After Dan Zhenren’s class, the disciples were escorted toward the academy’s small refinement chamber located behind the medicinal gardens, near the eastern side of the academy grounds. Unlike the training halls filled with loud noises, this place had an eerie silence mixed with a suffocating medicinal fragrance. The walls of the chamber were built with dark, red stones resistant to flames, while rows of bronze cauldrons rested across the large circular room. Spirit herbs hung upside down from wooden shelves, slowly drying beneath the warm atmosphere.

As Dan Zhenren pushed open the massive chamber doors, waves of heated air rushed toward the students instantly.

"Woah..."

"So hot..."

"This place feels like a hot pot."

Several students muttered while entering the chamber carefully. Lin Yuan’s dark eyes slowly darted around the surroundings. The room structure instantly reminded him of magical laboratories from Noir’s previous world; controlled heat, stabilized surroundings, and essence concentration meant the core principles were nearly identical. Dan Zhenren slowly walked toward the center of the chamber and turned around toward the disciples.

"Today’s trial is called the Three Breath Trial," Dan Zhenren’s calm voice echoed across the room, causing the disciples to immediately quiet down. Dan Zhenren flicked his hand once with a loud whoosh, and eight bronze cauldrons floated from the sides of the chamber before landing vehemently in front of each disciple with a dull thuds. Beside each cauldron appeared one Green Spirit Herb, one Frost Dew Leaf, and one Rank 1 Pale White Beast Core.

"These ingredients are enough to refine a basic healing potion — Green Mist Recovery Liquid," Dan Zhenren elucidated calmly. He raised three fingers. "Your task is simple. You only have three breaths worth of flame control."

The students frowned immediately, muttering that three breaths was impossible and wondering how refinement could finish so quickly.

Dan Zhenren ignored the murmurs.

"The moment the third breath ends, your flames must stop completely. If the ingredients are not stabilized or impurities remain above forty percent... you fail." Dan Zhenren’s sharp eyes narrowed, and the atmosphere became heavy and suffocating.

Chen Ming swallowed hard while staring at the ingredients before him, whispering quietly toward Lin Yuan, "This old man is insane..."

Lin Yuan merely observed the cauldron silently.

Dan Zhenren continued. "Alchemy is not about producing medicine. It is about efficiency." He slowly tapped the side of a cauldron, letting his beast aura slither faintly into the chamber.

"A proper apothecary wastes nothing. Too much flame burns the essence. Too little flame kills the reaction. Too much hesitation creates impurities." Dan Zhenren suddenly smirked. "And panic ruins everything."

The students became nervous hearing those words. Dan Zhenren pointed toward the ingredients, shouting, "You may begin."

The chamber instantly exploded into activity as, one after another, disciples ignited flames under their cauldrons.

Yun He moved first among the students, her movements smooth and accurate as she carefully crushed the Green Spirit Herb before dropping it into the cauldron.

Huo Ren’s flames burned vehemently from the beginning, causing the heat around his place to rise expeditiously, while Lian Nichang remained calm, deliberately adjusting the flame output with precise movements. Meanwhile, Chen Ming was already sweating, muttering anxiously into his cauldron: "Why are you heating unevenly?"

Lin Yuan remained motionless. He did not touch the ingredients immediately; instead, his eyes quietly observed the flame temperature, ingredient reactions, essence flow, and condensation speed. Noir’s memories instinctively analyzed every process occurring within the chamber, calmly retrieving that the structure was unstable from the beginning.

The Green Spirit Herb released natural essence quickly, the Frost Dew Leaf existed to stabilize temperature, and the Beast Core powder compressed the medicinal effect, but the timing was everything.

Suddenly, a loud explosion echoed across the chamber. One disciple yelped as smoke burst from his cauldron, causing the surrounding students to flinch.

Dan Zhenren merely glanced once and declared, "Failed. Too much flame." The disciple’s face turned pale, and Dan Zhenren remained still with no expression as the atmosphere instantly became more tense, forcing several students to slow their movements carefully.

Lin Yuan finally moved. He slowly crushed the Green Spirit Herb between his fingers before placing it into the cauldron, and then he did nothing. The herb slowly melted naturally beneath the flame with no rushing and unnecessary movement. His eyes remained calm. Beside him, Gu Shiyan silently glanced toward Lin Yuan before continuing his own refinement.

Unlike the others, Gu Shiyan’s movements were cold, precise, and almost inhuman. Ying Yue, on the other hand, looked slightly panicked while attempting to stabilize her flames, muttering nervously that it was too fast.

Dan Zhenren slowly walked around the chamber, observing every disciple carefully until his gaze paused briefly on Lin Yuan. The herb inside Lin Yuan’s cauldron had not lost a single strand of medicinal essence.

’Interesting...’ Dan Zhenren narrowed his eyes slightly, and thought.

Meanwhile, Huo Ren suddenly increased his flame intensity. The liquid inside his cauldron boiled vehemently as Huo Ren grinned confidently, shouting that efficiency means speed. An instant later, the liquid exploded upward with a loud boom.

Huo Ren stumbled backward, his face covered in smoke, which caused several students to laugh softly.

"Efficiency without control is recklessness," Dan Zhenren coldly said, offering a pathetic look to Huo Ren. Huo Ren clenched his fists in embarrassment.

