Chapter 177: Alchemists Are Broke First And Rich Later!
Translator: AstralGhost Editor: Kurisu
In the corner of the vast examination venue, a plain-looking youth was clenching his fists hatefully.
'Everyone is focusing their eyes on only Long Jian and You Lun. Later, the alchemy skills which I've practiced so bitterly for six years will definitely shock all of you and make you open your eyes and acknowledge me! This time, the person who will claim first place can only be me alone!'
Mo An resolved in his heart.
Ever since he had been tested to possess the talent for alchemy, he had been practicing his alchemy skills bitterly for the past ten years, day and night, with all his might! Even so, his talent was not able to match up with his peers. The disciples from the same batch as him had all become either official alchemists, or middle- to high-level apprentices. He was the only one who was stuck at the same spot.
That's right. Ten years! A qualified alchemist must wield vast amounts of knowledge. The first four years were the foundational period. One had to memorize and understand thoroughly all the characteristics of the common spirit herbs and effects, as well as the proper way to handle them. Only when that was done and they passed an examination could they begin to refine pills officially!
Mo An had spent four years learning how to differentiate all the spirit herbs and their handling methods, and another six years practicing alchemy techniques relentlessly!
But no matter how much he was mocked, no matter how scarce the resources he had been allocated were, Mo An had never given up all this time!
If he still could not pass the examination this time, he would no longer have any chance left. The sect could not possibly continue pouring resources into an untalented person forever.
As for Mo An's batch, they had all been assigned to cities and territories under the jurisdiction of the sect to refine pills for free for the next five years to repay the sect for raising them!
One could say that every single alchemist was forcefully produced using countless amounts of resources! At the beginning, the sect was bound to suffer a loss. However, they would naturally see a return on their investment at the later stages as they earned everything back from the masses!
Alchemists were all like that. They would be broke in the beginning, but wealthy at the end! As long as one became an official alchemist, even if they are the lowest grade alchemist, they would still be rolling in money!
Only those scarce few people who managed to pass the examination would be recognized as figures worthy of being nurtured by the sect. All kinds of resources would be given to them. The sect was not afraid of one being too exemplary. They were only afraid of one being too mediocre!
"Silence!"
A stern voice echoed across the venue, snuffing out all the talking noises.
A white-haired old man appeared on the stage, dressed in luxurious gold and purple robes. Five elaborate cauldrons embroidered on the chest area of his robes using fine silk lines could be seen.
That signified that the old man was a 5 star alchemist! This was a person with an incomparably high status!
"The once-every-three-years official alchemist examination is beginning shortly. The judges this time will be made up of four 3 star alchemists and myself. No disturbance is allowed from spectators! Anyone who breaks the rules will be taken to the dungeons and confined for ten days as punishment!"
The old man swept his gaze across the crowd for a moment. Seeing that nobody was talking, he nodded with satisfaction and returned to his seat.
Following that, a 3 star alchemist stepped forward. "This time, the first-place examinee will be rewarded a Grade 3 Pill Refinement Manual, nine sets of pill formulas, and a Grade 3 low-grade pill cauldron!
The second-placed examinee will receive a Grade 3 Pill Refinement Manual, seven sets of pill formulas, and a Grade 2 high-grade pill cauldron!
Third place will receive a Grade 3 Pill Refinement Manual, five sets of pill formulas, and a Grade 2 middle-grade pill cauldron!
All other examinees who passed will receive a Grade 3 Pill Refinement Manual, three sets of pill formulas, and a Grade 1 top-grade pill cauldron!"
Seeing that no one had raised any objections, he continued in a clear voice, "If there's no questions, I declare that this year's alchemy examination has begun!"
All the examinees were already standing at their respective positions. Some looked confident, some looked worried. The expressions on everyone's faces were too diverse to emulate.
The only exceptions were the two youths at the very front. They looked cool and composed, as if they were unaffected by their surroundings. These two youths were filled with self-confidence! Only when they looked towards each other did a sliver of competitiveness show on their faces.
Arranged neatly on the thick stone table before them was a bunch of herbs. A strong medicinal fragrance lingered in the air, spreading through the entire venue!
