My health recovery is incredibly fast.

Mars smiled as he met the other person's envious gaze, "Master-level elemental bottles have the same effect."

"!!" Xia Zuo's eyes widened. "Really?"

“Of course it’s true.” Mars rubbed his hands together, his words filled with emotion. “It’s hard to believe that I have a junior with top-notch alchemy potential.”

He glanced at the clock on the wall in the dining room:

"I'm heading back now to pack my things. I have to leave for Ye Nan Province at noon; the resident mage there urgently needs an assistant. I was hoping to have a good meal at the restaurant, but the effects of the satiety potion haven't worn off yet, and I have no appetite at all. Right now, I'd rather spend all my time meditating, relying on the satiety potion to fill my stomach every day..."

Xia Zuo stood up and walked him to the dormitory entrance. "Have a safe trip, Senior Mars. How can I contact you in the future?"

"You'll understand once you become a mage apprentice." Mars touched the other's right shoulder again. "I wish you success in passing the test in advance. I believe you'll definitely be fine."

He stopped and turned around as he stepped into the doorway. "Give my regards to Anruer. I sincerely wish you two can become a couple. I think you two are a good match."

"Thank you, goodbye, senior Mars."

Xia Zuo stood at the entrance of the corridor and waved goodbye.

He returned to the restaurant and sat down, slowly processing the intelligence Mars had brought.

As noon approached, cheerful footsteps sounded behind me.

"I'm here!"

Hearing the gentle and pleasant words, Xia Zuo smiled and stood up to embrace the other person.

"After lunch, I'll drop you off and then go back to the academy to refine poisons. I'll pick you up from the shop before evening, and we'll come back together for dinner. How does this arrangement sound?"

“Okay~” Anru’er leaned happily against her boyfriend’s chest.

...

As time went by, the learning atmosphere in the university became increasingly intense, and the oppressive atmosphere of exam preparation gradually intensified.

Normally, you could hear laughter and chatter in the cafeteria. But a month before the exams, all the students retaking the course and the new students were carrying their backpacks and hurrying between the cafeteria, classrooms, and dormitories.

Xia Zuo and An Ru'er were not affected much; on the contrary, they were much more relaxed because they didn't have to teach classes.

Especially during the final exam days, students have to eat in their dormitories. There are only a handful of people in the entire cafeteria.

During the 25 days of final exams for freshmen, they spent their time in a relaxed and carefree manner.

One day at noon.

Xia Zuo and An Ru'er chatted quietly while eating.

A dark cloud seemed to hang over the restaurant today, casting a shadow over the hearts of many test-takers.

The results of this semester's final exams were announced this morning.

Of the many students who had to retake the course, only three passed the exam. Apart from these three, the rest will leave the academy this week.

Among this year's freshmen, very few people passed the exam; only five people did.

These two figures were far below Xia Zuo's own expectations.

Anru sat next to her boyfriend, covering her mouth with her hand and said:

"I'll let you in on a little secret: my advisor said that this year's 25 exams are much harder than our year's."

Xia Zuo was completely unaware of this, having been engrossed in concocting poisons for the past two months and paying no attention to the final exams.

He quickly figured out the reason after a moment's thought.

This year's freshmen are actually quite shrewd; most of them observed the situation for a year before applying for admission. That year was enough time to self-study multiple textbooks.

The purpose of general education course exams is not to ensure students pass, but to select the most outstanding individuals and then allocate teaching resources based on their exam scores.

If the difficulty of the exams is not increased, the pass rate will be astonishing, and the final exams will lose their purpose.

Some might wonder if it's feasible to avoid this peak of the crowds and start school a year later?

Hmm...maybe. But professors will still adjust the difficulty of the exams according to the academic level of the new students.

For test takers, the worst-case scenario is that professors believe the good grades of this year's freshmen are not due to their own outstanding talent, but rather to years of hard work.

Professors will increase the difficulty of the exams again, and come up with new questions in various ways in order to select the talents they want.

Therefore, don't let your cleverness backfire. In the matter of final exams at university, the relationship between the test takers and the exam setters is completely unequal.

The truly correct approach is to follow the established life path and enter academia for further studies.

Xia Zuo found the dejected Yulanda, who was sitting in a corner looking heartbroken, clearly having failed the exam.

"It seems our poison alchemy has been completely wiped out. What about yours?" Xia Zuo asked.

Anru'er's mouth was stuffed full, and she shook her head from side to side, making "mmmmm" sounds.

That's good, that's good. If we can just endure another year, the university will be much quieter.

...

At 1 p.m. that day.

The Poison Alchemy Zone.

Xia Zuo entered the basic alchemy room and saw his mentor point to the chair opposite the desk, so he moved over and sat down.

Good afternoon, Professor.

