Alex was very careful toward the final stage of the pill to make sure he didn’t blow it all in the end. He carefully controlled the energy, pouring as much of it as he could into the pill where it stabilized before he used his pill-forming technique to pour in the rest.

They became disruptive at that point, but they were little enough that Alex could handle it.

Alex let out a deep sigh when the pill was finally prepared. He took a moment to gather himself, and let his mind calm down before he pulled out the pill to check on it.

82%

He had more than succeeded. Alex smiled as he showed the pill over to the elder. “Elder Liang, here. I did—”

Alex’s words stopped halfway through when he saw the wide eyes of the elder staring right at him. “Umm… Elder Liang? Is everything okay?” he asked.

“You didn’t use any formations,” he said.

“Sorry?” Alex asked, looking at the formations in the room. “Oh yeah. I never really trained myself with formations, so I find it better to not use them. I have fire dao, so I can make the pills without the use of the formations.”

The Elder seemed confused still. “The fire dao is one thing, but you didn’t even use it to aid you in controlling the energy from the ingredients. Did you truly manage it all by yourself?”

Alex nodded. “Is that so surprising?” he asked.

“Of course,” the man said, sitting down as he grabbed the pill and looked at it. “82% Harmony. You managed to use 82% harmony in a pill that even Immortal Transcendent realm cultivators struggle to make. And you did it without any external help. Do you understand how impressive that is? Do you understand how uncommon that is?”

Alex didn’t know what to do. “I… just never made use of much formation when making my pills, Elder. I know they can be useful, but I just never got in the habit of it. Not to mention, my cave doesn’t even have it.”

The Elder couldn’t help but shake in the head in utter shock. “You, Dawnblade, are an anomaly. I have never seen a disciple like you in my life,” he said.

“In a good way, right?” Alex asked.

The Elder tossed back the pill. “Of course,” he said. “Wow. I could’ve made you my disciple. I missed that chance, didn’t I?”

Alex could only helplessly nod.

“For good, I suppose. I can’t teach you any more than what senior Silvermist can. And he can teach you much more. Unlike me, he is an actual Peerless Alchemist.

Alex nodded slowly. “This means I’ve passed right? I get the approval?”

The elder sighed. “Yes, that means you’re approved. Hell, I don’t even see the point of you taking the test anymore. You have pretty much passed already.”

“Oh? Does the test include just making strong pills?” Alex asked.

“No, it included more,” the elder said. “I will have a few alchemists I know prepare the test for you. I will let you know when it is within the next week.”

Alex smiled gleefully. “I will be leaving in about a month, Elder Liang. I request that you ask your acquaintances to make the test happen quicker than that.”

“Don’t worry. I understand,” the man said. “Just go prepare for it. I won’t tell you what you will be tested on, so prepare for… everything.”

Alex nodded and left. He met up with Silvermist and the rest again, telling them what was happening.

“What if you fail?” Snowleaf asked. “Are you going to leave this realm a failure?”

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“I won’t fail, senior,” Alex said.

“Is that pride?” Snowleaf asked.

“Confidence,” Alex said. “I will leave this world a Supreme Alchemist. No less.”

Snowleaf said nothing more and simply smiled.

“Haha! Of course, young man. You can do nothing less after becoming my disciple. I haven’t taught you anything just yet, but you still have to keep up my reputation as my disciple.”

Grimsight narrowed his eyes as he looked at the man. He couldn’t believe the things the man did or said sometimes.

“I won’t disappoint you, master,” Alex said.

“Don’t make things worse,” Grimsight said. “Just go prepare for your test. And say your goodbyes to your friends. We will be leaving soon.”

Alex nodded.

The date of the test was set a week before his departure. According to the information he was given, the test would last somewhere between 2 and 3 days on average. It could take more too, but that depended on the person’s talent in Alchemy. No one could say for certain.

Until the date of the test itself, Alex wouldn’t know.

The date arrived and Alex was met with a group of Alchemists, all of whom themselves were Supreme Alchemists. They were the ones that were there to examine the test.

The test didn’t go into simple things like making a grade of pill or recognizing certain ingredients.

Instead, Alex was given one simple task. He was given an assortment of 20 different ingredients, and from a combination of those ingredients, he would have to come up with a stable pill.

It did not matter how useless the pill was. So long as it was a pill, one could pass.

Alex was a little surprised as it should have been rather easy to make pills with a random combination of ingredients. He had done so ages ago when he didn’t even know how pills worked that well.

‘Surely there is some sort of trick here,’ Alex thought and looked through the ingredients he had received. He had worked with three-fourths of those ingredients before. The remaining, he was not so familiar with.

He decided to make himself familiar with the ingredients for the moment.

He was inside a barrier that hid almost everything but the visual aspect of Alex’s Alchemy, so his secrets were mostly his own.

He went through the few ingredients, finding not just what they did, but also understood them at a physical level by knowing their structures.

Once he did that, the rest would be easy.