Testing the Alchemist

The capital also had a community of alchemists, one that far surpassed the Medicine King Sect, which monopolized the northern lands, in both numbers and rank.

However, neither the Left Residence nor the Right Residence had formed a sect like the Medicine King Sect.

The capital's alchemist community was vast and loose-knit. If it had to be divided into an organization, it would be the Alchemists' Guild, which jointly revered the "Medicine Ancestor."

This Medicine Ancestor was a legendary figure. It was said that he once contemplated the Dao before the Nine Cauldrons, then whimsically put lids on the cauldrons and invented the medicinal furnace still passed down to this day. From then on, the alchemy profession had used one cauldron and one furnace as its vessels for refining medicine.

To alchemists, cauldrons and furnaces were supreme sacred relics.

Within the guild, ranks were divided into Secret Medicine Masters, Great Medicine Masters, and Spirit Medicine Masters, corresponding respectively to the three stages of herbs, spirit fungi, and immortal pills.

The guild imposed few restrictions on its alchemists, at most providing places for gatherings and exchanges.

Among the great alchemy families, some accepted the patronage of aristocratic clans and refined medicine on their behalf, while others ran medicine cottages and bore their own profits and losses.

As for internal inheritance, the master-disciple system remained the mainstream.

The capital's greatest alchemist was the Sealed Lord's personal Spirit Medicine Master... the Three Flavors Medicine Master.

It was said that most of the spirit pills bestowed by the Sealed Lord had come from the hands of the Three Flavors Medicine Master, their quality acknowledged by countless grandmasters.

The Three Flavors Medicine Master's junior fellow disciple, the Five Flavors Medicine Master, was also the president of the Alchemists' Guild.

Well, it was worth mentioning that