“Long San?”

Long Chen was startled. Someone actually recognized him here? Turning toward the voice, he saw a young man amongst this crowd of close to a thousand disciples. Each one of them had a small table in front of them, like they were scholars about to take a test.

“Sorry, you are…?” Long Chen didn’t recognize him.

“Shut up! Who said you could speak so loudly here?!”

A Jade Core disciple sternly shouted at him. This disciple was already quite old, so his temper wasn’t good.

Long Chen frowned. The Jade Core disciple glared at Long Chen, and Long Chen almost couldn’t help but slap him in the face.

He had an urge to curse this disciple, but he didn’t say anything. Now wasn’t the time to start being arrogant. Silently walking around that disciple, he walked toward the person who knew him.

“Long San, sit. Sorry, I made you get scolded,” apologized that person quietly.

Zhao Xiang just happened to see the sight of Long Chen quietly turn away from the disciple who had scolded him so sternly. Seeing that he didn’t dare to reply, he shook his head.

“This Long San’s character is too timid. It’s not good for us. I’ll have to report it to Protector Zhuo,” thought Zhao Xiang to himself as he left.

Long Chen didn’t recognize this man at all, so he couldn’t help but find it strange.

“Long San, after winning the championship in the Eastern Wasteland, you probably forgot this little one.” The disciple bitterly smiled.

“I think I remember. You were in the competition too…” said Long Chen, coming to a sudden comprehension.

In truth, this comprehension was just guesswork. He still didn’t recognize this person at all. He put his answer in a questioning tone to avoid things becoming awkward if he was wrong.

“Yes! I’m Li Kang! Do you remember me now?” That person was happy that Long Chen recognized him. He didn’t even know he had just fallen for Long Chen’s trick.

Long Chen had no idea who Li Kang was. Supposedly, he had been in the Eastern Wasteland’s competition as well. Li Kang recognized Long Chen, but Long Chen didn’t recognize him.

“Long San, why did it take you so long to come? It’s been many years.”

“Don’t even mention it. It’s depressing. How have the other people from the Eastern Wasteland been doing here? Did anyone manage to get some strong support?” Long Chen changed the subject.

“Only after coming did we realize that our so-called talent was nothing here. We were just green leaves coming to show off before the flowers of the Central Plains.” Li Kang bitterly smiled. “The disciples who came from the Eastern Wasteland are mostly outer disciples. They probably won’t get promoted in their lifetimes. As for me, I’m not doing too bad. After three years, I’ve finally managed to get the qualifications for the Divine Pill Hall trial.

“Amongst these people, I rank 987th. In other words, there’s pretty much no hope of me passing. But even just taking the test will improve my standing amongst the inner disciples. If I didn’t take the test, the others would look down on me all day.”

“Really, it’s this bad? What about that female disciple? What’s her name again?” Long Chen thought of a certain person.

“Duan Tianqiao. Her talent is very good, and she managed to get into the Divine Pill Hall. In truth, she helped me out quite a bit to be promoted into an inner disciple. But after getting in the Divine Pill Hall, she has become distant from me. Perhaps our statuses are no longer similar,” sighed Li Kang.

People strove for the top, while water always flowed to the bottom. Those who stood at different heights ran in different circles. This was understandable.

“You two flies, stop buzzing. It’s annoying. If you don’t want to take the test, you can scram. Stop disturbing others.”

As Long Chen and Li Kang quietly whispered, another disciple to the side who had had his eyes closed suddenly glared at them.

Long Chen looked at him and saw that he was glaring at him disdainfully. It seemed that his ranking amongst inner disciples was very high. Perhaps he had a high chance of getting promoted.

Long Chen cursed. If this was inside the Xuantian Dao Sect, he’d have long since slapped such a person to death.

But he had nothing to say now. It seemed wherever he went, he would encounter countless idiots. Even if he didn’t cause trouble, others would find trouble for him.

“Silence!”

Just at this moment, a cold shout rang out, and eight elders walked in, all Soul Transformation experts.

The eight elders were all wearing stern expressions, as though everyone here owed them money.

These people were in charge of the trial, and they were here to prevent cheating. Their eyes were all as sharp as an eagle’s.

Long Chen shut his mouth and found his position.

“Who is Long San?” asked one of the elders.

“Disciple is present.” Long Chen hastily stood.

“Show me your badge. I have to check it.”

