889. Assessment (Part 2)
Yang Haoran saw Gu Yi suddenly freeze, felt a bit confused, and asked with a smile.
"What's wrong? Did the first question stump you? Is this question very difficult?"
Upon hearing this, Gu Yi immediately snapped out of her dazed state, then shook her head like a rattle-drum.
"This question isn't difficult at all; in fact, it has no difficulty whatsoever. I just didn't expect the boss to ask me this question, so I didn't react for a moment."
Gu Yi had originally thought Yang Haoran would pose some highly difficult questions, so she had prepared herself mentally. She never expected him to ask such a simple and fundamental one.
Indeed, this was a very basic question, yet it was precisely this fundamental question that Yang Haoran himself wasn't entirely clear on, as he hadn't spent time researching it.
He had once sought an opportunity to ask Feng Xiao about such matters. In his view, since Feng Xiao was a Pharmacist, she should have been intimately familiar with this foundational knowledge. However, the result utterly surprised him: Feng Xiao, astonishingly, knew nothing about such basic questions.
Feng Xiao was passionate about alchemy and enjoyed researching various spiritual medicinal materials. The effects of the medicines she concocted were indeed quite remarkable—this was beyond doubt. Yet, she didn't even know some of the most basic common sense knowledge for a Pharmacist, which left him somewhat perplexed.
It turned out that while Feng Xiao had followed her master, Feng Yaoshi, since childhood, learning alchemy and how to identify various spiritual medicinal materials, as well as their properties and uses, her master had never told her about the most basic classifications of Pharmacist ranks and their corresponding strengths.
She had once questioned her master, Feng Yaoshi, about this issue, but instead of receiving the answer she sought, she was rebuked by him.
According to her master, Feng Yaoshi, Pharmacist ranks were all secondary. Only by improving one's own alchemy level could one truly gain an advantage. Being too concerned with one's Pharmacist rank would instead become an impediment on her path to growth and wouldn't benefit her improvement in alchemy. Thus, it was better not to know. She should simply devote herself wholeheartedly to researching and refining medicines, and not worry about anything else.
Naturally, many people didn't understand Feng Yaoshi's way of thinking, and Feng Xiao, as his disciple, likewise found it incomprehensible. However, for an old man with such an eccentric personality, if his thoughts and actions could be easily grasped by ordinary people, then his character wouldn't be called eccentric in the first place.
Although Feng Xiao didn't understand her master's thoughts, since her master had already said so, she, as a disciple, naturally dared not ask further. Moreover, she genuinely didn't care about this aspect; her greater concern was her own alchemy level. Thus, she never brought up the matter again, nor did she seek out relevant information to understand it. As a result, even now, she remained clueless about the ranking system for Pharmacists.
As for Yang Haoran, he had only asked out of curiosity at the time. While Feng Xiao's ignorance on the matter struck him as quite unbelievable, he hadn't specifically looked up information about it afterward, as he simply didn't have the leisure.
Now that he was going to test Gu Yi, and since Gu Yi had read quite a few books on Pharmacists and spiritual medicinal materials over the past ten days, he simply decided to make this the first question of the assessment.
Seeing Gu Yi's incredulous expression, Yang Haoran's smile remained unchanged, and he had no intention of altering the question.
"From what you're saying, this question shouldn't stump you. In that case, perfect—tell me about it."
Since Yang Haoran had put it that way, although Gu Yi felt a little confused, she didn't intend to force him to change the question. It wasn't that she feared a different question would stump her, but rather that she felt doing so would be disrespectful to Yang Haoran.
"Pharmacists are divided into five ranks, in order from Ordinary Pharmacist to Medicine Spirit, Medicine Sect, Medicine Saint, and the strongest, Medicine God. The strength of an Ordinary Pharmacist is similar to that of a Night Watcher from the Underworld Office. As for a Medicine Spirit, their strength is probably comparable to an Underworld Office agent who has opened their Heaven Soul. A Medicine Sect is similar to a powerful expert from the Underworld Office who has opened both their Heaven and Earth Souls. And a Medicine Saint, well, they're akin to a powerful expert from the Underworld Office who has opened all three souls: Heaven, Earth, and Life."
