heng: sixty-eight expected…”

At this, murmurs rose among the crowd. “Wow, this guy’s got it worse—more than anyone else!”

“Yeah, I bet he didn’t even get half.”

Whispering among themselves, they listened as the instructor continued: “Found sixty-four species.”

The instructor was stunned by Jiang Heng’s haul and double-checked before approving: “Indeed, sixty-four. Upper Grade A!”

This caused an uproar. Ye Feng was the first to accuse, “Instructor, I suspect Jiang Heng cheated!”

The instructor glanced at Ye Feng. “Do you have any proof?”

Ye Feng faltered. “No, but since everyone else is this far short, how could he have gathered so many? He must have prepared them beforehand.”

The instructor’s eyes turned cold. “Jiang Heng, would you like to respond?”

Jiang Heng smiled. “Instructor, since Ye Feng accuses me of cheating, shouldn’t he present evidence? One cannot condemn a person on baseless accusations.”

He then looked at Ye Feng with a smile. “You’d better produce your evidence, or I will sue you for defamation and for misleading the instructor, attempting to harm his reputation.”

“Ye Feng, do you understand the gravity of this?” Jiang Heng asked icily.

“Nonsense! I don’t! Your results are so different from usual, how can you blame people for doubting? I bet you can’t even recognize all those herbs. Everyone knows you joined the alchemy institute just for Han Jingyue!” Ye Feng shouted, all bluff and bluster.

“Hehe! Why do you care why I joined? You forbid me from falling in love with alchemy and studying day and night? Besides, my family does have some background in this field.”

“Hmph, so what if you have an ancestral legacy?” Ye Feng snapped.

“Hehe, ancestral legacy? That only works if I’m willing to study and absorb it. It doesn’t get forced into my brain like some magic trick,” Jiang Heng sneered.

“Enough, no more side talk,” the instructor interrupted sternly, silencing their quarrel. “Next!”