CHAPTER 17: Yān Méi
CHAPTER 17: Yān Méi
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The Medicine Pavilion was one of the most important institutions in Sun City.
As those who promoted and often trained Alchemists, they were quite a famous institution.
The value of an alchemist was very high.
Just think that even the lowest-level alchemist could earn enough to live comfortably.
Of course, their reputation was also important, which was often closely tied to their success rate in pill creation.
As long as the success rate in creating a pill was above 50 percent, it could be said that the alchemist was good.
This value obviously varied from alchemist to alchemist, and also from the grade of the product they had to refine.
But overall, it was still a fairly lucrative profession.
The only problem was that it was very difficult to become one.
The test to become an official alchemist was held by the Medicine Pavilion, and it was a very difficult test, with a very low admission rate each year.
It was difficult to become one not only because of one's skill in refining pills but also because of the amount of money spent on refining materials, which was too high.
Without materials, an alchemist could not train their refining skills, and without good skills, one could not hope to become a well-known alchemist.
This was a harsh reality that everyone knew, so many people preferred to choose other professions, and only those who had some talent or a good family background to support them decided to become one.
Yan Mei was a person who belonged to both of these categories.
She was born into a wealthy family that already had a master alchemist among them, so for her, following this path was easier than for others, especially because she also had a good talent for alchemy, a talent that led her to become a one-star adept alchemist at the age of 18.
There were five stages that an alchemist could reach, and each of them had three basic levels to achieve before moving on to the next.
These levels were represented in the form of stars, which essentially indicated how skilled the alchemist was at their current stage.
The five stages were:
Apprentice: one who was still learning the basics of alchemy, such as studying herbs, alchemical techniques, or flame regulation, and so on.
Once one passed this stage, they were promoted to Adept Alchemists.
Adept Alchemists were those who had mastered the basics of alchemy and were ready to refine pills.
This was the stage where one could be called a true Alchemist.
Subsequently, depending on the success rate in refining and the grade of the product that an alchemist could refine, they could receive the title of Expert Alchemist, Master Alchemist, and finally Grandmaster Alchemist.
Currently, the number of alchemists who had reached the Grandmaster stage could be counted on the fingers of one hand.
Their importance was such that even the emperor himself had to show them some respect if they appeared.
Just successfully becoming an Adept Alchemist could take several years, so those who managed to reach this stage at such a young age were considered alchemy talents.
Knowing this fact, Yan Mei had gradually started to look down on all her peers who were still at the beginning stages.
Currently, she was in one of the refining rooms of the Medicine Pavilion, preparing to create a pill.
Just as she was about to light the fire under the alchemy cauldron, a knocking sound came from the door of the room.
'Tch, who dares to knock at the door,' she thought as she got up a little irritated and went to open the door.
'Seriously, don't they know not to disturb someone when they're refining in the refining room?' she thought as she prepared to give a few words to whoever had knocked.
Opening the door, Yan Mei saw that the person who had knocked was a worker from the Pavilion.
The worker, seeing her, said somewhat hurriedly:
"I apologize for disturbing you, Lady Yan, but the person who was to pick up the pills you were commissioned to make is here," he said, handing her a slip of paper.
Taking the slip from the worker, she glanced at what was written on it.
Confirming the validity of the slip, she told the worker to wait a moment here and re-entered the room.
After a few seconds, she returned with a small glass bottle containing some pills and handed it to the worker.
"Here are the pills."
Taking the pills, the worker thanked her and left.
Seeing the worker leave, Yan Mei re-entered the room and placed the slip inside the dimensional ring on her finger.
"I really should get myself an assistant, so at least I can avoid ending up in these situations," she said, a bit annoyed by the sudden interruption, as she returned to her workstation and prepared to refine a pill.
Meanwhile, in the waiting room of the Medicine Pavilion, Ethan, who was supposed to be there to pick up the pills for the sect, was nowhere to be seen.
The worker, who had gone to fetch the pills, had just returned only to find the room empty.
"Ehm? Where did the boy who came for the pills go?" he wondered as he started to look around outside the waiting room to see if he could find him.
Unfortunately for him, Ethan was not there at that moment.
In the inner area of the sect, which was mainly dedicated to expert alchemists and master alchemists, one could see a boy wandering from room to room.
Ethan, who had decided to look around while waiting, ended up getting lost and was now trying to find the waiting room.
"F*ck, where the hell did I end up," he said frustratedly, not knowing where he had come from anymore.
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FRANK_LEE_JUNIOR:
I know, it was more of an informative chapter than anything else, but I thought it was better to give a basic idea of the levels of alchemy now, to have more flexibility in the following chapters.
I wanted to include something about the pills as well, but I think it's better to wait for the next chapters for that.
If I can, I'll try to upload another chapter by the end of the day.
Let me know what you think of the novel so far.
I know, we're practically at the beginning, so there's not much to talk about, but if you can give me feedback on the text itself, that would be great.
I ask because English is neither my first nor my second language, so I might make some mistakes in the text.
Report any errors you find.
Ciao.
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