Chapter 319: Shocking Results

The grand spiritual barrier surrounding the white marble plaza of the Abyssal Lotus Pavilion slowly dissolved as the final bells of the examination officially rang. The suffocating silence of the past few hours was instantly broken by a massive wave of noise. Thousands of young cultivators, noble heirs, and independent scholars poured out through the grand iron gates, their faces filled with a mixture of intense exhaustion and sudden, booming confidence.

Almost immediately, the outer plaza turned into a massive stage for arrogant posturing and proud announcements. Young noble masters from the middle-tier clans gathered in tight circles, loudly boasting about how many volumes of ancient history they had successfully decoded.

“The questions regarding the thermal calculations of the fire-attribute elements were exceptionally simple!” Gerald Vance shouted proudly [INDEX], his glittering golden silks rustling as he cracked a heavy joke with his lackeys. “I easily filled three full columns with deep runic summaries! The top position on the ledger today will undoubtedly belong to our weapon-forge clan!”

Right beside him, Lady Scarlet walked out with a tight entourage of royal support faction bodyguards. Her fiery eyes swept over the crowded bazaar with absolute, icy condescension as she adjusted her flowing red silks, her body still radiating a faint, crackling Vermilion Beast Fire aura. “A true alchemist doesn’t need to write a massive, verbose text like that country-bumpkin archer did,” Scarlet sneered coldly [INDEX], her silky voice carrying a sharp edge that made the nearby spectators lower their heads. “Precise, absolute compression of facts is what Lady Vivienne values. Tony Clark likely spent his time drawing primitive bow coordinates on his parchment before fleeing the hall early out of pure, unadulterated shame.”

Meanwhile, deep inside the absolute core of the highest pavilion tower, the atmosphere was completely silent and serious. Lady Vivienne Vane stood behind a large mahogany desk, her elegant, breathtakingly beautiful face a mask of cold, eccentric majesty as she casually flipped through the top ten papers delivered by the head proctors. Her violet eyes scanned the text with a look of deep, unbothered indifference. She checked a few prominent noble papers—including Scarlet’s and Gerald’s—but her brow merely furrowed with a trace of deep disappointment.

“Standard, uninspired regurgitation of the classical texts,” Lady Vivienne murmured softly to herself, her silky voice carrying an absolute layer of cold condescension as she tossed the papers back onto the desk. “They possess wealth and memory, but their absolute comprehension of the ancient law structures is entirely too shallow. There is not a single incredible genius among this new generation.”

Losing her interest entirely, she stood up from her velvet chair, her long robes brushing against the floor as she left the remaining piles to the pavilion’s grand elders to grade under the standard protocols, entirely skipping the massive stack of extra sheets Tony had left behind, assuming it was nothing more than verbose trash used to display physical stamina.

The rest of the evening passed by in a peaceful, quiet blur across the capital city. The popular elder-rank masters spent the night drinking expensive spiritual tea inside their luxury pavilion boxes, celebrating their disciples’ assumed victory, while Tony Clark remained sitting casually cross-legged on his jade bed inside the Cloud-Mist Pavilion, his mind entirely focused on stabilizing his newly acquired 9th Class Elder Disciple solar foundation at double his standard speed, completely unbothered by the ticking clock.

The next morning, a historic, chaotic uproar violently exploded across the absolute center of the pavilion plaza. The morning mist had barely parted when the grand elders of the Abyssal Lotus Pavilion marched out to paste the official, high-grade spiritual ledger scroll containing the results of Stage 1 directly onto the central marble wall. Thousands of spectators, rogue cultivators, and noble family heads frantically pushed through the iron-reinforced barriers, their eyes widening to the size of saucers as they scanned the absolute top row of the rankings.

One name pinned to the absolute pinnacle of the grand ledger shocked everyone to the very core of their souls!

Rank 1: Tony Clark (Perfect Score – 100%). Evaluation: Supreme Cosmic Comprehension. Absolute Legend Stage.

Below his name, the ledger crystal violently flashed with a blinding golden light, publicly displaying the magnificent, rhythmic poem Tony had written as his final answer.

The words detailed how alchemy was an absolute weapon of creation used by a true villain to trample over the celestial laws of heaven, carrying such a sharp, predatory resonance that the internal alchemical seas of several nearby elders faintly hummed in response to the deep, undeniable logic written inside the lines.

“This… this is completely, absolutely impossible!” Gerald Vance shrieked in a fit of sudden, psychotic fury, his face turning an incredibly beautiful shade of pale as he stared at the golden letters, his fists clenching so hard his knuckles turned stark white.

“A country-bumpkin archer who spent less than an hour inside the hall has actually shattered the historical records of the pavilion?! He must have utilized a forbidden, demonic upper-realm cheating method to forge his parchment! The grading elders have been thoroughly deceived!”

The popular elder-rank masters stood paralyzed in the middle of the crowd, their long white beards trembling violently as their previous pride completely turned to stone. They looked at the perfect score, and then at the profound poem, entirely unable to find a single logical counter-argument to deny his absolute intellect. The entire capital district fell into a state of total, frantic commotion, the news of the “perfect archer scholar” spreading across the regional martial networks like a massive wildfire.

However, despite the terrifying reality of the golden ledger, the sheer arrogance of the noble factions did not allow them to submit so easily. As the grand iron gates opened to signal the start of Stage 2: The Identification of Herbs and Uses, the qualified applicants began gathering near the grand arena platform, their expressions turning entirely cold and vicious once again as they spotted Tony’s lazy figure walking into the plaza alone.

“Do not let his written score shake your focus, Lady Scarlet!” an inner peak master whispered frantically from the sidelines, trying to build a new layer of political hype. “The first round was nothing more than a baseline fluke! He probably happened to read a rare, ancient historical manual during his days in the country branches that perfectly matched the questions! But this second stage requires real, hands-on physical precision! He has to decode and calculate the exact molecular core weight of one hundred rare spiritual plants under a tight time limit! A primitive hunter whose fingers are rough from drawing a wooden bow string will undoubtedly fail the physical contact test, and his fake illusion will be thoroughly crushed before everyone’s eyes!”

“Haha! My master speaks the absolute truth!” Lady Scarlet sneered coldly [INDEX], her fiery eyes locking onto Tony’s cloak pocket with a sharp, predatory intensity as she stepped onto her assigned platform. “Let the country bumpkin enjoy his temporary fluke rank. The moment his unrefined fingers touch the high-tier elemental plants today, his complete lack of practical alchemy training will look like nothing more than a pathetic joke beneath my feet.”

Tony Clark stood perfectly still at the edge of the front row, his hands casually tucked into his pockets, his signature lazy posture fully intact. He didn’t show even a fraction of anxiety, fear, or internal distress under their heavy, mocking glares. A slow, ruthlessly brilliant smile spread across his face as his Truth Eye effortlessly scanned the hidden rows of covered spiritual plants resting on the testing tables ahead.

To a true supreme villain whose system spirit was fully awake and whose mind possessed 100% synchronization over the entire universe’s alchemical combinations, their desperate cope and their upcoming second-round plots were nothing more than the perfect, magnificent ingredients he needed to launch a total public catastrophe.

-Tq