The woman in the goose-yellow dress was named Wen Wen. She introduced, “Master Ji is presiding over today's assessment. Anyone who wishes to take the test, please step forward and pay one hundred low-grade spirit stones as an examination fee. If you pass, the fee will be fully refunded.”
After saying this, she explained several rules—such as how the pill furnace, charcoal, and medicinal herbs used during the assessment had to be provided by the association to prevent cheating; that Master Ji had a bad temper, so while blowing up a furnace was acceptable, scattering herb dregs all over the floor was not, and so forth.
Zhou Shuo walked over, paid the fee, and stood outside the assessment room, waiting anxiously.
Shi Yu looked inside, following Zhou Shuo's gaze. The alchemy room where the assessment took place was open, providing a clear view of the scene within.
Three pill furnaces stood inside. At that moment, a person stood before each furnace, refining the most basic Tier-1 pill, the Rejuvenation Pill.
Standing at the very front observing the process was an old man with white hair and beard—Master Ji, as mentioned by Wen Wen. His gaze swept over the three candidates as he stroked his beard and shook his head slightly.
Shi Yu's eyes fell upon one of the furnaces, and she thought, The heat control is wrong. The liquid medicine is about to turn to dregs.
Sure enough, just as the thought crossed her mind, a soft pop echoed from the man's furnace. The liquid medicine splattered, turning into scattered black dregs.
The spiritual Qi inside his body was no longer enough to refine another batch of medicinal liquid, leaving him with no choice but to shake his head with a bitter smile and turn away in disappointment.
The other two did manage to form pills. However, once the furnace lids were lifted, all that appeared was a cluster of pitted little spheres that failed to reach even the low-grade pill standard. They were nothing more than waste pills. Naturally, neither passed the assessment, and both walked dejectedly toward their waiting friends and family.
Once all three had finished, Master Ji shot a glance at Wen Wen, who immediately bowed and called handymen over to clean up the dregs and replenish the spiritual plants and charcoal.
She then signaled the waiting line, calling in the next three candidates in order.
The third person happened to be Zhou Shuo.
Having witnessed the failures of the previous three, he felt immense pressure. Not wanting Shi Yu and his siblings to see his fear, he tried his best to put on an indescribable expression, striding into the assessment room like a tragic hero making a desperate gamble before stopping in front of a pill furnace.
Once Master Ji gestured that they could begin, Zhou Shuo selected three spiritual plants from the nearby basket, intending to refine the most basic pill—the one he was most confident in—the Rejuvenation Pill.
Shi Yu watched his hands, noting how they trembled involuntarily from nervousness.
Seeing that he had rushed to extract the medicinal liquid without first calming his mind and focusing his thoughts, she knit her brows slightly.
In this state... it would likely be difficult for Zhou Shuo to pass.
Beside her, Zhou Yue couldn't help but ask in a low voice, “Zhou Shuo has a seventy-five percent success rate refining Rejuvenation Pills at home. He should be fine, right?”
Zhou Yang's brows were tightly knit, and he remained silent.
As the eldest brother, he could tell that Zhou Shuo had stage fright from the very beginning, unable to compose his mind. Although his usual success rate was seventy-five percent, this time...
Failing to get a reassuring answer from Zhou Yang, Zhou Yue couldn't help asking Shi Yu in search of peace of mind. “Hey, what do you think?”
Shi Yu's mastery of alchemy was far superior to that of Master Ji inside. It was only due to the limitations of her cultivation that she couldn't demonstrate most of it.
Her discernment, however, remained sharp.
Zhou Shuo's condition was wrong. He was already struggling just to maintain the single blob of liquid after refining the first plant. With two more spiritual plants waiting to be refined and merged, how could he possibly succeed?
Faced with Zhou Yue's question, Shi Yu answered bluntly, “I don't think he can.”
Anxious and furious, Zhou Yue snapped, “What the hell do you know about alchemy? Stop spouting nonsense!”
“...”
Yet reality proved that he truly couldn't.
