Old Five is a Goose.
Chapter 512 Pill Dao Tower Assessment
Behind the four azure characters "Dan Dao Immortal Alliance" was a luxurious building occupying an area of tens of thousands of square meters. A powerful aura exuded from the beast squatting outside the Dan Dao Immortal Alliance building. Even before Mo Wuji approached, he could feel the immense power.
It was indeed magnificent. Occupying nearly ten thousand square meters in the most luxurious area of Spiked Horn Immortal Ruins was no simple matter.
Mo Wuji and Dou Hualong entered the hall of the Dan Dao Immortal Alliance and saw many cultivators coming and going, many of whom were seeking pills.
The Dan Dao Immortal Alliance had dedicated pill-seeking windows. You needed to tell the Dan Dao Immortal Alliance what pills you needed, then submit the Alliance's requested rewards and materials. After a period of time, you could come back to collect the pills.
Seeing the numerous cultivators lining up to submit rings filled with immortal crystals and various immortal spirit herbs through the windows, Mo Wuji couldn't help but sigh at how profitable the Dan Dao Immortal Alliance was.
"Big Brother, the Dan Dao Immortal Alliance takes 50% of the pills as a refining fee, along with a certain amount of immortal crystals as a reward. If Big Brother can become a pill refiner in the Dan Dao Immortal Alliance, you can get discounts on pills and herbs by showing your pill refiner's badge. I also heard that depending on their level, Dan Kings in the Dan Dao Immortal Alliance also receive a certain amount of free immortal spirit herbs each year." Dou Hualong whispered in Mo Wuji's ear.
Such a good thing existed?
Mo Wuji felt more and more that coming to the Dan Dao Immortal Alliance was the right decision.
Dou Hualong had obviously been here before. He quickly led Mo Wuji to the registration area for the Dan Dao Immortal Alliance's Immortal Pill Refiner certification exam. "Big Brother, you register here. After registering, you can go in and take the exam."
Not many people were registering to take the Immortal Pill Refiner exam. After telling Dou Hualong to wait for him outside, Mo Wuji entered the registration area.
"Excuse me, is this where I can register to take the Dan Dao Immortal Alliance's Immortal Pill Refiner exam?" There was only an old man with white hair and a beard in the registration area. He didn't react when Mo Wuji entered, so Mo Wuji had to ask.
The old man seemed to only then notice Mo Wuji. He sized Mo Wuji up before saying, "Yes, if you want to register for the Immortal Pill Refiner exam, you need to pay 100,000 high-grade immortal crystals."
"That's so expensive?" Mo Wuji blurted out. 100,000 high-grade immortal crystals would hurt even him.
"That's the price." The old man spoke slowly, directly ignoring Mo Wuji's comment about the price.
Mo Wuji could only helplessly say, "Then, which level of pill refiner does this price allow me to test for?"
Mo Wuji was very worried. If it cost 100,000 immortal crystals to test for a Rank 1 Pill Monarch, wouldn't it cost 400,000 high-grade immortal crystals to test for a Rank 4 Pill King?
The old man said indifferently, "100,000 high-grade immortal crystals allows you to test once within a hundred years. The testing location is the Pill Dao Tower. The Pill Dao Tower has ten levels. Passing the first level makes you a Rank 1 Immortal Pill Monarch, the second level makes you a Rank 2 Immortal Pill Monarch… and so on. If you fail on any level, you will be teleported out."
Mo Wuji understood. 100,000 high-grade immortal crystals allowed him to try his luck in the Pill Dao Tower. Whatever level he reached would determine his rank as a pill refiner.
"Excuse me, Senior, does the Dan Dao Immortal Alliance have many Pill Dao Towers?"
The old man glanced at Mo Wuji unhappily. If everyone was this long-winded, he wouldn't want to work at the registration desk.
"The Dan Dao Immortal Alliance only has one Pill Dao Tower. No matter which Immortal Domain you register in, the final test will teleport you to the same place." The old man was annoyed, but he still answered Mo Wuji's question.
Mo Wuji had figured everything out and didn't ask any further questions. He took out a storage bag and handed it to the old man, saying, "Here are 100,000 high-grade immortal crystals. I want to register for the Dan Dao Immortal Alliance's pill refiner exam."
The old man secretly despised Mo Wuji's stinginess. Usually, those who came to test as pill refiners all used storage rings to hold immortal crystals. Only this guy used a storage bag.
After taking the immortal crystals, he asked in an ordinary tone, "Name, identity, where are you from?"
"Mo Wuji, rogue cultivator, from Chang Luo." Mo Wuji's reply was also extremely simple.
The old man carved Mo Wuji's information on a white jade tablet and handed it to Mo Wuji. "This is the teleportation jade tablet to enter the Pill Dao Tower. You can go to the top floor yourself."
After saying that, he fell back into his chaotic state, as if Mo Wuji didn't exist at all.
Mo Wuji didn't care. He took the jade tablet and went upstairs.
The Dan Dao Immortal Alliance's hall in the Spiked Horn Immortal Ruins had seven floors. As soon as Mo Wuji entered the seventh floor, he saw a void formation gate at the very end of the floor. Mo Wuji guessed that this formation gate should be the one that led to the Pill Dao Tower.
Two middle-aged cultivators were sitting in the room, and two pretty female cultivators were standing at the entrance. As soon as Mo Wuji entered, the two female cultivators respectfully bowed to Mo Wuji before continuing to stand aside, somewhat like greeters on Earth.
Although the two middle-aged cultivators were sitting, Mo Wuji could feel the pill qi fluctuations emanating from them. They were clearly both pill refiners.
