Hidden genius: Black belly snake

"Ahh~" The examiner gazed at Tang Yue for a while before nodding slightly.

What she said made sense, but why did he feel that something was not right?

"Well, whatever." He sighed and turned around to wait for Marvin to finish.

It was just a matter of a few more minutes, so he didn't mind it much.

Tang Yue slightly bowed and nodded to thank the examiner.

And then she turned her attention to the star of the show.

Marvin was seriously brewing the second batch without even blinking his eyes.

His hands behaved like two well-tuned machines swiftly performing one step after another flawlessly.

The chubby elf smoothly did everything without breaking a sweat and Tang Yue silently watched the show.

Looking at his serious hard work, she almost didn't want to mess with him, but Tang Yue knew better.

If the tables were turned, things would have been very different by now.

If Marvin had finished first instead of Tang Yue, he would have definitely kicked up dust and climbed on to mount Tai, probably would have even gotten her disqualified for her supposed cheating to cement his superiority.

He would have at least smeared her name endlessly. So she couldn't afford to be lenient.

After all, becoming a trainee was only the second step.

She still needed a lot of training and more importantly, resources from other master alchemists to further improve herself.

This first place name tag could help her to a certain extent especially when the opponent was the famous grandmaster's son Marvin.

Besides, if you dare to let your mouth run, then you need to be prepared to face the consequences as well.

The snake silently smiled. She was not so strong that she could afford to be kind to the enemies.

Tang Yue's cold indifferent gaze unwaveringly watched the chubby elf and at the right moment mumbled, "Startle."

Marvin slightly hesitated and the pieces of stamen in his hand got burnt again.

"What the…" Marvin loudly cursed.

The crowd as well silently gasped as everyone witnessed a humiliating second failure, that too at such a simple pill concoction formula.

There were even some who snickered, but no one dared to say anything out loud.

A pin-drop silence pervaded with awkward glances being passed around.

Technically, the test was already over. There was no reason for Marvin to continue struggling but the elf didn't look like he was going to give up anytime soon.

While Marvin was chugging along with a flushed red face, Tang Yue was mentally calculating just how many times could she possibly ruin his batch without making him cry.

"Am I going a bit overboard?" She chuckled. "Heh. In front of the elven arrogance, this is nothing."

With her arms crossed in front of her, the snake watched the drama unfold with her cold impassive face.

While Tang Yue silently observed from the sidelines, without drawing any attention to herself, Marvin gritted his teeth and tried again, unwilling to give up.

But unfortunately… it ended up being just another failed attempt.

His entire body trembled.

He couldn't understand why he was struggling with such an obvious pill formula.

Was his fire elemental control so bad?

He couldn't understand the source of the error and that drove him crazy.

His big round eyes were completely bloodshot in anger.

He almost toppled the entire cauldron in frustration.

"Damn it." Marvin cursed.

He had had enough today. He wanted to stop, but with several pairs of eyes on him, he couldn't bring himself to publicly admit defeat.

With no other option, he continued to try again.

And again.

And again.

After a while, Tang Yue didn't even have to do anything.

He crashed and burned on his own, making angry hasty mistakes out of sheer frustration.

A cool and calm head was tantamount to talent when it came to the practice of alchemy or for that matter anything non-trivial.

And finally… after a dozen failed attempts, the examiner couldn't stand to watch it any longer.

He decided that it would not benefit anyone to let this situation continue.

So he cleared his throat and stepped in to stop the madness.

"Master Marvin. Cough Cough. Let's stop for the night."

"Sorry, I have to turn in early because of some association matters."

"I hope you can give this old man some face and finish this concoction in private."

"Oh! And congratulations you are a trainee starting tomorrow. Please visit the association to receive your missions."

Marvin stared at the middle aged elf angrily.

Well, at this point, he was just angry with anything and everything.

And more importantly, at a smug snake, who was nowhere to be seen.

Marvin silently clasped his hands, bowed and walked out of the testing courtyard.

No one could tell what was going on in his head. Too many unpredictable things had happened today.

His aides as well silently followed him out.

No one dared to even breathe loudly, let alone create a ruckus about the ridiculous thing which had transpired just now.

While all of this was happening….

... a figure silently observed the chaos from a distance.

The elf's red blood eyes gleamed with interest and his thin lips slightly turned upwards in amusement.