Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex arrived at the Elder's Hall 2 days later and met up with Elder Lan.

"Here is your identification talisman," the man said as he handed one to Alex. "With this, you will be a staff of the sect, kind of."

Alex took the talisman and nodded.

"Are you ready to start?" the Elder asked.

Alex nodded. "Absolutely."

"Let's go then."

They arrived inside the Alchemy room, where 2 other people were working silently. Elder Lan quickly introduced Alex to the two and explained how they were part-time staff of the sect.

They were the closest thing to outside workers that the sect had, considering everyone else was either an Elder or a Disciple. There were very few people that were just staff.

Alex realized that he didn't need to interact much with the other staff and just focused on his own work.

"How do I get started?" Alex asked.

"You…" Elder Lan thought for a moment and pulled out a talisman with a list of pills inside of it. "Do you recognize any pills in here that you can make?"

Alex took the talisman and looked through it all. "I know the recipe for 14 of these," he said.

There were in fact more pills that Alex recognized. A few of those pills were ones which he received the recipe for from Bai Jingshen's wife.

However, as he hadn't had the chance to actually make those pills, he didn't count those as pills that he knew how to make.

Alex quickly listed down the pills he knew how to make.

Elder Lan nodded. "These are good starter pills. For someone who became an Immortal recently, you sure have tried making a lot of pills, huh?"

Alex shrugged. "I primarily make pills to learn how to make them, so I've gotten around many of them."

"Impressive," the man said and focused on something else entirely.

Alex noticed that he brought something out from his storage bag. Surprisingly, the man didn't wear a storage ring at all, and neither did he keep the stuff in his Soul Space.

Alex wondered how rare Storage rings were in this place. Now that he could use his Soul Space, he had no need for Storage rings at all. Since those initially belonged to Senior Yang, Alex had sent the ring with his mother.

If Senior Yang was generous, he would let her have it.

Elder Lan brought out a few sets of pill ingredients and handed them over to Alex, along with some talismans.

"Here are the pills I want you to make today," the man said. He quickly listed out 4 different pills and handed Alex the recipes for the pills.

Alex already knew the recipe for those pills. In fact, he had a much better version of the recipes, but he still accepted the ones Elder Lan gave him.

"For today, you should make those 4 pills," he said. "I know you want to make the entire month's pills as soon as you can, but you will have to prove that you can do it."

"I don't want you to overwork yourself while making pills."

Alex thought for a moment and nodded. While he was sure he could make way more than just 4 pills, it was good to start slow.

While he had made 4 pills in a row before, they had all been the same pill. Working with different pills one after another took a little more work from him.

And since Alex had never done that, it was good to start slow and see how he stacked up against those pills. Immortal pills were quite powerful, so he had to be careful.

"For the first week, I'll be mostly judging how you are with making many pills one after another. If I think you can handle more, I will let you make more pills."

"For today, make those 4 pills to the best quality you can and message me as soon as you are done making those 4. And do not try to complete it quickly. I want to see your average working rate."

Alex nodded. "I understand, Elder Lan. I will look out for myself first and foremost before anything else."

Elder Lan gave a satisfied smile. "I'm glad," he said. "Anyway, make those 4 pills, and once you are done, you can leave for the day."

"Aren't I supposed to work until I'm all done for the month?" Alex asked.

"Not for this week. Not while I test how many pills you can make," the Elder said.

"Ah! I understand."

Elder Lan smiled. "If you do, then get to work. I don't have much time before I need to leave for my work as well."

Alex went to the side and sat down before one of the furnaces. As he sat, Elder Lan spoke once more.

"Oh, about the ingredients you wanted. I assumed you no longer want it anymore, so I didn't gather them. If you still want it, I can help you gather it later in the shop."

Alex stared at the Elder for a moment, wondering just what he was talking about. Then he realized what was being talked about.

"Oh, the antidote pill? No. I only wanted to test where I went wrong. Since I know I was wrong from the start, there is no need," Alex answered.

"I thought so as well," the Elder said. "Get started."

Alex nodded and got to work.

The first pill he had to make was a simple antidote pill that worked for the majority of the weaker Immortal poisons. It was one of the things most purchased in the sect.

Alex knew for certain that there would be a lot of requests for this pill, so the reason he only had to make a single pill was most likely a test by Elder Lan.

He had no qualms about being tested. He began making the pill and found it easy to finish making it in less than 15 minutes.

And that was with him taking as much time as he could with it.

Memory absorbed a chunk of the energy in the cauldron, leaving him with a 76% pill. That was 11 Immortal Spirit stones.

The next pill on the list was Northking's Healing Pill. No one knew who Northking was, but his healing pill recipe had immortalized him to this day.

Alex made that pill in a little under 12 minutes, ending up with 79% for that one. He would earn 14 Immortal Spirit stones for that pill.

Alex supposed he was feeling somewhat of a tinge of pain in the back of his head thanks to his Spiritual energy being drained while he made the pill.

Since Alchemy required Intent as well, stronger pills drained more of it quickly, and Alex could sense the advent of the pain.

But it was nowhere near enough to even be a concern, so Alex simply continued with the next two pills.

He easily completed those two pills, ending up with one pill with 78% harmony, and another that somehow ended up at 82% despite his attempt at lowering it quite a bit.

All of those took just over 1 hour to complete, which ended up earning him 55 Immortal Spirit stones in total.