The students no longer looked down on Bai Ling like before.
Now, each of them watched her with curiosity and awe.
They wanted to know where this big shot had come from, and guessed she must be from some powerful family.
With such terrifying talent, it was rare to see among commoners—though not impossible.
If she was, they’d stop at nothing to win her over.
Even they had to look up to someone like her.
Bai Ling didn’t care about them at all.
She just wanted to leave this annoying place as soon as possible.
Just being here was irritating.
If it weren’t for this test, she wouldn’t have bothered coming.
Not long after, a curvy woman entered the hall and walked to the frontmost desk, looking over the students.
Her name was Zhou Tong, the head of the Alchemy Hall.
When she saw Chen Jianlin lying in the corner, not knowing if he was dead or alive, her eyebrows lifted slightly.
How did this guy get beaten up? He’s always been arrogant and overbearing—didn’t expect him to get his comeuppance today.
Good, maybe now he’ll learn there’s always someone better out there and rein it in a bit.
She walked over to Chen Jianlin and checked his condition, then raised her eyebrows again.
Damn, an A-rank magic attack? Looks like whoever did this is a pretty powerful mage.
Zhou Tong stood up, looked around, and asked the students, “Who did this?”
Everyone turned to look at Bai Ling.
Zhou Tong noticed and also turned her gaze to Bai Ling.
What a pretty girl.
Could it really be her? It just feels off.
And why does she look so familiar?
Bai Ling didn’t hesitate to admit it.
She stood up, unafraid, and said, “I did it.”
Her tone was still flat, without a hint of emotion, as if it had nothing to do with her.
“Oh? What’s your name?” Zhou Tong asked, wanting to confirm her suspicion.
If it was as she thought, things were about to get interesting.
“Bai Ling.” Bai Ling wasn’t intimidated just because the other was a teacher.
In her eyes, the only person she feared was herself—no one else was worth it.
Zhou Tong thought to herself, as expected, just as I thought.
Heh, let’s see how that old guy deals with this.
Because of Bai Ling’s uniqueness, the headmaster Li Yue had previously gathered all the higher-ups of the academy and shown them Bai Ling’s portrait and some of her information.
They didn’t know the details, only that this girl named Bai Ling was a key protected figure in the academy.
“Oh?” Zhou Tong looked Bai Ling up and down with curiosity.
So this is the one the academy needs to protect? She just looks like a sickly, skinny girl—nothing special about her except that stunning face.
After a quick look, Zhou Tong withdrew her gaze and said to Bai Ling, “Alright, you don’t need to worry about this.
Go back and take your test!”
Then she turned to someone behind her and said, “Take him out of here!” She was referring, of course, to Chen Jianlin, who was lying on the ground, nearly dead.
Bai Ling was completely confused! What? She just seriously injured someone here, and the academy didn’t even react? Even if it’s nothing, shouldn’t they at least say something? Just letting it go like this—was there something she didn’t know about?
Bai Ling wondered, but she wasn’t worried.
There was no one here she was afraid of.
With a suspicious look, Bai Ling returned to the exam hall.
After giving her instructions, Zhou Tong also came over, standing at the front and saying, “I’ll be overseeing your alchemist test.
You all see the yellow parchment on your desks, right? That’s a magic array.
You need to draw this array.
Don’t think it’s easy—if you don’t understand magic arrays well enough, it’s pointless.”
“Next, there are all kinds of herbs on the shelves beside you.
You can use the other yellow parchment on your desk to choose the herbs and their quantities.
Finally, follow the instructions on the parchment to make the corresponding magic potion.”
“Alright, the test begins.”
As soon as it started, Bai Ling looked at the magic array.
This one was different from others—it was specifically for making magic potions, with no offensive or defensive properties.
Each level had a different array.
Bai Ling quickly memorized the array, then went to the shelves to find the herbs listed on the parchment.
Lan Ling Grass, Xi Zhi Flower, Luo Huixiang, Bai Zhi, Mu Ling Ginseng… all common herbs.
Since this was just a C-rank array, the potion would be C-rank too.
After picking the herbs, Bai Ling returned to her desk and immediately started her “crafting” process.
She didn’t want to stay in a crowded place any longer than necessary.
No one was paying attention to her anyway; everyone was focused on their own work.
Since it was her first time drawing the array, Bai Ling didn’t show off.
Following the methods of this continent, she gathered a faint green light at her fingertip and traced the low-level magic array in the air, copying it stroke by stroke.
This was child’s play for her.
She finished the array in no time, then followed the steps on the other parchment.
Alchemy required intense concentration.
You couldn’t miss any changes in the herbs, and you had to control their state within the array.
During the process, the herbs would slowly turn into liquid.
Mages needed to merge these liquid herbs into a new potion.
It wasn’t as simple as it sounded—mages had to sense the state of the herbs with their mental power, knowing when to merge them and when to add specific herbs.
There was a lot to learn.
If someone had weak mental power, passing was impossible—unless they had something special to boost it, or used a mental potion.
A mental potion could temporarily boost a mage’s concentration.
But for Bai Ling, her mental power was far beyond anyone else’s.
Even the top SS-rank mages on Gaia couldn’t compare.
This was nothing to her.
Soon, the potion was done.
Even Zhou Tong on the stage couldn’t match this speed.
She’d been watching Bai Ling the whole time, and when Bai Ling finished, she was shocked.
That fast? She couldn’t even do it that quickly, even if it was just a basic C-rank potion.
But then she thought about it and relaxed.
Someone who could take out a B-rank alchemist with an A-rank magic array—if she couldn’t do this, she’d be letting down her status as the academy’s special protected student.
Still, that speed was a bit freakish.
After finishing the potion, Bai Ling didn’t bother with the next step.
As long as she passed, that was enough.
She couldn’t be bothered to condense the potion into a pill, even though the parchment mentioned it.
Making the potion was enough to pass, so she didn’t bother.
With nothing to do, Bai Ling closed her eyes and went into the little tower to chat with Green Luo.
She only came back to reality when Green Luo reminded her that time was up.
Of course, the pass rate for this alchemy test was abysmal.
Out of all the students, only Bai Ling passed.
This left the other students embarrassed.
They’d lost to a lower-year girl, and it was her first time taking the test.
Most of them had taken it many times, and they were upperclassmen.
“Alright, the test is over.
The only one who passed is Bai—” Zhou Tong was about to announce the results, but just then—
“Wait.” An angry voice rang out, interrupting everyone.
