Sovereign of the Three Realms

Repressing a belly full of rage, the examiner gave a level three mission token to Jiang Chen, laughing coldly, “Room 68, go there yourself.”

Jiang Chen’s expression was remote as he took possession of the mission token, heading for room 68. He could naturally make out from the examiner’s malicious attitude that he was likely from the Purple Sun Sect.

With Master Shuiyue as a previous example however, the examiner would only be making trouble for himself if he tried to do anything in the exams.

Others had requested the level three mission in the pill area before, but an instance would only occur once every few days.

When all of the candidates in the great hall heard that the secular genius had requested this mission, they cast sideways glances at each other and put their heads together, thinking that this was incredible.

“This secular genius is simply too cocky! He went for a level three mission? Is he really treating this subject as his own backyard, for him to play around in however he’d like?”

“Level three mission? He’s going to run out in a second with dust on his face.”

“Definitely. How many geniuses have failed on a level three mission? An ordinary kid dares take the challenge? He’s being overconfident like teaching his grandma to suck eggs!”

“Not necessarily, I’ve heard that he completed a level two mission yesterday. He even beat Tang Hong from the Precious Tree Sect previously on the pill foundation exam.”

“What? That foolish muscle guy Tang Hong?” Someone asked in surprise.

A huge roar sounded from outside the hall when that question was asked. “Which bastard is running his mouth about me behind my back?!”

An enthusiastic and vigorous form charged in, grabbing the fellow who’d spoke and threw him out before he’d even had time to react.

“Screw you man. You take me for a sick cat if I don’t show you that I’m still a tiger! Try talking about me behind my back next time, see if I don’t break your bones!!”

Tang Hong had been a bit late because he was still training. When he made it here, he happened to hear someone talking bad about him, that he was a foolish muscle guy.

People talking about others behind their backs was what Tang Hong hated most in this world.

“You, c’mere. What were you talking about just now?” Tang Hong pointed at another candidate who’d taken part in the discussions.

The candidate’s face was ashen as he looked at Tang Hong in fine fettle. He knew that this primitive brute was about to go on a rampage. Fear pricked his heart, but he didn’t conceal anything and gave a full accounting of everything.

“Challenging a level three mission?” Tang Hong’s eyes lit up when he heard this. He slapped his thigh and complimented. “My boss alright! Such charisma!”

Tang Hong laughed heartily and ignored the gossiping candidates. Although these fellows were all part of the sky quadrant, their strength was in the lower echelons. They naturally didn’t dare offend Tang Hong, someone who would rank in the top ten. They all rubbed their noses and shrank to the side.

“I request a level two mission.” Tang Hong seemed to have been affected by Jiang Chen as he also walked up with a heroic, expansive air and slapped his token down onto the table.

The Purple Sun Sect examiner was the type to hate one thing on account of another. He turned his attentions to Tang Hong, but didn’t dare cause trouble for him.

He could inwardly curse that both of them would fail so that they would face the penalty of being barred for five days.

“Foolish brute, wallowing in degeneration to take a country bumpkin as a boss. This brat is throwing away all of the Precious Tree Sect’s face.” The examiner grumbled privately.

…...

Jiang Chen entered the exam room and started his new challenge.

A level three mission was indeed much harder than a level two mission. However, to Jiang Chen, there was no problem that was insurmountable for him when it came to pills.

The mission requested that candidates select the useful ingredients from a pile of a thousand and put them together to form a base that could be used to refine pills.

The request was that candidates be able to put together ten recipes.

Quite a few ingredients were needed to refine a single type of pill. It could range anywhere from four to more than ten ingredients.

One main ingredient was definitely needed, the amount of the rest of the complementing ingredients could be many or few.

However, it was quite a tall task to put together ten pill recipes from the mess of a thousand ingredients here.

Four hours were given for such a task.

For an ordinary cultivator, a thousand ingredients were enough of a headache. It would take at least an hour to organize them all and finely identify them.

It was even harder when one needed to put them into recipe combinations.

To Jiang Chen however, these pills were all novice level creations. There was nothing difficult about them at all.

He quickly sorted them all and picked out which ones could be useful in refinement, which could be the main ingredient.

He quickly picked thirty or forty ingredients suitable for being the main ingredient in a recipe.

Recipes having to do with these ingredients then rose in his mind. He looked over all of them, and then looked at the other ingredients.

If all complementing ingredients were present, then he could put them together as one recipe.

He proceeded neatly in this manner.

One had to say, this level three mission was indeed complex, but that was only for outsiders. To well-versed experts, the most complicated things were easy, if they attacked the problem with the right methods.

