Furthermore, to pass the exam one only needed to refine a mortal grade pill out of any one of the five pill recipes that Yao Dian showed. Yang Chen not only successfully refined a pill, but he also refined the trickiest pill out of the five.
On his first try, he refined a pill of mortal grade while on his second try, he was able to bring the purity of the pill to the spiritual grade. What's more, and Yao Dian couldn't stress it more, Yang Chen refined the pill while only being a mid stage soul purification realm.
This achievement alone was enough to deserve him the rank of tier 3 alchemist.
"Young man, you did splendidly, I haven't seen an alchemist as talented as you in my entire life. Would you like to become an elder of our Alchemist Association?"
Yao Dian showered him with praise and offered him a position of Elder in the Yan City Alchemist Association. One need not even explain how big of a matter that was.