Though Lin Fan couldn’t see the face of the flame figure, he was able to tell that there was something different about the way that it said this.

There was even this trace of doubt in its voice as if it couldn’t believe what Lin Fan said.

It wasn’t as if there was anything that Lin Fan could say in response to this since he had his doubts about what he said as well.

The only reason that he had said it was because the system had caught him off guard.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have said this name out loud like this.

After a long silence, the flame figure said with a sigh, "There’s no need to be this tense. It’s not as if I’m going to punish you for saying this."

Lin Fan didn’t let his guard down for a second when he heard this. It was clear that he didn’t believe the flame figure when it said this.

However, it also didn’t seem like the flame figure cared that he didn’t believe it.

Rather, it looked like the flame figure was slowly losing interest in Lin Fan as it went over to look at the last herb that Lin Fan had named. As it looked at this ’Golden Bell Reed’, there was this strange sensation that came over Lin Fan.

Lin Fan still couldn’t see the expression of the flame figure, but he could sense that there was something special about the way that the flame figure looked at the herb.

It was almost as if there was something that it was reminiscing about.

There was another long silence that followed before the flame figure finally said, "Alright, you pass the first test."

Without even giving Lin Fan a chance to react, it waved its hand and made all of the herbs disappear.

As the herbs disappeared, Lin Fan couldn’t help taking one last look at that ’Golden Bell Reed’. After all, the system had told him what was special about it and why it wanted him to obtain it.

"So does that mean that the Dao Sect has connections to an upper realm?"

Putting aside what the system wanted, Lin Fan focused on what it meant for the ’Golden Bell Reed’ to appear in this place.

The description that the system gave him told him that this herb was actually something that had traces of immortal energy in it. Which was also the reason why the system had wanted it.

The most surprising thing was that the system said that this single herb had enough immortal energy to actually help it upgrade itself. That was the main reason why the system had suddenly urged him to obtain it.

However, it wasn’t as if Lin Fan could take it from the flame figure in front of him.

But that did raise the question of where the Dao Sect got it...

"If they had some kind of connection to an upper realm full of immortals, would they have even been destroyed in the first place? No, it’s impossible that they would have been destroyed unless it was something that even the upper realm couldn’t deal with. If it was a disaster of the lower realm, it would be impossible that the upper realm would be helpless."

After thinking it through, Lin Fan convinced himself that this wasn’t possible.

Which was why he shook that thought from out of his mind and once again thought about how to obtain that ’Golden Bell Reed’.

Even if it was hard to obtain, Lin Fan wanted to at least give it a try instead of letting it slip through his fingers like this.

Only he didn’t get a chance to think about it anymore as the flame figure brought something else out.

They didn’t leave the testing area, the flame figure just made that thing appear on the workstation in front of him.

When this appeared, it really was hard for Lin Fan to mistake what this set was.

With the cauldron and the herbs, it was clear that this was a test of pill refining.

The only problem was...

"I don’t know how to refine pills at all."

Lin Fan never really had the need to learn how to refine pills since there were always those that would refine pills for him. So it wasn’t as if he had ever spent time on learning how to refine any pills.

But it wasn’t as if he didn’t have a solution.

If he didn’t have a solution, Lin Fan never would have volunteered for this trial in the first place.

"Time to buy a few things." Lin Fan thought to himself as he summoned the Dungeon Master System’s store.

There were skills that could be bought from the system as long as he had enough DP and among them were alchemy skills. What he lacked, he would make up for with DP and mass buying skills.

It didn’t take long for knowledge to fill his head, but there was a limit to how much knowledge he could obtain from the store alone. It wasn’t as if just the knowledge from the store alone would be able to make him a master alchemist.

However, it was more than enough for this trial since it wasn’t as if this trial was supposed to be that hard in the first place.

Or that was the case until Lin Fan read the recipe that was provided.

"This...isn’t this the wrong recipe?" Lin Fan couldn’t help asking the flame figure in the end.

The flame figure didn’t get angry that Lin Fan asked this question.

Instead, when it looked at Lin Fan, Lin Fan could tell that it was amused that Lin Fan asked this.

The flame figure just casually said, "It’s because you showed something that surpassed the scope of the previous test. As such, I had no choice but to adjust the difficulty of the test to match your abilities." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

If he could see the face of the flame figure, Lin Fan was certain that it would have been smiling at him. Though that smile wouldn’t have been a casual one, it would have been one that would have seemed like it was taunting him.

Seeing the flame figure act this way, Lin Fan couldn’t stop the wry smile from appearing on his face.

In fact, he even expected the next words from the flame figure, "If you wish to adjust the difficulty, just tell me how you recognized that last herb from earlier. If it was just a fluke or something else, then I can adjust the difficulty back."

Lin Fan couldn’t help shaking his head when he heard this, but he didn’t say anything since there was nothing that he could say. It wasn’t as if he could just reveal the identity of the one that had given him the answer.

The system was his bottom line.

Anything else would be seen through by the flame figure.

Lin Fan didn’t have any proof of this, but he could sense that the flame figure would be able to see through anything but the truth. It was just the kind of strange place that the Dao Sect was that he couldn’t predict anything.

So the only thing that he could do was study the recipe and see if he could figure something out.

While he was doing this, the flame figure leaned in over him to look at the way that he studied the recipe before saying, "How can someone that struggles with this simple recipe have identified the herb?"

"Is it really that simple?" Lin Fan asked back.

Only the flame figure didn’t seem interested in talking to him as if moved away again.

Lin Fan could only give a secret sigh since there was nothing that he could do if the flame figure wasn’t willing to talk to him. He had hoped that he would be able to get some information since the flame figure was willing to talk to him.

He knew that the flame figure was only doing this to get information from him about how he identified the ’Golden Bell Reed’, but it seemed like the flame figure really knew where to draw the line.

So he wasn’t able to lead the conversation with the flame figure at all.

In that case, the only thing that he could do was try to refine this pill and see what happened. It was almost certain that he would fail, but it didn’t matter at this point since he wasn’t able to do anything else.

He didn’t think that the flame figure would harm him for failing, but it wasn’t as if he wasn’t prepared just in case. In a worst case scenario, all they would have to do is rampage and break out of this place.

If Ye Qing Huan wasn’t confident in doing that, then she never would have let him take this trial in the first place.

In fact, she was even looking at him as if she was expecting him to fail so that she would have to make a move.

Which was why he reached out towards the herbs in front of him.

"It’s time to embarrass myself."

That was what Lin Fan thought at first, but then there was something strange that appeared.

It seemed like there was something that appeared in his vision that was highlighting certain herbs.

As he was wondering what this was, there was a voice that suddenly rang out in his head.

This wasn’t a voice that he was unfamiliar with.

"Activating alchemy guiding system. Host, please follow the instructions given."