"I have no questions." Seeing the examiner's gaze fall on him after speaking, Joe Di quickly stepped forward, saluted, and replied.
When Joe Di said he had no questions, both the three alchemists who entered for the assessment with him and the two examiners looked at Joe Di with strange expressions. The bearded cultivator's eyes were especially filled with ridicule. He’d seen many like Joe Di before—ambitious but lacking real skill. Once the questions were revealed, he’d be left speechless.
Since Joe Di said he had no questions, the examiner did not waste any more words. He simply nodded and waved his hand, and five exam papers landed in the hands of the four participants. Each of the other three received one paper, but Joe Di received two.
Joe Di glanced at his papers. The first exam paper contained a hundred questions, including the identification of immortal spirit herbs, descriptions of their properties, and combinations for pill recipes.
The second exam paper had only one question: refine a Profound Origin Pill. The Profound Origin Pill is a third-tier immortal pill, mainly refined with Rootless Holly and dozens of auxiliary herbs. It is the most widely used among third-tier immortal pills, suitable for cultivators at the Immortal Lord level.
The other three participants had only the Profound Origin Pill exam paper. As long as they could refine a Profound Origin Pill within two hours, they would pass.
No wonder the others looked at him strangely. Answering all questions on the first exam paper alone would normally take over two hours, not to mention refining a batch of Profound Origin Pills. For ordinary Immortal Alchemists, even refining one batch takes nearly two hours.
Joe Di had only two hours in total, so it was no wonder everyone looked at him with such odd expressions.
"The requirements to pass the Third-Rank Immortal Alchemist assessment are: at least one quarter of your Profound Origin Pills must be of medium grade, no more than one third may be waste pills, and your theoretical score on the herbal theory exam must be at least ninety. Otherwise, you will be deemed unqualified."
After the examiner on the left finished speaking, he looked at Joe Di again and added, "If your theoretical score on the herbal exam is not qualified, even if your Profound Origin Pills pass, you still cannot become a Third-Rank Immortal Alchemist."
"I understand," Joe Di replied once more.
The others could only shake their heads in silence. "Normally, for the First-Rank Immortal Alchemist assessment, a score of eighty on the theory exam would suffice. Now, with time so tight and the herbal theory score needing to be above ninety, this is simply making things even harder."
"The assessment begins now. Timing starts." After announcing the rules, the examiner waved his hand, and the sand timer at the side began to flow.
The other three each walked to a pill furnace, where the ingredients for refining the Profound Origin Pill had already been prepared.
Joe Di could only head to the other side and begin answering the exam questions.
Except for the final pill recipe combination question, all the other questions were extremely simple for Joe Di. Unlike others, Joe Di’s understanding of the World Tome deepened as his cultivation advanced. Though he hadn’t fully mastered the World Tome yet, the portions he had studied were more than enough to handle a Third-Rank Immortal Alchemist assessment.
Within just half a stick of incense, Joe Di had answered all the questions except for the pill recipe combination.
The examiner had stated that a score of ninety was required to pass, and Joe Di’s exam paper contained exactly one hundred questions. So Joe Di assumed each question was worth one point, for a total of one hundred. In reality, the first ninety-nine questions were each worth one point, but the final pill recipe combination was worth eleven points.
In other words, the full score for this herbal theory exam was one hundred and eleven points.
The pill recipe combination was for a Formation-Breaking Pill. To be honest, this was Joe Di’s first time encountering a pill formula related to breaking formations.