Each of these herb was a natural treasure which would cause countless people to fight over them if placed on Earth! Spirit herbs above hundred years old could be seen everywhere, while the most valuable herb was a stalk of thousand year old green agrimony!
Seeing all these herbs, the examinees immediately thought of a type of pill that all Grade 1 alchemists must be capable of refining. The Green Agrimony Pill!
As a Grade 1 pill, it was useful to advance the cultivation of Houtian cultivators. It was a miraculous pill capable of consolidating Origin Qi!
Everyone was issued the exact same herbs to work with. The quantity was also the same, exactly three sets of ingredients. That meant that the examinees had at most three chances to form the pill!
Although the herbs provided were the same, it didn't mean that the quality of the pills refined would be the same!
Competent alchemists can produce a pill many times stronger than normal using the same set of ingredients as others! Furthermore, their success rate would also be vastly different!
Whether one refined a Green Agrimony Pill which barely reached Grade 1 or not would be the easiest way of demarcating those alchemist who made the grade or not!
The examinees began to place everything in order as they took a piece of white stone and placed it below the stone platform, under their cauldrons. Then, with a light touch, a shocking heat suddenly burst out of the stone!
This kind of stone was actually a kind of ancient wood unearthed from the ground after being in the earth's crust for tens of thousands of years! After a long time, their properties had changed as they mixed with the Ling Qi in the ground. The price of such stones was not trivial!
At this moment, the pill refinement process had already started. Stalks after stalks of precious herbs were thrown into the respective cauldrons in a fluid motion. The crowd also fell into a dead silence as they watched with bated breaths.
"En, not bad, this batch of seedlings are much better than the previous batch of examinees. The two youths at the front are even more shocking. Based on the way they're handling the herbs, as well as the preciseness of their timing for adding the ingredients, they're not inferior to some of those old, experienced alchemists!"
The old man with the five cauldrons symbol on his robes stroked his beard happily as he regarded the other 3 star alchemists beside him.
"Elder, those two are indeed very talented. They only used a mere three and a half years to reach this level!"
A smile appeared on another 3 star alchemist's rigid face as he said.
"Hong!"
Just as the elders were conversing among themselves, a loud bang suddenly sounded out from the middle area of the stone platform. Thick, black smoke rose up into the sky, carrying a nasty smell with it.
The crowd was momentarily startled, but did not pay further attention to it. Cauldron explosions, or ingredients exploding within the cauldrons during pill refinement, were an exceptionally common matter.
"Cough, cough!"
The alchemist who had caused the explosion had soot all over his face. He coughed a few times, poured some clear spirit water into the cauldron, cleaned off the dredges, and immediately began refining the pill anew.
At times like this, a good cauldron would prove to be very useful. Not mentioning the boosting effects a good cauldron can add to the pill refining, the most important quality was its ability to withstand the force of ingredients exploding within it! If it was a lousier cauldron, the aftermath of a pill explosion would not be that simple.
You Lun's hands were as white as sheep-fat white jade, and were extremely slender and long. At this time, his hands were flowing about like a butterfly with its wings outstretched. It danced about above the cauldron at a high speed, leaving various afterimages behind it!
His mental power had also been projected outside of his body to wrap around the interior of the cauldron. Under the commands of his will, a large amount of formless imprints unseen by the eye appeared within the small cauldron!
As the mental imprints sank into the interior of the herbs, their medicinal essence was slowly forced out, turning into a pile of bright green liquid which floated within the cauldron!
Under You Lun's meticulous control, all the medicinal essence within every single herb was completely extracted. To do this so impeccably, one not only needed to have complete confidence in themselves, they needed to have a perfect understanding of the structure and characteristics of each herb!
That was because if the process of extraction was too long, the impurities within the herbs would also seep into the medicinal essence under the intense heat! That would in turn affect the quality of the final product.
On the other side, Long Jian did not seem to be losing out to You Lun at all. His every action was textbook perfection. Although his movements were not as showy as You Lun's, his every move was similarly shocking to behold!
If one likened You Lun's technique to the clouds in the sky, ephemeral and ever-changing, Long Jian's technique was more standard and straightforward. Every move of his was shortened to achieve maximum efficiency, without any excess movements!