"Senior Brother Zhang..."
Deacon Ling hurriedly nudged Zhang Qiling's arm.
The newcomer was an old man with a withered face.
Dressed in a black robe, he walked through the air and went straight up to Junior Brother Jin.
"Let me see..."
The black-robed old man took the Spirit-Gathering Pill Lin Shisan had refined and examined it closely.
"My respects, Old Zhou."
Seeing this, Zhang Qiling hurriedly straightened his clothes, composed his expression, and went over to kowtow respectfully.
"Old Zhou..."
Deacon Ling also came over to offer his greetings.
But from beginning to end, the black-robed old man merely nodded without saying a word.
His attention was entirely on the second-grade Spirit-Gathering Pill Lin Shisan had refined, his eyes narrowing to slits one moment and widening into balls the next.
"Who is this...?"
The prospective disciples nearby, and even some lower-ranking disciples, watched the aloof old man in black, their minds full of questions.
Anyone whom even Zhang Qiling and Deacon Ling treated with respect had to be someone far beyond their reach.
"You don't even recognize Old Zhou? You really haven't seen anything!"
"This is Old Zhou, one of our Danyang Sect's five Guest Elders, a great Alchemist whom even the Sect Master must respect."
"A great Alchemist?"
One disciple exclaimed in astonishment, looking at the black-robed Old Zhou as though gazing upon a celestial being.
On the Tianyuan Continent, alchemy had its own divisions of attainment, just like immortal cultivation.
The lowest rank was Alchemy Boy, equivalent to a Pill-Refining Apprentice.
Next came Alchemist, followed by Alchemy Master, Alchemy Grandmaster, and Great Alchemy Grandmaster.
These five tiers corresponded to the ten grades of Spirit Pills.
Having refined a second-grade Spirit Pill, Lin Shisan already qualified as an Alchemy Boy and had truly stepped onto the path of alchemy.