Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex wasn't worried about his Alchemy license at all. He was more or less certain about how well he would do in that.

What he was worried about was his Physician's license. Everything he knew about healing came from the Spirit world. While there was knowledge of the Alchemy god in his mind, that knowledge was locked in a way that he had to learn something first before it unlocked in his mind.

If he had never come across a thing, the Alchemy God's knowledge would not hold it inside of him.

Alex left his home early in the morning, arriving at the Blackfrost Alchemy guild before the break of dawn. The guild was surprisingly quite active, as most cultivators here gave no heed to the cycles of day and night, moving as they willed.

After explaining why he was there, Alex was taken to a room where a few other people gathered. He greeted everyone and sat down, waiting for when the test would begin.

Alex looked at the people who had come for the test, noting that 4 of the other 6 were Saints. The other 2 were Immortals, both higher in cultivation than Alex.

The other two were lost in their own thought, concentrating on their upcoming test.

The door opened next and a person walked in.

The one that came was a short man with short hair, wearing a simple green robe. There was a necklace hung around his neck, with a tear-drop shaped pendant hung from it.

Looking closer, Alex realized that the shape was actually more of a leaf than a tear-drop. The blue pendant had three words written inside of it, which were clear for everyone to read.

Supreme Immortal Alchemist

Alex frowned a little, wondering what the rank meant. The world supreme suggested that the ranking was the highest it could be, but then what were the other tiers?

Was the normal Mortal, Earth, Heaven, and Immortal of his lower world not applicable in this higher realm?

This was his first time coming across any sort of alchemist from a guild, so it was his time to learn new things.

Alex heard some murmurs from behind him. These people were surprised to see the high-ranking Alchemist in their midst as well.

"I am Han Youlan, and I will be your tester today," the man said. "Everyone, please show me your proof of registration."

The name 'Han Youlan' caused another small round of whispers, and Alex was a little interested in that name too.

Of course, he had never heard of the man before, but the surname Han did belong to one of the 3 great families of the Newsky city, along with the Pang and Ji family.

Alex quickly brought out his registration talisman and showed it to the man. The man went around the room looking at everyone's.

Once he was done with them, he went back to the door.

"Follow me, please," Alchemist Han said and walked away.

Alex and the rest quickly rose up and followed him. After following for a while, they arrived in front of two rooms, in the middle of which the man had stopped.

"Saints on this side, Immortals here," the man said and separated the two. He pulled out two talismans and handed them out to one Saint and another Immortal.

"Inside these rooms, you will find a formation that shows you images of different ingredients. To pass this round, you must name at least four-fifths of the total ingredients in the next half an hour. You may cheat in any way you can. Go!"

The first two walked into the door, and the remaining stayed outside, waiting for them.

Alex was a little surprised at the man's words. Cheating was allowed? He was not the only one to think that.

The other disciples were giving him weird looks as well.

"In the real world, you will always have resources to rely on, and information to look up. I am of the mind that barring those resources during tests is a stupid idea since you will be relying on them in the real world anyway."

"Besides, finding information you do not know about is a good trait among alchemists anyway. So, if you want to cheat, you can cheat."

Alex mused on those words, wondering if he agreed to it or not. He realized that he did. Especially when it came to just the ingredients part.

Knowing the ingredients to an Immortal was just coming across the thing once. Their memories were so sharp that they would obviously always remember it as long as they saw it once.

If that 'once' was during the test itself, what did it matter anyway? It would still count as them knowing the ingredients.

The saint came out first and handed back the talisman. Alchemist Han took it and put it away without looking at it. He took out another talisman and gave it to the next Saint before sending them in.

A few minutes later, the Immortal came out and Alex was given the next Talisman.

Alex walked into the room and found a table and chair inside the room. He sat on the chair and activated the formation in front of him.

One by one, images began appearing in front of him through the formations. He recognized many of them, without even having to rely on the Alchemy God's knowledge.

The past 3 and a half years of Alchemy had not been a waste for him at all.

Alex continued naming all the ingredients and was surprised at the lack of beast-related ingredient questions. Because Immortal beasts were no different than humans under most circumstances, the recipes had moved further away from them and only plants were used.

Still, there were quite a few of those ingredients, which made Alex wonder how they got their hands on them.

Did they just ask for it? Considering they were mostly nails, hair, spit, tears, and similar ingredients, one wouldn't have to kill a beast to acquire them.

'You can just buy those from a beast,' Alex thought.

He failed to name a few of the ingredients, mostly just the beast-related ones. Either the Alchemy god hadn't used these ingredients before or these things were not used as ingredients in his time.

Overall, he completed the test with about 96% accuracy, which was more than enough to pass the test.

He walked out of the room not even 25 minutes later and handed the talisman over to the Supreme Alchemist.

Alex went back to his seat and watched as the last Immortal went into the room. He looked toward the Saints and saw that only 1 remained on their side now. The 3rd one had gone inside already.

The third Saint came out some time later and the last one entered. Sometime after that, the final Immortal walked out and sat down, waiting for the final Saint to come out.

When the final Saint came out, she handed the man the talisman.

"Wait here," the man said and left once he had all the talisman.

Alex and the rest waited for a few minutes before the man returned.

"Your scores are in," the man said. "Let's move on to your next test."