The female alchemist and her peers all shuddered at this name. None of them seemed to know why, but it had become an instinctual reaction that none of them even noticed. It was like a veil had covered the entire city, fogging their minds from the truth.

"Dyon Sacharro fairly and impartially."

"I, Venerable Piers, swear a Heavenly Oath to judge"

One after another, they spoke those fateful words.

...

Saru and Lilith sat on their knees silently, each one to Dyon's side. But, they seemed to be more serious than even the man who supposedly had his life on the line. Sitting between them, his legs crossed, he stretched his back as though he was already tired of being there.

"The first segment of the certification test tests your foundation. The mortal grades are piddling but are still required for any respectable Venerable."

Dyon was too lazy to respond to Venerable Taline's obvious jab. He only dully met her gaze as though to tell her to get on with it.

Venerable Taline pretended not to care about Dyon's disregard, taking out a few formation plates.

"These formation plates are disseminated from Pill Sword Mountain themselves. Each represents a section of the exam. We are only overseeing these matters, but your pass and fail grades will be decided by them.

"Of course We're also here to monitor cheating."

With a soft toss, the first formation plate spun through the air toward Dyon. It was at a speed that would startle most Middle Immortal Essence realm experts, let alone a mortal.

Dyon's interest was finally piqued. Obviously, it wasn't toward this petty competition of his courage, but rather because he couldn't see through the formations etched into the plate.

As expected, the formation plate never actually reached him. It stopped in the air as it was meant to, unfurling into what seemed like a miniature night sky.

It was quite beautiful. White motes of light sparkled and spread, thin lines of energy connecting them as they folded out from themselves.

By the time the process finished, Dyon's interest waned. The formation plate itself was at least of the high level Empyrean grade, but the exam it actually held was boring beyond belief. Dyon could have breezed through this exam even before he dedicated 80 years toward rebuilding his array alchemy foundation, let alone now.

Venerable Taline had every intention of explaining to Dyon how he would have to go about doing this exam. After all, she had sworn an oath to be impartial and fair. There was no circumventing this. It was just that she had been waiting for Dyon to ask the question first.

Who knew that Dyon would start without regard for her or the others?

At first, she sneered, thinking that this was the best possible outcome. Not only would she not be blamed, but Dyon would die.

However, such an expression froze much too soon.

What made this exam difficult wasn't just the questions, but the abstract method in which they were presented. After array alchemy was created, formation theory became inextricably linked to alchemy.

Still, regardless, this was an alchemy exam. It didn't touch upon formation theory. It was like a silent resilience Pill Sword Mountain had toward the man who humiliated them all.

That said, Pill Sword Mountain was still aware of how important the combination of these two were. If they completely ignored it like they wanted to, there would come a day where they could no longer stand atop of the alchemy world. As such, they compromised.

The questions were purely related to alchemy, however the exam itself was written with the runes and array nodes of formation theory.

If one didn't understand formation theory, no matter how deep your alchemy knowledge, it was impossible to answer even a single question!

It was the job of their vice deputy, Venerable Taline, to both explain this to the examinee and provide a treasure tool that could be used to manipulate the formation and thus answer the questions.

But who knew that Dyon would not only not be in need of these hints, but he completely disregarded the need for the treasure as well?

He sat silently, nothing but his eyes moving. His irises flickered so quickly that they blurred, almost completely hiding their golden glow. Like this, the Venerables had yet to even notice that Dyon had an innate aurora.

In reality, this wasn't exactly the reason. It was just that the Venerables were so stunned by the quickly moving array nodes and the light pleasing tone it played whenever an answer was answered correctly, that they didn't have time to send a gaze toward Dyon.

Foundation Mortal Theory. Perfect.

Lower Venerable Botany. Perfect.

Lower Venerable Herbology. Perfect.

Lower Venerable Soul Control. Perfect.

Lower Venerable Splicing. Perfect.

Lower Venerable Alchemy Theory. Perfect.

The certification should have taken several days. Each segment was grueling and heart wrenching, so stringent that even those who had studied for tens of millions of years didn't dare to take the exam.

Yet, in just a single hour, a mortal with a lazy gaze blazed through them. The array nodes flew around so wildly that one would think he was answering randomly had it not been for the calming bell that sounded for every correct answer.

Eventually, Dyon's pupils stopped flickering and stilled. He had come to the end. There were no more questions to answer in this Lower Venerable Pill Recognition segment. He could only look up toward the Venerables as though telling them to get on with the next part.

However, they all sat frozen, finding it difficult to speak or even breathe. They simply couldn't wrap their heads around what they had just seen. Had there ever been someone to perfectly complete the theory segment of the certification exam?

"The the next segment is the practical part of the certification exam. Choose three Lower Venerable Grade pills to concoct. The ingredients and cauldron will be provided to you"