Chapter 54: Old Sloth

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Seeing that everyone seemed to have understood his warning, he continued:

"Here's how we will proceed,"

"In front of you are all the necessary resources: cauldrons, herbs, and alchemical tools.

Each workstation is equipped to allow you to work to the best of your abilities.

You will be allowed to consult your notes, but remember, precision and skill are fundamental."

"Alchemy does not forgive mistakes," he added with a stern look.

"Every step, every movement must be executed with care and attention.

The refinement of pills is an art that requires concentration and discipline.

This test is not only to measure your skills but to determine if you possess the dedication necessary to pursue the path of alchemy."

Master Liang stepped back, letting his words sink in.

"Now, take a moment to prepare yourselves mentally and physically.

When you are ready, begin. Good luck to all of you."

With these words, silence fell over the room, broken only by the rustling of materials as the participants prepared.

Only a few among the various participants remained calm as they got ready to refine.

Ethan was one of them.

Recently, he had created several dozen mid-grade pills, so he felt no pressure at this moment.

The only thing on his mind now was completing this test and getting his adept alchemist badge so he could finally start his own business.

His pill trade with Da Shu was going well, but Ethan needed to build his own reputation.

With his current speed, he could easily dedicate himself to starting his own business while maintaining the current sales pace with Da Shu.

And so, without further ado, Ethan got to work.

As soon as Ethan started working, he isolated himself from the rest of the environment.

He concentrated all his attention on preparing pills and nothing else.

Although he was now skilled enough to take this level of pill creation lightly, he still believed it was better not to take the task too lightly.

After all, it only takes a little to ruin all the work.

With fluid movements, he took the three herbs and began preparing them for refinement.

He had already lit the cauldron's fire and made sure the flame wasn't too strong, giving him the necessary time to prepare the herbs while the cauldron heated up.

While Ethan was focused on his refinement, the others also started.

Some occasionally glanced at their notes, while others, like Ethan, began without any hesitation.

Silence had descended in the room, and only the sound of the tools could be heard.

The five masters in their respective positions watched the participants closely.

Everything proceeded calmly, and no one had any problems so far.

Some were a little behind, and some had already started the second phase of refinement, but overall, everyone was doing well so far.

Expert Li, who was in front of the first row, nodded seeing everyone working well.

"It seems there are some good seedlings in this group," he said, sending a spiritual communication to the other four experts present.

"Although they are only at the beginning, they are performing quite well for now," the fourth expert replied.

"At a minimum, they should work this well if they want to pursue the path of alchemy.

But it's still too early; we should wait to see how they handle the second phase of refinement," the elegant woman said.

The third alchemist expert nodded at this statement and said, "Indeed, it's how they handle the second phase that will show how good they are."

And as they had said, as soon as most of the participants started the second phase of refinement, many faces showed difficulty.

It didn't take long before someone made a mistake.

A participant in the fifth row had just finished putting the herbs into the cauldron when it began to tremble a bit.

"Damn, I added too much," the participant said, starting to panic.

He clearly understood what was about to happen and was preparing to move away.

Even the participants nearby couldn't help but be distracted, as being close, they would be involved in the cauldron's explosion.

At that moment, as if a bucket of water had been poured on a flame, a gentle white energy surrounded the cauldron.

The cauldron, which had been shaking more and more violently, suddenly calmed down and stopped trembling.

Whatever chemical reaction the participant had caused inside it was halted by the white energy.

After that, the energy disappeared into nothingness, while a calm voice echoed in the participant's mind.

"First attempt failed."

The participant was not surprised to hear this nor tried to contest it in any way. Sёarch* The novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Composing himself, he immediately got back to work, starting from scratch.

Due to this first incident, some others nearby who had been disturbed also had to repeat everything, as in their distraction, they too had made mistakes, leading the final product to either burn or be simply too impure.

It might seem that this was too unfair towards them, but it wasn't.

The current arrangement of the participants had been set up in this way deliberately.

This was to test the participants' concentration and evaluate their ability to adapt to any stimuli from the surrounding environment.

Although most of the time, alchemists refined in peace in their rooms, they could not always have this luxury.

For example, if during a journey there was an urgent need for a certain pill, the alchemist couldn't expect to find a quiet and isolated place to refine it.

He would have to make do with what he had and the environment he was in.

Certainly, one could say that in a case where an explosion might injure someone, it was better to abandon the refinement and find shelter rather than risk injury.

However, it had already been stated in advance that the experts would intervene in such cases.

Although after this first incident everyone tried to maintain their concentration, it didn't prevent others from making different kinds of mistakes.

And so, within the first 10 minutes of the test, several participants had already failed once.

None of the experts were surprised by this sight.

They already expected that many would fail at the beginning, after all, these participants were just entering the world of alchemy and didn't yet have enough experience to avoid making these basic mistakes.

Indeed, even an alchemist who had prepared for an entire year before the exam would have some probability of making errors, let alone these participants, most of whom clearly hadn't practiced refining for more than half a year.

It was like this every year, so the alchemist experts could only shake their heads and continue to watch.

That said, there were also some who had given a rather good performance so far. Seeing them, these experts nodded with satisfaction.

"Although the quality of the majority of the participants is still very low, there are indeed some rather good ones," the fourth expert said in a mental transmission.

"Indeed, some of these clearly stand out with a performance much higher than the others.

That boy who is now finishing his second pill is the most advanced.

If I'm not mistaken, he comes from a family of alchemists," the woman said, looking towards the third participant in the second row.

"If I remember correctly, he should be one of Xun Yu's sons. That old sloth must have instructed him personally," said the third expert.

The others simply nodded, ignoring how he had referred to him.

Xun Yu was one of the expert alchemists from the Medicine Pavilion.

He was very talented, and many said he would reach the level of a master alchemist by the age of 50, but that wasn't the case.

That person was too lazy and only refined when he felt like it.

Because of this behavior, many started calling him the old sloth.

Although the boy from the Xun family was the most advanced, many others had already started preparing their second pill, with some even in the final phase of refinement.

Ethan, however, was not in this group.

He took his time to create each pill.

He didn't care about being the first.

The minimum requirement to pass was to create at least three low-grade pills, and knowing that it didn't make sense to show all his skills at once, he decided to take it easy and finish his pills one by one, trying to keep their purity within a certain limit.

Although this attitude led him to be ignored by the experts, not everyone overlooked him.

The fifth expert, who until now had not spoken and had calmly watched all the participants, did not fail to notice Ethan.

At first, like his colleagues, he didn't pay him much attention, but seeing his fluid movements, which were neither too slow nor too fast, he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

'This boy...'

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FRANK_LEE_JUNIOR:

Here is the second chapter for today. I hope you enjoyed it.

I wanted to let you know that in the future, most communications will be made directly in the author's notes.

Otherwise, the chapter will cost you more coins than usual.