Chapter 147: A Pill Emperor Has Just Matured in the Family

"Your Majesty, the bone marrow transplant method for treating blood diseases should be useful... Hmm, Master Lu Xingzhou and his disciple say it's more appropriate to call it blood ulcer. Previously, we only proposed this idea and didn't actually experiment. Lu Xingzhou might have other inheritances, as his thoughts coincide with ours, so he probably wasn't talking nonsense."

In the main examination room, Qin Zhiyu was discussing this matter with Gu Zhanting. Lu Xingzhou's paper had also been found and studied. "Lu Xingzhou's paper explains things more clearly. This old man feels there's an eight or nine out of ten chance of feasibility."

Gu Zhanting said, "If it's effective for blood ulcer disease, what about Your Majesty's?"

"Hard to say... Your Majesty's disease is triggered by demon power, and its root is not necessarily in the marrow. On the surface, it's very similar to blood ulcer, but in reality, it's different. This method might not actually be the right treatment. We can only say it's worth trying, at least as a supplementary strategy."

Gu Zhanting lightly tapped the armrest of his chair and shook his head. "What Lu Xingzhou said has implications... It should be intentionally said for Your Majesty to hear. It's actually equivalent to saying clearly that the bone marrow transplant method is effective for blood ulcer disease, but ineffective for Your Majesty."

Qin Zhiyu also felt that what Lu Xingzhou said was obviously intended for others to hear, at least proving that he saw the hidden meaning in the paper.

He clearly knew it was useless but still proposed the bone marrow transplant method, not for the emperor, but for the common people who truly suffered from blood ulcers.

This judgment greatly improved Qin Zhiyu's impression of Lu Xingzhou, but he didn't dare to say it so directly. Instead, he changed his angle and praised him. "Even we are only at the hypothesis stage for the bone marrow transplant method, but Lu Xingzhou has already very confidently proposed it. This shows that he has unique insights in this field. If he continues to study deeply in the Dan Academy, he has a promising future. Who knows, Your Majesty's disease might actually fall on these young people."

Gu Zhanting said in a low voice, "He is demonstrating his value to Your Majesty, but for what purpose... With his level, he should be able to pass this examination without difficulty. It's probably not too difficult for him to get the top scholar on his own."

Qin Zhiyu laughed. "Your Majesty, what you said... Which young person doesn't want to prove their value to Your Majesty? This is not shameful."

"He doesn't seem like someone who seeks fame..." Gu Zhanting said, and then laughed and shook his head again. "That's right, he looks calm and steady, but how many people truly don't want to climb up? Moreover, he wants to take revenge on the He family."

Gu Zhanting thought he had figured out the meaning behind Lu Xingzhou's behavior, and his heart felt much more relaxed.

Whether the bone marrow transplant method could cure him, he already had a general idea from what Lu Xingzhou said and didn't hold too much hope. As long as there was progress in this kind of thing, it was good. Super-grade strong individuals had long lifespans. It was still very early, and even if they truly waited for the younger generation to grow up as Qin Zhiyu said, they could still wait.

What was important was that young people like Lu Xingzhou, who were geniuses, had aspirations... As long as they had aspirations, they could be used.

Gu Zhanting couldn't figure out that Lu Xingzhou's true goal was to prepare for Old Deng's daughter's future marriage, which was why he was displaying his value.

If it weren't for his wife, he wouldn't bother displaying anything to Gu Zhanting.

To put it bluntly, even entering the Dan Academy for gilded experience was for Shen Tang.

No matter what, providing ideas for the treatment of blood cancer in this world was an immeasurable merit. He would do it first. As for Gu Zhanting's disease, it was fundamentally impossible for this method to be effective; at most, it could be a reference.

Because if it were effective, then many dan medicines should also be effective. Since even the He family's previous dans couldn't completely cure it, it was obvious that conventional methods wouldn't work.

The Demon Emperor was a super-grade. The hidden wounds it left would probably require super-grade dan medicine to resolve.