Kulov handed the other person two brochures. "These are introductions to the next class of freshmen. Take a look at them first, and then we'll talk about something."

Xia Zuo lowered his head and opened the picture album.

There are only two new students in the next class, both boys, one year apart from reaching adulthood, not locals of Starry Night City, and their life stories are relatively simple. The booklet doesn't contain much information, and I finished looking through it in no time.

Kulov saw the student look up, placed his fingers together on the table, and asked:

What do you think of Yolanda's alchemical aptitude?

Xia Zuo stroked his chin thoughtfully and said:

"As for Yolanda... she might not be able to refine the perfect quality powder on her first day as a novice poison alchemist, but she can definitely produce excellent quality powder, probably 3 to 5 bottles."

"It's about what I expected. It's around the third to fifth grade of the top class."

Kulov nodded and pointed to the alchemy table behind him, saying:

"In a little while, I'll call Yolanda over. After she completes her probationary-level promotion test, you'll teach her how to refine the white palate poison powder. She'll be refining the powder here tomorrow. I want you to supervise her to prevent the bilirubin from exploding."

"Yes, Professor, leave it to me."

“There’s one more thing.” Kulov took a stack of exam papers from his drawer and presented them to the students one by one:

"Yoranda has good alchemical potential and learning talent. Most importantly, she passed the trial of the Black Eye Poison. She is worth keeping for further training."

"She passed 16 subjects in this final exam, and needs to retake 9 of them. Among those who need to retake, she is considered one of the top students."

"I'd like you to tutor her to make sure she passes the makeup exam. That way, she can be the temporary teaching assistant next year, and you can focus on self-studying the introductory material."

Xia Zuo flipped through Yulanda's test paper, noting that the points deducted were concentrated on the more difficult application problems.

"No problem, Professor. I need to use the things in the storage room."

"Use it, just clean it up after you're done." Kurov waved his hand, then asked:

Do you think you're a good fit for the teaching assistant job?

Xia Zuo shook his head almost without hesitation and said:

“No, Professor, I don’t think I’m suited for this job. I prefer working with advanced alchemy tables.”

"Yes." Kulov nodded.

"It's true that having you as a temporary teaching assistant caused some delays. But we've gained a lot; it was worth sacrificing my meditation time to work with you on building the teaching assistant model. With your post-class summaries, lesson plans, and teaching insights, Yolanda will be much more at ease dealing with the new students."

"If there is no more suitable candidate than her in the next year, I would like to apply to the dean to formally appoint her as a teaching assistant. What do you think?"

“I agree, Professor.” Xia Zuo raised his hand decisively in favor.

Yolanda is more disciplined, and her female identity makes her more approachable, making her more suitable as a teaching assistant.

“Then it’s settled. I’ll call her over…” Kurov picked up a pen, quickly wrote a few lines, and manipulated the paper to fly out of the poison alchemy zone.

Chapter 41 The Inspection Team Arrives

A month later.

Yolanda passed the make-up exam smoothly and took over the temporary teaching assistant work from Shazona on the day the results were announced.

This was undoubtedly a double blessing for her.

Xia Zuo watched the other person leave the poison alchemy area with light steps, and a message from his cheat system indicating that his teaching assistant status had been revoked came to his mind.

After greeting his mentor, he entered the advanced alchemy room.

Above the advanced alchemy table is an antique-style alchemy lamp, which, along with the wall lamps, illuminates the advanced alchemy room.

Xia Zuo walked to the wall, flipped the switch on the side of the wall lamp, and turned them all off. Only the overhead chandelier remained, illuminating the compact, high-level alchemy table.

This is a habit I've developed over the past few months, which helps me focus my attention on alchemical practices and thinking.

The characteristics of the three elements—water, fire, and wind—have been determined.

The characteristics of the earth element are defined in only two ways: stability and shaping.

Xia Zuo initially thought the third trait should be highly toxic, but later realized it wasn't quite right, so he deleted it and replaced it with the word "deposition".

This inspiration came from that unknown potion that increases vitality.

The supervisor removed it because they were worried about toxins accumulating in the body. Toxins are associated with the earth element, so accumulation is more likely a characteristic of the earth element than a sign of extreme toxicity.

Stabilizing, shaping, settling... what is the last quality?

Xia Zuo racked his brains over this every day, but had no clue what to do.

As usual, he temporarily set aside his distractions and focused on practicing basic poisons.

Of the five poisons available to trainees, only white palate poison is lethal.

The entry-level poisons are different. The four poisons, namely, tongue burner, eye pecking, ear bombardment, and bone picker, are all deadly. The dosage must be carefully controlled when testing them, otherwise it is easy to fall into hypoxia.

The tongue-burning agent produces an intense burning sensation upon contact with the tongue, lasting only about 5 seconds. In large doses, it can dissolve the tongue.