Elder Mu looked at Qin Yuan.
"You will receive a private alchemist room, an inner apprentice residence, monthly pay, material credits, library access, and association protection. Your daily tasks will be light for now. We will not waste your time with errands meant for ordinary beginners."
Qin Yuan cupped his hands.
"Thank you, Elder."
Elder Mu's gaze softened slightly.
"Do not thank me too early. Talent attracts resources, but it also attracts knives. Stay inside association grounds unless necessary. If anyone pressures you, report it. If anyone offers private contracts, do not sign anything without review. If your Qin Family suddenly remembers you exist, speak to us first."
Qin Yuan's eyes flickered.
This elder was not stupid.
"I understand."
"Good." Elder Mu looked toward Wei Cang. "Prepare the arrangements. Also inform Elder Su."
Wei Cang's expression shifted again.
"Elder Su will personally teach him?"
"If she sees these pills and refuses, I will eat this furnace."
...
By evening, Qin Yuan had his own residence.
It was not luxurious compared to noble estates or sect courtyards.
But compared to his small family branch room, it was heaven.
A private bedroom.
A study.
A small cultivation chamber.
A personal furnace room with fire-control formations.
A locked ingredient cabinet.
A spirit-net terminal connected to the alchemist association's internal library.
And most importantly, privacy.
Qin Yuan stood in the center of the furnace room for a long moment.
The walls were quiet.
The air was clean.
No one looked down on him here.
No one interrupted him here.
No one expected him to stay weak here.
A screen from the association terminal floated in front of him.
SEVEN-STAR APPRENTICE PRIVILEGES:
Monthly stipend: 3,000 low-grade spirit credits.
Material allowance: 120 Low Common sets per month.
Library access: Apprentice Tier Seven.
Exchange hall access: Common Rank pill formulas and selected foundation medicines.
Required task: Submit thirty qualified Low Common pills per week or equivalent contribution.
Optional task board unlocked.
Private instruction eligibility unlocked.
Internal protection status: Grade Two.
Qin Yuan read everything twice.
Thirty qualified Low Common pills per week.
At his current level, that was simple.
Very simple.
The rest of his time could be used for study, refinement practice, and earning contribution points.
Then his eyes stopped on one section.
Foundation Exchange Hall.
He opened it.
Rows of pills appeared.
Spirit Root Cleansing Pill — Low Common Rank.
Bronze Flesh Strengthening Pill — Mid Common Rank.
Meridian Stabilizing Pill — High Common Rank.
Qi Path Widening Pill — High Common Rank.
Perfect Common Foundation Pill — Perfect Common Rank.
Price: 9,000 contribution points.
Qin Yuan's gaze stayed on the last item.
Perfect Common Foundation Pill.
A pill that could improve low-grade foundations within the Common category. The greatest aspect of this pill was its ability to improve both the Spiritual Root and Flesh Gates.
With enough of these pills, Qin Yuan was more than confident he could push his foundations further than he had first imagined.
For others, this was expensive.
For him, it was a target.
His system improved talent.
But resources improved the body.
Both were necessary.
For a moment, Qin Yuan wondered about pills meant for Wizards and Witches.
But awakening his Magical Core was too dangerous for now.
A dual Martial and Body cultivator was already enough to make people extremely wary, if not outright afraid. Becoming a Wizard on top of that would cause disaster if he did not have the strength to ignore the consequences.
For now, Qin Yuan closed the screen.
"First goal," he murmured. "Perfect Common foundation."
The next morning, he met Elder Su.
The next morning, he met Elder Su.
Qin Yuan had expected someone old.
At the very least, he had expected someone with white hair, a wrinkled face, sharp eyes, and the kind of heavy authority that came from spending half a lifetime above ordinary cultivators.
Elder Su was not that.
She looked like a woman in her early twenties.
That was the first absurd thing.
The second absurd thing was that she was beautiful.
Not pretty.
Not elegant.
