Rise of the Alchemy God

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The examiner then continued his explanation.

"The theoretical test will unfold as follows.

You will be examined in groups.

Each of you will take your place at one of the 50 stations present here," he said, pointing to the area where the various cauldrons were set up.

"There you will find a wooden talisman.

What you need to do is channel your spiritual energy into it and answer as many questions as possible within one minute.

It is possible to skip questions.

Once that is done, the talismans will be collected and prepared for the next group of 50.

We will continue inthis way until all of you have taken the test.

After that, we will announce the results, indicating who has passed and who hasn't," he said, then, with a serious expression, continued.

"And one more thing: there are a total of 10,000 questions recorded in those talismans.

Every time you successfully answer a question, another random one will be given to you from the remaining ones.

Remember, to pass, you must have successfully answered at least 500 questions.

Those who registered for the expert category must successfully answer at least 1,000 questions," he said, looking at the crowd of disciples who seemed to be in a panic.

Answering 500 questions in a minute might seem impossible, but it should be considered that none of the participants present here were ordinary people.

They were all cultivators, and as such, their mental capacities were superior to the norm.

Depending on the level of the cultivator, the mental capacity could be more or less superior, but overall, everyone here should be capable of answering 500 questions.

This obviously considered an ideal situation where the answers to the questions were known, thus there was the possibility of skipping questions.

Spending too much time on one you weren't sure about or didn't know the answer to would only be harmful; therefore, no one would hesitate to skip a question.

Ethan decided to wait and see how the first group of people would fare.

As soon as the instructor gave the signal, many moved and took their places at the 50 stations.

There was no race to see who would arrive first, and no one dared to do so since they were in the presence of several prominent figures.

Making a bad impression would only be harmful to them.

Ethan honestly expected to witness such a scene, but to his disappointment, this did not happen.

In few seconds, the first group of examinees was ready, and as soon as the instructor started the timer, everyone took the talisman and infused their spiritual energy into it.

They were using a small incense stick to measure the time.

Ethan, who had already been in this world for 2 years, had also gotten into the habit of using incense sticks to measure time.

Depending on their length and thickness, the sticks could last from a few minutes to many hours.

He had learned that hourglasses also existed in this world, but it seemed more common to still use incense sticks.

From the outside, it didn't seem like the examinees were doing much.

In fact, everyone appeared to be still, holding the talisman in their hand, for a full minute without moving.

Only those who were taking the test knew that the situation wasn't as easy as it seemed from the outside.

For the first few seconds, there was no reaction from anyone, but once the first 10 seconds passed, you could already see the furrowed brows of many participants.

After the first 20 seconds, many already had slightly sweaty foreheads,

and after 30 seconds, most of the participants appeared to be in difficulty.

This was normal, considering the cultivation bases of many of the participants.

Ethan had checked the cultivation bases of everyone upon his arrival and had estimated that 70% of those present hadn't even surpassed the body refining stage.

Another 15% were barely at the beginning of the Qi refining stage, and only a small percentage were at the advanced phase of Qi refining, with only 2 people at the dantian expansion stage.

And these two people were none other than himself and Xiang Hua.

If Ethan were to make an estimate based on his intelligence statistics and how it increased with each level, then he could say that the mental capacities of all those present were barely one or two times superior to those of an ordinary person.

This meant that most of those present, as long as they knew the answers to the questions, should be able to easily answer 500 questions in one minute.

The delay would only occur if they didn't know the answer and wasted time skipping it to move on to another one.

It might seem like a high number, but considering the speed at which a average person's brain processes information, it wasn't impossible to answer at least 100 questions in a minute for which they knew the answer.

As long as this happens mentally.

The remaining 30 seconds passed in the blink of an eye, and the participants finally stopped answering.

As soon as they did, their talismans, against their will, flew toward the examiners, emitting a light toward a crystal sphere placed on the podium, where the examiner had previously explained how the test worked.

