I Became the Alchemy Master by Picking Up Trash-Chapter 268 - 266: The Real and Fake Dark Elemental Spirit

Qi Ming: "Ah, no, it can’t be!"

Cui Tianxiao: "With Lin Yin’s excellence everywhere and his tendency to be aggressive, how could he be at the bottom?"

Tang Dou clicked his tongue: "Why not! Lin Yin was completely different when he was a kid. I heard from my little cousin that he was not very talkative, timid and introverted, the kind who wouldn’t even fight back when bullied. But he was quite smart, learning things quickly."

Ye Qingting: "Is he bad at certain subjects then?"

Tang Dou: "Hey, Brother Ye guessed right, he is indeed weak in some areas, and severely so! He hardly ever attended the practical classes related to Primordial Spirit, barely earning enough credits each year, and he often missed exams."

"Because of this, teachers criticized him frequently, and his mom was often summoned by the dean of academic affairs. But it was useless. No matter how badly the teachers scolded him, or even when threatened with expulsion, Lin Yin still did his own thing."

Cui Tianxiao: "Damn, if he doesn’t attend the practical classes related to Primordial Spirit, doesn’t that mean more than half of his courses have no grades? How can he still graduate?"

"Isn’t that right! On the eve of graduation exams, when everyone thought Lin Yin would become the first dropout of Basic Academy, the campus network suddenly exposed that Lin Yin was a Dark Elemental Spirit. Everyone waiting to see a joke had their jaws dropped, even many teachers were surprised."

"The school also issued a statement saying Lin Yin’s Primordial Spirit was too dangerous for him to control accurately at his young age, and that he skipped classes and exams because he didn’t want to accidentally hurt his classmates. Later, after discussion among the school leaders, they exempted him from the graduation exam and directly recommended him to Cold Smoke Pavilion."

After Tang Dou finished speaking, Ye Qingting and the others looked envious. Having a rare Primordial Spirit is indeed impressive, even if your grades are bad, prestigious schools still want you.

Li Xing lowered her head and took a sip of berry milk, her eyelashes hiding the brilliance in her eyes.

The more dangerous the Primordial Spirit, the more one should practice and master control quickly. Why did Lin Yin do the opposite?

Living in such an apartment, Lin Yin’s family background might not even be as good as Li Xing’s. Can’t afford one-on-one private tutoring, if not learning in school, where would he learn?

With experienced teachers providing free teaching, it doesn’t make sense for him not to take advantage unless he’s planning to explore it himself? That "afraid of hurting others" statement is purely misleading.

The school’s statement has issues, and Lin Yin’s Primordial Spirit has more issues. Even if he keeps it a secret, don’t the testing officials report it?

Li Xing: "Can Primordial Spirit be kept secret too? When I finished testing back then, the results were immediately recorded in the optical brain and sent to Datang Academy."

Ye Qingting: "In principle, no, but many people do it, mostly illegitimate children of noble families. The better the aptitude of the illegitimate child, the more they fear being seen as a threat to the legitimate heirs’ succession by the legitimate wife, so they often bribe the testing officials during Element Testing. They first write down an inconspicuous Primordial Spirit that allows them to enter the Basic Academy without attracting attention. Once they have the ability to protect themselves, they secretly change it back."

Li Xing: "Bribing a testing official isn’t cheap, is it?"

Ye Qingting: "Of course! If discovered, the testing official would be convicted of negligence. Without tens of millions, no one would dare take the risk."

Qi Ming: "Can Lin Yin’s mother afford that money?"

Ye Qingting: "Maybe. I heard Lin Feng gave Sun Jiaojiao a substantial breakup fee back in the day."

