Chu Yunfan stepped off the bus in the city center. Above him, many flying cars zoomed through the air, carrying rich passengers to their destinations.
Tall buildings rose from ground level and stretched upwards towards the sky like a dense forest around him. Hundreds and hundreds of buildings lit with the sunlight off glass glittered as he walked through the streets. Many of the pedestrians were hustling like Yunfan, though there were noticeably fewer than normal— most people were currently at their day jobs.
The average-looking boy walked with a purpose, heading towards one building in particular that stood out from the rest. As he stepped within a certain distance, the ambient energy of heaven and earth in the air suddenly spiked.
"Such dense Qi!" the Alchemy Emperor exclaimed.
"And outside this area, there isn't even one speck of energy. How stingy."
The building was gilded with silver and lined with well-kept and stylish greenery. On the rotating glass doors, the symbol of a raging flame in a bowl was etched.
This was the Alchemy Association.
Chu Yunfan pushed through the rotating glass doors. Inside the glass entrance hall, several dozen people were lined up at the reception desk. Many of them were wearing designer clothing or clothes that were clearly higher quality than Chu Yunfan's well-worn shirt and jacket. He self-consciously lined up, trying to make himself unnoticed.
After a few minutes, it was his turn standing before the desk. A nice, middle-aged woman with smile crinkles at the corner of her eyes greeted him. "Hello! How can I help you today?"
"I'm here to take the apprentice level test."
Alchemists were divided into several tiers in both the Ancient Zenith civilization and under Federation law. First was apprentice level, which meant that someone could complete Basic, also known as Half Star recipes. Second was journeyman level, which could be earned by successfully concocting a One Star alchemy recipe. Third was practioner level, meaning an alchemist could concoct Three Star recipes. This was followed by expert and master level, whom could concoct Five and Seven Star recipes respectively. There was also the grandmaster level, which, to Yunfan's knowledge, only the Alchemy Emperor had ever reached.
"Certainly. 10,000 credits, please."
The fee was in place to deter people from simply repeatedly trying their luck and prevent people who actually practiced from being able to have an opportunity to test. At least in theory. In practice, it was more of a deterrent for the lower-middle class, not to speak of the lessons that someone without an inheritance like Chu Yunfan would need to pay for.
Yunfan winced as he watched his savings be cut by a little less than half— after breaking through to Enlightenment Stage, Yonghe Hua had felt uncomfortable paying so little and given him a very generous tip. However, Yunfan still acutely felt the sting of the price tag.
After he paid for the test, another attendant came to him.
"This way," she said, gesturing for him to follow her.
She escorted him to a waiting room where he was given a number.
Inside the room, there were several other people. Some were middle-aged, though most were quite young— a little older than Yunfan was.
He watched one of them get called into another room, and sighed. There were about half a dozen people. Guess I'll be waiting a while. Yunfan sat down and made himself comfortable in one of the lumpy seats along the wall, while scouring the coffee table for something interesting to read.
"Donghai City's Strongest Highschooler: Hao Dongfang!"
He was half way through the magazine when his number was called.
"378!"
He stood up, tossing the magazine to the side and stepping into the room.
Within, the lights were much dimmer. A reclining seat was located in the middle of the room.
An attendant began fiddling with some machinery with beeping lights. "Please sit down."
He did as he was told.
"Please put on the virtual reality headset."
Chu Yunfan wowwed at the sleek, black circlet that was about as thick as the tip of his index finger. I've only ever seen one of these online.
The bored-looking attendant tapped his foot impatiently, so Yunfan hurriedly placed the headset over his eyes.
"Initiating virtual transfer in 3… 2… 1…"
Kachunk!
"The first time is always the worst."
What's that supposed to mean???
Suddenly, a strange whirring noise seemed to emanate from the room around him as well as from within his skull. The sound started off like the buzz of a mosquito's wings, but within moments had become as loud as the roar of a jet engine right next to Yunfan's head. A bright, almost blinding light filled his vision, causing tiny tears to gather at the corner of his eyes. He felt an acute sense of his Soul and Will being… stretched? Re-wired? Disconnected? Before he could properly describe what he felt, the light slowly dimmed into nothingness.
When he opened his eyes, Chu Yunfan found himself floating in an endless, silent abyss.
I heard online that the test would be in virtual reality, but it's another thing to actually experience it…
He experimentally waved his hands. At first there was a sense of disconnect between his mind and actions, but with every second, the gap seemed to close until there was virtually no difference whatsoever between his real and digital bodies' response times. Yunfan marveled at how his digital body moved exactly as he intended. "The recreation ability of this virtual space is incredible…"
"This space… feels familiar…"
Yunfan spun around in empty space to see the Alchemy Emperor looking around at the dark void that surrounded them both. Suddenly, something occurred to him.
"Huh, I forgot to worry about whether you could follow me into the digital space."
"It would've been pretty bad if I couldn't,"** the Alchemy Emperor agreed mildly. **"You haven't the first clue about alchemy. You would have definitely failed the test without my help."
"Wait! That would've been a tragic loss of 10,000 credits!" Yunfan exclaimed with a tinge of fear, only just realizing that he almost wasted over half a month of savings.
"…you just realized that?"
Yunfan stuck his tongue out at the Emperor's snarky tone, before once again being enraptured by how responsive his digital body was. He waved his arms and moved his head curiously, still deeply impressed by the realistic feeling.
Normally, the Emperor would be a little put-off by Yunfan outright ignoring him, but he seemed too lost in thought to care.
"You said this space felt familiar?" the boy asked.
"Yes… it seems to have a Soul and cultivation base…" the Emperor mused. "Perhaps the Soul of a Soul Absorption Realm cultivator was used to construct this space."
"Huh?"
The Alchemy Emperor waved his hand dismissively. "You'll understand later."
Before Yunfan could interrogate the Emperor any more, the space suddenly exploded into a variety of colors and smoke. Yunfan yelped and covered his eyes, attempting and failing to shield his vision from the light in every direction. Within seconds, everything calmed down and Yunfan found himself standing in the center of a blank white room with an alchemy furnace, a table piled with medicinal herbs, and more alchemy equipment.
On one of the walls were instructions written in blocky, black text.
[Concoct the Half Star recipe within 1 hour.]
[00:59:58]
Beneath the timer was a long list of instructions. From just a brief glance, there were easily more than thirty multi-part steps that involved multiple different alchemy tools.
"Emperor! Let's do this!"
The Emperor floated over to the wall with a gleam in his eye. He grinned at his inheritor with a cocky smirk. "Don't worry; with a snap of his finger, your master will reduce this test to ashes!"
…
…
…
"I don't recognize any of these ingredients."
"…what?"