It was at this point that a beam of light appeared on the first level. Instantly, the laughing was silenced.
“Wow, somebody actually succeeded? Well, I guess out of four hundred people, it was inevitable that someone would get lucky….”
“It’s possible that person is a Chosen in the Dao of alchemy. It’s a given that someone like that would perform shockingly.”
Even as the discussions broke out, silence once again reigned as a second beam of light appeared on the first level.
After that, a third, fourth, and a fifth…. 113 beams of light appeared in the blink of an eye. They formed a dazzling spectacle that could be seen from quite a distance away.
The onlookers were deathly quiet and stared with gaping mouths. Their eyes were wide and filled with disbelief, and their minds roared.
This vastly exceeded anything they could have ever imagined, and they could hardly believe it.
It was at this point that, from within the dazzling lights, four hundred apprentice alchemists appeared. The ones who had succeeded in passing the first level were wild with joy. As for the ones who had met with failure, they weren’t dejected at all. Instead, their eyes shone brightly with hope; they knew that they had come very close to succeeding.
All of them rushed over to Meng Hao and began crying out excitedly.
“That was so simple! I actually identified all of them!!”
“I did it! Hahaha! I passed! I’ve only studied the Dao of alchemy for three years, but I passed the first level of the Medicine Pavilion and I succeeded!!”
“Thank you, Alchemist Fang! Thank you!!”
Fang Qun was equally excited.
Meng Hao smiled widely, then cleared his throat. After glancing over at the shocked onlookers, he looked back at the apprentices and then put a solemn expression onto his face.
“What’s there to be excited about? What’s the surprise?
“During these three months, you paid a few hundred merit points to listen to my lectures about plants and vegetation, so the big surprise would be if you didn’t pass the measly first level of the Medicine Pavilion.
“Now, all of you, tell me. Was it worth it to spend those merit points on listening to my lectures?”
The instant the question left his mouth, the more than four hundred apprentice alchemists joined their voices into a mighty roar of approval. All of the onlookers began to tremble inwardly.
Meng Hao laughed heartily, then turned to leave, sure that this matter would quickly turn into a massive wave that swept through all of the Dao of Alchemy Division.
“I need to stop giving lectures for a few days,” he thought. “I’ll wait a bit… and then there will surely be more people willing to fork over their merit points.” His eyes glittered with anticipation.
However, Meng Hao had actually underestimated the matter. Over the course of the following days, the Dao of Alchemy Division was struck by a massive tempest. After all, four hundred people had simultaneously taken the Medicine Pavilion examination, and then more than one hundred had successfully passed.
That in and of itself was not shocking. However, when you took into account the amount of time those test takers had been studying the Dao of alchemy, it was completely astonishing.
Those who had studied the longest had five years under their belt. The shortest amount of time any of them had studied was three years. An event such as this was enough to cause shock even among the alchemists of the inner mountains.
It eventually reached the point that the Alchemist Council, which was responsible for the operational affairs of the Dao of Alchemy Division, called a session to discuss the matter. Nineteen alchemists converged in the meeting location; these were the Pavilion Elders of the Dao of Alchemy Division.