Chapter 53

Mali opened his eyes and found himself standing in the garden under the Baita.

Only, he didn't remember when he had come here. Had the magic appraisal already been done? What was the result? And where had the others gone?

He had already sensed that something was wrong at this time and subconsciously reached out to pull his gun, but touched nothing.

At the same time, Jia Anda's slightly hoarse voice also sounded in his ears.

"Concentrate, the test is about to begin."

Mali turned his head to look around, but couldn't see the female alchemist's figure.

"This is the spiritual world constructed by the Four-Position Instrument. You cannot see others, nor can you use the power of alchemy creations or magic potions; you can only rely on yourself to complete the test, and you cannot leave here until the test is over."

"Alright, so you are equivalent to my system prompt, telling me what to do next."

This time, the voice in his mind fell silent, probably thinking about what a system prompt was.

Just then, a ball of fire suddenly burst out in the courtyard; that ball of fire quickly ignited a large tree that required two people to embrace, and accompanied by a crackling sound, half of the tree's canopy was swallowed by the flames.

The scene looked very spectacular.

Jia Anda's voice sounded again, this time with only two simple words.

—Put out the fire.

Mali didn't know how to put out this fire; according to his common sense, if it burned like this, he should run away immediately without a fire truck.

But considering that this was just a spiritual world, he had to put it out if he had to.

He sized up the surroundings and found an old wooden bucket under the courtyard wall, and there was a small pond ten steps away.

Mali grabbed the wooden bucket, scooped water from the pond, and then carried it to the burning tree to splash it on.

This behavior reminded him of an idiom: a cup of water on a cartload of firewood.

However, Jia Anda didn't speak again, and he could only continue to do so.

Although it was just a fictional spiritual world, the experience in all aspects was exactly the same as in reality.

Every time he approached the fire scene, Mali could feel the oppressive heat wave, which scorched his hair and eyebrows until they curled, and the feeling of suffocation in his throat became more and more intense, causing him to cough continuously.

And after putting out the fire for a while, Mali also discovered that the wooden bucket was actually broken; every time he scooped a bucket of water, more than half of it would leak out on the way, and by the time he reached the ancient tree, only the bottom was left.

What is called "misfortunes never come singly."

But after searching the entire garden, Mali couldn't find anything else that could hold water. He thought about going to the front hall to look, but after trying, he found he couldn't get out of the garden at all.

No way, he could only continue to put out the fire with the broken bucket in his hand.

But the good news was that although the fire looked terrifying, it showed no signs of spreading to the surroundings, giving Mali the feeling that it was like having a health bar.

Although that health bar was terrifyingly long, theoretically, even if he poked it with a blank knife, he could poke it to death.

After discovering this, Mali's spirit was slightly lifted, and he began to continue putting out the fire bucket by bucket.

Sometimes he couldn't help but wonder if this was testing his elemental affinity or his willpower.

Anyway, he worked from morning to night, and from night to morning, before he finally extinguished the last cluster of flames.

Afterward, Mali threw away the wooden bucket directly and lay on the grass, gasping for air. He didn't even want to think about whether the Truck would disappear after more than a day; he only hoped to have a good sleep now.

Because he was so tired that he didn't want to move a finger.

However, the next moment, Jia Anda's voice sounded in his ears again, "Be careful, the wind is coming."

When Mali first heard it, he was thinking that wind was good; he wanted to blow in the wind now, but he didn't expect that what blew up in the courtyard was a tornado.

The weak herbaceous flowers were the first to suffer, blown into mid-air, and then the shrubs were uprooted, along with the soil and gravel, and the tables, chairs, decorations, and even the pond water in the garden danced a messy and primitive dance in the gale.

Mali didn't have time to run away, so he could only choose the sturdiest-looking big tree nearby, hug it tightly, and then was swept into the gale.

He could feel his body being torn hard, but miraculously, he wasn't hit by anything else.

He didn't know how much time had passed, but the raging storm gradually subsided, leaving only a courtyard of mess, but before Mali could catch his breath, the earth began to shake and crack again.

He had to start dodging and jumping on the edge of cracks and deep pits again, and this also drained his last bit of strength.

By this time, Mali didn't care about the result of the test; he just wanted to get out quickly.

No matter what other disasters were coming, he didn't want to play anymore, and Mali made up his mind to just lie on the ground and not move.

But he didn't expect that Jia Anda would go easy on the last level; she just wanted him to make a fire, and she prepared flint and tinder for him, and even firewood that had already been chopped in the garden.

Although Mali's movements were clumsy, he still lit the fire before the cold arrived.

And then he just sat by the fire until the test ended.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself lying on a strange-looking wooden instrument, a bit like a hospital CT machine, but with four gems of different colors embedded in the ring above his head.

Connecting those gems was a mysterious rune like a star map, which had both the texture of the wood itself and traces of artificial carving.

Jia Anda was standing beside him, with one hand pressed on the center of the star map.

"How was the result?" Lievre asked impatiently.

"The affinity scores for the three elements of water, wind, and earth are 1, 2, and 1 respectively, and only the fire element reached 4, barely reaching the level of an ordinary alchemist," Jia Anda said slowly.

Lievre didn't care, "An alchemist is not a mage; having such high elemental affinity is of no use. As long as there is a reaction to the elements..."

Although he said so, he was also a bit shocked. Lievre was the Vice Dean of the Guangyao Staff Alchemy Branch and had brought many students, and the young people who could enter Guangyao Staff were all the best among their peers.

Even Renee, who looked ordinary, had achieved two 7s, one 6, and one 5 in the four main element tests, and Mali was too far behind compared to them.

Alchemists indeed didn't have such high requirements for elemental affinity, but this was also relative.

With such low elemental affinity, alchemy materials were not easy to handle, which also meant that Mali's future alchemy path would be much more difficult than others.

Mali felt it was okay; as long as it wasn't 0, it at least meant he could still learn and use the magical power that was different from science, and he could also keep his status as an alchemist.

"Thank you for presiding over the appraisal for me," Mali said to Jia Anda.

However, the latter didn't respond at all. The female alchemist stood there, frowning, as if she had encountered something that puzzled her.