Lu Xingzhou was too lazy to care anymore. Curing diseases all day left him half dead with exhaustion. As soon as the sky darkened, he lay down and slept soundly, opening his eyes only on the last day of the dan refining examination.

The dan refining examination wasn't held in a private room but moved to the big square of the Dan Academy, where all examinees could see each other's refining results. Children and old people were not deceived.

If it were a fixed-grade evaluation of the Dan Medicine Department, then yesterday's disease diagnosis, listing the targeted dan formula, and today's refining of the specific dan medicine needed by the patient would be the standard process for fixed-grade judgment.

The patients found by the Dan Academy were all very representative, and the final dan medicines refined by each examinee were all exactly Grade Six.

In other words, as long as they refined the dan medicine needed for yesterday's diagnosis and the quality was acceptable, they could already obtain a Grade Six Dan Master certification.

Chen Jinian had been the head of the Xia State Dan Medicine Department for so many years and was only at the upper level of Grade Six; Grade Five was a recent breakthrough. When he was young, he participated in the examination and was at most at the middle or lower level of Grade Seven. It was completely normal for him to fail the examination...

But for Lu Xingzhou at this moment, refining Grade Six dan medicine was, as A Nuo said, "too simple."

In the big square, earth fire surged, and a large pile of dan furnaces were refining simultaneously. The emperor sat on a high platform watching this scene. Everyone was putting in their best effort.

With a "bang," someone's furnace exploded. They cried bitterly and were then escorted out by guards.

For Lu Xingzhou, the examination was "too simple," but for the majority of people, it wasn't that easy. Just refining this Grade Six dan medicine had already screened out half the people.

People basically had no time to observe others. If someone did observe, they would find that a small child was also independently refining dan, not helping an adult control the fire...

A Nuo quietly asked, "Master, why do I have to refine dan by myself? I see their children are all helping their masters."

Lu Xingzhou found it amusing. "Because A Nuo is cuter than their children."

"But I want to help Master."

"It's fine, it's just Grade Six dan... There will be a time for you to help."

As they spoke, several furnace covers almost simultaneously jumped up. Lu Xingzhou glanced over and saw two young Daoists, one young master-like figure, plus himself and A Nuo... These five who refined the Grade Six dan the fastest would probably compete for the top five positions this time.

In such an important examination, everyone was being honest and only refining one furnace at a time; they weren't trying any tricks like refining multiple pieces in one furnace.

Five dan medicines floated out of the dan furnaces simultaneously. People from the Dan Academy immediately stepped forward to inspect them. "Xuanqing Daoist, supreme quality."

"Hehui Daoist, supreme quality."

"Chen Yu, supreme quality."

"Lu Xingzhou... Lu Nuonuo, supreme quality."

"???" At this moment, many examinees turned their heads to look, only to see a little girl, carved from jade and looking like a pink sculpture, sitting in front of a dan furnace. Her face still had black ash, and she blinked her eyes, looking very puzzled.

"Don't tell me this child is also an examinee this time?" A Daoist was stunned. "This is the Capital Dan Academy, not elementary school!"

"Quiet!" Meng Li patrolled around, watching yesterday's patients take the freshly refined dan medicine. Their disease symptoms were completely gone. "The dan medicines are all effective for the symptoms. The examination is passed."

"???" This child passed?

Yet, everyone who passed was dumbfounded. They really couldn't accept that they weren't as good as a child.

Meanwhile, the several people who passed looked at each other with vigilance in their eyes.

Passing wasn't what the outstanding ones pursued... Everyone pursued rank, the top scholar position.

The scores from the previous day's paper, combined with today's dan medicine comparison, would determine the final ranking.

Grade Six dan medicine was fundamentally incomparable. To distinguish high from low, they naturally needed an additional test. Since the emperor was present, the emperor would naturally give the topic, similar to a palace examination.

Gu Zhanting quietly watched the examinees for half a day and said faintly, "All gentlemen have taken exams for three days and are also very tired. Your Majesty won't pose any difficult challenges. To keep it simple and clear, Your Majesty has selected a kind of Grade Four dan formula from the royal collection that none of you have seen before. Each of you will open it and refine it, and the ranking will be decided by the quantity and quality of the dan medicine."

