The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#403 - One more time

Lu Jing had escaped the first day of the new year, but he couldn't escape the fifteenth. In the end, Professor Cui used both soft and hard tactics to drag him to Professor Zheng's residence.

And there, besides Professor Zheng himself, there were actually two other instructors visiting. Together with Professor Cui, there were four of them, surrounding him like they were watching a giant panda in a zoo.

Their curiosity wasn't hard to understand. Although there were many newcomers who achieved Foundation Establishment in each class of the academy, Lu Jing was the only one with such poor cultivation aptitude.

Someone like him, who had almost been sentenced to death, eventually embarking on the path of cultivation was itself full of incredibility.

Professor Zheng took a talisman from the bookshelf and handed it to Lu Jing, "I heard from Xia Huai that you've already tested once before."

"Yes," Lu Jing nodded.

"What was the result?"

"It's a bit… unspeakable."

The instructors weren't surprised to hear this. With Lu Jing's cultivation aptitude, even if he achieved Foundation Establishment by luck, his subsequent cultivation wouldn't be easy.

It was the same as Xia Huai's Foundation Establishment. Everyone actually knew the result in advance, but according to the academy's rules, they still had to do a test.

However, Lu Jing didn't immediately start when he heard this. Instead, he looked somewhat embarrassed at the two instructors who were still chatting about the results of this year's new Foundation Establishment students.

"What's wrong? Is there a problem?" Professor Zheng raised his eyebrows.

"Oh, it's nothing. I just wanted to tell you that if you want to see the result, it's best not to blink later."

"Don't blink? What do you mean?" Professor Zheng blinked, somewhat puzzled.

At the beginning of the test, the thing to do was actually very simple, just wait for the testee to finish reciting the incantation and light the incense, so the two instructors were also very casual.

Even if Lu Jing's previous bizarre cultivation talent wasn't taken into account, Xia Huai, the best qualified of the three new disciples with Grade A Secret Cauldrons, took nearly half a quarter of an hour for the talisman to burn out.

According to Lu Jing's statement, it was impossible for everyone not to blink for such a long time.

Lu Jing also knew that no one would believe it if he said this, but since he had already reminded everyone, he didn't explain much and began to chant the incantation.

In the next instant, a ball of flame appeared on the talisman in his hand.

Then the talisman was swallowed by the flames and turned into ashes in an instant, scattering with the wind.

Because he had learned from his previous experience, Lu Jing was much calmer this time, but none of the four instructors next to him were as calm as him. Everyone had their mouths wide open, with an expression as if they had seen a ghost.

And one of them hadn't listened to Lu Jing's words. He had just picked up his teacup, lowered his head to take a sip of tea, and when he raised his head again, Lu Jing's hand was already empty. He subconsciously asked, "Where's the talisman? Why hasn't it started yet?"

But he only said half of this sentence before he felt the eerie silence around him.

"What did you just do?" Professor Zheng reacted after a moment, uncertainly saying, "Did you directly use a burning technique to ignite this talisman?"

This was also the first thought in the minds of the other three instructors.

In previous years, there had been people in the academy who had played this kind of trick, wanting to win the favor of the instructors by such means, and the academy naturally had corresponding countermeasures for this situation.

Before Professor Zheng could finish asking that question, another instructor immediately reached out and gathered some of the ashes still floating in the air into his sleeve, then placed them in front of his eyes for careful examination.

If it was a fire-based Taoist technique, or the ashes produced after being lit by ordinary flames, there was a big difference from the ashes produced after the talisman spontaneously combusted. The latter would burn very evenly, and the ashes burned would be pure black, without any other colors.

However, the expression on the instructor's face became even more surprised after seeing it, as if he couldn't believe the result he had observed, but in the end, he still stated the facts, "It is indeed spontaneous combustion of the talisman."

"That's impossible! How can anyone's talisman burn so quickly?" Another instructor retorted, "Could it be that this talisman wasn't drawn well from the beginning?"

"The situation you're talking about is impossible. The talismans used by the academy to test the results of Foundation Establishment are all drawn by me personally, and I've checked them many times afterwards. There can't be any mistakes," the instructor who had previously checked the ashes didn't give in.

Seeing that the two were about to argue, Professor Cui finally came forward and said, "Alright, alright, this matter is simple, just let him test again."

After saying this, he tilted his head and looked at Lu Jing next to him, soliciting the latter's opinion, "What do you think?"

Lu Jing naturally had no objection. After hearing Professor Cui's words, he stretched out his hand very simply, and this time Professor Zheng carefully checked the talisman again before handing it to Lu Jing.

But the result was still no different from before.

The new talisman almost burned mercilessly at the same time that Lu Jing uttered the last word, and the fire was fierce.

The difference was that the four instructors on the opposite side were now following the advice and listening to Lu Jing's previous suggestion, holding their breath and concentrating, staring at Lu Jing's palm without blinking, not wanting to miss any detail.

Unfortunately, because the whole process was too short, they didn't capture many details in the end.

However, after witnessing two rapid spontaneous combustions in a row, the previously worried about talisman-related problems had obviously been defeated.

And until this moment, Professor Zheng and others gradually began to realize what this meant.

"Perfect Foundation Establishment?!"

Professor Cui exclaimed. Because he was too excited when he spoke, he accidentally knocked over the teapot in front of him, but now no one cared about such trivial matters.

Hearing these four words, the remaining three were as if they had been subjected to a body-fixing technique, and they were all stunned there.

Lu Jing was also stunned, he had tried his best not to let himself think about this, but he didn't expect Professor Cui to bring up the old matter again.

"This, is this really the legendary perfect Foundation Establishment?!" Another instructor also changed his expression greatly, and after speaking, he looked at Professor Zheng next to him. The latter's research and understanding of secret power was the most in-depth among the four, so he was also the most qualified to answer this question.

However, Professor Zheng's answer disappointed everyone, "I don't know."

After a pause, he added, "Perfect Foundation Establishment is a legendary thing, more like a beautiful expectation for cultivators. No one has ever done it from ancient times to the present, so naturally no one can determine what can be considered perfect Foundation Establishment. But, if anyone is closest to this state, it's probably him."

As Professor Zheng spoke, he looked at Lu Jing, but what he didn't expect was that the latter's face didn't show any joy of perfect Foundation Establishment, but instead appeared quite dignified, which made Professor Zheng couldn't help but praise Lu Jing's temperament in his heart.