Chapter 67: Elder Shoa’s Disciples and the Master Exam

"I would like to know exactly how the exam for Alchemy Master status works." Approaching the counter, An asked the wooden doll on the other side of the glass.

The doll raised its head and extended its palm forward, waiting for his personal plaque.

An frowned slightly, but still took out his plaque and placed it on the outstretched palm.

"Inner Disciple An, official Alchemy Practitioner status. Information access granted."

"Each disciple is given two free attempts to take the exam for a new status. After two failures, subsequent exams will cost one hundred spirit stones and fifty contribution points."

"The exam for Master status consists of a single stage. Within the allotted time of two days, the examinee must successfully refine three second-rank pills, each with a potency loss of 30% or less. The choice of pills for testing is determined personally by the examiner. Three sets of spirit plants are provided for each pill."

"The exam is considered a failure if any one of the three pills is not successfully refined, if time runs out, or if the examiner catches the examinee cheating, in which case, all free attempts are annulled." In one breath, with a hoarse mechanical voice, the doll gave him all the information he needed.

"Do you wish to proceed to the exam for Master status?" Immediately, the doll asked and handed him back his plaque.

'Two attempts. Even if I fail miserably, at least I'll have a rough idea of what to expect next time... And refining strictly according to a recipe will be new for me.' An smiled slightly and gave his consent to the exam.

"Inner Disciple An, Practitioner status. Exam access granted." The doll confirmed his access in measured pauses.

"Proceed to the third floor, room 36. Please." Having finished, the doll looked at him carefully, as if expecting something.

He offered his thanks, nodded, and headed toward the staircase, above which was a sign with many inscriptions, including Floor 3 - Public Auditoriums.

"I hope they'll let you in with me to take the exam. Otherwise, I don't know what to do with you." Looking at Baldi, An shook his head, teasing the rooster.

Hearing him, the bird's eyes opened wide, and he began to crow under his breath, simultaneously afraid of what he had heard and afraid of making too much noise.

The bird had left the formation walls for the first time in two years, and on top of that, Baldi had never encountered such a sensory overload before.

Starting to climb the spiral staircase, he reached the third floor and pushed the door open.

"What do you know! Brother Chen Ho has no chance!"

"What do I know?! My master said that Brother Chen is one of the future talents of our Sect in Alchemy! Soon, he will have no equal!"

"And what about Radiant Shine then? Hmm?! Are you saying she's not talented? That she's not the future of our Sect?!"

"I heard that Radiant Shine recently came out of closed cultivation and managed to prepare her first second-rank pill!"

"Are you sure that's not just another rumor from her admirers?"

"Who knows... Who knows... Even rumors have a grain of truth."

"You're all admirers here!"

"Just like you!"

"Just like me!"

.

.

Just as he opened the door, a wave of chatter hit him from the disciples who were crowding before the large double doors of one of the auditoriums like ants, trying to get a better position to see through the doorway.

Quickly counting, there were almost fifty people in the corridor, all surrounding the doors.

Standing still, he tried to read the Qi flows through the crowd and the doors, to understand what was happening inside, but due to the chaos around and excessive number of energy flows, he was effectively blind.

Moving closer and standing behind, An stood on his tiptoes, and thanks to his tall stature, managed to see what the commotion inside the auditorium was.

Two tables facing each other, with different spirit plants laid out in rows on them, and two disciples, intently watching their cauldrons.

One disciple, familiar to him, was Chen Ho. Compared to their last meeting, he looked much older, and his heroic aura had become even more righteous and pronounced. With a calm face despite a few drops of sweat on his forehead, he carefully and cautiously manipulated his cauldron.

Opposite him stood a girl who looked slightly older than Brother Chen Ho, about twenty-four years old, with dark red wavy hair and large expressive green eyes. Her slightly form-fitting blue robes with gold and green inlays perfectly accentuated her statuesque appearance, her symmetrical and perfect proportions from face to feet. With a cold and calm gaze, she carefully watched her cauldron.

Besides the two of them, an elder in dark grey robes was present in the auditorium, slowly walking between the two tables, carefully watching both.

'Hmm... With his seventh layer of Qi Condensation and his sparse Qi control... The elder could have declared a loser even at this stage and not wasted time... A circus.' After carefully observing the concoction of both, how they behaved and how they controlled the process, An already knew all their mistakes, and who had made more.

Shaking his head, he was about to go to room 36, when his path was blocked.

