Chapter 92: A Conversation with One Hundred and Ten!

When she saw the girl’s actions, Qian Mo stopped and asked, “Can I begin the assessment now?”

“Yes, of course. Are you here to take the fourth-rank alchemist exam?” Ya Han asked, a little embarrassed by what she had just done.

“What is the highest alchemist rank available here? I mean the highest,” Qian Mo asked evenly.

Hearing this, Ya Han was startled. Could this man be trying to attempt the highest, sixth-rank alchemist assessment? She looked at him carefully, and inwardly laughed at herself for overthinking it. He was probably just asking out of curiosity. Besides, a sixth-rank alchemist at the age of twenty? Absolutely impossible.

“Can you give me an answer?” Qian Mo asked again.

“Oh, yes. The highest alchemist rank we have here is the sixth rank,” Ya Han said, recovering herself.

Only sixth rank? A little low. Still, Black Rock City is only a beginner’s town. Having sixth rank is not bad at all. Fine, then I’ll take sixth rank. Once I leave, I can find a higher-grade place and get an even higher certification there.

“Then prepare the sixth-rank alchemist assessment for me directly,” I said to Ya Han in a calm voice.

“Oh, fourth rank... what? You want to take the sixth-rank assessment?” Ya Han thought she had misheard. Was this man just talking nonsense? She asked in astonishment.

I frowned and said, “Do my words really sound that hard to understand? Do you not understand, or what?”

Throughout the entire Jia Ma Empire, only Dan King Gu He of the Cloud Mist Sect had achieved the sixth rank, and he was already in his thirties or forties.

The man before her was only about twenty...

“Very well, I’ll prepare it right away,” Ya Han quickly said. She no longer dared to speak carelessly. She feared she might have offended an alchemist master. Even if he could not pass sixth rank, fourth rank would still be impressive enough. And at twenty, he had plenty of time ahead of him. Sixth rank was surely not beyond his reach. Thinking this, Ya Han finally felt at ease and hurriedly smiled at Qian Mo.

“Sir, since the sixth-rank assessment is rather advanced, I cannot tell you the examination location myself. I must first seek our guild leader’s approval. This is your assessment token.”

After finishing everything, Ya Han handed the token in her hand to Qian Mo and said apologetically, “Please wait here for a moment while I ask the guild leader.”

I relaxed my brows again and asked, “Is your guild leader here?”

“Yes, he is. Please wait here, sir. I will request his permission at once,” Ya Han said.

“Go ahead.”

Qian Mo spoke softly.

Ya Han hurried off toward the inner rooms.

In a room, a middle-aged man was drinking tea and reading a book on medicinal herbs. This man was none other than Frank, the guild leader of the Black Rock City Alchemist Guild.

Suddenly, a flurry of footsteps caught his attention. Seeing Ya Han enter, he asked gravely, “What matter has you in such a hurry?”

Ya Han stopped to catch her breath and said, “Guild leader, there is a young master outside who wishes to take the sixth-rank alchemist assessment. He wants you to oversee it.”

Ya Han handed Frank the old paper that recorded Qian Mo’s information.

“Hmm? What? Someone wants to take the sixth-rank alchemist assessment?” Frank sprang to his feet at once. Setting down his teacup, he reached out and took the paper from Ya Han, muttering as he read, “Qian Mo, male, twenty years old, teacher system? Wait... wait... tw-twenty years old?!”

“Ya Han, are you sure you didn’t make a mistake? Twenty years old? Which alchemist is he? How come I’ve never heard of him in the Jia Ma Empire?”

Frank asked in shock, his voice no longer calm. Twenty years old and coming to take the sixth-rank alchemist exam? Was he here for a joke?

“Yes, I did not make a mistake. He can condense solid flame; even if he is not sixth rank, he must at least be fourth rank,” Ya Han said.

“What? He can condense solid flame? Then is the young master still outside?”

Frank hurriedly asked.

“He is standing outside.”

Ya Han answered.

“What? Standing outside? Foolish! Truly foolish!!”

Without another word, Frank transformed his battle qi into wings and flew directly toward the front hall. For a battle king, this was no difficult matter.

Ya Han lowered her head in admission of fault and stood aside, then followed after him.

When Frank arrived at the front hall and saw me, his first impression was that I was truly very young.

“Young master, I presume you are the one here to take the sixth-rank alchemist assessment?” Frank landed and spoke to me with a warm smile and great courtesy.

“Yes, it’s me. Are you the guild leader Ya Han mentioned?” Qian Mo replied with a smile, then asked.

“Yes, yes. I am Frank, the guild leader here. Because no one has attempted the sixth-rank badge for many years, we have not fully prepared for it yet. You may need to wait a little while. I have already instructed the people in back to make preparations.”

“If you do not mind, young master, you may come to my room for a seat in the meantime,” Frank said, pausing briefly before continuing.

“Oh? Very well, then please lead the way.”

I agreed and extended my hand in a courteous gesture.

This left Frank feeling somewhat awkward. This was his territory, and he ought to have been the one making the invitation. Yet with Qian Mo doing it this way, he suddenly looked like the outsider. Still, he kept smiling. “This way, please.”

Following Frank through a small passage, I eventually arrived at his office. At a glance, it did not differ much from an office in my previous life. Rather than calling it a guild room, it would be better to call it an office.

“The environment and the arrangement are both quite nice,” Qian Mo said as soon as he stepped inside.

Frank laughed and said, “Come, have a seat,” gesturing to the chair opposite him.

Qian Mo did not stand on ceremony and sat down directly. On the table sat a pot of tea, clearly freshly brewed not long ago.

“Try it,” Frank said, lifting the teapot and pouring tea into the cup before me.

Watching the tea flow into the cup, Qian Mo could not help but think of the time in the Azure Cloud Plane when the Ghost King of the Ghost King Sect had poured tea for him. It had been so long since he had returned there that he did not know how his father-in-law and mother-in-law were faring now. The memory was truly nostalgic.

I lifted the cup and looked at the ripples on the surface. A trace of longing flashed through my eyes. With a soft sigh, I drank the tea.

I closed my eyes and savored it quietly. The tea was slightly bitter upon entry, yet the moment it reached the stomach, that bitterness transformed into a lingering sweetness.

Bitter at first, sweet after?

A faint curve appeared at the corner of my mouth as I smiled with easy grace. “Truly excellent tea! Bitter on the tongue, sweet in the belly! Excellent tea, excellent tea!” I set the cup down steadily.

“I presume Guild Leader Frank would not merely invite me for a single cup of tea. If there is anything you wish to ask, so long as it is convenient, I can tell you,” I said with a smile. From the moment he invited me inside, I had never thought the matter would be as simple as a cup of tea.

Seeing that I had seen through his thoughts, Frank immediately felt awkward and said somewhat embarrassedly, “Well... young master, from your bearing and the strength of your soul, I feel you may be even above a sixth-rank alchemist. I would like to ask what your true rank is. Of course, if it is inconvenient, you need not tell me.”

From the very first glance, Frank had felt that this person was far from ordinary. Moreover, his intuition told him that this man was not from the Jia Ma Empire. In his memory, there was no one like him at all.