Chapter 255: “Cloudy Peaks (2)”

Squeezed within the crowd, Jun Wu Xie frowned deeply. Having broken her spiritual powers through to the orange level had heightened her five senses. Every single mocking word fell into her ears but she ignored them all.

These children were beneath her notice.

Due to the overwhelming number of applicants, the Qing Yun Clan could not assess every single one of them individually or it would have taken them weeks. Hence, the Qing Yun Clan had prepared a simple test as the first round of screening.

It was a most basic test, identification of herbs.

At the halfway point up the mountain, two long rows of a hundred tables lined the sides of the path, and heaped upon the tables was a mess of grass, herbs and a variety of plants. Every single applicant, had five minutes to identify and pick out the herb the Qing Yun Clan had set as the question for the test from the mess.

It was not difficult to identify specific herbs, but if they were mixed up in hundreds of other kinds of herbs, it was a different level of difficulty all together.

The herbs heaped on the tables were obviously freshly picked and many still had mud clinging on their roots and none of them were whole, like they had been roughly yanked out and many had broken into pieces. The various candidates who had been brimming with confidence when they received their questions had now paled visible when they saw the weed filled tables.

To identify herbs, they must first and foremost recognise its outward shape and appearance. But the herbs in the heaps had been broken and badly ravaged, how were they expected to identify them?

The first seemingly easy test, had left a great number of applicants stumped.

For a youth in their teens, even if they had come from a line of medical practitioners, and had been exposed to herbs from a young tender age, it was impossible for them to remember and commit to memory all the different and myriad varieties, not to mention, identify and pick them out from these badly ravaged and broken tiny pieces of herbs and other plants.

The smug looks of confidence soon turned to dismay as they stared at the mess of plants before their eyes and they buried their heads deep inside trying to locate the right herb as time was fast running out.

In the meantime, Jun Wu Xie walked unhurriedly to stand before a table. When she had reached the midpoint of the mountain, the Qing Yun Clan disciples had passed her a tag indicating the name of the herb she was supposed to locate.

Identification.

To locate a commonly used herb that appeared closely similar to weeds. A few youths that had come at the same time as Jun Wu Xie received the same task and when they saw the name of the herb they were supposed to locate, their faces had lit up with joy but were now quickly replaced with a look of helplessness.

“How do they expect anyone to find it?” A sobbing youth held his tag so tight he crushed it in his hand.

With many of them scurrying around different tables in all directions, Jun Wu Xie walked past a table and grabbed at a small piece of herb just half a finger’s length and proceeded onwards without a moment’s hesitation.

A few youths who were behind her noticed that Jun Wu Xie had picked her herb quickly and was proceeding to leave, and they stood stunned watching her walk away.

Jun Wu Xie had just taken a few steps when two other youths stood before her, blocking her way. She raised her head to look at them and recognized them to be the finely dressed youths who had criticised her earlier from head to toe at the foot of the mountain.

“Move.” Jun Wu Xie said coldly.

The two youths had no intentions of letting Jun Wu Xie pass, and their eyes were locked onto the herb held within Jun Wu Xie’s hand. It was a small piece, but it was enough for them to ascertain that the piece she held was genuine.

How this the little brat manage that? They had received their tags at the same time, and in the blink of an eye, before any of them could make head or tail of the task they were given, the little brat had managed to locate the herb without thinking?