Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy
chapter-1993

Alex sat in the other room, looking around at the small group of people that were gathered there. He had been one of the earlier ones to be called out to the interview, so the only ones that had been waiting here were the ones that had passed the interview.

Counting, he came to realize that only 1 person before him had failed. That was 1 in 12. At this rate, only 4 or 5 people would be failed before the interviews were over.

That still kept over 35 people in the test. How were they going to bring that down to 16? Alex could only look forward to whatever was going to happen next.

More people trickled into the room, each one sitting by themselves in one section of the room. Very few people seemed to know each other enough to sit together and converse throughout that time.

Alex quickly began cultivating, ignoring the passage of time as more and more of the interviews were completed.

More than half a day later, Alex looked up as the last person who remained from the second test had finally walked into the room. Now that this person had come, the next test would start soon.

Everyone looked forward to the next test, most wondering what it could be. Some of those people seemed to have an idea, but they didn't share it with anyone. Alex didn't ask.

Finally, after half an hour or so, someone else walked into the room.

Everyone turned to look at the person, assuming it was one of the three judges, only to find out that it was someone else they didn't recognize.

The person walked into the room, looked around, and went to the side to sit down.

Alex frowned when he saw that man. 'Wasn't he a test taker too?' he thought. He tried to remember where the man had been during the second test, but he couldn't remember. He didn't believe the man had passed the first test at all.

"Brother Gan! Didn't you fail?" one of the women in the room after recognizing the man.

"I did," the man answered. "I was given a second chance."

"A second chance?" someone else asked. "Can you explain?"

"Those of us who failed the first test were sent to another room where we had to fill out a talisman. Based on what we filled, 20 of us were then chosen to pass." The news surprised quite a few people, including Alex, but a few of the others didn't show any emotion to the new information at all. To them, this was no new information it seemed.

"Even for the Blue Silk sect, they won't test you based solely on whether you have any Battle Power or not," one of the stronger individuals in the room said. "The ones that had Battle Power were sent on ahead, but the ones that weren't were sent to the low-priority queue. From there, they had an easier time weeding out the bad crops while keeping only the good ones. I suppose he is one of the good ones."

'Oh!' Alex thought now that the situation had been explained to everyone. 'So there was another test happening while we were taking a test as well?'

No wonder the judges had been slow each time.

'20 more people,' Alex thought. It appeared the judges were going to take some more time before coming out.

Alex went back to cultivating once again, feeling his Qi get so much closer to the point of breakthrough. If he did nothing but just focus on cultivating, he could reach the next realm in just a week.

He even wondered if he should do that. Shut down the store for a short time and breakthrough. But he decided there was no need to do that. He could break through at his own pace without having to shut down the store.

More people trickled in, but not as many as the people inside had expected. Out of the 20 that had apparently been chosen from the loser's group, only 12 made it past the interview.

Quite a few of them had been failed right then and there. After all of the interviews were done, the judges took another hour or so before coming out. They walked into the room, catching everyone's attention, and stopped right at the center of the room.

Everyone slowly stood up, watching the judges and the talisman they held in their hands.

The white-haired old man spoke up.

"Thank you all for coming to take the preliminary entrance test for our Blue Silk sect. Many of you have managed to make it this far, but now only 16 of you can go take the real entrance test."

"And those 16 of you, I shall now name."

The hall immediately went silent with not even the sound of breathing going around the room. Most, if not all of them, had expected there to be another test to whittle down the nearly 50 people down to just 16.

However, as it turned out, all tests that needed to be taken for this had already been done. Now, they could only hope that they had done well enough in the interview to pass this.

The first name came and a woman raised her eyebrows. She gave a small smile and bowed. "Thank you for passing me, seniors." She didn't seem very surprised that she would have passed.

Another name came up, and the man who had previously explained about the loser's group had passed as well.

Another name came, and then another.

When the fifth name came, Alex heard the word 'Dawnblade' and nearly gasped in surprise. 'I passed?' he thought looking toward the judges for confirmation. They were looking right toward him.

He gave a wide smile and bowed toward the judges. "Thank you, seniors."

Many of the people around the room were surprised to see that Alex had passed despite how weak he appeared to them. Was he hiding his strength? No, they realized that he simply had more potential to have been chosen from their group.

More names came, and more faces lightened up when they heard themselves being called. Finally, once all 16 names were called out, the test was complete.

Of nearly 50 people, over 30 of them hadn't been chosen. Their victory was cut short right before the finish line.

"Everyone whose name we didn't choose, we're sorry, but this is the decision we made," the white-haired old man said. "You can take the test again in a few years and see if you pass then. I wish you all the best of luck."

After a few minutes, the room was cleared of all but the judges and the 16 that were left behind.

"Congratulations on passing the test," the old man said. "But this is not the end. This is only the beginning. The real test will happen in the Blue Silk sect itself, where you will be competing against many other similarly chosen candidates."

"And out of all of them, only 4 people in total will be accepted as the student of the Blue Silk sect."

The old man watched the look of shock form in all of the 16 individuals at once. "Becoming a member of the Blue Silk sect is not so easy. You have a tough battle waiting for you up ahead."