Gamblers and Sheng Yuanyao said that Xuanqing Daoist and others had already reached Grade Five in strength and had a chance of successfully refining Grade Four dan.

People thought Lu Xingzhou was far from this level, but this was actually Lu Xingzhou's level before he went to the capital—the Dragon Elephant Dan he refined for Shen Tang at that time was a Grade Four dan. He failed once at that time, and later successfully refined it during the sage period. Compared to this, everyone's strength was basically not much different.

But the problem was, at that time, Lu Xingzhou's cultivation was only Grade Six, which led to insufficient control and scattered energy. While Lu Xingzhou's cultivation at this moment had already broken through Grade Five, it was different... A Nuo was very clear. Master had been practicing in the secret room these days, and the success rate of refining Grade Four dan was already 100%. Occasionally, he would make a mistake or two if he tried to refine multiple pieces in one furnace.

If she, A Nuo, assisted, it wouldn't be called a success rate, it would be called a supreme quality rate.

But A Nuo had to refine her own this time, so there was no way to distract herself and help Master, right?

Just in this daze, with a "boom," the furnace fire rushed chaotically. A Nuo's face instantly turned black with ash, and she blinked her eyes, not knowing why.

"Puff..." Many teachers from the Dan Academy quietly laughed out loud. Just this little doll, refining Grade Four dan... Was she here to be cute? Look, is she going to explode the furnace?

As a result, the flames flickered for half a day, then gradually stabilized again. The furnace didn't explode.

"Eh..." Xuanqing and others were startled and glanced over.

The dan formula given by Your Majesty belonged to the kind with very strong medicinal properties, which made it extremely easy to explode the furnace during refining. How could this child's dan fire be so chaotic, yet the medicinal properties remain stable and not explode?

"Bang bang bang!" Successive sounds of exploding furnaces erupted on the field. The examinees who had smoothly passed the Grade Six dan examination earlier couldn't hold on this time either. Almost all of them were wiped out.

Refining Grade Four dan medicine was indeed extremely advanced for the current stage of young dan masters.

As a result, everyone else almost exploded, but the little child didn't.

Not to mention the dan masters, even the guards on the side of the field craned their necks to watch, and everyone's attention was completely drawn to this little girl. She wasn't even as tall as the dan furnace itself. When she tiptoed and sat cross-legged there, it seemed she wasn't even as tall as the furnace legs...

A Nuo scratched her head. As long as the fire didn't cause trouble, refining Grade Four dan seemed very simple... Why were they looking at her?

She felt she could have refined nine pieces simultaneously. She was still too conservative. She thought the dan formula given by the emperor would be very difficult, so she only refined six pieces... These medicinal properties weren't quite like the Huangji Jingshi Jing, were they? Long and domineering. So the royal family's dan medicine attributes were all like this...

But dan medicine being too domineering wasn't good. Indeed, as Sister Qingli said, the Huangji Jingshi Jing was indeed not a good cultivation method.

"Swish!" The furnace cover spun up, and the dan fragrance overflowed.

Six dan medicines rotated and flew up.

"I'm done, old grandpa, come and look at the dan." A Nuo didn't even bother to look at it herself. She let go of her feet and ran to Lu Xingzhou's side. "Master, Master, I'll come and help you control the fire."

Lu Xingzhou couldn't help but laugh and pull her back. "You are also an examinee today. If you come and help me, it will be cheating. Sit aside and play, okay?"

A Nuo's eyes were dazed. Until now, she didn't know why she had become an examinee. She didn't even have a recommendation letter... Could it be that coming in with Master also counted?

On the other side, Qin Zhiyu, Meng Li, and others surrounded A Nuo's dan furnace. They trembled as they took down the dan medicine and checked it. Their voices were all trembling. "Grade Four Eight Meridians Break Sea Dan, six pieces in one furnace, quality... supreme quality!"

The entire square boomed. Xuanqing and others stood up in shock, blurting out in disbelief, "This is impossible!"