Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

They arrived on the other side of the front building that led to a massive open ground where the alchemists sat and cultivated or rested in between their lessons, or even just had fun with their friends. 

Alex and the rest behind him saw the open ground and were quite impressed at how much was being given to the disciples here. 

Back in the Southern Continent, while the Royal Alchemy guild wasn\'t necessarily small, it could never compete with how grand this place was.

"There are many elders in the academy who teach students who wish to learn," the old woman said. "We don\'t assign disciples to any elders, but rather let their reputation gather the students for them."

"We test our disciples for 10 different levels with increasing difficulty in each case, and only after they pass the 9th level can they graduate from our school. If they end up remaining in a single level for a certain period of time, we expel them," the old woman said. "This creates a very competitive atmosphere in the school while also not putting the disciples head to head against each other, and instead lets them help each other."

"That\'s quite the nice system," Alex said. "Our own Royal Alchemy guild is small with about 500 members right now, so they all learn together and don\'t have many distinctions as of now."

"With that small number, you can\'t make many distinctions anyway," the old woman said. "We, on the other hand, have about 70 thousand disciples, so we are forced to do so. Also, it\'s something that apparently the Immortals do too, so we follow it."

Alex and the rest were taken aback by the statement. "The Immortals?" he asked.

"We\'re talking about our ruler, the Azure Dragon," the Crown Prince intervened. "They sometimes tell us how it is done in the realms above and we follow it. This system in particular was taught by the Azure Dragon that left 30 millennia ago."

"Oh! The school has been going on for that long, huh?" Alex commented. 

"It has actually been going on for much longer. The Royal School itself was established by the first Dragon Emperor and it taught everything in a single school."

"As people started joining in more and more, they had to separate it into individual schools somewhere in between. As for when exactly, we don\'t have any factual information."

"I see," Alex said. "You mentioned you have 70 thousand disciples just in this school. Do you allow just anyone to join?"

"Yes," the old woman said. "Anyone can join and anyone can leave whenever they want. We don\'t make any discrimination between who can learn and who can\'t, or what they do after leaving. As long as they are capable of reaching the first level set in this school, they can join."

"And what does this first level require?" Alex asked.

"The person has to recognize about 1000 of the thousands of different ingredients we have in display at the testing facility and make a common pill with 40% or more harmony in a single try," the old woman said.

"40%? Just to even enter the school?" Alex asked in surprise. "Most people that are just starting to make pills can\'t do that, can they?"

"No, but that is what we ask of them," the old woman said. "If we allowed everyone to enter just because they wanted to, we would be overrun the moment we open for admission each year."

"Ah, yes. That is true," Alex said. Still, 40% was quite the requirement to even enter. He could only wonder what the rest of them were.

The group carried on looking through the various buildings and the alchemy rooms they were all provided. There was an in-school shop where everything was sold for spirit stones and bought from them as well.

The 20 alchemists behind them made remarks on how good everything looked, and how useful it would be to have these things back home as well.

Alex noted alchemists walking past them with badges on their chests that read their level. 

As they went through most of the buildings, Alex realized that most of the levels were below 7. He barely saw anyone at level 7, and there wasn\'t a single person in level 8 at all.

So, he got a little curious.

"Do you not have level 8 and above people?" he asked.

"We have a few," the headmaster said. "If I\'m not wrong, we currently have about 10 people that have reached level 8. As for 9, we have 3 only."

"Oh, so there are, huh?" Alex said. "I don\'t see any though."

"Most of them are older cultivators, so they spend most of their time cultivating or training in seclusion. The higher their level, the more grace period they have to level up to the next level."

"For someone in level 8, we give them 1000 years to level up, and for someone on level 9, they have 3000 years," the headmaster said.

"A thousand, huh?" Alex asked. "May I ask what the criteria are for reaching level 9 that you have to give them a thousand years to train?"

"Recognize every single ingredient you are asked about, have a perfect knowledge of at least 500 different Saint recipes, and make 100 Saint rank pills that are in the Heaven-grade within a single day, of which at least 1 should be Immortal grade pills," the old woman said. "If you can do that without making a single mistake, you pass."

"That\'s a difficult set of rules," Alex said. "I can see why only 3 people have made it that far."

In the history of the school, there have never been more than a hundred such alchemists. 

"That is to be expected," Alex said. "And all 3 of those alchemists are in seclusion, huh? I hope they will at least come out of seclusion in the next 20 years so the alchemists I brought along with me can learn from them."

"I\'m sure they will," the woman said. "Besides, only two of them are in closed cultivation right now. We have one walking around with us right now."

"Hmm?" Alex was a little surprised and looked around to see if he could see someone with a badge that had 9 written on it. "I don\'t see anyone like that."

"She\'s talking about me, your Majesty," the Crown Prince spoke.

Alex turned around with a surprised look on his face. "Oh! You\'re an alchemist too, your Highness?" he asked.

"Haha, yes. It is one of the things I like to brag about myself," the Crown Prince said with a sheepish smile.

"I\'m impressed," Alex said.

"It\'s nothing compared to what I\'ve heard you can do, Your Majesty," the Crown Prince said.

"Even if you compare yourself to me, we can clearly see that you are an amazing alchemist, Your Highness," Alex said. "Although, I must say I\'m surprised that someone like you would try to become an Alchemist. Would you mind telling me why?"