"Man, I can't fucking believe it. Since when do plants work like that?!" Duan Ping spoke, half annoyed, half surprised, as he ate. "They don't usually, or at least that species doesn't. I don't know why exactly his weapon is different, but maybe it's some sort of variation on the normal species or maybe a refiner did something to it." Liu Zhu said this as he grabbed a dumpling, eating it as he listened to Duan Ping go on. The two had met up shortly after the match for a chat, going over his loss and a few other topics. "You won't be at the refiner's gathering, will you?" "Mmm, not unless I learn how to make a sword in the next few days. Is that an offer to teach me?" Liu Zhu chuckled before shaking his head. "It'd take a bit longer than that so I'll have to say no. Guess I'll see you around then." "Yup, guess so. I'm leaving Border City in a few days, but hey, if you manage to do something big we'll probably run into each other."
The two parted on good terms and Liu Zhu returned to his lodgings. He had just under a week left until that refiner's competition, and even if he couldn't do that well he wanted to give it his all. While he'd constantly heard of others' achievements in cultivation and battle and could roughly compare himself to other juniors in that regard, there was far less talk about this young refining talent or that talented new apothecary. This competition would be his first chance to see how he measured up to other young talents in terms of refining.
The next six days passed uneventfully. Liu Zhu would stay in his room, looking through refining reference books and making sure that his mind was clear of cobwebs for the big day. He avoided learning much new during this time, making a point of checking that he could recall everything he was already supposed to know and that he was in peak condition for the big day. The only things that interrupted his studying were meals and a couple visits to the Butterfly Loft. Said visits weren't incredibly productive, but besides helping Liu Zhu make friends they served as a chance to destress and were ultimately helpful in his week-long cramming session.
Eventually the day of the refiner's competition arrived and Liu Zhu made his way there. The competition's venue was a mansion near the edge of the city, and today the area was crowded with both rubberneckers and hopeful refiners. Guards stood next to the mansion's gate, screening everyone trying to enter and driving away anyone who was clearly too old or who couldn't answer basic questions on refining. Liu Zhu was let in without any trouble and led to a large pavilion a ways away from the gate. Hundreds of young men and women were scattered throughout the area, some in clothes that clearly showed their wealth, others with tanned skin and worn-out clothes that showed their lack of it. There were a wide variety of competitors today, although there was little suspense around whether the talents of the large influences or the grassroots refiners would come out on top. The competitors without some force backing them served mainly to fill in the numbers.
Over the next quarter hour the number of participants inflated even further, reaching around 400. After a few more minutes of waiting, a man in a suit approached the crowd and cleared his throat loud enough to drown out a scream. "Refiner Long will be entering." Everyone went silent as an old man exited the mansion, closely examining the crowd as he approached the pavilion. The old man was wearing simple clothes covered in grime, and a sweaty shirt was slung over his shoulder. He must have been forging something up until now. As Liu Zhu kept staring at him he also noticed that while he was clearly old, he was full of life and covered in tanned, bulging muscles.
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Refiner Long stood there for a moment, glancing over each and every one of the hundreds of excited juniors. What he said next immediately killed most of that excitement. "If I find out that any of you are lying about being under 20 or don't have experience in refining, don't blame this old man for getting nasty. These muscles aren't just for making things- they can also break them." After that he paused and gruffly said "I'll give a minute for anyone who needs to leave to do so. After that the grace period is over." As Refiner Long closed his eyes dozens of people began making their way to the mansion's gate, most of them poorer or older looking than most.
When the minute ended Refiner Long opened his eyes and began looking over the crowd. After a long pause he continued speaking. "That makes 328 people left. I would invite you all inside, but there's far too many of you. I'd like... 30 left at most?" Refiner Long sighed and then turned to his servant. "Give them the written test. I wouldn't have to resort this if only those who were qualified came, but an event like this is certain to attract plenty of the inexperienced dreaming for a miracle. Still, that being said, this is honestly less than I expected. It looks like this old man isn't as well known as he used to be..."
The servant nodded in response to Refiner Long and grabbed a stack of papers from a nearby table as Refiner Long made his way back to the mansion. As he left, he gave one last set of instructions. "The test will be 10 questions. If you get a question wrong, you will be eliminated. If you forget your name or age, you will be eliminated. If you cheat in any way, I will find out, and you will be eliminated from more than this competition."
A small group of servants left the mansion as Refiner Long entered it. These servants led everyone to different areas throughout the yard and provided inksticks, inkstones, and brushes to write with. After everything was handed out the leading servant said the time limit was an hour and had the rest of the servants hand out the testing papers. Liu Zhu initially assumed an hour was rather generous for 10 questions, but he quickly realized how naive he had been. The first question was rather complex, and was about purifying iron and the required purity of iron before using it in several different alloys. It wasn't hard for Liu Zhu to answer, but it would take at least a few minutes for him to do so properly. From there the questions only got harder, and glancing over them Liu Zhu realized that he might run out of time. Not wanting to be knocked out so early, Liu Zhu put his head down and began filling out the test as best as he could.
As Liu Zhu began filling out the test, all around him people began leaving. Many of the people here were only ordinary in terms of refining knowledge, and upon seeing the test had realized that they had zero chance of actually passing it. As the hour went on more and more people left, and by the end of the exam there weren't even 150 people left. Once the hour was up a servant yelled "Time!", and the exams were rapidly collected.
Liu Zhu had finished the exam with five minutes to spare, and felt that he had probably avoided the worst case scenario of being immediately eliminated. Even if he didn't focus all of his energy towards refining, he had put forth a lot of effort towards it when he was younger- it would be embarrassing if he wasn't even able to pass through the preliminaries. As Liu Zhu looked over the exam again, his train of thought was interrupted by Refiner Long's head servant. "183 people left during the test, leaving 145 tests to be graded. You're free to enjoy some refreshments, speak to each other, or wander the yard as the results are graded. As soon as one of your questions is graded as incorrect we will call out your name and you must vacate the premises." After saying this the head servant went into the mansion with the test papers, leaving the prospective apprentices to their own devices.