After refining the second spiritual plant, Zhou Shuo strained to keep the two liquid blobs stable and separated while throwing the third spiritual plant inside to refine.
Before he could finish refining it, an error caused the two existing blobs of liquid to collide. Lacking the third liquid to harmonize them, the two forces clashed and consumed each other, evaporating into a plume of steam in an instant.
Zhou Shuo froze on the spot. He couldn't help glancing out the doorway at his elder brother and younger sister, his face burning with intense shame.
Wiping his face, he saw there was still time left and hurriedly grabbed another batch of spiritual plants to try again.
However, his composure was ruined. The second attempt yielded the exact same result. When the second batch failed, he stood frozen, not daring to look back to see the expressions on his siblings' faces.
Master Ji did not speak to interrupt, unwilling to disturb the other two candidates still refining. He had seen failure far too often; people left despondent like Zhou Shuo were dime a dozen, not worth his attention.
Only when the other two finished did Master Ji speak to Zhou Shuo: “Try again next time.”
With that, he moved on to check the results of the other two.
Zhou Shuo snapped out of his daze and dragged his feet back to Zhou Yang and Zhou Yue, too ashamed to raise his head. “I'm sorry, I...”
Seeing his failure, Zhou Yang and Zhou Yue looked crestfallen, at a loss for words.
Zhou Yue, who was usually sharp-tongued and harsh, remained silent this time. Thinking of their grandfather and the family's situation, tears welled up in her eyes in silent distress.
Seeing her like this, Zhou Shuo felt consumed by guilt and looked helplessly at Zhou Yang. “Eldest Brother, what do we do now...?”
Zhou Yang sighed heavily. After a long silence, he spoke with great difficulty, “There must be other ways. We could wait outside the auction house, and when whoever wins the Blood Cloud Ginseng comes out, we can try to buy it from them at a high price...”
Though he said that, anyone competing for the Blood Cloud Ginseng was doing so because they or their loved ones were lacking in remaining lifespan. Who would easily sell it off?
If they missed out on a lifespan-extending spiritual herb like this, who knew when they would ever encounter one again?
While the three siblings were mired in gloom, Master Ji had finished inspecting the pills refined by the other two candidates. One was still a waste pill, but the other candidate had performed quite impressively.
From a single furnace, four pills were produced, each perfectly round. One of them even seemed to emit a subtle pill fragrance.
Master Ji picked out the best one and inhaled its faint fragrance, laughing with delight. “Good, good, good! It falls slightly short of a medium-grade Rejuvenation Pill, but it is already quite impressive—the best performance in the past year. You pass.”
In the Dao of alchemy, low-grade pills were the most common, while medium-grade ones were already extraordinary. For this young man to refine a pill nearing medium-grade at such a young age meant he possessed a bright future ahead.
The praised man was in his early twenties, dressed in robes emblazoned with a prominent family's crest. He tried his best to maintain his composure, but he couldn't suppress the upward curl of his lips. “Thank you, Master Ji.”
Master Ji stroked his beard and nodded warmly. “Go collect your certification jade token.”
Holding his head high, the young man walked out in high spirits.
Wen Wen politely handed him a Tier-1 alchemist identity jade token, then produced an oddly shaped artifact and pressed it onto the token, embedding his identity information within a special restriction.
Holding his jade token and the refunded examination fee, the man passed by those who had failed, his expression brimming with arrogance.
Master Ji cast a glance outside. Seeing the Zhou siblings and Shi Yu still standing there, he asked, “Is there anyone else taking the certification assessment? If not, stop loitering.”
Hearing this, Zhou Yang let out a long sigh and smiled bitterly, preparing to leave with his siblings and Shi Yu, when a crisp and pleasant voice sounded beside him:
“I will.”
Shi Yu stepped forward, smiling as she retrieved a bag of spirit stones from her Fate-Tapping Bell and handed it to Wen Wen to pay the assessment fee.
Zhou Yang and the other two stared at her in shock, unable to process what was happening.
...What was going on?
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