"I'm worried someone might eat him!"
Even if you get eaten, he won't.
Grace burst out laughing. "...That's true! He's got some serious teeth! Plus, he's a pro at digging holes—and he has all sorts of weird tricks."
Evan Xiao stayed silent.
......
That evening, after returning home, Grace went to check on Beanie again.
With plenty of spiritual energy around, it had grown a lot.
But... it looked even more like a tree now.
"You little Beanie! You've really turned into a tiny tree!" Grace sighed. "But you're sucking up my spiritual energy even faster now."
The Legacy Stones she snatched from Wendy Zhu were dwindling so fast it made her anxious.
Beanie rustled its leaves, looking very well-behaved.
Grace stroked it. "I know you're a good little one! Don't worry. I'll definitely find more Legacy Stones for you, so you can grow faster!"
Beanie nodded its leaves and rubbed against her palm. Grace couldn't help but laugh, growing even more fond of it.
......
The third round of the next day's Spirit Alliance Examination was to diagnose a patient.
Grace drew patient number three—a Spirit Practitioner with a Water Spirit Root.
He'd been feeling cold these past few days, even shivering uncontrollably, and it had become unbearable. He had no idea what was wrong.
Grace took his pulse and wrote the symptoms and prescription on the paper beside her.
Then she handed it to Elder Conrad.
She was confident her diagnosis was correct.
But Elder Conrad frowned after reading it and asked her, "You say he accidentally ate Ice Soul Fish roe? So he was poisoned by Frostbane?"
Grace nodded.
That was the diagnosis she had come up with.
Elder Conrad had already diagnosed all five patients beforehand.
His diagnosis was completely different from Grace's.
"Have you ever treated anyone before?" Elder Conrad asked.
"I have," Grace replied.
In her previous life, she was actually a well-known Spiritual Alchemist.
Lots of people had come to her for help!
"But he's not poisoned," Elder Conrad said. "He's had a cultivation mishap—ice-elemental spiritual energy invaded his meridians."
"Huh?" Grace was confused. She checked his pulse again and said, puzzled, "No, it's definitely poisoning..."
"Elder Conrad already diagnosed all of them beforehand," Lily Xu said. "He never makes mistakes."
"But—"
"Grace, stop pretending to know what you don't!" Sophie Sun interrupted.
Maybe she hadn't slept well last night—her dark circles were heavy.
"You've only had your Spirit Root for six months, and you haven't apprenticed under anyone or systematically studied medicine. Do you even know how to check a pulse?"
Grace glanced at Sophie Sun and said, "I know all about inspection, listening, questioning, and palpation. For example, President Sun, your complexion is sallow, your eyes are dark, and you clearly have yin deficiency and blood stasis, as well as irregular menstruation. Am I right?"
Sophie Sun gritted her teeth and said, "We are in an examination! Please be serious!"
"I am being serious!" Grace replied.
So you're saying Elder Conrad made a mistake with his diagnosis?
Grace stayed silent.
The symptoms Elder Conrad described were completely different from the pulse she felt—there was no way either of them was mistaken.
He was a seasoned Spiritual Alchemist; he shouldn't have made a mistake.
But she hadn't made a mistake either!
Why was there such a big difference?
"Elder Conrad, what do you say?" Lily Xu asked.
Elder Conrad pondered for a moment and said, "Your diagnosis is completely wrong. There's no need to continue with the treatment."