Immortality begins with Becoming an Alchemy Grandmaster

He didn’t know when his younger sister had come to stand beside him as well, her expression tense yet full of anticipation.

”Brother.”

Zhou Fuqiu looked at him, her eyes full of encouragement.

Everything was ready, but the Spirit Root testing still had not begun.

Amid the unspeakable waiting of the many youths, streaks of Liuguang flew over from the center of the clan.

At their head were three people.

The Family Head Zhou Junxiao, Elder Zhou Xiaocheng, and the newly promoted Elder Zhou Haiye!

With the appearance of the Three Great Golden Core Ascendant Masters, even though they did not display any Mana Fluctuation, the intangible pressure still rendered the entire venue utterly silent.

The others were the clan’s Foundation Establishment True Cultivators, most of whom were the parents of the youths participating in the Spirit Root test this time.

Family Head Zhou Junxiao looked at the hundred youths below, satisfaction flashing in his eyes, then asked in a low voice, ”The guests haven’t arrived yet?”

Zhou Xiaocheng was just about to say something when Zhou Junxiao beside him suddenly lifted his head.

”They’re here!”

From outside the clan, three Flying Boats—one imposing, one ornate, one extravagant—flew toward them in unison.

Before they even drew near, several people successively flew out from them.

Zhou Junxiao smiled slightly. ”Brother Lin, Brother Yin, you’ve come!”

After that, he hesitantly looked toward another beautiful, alluring woman.

”And this is...?”

The Yin Family Head introduced respectfully, ”Mo Wanting, Director of Yuheng Institute under the Daoist Palace’s Seven Stars Academy.”

Zhou Junxiao’s expression shifted slightly, and he bowed respectfully. ”I, Zhou Junxiao, current Family Head of the Zhou Family, pay my respects to Director Yuheng.”

Mo Wanting smiled faintly. ”Friend Zhou, there’s no need for such formality. I merely passed by Bailu Marsh by chance and heard that the Zhou Family was about to hold a Spirit Testing Ceremony, so I came over to have a look. As you know, the duty of our Seven Stars Academy is what it is; coming uninvited, I hope you can pardon the intrusion.”

How could Zhou Junxiao possibly not pardon it?

On today’s Tian Nan Continent, clans stand like forests, but there is only one true leader, and that is the Tian Nan Dao Palace!

Within the Daoist Palace, whether it be the Observatory Master or the Four Great Hall Masters, they were all far beyond his reach, but the Seven Stars Academy was truly much closer to them.

Because the responsibility of the Seven Stars Academy was to search for talents with outstanding talent and send them as recruits to the Palace’s Four Halls.

Countless clans were all hoping for people from the Seven Stars Academy to come knocking at their door.

Moreover, rumor had it that all seven institutes of the Seven Stars Academy were under the control of the Mo Family.

The Mo Family, once one of the Twelve Great Houses, and the clan to which the previous Sect Master Mo Shouzhuo belonged!

They gave up the Four Halls and took only this institution of the Seven Stars Academy, thereby gaining tremendous influence over the clans of Tian Nan today.

At this moment, Zhou Junxiao could not help feeling both uneasy and excited.

If today Director Yuheng Mo Wanting could take a few of the Zhou Family’s clansmen away, then his Zhou Family could henceforth be considered truly integrated into the Tianyuan Daoist Sect!

”Someone come, arrange seats for our distinguished guests!”

After giving the order, Zhou Junxiao called Zhou Xiaocheng over to one side.

”You have the time it takes for one stick of incense. Quickly contact the parents of the youths and ask whether they have tested their children’s Spirit Roots in advance. If there are any outstanding ones, make a list, and when we test later, insert them, at intervals, among the Mortal-born children; the better the talent, the later in the order they go.”

Zhou Xiaocheng glanced in Mo Wanting’s direction and instantly understood what the Family Head meant.

If there really was a peerlessly brilliant genius who came out too early and attracted Mo Wanting’s interest, then those who followed after—even if their talent was not bad—would easily be overshadowed if they fell just a little short.

Letting them appear bit by bit would instead increase the chance that more of their clan’s youths would be chosen into the Tian Nan Dao Palace.

”Understood, I’ll see to it at once!”

Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly remembered something.

”Family Head, what about Zhou Fuqiu’s Spirit Root talent?”

Zhou Junxiao was taken aback for a moment.

He truly didn’t know!

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to test Zhou Fuqiu in advance, but that the Old Ancestor had once instructed them not to meddle overly in matters concerning Zhou Fuqiu.

On top of that, the child was particularly independent, so he hadn’t done any work in this regard.

Now that Zhou Xiaocheng asked, he gritted his teeth and said, ”Arrange him at the very end! And put his younger sister at the end as well, just one place before him.”

...

”Why haven’t they started yet?”

As time passed bit by bit, the youths were having trouble keeping their composure.

So many High-Order Cultivators surrounding them—just their gazes alone brought immense pressure.

Furthermore, whether or not they possessed a Spirit Root concerned their entire future, making them even more unable to sit still.

Some whose willpower was not strong enough were already drenched in sweat beneath the sun’s rays.

Zhou Qingyu was the same, but with her elder brother beside her, her mood was somewhat steadier.

”Brother, what are you looking at?”

”Nothing.” Zhou Fuqiu withdrew his gaze from the high platform, his expression calm, though something unreadable flickered in his eyes.

That Lin Family Patriarch with a face full of bristling beard and incomparable majesty, by blood and by the clan genealogy, should count as his maternal grandfather!

But back then his mother had not been highly regarded in the Qingtong Lin Family, so this grandfather likely didn’t even remember that he had two grandchildren in the Zhou Family.

Suddenly, his younger sister’s delighted cry came from beside him.

”It’s starting!”

The long-prepared Spirit Testing Ceremony finally began when the sun was high in the sky.

On the high platform.

The five Foundation Establishment True Cultivators sat at the five corners, presiding over a massive Array.

The newly advanced Golden Core Zhou Haiye drifted down from the spectator seats, landing on the high platform, a Compass in hand.

He gazed down at the platform below and called out in a clear voice.

”Zhou Li!”

”Here!”

A sturdy youth responded and walked up onto the platform, nervous and uneasy, stepping into the central position.

The five Foundation Establishment True Cultivators exchanged a glance, then each cast out a Dao Law Method.

In an instant, five colors flowed across the high platform, Spirit Qi billowing and steaming.

Zhou Haiye said gently, ”Relax your mind, do not resist. Focus solely on feeling—feeling whether there is any existence that can resonate with you.”