Inside the alchemy room, there was a complete set of materials, including alchemy furnaces, earth fire, and spiritual herbs.

The illusion before them transformed from a young girl into a stone slab with a line of large characters inscribed on it: "First Trial: Refine a Spirit Recovery Pill." A line of smaller characters followed: "Time flows slowly within the assessment area; those taking the assessment need not be impatient."

So, this is just an illusion specifically used for assessment?

Refining the Rejuvenation Pill was simple, but this assessment puzzled Shi Xuan. If she wasn't mistaken, it should be an assessment scene where she was teleported based on her talent value after the talent test in the courtyard. The reason it was described as being based on talent was because if it weren't based on talent, why would there be any need to test it?

If it weren't for the fact that the secret realm was disconnected from the outside world, Shi Xuan would have really wanted to take out the communication jade and ask the Shen brothers what exactly was going on.

She didn't rush to refine the pills, but wanted to first check the authenticity of the items in this assessment illusion.

Shi Xuan walked to the bookshelf, took down a book, and opened it. It was a copy of an alchemy manual, the author of which was unknown, recording the successes and failures of this alchemist's experiments. As Shi Xuan flipped through the book, she found that all the records were true, and many of them even reflected problems she had encountered in her own past alchemy attempts.

Shi Xuan put down the notebook and picked up another book, a book of pill formulas. Many of the pill formulas recorded in it were ones that Shi Xuan did not yet know, and this book benefited her greatly.

Since he had already been told that there was no need to worry about time, Shi Xuan simply sat down and began to look through these alchemical books. They contained a lot of experience and introductions to spiritual herbs.

It was only then that Shi Xuan learned that the glowing mushrooms he had received in the leopard's den outside were called Falling Shadow Orchids, used to make hallucinogenic pills. And the enormous Falling Fruit, chosen by Zhao Cai in the Six Sects Alchemy Competition, was a good supplement for spirit beasts.

Although he could read a page at a glance thanks to his powerful divine sense, it still took him a long time to finish reading all the books in the room.

There is no distinction between day and night in the illusion. Shi Xuan calculated the time it took to finish reading a book, and at least seven or eight days had passed.

Shi Xuan checked everything until there was nothing missing, then stood up, stretched, and selected the parts he found most useful, recording them on jade slips and storing them in his space.

After finishing everything he wanted to do, Shi Xuan walked to the stone slab and began refining pills according to the assessment requirements.

She's refined so many Rejuvenation Pills that she could make a mistake even with her eyes closed.

The illusion recognized that she had completed the first test, and the words on the stone slab changed: Second test: Refine a batch of Foundation Building Pills, requiring high quality.

Shi Xuan muttered to himself, "A top-grade one is a bit difficult, but what about a superb one?"

The stone slab also responded: Okay.

Shi Xuan was overjoyed; this was indeed a wise stone slab.

She took out all the materials and put them into the alchemy furnace. The top-grade Foundation Establishment Pill was quickly produced.

Time was passing too quickly, the quality of the pills was too high, and ten pills were too many. For a moment, the stone slab seemed to be in a dilemma, wondering if it had "misread" the situation.

After confirming again, it finally changed the text to: Third level, please refine a batch of Rejuvenation Pills, requirement: top grade.

Wow, the requirements for this illusion are quite high. It actually requires the third-grade pills to be of the highest quality. I wonder how long it would take an ordinary pill cultivator to achieve that. Does this mean they have to spend their whole life in this illusion?

However, Shi Xuan thought back to the books he had just read. If he could read all the books and master them all, it would indeed be possible.

However, top-grade third-tier Rejuvenation Pills were just routine for Shi Xuan, and she quickly succeeded in refining them.

There were no Dao seals in the illusion, but the pills that appeared were of the highest quality and flawless.

The stone slab seemed to pause again, as if it couldn't believe that a Foundation Establishment cultivator could refine a top-grade Rejuvenation Pill in such a short time.

But no matter how she tested it, she had indeed successfully refined a top-grade, flawless rejuvenation pill.

The stone slab changes again: Fourth level: Please upgrade the Rejuvenation Pill in front of you by one grade.

A box appeared in front of Shi Xuan, containing a low-grade Spirit Recovery Pill.

Normally, Shi Xuan would think that this grade of Rejuvenation Pill was only good for watering the herb field, but now it was an assessment.

This was a field she had never tried before. In the past, when the quality of the pills was not high enough, she would find a way to improve the pill refining method and upgrade the quality next time. There was no need to modify the original pills.

Moreover, this modification is much more troublesome than refining a whole one.

The pill has already taken shape. To upgrade its grade, the individual components of the finished pill must be separated again and impurities removed and fused together once more. If any of these steps are not done carefully, the entire pill will be ruined.

While browsing through the books in the room, Shi Xuan did see this purification method in one of the notebooks. The alchemist who recorded it had filled more than thirty pages with records of failures in purification.

Shi Xuan was now also considering trying this method.

She picked up the lowest-grade Rejuvenation Pill, first outlining the steps for separating the components in her mind, then removing impurities and re-integrating them.

After mentally rehearsing the process, she began to work. Using her spiritual power to control the pill and her divine sense to distinguish the components of each tiny speck of dust, she expended a great deal of effort to separate the entire pill.

It can really succeed!

Separating all the fine, fused medicinal powders back together was painstaking and tedious, but incredibly rewarding. In his excitement, Shi Xuan lost his composure and his spiritual energy failed to contain the separated materials, causing them to scatter.

Some dust was spilled on the ground. Although there was still enough left to make a pill, Shi Xuan, a perfectionist, simply gave up.

The stone slab quickly provided another low-grade Rejuvenation Pill, as if to say: This is normal.

Shi Xuan repeated the action he had just performed. This time, he separated the entire pill in a shorter time than before, and then put it back into the alchemy furnace to fuse and remove impurities, forming a new pill.

After a series of operations, the resulting new pill maintained Shi Xuan's consistent quality—the Supreme Flawless Spirit-Returning Pill.

Shi Xuan was overjoyed because she suddenly realized the use of this skill. If she encountered a rare material, or a high-grade pill that she only had one of, and it happened to be of low quality, could she use this method to refine and process it into a top-grade pill?

She was asked to improve a grade, and she improved it to the top. This kind of quick and excessive completion of the task would make the illusion think that the question she set was too easy.

The stone slab, perhaps numb with frustration, reluctantly displayed two large characters: Pass.

The illusion vanished, and she felt as if she had completed the game, yet also as if she hadn't. She was still in a doorless room, as if she had never moved.

She observed carefully and, judging from the color of the walls, it seemed that she had indeed changed rooms.

When the familiar illusion reappeared this time, Shi Xuan was no longer surprised.