1931 Brief Testing

By the time Alex had finished making those 4 pills, he could feel the tangible amount of headache, that wasn't a problem just yet, but was in the back of his mind.

If he continued, he was certain he could make a total of 10 more pills before this headache became any sort of issue.

'I have the Qi to make a lot of Immortal pills, but my mind lags a lot behind,' he thought. If only there was some way to quickly improve his Spiritual energy and make it as strong as his Qi was, that would be awesome.

Alas, Alex wasn't aware of any such methods, and he would have to be lucky to receive any of them.

Alex waited for a few minutes before deciding to contact the Elder.

He waited afterward with no reply for a while before the Elder sent him a message.

'Come meet me at the shop. Bring the pills.'

Alex stood up and left the room.

He went to the Alchemy store that was just a few minutes walk away and stood next to the decent line of disciples who were there to buy pills or some other ingredients.

"You better get in line," Elder Lan said from the side and Alex did as told.

Alex waited until his turn came, wherein he handed over the four pills to the Elder.

Elder Lan took the pills and tested them one by one, quickly noting the Harmony of the pills.

"This one is rather good," he couldn't help but say when he noticed the pill with 82% harmony.

"I got rather lucky with that," Alex said in as humble a tone as he could muster.

"Not bad," the Elder said. "All of these are good. And you made them rather quickly too. How do you feel?"

"There is a bit of a headache, but I can ignore it for now," Alex answered truthfully.

"How many more do you think you make?"

Alex thought for a bit. "If it's the same pill, maybe 10? If different, 6 at most. Maybe more, but I can't say that without testing."

The Elder nodded. "This is good enough for now." He brought out the spirit stones Alex deserved and handed them over to him. "You can leave for today."

Alex wanted to protest that he could truly make more, but he saw no point in it. This was the testing phase, so he let the Elder test him. He returned to his home as he was told.

The next day, Alex was made to make 4 new pills, but this time, one of the pills was one that he had never made before. The recipe was entirely new to him; it was for another slightly better than generic antidote pill.

"Take your time." That was all Elder Lan said before he left Alex and went to his work.

Alex looked at the recipe and saw a few familiar ingredients he had worked with. Thankfully, it seemed he wouldn't have to waste too many ingredients to improve the recipe.

In the first place, he had to test and see if he could improve the recipe by any chance. There was no point in working very hard if the recipe could make pills with over 90% harmony.

Alex finished the other 3 pills before starting on the new one.

He was given 3 sets of ingredients for this one, so with the first set, he made the pill following the recipe completely. Even trying his best, he ended up with an 83% pill.

While that was incredible, he wanted to improve the recipe to make a 100% pill possible.

So, he got to it. With the 2nd set, he spent his time doing every sort of experiment with the ingredients, except for the ones he had already learned about through other recipes. Those he kept for himself.

After completing his research, he closed his eyes and focused on creating the perfect recipe. With how many recipes he had improved, it took no more than 10 minutes to come up with the perfect recipe for this pill.

Finally, with the 3rd set of ingredients, he made a new pill. Of course, he held back while making this pill, and ended up a 76% harmony pill. The rest of the energy was absorbed by Memory.

A 76% pill was more than enough for a pill he had only just made today, so Alex decided to hide the other one, maybe use it for something else.

Alex made his way to Elder again and waited for this turn.

"You took quite the time today. Did it not go as planned?"

Alex shook his head. "It always takes me time to learn new pills," he said as he handed over the pills.

The Elder checked the pills normally, and when he got to the one he had been looking forward to, he couldn't help but be surprised.

"Not bad," he mentioned. "76% on a pill you only just made today. Was this the first pill you made?"

"Third. The first 2 pills were… not very good," Alex said.

"Understandable."

The Elder put the pills back and handed Alex his Spirit stones. "And how do you feel today? Can you handle the same number of pills as you said you could yesterday?"

"Actually, a little more today. Maybe a pill or two," Alex answered.

The Elder was a little surprised. "More than yesterday? But you made 6 pills today, regardless of the fact that 2 of them ended up being trash."

"Yes, but I also took my time with the pills today, so I don't have as much of a headache as yesterday," Alex explained. "I feel as good as I did after making 2 pills yesterday."

"Hmm… you must have good Spiritual energy recovery then," the Elder mumbled. "You're done for today. Come back tomorrow."

Alex nodded and left.

The next day and the day after that and the day after that day, Alex spent his time making pills. Same pills. Different pills. Pills he had never seen before. More pills than normal. Successive pills.

It was a bizarre set of tests for the entire week, and by the end of it, the Elder had come to a conclusion about Alex's strength as an Alchemist.

"10 pills," Elder Lan said. "You will be making 10 pills a day at most. You won't be making more than 100 pills as a starter anyway, so you will complete a month's work in 10 days. That should be good enough for you, right?"

Alex was sure he could make a few more than that, but he didn't argue. "I understand. 10 pills a day is enough for me." At an average of 15 spirit stones per pill, he would be earning 150 Immortal Spirit stones a day.

Compared to 20 Immortal Spirit stones a year, this was a supremely better deal. Over 1800 Immortal Spirit stones a month, that was a small fortune, wasn't it?

Maybe Alex didn't have to leave this sect so soon. Maybe, there was something good in here for him after all.

With bright thoughts in his mind, Alex returned to his place, in preparation for the work that he would be starting tomorrow.