600 Alarm
Alex appeared in the Alchemist guild early in the morning. He sat on the chairs laid around the corner of the guildhall, next to a massive board with moving letters on it, reminding him of the ranking stone, and Contribution hall back in the Hong Wu sect.
Next to him were a few people gathered there as well, all of whom either wore a green robe, marking the, from the Fire Spirit sect or wore either an Iron or a Bronze colored badge around their chest that Alex had come to know to be the Alchemist badge.
Because of this, Alex doubted they were all here for the same thing.
Of the 13 present, including himself, some were here to enter the guild like him but as a Common Rank alchemist, while he was to become a True rank Alchemist.
Others were here to take a test to show their advancements to show that they had advanced enough to make a higher grade pill.
Alex wondered if there were any True-Earth Alchemists that were trying to ascend to become True Heaven Alchemists.
Although, in such a small town, that would likely be impossible. Still, he couldn't deny that this small town would likely be one of the better cities in the Crimson Empire.
He slowly scanned everyone's badge with his spiritual sense and noticed one person with an elderly face that had a silver badge around his chest with the word 'True' written on it.
Iron badges were for Mortal grade alchemists, while Bronze badges were for Earth grade alchemists. Going by the same logic, Alex figured Silver badges would be for Heaven grade alchemists, and Gold for Immortal grade alchemists.
Immortal grade… did those alchemists even exist? Alex thought they had to. After all, he had been one when he was a Common Rank alchemist.
Suddenly, he heard footsteps and stirred. The other men and women that had been there stirred a little as well.
Alex saw two people walk out of the door to the left of the reception.
Of the two, the male wore a green robe with a silver badge hung around his neck that said the word 'Common', while the female wore a light blue robe that didn't seem to belong to any factions.
She wore a necklace of bronze color, that said the word 'True'.
The man staggered a step behind the woman and stopped to let her move forward.
Alex glanced at them and got a general estimate of their cultivation base.
The man that looked to be a bit over 25 years old was in the Mind Tempering 6th realm, while the woman who seem to be of the same age was at True Master 9th realm.
Although, Alex was likely wrong on the woman's cultivation base as he wasn't used to sensing the cultivation base of people whose cultivation base was so high above his own.
The woman took out a list and then turned her head to look at them.
"I am Han Sha, and this is Jin Tiangshen. We will be your examiner for today."
"Those taking the Common Alchemist test, please follow him. Those who are taking the True Alchemist test. Please follow me."
The woman said nothing else and took off towards the right doorway of the reception.
Alex, along with 3 other people followed the woman to an open area.
Once she stopped, she turned around and looked at the only figure among the group of four, without a badge.
"You, is this your first time?" she asked.
"Yes," Alex said, a little surprised that she cared. From how little she spoke until now, he was sure she was only here because it was her duty.
"I'm sorry, but you will have to take a little different test," she said.
"Eh? Why am I being singled out?" Alex asked at the unfairness.
"Since we don't know if you are truly an alchemist, we will have to test you by having you make a common pill first," she said. "We would rather not have you destroy True rank ingredients just in case."
"I see," Alex said. He was a little irritated, but he understood the logic behind it.
4 people walked in front of the side, all of them around the Bone Tempering realm of cultivation base.
Each of them held a box in their hands with a formation carved on the metal lid.
Alex understood what it was. He sighed and brought out his storage bags. At the same time, the other 3 who had been through this process already, brought out their storage bags as well.
A young man appeared in front of Alex and took his storage bags.
"Please use your Qi to lock the box," the woman said. The 4 of them did as they were said.
"These 4 will be your aid in today's test, as well as the invigilators," the woman said. "They already have the ingredients for your test, so you three may go take the test right now."
The 3 of the other examinees left.
Alex stood there and waited for his turn. "Do you have any pill you would like to make?" she asked.
"Any is fine really," Alex said. It was a common rank pill, so he didn't have to worry about it at all.
"Okay, then choose one," she said.
Alex thought of a random pill and said, "Purple Dream Pill".
Han Sha nodded and took out her talisman to call for someone. Moments later, a man rushed to her with a storage bag.
