Spending the whole night dual cultivating Brax has increased his overall Qi quantity even more. Getting out of the bed, he finds Anna still asleep.
'To alchemy guild then,' Brax cleans himself up and puts on his sect uniform.
"Master, where are you going?" Anna seems to have woken up. She asks rubbing her eyes.
Brax looks at her sitting naked on the bed, still trying to fully open her eyes, finding her very sexy. Too bad he can't afford to lose himself in pleasure right now.
"I am going to the alchemy guild. You stay back and continue practicing," Brax tells her. "When will you be back, master?" she asks, finally gaining back some clearance.
"I have no idea. Anyway, I am leaving. Make sure you don't lag in training," Brax says, before leaving their room.
Brax exits the inn and finds the streets already packed with people, even though it's early in the morning, showing how much this city is responsible for the Eleven Mountain Sect's prosperity.
He joins the crowd and heads towards the alchemy guild.
___________________
Brax finds himself in front of a massive structure. A building that is about 400 meters tall.
This is not the tallest manmade structure Brax has seen, but it's the tallest one he has seen in this world.
The building looks very new as the guild was established here about ten years ago. The entire structure is shaped like a cone, one floor built over the other, making the bottom floor very thick, almost covering 6 acres of land.
The walls of the alchemy guild are engraved with intricate patterns of beasts and plants. Massive bold letters made of solid gold "ALCHEMY GUILD" can be seen placed at the front of the entrance.
But this is not the only entrance. There are multiple entrances all around the structure.
Brax looks around and sees people entering and exiting the building. Each seems to be lost in their thoughts. A very few brimming with happiness, and many others drowning in their sadness. Success and failure seem pretty evident on all their faces.
Each of them is a person who wants to become an alchemist. Some of them failed, some of them passed, and are now one step closer to becoming one.
Brax joins the group of people entering the alchemy guild. As soon as he is in, he looks around and finds a very organized system in place.
People are divided into groups. One group is the merchant group, where all the merchants gather to do business with the alchemy guild.
The other group consists of alchemy apprentices who work here in the guild. They are either running errands for their master or preparing for their graduation.
The last group is filled with people who wish to become alchemists and are lining up for the exam.
Brax walks up to a receptionist and asks for a registration form. The receptionist seems too bored to even look up at Brax. She just takes a form from the side and passes it over to Brax while still keeping her head down.
'People don't change,' Brax thought.
He takes the form and fills it up with his details. Name, age, address, cultivation level, etc.
After filling out his form, Brax joins the other applicants who are here to attend the guild entrance exam.
Passing this exam will make them an alchemy apprentice.
Once one becomes an alchemy apprentice, they can become an apprentice to a real alchemist and learn under them. After completing their study, they can take the graduation exam and, if they pass, they will become a 1-star alchemist.
But unlike these people, Brax doesn't plan to waste his time studying under an alchemist when he can already do a better job at creating pills and elixirs.
He plans to become a 1-star alchemist this very day.
___________________
The door leading to the exam hall opens and many people walk out with disappointment written all over their faces. It's very evident that they know their performance was not good. Only a few can be seen with a smile.
Following the influx of applicants, a middle-aged man wearing a green robe walks out. His robe is engraved with shiny green patterns, but the most eye-catching thing about this middle-aged man is the medallion with a one-star pinned on his chest.
This man is a 1-star alchemist.
"Next batch, enter," he says in a monotone voice as if he is fed up with being in charge of this shit.
The group simultaneously starts moving and walks past the 1-star alchemist. The group then gets divided into mini groups containing at most 30 applicants.
Each group of 30 applicants is then allotted an exam room where they will be tested.
Brax finds himself in the 5th group so he enters the 5th room from the entrance.
Along with him are 29 more applicants, all of them are extremely nervous. For some of them, this is their first time taking this exam, while some have repeated this multiple times only to fail over and over again.
Brax occupies a seat at the back and waits for the examiner to arrive. He hears the needless chatter amongst the applicants as they try to share their knowledge to refresh their memories.
"Brother, you seem very relaxed. How many times have you attended the exam?" Brax hears someone beside him speak up. He turns his head to find a young man smiling at him.
Brax gauges the man and finds him to be a 1st stage Qi condensation realm cultivator. Though a rare occurrence in the overall city, he is a dime in a dozen inside this room, as all applicants inside this room are cultivators.
Most of them are just in the 1st stage, only a few have a higher stage. Brax does find one person who is a 4th stage Qi condensation realm cultivator who is sitting at the very front. He looks about the same age as Brax.
"First time," Brax answers lackluster ly.
The man doesn't mind Brax's absence of enthusiasm, for he finds Brax staring at the applicant who is sitting at one of the front desks.
"Brother, are you perhaps interested in building a relationship with Young Master Kuri?" the man asks. Brax brings his attention back to the man beside him and raises his brows.
"You don't know who Young Master Kuri is?" the man asks with astonishment.
"I am new here," Brax finally speaks up.
"Ah, that explains it. Young Master Kuri is the son of the Wright clan head. He is said to have unmatched talent when it comes to alchemy. He has a 3-star alchemist as a teacher.
Rumor has it that he can already craft pills and elixirs. This exam is just a formality for him," the man praises Kuri.
Brax's interest in Kuri rises only briefly as the examiner enters the room, making everyone quiet.
It's the same 1-star alchemist from before.