"Who let you in here?" Focusing on her features, he recognized Xia Ji standing before him, she was the second personal disciple of Elder Shoa, on par with Chen Ho.

Looking at her, he immediately remembered her words, and her threats, every time they crossed paths. But surprisingly, he felt nothing negative toward her, looking at her like an object blocking his path.

Before he could even take a step to the side to simply walk around her, four more burly disciples came out from the group and stood around her, completely blocking his path.

Feeling the support around her, Xia Ji smirked and crossed her arms over her chest, looking at the wretched upstart with utter disgust.

"Hey you! Do you even know where you are? How dare you defile this sacred place with your worthless presence? Who even let you onto the island?" With a smirk, she began to speak louder and louder, attracting the attention of the surrounding audience and crowd. At the same time, emphasizing that An was dressed in grey robes, characteristic of outer disciples.

"Don't tell me you sneaked in, by bribing Old Vi, that lemon-like woman?! Just to watch my talented brother's duel, the future of all Alchemy? Ha! As his sister, I command you to get out of here this instant! Don't disgrace the legacy of the great with your insignificant and worthless presence!" With burning eyes, Xia Ji got carried away, completely losing control of herself. Insults flew from her mouth one after another.

All the accumulated filth, all the stress, over these long and difficult two years for her, had finally burst out.

Many in the crowd threw a glance and seeing his robes simply turned back, considering him unworthy of their attention. Others watched with interest to see how events would unfold, while a few turned their heads back and forth, trying not to miss anything in either place.

'Sixth layer, at the peak... Many problems with pill poisons. Her body is practically radiating poisonous Qi due to excessive consumption of low-quality pills, and even the birth of Death Qi is already beginning... What's her name? Xia Di, no, Xia Ji... Strange, with such a master, she's fallen to this state. Even if that master is a schemer and a scoundrel...' Looking at Xia Ji, not really listening to her words, he merely averted his gaze and still tried to walk around the now group of five.

"Who said you're free to go?"

"Where you're heading, you lowlife? Haha!"

Immediately, two blocked his path, looking at him with contempt.

"We're inside the Alchemy Hall, right across from us is... as I understand, a duel. And you want to start a conflict in front of so many witnesses?" An raised his eyes and looked at both of them.

"Heh! You think that'll help you?"

"You were told to stand, so stand still!" Both prepared themselves and slightly flushed with anticipation, waiting for him to give them a reason to attack.

An turned to the auditorium, to the elder, who was still watching the two and their work.

Sighing, he took his plaque from his inner pocket and extended it to the two, to show them. "I'm an inner disciple and a Practit-"

Before he could finish, the third one, who had been standing beside An all this time, waved his hand and struck the plaque, knocking it to the floor.

"Who cares who you are! You'd better realize where and among whom you are."

"Listen to me carefully, you..." Just as Xia Ji, with a triumphant smirk on her face, began to speak, she suddenly felt a coldness binding her body.

BOOM!

The two disciples before An barely registered a blur before palms slammed into their faces.

Grabbing them by their faces, An slammed them sharply into the floor, not even giving them time to use their techniques to activate defenses.

Flying face-first into the hard floor, both disciples lost consciousness, leaving pools of blood and a few teeth on the floor.

'They looked so big, and I thought they were body cultivators, but it seems all their physical defense was limited to their eighth-layer cultivation… Good, at least I didn't overdo it.' Straightening up, he looked at Xia Ji.

She and the others around suddenly fell silent, and stepped back, staring with wide eyes at the unexpected development.

Several disciples with cultivation on the level of the two knocked-out brutes wanted to start grumbling and put this brat in his place, but were successfully stopped by their own friends.

Approaching Xia Ji, he lowered his head and looked into her eyes.

Seeing his gaze, her entire body was seized by fear. Looking into those empty, emotionless eyes, she barely held herself back from falling to the floor, to her knees.

"Next time, it'll be you in place of your brutes." Stepping around her, without turning his head, he spoke almost in a whisper, and continued walking without any problems. Especially from the other two brutes, who immediately, seeing their friends face-down on the floor, moved as far away as possible.

With a wave of his hand, his plaque, which had been hovering in the air, flew into his palm.

The disciples at the auditorium where the duel was taking place, completely forgot about the battle between the two geniuses, and stared wide-eyed at the trembling Xia Ji.

