Jin Cuifen's Master

Alchemy slaves are something that every alchemist is familiar with. Alchemy, by its very nature, is an art fraught with uncertainties. A pill that an alchemist refined may be a failure, or downright poisonous and an alchemist more often than not has no way of knowing.

So most alchemists use people called Alchemy slaves, people that are fed a pill from the batch to test the effects of the pills, Well force-fed to be precise. Alchemy slaves are used as genuine pigs to test pills over and over again, until they either die to some poisoned, ill refined pill or from accumulation of the pill toxins in their veins.

The girl Sheng Zhen was looking at was the latter case, the toxins accumulated in her bloodstream were so much that the fact she was even living was nothing less than a miracle. Her pulse and life signs were so shallow that they did not register to him until he reached the second floor.

Gently lifting her, Sheng Zhen moved her to the bedroom while simultaneously using his spiritual energy to stabilize her condition.

Taking out a dagger from his spatial ring, he made a small nick on her forearm while skillfully using his spiritual energy to gently coax the poison out. Before long a black tar-like liquid came out of the nick instead of blood, falling into a bowl below the bed.

Alchemy was an all-encompassing art, which included everything from Artifact creation to corpse refining. Thankfully it also included medicine and healing, and Sheng Zhen was particularly interested in both of these fields. He may not be an expert healer due to his lack of experience but he was no slouch thanks to his vast knowledge in these particular forms of alchemy.

Soon the tar seeping out of nick turned to blood and the girls breathing evened out. Taking a breath of relief, Sheng Zhen closed the wound with a bandage. She was not completely purified of toxins yet, just enough to not die because of them.

Just then someone knocked on the door. Sheng Zhen moved downstairs and opened the door, only to see Jin Cuifen standing on the door.

Disdainfully throwing a spatial ring towards Sheng Zhen, he said, "These are your quota of cultivation resources for the month. If you want more, refine pills for the Alchemist Hall in return."

Stating his piece, he turned about and left.

Sheng Zhen scratched his head, looking into the spatial ring, 'Hmm...spirit stones, few spiritual herbs and some ingredient sets of grade one pills. This is quite generous.'

'I should be able to refine a few detoxifying pills from these.'

Seng Zhen closed the door, going back to take care of his guest.

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A few hours later, Alchemy tower

On the topmost floor of the Alchemy tower, all the elders of the Alchemist Hall branch were sitting, opposite them sat an old man with a luscious white beard wearing purple robes. Behind him sat Jin Cuifen, also wearing purple robes as opposed to elders who wore green robes. Every elder had a jade broch with four stars, signifying their status as grade four alchemists, and Jin Cuifen had a broch with one star.

Everyone here was looking at Procter of the exams standing in the middle.

"...and he just threw a bundle of grass into his cauldron, not even using a spirit lamp, just some fire art to heat the cauldron and the then, in next breath, a few dozen pills popped out."

Everyone looked in deep thought. It was amazing, to refine a dozen pills in a second. But it was not what they were gathered here for.

"Tell us again, about his spiritual energy", the old man in purple robes asked the proctor.

"Yes, elder Jin", the proctor gave a shallow bow and began, "It was like nothing I ever felt before, the pure release of Spiritual energy. For a moment it felt like a thousand Jin boulder was weighing on my soul. My own spiritual energy felt minuscule to that, like a drop compared to the sea. The pressure was so terrifying that could not detect anything else from the spiritual energy other than its immenseness."

Most meant and women in teh room looked pensive, but some had a shrewd glint in their eyes. Most of the elders gathered here were from different sects and imperial powers, and would not hesitate to go to extreme lengths to secure a powerful pawn for their respective forces.

The purple-robed elder recognized that, and so did Jin Cuifen sitting behind him.

Coughing to get the attention of the room, the purple-robed elder spoke, "As of now, we have no idea how capable this Sheng Zhen truly is. He is not probably even a Rank one alchemist as of yet, and it is too early to say anything more about him other than that he has large spiritual energy reserves."

He continued, "Let him be an inner sect disciple and check his progress. Therefore I am banning any and all elders from taking him as their disciple."

Every elder in the room seemed put off by the decleration but they knew better than to go against the decision of the supreme elder. Soon the meaning came to an end and every elder left, leaving behind only Jin Cuifen and the Purple-robed Elder.

"Master is it wise. Leaving someone with such potential here in the branch sect. Isn't it better to take him back to the main sect", Jin Cuifen forced down his inner feeling about Sheng Zhen and asked his master. He definitely did not want Sheng Zhen to be accepted into the main sect but he forced his personal feeling down for the greater good.

The Elder stayed silent for a moment before saying,"Did you read his answer papers?"

"No"

"All his answers were right ,you know, every single one", The elder said. He voice was calm but his his eyes gave away his inner turmoil.

"But...But, it should not even be possible. The alchemy is an art as much it is a science, some questions have no corrects answers."

The elder sighed and looked at his disciple, "True, in most such questions the examinee just puts forth his thoughts on alchemy, but when I read his views, I could not disagree with any of his thoughts."

"His views were so profound and deep, that even reading on the just the basic postulates he put forth helped in advancing my alchemy. For the first time in centuries I felt like my bottleneck in the realm of alchemy loosen."

"For him to possess such deep, he definitely had been taught by a master alchemist and in alchemy legacy comparable to or greater than that of alchemy tower." The sects and sacred palaces like Alchemist Hall have long legacies, a collection of knowladege, resources, artifacts and other cultivation related knowladge that are build over Hundreds of thousands of years but the disciples and elders of the scet.

The legacy of Alchemist Hall is very deep, spanning over thousands of generations. For a power with alchemy legacy similar to that of Alchemist Hall, Jin Cuifen could only think of one place.

"Wait...Infernal Alchemy, it what you say is true then master that would mean he is form a demonic sects"

"Yes, so making him a core disciple is a out of question.", he continued after some thought, "And Cuifen, keep an eye on this Sheng Zhen."

Jin Cuifen nodded.

Both Master and Disciple had no idea that they had reached a wrong conclusion.