The news of Zhang Ergou successfully refining nine-patterned top-grade spirit-returning pills was not revealed.
After Dan Feng consulted the elder, the matter was secretly suppressed.
However, the two judges marked Zhang Ergou's performance with an A-grade.
Although the two judges were confused, they did not disobey their peak master's orders.
The nine nine-patterned top-grade spirit-returning pills successfully refined by Zhang Ergou were distributed to the nine peak masters.
This was done to silence them.
The nine main peak masters understood the seriousness of the situation. They were old foxes who had lived for hundreds or even thousands of years.
How could they not understand the principle that "the tallest tree in the forest will be destroyed by the wind"?
The scale of this alliance selection far exceeded previous ones, and the alliance leader had sensed that the continent was becoming unsettled.
Moreover, this recruitment of disciples was bound to attract the attention of those with ulterior motives.
Before Zhang Ergou could fully mature, if his potential were to be discovered, it was not impossible for someone to resort to despicable means.
Every year, outstanding young disciples within the alliance would disappear without a trace.
The alliance leader suspected that there were already problems within the alliance.
This large-scale recruitment of new disciples also carried the intention of uncovering internal traitors.
However, this was still a speculation, and whether it was true or not was unknown.
When Zhang Ergou had registered for the selection assessments in three events, the elder had specifically asked Hua Xu to bring Zhang Ergou to see him.
Initially, he had intended to use Zhang Ergou as a decoy, perhaps to attract the attention of those restless eyes, if Zhang Ergou was merely a special existence who could cultivate three arts.
But he had not expected Zhang Ergou's performance to exceed his expectations.
Not only was his cultivation and techniques far beyond his peers in terms of cultivation, but he had also proven to be an invaluable talent in alchemy.
How could such a promising seedling be used as bait for fishing?
In an instant, the elder changed his mind.
Such a good seedling must be well protected. A cultivator in the Nascent Soul stage, not yet thirty years old, and also an excellent alchemist.
Even within the entire alliance, such talent was rarely seen.
The elder certainly did not want such a promising seedling to perish prematurely.
The alliance operated at a level far beyond other forces on the continent, and no one understood the dangers better than the elder.
The alliance was also in urgent need of a batch of outstanding young people to supplement its ranks.
To strengthen the core force of the alliance.
...
An hour passed quickly. The young men who had failed three times consecutively and thus run out of medicinal ingredients to refine pills left the assessment area in dejection.
Those disciples who had not succeeded even by the last moment also faced elimination.
After these people left the assessment area, fewer than twenty individuals remained on the high platform in the center of the vast square.
This indicated that the alchemy assessment was not much easier than other assessments, and in some ways, it was even more brutal.
The alchemy selection, with just one round of assessment, had already filtered out more than half of the candidates.
This was incomparable to other events.
The assessment continued. The pills to be refined this time were still common ones, but their grade was elevated by one level compared to the previous round.
The pill to be refined in the second round was a third-grade pill – the Soul Returning Pill.
The primary function of the Soul Returning Pill was to rapidly restore the soul power consumed by cultivators during combat.
This pill was not only a common staple for ordinary cultivators but also a favorite among alchemists, formation masters, artifact refiners, and talisman masters, all of whom consumed a significant amount of soul power.
Therefore, when becoming a second-grade alchemist, masters often taught their disciples to refine Spirit Returning Pills.
And when they advanced to become third-grade alchemists, the pills they often refined were Soul Returning Pills.
The main reason was that these two pills had a vast market and were not expensive. However, their high sales volume generated profits far beyond what ordinary people could imagine.
Dan Feng, the peak master of the Alchemy Peak of the alliance, did not include any strange or obscure pills for the disciples to refine this time.
Instead, he chose these two conventional pills, intending to assess the foundational skills of these disciples participating in the selection.
Alchemy required a strict foundation. If one could not even refine the two most common and basic pills,
then their value to the Alchemy Peak would be significantly diminished.
As one of the nine great peaks of the alliance, the Alchemy Peak was not only responsible for cultivating alchemists
but also for supplying the pills needed by the alliance's nine great peaks. The second-grade Spirit Returning Pill and the third-grade Soul Returning Pill were also standard provisions.
Dan Feng naturally had to consider whether the selected disciples would be useful.
With the experience from the previous round, none of the remaining dozen or so people rashly began refining the Soul Returning Pill.
Each person picked up the medicinal ingredients before them and examined them closely. After confirming the ingredients were correct, they cautiously opened their pill furnaces.
"Haha, Old Dan, look at you, you've scared these little fellows. You've given them psychological trauma."
"Heh, if they don't even have this level of alertness, then my Alchemy Peak doesn't need them anyway."
Dan Feng pouted and looked at the few who had already started refining, mentally crossing them off.
This time, he had indeed not tampered with the quantities of the medicinal ingredients, but who said tampering could only be done with the quantities?
Zhang Ergou did not rush to begin refining. He meticulously examined the medicinal ingredients in his hands again and again.
He did not believe that the assessor who had tampered with the ingredients last time would let them off so easily this time.
However, the types and quantities of the medicinal ingredients in his hands were all correct.
He looked at the first batch of medicinal ingredients over and over again, still finding no issue.
He then put down the first batch and proceeded to open the second batch of ingredients. It was at this point that Zhang Ergou discovered the problem.
Comparing the second batch with the first, Zhang Ergou sensed where the problem lay.
Having dealt with medicinal ingredients for years, Zhang Ergou was exceptionally sensitive to their age.
He discovered that among the several herbs in the two batches, the ages varied greatly. Some were over a hundred years old, while others were only a few decades old. It was clear that this was intentional by the examiner.
Opening the third batch of medicinal ingredients, indeed, the color of the herbs revealed the difference in their ages. Someone had intentionally mixed herbs of different ages together.
A slight curve appeared on Zhang Ergou's lips. He felt a hint of admiration for the assessor's subtle trick.
After checking the three batches of medicinal ingredients, Zhang Ergou was about to sort out the herbs of the same age and pair them together.
Just then, he heard several sounds of exploding furnaces.
Those who had started refining before the others, without exception, failed during the fusion stage.
After each failure, they wore expressions of confusion, staring at the ruined herbs and lost in thought.
Li Qian, on the other hand, had not started refining his pill. Instead, he had been observing Zhang Ergou from the very beginning.
When he saw the faint smile on Zhang Ergou's lips, he guessed that Zhang Ergou must have discovered something.
As expected, he then saw Zhang Ergou open all three batches of medicinal ingredients and start picking through them...