83: in advance

No. 23 Spirit Herb Garden was very close to the Alchemy Hall.

In less than ten minutes, Mo Fan arrived at the Alchemy Hall.

The Alchemy Hall was also called the Pill Dao Hall.

Under normal circumstances, everyone was used to calling it the Alchemy Hall.

The Pill Dao Hall covered a vast area, like a small town, and was built magnificently; one could tell at a glance that it was very wealthy.

In fact, the Alchemy Hall was indeed wealthy; the Medicinal Pills it produced sold well all over Planet Blue, with a complete supply chain and substantial profits.

Most of Yuxu Academy's income came from the Alchemy Hall.

According to the agreement, Mo Fan arrived at the designated location, a bright room with tables and chairs that looked somewhat like a classroom.

After presenting his credentials and verifying his identity, Mo Fan received a pen and was assigned to an empty seat toward the back.

"Prepare yourself first to ease any nervousness. The assessment will begin as soon as it strikes five o'clock. It's mainly a written exam, testing knowledge related to the Spirit Herb Section of the Pill Dao."

The person in charge smiled and gave a kind reminder.

"Thank you, Senior Brother," Mo Fan thanked him politely while simultaneously casting an Appraisal Technique on him.

[Li Dong, Outer Sect Disciple of Yuxu Academy's Pill Dao Hall, Eighth Layer of Innate Realm cultivation, an Alchemist who has Just Crossed the Threshold. His basic knowledge of the Pill Dao is very solid, and he is capable of refining some low-grade Medicinal Pills.]

Looking at Li Dong's appraisal information, Mo Fan became thoughtful.

Even if he could only refine some low-grade pills, it was still very profitable; he certainly wouldn't be short on Spirit Stones and the like.

Medicinal Pills were a necessity for cultivation and were expensive, so they naturally made money.

However, Mo Fan had already checked the information when he came.

Becoming an Alchemist in the Outer Sect was not an easy task.

Even so-called Geniuses needed to spend several years studying before they could barely reach the threshold and refine some of the lowest-grade pills.

Firstly, Alchemy was indeed complex and required learning many things; without three or four years of building a foundation, one simply couldn't refine any pills.

Secondly, the process was slow.

As for the Outer Sect Pill Dao Hall, if you wanted to get your hands on Alchemy, even if your foundation was sufficient, you would still need to stay for three years to have any hope.

And from first touching Alchemy to being able to stably refine pills that reached a specific rank, it would take at least another two or three years.

Calculated this way, becoming an Alchemist would take at least five or six years.

Just like Li Dong before him, who had already been in the Alchemy Hall for over a decade but could still only refine low-grade pills; his room for growth was limited.

If he had spent the time he used for delving into the Pill Dao to properly Cultivate the Martial Dao, he would surely have been an Inner Sect Disciple long ago.

"In five or six years, I'll probably be invincible. Why would I still be refining pills?"

Mo Fan shook his head, not planning to enter the Alchemy Hall system for the time being; he would consider it later if he had time.

After all, it wasted too much time. Running off to join the Pill Dao Hall to learn Alchemy would result in more loss than gain.

Of course, now that he had come into contact with Li Xinghe, it wouldn't be bad to take his books on the Pill Dao and look through them when he was free to teach himself; maybe they would be useful in the future.

After all, his learning ability was strong, and his efficiency was a hundred times higher than average people. Learning more things could still come in handy.

If he finished reading all of Li Xinghe's books, he estimated that with some pondering, he could refine some simple pills himself.

Even if he couldn't refine pills, it would be beneficial for taking on missions later.

Missions like the one for No. 23 Spirit Herb Garden this time, and the mission to go out to Huilong Mountain to collect Spirit Medicines, benefited from the things he had learned in the Menial Service Yard.

If he hadn't learned the basic knowledge of the Pill Dao in the Menial Service Yard, he wouldn't have been able to take on such high-paying missions.

Time passed minute by minute, and people arrived one after another. Soon, the entire assessment room was almost full.

Mo Fan did a quick count.

About fifty people had come to participate in the assessment.

Compared to the massive base of Outer Sect Disciples, fifty people was not many.

This was because the Academy's database had detailed personal information; people who had never been in contact with the Pill Dao simply couldn't take on this mission.

Otherwise, for this kind of low-risk, high-reward mission, the threshold would have been trampled long ago, and even ten assessment rooms wouldn't be enough to hold everyone.

As soon as it was five o'clock, Li Dong closed the door and said slowly:

"Assessment time is here. Those who haven't arrived are considered to have automatically withdrawn."

After speaking, Li Dong crouched down, took out stacks of exam papers from a cardboard box on the side, and distributed them.

Upon receiving the paper, Mo Fan immediately flipped through it.

The exam paper was quite thick, with twenty-four pages in total. The volume of questions was large, and the difficulty was much higher than the assessment paper Liu Jian had set back then.

Mo Fan estimated that it would take at least forty minutes this time to finish answering all the questions.

There was no other way; the volume of questions was too large.

Many of the questions were subjective ones that required long essays and writing a lot of words, which consumed a significant amount of time.

Once the papers were distributed, Li Dong's voice rang out again.

"The assessment begins now. If you finish or can't continue, you can hand in your paper early."

"The assessment time is two hours. The volume of questions is large, so hurry up."

After saying that, Li Dong sat on a chair at the back of the assessment room and began to observe seriously.

At the same time, Mo Fan's expression focused, and his pen began to fly across the paper as if guided by a god.

His basic knowledge was very firm.

During his time in the Menial Service Yard, he had mainly studied knowledge regarding low to mid-grade Spirit Medicines.

Of course, there was too much content; Liu Jian only selected a small portion of relatively simple and important parts to teach, otherwise, even two or three years wouldn't be enough to cover it all.

Not much was taught, but the materials were complete.

Back then, Mo Fan read through them at a glance, and as soon as he finished reading, they were immediately imprinted in his mind.

In over two months, he had stubbornly finished reading all the materials and mastered quite a lot.

Answering the questions now was simply effortless; he knew the answer with one look, writing faster than if he were copying.

In the end, Mo Fan had underestimated himself.

In just 35 minutes, he had finished answering all the questions.

"Senior Brother, I'm finished," he immediately reported.

"Hmm?" Li Dong, who was sitting at the back of the assessment room, was momentarily stunned, his expression turning surprised.

Finished?

How long has it been?

He must be half-baked, unable to write many answers, and had given up on himself, right?

Thinking of this, Li Dong shook his head. Without any extra emotion, he said directly:

"Bring the paper over, then go to the assessment room next door. Someone there will verify your basic combat power."

"The assessment results will be out by three o'clock tomorrow afternoon at the latest. You will be sent a text message then."

Hearing this, Mo Fan stood up, folded the exam paper, walked to Li Dong, and handed it over.

Li Dong didn't look at it either; he just placed the paper on a long table to the side, continued proctoring, and smiled, waving for Mo Fan to go next door.

Mo Fan nodded, turned around, and left the assessment room.