Chapter 409: Natural Talent

A frown appeared on the woman's face, and she stood up from her chair. She started walking around the many apprentice alchemists, and all of them were clearly nervous as she came close to them. Many of them had failed the refinement of the herb they were currently working on.

The woman did not seem to care that her presence caused more trouble than help to the many apprentice alchemists taking the exam. In her eyes, if they could not control the flame when she was walking by, then they were not worth her time.

There was no limit to how many times the apprentices were allowed to try and refine a herb as long as it was done within the time frame of the exam. Almost no alchemists were capable of having a success rate of a hundred percent; not even the master alchemists dared to make such a claim.

The woman moved slowly looking over at each contestant. Hui Yue did not feel any pressure from her, not even when he realized that she was moving towards him.

Having focused as little as possible on the task at hand, Hui Yue finally refined the first red orchid. The time it took him was close to the time most of the other experts had spent refining their first herb. However, although Hui Yue was slow, the quality of his refinement was far better than that of anyone else in the room. Many of them had lost quite a lot of the medicinal energy of the herb. This was because they were not refining it at the perfect temperature. Hui Yue, however, had steadily refined the orchid at the perfect temperature and thus all the energy of the herb had been preserved in the paste.

Doing the same thing once more, Hui Yue noticed that the woman had reached him and sent her a charming smile as he fully controlled the flames within the cauldron.

The moment the woman who was overseeing the exam reached Hui Yue, she stopped and stood still. She watched his every move and the refinement process of the herb.

Looking at the slow speed with which Hui Yue was refining, a snort escaped her before she once more turned cold.

All of the people present thought that she did this due to contempt, and they all looked at Hui Yue with pity; however, the white-haired young man knew the reason was that she had seen through his refinement speed.

The time for the exam was too long, and Hui Yue was uncertain about what to do now that he had finished. He had finished the refinement after half an hour, and he was completely certain that it was of the highest grade. Creating more would seem like he was boasting but doing nothing also made it seem like he thought too much of himself.

Hui Yue was not the only one who had finished making the paste and placed it in a jade bottle, but all the others had instantly started another paste in the hopes of increasing the quality. The better the quality of the paste the more likely one was to be invited to the second round of the examination.

Some of the apprentices had not yet finished their paste because they were aiming for the highest quality from the start; Zhong Hei was one such person.

Looking at these experts, Hui Yue noticed how they all had sweat dripping from their foreheads; their eyes were only focused on the cauldrons in front of them, and the red and green flames were reflected in their eyes.

The whole room was full of medicinal aromas. From time to time, a large flame would soar to the ceiling from a cauldrons as an apprentice failed to control their flames. Sometimes swearing was heard as others failed to refine a herb.

However, Hui Yue was just seated in the middle of the room observing everyone else.

Time went by slowly but steadily as more and more apprentices finished their pastes. They sighed deeply as they too started looking around.

The ones who were left now were either the ones who had aimed for the highest quality Devouring Paste of the Red Orchid, or the ones who were repeatedly failing to refine the medicinal herb.

With ten minutes left, Zhong Hei finally heaved a heavy sigh before he leaned back against the chair and used his sleeve to wipe the sweat off his forehead. Looking around, a shocked expression was visible in his eyes for a short moment when he saw that Hui Yue was seated casually with a wry smile on his face as his eyes roamed around the room.

Zhong Hei looked as though he wanted to say something to Hui Yue but the woman who conducted the exam was right behind them, and therefore, he had no other option than to keep his mouth shut and wait the final ten minutes to finish the exam.

"Well done everyone!" The woman suddenly called out while clapping her hands and moving back to the chair and desk in front of all seats.

"Bring your vial to me so that I can examine your results. If your result is acceptable, you will become an alchemist. If you have an excellent quality paste, then you can follow me to the second exam to see if you are good enough to be considered a two-star alchemist."

"Now line up and come down here!" The woman called out, and everyone stood up forming a line ready to have their pastes checked.

The first person in line was sent out a door to the side after being scolded for such a low quality paste, and soon the first ten had been sent out the door in the same manner. Finally, an apprentice appeared who was told to wait by the side of the desk. Once again a great many experts were sent packing.

By the time Hui Yue had reached the front, there were a mere three apprentices waiting by the side of the desk.

"Your paste is... perfect quality," She said, but her words had no emotion at all, even through her eyes were s.h.i.+ning brightly. "Move to the side and wait for the second exam to b."

Hui Yue nodded before he moved to the desk were the other three men looked at him curiously. As he moved, he heard the woman tell Zhong Hei to also join Hui Yue at the desk.

