Inside the pill room, a spatial restriction severed Ian Song’s connection to his body and Storage Ring. He figured this was set up to prevent candidates from cheating—if someone failed to refine the pill, they couldn’t just sneak extra Immortal Medicine out of their ring and try again.
With his Pill Condensation Technique, making a top-grade Immortal Pill was ridiculously easy for him.
He reached out, and several Immortal Medicines floated above his palm. A special energy wrapped around them, and in a matter of seconds, the herbs melted and condensed into a pale blue pill.
The black-robed elder was monitoring the pill room closely. When Ian Song succeeded, surprise flashed across his face—this young man had refined a top-grade Immortal Pill in just a few breaths, way faster than normal.
He’d followed his master for years and reached pill-refining master level himself, but even he couldn’t produce a top-grade Immortal Pill in just a few breaths.
What’s more, Ian hadn’t even used a pill furnace—he’d refined the pill directly in mid-air. Only true pill-refining masters could pull off something like that.
“Could this kid be a pill-refining master?”
Pill-refining masters were highly respected everywhere. For someone like Ian Song to apply as Ancestor Martin’s alchemy apprentice was almost unbelievable to the elder.
Still, just because Ian could refine pills in mid-air didn’t mean he was a true master—maybe he just had some secret technique.
After thinking it over, the elder decided not to report this to Ancestor Martin yet. He’d observe Ian in the coming rounds, and if he really proved to be a master, he’d inform his master then.
An hour later.
Ian Song and forty-nine others walked out of the pill rooms. Of all of them, only six—including Ian—had managed to refine a top-grade Immortal Pill within the time limit.
"You six, come back to Greenmount Courtyard in three days at the chen hour for the next round!"
The black-robed elder tossed six tokens to Ian and the others, urging them to hurry out.
Ian pocketed his token, bowed to the elder, and left Greenmount Courtyard. Not long after he got home, Old Doug and Old Hugh showed up together, eager to ask if he’d passed the first round.
Ian nodded. "I passed the first round. In three days, I’ll go for the second round."
The two immediately congratulated him. "Congrats, congrats! Ian, if you become Ancestor Martin’s alchemy apprentice, don’t forget your two old brothers!"
Ian smiled. "It’s way too early to say. There are probably hundreds who passed the first round, but only two apprentice slots."
Old Doug insisted, "We believe in you, Ian. You’re definitely going to be chosen as Ancestor Martin’s apprentice!"
Old Hugh nodded enthusiastically. "Exactly! To celebrate you passing the first round, I think you should cook us a delicious meal yourself!"
"Absolutely! Absolutely!" Old Doug nodded eagerly.
Ian couldn’t help but laugh. "I think you two aren’t here to congratulate me—you just came for the food, didn’t you?"
Old Doug and Old Hugh burst out laughing. "Well, since you’ve seen through us, hurry up and get cooking!"
Old Doug laughed heartily.
Ever since Old Doug and Old Hugh tasted Ian Song’s cooking, they’d been totally hooked by the incredible flavors. Now they often teamed up to drop by his house and mooch a meal.
Ian knew that if he didn’t satisfy their appetites, they’d never leave, so he had no choice but to head to the kitchen and cook for them.
Two hours later.
Old Doug and Old Hugh left arm in arm, leaving Ian with a table full of mess.
After cleaning up, Ian brewed a pot of tea and sat down to chat with Cici and Joy.
"Master, are you really planning to become Ancestor Martin’s alchemy apprentice?" Joy asked.
Joy asked.
Ian thought for a moment. "I don’t have any roots in the Immortal World, so I really need a powerful backer. Ancestor Martin isn’t hostile to ascenders, so this is an opportunity I have to grab."
Three days later, a quarter hour before the chen hour.
Ian arrived at Greenmount Courtyard again. About eight hundred people had passed the first round.
Most were Earth Immortals, with around a hundred Golden Immortals, and eleven Profound Immortals including Ian.
"Ian Song, right? If you withdraw from this round, I’ll gift you a high-level cultivation method. How about it?"
Just as Ian found a place to stand, a voice sounded in his ear.
He looked up and saw a handsome white-robed Profound Immortal nodding at him.
"I appreciate the offer, but I have no plans to withdraw."
Ian replied via voice transmission.
The white-robed Profound Immortal’s face darkened. He continued via voice transmission, "You’re just an ascender—what right do you have to compete with us? If you withdraw, I’ll throw in another hundred million immortal stones. Deal?"
Ian’s expression cooled. "It’s not up to you to decide who’s qualified."
"Ignorant fool!"
The white-robed Profound Immortal’s voice was icy. "We’ll see about that."
Just then, a green-robed Profound Immortal walked up to Ian and quietly asked, "Brother Ian, did that guy just try to make you quit the test?"
"Yeah."
Ian nodded.
The green-robed Profound Immortal sneered, "That guy’s way too full of himself. Just because his father’s the City Lord of Cloudmark City, he thinks he can do whatever he wants. Ignore him—this is Snowgoose City; he won’t dare cause trouble here. By the way, I’m Yukon Gee."
Ian nodded back. "Nice to meet you, Brother Yukon. I’m Ian Song."
Yukon Gee laughed. "Actually, I already knew your name!" He was clearly friendly.
Then, the other eight Profound Immortals came over to greet Ian, introducing themselves.
After all, they were the most likely to become alchemy apprentices, so making connections early meant good karma no matter who got picked.
The chen hour arrived.
The black-robed elder appeared again and told everyone to follow him.
Led by the black-robed elder, they arrived at a huge Immortal Medicine garden.
With a wave of his hand, the elder produced a jade slip for each person. His voice rang out: "Inside the jade slip are a thousand Immortal Medicines, all found in this garden. You have two hours to collect every one listed, and you can’t damage more than three. If you succeed, you’ll pass the second round. Begin!"
At his command, more than eight hundred candidates flew into the garden. Ian didn’t rush—he used his immortal sense to memorize all thousand herbs in the jade slip, then strode in.
The Immortal Medicine garden was enormous, basically a small world. There were hundreds of millions of herbs and over a hundred thousand varieties. Finding and picking the thousand required herbs in just two hours wasn’t easy.