Rise of the Alchemy God

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At this point, Ethan didn't know what to think anymore.

He felt like the system was mocking him.

First, it charged him a lot to level up the recipe to the next level, and then it lowered the cost to something more affordable for the recipe's grade increase.

Then, when it came to skills, the price increased again, and this time by quite a bit.

'Even for breaking through to the Qi Refining stage, I only paid 100 SP,' Ethan thought, not understanding how the system determined the prices.

Perhaps in the system's eyes, alchemical skills were more valuable than a simple stage advancement.

Ethan didn't know, and at this point, he realized it made no sense to waste more time on it.

The system's price was what it was, whether he liked it or not.

And as far as he knew, it wasn't going to change, so he would have to endure it and move on with his life.

"Well, there's no point in thinking about it now.

Even if I wanted to, I won't reach that amount of SP anytime soon," he thought, preparing to return to his dorm room.

By now, it should be evening, and Da Shu should have already returned.

Thinking that, he teleported out of the dimension with a simple mental command.

Time passed, and the day of the end-of-year exams was getting closer.

During these days, Ethan had spent a good portion of his time training in the smaller dimension, only coming out in the mornings and evenings, and occasionally when he had to run errands outside the sect.

With Bai Yu's help, he learned to control his strength and even how to use the new skill, 'Dragon Gaze'.

Bai Yu was pleasantly surprised to see that Ethan had already mastered one of the characteristic techniques of his race.

It should be known that not all dragons could easily master this technique, and even among those who did, only a few had good control over it and could make it stronger.

Ethan had shown that he had already mastered it to a certain extent, which was why she was particularly surprised.

What intrigued her most, however, was not the talent Ethan seemed to show in using this skill, but rather the fact that without any basic knowledge of it, it was almost impossible to learn.

She tried asking him how he had learned this technique, but received a rather vague answer in return.

"I'm not sure. It's like it was transferred into my mind during the bloodline assimilation process," Ethan said.

Ethan didn't know how to explain it, so he went with a simple and vague explanation, which was partially true since the system had indeed downloaded the technique into his head.

Bai Yu didn't press the issue and helped him refine his control by sharing various uses she had learned over her long life.

Ethan had to admit that, unlike the combat training with her, this lesson on the more effective use of the skill had indeed helped him a lot.

The system, when it granted him the skill, had given him the basic information about it. Things like how to use it, where to use it, and some negative effects that could occur if used in certain cases.

With Bai Yu's teaching, he learned how to regulate the intensity, how to use it effectively without expending more energy than necessary, and even how to make someone among many the target of it.

When Ethan used it, it ended up affecting anyone within his line of sight, which was useful in a fight with multiple opponents.

But it was detrimental in team battles.

Time passed, and the day of the end-of-year exam drew nearer.

While time passed normally in the outside world, within Ethan's smaller dimension, he trained diligently.

After what was now not days but months of training in this place, Ethan had improved by leaps and bounds.

His cultivation had increased by 2 levels, bringing him to level 4 of the Qi Refining stage.

Even the system points Ethan had accumulated during this time ended up improving the recipes for some pills to perfection.

Doing this for all the recipes was too expensive, so he focused more on the pills that were most important to him at the moment.

Like the Qi Gathering Pill, a very commonly used pill among cultivators.

It sold well almost everywhere, so it was one of the pills Ethan upgraded to perfection, so he could also unlock it in the system's laboratory.

Although he had more time in his smaller dimension, it didn't mean he would spend all his time refining.

The time he dedicated to refining was only a few hours each day.

The rest of the pills were mainly produced using the alchemical lab.

Ethan focused on these recipes because they had a certain market value.

Once he finished with them, he concentrated more on accumulating System Points to improve his refining skill.

Everything was going smoothly until two days before the end-of-year exam, when an incident occurred.

Ethan decided to take a short break and prepare something new today.

He decided to head to the city market to gather some ingredients.

Although he had planted some spices in his smaller dimension, there were still some ingredients that couldn't simply be cultivated there.

So, he grabbed his things and left his dorm.

Outside, as usual, there weren't many people. This was because most of the disciples were either secluded somewhere cultivating, or in training areas fighting, or refining their combat techniques.

However, unlike on usual days, today Ethan had a strange sense of unease.

As he walked through the sect, he occasionally saw some disciples, which wouldn't have been too unusual, if not for the fact that everyone he saw seemed to be in a hurry.

'Why is everyone heading there?'

he thought as he saw people gathering in the outer sect's atrium.

This area of the sect usually remained quite calm.

It was only occasionally filled when important announcements were to be made, such as news about competitions, important external news, and so on.

Seeing the crowd of disciples, Ethan approached to find out what was happening.

Upon arriving, he noticed Da Shu on one side of the crowd, towering over most of the disciples with his tall stature.

Noticing him, Ethan approached.

"Hey, why is everyone gathering here?"

he asked as he reached Da Shu's side.

Da Shu, hearing him, looked around and spotted him.

He greeted Ethan and then explained:

"I'm not certain of the situation, but I heard that this morning a red talisman arrived at the sect's mission hall.

I assume it's something related to that."

"A red talisman..." Ethan murmured, beginning to understand the situation.

It should be known that the sect provided its disciples with various types of tools, including those for signaling something to the sect.

One-way communication talismans were among them.

These talismans, which every disciple going out on missions had to take, had several basic functions, one of which was to request help from the sect.

The talismans also indicated the person's condition and the situation for which help was needed.

And this was done based on color.

They could choose between three colors:

Green, yellow, red.

Green indicated a non-urgent request for help.

Yellow indicated an urgent request for help, but not one that involved serious or life-threatening danger.

Red, however...

Indicated an extremely dangerous situation, with almost certain death for the person.

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FRANK_LEE_JUNIOR:

Here's today's chapter. I hope you enjoyed it.

See you tomorrow with another chapter.