At dawn the next morning, Alex woke early.
The air was still cool, and a faint mist hung over the mountain.
He stepped out of his small log cabin, crossed the quiet courtyard, and began walking toward the Medicines Pavilion.
The sun slowly rose over the distant horizon. Golden light spilled across the sky, scattering throughyers of drifting mist. The colors shimmered across the mountain paths like schools of golden carp swimming through clouds.
It was a breathtaking sight.
But Alex barely slowed down.
He walked quickly along the stone path, surrounded by numerous Outer Sect disciples who were heading in the same direction. Their robes fluttered in the morning breeze.
None of them recognized him.
And Alex didn''t recognize any of them either.
Thest time he hade here, Xuan Chen had only given him a brief exnation
of how things worked inside the Medicines Pavilion.
Today, he intended to see it for himself.
When Alex arrived, he walked straight to one of the staff members standing near the entrance.
"I want to take the test to be an apothecary," Alex said.
The staff member looked him up and down.
Then he pointed toward a row of massive stone steles standing in the open courtyard.
"See those five stone steles?" the man said tly. "ce one spiritual stone on the tform and the test will begin. If you pass, you will qualify as a trainee apothecary.? "Thank you,” Alex said politely.
He walked across the courtyard and chose the stele standing farthest in the corner.
The stone monument towered over him.
Alex took out a spiritual stone and ced it onto the tform at the base of the stele.
The moment the stone touched the surface-
Energy surged through the monument.
Ancient runes carved into the stele lit up with a soft glow.
Suddenly, a dark dome of energy expanded outward andpletely surrounded Alex.
Inside the dome, an image appeared in the air before him.
A voice echoed from the stele.
"Identify the medicinal herb."
“The more urate your answers, the more points you will earn."
"Each incorrect answer will deduct one point."
Alex remained calm.
Beforeing here, he had already used Gaia to record and analyze countless herbs.
Because of that, recognizing them now was effortless.
He answered the first question immediately.
Then the next.
And the next.
Herb after herb appeared before him.
Alex answered every question without hesitation.
But after nearly an hour, he began to frown.
The images still hadn''t stopped.
More herbs kept appearing in the air.
One after another.
Endlessly.
Another hour passed.
Then another.
Alex stared at the floating images in disbelief.
"When is this test going to end?" he muttered in frustration. "This thing feels like it goes on forever."
Outside the stele, however, the situation waspletely different.
The courtyard had fallen into stunned silence.
Above the testing area stood another massive stele-the Ranking Stele.
It disyed the top hundred test scores in the sect.
The rankings were constantly updated through magic.
And right now, every single person in the courtyard was staring at it.
A new name had suddenly appeared.
Jun Jiu.
At first, it had quietly entered the bottom of the top hundred.
But then it began rising.
Fast.
Within minutes, the name climbed past the top fifty.
Then the top twenty.
The crowd erupted into whispers.
"Who is that?"
"Jun Jiu?"
"I''ve never heard that name before."
But the name didn''t stop moving.
It continued rising.
Slowly approaching the top ten.
The top ten rankings had remained unchanged for hundreds of years.
No one had managed to break into that list.
Until now.
More disciples gathered around the ranking stele.
Their eyes widened as Jun Jiu''s name climbed even higher.
Top nine.
Top seven.
Top five.
The entire courtyard fell into a tense silence.
Then suddenly-
Jun Jiu.
First ce.
The name settled at the very top of the ranking.
The record that had stood untouched for a thousand years had just been broken.
The courtyard exploded into chaos.
"Damn it! Who the hell is Jun Jiu?!"
"He just took first ce!"
"That record has stood for a thousand years!"
"He must be a genius!"
"We have to find this person!"
Meanwhile, Alex was still answering questions, his head pounding from the endless pressure. The test had already thrown hundreds-no thousands of herbs at him and still showed no sign of stopping.
Another herb appeared.
Then another.
And another.
The questions kepting.
Normally, the test would shut down automatically after five wrong answers. But Alex hadn''t missed a single one. Because of that, the
system
going
simply kept Continuing question after questi until the entire pool was exhausted. Cóntent
Finally, the dark dome echoed with a calm mechanical voice.
"You are getting a perfect score. Please ce your medallion on the side to receive
the imprint of sess."
Alex exhaled heavily.
"Finally."
He stepped forward and followed the procedure, pressing his medallion against the
stone slot beside the testing stele.
A faint glow spread across the surface.
With a low humming sound, the magical dark dome slowly dissolved and opened.
Fresh air rushed in.
Alex sucked in a deep breath, stretching his stiff shoulders.
"Damn... getting one pass is this brutal?"
He stepped outside and looked around.
No one was there.
He had chosen the farthest testing stele, tucked away in a quiet corner of the
grounds. It was so rarely used that many disciples didn''t even realize it existed.
Alex shrugged and began walking toward the Medicine Pavilion to report his result.
But the moment he arrived, he froze.
The courtyard was packed.
Dozens of disciples had gathered, all staring up at a massive stone ranking stele.
Voices buzzed everywhere.
Alex blinked, confused, then stepped closer and joined the crowd.
He tapped the shoulder of a nearby outer disciple.
"Senior brother, what''s going on?"
The disciple nced at him and pointed toward the towering stone stele.
"Can''t you see it?" he said. "Someone named Jun Jiu just shot straight to the top of
the rankings. That''s never happened before."
"Oh."
Alex nodded casually.
"Sounds like he''s pretty good."
"Pretty good?" the outer disciple
scoffed. "Are you blind? Finding a monster like this in a thousand years would already be fare. That''s why everyone''s freaking out. The guy is unbelievable."
Alex nodded again.
"But honestly," the disciple continued, lowering his voice, "he''s also incredibly
unlucky."
Alex frowned.
"Why?"
“Because some outer disciples have been trying to im the top ranking for months.
If someone holds the number one position for the entire month, they receive a
special reward from the sect."
Alex shrugged.
"Then they should try to beat him."
The disciple snorted.
"Oh, they''ll try. Just not the way you''re thinking."
Alex raised an eyebrow.
"They''ll try to kill this Jun Jiu in secret."
Alex''s expression hardened.
"That''s dirty."
The disciple shrugged helplessly.
"As long as the Discipline Department doesn''t catch them, people will do anything to
keep their position."
Alex sighed.
"Yeah. Rotten fruit grows everywhere."
He shook his head.
"Showing off too much always brings trouble. Thanks for the warning, brother."
In his mind, Alex dismissed the whole thing. Whoever this Jun Jiu was, it had
nothing to do with him.
Not his problem.
He turned and walked toward the Medicine Pavilion counter, reaching into his robe
to take out his medallion to report.
But the moment he pulled it out, his eyes fell on the engraved name.
"Jun Jiu."
Alex froze.
For a full second, his brain refused to process what he was seeing.
Then realization hit him like a brick.
"Fuck."
He stared at the medallion in disbelief.
"I''m Jun Jiu."