Ming Li was a bit stunned by the looks of the young woman, but Ming Li noticed that she was exactly the woman they saw earlier at the streets. It was none other than Chao Mei.

When he realized who it was, Ming Li slowly calmed himself. He knew that starting a fight with the granddaughter of the sect master would do him no good, however he cannot just let go of such precious demon's grace. Whenever he glance at a demon's grace, he unconsciously considers it as his property.

Because of his extreme need for demon's grace, he considers each demon's grace with extreme importance.

While looking at Chao Mei, Ming Li said "Senior sister, I have been eyeing on this demon's grace for a bit. Can I counter offer for it?"

Chao Mei looked at him from head to toe then sneered, "I have no time for this." Then she threw a cube towards the shopkeeper and waved her hands, making the demon's grace flew towards her.

When Ming Li saw this, he also immediately threw a cube towards the owner of the store and waved his hands making the demon's grace stop in midair.

Duan Ho and Yu Lan felt tremors ran through his body when they saw Ming Li causing a scene with Chao Mei.

Being directly confronted by Ming Li, Chao Mei remained calm and threw another cube. Before the cube even reached the hands of the shopkeeper, Ming Li also calmly threw another cube.

This time Chao Mei's face flickered. Both of them does not even know how much the other person paid, but each of them seemed confident that they paid higher than the other.

Chao Mei didn't move for a while and stared at Ming Li, on the other hand Ming Li threw another cube which made everyone shocked.

"He did it!! He actually tried to offend someone like Chao Mei!!" Duah Ho thought while breathing deeply.

Even Yu Lan's carefree expression was now replaced with a hint of worry.

Chao Mei's brows knitted and looked at Ming Li deeply as if she was trying to assess him. After a while, she held her hands down then she walked away. She didn't say a word and left as if nothing happened, however her gaze at Ming Li showed that she didn't look at Ming Li at the same level as her and didn't care about him. It was like telling everyone that she can buy a lot more of those demon's grace without wasting time in Ming Li's game.

Ming Li waved his hands and collected the demon's grace into his cube, then he also left at a different direction together with Duan Ho and Yu Lan.

When they all left, the shopkeeper checked Ming Li's cubes and found out that only the first cube contains 25 thousand soul ore. The second and third cube both contain 1 soul ore.

On the other hand Chao Mei's cubes contains 25 thousand soul ore and five thousand soul ore.

If she didn't go away, Ming Li would've continuously tossed out empty cubes just to intimidate her. Because of Ming Li's frugality, he would never actually pay more than what the item was worth if he has nothing special to gain.

The shopkeeper stared at all the cube with complex expression, then decided to not talk about what happened with anyone else.

....

"Ming Li, why did you do that? She is the granddaughter of the sect master. You will be in trouble if she got offended about what happened." Duan Ho said in panic.

"Don't worry, the looks in her eyes made me realize that she doesn't care about me. So he probably forgot about everything when she walked away."

Ming Li has been looked at exactly the same way by rich people when he was a kid. Those people does not even care if he exist and would not waste their effort to make a nobody like him suffer. So he was confident in his judgement and proceeded with his act.

Yu Lan then asked "By the way how much did you pay?"

Ming Li went silent for a moment then replied "It's better if you don't know."

...

Duan Ho and Yu Lan guided Ming Li towards the hall where he could register to be a member of the sect. Upon registration, he was given a scroll with information on the date of the exam.

Ming Li stayed in a room located in the area of the sect designated for visitors. Along with him was Duan Ho who decided to stay with him until the exam, since he felt worried that Ming Li might cause another trouble.

He truly cared for Ming Li since Ming Li saved their lives, but he doesn't know much about Ming Li so he decided to stay and get to know him better.

Day and night they talked about alchemy, creation of natures dew and other things related to plants.

Ming Li was amazed on the dept of knowledge of Duan Ho. Even though Duan Ho does not have the same art as him, his knowledge far exceeded Ming Li's expectation. He even learned a lot of new things from Duan Ho. So he decided to listen and exchange knowledge.

Yu Lan would sometimes drop by and share her knowledge to Ming Li. It seems like they were just chatting about plants, but the two decided to do this to prepare Ming Li for the exam.

They could not do much about Ming Li's skill, however, they could boost his knowledge in the short amount of time.

Days passed by and the day of the exam came. Many people lined up at the exam hall. There were hundreds of people trying to take the exam. Everyone came from different branch sects who wishes to try their luck to fulfill their dreams of entering the Main Sect. 

Ming Li chose to enter the Apothecary Pavilion and proceeded to the line. The first level of the test was simply knowing the art. Every student who was called should create the nature's dew or crystal leaf required by the examiner. If he can make it at the minimum time required, that person could continue to the next test. There were three test in total and the last test would be observed by the sect master himself.

"Number 135 step forward, when Ming Li heard this he knew that his turn was near. He picked number 150 which made him the 150th person to take the test.

Number 135 create a Ten red lightning crystal leaf. After stating the instructions, the examiner waved his hands making the necessary plants and procedure to create the crystal leaf appear.

The items on the test were simple to create however, the major hurdle was the time limit. The student will be given ten breaths to review the procedure then another ten breaths to create the required item.

After a total of twenty breaths Ming Li heard "Number 135 failed. Number 136 step forward."

After another 20 breaths "Number 136 failed, Number 137 step forward."

This continued for a while, Ming Li heard more people fail than pass and thought that the test might be really hard.

After five consecutive people failed, Ming Li suddenly heard people getting excited about something. So he asked "Why are they getting excited?"

"Don't you know that number 145 is Chao Fuhua, the grandson of the sect master."

Ming Li looked at the stage and observed how Chao Fuhua would pass the test.

"Number 145 create a Red wind nature's dew."

The examiner waved his hands and the plants appeared.

Chao Fuhua stared at the scroll for around 3 breaths then started creating the nature's dew. Everyone gaped in shock when they saw him create a nature's dew at less than two breaths of time. It was so fast that no one was able to react instantly.

Even Ming Li was amazed of the boy's skill. "He is young yet he has that much skill." Ming Li thought.

Chao Fuhua was only around thirteen years of age. He was basically the youngest taking the test, but his skills were top notch. Even Ming Li wasn't confident that he could do the same when he was younger, even with the art from his master.

After the commotion from Chao Fuhua's display of talent, several people failed again, until it was Ming Li's turn.

Duan Ho and Yu Lan along with the two other people from the branch sect watched Ming Li's exam.

"Number 150 step forward, create a red flame nature's dew."

Ming Li went forward then grabbed the scroll and looked at it for two breaths then waved his hands. After waving his hands, shockingly a nature's dew was already floating in mid air.

Everyone didn't know what happened. Even the examiner was startled, it took him three breaths to realize everything and said. "Number 150 passed."

When everyone heard the word passed. They went into a buzz "Did you see that!?"

"Yes I saw it clearly, he just waved his hands and a crystal dew appeared!"

"Is that real? He's even better than the grandson of the sect master."

Duan Ho and Yu Lan were shocked to the extreme. They know that it hasn't been long since Ming Li entered the branch sect. So creating a nature's dew at a wave of a hand should be impossible, even if it was just a basic nature's dew.