"Those testing as pill refiners can directly enter the void formation gate with their jade tablets. When you are teleported back here, the pill refiner exam is over."
"Thank you, fellow Daoists." Mo Wuji thanked them and walked into the teleportation formation gate without hesitation, disappearing from the seventh floor.
As soon as Mo Wuji left, the middle-aged pill refiner who had spoken shook his head. "Sigh, people these days are too impetuous and ambitious. This young man doesn't look very old, and he doesn't have any pill fragrance on him. He's not even a wood spiritual root, yet he's coming to test as an Immortal Pill Refiner."
"Being able to take out 100,000 high-grade immortal crystals at such a young age, he must be a disciple from a major sect." The other pill refiner echoed.
"Not necessarily." The first pill refiner shook his head again. "His spiritual aura is not obvious, and he seems to be in the early Golden Immortal stage. Someone who is young, whose spiritual aura is not obvious, and whose cultivation is not weak is likely the result of piling up pills. That means his future is basically limited. Major sects generally won't accept this kind of disciple. Besides, there are many ways to earn 100,000 immortal crystals in the Spiked Horn Immortal Ruins."
…
Mo Wuji naturally didn't know that he had become the embodiment of being overly ambitious in other people's eyes. At this moment, he was in a similarly large hall. The hall was rectangular, with rows of pill refining stations on both sides. The end of the rectangular hall was blocked by a dark and gloomy gate.
A row of large characters floated in the middle of the hall: Pill Dao Tower, First Level, Certification for Rank 1 Immortal Pill Monarch.
More than 80% of the pill refining stations on both sides were filled with people. Without asking, Mo Wuji knew that these people were here to test for the Dan Dao Immortal Alliance's pill refiner qualifications, just like him.
No one paid attention to Mo Wuji when he entered. People were constantly entering to test as pill refiners, and people were constantly being teleported away. Everyone came from all corners of the world, and there was no need to know each other's names.
Mo Wuji walked to a pill refining station and sat down, imitating the other testing pill refiners by inserting his jade tablet into the void slot in front of the pill refining seat.
Before Mo Wuji could observe the situation in front of him, he saw a jade tablet not far away emitting bursts of white light.
Mo Wuji was wondering if that person had failed when he saw the dark and gloomy gate at the end of the first level of the Pill Dao Tower open. The pill refiner whose jade tablet was glowing grabbed his jade tablet and excitedly rushed into the gate.
The others were very envious. Entering the second level of the Pill Dao Tower from the first level meant that they were at least recognized as a Rank 1 Pill Monarch by the Dan Dao Immortal Alliance. Only successful pill refinement would cause one's jade tablet to glow and open the gate to the next level.
Failure to refine a pill would result in immediate teleportation. If someone else opened the gate and you tried to enter forcibly, you would still be teleported out, indicating your failure. If two people succeeded in refining pills at the same time, they had to wait for one person to enter before the gate closed and reopened a second time for the second pill refiner to enter.
So that's how it was. Mo Wuji focused his attention on the area in front of his seat.
At the edge of the void slot where his jade tablet was inserted, a not-so-large array display screen appeared. The array display screen showed hundreds of questions. Some of the questions only gave the name of an immortal spirit herb and required you to draw the shape of the herb.
Some questions gave the name of an immortal spirit herb and required you to write its characteristics. Others showed the shape of an immortal spirit herb and required you to write its name and characteristics.
These questions were extremely simple for Mo Wuji. He was very grateful to Han Qingru. If Han Qingru hadn't given him the Compendium of Spirit Herbs and Minerals, he wouldn't have had such extensive knowledge of immortal spirit herbs.
Answering the questions was equally simple; he just needed to use his spiritual will to sketch them out. In less than half an incense stick of time, Mo Wuji had answered nearly a hundred questions.
After Mo Wuji answered the last question, a green leaf appeared on the array screen, followed by the second testing stage: refining a furnace of Immortal Jade Pills, requiring at least 50% of the pills to be of medium quality or higher. Then, a pile of immortal spirit herbs was teleported in front of Mo Wuji.
It was too simple. The Immortal Jade Pills that Mo Wuji refined had never been of superior quality. All the immortal pills he refined were of the exceptional grade.
Skillfully igniting the flames in front of the pill furnace and cleaning it, Mo Wuji used the fastest method to put the immortal spirit herbs for the Immortal Jade Pills into the furnace.
Extracting, refining, dissolving, separating, solidifying, separating pills…
Mo Wuji proceeded step by step, with almost no pauses or hesitations. In the same half an incense stick of time, a furnace of exceptional grade Immortal Jade Pills appeared in the pill furnace. Mo Wuji put the immortal pills from the furnace into the provided jade bottle and placed the jade bottle on the teleportation array patterns.
The moment the jade bottle was teleported away, the test jade tablet inserted in front of Mo Wuji's seat emitted a soft glow. Then, the dark and gloomy gate leading to the second level opened again.
Mo Wuji stood up, pulled out his identity jade tablet, and walked quickly towards the gate leading to the second level of the Pill Dao Tower.
It wasn't until Mo Wuji disappeared that the testing pill refiners on the first level of the Pill Dao Tower reacted.
"It seems like he hasn't even been here for an incense stick of time, right? He's already completed the Rank 1 Pill Monarch test? Could he be a Pill King?"
"Even a Pill King wouldn't be this fast. I just don't know what the quality of the Rank 1 immortal pills he refined is like."
...
(Third update delivered! That's all for today's updates. Good night, friends! If you have monthly tickets, please remember to give Old Five a monthly ticket.)