The lady gestured for me to follow her. We walk into a room on the second level and she disables a barrier. The door in the room opens and she points inside. "I will be outside here, you have 5 minutes. If I found out that you take anything, I will report you." She says.

I walk into the storage room to find a room full of cabinets and shelves. Ingredients are neatly organised and lined up. There are labels on each shelf and cabinet, ranging from monster organs to simple herbs.

System, infect everything here. 

---------

Choose your Virus:

1. (Rank E) Virus

---------

---------

Infecting everything in this room costs 1000 evolution points.

Proceed?

[Yes][No]

---------

---------

Successfully infected everything in this room. 

Remaining points: 7,644

----------

I walk out of the storage room. The lady is surprised to see me. "You were actually just peeking?" She exclaims.

"I am a man of my word," I say.

The lady stares at me. "You are here to take the Alchemist Examination, right? I have already registered you, follow me."

I follow the lady to a room above the storage. On the way, the lady kept sulking. "I advise you to give up honestly. If that rude bastard is the master of the elder..."

I smile. "Don't worry." 

She opens the door and reveals a giant room. There are portraits of rivers and mountains hung on the walls, large wooden short tables are lined up in 2 rows, each consisting of 3 tables from front to back, a total of 6 tables.

All of the tables are filled up, leaving only the one beside Xie Mo open. I walk to that table, there's a cloth folded behind the table. Looking at how everyone is seated, I copy them, sitting with my legs crossed under the table. 

Xie Mo doesn't seem to remember me, he is daydreaming in his world. 

A few minutes later, the elder who called Xie Mo his master walks in with a tall lady. She is wearing the same style as the elder but instead, her coat is black with her black hair is tied up into a ponytail. Her dark eyes have lost their light but she hasn't gone insane.

Wait, she is blind.

Behind the lady is a young handsome man wearing the same style as the rest, with his white coat having the design of a golden dragon soaring through the sky.

His long blue hair extends to his hips and his sharp azure eyes can attract many girls. 

"Today, we have with us only two Alchemy Seniors who will take in one disciple each. Among the six of you, they will judge who to take depending on your aptitude, behaviour, and affinity." The elder says.

"I am... ack ack..."

!!!

The lady coughed when she tried to introduce herself. Is she...

"My apologies, I am Choi Inyoung. As everyone is aware, I am blind. But that doesn't mean I cannot differentiate everyone. In fact, I can see through qi and ascertain even better than regular alchemists." Says Choi Inyoung.

"I am Jang Ki Nan, the young master of the Ki Nan family, well known for my family's generations of alchemists. Anyone lucky enough to catch my eye will be able to experience unlimited fame and fortune in the future. I wish you all the best." The man beside Choi Inyoung says.

I throw a glance at Xie Mo, he is glaring at Jang Ki Nan.

"I will now explain the procedure of the examination." The elder says. "First, we will be doing a written exam to test your knowledge of Alchemy. Topics to be tested are herbs, techniques, or even basics. We then move on to the practical examination, where each candidate will have to brew and create pills that satisfy a certain condition. The practical will go on for three rounds before the two seniors here make a decision. Any questions?"

...

"If so, the examination shall begin."

The elder uses his qi to distribute the papers around. The paper came flying into my hand as I check the brush out. On the table, there is a small bowl of ink and a brush...

"Begin! You have 30 minutes." The elder says.

...

The questions aren't very easy, they do not ask directly for the answer and force you to go through a different thought process to truly understand what the questions want.

However, I was able to flawlessly write everything. My only difficulty was using the brush and writing Chinese letters. 

"30 minutes is up." The paper flies out of our hand when the elder says so and he hands 2 papers to each of the seniors to mark. 

"Oh!" Jang Ki Nan exclaims.

?

After consolidating the papers, the elder starts to sweat as his eyes widen. Looking around, aside from Xie Mo, everyone is sweating...

"W-We have two people who scored full marks. Xie Mo and... Wang Ji." The elder says.

"Wang Ji?" Xie Mo whispers.

Xie Mo looks at me. "..."

Does he not remember me?

"As for the rest, 3 of you have passed. Jing Kai, unfortunately, you have failed, please leave the room." 

The boy stood up with trembling arms. His face is visibly irritated as he grits his teeth to leave the room.

"Now we will move on to the next part, please follow me." 

We went to a room beside the one we were in, it's a lot bigger and more spacious. 6 circular cauldron is placed side by side in the room. Beside each cauldron is a small cabinet that is emitting some sort of Qi.

All of us take out seats, since I was at the front of the line, I sat at the cauldron nearest to the door. To my right is Xie Mo.

"Inside the spatial storage is every ingredient you need to create the pills required. No extra ingredients are given and it will be considered a failure if you do not succeed with the number of ingredients provided. You may begin, the first pill I want everyone to make is a Qi Condensation Pill." The elder says.

...

I open the cabinet and realise there's a black space inside it. I reach my hand into it and can differentiate each ingredient inside just by thinking about it.

Throwing a glance at Xie Mo, he is executing some sort of technique, the colour of the flame is blue.

Oddly, despite the bizarre flame, it isn't very hot, and the air is quite cooling.

...

It is time to execute my plan. I've created several strategies to infect Xie Mo, whether it will work or not will depend on my luck.

Cultivation pills are the easiest to make, you simply take the ingredients with the cultivation of your desire and burn them with intense heat. 

Everything, including non-living things, absorbs cultivation but they are very significant. Of course, living things like herbs absorb cultivation too and in a higher amount. 

To make a Qi Condensation Pill, the cultivation of your ingredients cannot be too abundant or it will lead to Qi Deviation of the consumer. 

I take three ingredients: a Lava Orb, a young Flower of Hell, and 10-year-old fire ginseng. 

These are all ingredients grown in a very hot environment. Thus they can withstand strong heat.

I place the ingredients in the cauldron and turn the intensity of the flame up. 

??

Xie Mo glanced at my flame and starts to circulate the qi in his body to resist the heat emitted. 

I smile and increase the intensity of the flame even further, controlling it with qi such that it doesn't explode.

????

Xie Mo starts to sweat. He gives up circulating Qi in his body as it breaks his focus and just bears with the heat. The temperature around him should be around 45 to 50 degrees. 

A stream of sweat flows from his head into his eyes.

"Ah fuck!" Xie Mo says as he rubs his eyes. 

!!

-------------------

Congratulations on infecting a chosen one: Xie Mo!

+20000 evolution points

-100 Fate Value

[Special Infected] menu unlocked!

-------------------

-------------------

New Mission available!

-Create 3 perfect Qi Condensation Pills at once.

+5000 evolution points

--------------------