Some frowned, seeing how a bastard had dared to do such a thing, but, afraid of trouble, only stood with dissatisfied faces. Some even rejoiced, seeing Xia Ji finally get what she deserved. Many despised her because of her constant arrogance, thanks to her master.

Especially the fact that even her cultivation was below the threshold of inner disciples, many harbored enmity toward this arrogant figure, who constantly hid behind her master's name and her genius brother. Though in reality, all who thought that way were no different from her.

'I-I'll kill you! You're dead! I'll cut you to pieces! How dare you, slave! Slave! Slave! Worthless! You're dead!' Frozen like a statue, she couldn't pull herself together, tears began to flow from her eyes. From the humiliation, she couldn't force herself to raise her long-lowered head, and continued standing motionless, cursing An and imagining all the ways she would torture and humiliate him tenfold for what she had received today.

'Hmm, I think I acted more or less adequately… The only thing is, I humiliated her in public, and that could go two ways: either she'll reflect on her behavior, or she'll unleash all her fury on me, with everything she has… Eh, hopefully it'll be the first.' Passing through the crowd, which parted to let him through, he approached room 36.

<"Come in."> Just as he reached the door, An heard a gentle female voice in his head. Remaining calm, he looked at the rooster under his arm, pushed the door, and entered.

A spacious auditorium with large windows facing the outside opened up before him. In the center of the room stood a large open area. Along the walls stood tables and chairs for disciples.

The entire auditorium was made of light wood and grey flooring, which looked very much like stone covering.

By the empty wall, on a chair, sat a woman, carefully watching An. She looked no older than thirty, without a single wrinkle, with dark red hair and dark green eyes, dressed in dark grey elder robes.

Looking at her, he found many similarities with Radiant Shine. Only the woman before him was several levels higher on the scale of appearance.

Sitting on the chair in an attractive and mysterious pose, her already tight clothes hugged her figure even tighter, and every tiny detail of her curves was visible through the thin, almost transparent, robes.

"Hmm… a new disciple, only officially enrolled as an inner disciple. Became part of the Sect just over two years ago, and already has Practitioner status… Not bad, not bad. Considering your background." Tapping her index finger on her lower lip, she carefully examined him, especially his eyes.

"Without having spent even a day on the Outer Floating Island, you already want to take the exam? Why the rush, if it's not a secret?" Smiling, she leaned back slightly, raising her chin, and ran her hand from her lower lip down to her chest's neckline.

An watched what was happening with interest. Never before in his life had he encountered such behavior, especially such strange behavior. Tilting his head slightly to the side, he didn't take his eyes off her, while not letting his gaze wander over her body.

'Maybe she's a pervert? Unlikely, perhaps the nature of her cultivation techniques made her habits this way… who knows.' Not fully understanding why she was acting this way, he continued to control himself and just listened.

"Hmm… Judging by how you look, you clearly need a cauldron, right?" Slowly standing up from the chair, without even looking or waiting for An's answer, she waved her hand, and a table and cauldron appeared before her.

"Come closer." In a soft and quiet voice, and pointing with her hand, she beckoned him over.

"Well, since this is your first attempt, and let's be honest, it's your practice attempt, I'll give you three recipes that every alchemist with Master status must know. Here!" Looking into his eyes, she shook her head, and, waving her hand again, three small chests appeared on the table.

"The wooden brainless thing downstairs most likely already told you that you have forty-eight hours to prepare one pill for each recipe. You have three attempts for each pill. Fail one pill with all three sets... well, you know, out you go..." Leaning on the table with her hands, her tightly squeezed chest, bound by her tight clothes, almost popped out of the huge neckline.

She continued to look into his eyes with a smirk.

Without raising his eyes, he only looked at the table, at the chests, reading the Qi seeping through their closed lids. As for the woman's strange behavior before him, he decided to completely ignore it, or at least try.

Being so close to her, he felt that she was suppressing her cultivation. She was clearly, judging by her robes, at Foundation Establishment realm. But another reason he ignored her strange behavior was the partial emotions he could catch from her Qi flows. She simultaneously felt interest, excitement, desire, and, most importantly, what alarmed him the most, aggression, which in density came second after interest.

'Strange, I thought only Golden Core cultivators could transmit thoughts through Qi. Perhaps she's using an artifact?' Without raising his head, he continued to stare at the table like a fool. Especially considering the partial emotions that slipped through in her energy, he showed through his actions that he understood nothing and noticed nothing. His entire demeanor declared that he was here only to take the exam, and that was all.