This surprised Long Chen. It seemed that this test was very stringent. Although his identity had already been confirmed when he had walked in, they checked him again.

The elder examined his badge closely and then nodded. “You were added to this trial late, so you have to be checked stringently. You don’t need to feel any pressure.”

Long Chen’s eyes brightened. He knew that this elder was ‘on his side’. Zhao Xiang had said everything should go smoothly.

It was easy to tell who was on his side. The others all looked like saying an extra word was too much work, so the ones speaking to Long Chen were on his side.

But these elders were only in charge of overseeing the test, and they couldn’t help him. If he cheated, he would immediately be expelled. In fact, he would be directly kicked out of Pill Valley. Pill Valley’s test was one hundred percent fair and did not allow any cheating.

Beast hides were quickly distributed. Long Chen couldn’t help but bitterly smile. Wasn’t this just like the secular world’s imperial exams?

Long Chen looked at it, and as expected, it was about the things he had studied during these days. It was actually very simple.

But the final question was a bit difficult. The question was to list the various medicinal pills that could be refined based on the given medicinal ingredients. The more they could list, the more points they would get.

Long Chen couldn’t help but feel a struggle with this question. With these many medicinal ingredients, he had over a thousand pill formulas that could be written from his Pill Sovereign memories.

But many of those pill formulas no longer existed in this world. He didn’t dare to randomly write them.

He had an urge to use his Spiritual Strength to investigate how many pill formulas others wrote, but those eight elders were like hawks watching their every move. He truly didn’t dare to do so.

“What to do? Too many is no good, and too few might get me eliminated. Fuck.”

Long Chen suddenly had a thought. He stealthily picked out a booger and wiped the mucus along the edge of the beast hide. He used it as a mirror to look around silently. Turning that corner, he managed to see what the person who had scoffed at him had written.

“One, two… twenty-seven in total. Alright, that’s not bad.”

Long Chen managed to see what that fellow had written barely through the mucus. He couldn’t see the exact pill formulas, but he was able to see how many lines he had written.

“Achoo!”

Long Chen suddenly sneezed, and his mucus ended up all over his beast hide. He hastily began to wipe it off.

“You, what are you doing!” One of the elders suddenly appeared behind Long Chen like a ghost.

“Sorry, disciple had to fly over the sea for three years, facing the constant sea winds. Pill Valley’s spiritual qi is too dense, and my nose is sensitive. I’m sorry!” Long Chen apologized as his sneeze had disturbed the disciples around him.

He had no way around this. He had noticed those old fellows were getting suspicious and getting close behind him. That was why he had sneezed, to wipe away the proof.

The elder stared at him coldly, but Long Chen looked back at him without the slightest fear. Seeing his expression without the slightest fear or panic, he didn’t say anything else. He had only been a bit suspicious in any case.

“Hmph, you want to play mental warfare with me?” Long Chen sneered inside and continued answering the questions. That fellow beside him had seemed so confident before, so his ranking should be near the top.

But he was still cautious. He only wrote fifty-three pill formulas, just double of that fellow.

They had two hours to answer their questions. Long Chen had long since finished, but he continued until the very end to hand in his scrolls with everyone else.

“What?!”

When the elder saw Long Chen’s scroll, when he saw the answer to his last question, he was absolutely stunned.

“Haha, excellent!” The elder on his side laughed. Long Chen knew he was indicating that he had probably gotten first on this test.

But the results were not immediately announced. Instead, they switched locations into a lounge where over a thousand refining platforms had been provided.

Each platform was ten meters wide. The furnaces and cauldrons had already been arranged, and the pill formula was under the furnace.

The disciples who had come here were mostly ones that had taken this test many, many times. They were already used to this scene.

But when they arrived at their spots and saw the pill formula in front of them, all their expressions changed.

“Impossible!”

Long Chen looked at the pill formula and also couldn’t help being stunned. A ninth tier medicinal pill - the Soul Gathering Heart Tempering Pill.

This was a must-have pill for Jade Core cultivators. It made their mental realms clear and expelled any foreign influences.

“Damnit, I only trained in the methods to refine eighth tier medicinal pills before this. I didn’t refine a ninth tier pill for them to see!” Long Chen felt quite a bit of pressure.

“Let the refinement begin!”

Just as all the disciples despaired, an elder announced the start of the trial.