After reaching the 3rd sub stage of the first realm. Richie took a breather, (cultivating now was extremely painful) and advanced to the 4th sub realm, this took him 15 minutes and once again, he felt no bottleneck. Though the pain was even worse than before.
" I should probably stop here, I don't want to attract too much attention, I am still too weak to fight the Wang clan."
Another reason for Richie's fast cultivation speed, apart from Richie's cultivation technique, was due to his previous experience of cultivating through the sub stages before. (he reached the 7th sub realm before he was crippled.)
Richie then decided to wait out the time for the next test.
A few hours flew by. All of the participants were awake now, some had confidence in their ability to succeed, and some didn't. Looking around him, Richie saw a myriad of expressions around him, some happy, some sad.
Richie then gazed towards the alchemy guild, There, he saw elder Zhang(The deputy head of the alchemist guild) he was looking over the crowd waiting for them to become quiet.
The crowd quickly shut up. " Now that I have silence, I would like to brief you on our next test" once Richie heard that, he didnt bother listening, elder Zhang had already told Richie about the next test.
After explaining the next test to the remaining participants, he then clapped twice and the huge jade behind him showed the people who passed and their score.
Out of all the people in the test, only 10,000 of them passed ( even though they are called mass recruitments, you would only expect 100 people to qualify)
Thousand of people were jumping in joy as they had passed, some were sadly gazing at the floor, they had not passed, and some were gazing towards elder Zhang with hatred, because they knew that only around 100 people would pass the next test.
This was not elder Zhang's fault, but the Wang clans fault, in fact, they had forced the alchemist guild to use this test on all of the participants to 'test the masses.' The reason why the alchemist guild didn't retaliate is because of fear that the Wang clan would destroy their guild.
It's a quite known secret amongst the top powers that the Wang clan were the actual rulers if the Xinjiang Empire, Their clan head was an entire realm above the Empress in cultivation!
So when the Wang clan asked them to use the 'herb collection test' to test their projedy, the guild had no choice but to comply. In a backwater place like the Xinjiang Empire, reaching a realm at the same level as the Wang clan head was impossible without a proper 'catalyst'.
"There were two people who managed to get a perfect score, The wang clan projedy and Richie"
" What! that kid got a perfect score" Many of the people who doubted Richie's skills when he first awoke were completely flabbergasted by his score"
It was simply inconceivable that the boy they had made fun of before was actually on par with the wang clan projedy.
The participants were even more shocked that two people got a perfect score. The 100th question was way too difficult, they didnt have a clue what to write.
***
" Oh, this Richie seems to be more talented than I thought, to get the 100th question right, he must have an unfathomable background"
This was Rachel, she also passed the test like Richie.
" If I can get on his good books, my clan will surely reward me" Rachel thought. she was already quite close to Richie without realising it, she was one of the only people to show him respect and treat him kindly.
In the previous Hong clan, Richie wasn't treated too well. Most of the elders hated him because of his low cultivation and instead wished for the grand elder's son to become the head instead, he was at the second realm whilst Richie was only at the first, this made a world of difference.
Out if all the people Richie met, only a select couple of people were actually 'nice' to him. to name a few: His dad, the system (even though it was very annoying), Rachel, his mother and The second elder, who was a very good friend of his father.
Rachel was in a black room, lit up by a few candles, this was to ensure her privacy and to make sure she wasn't distracted at all. She was still able to see the scores though, though a Jade in her storage ring.
***
" clan head, the first test has finished" a servant said to the Wang clan head. The clan head Quon Wang had been previously resting, the 'Founder' event had really taken a toll on his mind, still upon his servant disturbing him, he knew what had happened was urgent
" What happened" The clan head was confused as to why his servant would disturb his rest " A-another person managed to answer the 100th question line Rachel" The servant said trembling, whilst knowing what was coming next
" WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY! WHO DID IT, THAT'S A QUESTION ONLY THE TOP ALCHEMISTS IN EXISTENCE WOULD KNOW THE ANSWER TO"
" reporting to clan head, his name was Andrew"
Quon Wang was completely petrified, to know the answer would mean that this Andrew was from the upper realms.
" *sigh* okay, pass down this order to every member if our clan, to not touch a hair on that boy's head, of they do, they can expect to get executed." Quon Wang told his servant
"yes sir" Then, not wasting another second, sprinted off to spread the news
" Andrew huh, Why does that not feel like your real name"
***
This was obviously the system's doing, it managed to disguise Richie's identity to all members of the wang clan who wished him harm him. Like it would many times in the future, the system saved Richie some serious trouble.