Chapter 59: The Assessment Begins!

"Hold on!" Feng Ruoqing stepped forward without hesitation.

Feng Ruoqing's actions stirred murmurs among the students, as if the relationship between the two was becoming more solid.

"President, please calm down. May I ask him a couple of questions?" Although Feng Ruoqing was an instructor at the Danwu Academy, on the territory of the Alchemist Guild, her seniority was still lacking.

President Wang was silent for a moment before nodding slightly.

Feng Ruoqing looked at Ye Yuan with a complex gaze, trying to see if he was truly confident or just being difficult, but she couldn't tell after a long look.

"Ye Yuan, I ask you, does our agreement still count?" Feng Ruoqing asked in a deep voice.

But this question seemed somewhat ambiguous; aside from Feng Zhirou, who knew the inside story, everyone else's imagination ran wild.

Ye Yuan said helplessly, "If it weren't for keeping the agreement, do you think I'd enjoy being stared at like a freak?"

Hearing Ye Yuan say this, Feng Ruoqing's mood inexplicably relaxed.

Others didn't know Ye Yuan's alchemy strength, but Feng Ruoqing was very clear about it.

Being able to casually instruct her, an intermediate alchemist, Ye Yuan probably only lacked in realm, right?

Feng Ruoqing had a feeling that what she saw was just the tip of the iceberg of Ye Yuan's strength.

What kind of freak was this guy? He was only fifteen!

"Do you mean... you're confident?"

Although she had faith in Ye Yuan, what he was about to do was too颠覆常识, so she had to confirm again.

"Uh, I'm not sure either." Ye Yuan said irresponsibly.

Seeing Feng Ruoqing about to explode, Ye Yuan immediately said, "Is it enough to just refine any second-grade pill?"

"That's right. As long as you can refine any second-grade pill within two hours, you'll pass the primary alchemist assessment!"

"Hmm, if that's the case, there shouldn't be a problem." Ye Yuan said calmly, as if refining a second-grade pill was as easy as drinking water or eating.

"In that case, I hope you won't disappoint me!"

After saying this, Feng Ruoqing took a bottle of pills from her sleeve and said to President Wang, "President, I have three Soul Nourishing Pills here. I'll leave them as a guarantee for Ye Yuan. If Ye Yuan really came to cause trouble, these three Soul Nourishing Pills will serve as an apology to the guild."

At these words, everyone showed astonishment.

Soul Nourishing Pills were genuine third-grade pills, and very precious third-grade pills at that!

Because the effect of the Soul Nourishing Pill was to strengthen a martial artist's spirit, making their soul power stronger!

This kind of pill was a dream for alchemists.

President Wang was startled, never expecting Feng Ruoqing to take out such a precious item for Ye Yuan.

As one of the bigwigs of the Alchemist Guild, he actually knew Feng Ruoqing's true identity, which was why he was so polite to her.

If it had been anyone else leading the team today, given his status, he wouldn't have bothered with so much nonsense.

"Miss Feng, are you really willing to take out such a precious item for an ignorant child?" President Wang still couldn't believe it.

"Ruoqing knows that Ye Yuan's actions are somewhat incredible, but I believe he has the strength! Just because we've never seen something doesn't mean it doesn't exist; just because we can't do something doesn't mean others can't!" Feng Ruoqing said firmly.

"Alright, since Miss Feng insists, I won't play the villain today. But you must understand, I'm agreeing only for your sake. If it were anyone else, even if they offered these Soul Nourishing Pills, I wouldn't indulge their nonsense." President Wang said solemnly.

"Thank you, President Wang!" Feng Ruoqing bowed slightly to express her gratitude.

She knew President Wang wasn't lying; although Soul Nourishing Pills were precious, they weren't too scarce given the Alchemist Guild's great power.

The reason he agreed was mainly out of respect for her status as the royal eldest princess.

"Since Miss Feng insists, Ye Yuan, go stand on the right. But I'll warn you now: if you're really making a fool of me, I can forgo the pills, but you'll suffer a beating! Otherwise, if this gets out, people will think the Alchemist Guild is a playground for children!"

President Wang's words were not harsh, but each word was firm, clearly determined to make Ye Yuan pay.

Ye Yuan ignored him and directly stood beside Feng Zhirou.

"Hey, are you out of your mind? Don't you dare harm my aunt! How could you, at the fourth level of Yuan Qi, possibly refine a second-grade pill?" Feng Zhirou said angrily.

Ye Yuan glanced at Feng Zhirou, then looked away, saying calmly, "You'd better worry about yourself. I see you're still struggling this time. Why is the strength of the academy's alchemy ranking so weak?"

"You!" Feng Zhirou didn't expect to be rebutted by Ye Yuan and was speechless with anger.

On the other side, Wan Yuan glared at Ye Yuan, gnashing his teeth in hatred.

"Why? Why would Teacher Feng take out something so valuable for him? What has Ye Yuan done to deserve this? Just wait, he's too arrogant now. Let's see how he gets out of this!" Wan Yuan screamed in his heart.

...

The alchemy rooms used for the assessment were independent. There were ten alchemy rooms in total, five on the east and five on the west connected together. In the middle was a hall, with a light screen on the north side through which the examiners could watch everything in the alchemy rooms. On the south side was the medicine storehouse.

Alchemy involved many things—fire control, pharmacology, formations, etc.—but in the end, it was all about refining pills.

If one couldn't refine pills, no matter how strong they were in any other aspect, it was useless and wouldn't be recognized.

Therefore, the Alchemist Guild's assessments always used the refinement of finished pills as the standard.

What kind of pills one could refine determined what level of alchemist they were—simple and most convincing.

Two hours was neither too long nor too short; a decent success rate was needed to refine pills, which also reduced the possibility of alchemists relying on luck.

Here, everything was decided by strength!

"The assessment officially begins. Participants now start selecting herbs. The first two groups of students enter the medicine storehouse."

The person presiding over the assessment had changed to a middle-aged alchemist. At his command, the first two groups of students filed into the medicine storehouse to select herbs.

Placing herb selection within these two hours was also a form of assessment for the students.

How to find the required herbs in the shortest time, saving time for later compounding and refining, was a basic skill for an alchemist.

In fact, from the herb selection stage, one could see the difference in strength among many students.

The faster and more accurate the selection, the more proficient one was in pharmacology, and naturally, they could better grasp the properties of various herbs during refining, greatly increasing the success rate.

Feng Ruoqing couldn't help but look at Ye Yuan, thinking that with his变态 understanding of herbs, he would be out of the storehouse in minutes, right?

When refining Qi Recovery Pills, he could accurately mix various herbs just by grabbing them with his hands—truly逆天!

He was only fifteen; even if he started learning alchemy from the womb, he couldn't have reached such a level, right?

Thinking this, Feng Ruoqing's confidence in Ye Yuan increased a bit.

Maybe Ye Yuan really could create a miracle?