Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

"Yang Ma from Tiger sect," Fu Zhen called out.

By now, an hour had passed and around 100 disciples were done with their tests. Amongst the latter 50, only 2 had been a mind tempering realm expert. In total, there had been around 5 right now.

The red-haired, 3rd ranking disciple of the Tiger sect walked out. Alex knew that he had a 2nd Mind Tempering realm so he expected his damage output to be around the same as well.

He walked up to the Elemental puppet and threw a fireball at it. Words soon popped up on top of it.

Alex looked at it too but was a little surprised. "Huh?"

The words on the puppet were <Mind Tempering - 1st Realm>

"That's not right," Alex said. He thought for a moment and finally realized what was happening. "These guys are trying to hide their strength," Alex said as a peculiar smile appeared on his face.

"That means… the previous 5 that only had 1st Mind Tempering realm… might actually be way higher in cultivation," he thought.

People kept attacking the puppets and their damage information was recorded. The two disciples from the Hong Wu sect didn't have the luxury to hide their cultivation base as they weren't very strong in the first place.

"Hmm… He will probably get accepted, but she is still debatable," Ma Rong said looking at the two disciple's results.

Everyone else who had a high enough cultivation base was hiding their cultivation so Alex couldn't tell just how high their cultivation base was from the screen.

Finally, Wan Li was called forth. Wan Li took out a simple sword as he walked forward and stood in front of the puppet. Once he was given the go, he slashed the puppet right on the chest.

<Mind Tempering - 2nd Realm>

He didn't hold back as much as the others did. "Is brother Wan talented in cultivation as well?" Alex asked.

"Hmm… He isn't… or rather he wasn't. After his parent's death last year, he seemed to have not only taken Alchemy, but also cultivation as a method of coping."

"Before any of us knew, he went up a minor realm and even crossed 3 realms," Ma Rong said.

Alex looked back at the competitions. There were more Mind tempering realm cultivators appearing now.

One of the Mind Tempering results came from a participant that wasn't even the person themselves. They had let their tamed beast attack the puppet.

There were other folks who used their puppets to attack the puppet. That too apparently counted since they were considered weapons just as any sword and spear.

Alex was really surprised when he learned that. 'I wonder if next year around I can have Pearl fight for me as well,' he thought. But he also thought how it would probably be too late for him since he at this rate,  he would reach the True realms in just a few months.

There were about 50 more people left when Fu Zhen finally called someone he had been waiting to see for the last 3 hours.

" Tiger sect, Luo Mei," he called.

Luo Mei walked forward in the yellow robes with red linings. As soon as she came up to the elemental puppet, she swirled her hand around a few times. Blue Qi escapes from her hands as they quickly turned into a blob of water.

Without much thought, she threw the water at the puppet and go a reading that said <Mind Tempering - 2nd realm>

That was a very simple attack, and yet it got such a high result. 'I wonder how far her cultivation has advanced,' he wondered.

More people came and went after her; Few were in the mind tempering realm, most close to it. Some were quite low as well.

The remaining participants were thinning very fast until only a few remained. Finally, the last member of the Tiger sect was called forth.

"Du Yuhan of Tiger sect," Fu Zhen spoke out loud.

Du Yuhan walked forth with a sword in his hand. He was holding it with his left arm and it was sheathed at the moment.

He walked up to the physical puppet and took a deep breath. In a single sweep, he pulled the sword out of the sheath and hit the puppet. It happened so fast that Alex could barely see it at all.

<Mind Tempering -2nd Realm>

"Woah," Alex thought. A simple attack from all 3 of the top-ranking members in the Tiger sect had amazing results.

"How come all the disciples from Tiger Sect are so strong and yet they haven't even reached the 1st grade yet," Alex asked.

"They've always been strong due to the intense inner competition of the sect, but this batch has been astoundingly fierce."

"I knew Luo Mei and Du Yuhan were good, but it seems even the Yang Ma fellow is good as well. I didn't see him last year," Ma Rong said

"As for the reason why they didn't reach the 1st grade yet is that most of the years, they didn't bother taking part in the production segment of the competition. Even in the battle segment, there weren't that many taking part due to the 3 per competition constraint."

"However, they will surely reach the 1st grade this time. That is as long as the 3 do well… and they don't have to fight against the Royal Fu Academy early on. That would be a disaster for them," Ma Rong said.

"Are… they that good?" Alex was a little surprised.

"Perhaps better," Ma Rong said as not even she really knew how strong the disciples from the Royal Fu Academy were.

Alex wondered if his senior sister could perhaps have a chance at winning. But for that, he would have to know just how strong these Royal Fu Academy folks were.

The rest of the participants delivered their attacks the test ended. Fu Zhen revealed the results after a few minutes. All 3 members of the Hong Wu sect had surprisingly passed. Even the female disciple passed at around 230th rank amongst the 256 people that passed.