Becoming Fa Ma's Disciple (Please Follow, Please Vote Monthly)

A month later.

Gu Yi once again arrived at the Alchemist Guild headquarters in the Jia Ma Imperial Capital, following a passageway into the main hall.

Today, the Alchemist Guild was recruiting three Alchemist Apprentices, and this was also Gu Yi's chance to take a master.

Many people emitting a faint medicinal fragrance were waiting here, including quite a few in their thirties or forties.

They all wished to become Alchemist Apprentices.

However, their talent in alchemy was poor. Despite striving for most of their lives, they had remained Alchemist Apprentices and failed to advance to become First-Grade Alchemists.

Thus, they wanted to seize this opportunity to enter the Alchemist Guild headquarters, receive guidance from true alchemists, and obtain more affordably priced medicinal ingredients from the guild for practice, hoping there might still be a sliver of a chance for them to become First-Grade Alchemists.

The moment Gu Yi entered the hall, he immediately drew everyone's attention.

Although Gu Yi was quite tall, his youthful face made it clear that he was no more than twelve years old.

"Shouldn't this child still be below the Dou Zhe stage? Why has he come to take the Alchemist Apprentice assessment?"

Being a Dou Zhe was another requirement for becoming an alchemist.

Without reaching the Dou Zhe stage, one could not cultivate a Fire-Attribute Cultivation Technique. The Dou Qi within one's body would be too sparse to form Dou Qi Flame, making alchemy naturally impossible.

"Could this child already be a Dou Zhe?"

"I heard that a genius Dou Zhe had appeared in Wutan City, in the empire's eastern province, at the age of eleven. Could this boy be that genius?"

Expressions of surprise and uncertainty appeared on some faces. They could not tell whether Gu Yi was truly a genius or merely here to watch the excitement.

Their doubts did not last long before the guild's apprentice recruitment assessment began.

Gu Yi walked up to a staff member and handed over his registration form.

"Eleven years old? A Three-Star Dou Zhe!" The staff member looked at the information on the form, scarcely believing his eyes.

Gu Yi nodded, immediately circulating the energy within his body and releasing the aura of a Three-Star Dou Zhe.

—Over the past month, Gu Yi had absorbed the residual energy within the Purple Cloud Wings, on top of the results of his own month of cultivation.

His Soul Power Level had broken through to Level 25, while his physique and strength had also improved somewhat, reaching the peak of the fourth level of the Qi Martial Realm.

Sensing that unquestionably genuine aura, everyone around him was utterly shocked.

An eleven-year-old Three-Star Dou Zhe...

When they had been that age, their cultivation had only been at the fourth or fifth stage of Dou Qi. Compared to him, the gap in their talents was like that between clouds and mud.

What kind of heaven-defying genius was this? There had probably not been many like him in the Jia Ma Empire over the past thousand years.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, this child's minimum achievement would be becoming a Dou Huang, and he might even have a chance at reaching the Dou Zong stage.

Gu Yi smiled faintly. The age on the registration form was naturally fabricated. If he had stated his actual age of eight, the commotion would have been even greater.

"Can I participate in the Alchemist Apprentice assessment now?"

"Of course. This way, please!" The staff member hurriedly stepped aside.

Watching Gu Yi disappear around the corner, the staff member's expression sharpened. He swiftly notified the guild president and the various vice presidents as quickly as possible.

As for Gu Yi, he had already begun the Alchemist Apprentice assessment in a small room.

The assessment required Gu Yi to use flames to refine the five low-grade medicinal ingredients laid out on the table before him into Medicinal Liquid.

Gu Yi's expression remained calm. He had long expected this requirement.

A month ago, when he had demonstrated his talent on the Alchemy Path to Elder Bei, he had also refined Medicinal Liquid.

Whether on the Nine Heavens Continent or the Dou Qi Continent, refining Medicinal Liquid was the first step in alchemy. It had trapped countless apprentices who wished to become alchemists.

This step involved many factors. It tested an alchemist's understanding of the structure and medicinal properties of various ingredients, the strength of their soul perception, their ability to finely control flames, and more.

Alchemy was meticulous work.

