"Ascend? What do you mean?" Alex was a little confused by the statement. He had never heard of someone 'ascending' in-game or out of the game.
'Does this have something to do with alchemists?' he wondered. He didn't have any friends he talked to regularly, so he didn't know a lot about the practices in the sect. Even Kong Yuhan was merely just an acquaintance to him.
Kong Yuhan looked like he had realized something when he saw Alex's confused face and said, "Ah, I forgot it hasn't been long since you got here. Ascending means going from being an outer sect disciple to an inner sect disciple or an inner sect disciple to a core disciple."
" In my case, I am one step away from being a core disciple. I have brought a few sets of ingredients with me today, and if I made to make a single pill with over 20% harmony, I can take the exam to become a core disciple."
"Ah" Alex made a sound of understanding. But then he thought of something,
"Brother Kong! If you have to take an exam after creating this pill, then why not call the exam the Ascension. Why call it this one?"
"Hmm… Now that I think about it, I don't know why they don't call the exam the Ascension. They really should, shouldn't they?" Kong Yuhan was stumped by the question and started scratching his in confusion.
"Well that's because it's a tradition," the silent man name Jia Fen finally spoke.
"You know the reason, brother Jia?" Kong Yuhan turned around to ask the man.
"Yes. Going back a couple dozens of years ago when the sect wasn't as big as it is now, you could promote from being an outer sect disciple or inner sect disciple just by making the required amount of pills, and didn't have to take any tests back then."
"So, when it came to the final pill before promotion, the disciples started calling it 'The Ascension'. But, once the sect got more popular and started getting more and more disciples, they found out that disciples had started to sneakily promote themselves by using pills made by others."
"The elders couldn't keep track of everyone's pills back then, so they started making the disciples take tests for it. They should have stopped after creating the sect running formation a few years back, but the exam was just an extra layer of security that they didn't want to get rid of."
The man named Jia Fen spoke quite a bit and explained it quite well.
"Is that so… anyway, Brother Yu, do you want to come to watch? I brought these 3 to watch as well." Kong Yuhan asked quite expectantly.
Alex thought for a bit and decided to skip the afternoon lunch today. "Sure brother Kong, I can probably learn something from it as well"
Together the 5 walked into the Alchemy hall. It didn't take Kong Yuhan long to find an empty room and immediately entered it. Alex and the other 3 also followed behind him to the room.
"Do you want me to aid, Brother Kong?" the girl finally spoke and walked forward.
"Ah, thank you for your kind intentions, Sister Zhou. But I will have to refuse. In the exam, I will have to make the pills on my own, so I should start making pills on my own, without any aids."
Kong Yuhan started preparing by keeping aside the black cauldron and taking out his own cauldron. He started heating his cauldron and took a deep breath as he started meditating.
Alex didn't know what pills he was going to make, or what ingredients he was going to use. He waited in anticipation to find out.
After a bit of time had passed, and the cauldron was finally heated, Kong Yuhan took out the first ingredient and put it in.
Alex saw the ingredient and thought, ' A Slim Bane Treeleaf huh, that means he must be making one of 4 different pills.'
After a while, Kong Yuhan took out a second ingredient and put it in. This one gave Alex no information, as this ingredient followed the first one in every single one of his recipes.
'His cauldron isn't transferring the heat fast enough. The energy in the second ingredient isn't controlling the first one as quickly as it should.'
Alex could see the minute errors in Kong Yuhan's alchemy process thanks to his spiritual sense. Even while standing so far away, he could see the happenings in the cauldron very clearly.
Then Kong Yuhan put his third ingredient and put it in.
'Huh?' Alex was surprised. 'That's not one of the ingredients from a recipe I know. Did he get a recipe somewhere out of the sect?'
Alex watched as Kong Yuhan put in more and more ingredients to make a pill that he had absolutely no idea about.
Finally, after a while, the pill came out. Kong Yuhan frowned a little after seeing the pill's harmony. He took out a pill tester and tested the harmony of his new pill.
As soon as the pill touched the base of the glass, the fog appeared from the metal base and started crawling along the side of the tester, until it stopped.
Kong Yuhan looked at the number as sighed.
"Only 16%. Not having an aid really does make it hard. Especially when it's a new pill like mine." Kong Yuhan cleaned the cauldron in preparation for another batch.
"Don't fret brother. You still have quite a few sets left. You can do it." Jia Fen encouraged from the side.
"Yes, Brother Kong. You don't have to get disheartened." Zhou Mi encouraged as well.
Alex and the other man stayed quiet but gave encouraging nods towards him.
Kong Yuhan smiled a little.
"You guys are right. This won't stop me at all. This was only my first time so I failed. The next times will be different." Kong Yuhan switched his attention back to the cauldron and prepared for the second batch of ingredients.