Not the kind of beauty that could be described by simply saying her skin was smooth, her eyes were clear, or her figure was refined.
She was the kind of beautiful that made Qin Yuan understand, very calmly, that Earth's standards had never seen what true cultivation could do to a person.
Her long black hair fell down her back like polished silk. Her skin carried a faint jade glow under the light. Her eyes were narrow and cool, shaped beautifully, but not soft. She wore a white-and-green alchemist robe fitted with silver formation threads, and a seven-leaf pill emblem rested at her chest.
Around her, the air itself felt disciplined.
Origin Core aura.
It was not released openly.
It did not crush the room.
But Qin Yuan could feel it clearly.
If Elder Mu's aura had been like a deep furnace hidden behind a wall, Elder Su's was like a perfect blade submerged in clear water.
Quiet.
Sharp.
Very real.
Elder Su stood beside a crescent-shaped refinement platform inside a private teaching chamber on the seventh floor of the Clearbell Eastern Three-Path Pill Association. Transparent walls showed the city outside. Spirit-energy vehicles moved through elevated lanes below. Flying sword traffic passed in orderly glowing bands. Mana-screen advertisements flashed across distant towers.
Inside the chamber, everything was spotless.
The floor was polished white stone. The walls were lined with sealed ingredient cabinets. Three pill furnaces sat at the center of the room, each one a different model. One was a simple bronze furnace. One was a modern spirit-glass furnace with visible internal arrays. The last was a black ceramic furnace marked with faint red fire runes.
Qin Yuan looked at all of it once.
Then his gaze returned to Elder Su.
He cupped his hands.
"Elder Su."
Elder Su studied him.
Her expression did not change, but her eyes paused on his face for a moment.
Too calm.
That was her first impression.
Most youths showed something when meeting her.
Admiration.
Nervousness.
Embarrassment.
Desire.
Fear.
Even talented disciples who pretended to be composed usually had restless eyes.
Qin Yuan did not.
He looked at her the same way he would look at a lecture screen, a furnace, or a difficult recipe.
Focused.
Respectful.
Indifferent.
Elder Su's brows moved slightly.
Interesting.
But interesting was not enough.
She had heard Elder Mu's report.
A 1st layer Spirit Opening youth had passed the seventh-star pill apprentice evaluation in one attempt.
Not only passed.
Crushed it.
That kind of thing sounded ridiculous.
If Elder Mu had not personally sent the report with his spiritual seal attached, Elder Su would have assumed someone had exaggerated for political reasons.
Even now, she was not entirely convinced.
Genius existed.
Monsters existed.
But monsters also broke when reality placed enough weight on them.
Elder Su lifted one hand.
A thin jade tablet floated from the desk beside her and stopped in front of Qin Yuan.
"I heard you dislike wasting time," she said.
Her voice was calm and cold, but not unpleasant. It carried the crisp authority of someone used to being obeyed.
Qin Yuan looked at the tablet.
"That depends on what the time is used for."
Elder Su's eyes sharpened.
"Good. Then we'll skip polite nonsense. I don't care how impressive your first test was. From today onward, I am responsible for confirming whether you are a real talent or a lucky accident."
Qin Yuan nodded.
"That's reasonable."
Elder Su almost paused.
Most juniors would have said, I will not disappoint Elder.
Some would have boasted.
Some would have panicked.
This one simply agreed.
Elder Su flicked her finger.
The jade tablet opened into a projection.
A recipe appeared.
Not a pill recipe.
A broken recipe.
Several ingredient ratios were incomplete. Two steps were intentionally reversed. One herb had been replaced with a visually similar but medicinally incompatible ingredient.
Elder Su folded her arms.
"First test. Identify every problem in this recipe. You have fifteen minutes."
Qin Yuan looked at the projection.
Notifications flickered in his vision.
Pill Mastery Talent Activated.
Medicinal Pattern Recognition Activated.
Memory Talent Activated.
Comprehension Talent Activated.
Fine Control Talent Activated.
His mind moved quickly.