During the process of refining Medicinal Liquid, if one did not understand an ingredient's medicinal properties deeply enough, if one's soul perception could not detect the constantly shifting medicinal properties caused by factors such as temperature, or if one could not properly control the flames and allowed the temperature to become too high—

—then mistakes would occur during refinement, reducing the medicinal ingredients to ashes.

This was also why alchemists had low pill success rates and consumed vast quantities of medicinal ingredients.

That day, before Elder Bei, Gu Yi had refined nine medicinal ingredients in succession. Only the final two had failed because the energy in his body was insufficient, preventing him from perfectly controlling the flame temperature within the Alchemy Cauldron.

His success rate had reached seventy percent! Moreover, the Medicinal Liquid contained very few impurities and could be directly used to refine pills.

Gu Yi had only just entered the Alchemy Path, yet he could refine high-quality Medicinal Liquid with a seventy-percent success rate.

This showed just how profound his understanding of medicinal properties was, and how far his soul perception and control exceeded those of ordinary people.

It was clear how extraordinary his talent on the Alchemy Path was!

Elder Bei had been speechless for a long time then. All he could do was sigh that the world of geniuses was beyond the understanding of ordinary people.

Gu Yi possessed extraordinary talent in both the martial path and the Alchemy Path.

After this, Elder Bei agreed to Gu Yi's request to pursue the Alchemy Path and stated that the Cloud Sea Sect would fully support him, providing the pill formulas and medicinal ingredients he needed for alchemy.

Gu Yi could also visit the Cloud Sea Sect's alchemists at any time to seek guidance and ask questions.

However, Elder Bei also had one requirement: Gu Yi must not neglect his martial cultivation. His primary task each day was still cultivation.

In this world, martial cultivation was ultimately supreme; the Alchemy Path merely served as a means to assist martial artists in their cultivation.

As the hope for the rise of the Cloud Sea Sect, Gu Yi could not afford to neglect his martial cultivation in the slightest.

Therefore, the Alchemist Apprentice examination posed no difficulty at all for Gu Yi.

Gu Yi briefly examined the five medicinal herbs and determined whether their properties leaned toward yin-cold, yang-hot, or possessed other attributes.

Gu Yi decisively picked up the Alchemy Cauldron in the room, channeling the energy within his body into it to ignite the flame it contained and control it at a suitable temperature.

With his right hand, he grabbed a medicinal herb and tossed it into the Alchemy Cauldron.

The blazing flames swept over it, yet did not burn the herb to ash. Under Gu Yi's precise control, they slowly roasted it, melting it into drops of slightly murky medicinal liquid.

Gu Yi did not immediately collect the medicinal liquid. Instead, he continued roasting it with the flames, carefully controlling the temperature to burn away the impurities within.

After maintaining this for a quarter of an hour, the medicinal liquid became crystal-clear, like jade. Only then did Gu Yi take out a jade bottle from beside the stone table and store it inside.

Afterward, Gu Yi did not pause and continued refining the remaining four medicinal herbs.

In the blink of an eye, an hour passed, and Gu Yi smoothly finished refining all four herbs.

Gu Yi slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, picked up the four jade bottles, and walked out of the examination room.

The moment he pushed open the door, he saw several figures clad in alchemist robes. From the looks of it, they seemed to have been waiting for quite some time.

At their head stood an elderly man in a purple alchemist robe. The medicinal cauldron embroidered upon it bore five pill patterns, clearly marking his distinguished identity as a Fifth-Grade Alchemist.

The old man walked up to Gu Yi, picked up a jade bottle, and gave it a sniff. To his surprise, he found the medicinal liquid within to be of exceptional quality.

"At such a young age, you can already refine medicinal liquid to this level. You are a fine prospect for alchemy."

A gentle smile appeared on his face. "This old man is Fa Ma, president of the Alchemist Guild."

"Child, are you willing to take me as your master?"

Gu Yi's heart stirred, and information about the man swiftly surfaced in his mind.

Fa Ma, president of the Jia Ma Empire's Alchemist Guild, was also a peak Fifth-Grade Alchemist. Within the Jia Ma Empire, his alchemy skills were second only to the Pill King, Gu He.

He was one of Gu Yi's potential choices for a master.