It was said that problems were difficult for those who didn’t know how to tackle them, but those who did wouldn’t find them hard at all.

There were 23 recipe combinations in front of Jiang Chen after an hour. He confirmed them again and again, ensuring that there was nothing wrong with all of these small and large recipes.

Jiang Chen made identifying marks on each of these combinations. He also summarized what pills could be refined, the pills’ name, and the general theory behind each pill.

Exactly two hours had passed after he’d completed all this.

When he finally confirmed that all was in order, Jiang Chen walked out and said to the examiner outside the room. “I’m done, will you check please?

The examiner was also surprised at Jiang Chen’s speed, but didn’t say anything. He walked into the room and was greeted by the sight of 23 combinations. Detailed, complete, visible at a glance.

“These… these are all your combinations? So many?” The examiner was shocked as he stared dumbly at the combinations. There were 23 of them! Far in excess of the 10 required by the mission.

The examiner was thrown into a disarray after counting up the number. It was as if someone had suddenly targeted his acupoint and had petrified him.

“Indeed. According to my calculations, this should be the limit. The rest of the ingredients won’t be able to form another recipe.”

Of this, Jiang Chen was quite certain of.

The examiner took quite a while to respond as his voice was full of emotion. He tsk’ed in amazement. “Genius, genius… we’ve also simulated this mission before and 23 recipes are indeed the greatest number of combinations that can be made. But did you know how long we took to simulate this?”

“How long?” Jiang Chen was taken aback. He hadn’t thought that the examiner would talk about this with him.

“Eight of us participated, and we spent 32 hours, working day and night, to come to this conclusion and be certain that we hadn’t overlooked anything. Indeed, 23 combinations is the limit.”

The examiner sighed again. “Genius, such genius. I have to say, this is divine class potential! I have truly learnt something today. It’s not difficult for us to complete ten combinations in a short amount of time, but for you to have identified all combinations in such a short amount of time, this is indeed heaven defying potential.”

This examiner was completely different from the Purple Sun Sect examiner at the entrance of the area. His tones and words were full of admiration.

It was indeed as he’d said. It was an easy thing for the examiners to complete this mission in a short amount of time, given their potential.

But to use half the allotted time to identify all 23 combinations, what was this if not a freak genius?

This was almost outside the scope of his imagination.

“Young man, you’re the youngster gifted with the most pill talent that I’ve seen thus far. Don’t be unworthy of your talents!”

The examiner’s tone was grave and earnest. His heart of treasuring talent was quite evident.

Jiang Chen smiled, “Then, have I passed?”

The examiner couldn’t help but laugh, “If I don't pass you, then us old men would likely never pass as well. Not only do you pass, but you pass with flying colors for your miraculous completion. If it wasn’t for the rules dictating that a level three mission could only be awarded 40 points, I would give you 80 or 160 points if it were up to me! I think that your answer scroll is absolutely perfect.”

The examiner was profuse with his praise as he marked the token with his unique sign. “Go and obtain your points. Youngster, I’m certain that there will come a day that you’re the most venerated pill master in the sixteen kingdoms!”

This was definitely the highest praise.

Jiang Chen smiled faintly. He felt that it was touching that someone was encouraging him so kindly.

“Young man, with your strength, you can absolutely challenge a level four mission. There have only been three instances of a candidate challenging a level four mission up until now. Only one has succeeded. I hope you can be the second.” The examiner encouraged.

“There’s not much meaning in being second. If I’m going to do it, I’m going to be the first. Has anyone ever requested a level five mission?”

No one thus far had requested a requested a level five mission yet. To be frank, only a sparse few had requested a level four mission up to this point. It’d only be requested three times in the last sixty, seventy days.

And, only one instance had resulted in success. The successful case had been lucky, the mission hadn’t been that difficult then.

Ever since someone had successfully passed a level four mission, no one had dared challenge it afterwards. It was too difficult. For any of the candidates to succeed, they would have insane heaven-defying good luck.

However, it was already something to be proud of having completed a level three mission. At least, up until now, there had been only 10 successful instances of passing a level three pill mission in the last sixty days.

Jiang Chen returned with a triumphant smile. When the Purple Sun Sect examiner took Jiang Chen’s token, his very face turned green.

He’d been taunting and jeering Jiang Chen before, and now, Jiang Chen had slapped him back in the most thorough way possible.

When Jiang Chen took back his candidate token, the points on it had changed to 160 points.

100 foundation points, 20 from a level two mission, 40 from a level three. He now had 160 points!