"Not much certainty, just 98%."
Fa Ma:...Fa Ma hesitated, opening and closing his mouth several times before finally saying, "Little girl, I will personally conduct your Alchemist examination!"
"Oh," Xiao Xue nodded casually, "Sorry for the trouble, Chairman."
Fa Ma looked at Xiao Xue's indifferent attitude, and his mouth couldn't help but twitch, "Follow me."
Fa Ma led Xiao Xue into the First-Grade Alchemist Examination Room and walked to an empty spot, "You will perform your Alchemy here."
In the examination room, besides Xiao Xue, there were more than ten others; they were all Aspiring Alchemists who had come to the Alchemist Guild to take the examination.
The examiner on stage saw Fa Ma and hurried over to greet him, "Chairman..."
Fa Ma waved his hand, "Don't mind me, just do what you need to do."
"Yes... yes, sir." The examiner immediately went onto the stage and announced, "The First-Grade Alchemist examination will begin in fifteen minutes. Please check your Pill Formulas and medicinal ingredients."
After hearing "Chairman," whispers immediately broke out within the examination hall.
The Chairman of the Alchemist Guild personally supervising a First-Grade Alchemist examination was somewhat inconceivable, making many examinees nervous and apprehensive.
After all, the other party was the Chairman of the entire Alchemist Guild.
If they could perform well and gain his appreciation, they would truly reach the heavens in a single step.
Xiao Xue glanced around casually before withdrawing her gaze, ignoring the surrounding whispers, and began checking the Alchemy equipment on the stone platform.
The basic requirement for a First-Grade Alchemist is to successfully refine a formed Medicinal Pill alone; as for what kind of pill, that can be set by the Alchemist Guild.
Xiao Xue picked up a piece of parchment on the stone platform and looked at it; this formula was for something called an accumulating strength pill.
The effect of this accumulating strength pill allowed the consumer to increase their strength slightly for a short period.
Among first-grade pills, this pill could only be considered mid-tier, but for a newcomer taking the examination for the first time, the difficulty was not small.
However, a single first-grade pill was not enough to cause Xiao Xue any distress.
With her current alchemy skills, refining this accumulating strength pill would not take much effort.
"Finished checking? If there are no problems, then... the examination begins!"
After scanning the stone platforms and seeing no one speak, the examiner waved his hand, and a gust of force shot out from his palm, finally hitting the ancient iron bell at the top of the hall.
Immediately, the crisp sound of the bell echoed through the hall.
Hearing the bell, all the examinees except Xiao Xue quickly pressed their palms against the fire vents of their Medicine Cauldrons, and the Dou Qi in their bodies surged out.
Suddenly, with several muffled pops, flames flared up within the Medicine Cauldrons.
Once the flames in the Medicine Cauldrons ignited, a transparent light screen slowly rose around the outside of the stone platforms, forming a square shape that enveloped all the examinees inside.
As the light screen barrier activated, the whispers in the hall fell completely silent.
Everyone focused intently on the examinees' movements on the stone platforms, occasionally nodding in secret when they saw a newcomer with decent control.
Standing at the stone platform, Xiao Xue turned her head to look around and found that the flames in everyone's Medicine Cauldrons were all pale yellow.
Clearly, their true strength was likely not higher than a Four-Star Dou Zhe.
Inside the stone platforms, everyone had begun alchemy, except for Xiao Xue, who was still looking around blankly; it was hard not to attract attention in this state.
Fa Ma couldn't help but frown, "What is this little girl... doing?"
"Never mind, I'll ask in detail after the time is up. Looking at the current situation, it seems I've been teased by this little girl..."
Fa Ma's expression was slightly unsightly. Did this girl think the Alchemist examination was some kind of game?
Xiao Xue naturally didn't know that her actions had made Fa Ma somewhat unhappy; she just sighed in her heart, "Only those with fire and wood attributes can become Alchemists."
"The limitations of an Alchemist are indeed very large."
Xiao Xue waved her fair hand, and the Medicine Cauldron was filled with pure water.
Then, Xiao Xue casually took a medicinal ingredient and threw it into the Medicine Cauldron, controlling the water to begin extracting its essence.
Furthermore, Xiao Xue didn't just put in one portion of ingredients, but—three!
On the stone platform, three portions of the ingredients required for the accumulating strength pill were neatly prepared.
In other words, if these three portions of ingredients were completely used up during the refining process without producing a single accumulating strength pill, the examination would be declared a failure.
However, it seemed that Xiao Xue actually intended to refine three accumulating strength pills simultaneously!
The examiner supervising from the side saw this, his eyes suddenly widened, and with a "pfft," he crudely spat out the tea in his mouth.
"Water... Water-Method Alchemy?!"
As a Fourth-Grade Alchemist, he could naturally sense that Xiao Xue's Dou Qi was of the Water Attribute.
He had originally thought she was the daughter of some old acquaintance of the Chairman, coming to try the Alchemist examination out of stubbornness.
After all, the entire continent held an unimaginable respect and yearning for Alchemists; almost everyone wanted to become one.