Cui Tianxiao: "If you ask me, Sun Jiaojiao was just intimidated by Mrs. Lin, the tigress, and didn’t actually need to spend a fortune to hide it for her son. Lin Feng has plenty of illegitimate children, but none have outstanding aptitudes. Suddenly, Lin Yin, a Dark Elemental Spirit, emerged, and Lin Feng was nearly overjoyed. It’s said that the day Lin Yin was brought back into the family, Lin Feng wrote him into the genealogy. Now, Lin Feng doesn’t even favor Lin Caier; all he sees is Lin Yin, his prized son!"

Qi Ming marveled: "I can hardly imagine how Lin Yin has managed all these years without using his Primordial Spirit at all."

Tang Dou: "I think he just doesn’t use it in public; he definitely uses it privately. My little cousin said he once felt an elemental power fluctuation in the wild, as if someone were hunting Star Beasts. Curious, he went to take a look, and when he arrived, he found it was Lin Yin. By then, the Star Beast was dead, and the ground was covered with deep cracks and stones, definitely an attack using Primordial Spirit." 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Li Xing was suddenly shocked. Deep cracks and stones on the ground are characteristics of an Earth Elemental Spirit user’s attack!

She had fought with Lin Yin before, and whether it was the Dark Magic Six Paths Cannon or the Eternal Nether Gauze, the elemental power characteristics were all about devouring, silently drawing life force, and definitely not affecting inanimate objects.

Could it be... Lin Yin’s Dark Elemental Spirit is not innate?

If this hypothesis is taken as a premise, then all the mysteries about Lin Yin find reasonable explanations.

Sun Jiaojiao didn’t need to spend money to bribe the testing official for concealment, because the Primordial Spirit detected during the first test was Lin Yin’s true aptitude, likely an Earth Elemental Spirit, not highly ranked, thus not attracting extra attention.

Sun Jiaojiao also didn’t withhold Lin Yin’s return to the family; rather, Lin Yin’s average aptitude made it impossible to attract Lin Feng’s attention, with no hope of returning.

The "Manipulator" behind Lin Yin made him conceal his Primordial Spirit until graduation, when the transformation was finally completed, turning Lin Yin from an "ugly duckling" into a "black swan" and enabling his high-profile return to the Lin family.

With the big tree of the Lin family behind him, and the trust and favor of the Family Head, Lin Yin could have anything he wanted, with a bright future ahead.

Connecting this to Lin Yin’s almost perfect personal resume and his early intent to join the military corps, Li Xing finally understood the Manipulator’s intention—to create a young talent with extraordinary aptitude and a strong background, and send him into the military corps.

With the Lin family, one of the four great families, backing him, Lin Yin could easily sit in the commander’s seat, to be used by the "ghost."

Analyzing this way, the identity of the Manipulator is obvious.

If Lin Yin succeeds, he would be another Xue Han, a bomb planted in the Military Department by the Cult of Exterminate Immortals.

Li Xing downed the berry milk in one gulp, her gaze sharp. Lin Yin definitely has issues, and it must be investigated!

That night, Li Xing told Yang Zhou the information she got from Tang Dou. Although Yang Zhou found the alteration of Primordial Spirit hard to believe, he couldn’t deny there was a possibility, so he assigned more personnel to follow Lin Yin 24/7.

Three days later, the snowstorm finally subsided, and the Teleportation Port opened. All the teams stranded at Cold Smoke Pavilion gradually returned to their respective schools.

The team dedicated to dealing with unyielding individuals did not suffer injuries from the beast tide this time, and as the military academy competition was postponed by half a year, the pre-competition training customized by the school was also postponed.

The four currently only had daily course arrangements, making their days feel tremendously relaxed compared to the past few months.

Li Xing’s combat award was delivered the day she returned to school, brought specially by the warriors of the Fourth Army. It was evident that Sun Qing was very thoughtful, giving Li Xing all low-tier Crystal Stones, filling three large spatial buttons.

Receiving this sum, the pressure on Li Xing was greatly reduced. Trouble indeed brings profit, if it weren’t for the Cult of Exterminate Immortal causing the Three-Eyed Worm trouble, Li Xing might even wish for more Beast Tides.