Lin Yuan ignored the surroundings, keeping his focus inside the cauldron where the herb had fully liquified. Deciding that temperature stabilization was next, he calmly picked up the Frost Dew Leaf and slowly tore it into smaller pieces. He did this not because it was necessary, but because smaller fragments allowed smoother cooling distribution — a principle taken from mana balancing techniques.

HISS!!

The moment the leaf entered the cauldron, the heat immediately stabilized with a sharp sound. Lin Yuan’s eyes slightly narrowed along with a nod of approval.

Meanwhile, Chen Ming looked like he was fighting for his life, panicking over why his liquid was bubbling so intensely.

"Less flame..." Lin Yuan spoke calmly without looking away from his own cauldron. Chen Ming immediately reduced the fire, and when the bubbling stabilized slightly, he exhaled in relief.

Dan Zhenren silently noticed the interaction, his gaze sharpening slightly as he realized that Lin Yuan was observing the entire environment even during his own refinement.

Lin Yuan finally crushed the Pale White Beast Core carefully into powder. The moment the powder touched the liquid, essence flickering exploded within the cauldron, and the medicinal liquid instantly became unstable. Several disciples panicked at this exact stage, but Lin Yuan remained calm, knowing that the Beast Core was not the medicine, but merely the catalyst. His fingers lightly adjusted the flame output slowly by lower, lower again, and then slightly higher until the liquid slowly stabilized and a faint green glow emerged from inside the cauldron.

Dan Zhenren’s eyes gleamed faintly at the heat adjustment. Most beginner disciples either overheated the core or froze the reaction, but Lin Yuan controlled the balance point perfectly.

Another explosion erupted from Fenglian’s cauldron, filling the chamber with smoke once again.

"Dammit!" Fenglian cursed.

While Dan Zhenren sighed softly, muttering. "These brats truly had no patience."

Minutes slowly passed as, one after another, disciples either succeeded partially or failed completely. Lian Nichang successfully refined a pale-green liquid with minimal impurities, and Yun He also succeeded, though her potion appeared slightly unstable. Gu Shiyan’s potion was darker than usual but extremely concentrated.

"I completed it!!" Chen Ming somehow survived the process through pure panic and luck, and expressed his win by excitedly shouting.

Dan Zhenren glanced at his potion. "...Barely,"

It immediately made Chen Ming depressed again. At the center of the chamber, Lin Yuan slowly extinguished his flames, and the room suddenly became quieter. Inside his cauldron rested a crystal-clear green liquid releasing a faint medicinal fragrance. With no excess heat, no instability, and no wasted essence, the liquid swirled smoothly like calm water.

Dan Zhenren walked toward Lin Yuan slowly, drawing the gaze of the surrounding disciples, while even Gu Shiyan narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Ninety-two percent purity." Dan Zhenren stared into the cauldron silently for several moments before his expression changed slightly.

The entire chamber froze in disbelief and whispers rippled through the room.

"What?"

"Ninety-two?"

"That’s impossible..."

Even Lian Nichang widened her eyes slightly. Dan Zhenren slowly lifted the liquid with essence, the medicinal glow remained meticulously stable, and not a single trace of burned essence existed.

"How did you learn flame balancing?" Dan Zhenren turned toward Lin Yuan slowly, and asked.

"I simply reduced unnecessary losses." Lin Yuan calmly answered.

Dan Zhenren stared at him quietly. That answer sounded simple, but only experienced apothecaries understood how terrifying it truly was. Most people refined by following instructions, memorizing methods, or relying on instinct, but Lin Yuan refined through pure understanding, which was completely different from others.

"Hahaha... You truly are an interesting monster, Lin Yuan." Dan Zhenren suddenly laughed softly, shocking the disciples, because the old apothecary almost never laughed.

Lin Yuan remained silent while Huo Ren clicked his tongue in irritation. Gu Shiyan quietly observed Lin Yuan from the shadows of the chamber, Ying Yue looked at him with disbelief, and even Yun He’s expression became slightly complicated.

Dan Zhenren waved his hand suddenly, sending several small jade bottles floating into the air to land before Lin Yuan, Lian Nichang, and Yun He.

"These are your rewards for the top three refinements," Dan Zhenren announced.

Lian Nichang carefully received his bottle, Yun He bowed respectfully, and Lin Yuan simply grabbed his bottle calmly.

"Lin Yuan received first place. Thirty Essence Stones. And... permission to enter my medicinal garden for one day." Dan Zhenren continued, squinting his eyes gently.

The disciples immediately became envious, as Dan Zhenren’s medicinal garden was famous throughout the academy, and even the low-grade herbs there were worth enormous amounts of essence stones.

"Brother Lin... you struck gold..." Chen Ming immediately whispered excitedly.

Lin Yuan merely looked down at the jade bottle silently. But inwardly, Noir’s memories continued analyzing the process of essence change, heat stabilization, and reaction balance. The similarities between magic and alchemy cultivation were becoming clearer and clearer, and for the first time, Lin Yuan felt something dangerous slowly emerging inside his thoughts. It was a possibility: If beast cultivation could be analyzed like alchemy, then perhaps the River of Origin itself also had rules. And anything with rules could eventually be broken.