Pausing slightly at this point, Gu Yi then continued.
"As for Medicine God, it's just a realm among Pharmacists, not a true god. Whether Pharmacists at this realm can rival true gods, I don't know, because the book doesn't say. However, it does state that a powerful expert from the Underworld Office who has opened all three souls—Heaven, Earth, and Life—should not be a match for a Medicine God."
Her voice trailing off, Gu Yi pointed to a book on the shelf, then continued.
"This information is recorded on page 108 of this book. Since the author is a high-ranking official from the Underworld Office, he used the Underworld Office's realms for comparison when describing the Pharmacist realms and their relative strengths."
Upon hearing this, Yang Haoran couldn't help but feel astonished. He wasn't surprised by the division of Pharmacist realms and strengths, nor was he surprised that Gu Yi could remember which book this information came from. What astonished him was that Gu Yi could even recall the exact page numbers of this information.
Carrying a sliver of doubt in his mind, Yang Haoran motioned for Ban Kui to retrieve the book Gu Yi had pointed to from the bookshelf. He then directly flipped to page 108. R;a*N0[BЕs
"Oh my. . ."
Staring at the information recorded on page 108, Yang Haoran murmured, two words escaping his lips in a low whisper.
Though only two short words, and spoken in a soft voice, both Ban Kui and Gu Yi, who were present, clearly heard them and detected the astonishment and disbelief in Yang Haoran's tone.
Gu Yi was exceedingly pleased with herself, even tilting her chin at Ban Kui and winking, as if to tell him, "Hey, big oaf, did you see that? Isn't your Gu Yi amazing?"
However, Ban Kui paid her no mind, his expression utterly unchanged. Gu Yi, finding herself rebuffed, could only roll her eyes in exasperation and redirect her gaze back to Yang Haoran.
Yang Haoran closed the book in his hand, his gaze at Gu Yi openly betraying his astonishment and admiration. While it wouldn't be surprising if Gu Yi could answer a simple question like the one he posed, the fact that she even remembered the exact page numbers of this information in a particular book truly astounded him.
"You're amazing!"
"Hehe, did that surprise the boss already? The question you just asked was just common knowledge. It's not only recorded in this book you're holding; it's also detailed on page forty-nine of that book, on the fifth page from the beginning of that other book, on page sixty-four of yet another book, and on page thirteen of that book over there."
Gu Yi said to Yang Haoran with a triumphant smile, while successively pointing to several books on the shelf. With each book she indicated, she would recite a page number.
Yang Haoran was also someone who didn't easily believe in the supernatural. Seeing Gu Yi speak with such certainty, he motioned for Ban Kui to take down all the books Gu Yi had pointed to from the shelf. He then flipped to the pages Gu Yi had mentioned, and sure enough, Gu Yi had not lied to him. On the corresponding pages, he indeed saw similar records, though the strength of Pharmacists at different realms was not compared using the Underworld Office's agents.
"I'm impressed," Yang Haoran declared, his face filled with admiration. "Next question."
"Boss, please pose the question," Gu Yi said, her face beaming with smiles. Yang Haoran's reaction had made her extremely happy.
"Since I just asked about the Pharmacist realms and their strength, now I'll ask you: how are the ranks of the medicines concocted by Pharmacists distinguished? " Yang Haoran asked, posing his second question.
Gu Yi froze once more. She hadn't expected Yang Haoran's second question to be so simple either. At this moment, a suspicion couldn't help but arise in her heart: perhaps her boss's so-called assessment today was merely a formality, with no real intention of posing difficult questions to test her, which was why the questions were so straightforward.
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