The process lasted for a few seconds, and then, as if they had a will of their own, the talismans flew back, returning to their original places.

Seeing this scene, Ethan wasn't very surprised. He had become accustomed to seeing such things after spending some time in this world.

Immediately after the 50 examinees who had just finished returned, others moved to fill the spots.

Once again, Ethan waited.

From what he could see, there were at least 300 people in line, so it would take some more time to examine them all.

While those who left to take the test, had determined expressions, those who returned had returned were the opposite.

Many of them had a blank expression, due to the continuous mental effort they had been putting in for a whole minute.

Some were lamenting to their friends who still had to participate, while others found a place on the side to recover their spent energy.

Ethan, seeing this scene, couldn't help but shake his head.

'Tch, the kids today are too weak,' he said as if he were a disappointed wise old man witnessing the younger generation.

'No, they are still normal. The abnormal one is you,' said Bai Yu's voice, shaking her head in Ethan's spiritual sea.

Ethan took it as a compliment and waited for the others to finish.

Five minutes passed, and during this period, another two groups had completed the test.

Finally, when it was the fourth group's turn, Ethan decided to join.

Ethan had noticed that Xiang Hua and Yan Mei had already gone in the second group, while Xun Wei was still waiting with a calm expression.

He stepped forward and found an empty spot next to him, positioning himself there while waiting for the signal to start.

Being at the third stage of cultivation, he would be able to answer 1,000 questions with relative ease.

As for the final score, that would depend on the questions themselves.

Given the amount of knowledge on alchemy that Ethan had acquired during this time, he could confidently say he knew the basics to perfection.

From refining techniques to the materials used, he had a vast understanding.

It was the advanced knowledge that he lacked.

Ethan wasn't sure how the system assessed the level of knowledge.

He had certainly acquired a lot of information when he managed to gain some mid-level knowledge, but considering there were two planes of existence, didn't that mean there were materials and techniques that didn't exist on the mortal plane?

He hadn't bothered to examine every piece of acquired information to see if it was present in this plane, simply because it was a process too long, and he wasn't interested in doing so.

As soon as the instructor saw that the spots were filled and everyone was ready, he signaled the start, and immediately everyone took the talisman and infused their energy into it.

As soon as Ethan did this, an image of a flower with seven pink petals appeared in his mind.

Seeing it, Ethan's mind immediately identified the information regarding that flower and sent it into the talisman.

The information didn't need to be too detailed, as that would take much more time.

As soon as Ethan mentally stated the complete name of the flower, the image changed automatically, making him understand that the answer was sufficient and there was no need for further explanation about the flower.

And so the test began for everyone.

Sometimes images of herbs of all kinds would appear, sometimes specific questions would come up, and sometimes trick questions would also appear to slow the person down.

Once Ethan started answering, he completely lost track of time and quickly responded to every question presented to him.

No matter the difficulty of the question, Ethan continued to answer all of them without wasting any time.

Ethan didn't know what the average intelligence statistic of a person was, but he hypothesized it was around 10.

If he based it on that value, then his mental capacity was at least 20 times greater than that of a normal person, considering he had an intelligence statistic that exceeded 200 points.

This value was only approximate and didn't take other factors into account.

He was certain that his mental capacity was superior to this.

He continued to answer everything that was put in front of him without wasting even a millisecond.

He didn't know how much time had passed or how many questions he had already answered, but he knew that so far he had successfully answered all of them, as the talisman hadn't rejected any of his responses at that moment.

At a certain point, while he continued to provide answers, the talisman stopped asking questions, and Ethan's mind returned to reality.

'Hmm? Looks like time is up,' he thought as he loosened his grip on the talisman.

Just a second later, just as had happened with the previous groups, the talisman flew toward the examiners.

Just as he was preparing to leave, he noticed something strange.

'Hmm? Why aren't the others moving?'

He looked around and immediately noticed that everyone was still standing still, their talismans in hand, and he was the only one whose talisman had taken off.

'Eh?'