Rise of the Alchemy God

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After being accepted by Feng Huang into the Phoenix Sect, Xiang Hua took some time to fit in.

Apart from cultivating and participating in training to improve her understanding of cultivation, she didn't do much else.

This is how she spent her first few years in the sect, and before long, she broke through to the Qi Refining stage.

Her cultivation speed was undoubtedly one of the best, and little by little, she started to surpass more and more disciples, until she almost reached the peak of the second stage.

Over the years, she began hearing more and more rumors that her fast progress was not due to her own efforts, but rather because she was the disciple of the sect master.

Although the rumors were false, she didn't care.

It was her own path to follow, and what others said didn't matter to her.

She wouldn't allow anyone to influence her cultivation journey.

Being the sect master's disciple certainly had its advantages, but apart from using a cultivation ground with a higher concentration of spiritual energy, she never asked for any other help from her.

For Xiang Hua, it was already more than enough that the sect master had saved her and welcomed her into the sect, giving her a new home.

She didn't need anything else.

At some point, she became interested in alchemy.

More accurately, it was the sect master who wanted her to give it a try, and it turned out that she had a certain talent for it.

Just like with cultivation, her progress in alchemy was quite fast.

In less than two years, she was already able to refine high-grade level 1 pills and could attempt level 2 ones.

It didn't take long for her to make a name for herself in the alchemist circle.

For a while, she continued dedicating herself to alchemy, but then, seeing that her progress in cultivation had slowed down due to not dedicating enough time to it, she decided to set alchemy aside.

It was well known that the higher one progressed in cultivation, the harder the subsequent levels would be.

The amount of time she used to dedicate to cultivation was no longer sufficient, so she decided to focus solely on it.

Both alchemy and cultivation required time, and she had to choose between the two.

Only when she reached the peak of the third stage and encountered a difficult bottleneck did she decide to take a break.

During this period, she resumed refining pills, and since the date for the selections was approaching, she thought she might as well decide to participate.

After all, a bottleneck wasn't something one could overcome in a few days, it took time.

For some, it might take only months, but for others, it could take years, so she had enough time to at least participate in the tournament.

In the past, her sect master had told her that it didn't hurt to take a break from cultivation every now and then.

According to her, this would help refresh the mind and soul.

Back then, Xiang Hua hadn't immediately followed the advice, but she remembered it.

And now, after encountering this bottleneck that she still couldn't overcome even after a month, she decided to distract her mind from cultivation for a while.

***

After the commotion caused by Xiang Hua's arrival, a few others showed up, but unlike before, they didn't stir up as much of a fuss.

Time passed quickly, and in the hour that remained, many other participants arrived, making the waiting area more crowded.

Finally, the hour passed, and the doors opened.

A person stepped out from behind, gazing at everyone with a calm expression.

He was a middle-aged man, with a gentle demeanor, but for anyone who knew him, he was anything but gentle.

Seeing him step out, many of the participants who had been talking fell silent, waiting quietly for the man to speak.

When no one else appeared, the man said nothing and simply turned around to walk back, where the doors were now fully open, revealing the area inside.

Apart from the new participants, no one found his behavior strange. Once the man disappeared from sight, they too began to enter in silence.

One of the new participants, noticing the strange behavior of the man and the others, couldn't help but ask one of them:

"Hey, who was that person, and why does everyone seem so cautious around him?" he asked.

The boy who had been asked the question kept walking forward as he responded:

"You may not know him, but see, he's one of the examiners for today's test," he began to explain.

Some others who also didn't recognize the man became interested and listened carefully.

"One of our examiners?" asked the boy who had posed the question, sounding confused.

"Yes. He's Zhang Qixuan, an alchemy master from the Zhang family.

Although it's odd for an examiner to come just to take a look and open the gate, he's a special case.

Normally, someone else would come to open the doors, but every now and then, he shows up instead.

We don't know why he does it, but sometimes he appears, and just like you saw today, he looks around and then leaves without saying a word.

Once, someone tried to question him, and that person ended up being disqualified on the spot," the boy said with a somewhat complicated expression.

Hearing this, the others couldn't help but feel even more puzzled.

None of what he said made any sense.

Why would an examiner personally come to open the doors?

And then there was the story about the contestant being disqualified on the spot just for asking a question?

what was wrong with that man's head?

"Believe me, it's not worth trying to figure it out.

Let's just go in," said the boy, and he stopped talking.

Although the explanation had only raised more questions than answers, the others wasted no time and also went inside.

Ethan had overheard their conversation as well, but unlike the others, he didn't think the same.

'What did that man use just now?' he wondered.

He had sensed a strange flow of energy expanding briefly through the area, only for it to vanish quickly.

He wasn't sure what it was, but he could tell that man had been the source of it.

Bai Yu, who had also sensed the energy flow, noticing Ethan's confusion, said:

'What you felt earlier was a result of a detection technique.

I don't know what that man was looking for, but it seems whatever it was, he didn't find it.'

'A detection technique? Like spiritual sense?' asked Ethan, noting the similarities between this so-called technique and spiritual sense.

'In a way, yes. However, detection techniques are specialized in finding one particular thing, unlike spiritual sense, which detects everything around it.

They're used to make detecting something more efficient, as they focus solely on one thing and ignore the rest,' she explained calmly.

Hearing her, Ethan couldn't help but wonder what that man had been searching for.

But he didn't dwell on it for too long and entered along with the others.

Once inside, a large open area unfolded before the participants.

The ground was completely paved, and rows of cauldrons were set out in lines.

Beyond the rows of cauldrons stood several people, watching the participants enter with neutral expressions.

The man from earlier was among them, still wearing the same calm look.

Seeing the examinees forming a line to the side, Ethan glanced in that direction and saw a tent where participants were entering one by one and exiting from the other side.

He wondered what happened to the explanations about how the test would proceed, but he got in line, thinking he would probably have his answers soon enough.

From what he could see, the tent was likely there to examine the participants and check if they met the admission criteria.

After all, they had to declare which category they were participating in, as well as prove they were alchemists.

That was the only logical explanation he could think of, so he waited patiently for the line to shorten and his turn to come.

Although he had rushed to get in line, he still found himself quite far back.

He wasn't among the last in line, but he was still close.

'Damn, they were fast,' he thought in frustration.

It seemed he wasn't the only one feeling frustrated.

Behind him, many others seemed annoyed as well.

'They're probably new too,' Ethan thought as he took another look around the test area.

From what he had learned from Da Shu, the test was divided into three parts.

The first part was a simple check to see if the person was indeed an alchemist and if they fell within the age range for their chosen category.

After that, a small test would be conducted to assess the participants' alchemical knowledge—in other words, a theory test.

Finally, to filter out the three best alchemists among the remaining group, there would be a small alchemy tournament, where the examinees would compete in refining.

Ethan didn't find any of this to be beyond his abilities, so for now, he was relatively calm.

He just wondered where the theory test would be held.

From what he could see, there were no desks or tables to write on, so he was curious if it would be some kind of oral test or something else.