Looking at the many apprentice alchemists, Hui Yue understood that he was the strongest when it came to cultivation. The majority of the people present were only Master or Grandmaster ranked, while Hui Yue was an Emperor. He had an enormous advantage of energy reserves over everyone, but even still, it should not have been possible for him to create such a high-quality paste in such a short time.

Soon the last person had left the exam room, and only seven remained from the hundreds who had taken the exam.

"Although you needed to bring your own things for the first exam, we will provide you with the materials for the second exam," The woman said as she gestured for the seven experts to sit down. Zhong Hei once more managed to sit right next to Hui Yue.

"How fortunate that you managed to reach the second exam too!" He whispered excitedly, "I will do my best to become a two-star Alchemist so that I can be of use to you!"

Hearing this, the more Zhong Hei talked, the more worried Hui Yue became. This abnormal interest in him reminded him of a certain Frozen General, and even their names were similar. Hui Yue did not want to bring up this subject at present and instead decided to keep a safe distance from this young man.

"To become a two-star Alchemist what you need to do is to be able to create a medicinal pill. It does not matter if your pill is low grade or high grade if you successfully concoct the pill you will be a two-star alchemist."

"Since we know that you did not prepare for this test, we will provide both the formula and ingredients. You will have two hours again." The woman explained the test, and for once Hui Yue was unsure if he would succeed. He had never made pills before, and even if he did manage to succeed, it would definitely not be of high quality. At least that was what he thought.

Still, Hui Yue accepted the ingredients and the formula before he sat down and looked through it.

It was a formula for the Lion's Strength pill. A pill which increased one's physical strength in battle. The pill was one of the easiest pills to make, and Hui Yue had gained this formula from the Ma family. He had not intended to refine pills yet, and he would be lying if he said he wasn’t nervous.

This time, he was not as casual as before as he threw the black lily into the cauldron. Unlike the herbs needed for the Devouring Paste of the Red Orchid, the herbs needed for the Lion's Strength pill were slightly more rare and they required a specific amount of heat.

Fortunately, the formula explained what temperature each of the herbs needed to be refined at. Thanks to the special cauldron, Hui Yue had perfect control over his flames which helped him greatly.

Unlike last time, one could tell Hui Yue was fully focused. His forehead was drenched in sweat, but even still he dared not blink as he feared that he would mess up the refinement.

Concocting the paste earlier was something completely different than concocting this pill. First of all, this pill needed five different herbs. One was the black lily, another white jasmine, and then he needed a divine flower. Though only one that was more than one year old. He also needed pink alyssum and finally red poppies.

Refining the lily, the jasmine, the alyssum, and the poppy did not prove too difficult; however, the moment Hui Yue placed the divine flower in his cauldron, he instantly felt how it was no longer as easy as it had been before.

The divine flower was a flower with sentience! It was a flower which went against the heavens themselves in its attempt to reach immortality. It was an existence that strove to fight its fate, to take human form, and walk the earth while seeking immortality.

All flowers refined the energy of the heavens and the earth and could be said to cultivate, yet only divine flowers were the true cultivators of the plant world. Unfortunately, they needed to reach the Saint rank before they could change forms, and by doing so, they would leave behind their constant fear of being harvested.

This sentience left behind in every single divine flower was also the reason that Hui Yue grit his teeth and attacking the flower with all he could manage.

The already refined pastes were protected by the green flame while his red flame soared to the sky trying to break the barriers around the divine flower.

Little by little, Hui Yue could feel that the flower put up less resistance and finally he managed to break through the s.h.i.+eld around it, starting to refine the flower itself.

No one amongst the many apprentice alchemists in the room knew about Hui Yue's struggles, nor had they paid any attention to his flame when it soared towards the ceiling, but the woman in charge of the exam had noticed. She nodded her head in approval seeing his actions.

Hui Yue who had now fully refined all the materials heaved a heavy sigh. He quickly wiped his forehead with his sleeve and then once more focused on the pastes that were floating within the green flame. Picking up a vial from the table a pearl appeared in his hand. This was a common pearl, something many fishermen would find every day. However, it was a necessary item when lower tiered alchemists created pills. As they grew stronger, they would no longer need pearls to support the merging of all the materials they had refined. Only top tier achemists would use super rare pearls in the creation of those few heaven-defying pills.

Placing the pearl within the cauldron, everything slowly started merging into the pearl. At the same time, the pearl seemed to be lit by a fire. The toughness within it vanished, and the pastes and energies had merged into the soft sh.e.l.l of the pearl.

Finally, Hui Yue took a breath as he reached into the cauldron and killed the flames. He then picked up the medicinal pill he had created.

It had taken him almost an hour and a half to create this pill, and as he had it in his hands, he was filled with excitement. The pill was perfect!

"He must have a natural talent for this," The woman mumbled to herself, her eyes filled with shock as she could smell the dense medicinal properties of the pill from where she was.