Death... and me

Rean didn't hear anything about the commotion inside. He simply pressed forward while waiting for the next formation to appear.

Most formations that used cores kept their flow of Spiritual Energy hidden. If they couldn't do that, the formation would be made in a way where the Spiritual Energy flowed evenly everywhere, preventing one from pinpointing the core's location. Or maybe the core would be protected by something.

After all, if the core of a formation that needs it was destroyed, the formation would become useless. It's common practice to make preparations for it to not happen. Naturally, the Formations Guild wasn't idiotic enough to leave it exposed. If anything, the Illusion Formation Core was better hidden than normal formations at the same level.

Still, there was indeed a reason for Rean to find the Formation Core that easily. Spiritual Energy was one of the driving forces of the living world. There was no lack of Life Force present in it. It's just that the amount was too small for just anyone to notice. Well, anyone but Rean, whose affinity was the Light Element.

Rean indeed couldn't tell where the Spiritual Energy was coming, but Life Force was different. The Formation Core obviously had even more Spiritual Energy inside, which made things even easier for Rean. By using his Light Element on the entire jail, Rean was able to feel where the highest concentration of Life Force was located.

Well, he also felt the presence of the other participants. However, the way Life Force acted inside a living body was different from a Formation Core, so Rean didn't have issues finding the right source.

Formations that used cores were usually considered a lot stronger due to the support they give to the runes. But strangely enough, Rean would have a lot more difficulty finding a way out if the Illusion Formation didn't use it.

As Rean walked forward, the color of his hair suddenly changed into black and white. Immediately, he understood that Roan started his exam as well.

Sure enough, Roan began to extract the medicinal liquid present in the herbs. He selected a Tavarian Stalk to do it since he used it a few times before. His hair also changed into a mix of black and white as he worked with the herb on the mortar.

The alchemists close to Fauk also noticed that, though.

"What happened with his hair?"

"What a strange kid."

"That's not all. I might be wrong, but I think I felt a bit of the Dark Element present in his concoction."

"Dark Element? I could swear I felt Light Element."

"Does it mean he can use both Yin and Yang energies? After all, it's impossible to use the Dark Element without controlling Yin Energy. The same could be said for the Light Element without Yang Energy."

"Fauk, is that a side effect of your disciple's cultivation?"

Old Worm glanced at the chatterboxes and shook his head.

"His situation is complicated."

Everyone looked at Old Worm, waiting for him to continue. Unfortunately, Old Worm didn't say a single extra worm after that.

'Would it kill you to try and be a bit more specific?'

Roan didn't know what everyone was discussing. Still, he did get someone else's attention. Waki Tou, the elder presiding over the exam of hall number seven, was looking directly at him with his Spiritual Sense. In the end, he couldn't help but shook his head in disappointment.

'Light and Dark Elements? Would someone cultivate both Yin and Yang Energy just to control those polar opposite forces? I wonder how he hadn't gotten a cultivation defect until now.'

Still, as he looked at Roan's performance, the expression on his face disappeared.

'The medicinal liquid in his mortar seems quite... good? How's he doing that?'

There were thousands of alchemists in this exam. The only reason Waki noticed Roan was because he was the only one using different elements. Everyone else was using Fire, Wind, Water, Earth, or some combination of those elements like Wood and Augmented Fire with Wind. There was Lightning Element as well, but this one was rarely used in alchemy.

The other alchemists beside Old Worm noticed that as well. Some of them even began to pay more attention to Roan than their own disciples.

Old Worm's expression didn't even change, though.

Roan was doing the same thing as always. He used the Light Element to protect the stalk medicine while the Dark Element destroyed any undesired properties. It was very similar to when Roan needed to eliminate the impurities during concoction. During that time, he would keep using Rean's Light Element to protect the Medicinal Liquid just like now while the Dark Element destroyed all the impurities.

In fact, Roan could extract the Medicinal Liquid of the herbs directly inside the cauldron. Quite a few of the participants were doing it as well. However, Medicinal Extraction and Medicinal Purification were two separate processes. What would be checked by the Formations Guild in the first phase was the medicinal liquid quality, not how many impurities it had. That being said, he decided to use the mortar and pestle since he didn't need to start concocting straight away.

Roan spent around ten minutes doing that. Finally, he thought it was enough and poured the Medicinal Liquid inside the vial on the table. This vial was specially made, just like the pill bottles. It prevented the medicinal liquid quality from dropping. After that, he took another herb and began to do the same thing.

'Although I know the information of these herbs, I have never used most of them. I might as well take this opportunity and try them out.'

As Roan extracted the medicinal liquid from the next herb, an assistant of the guild came forward to take his medicinal liquid vial. After that, the assistant brought it to the stage as many others did. However, just as the assistant was about to put it down, Waki came forward and grabbed it.

"You can leave."

The assistant didn't dare complain and left straight away to look for more of them.

Waki then opened the vial for a second before sniffing the contents inside. Soon after, he closed it and put the vial down with the others. Waki had already done it many times with other participants' vials that caught his attention, so no one found anything strange about it.

'Such a strong and pure smell. There aren't many here who can achieve this level. I wonder how well he will do when we use a formation to analyze them all.'

Waki then looked at a few more participants. Just like Roan's, Waki confirmed that their medicinal liquids were quite good as well. Three participants had caught his attention more than the rest, though. One of them was a disciple of an elder of the Alchemist Guild called Cluhe Sol. As mentioned in the past, using two elements was hard, and only a few could do it. Cluhe just so happened to use Water and Earth to create the Wood Element, and Waki could tell that his control was very refined.

The other one was a young girl from outside the capital called Lita Xue. In her case, she used Water and Fire together, which created a type of blue flame. Her medicinal extraction was also a tad above the rest.

Obviously, the last one was Roan, who used the Dark and Light Elements.

'This year's exam seems quite interesting.'