Teenagers are full of vigor, but after they hit a wall, they will realize this path is blocked.
However, he didn't expect that Xiao Xue was actually performing alchemy!
Hearing the sound, the entire hall instantly fell silent, and gaze after gaze turned sharply toward Xiao Xue inside the light screen.
Only then did the examiner realize that his subconscious action might have affected the other examinees, and he immediately suppressed the thought of speaking out.
To the side, Fa Ma's expression also began to turn solemn. He was also a bit curious: was Xiao Xue here to play, or did she truly have the strength to refine Medicinal Pills?
Xiao Xue ignored everyone's gazes and controlled the water to extract the medicinal liquid from the ingredients. Soon, the liquid from the first ingredient was successfully extracted.
Xiao Xue took the medicinal liquid out of the Medicine Cauldron, casually placed it into a nearby jade bottle, and then began refining the next ingredient.
Boom, boom, boom!
Several examinees' cauldrons exploded in succession, but Xiao Xue was not affected in the slightest, still methodically refining the ingredients.
After an unknown amount of time, the several types of ingredients for the accumulating strength pill were all refined.
Then, Xiao Xue mixed the medicinal liquids in the order required for the accumulating strength pill.
The advantage of Water-Method Alchemy lies in the mixing process being easier and more thorough; there's no need to worry about the heat being too high and burning the medicinal liquid, as in fire-method alchemy.
After everything was mixed, Xiao Xue continuously extracted pure water from the large mass of medicinal liquid in front of her, and the remaining liquid became increasingly concentrated.
Two and a half minutes later, the originally basketball-sized medicinal liquid had turned into an egg-sized mass.
Xiao Xue smiled slightly, clenched her fair hand, and shouted softly:
"Condense!"
The medicinal liquid split into three portions, each condensing and emitting a faint glow.
Finally, three round and full accumulating strength pills, emitting a moist luster, hovered in the air.
"This..."
Fa Ma stared at the three accumulating strength pills, his finger trembling as he pointed, somewhat incredulous, his voice shaking.
"It actually worked!"
He observed the appearance of the accumulating strength pills and found that they were actually comparable to the quality refined by a Third-Grade Alchemist in their perfect state.
Moreover, these three accumulating strength pills had a moist and smooth appearance, seemingly possessing special effects.
He took one and swallowed it directly.
As the medicinal effect took hold, a brilliant light burst forth from Fa Ma's eyes like never before.
"The medicinal effect is even gentler!"
The medicinal power of an accumulating strength pill is somewhat fierce, so whether the effect is gentle can be clearly felt.
Refining Medicinal Pills with the water method could actually have such a significant effect on a pill with a violent nature, which gave Fa Ma quite a shock.
"Little girl, what grade of Medicinal Pill can you refine with this method?" Fa Ma's voice trembled slightly.
Xiao Xue replied, "Theoretically, any pill that doesn't require the transformation of multiple types of flames can be refined."
For example, the Three-Pattern Azure Spirit Pill, which requires three types of flames; it would be almost impossible to refine it using the water method.
Furthermore, Water-Method Alchemy sounds simple, but it is not actually that easy to perform.
"Chairman, can I be considered to have passed this examination?" Xiao Xue asked with a smile.
Fa Ma nodded with a wry smile; refining three accumulating strength pills at once, and with a gentler medicinal effect.
If this couldn't pass, then there would be no need for others to take the examination.
He didn't expect to actually encounter a Water Attribute Alchemist today.
"Little girl, congratulations, you have passed the First-Grade Alchemist examination."
Putting the remaining two accumulating strength pills back into the jade bottle, Fa Ma let out a slow breath and smiled at Xiao Xue.
Upon hearing this, everyone in the hall cast envious and amazed gazes at Xiao Xue.
"Chairman, can I continue with the Second-Grade Alchemist examination?" Xiao Xue asked.
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone in the room stopped their movements and looked up, staring blankly at the young girl on the stone platform.
Continue applying for the Second-Grade Alchemist examination?
If Xiao Xue's successful passing of the First-Grade Alchemist examination with Water Attribute Dou Qi had filled their hearts with amazement earlier,
Then her applying again now truly left everyone dumbfounded.
If Xiao Xue really passed the Second-Grade Alchemist examination today, she would be the Jia Ma Empire's unprecedented fourteen-year-old Second-Grade Alchemist!
"You really want to take the Second-Grade Alchemist examination?" Fa Ma asked in a deep voice.
"There shouldn't be any problem, right?" Xiao Xue replied with a smile.
"How much certainty do you have?"
Fa Ma's expression was also somewhat solemn at this time.
If the little girl in front of him really passed the Second-Grade Alchemist examination, she would be quite an extraordinary talent.
Perhaps in the future, the Jia Ma Empire's Alchemy world would produce an Alchemist even more formidable than Pill King Gu He!
Facing Fa Ma's question, Xiao Xue pondered for a moment, "Hmm... about 97%?"
Greedily asking for a recommendation, collection, and investment, wa-ka-ka.
*(^^*)*