Han Sha took the storage bag and handed it to the aid, rather than him. Alex took notice of that.
"You may go in," she said.
Alex nodded and turned towards one of the rooms on the side of the hall they were in, which was an Alchemy room.
He walked up to the door and saw that it needed a key, which his aid produced from somewhere, and placed it there.
Then, Alex walked in.
RING RING RING
Suddenly, as if alarms going off, a red light flashed in the room he was about to enter while releasing a loud ringing sound.
"Huh?" Alex stepped back. To say he wasn't surprised would be to lie.
"What's this?" he asked.
"Are you hiding a storage bag on you?" Han Sha said with a frowning face. She had already sent her Qi sense to sense his outer body and had sensed no storage bag, so she only got angrier.
"What? No, I don't have any," Alex said, which he was telling the truth.
"No way, you are hiding it somewhere," the woman claimed. "That formation there is meant to find a storage bag."
"But I really don't have—" Alex stopped, but he still finished his sentence, "—any."
He had right at the end of his sentence remembered the golden ring with the large ruby-like gemstone attached to it.
According to Lady Ren, and an implication from Hao Ya, he had learned that the ring was a storage ring.
Was that what had caused the ringing? He was surprised that the formation in the room could sense something even his spiritual sense hadn't noticed when he was in the Mind Tempering realm.
As a True Disciple realm cultivator, all he could notice was 'something fishy' about the ring at best. He felt like commending the formation maker but now was not the time.
"Then why did the alarms go off?" Han Sha demanded.
"I don't know," Alex said. "Look," he said as he stripped the upper robe and placed it on the ground next to him, revealing his skinny body with a missing left arm.
"See? I don't have anything," he said, showing his empty body and empty hands.
The woman looked closely and even used her Qi sense more aggressively to look through his entire body. However, she couldn't find anything and looked confused.
"You really don't have any?" she said.
"Yes," Alex said, picking up robes again. The lady had already scanned the robe, but she didn't find anything there either. Aside from the randomly thrown ring inside of it, that is.
But, that ring gave her no suspicion at all.
"Okay," she said, giving them permission to go back to the room.
Alex nodded and returned back to the room, but once again, the alarms went off.
"See?" Alex said.
Han Sha frowned, but she wasn't able to tell what was wrong.
"I should wear this," Alex said and wore his robe, but didn't put on his ring.
"By the way, Can I open that box for once, brother?" Alex said as he opened the box before the man could say anything.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Oh, I forgot to take out my cauldron," Alex said.
"You won't be needing it. You will be using a normal cauldron, like everyone else," she said.
Alex already knew that. He had sensed the cauldron in the other room and knew that was how the test was going to be taken.
"Very well," he said, closing the box. At the same time, he slipped his ring into the box.
"Let's go. I don't have all the time in the world," Alex said and went towards the door.
Without his storage ring, there wouldn't be any probl—
RING RING RING
"What the hell?" Alex was very surprised now. At first, he had it was his storage ring that was causing the alarm.
But now he knew what the cause was.
"This is a broken formation, isn't it?" he asked out loud.
Han Sha's frown deepened. She was an alchemist, not a formation expert, so she couldn't respond to his claims.
She looked at the other rooms and her frown only got deeper. Because there were 4 participants in today's exam, they had only bothered to activate 4 of the Alchemy rooms' exam formation.
She couldn't go and ask them to activate another one as that would take some time. She didn't have much.
She wasn't going to spend more than 2 hours on this exam, and waiting for that would have would cause it to get longer.
In the end, she sighed. "Give me your key," she said to the young man holding the body.
The young man took out his key from around his neck and handed it to Han Sha. Han Sha then handed it to Alex and said, "get it."
Alex wore the metal key around his neck and walked in. This time, the formation made no alarming sound, giving him some relief.
He looked at the small alchemy room with a… surprisingly above average cauldron in the center.
He walked up to the cauldron as he heard the door shut behind him. He sat down and looked to the side, and his face changed a little.
"What are you doing?" he asked Han Sha who held his box and a few storage bags.
Han Sha sat down next to him and said, "To ensure that you do not cheat, I will be working as your aid and invigilator today."