The recipe was for a Clear Vein Recovery Pill.
Common Rank.
But it had been modified to look correct at first glance.
Qin Yuan read the first line.
Then the second.
Then the third.
He raised his hand and tapped the projection.
"This ratio is wrong. Jade Thread Grass cannot exceed three parts when paired with Bitter Root Resin. Otherwise, the cooling property will suppress the vein-opening effect."
Elder Su's expression did not change.
Qin Yuan tapped again.
"This should come after the first heat reduction, not before. If done in this order, the resin hardens before the medicinal force spreads."
He tapped a third time.
"This is not Moondew Leaf. It's White Mist Leaf. Similar smell, similar shape, but White Mist Leaf carries mild sleep poison. In a recovery pill, that would slow circulation and make the patient feel better while healing worse."
Elder Su's eyes became slightly still.
Qin Yuan continued.
"This line is incomplete. The furnace temperature should be lowered by twelve percent during the seventh breath after the liquid phase stabilizes. The recipe only says to lower heat after liquid formation. Too vague."
Another tap.
"This character is wrong. It says 'compress.' It should be 'settle.' Compressing here causes medicinal collision."
Another.
"This purification cycle repeats once too many times. It wastes medicinal force."
Another.
"The final condensing step lacks stabilizing Spirit Qi. The pill can form, but the texture will crack after three days."
He lowered his hand.
"That should be all."
The chamber became quiet.
Elder Su looked at him.
Then she looked at the projection.
Then she looked back at him.
"You finished in less than two minutes."
Qin Yuan blinked once.
"You said fifteen."
"I know what I said."
"Then I used less than the limit."
For a moment, Elder Su did not know whether she wanted to laugh or scold him.
She chose neither.
Her sleeve moved.
The projection vanished.
Another appeared.
This one was harder.
A Mid Common Rank recipe.
Also broken.
Elder Su's voice cooled further.
"Second test. Diagnose this one."
Qin Yuan looked at it.
His eyes moved line by line.
Pill Mastery Talent Experience +0.48
Medicinal Pattern Recognition Experience +0.52
Comprehension Talent Experience +0.31
Fine Control Talent Experience +0.19
He pointed.
"Wrong furnace type."
Elder Su's brow finally lifted.
Qin Yuan continued calmly.
"The recipe claims it can be refined in a standard bronze furnace, but the ingredients include Emberlake Powder and Cold Marrow Vine. The temperature shift requires internal array insulation. Without a spirit-glass or layered ceramic furnace, the heat wave will rebound."
Elder Su's fingers tightened slightly on her sleeve.
Qin Yuan tapped again.
"This timing is too slow."
Tap.
"This herb should be crushed, not sliced."
Tap.
"This section assumes the alchemist has 4th layer Spirit Opening fire control. A 2nd layer can complete it only if assisted by a flame-stabilizing array."
Tap.
"This is not a mistake, but it is inefficient. Reversing these two purification breaths would preserve more medicinal force."
Tap.
"This line is dangerous. If used on a Warrior with fresh tendon damage, the pill will agitate Vital Force and cause tearing."
He stopped.
"Done."
Elder Su stared at him for three silent breaths.
Then she asked, "Have you seen this recipe before?"
"No."
"Have you studied injury pills?"
"Only basic public material."
"Public material does not teach this."
"Then the public material was enough to infer it."
Elder Su closed her eyes briefly.
Her strict expression was still there.
Barely.
"Fine."
She turned and waved.
The black ceramic furnace at the center of the room glowed faintly. The ingredient cabinets opened one after another, and trays floated out.
This time, the herbs were not labeled.
Roots, leaves, powders, beast marrow crystals, spiritual water droplets, dried flower threads, and small sealed bottles arranged themselves before Qin Yuan.
Elder Su's voice became very even.
"Third test. Ingredient recognition. No labels. No spiritual scanning tools. You may use sight, scent, texture, and Spirit Sense only. Identify them, sort them by property, and pair all incompatible materials."