Interstellar Farming: I Make Potions and Climb to the Top

"What? You’re entering the unlimited division?" Shen Wenwen’s eyes widened in astonishment when she heard Ning Xuan was headed to the pre-competition rules briefing for the unlimited division.

Shen Wenwen was the other young woman from Ning Xuan’s class with Upper Seat Ru Hui. She was also an Advanced Alchemist from a mid-sized family on an A-level Star, as well as a B-level spiritual power Controller. Over the past month, she had only attended class twice, yet she came to chat with Ning Xuan every day after class.

After a while, Ning Xuan became quite familiar with Shen Wenwen.

"Mhm!" Ning Xuan nodded, confirming Shen Wenwen’s disbelief.

"The unlimited division is only held once every three years. Do you have any idea how insane the rules were for the last one?" Shen Wenwen said dramatically.

"Female Advanced Alchemists are a rarity. What were you thinking, joining that division? Tell me the truth, did someone force you to do it? Listen, very few women enter the unlimited division. To encourage female participation, they get the academies to pressure students, promising the schools all sorts of benefits. You can’t fall for that! You can still change your registration, so you should hurry and get it switched." Seeing that Ning Xuan was unconcerned, Shen Wenwen pleaded anxiously.

"Since I’ve already registered, I’m not changing it. I need to get to class." Ning Xuan had already familiarized herself with the basic rules of the unlimited division. Unlike the competitions for Initial, Middle, and High-level Alchemists, which were held in fixed venues, the unlimited division’s venue was not fixed. For each competition, the location was randomly selected from one of the Ten Great Secret Realms. The previous competition had been in the Nine Nether Secret Realm; this year’s location was still undetermined.

"Hey..." Shen Wenwen could only watch as Ning Xuan walked over to the unlimited division. She stomped her foot in frustration and helplessly returned to the area for the Advanced Alchemist division.

The moment Ning Xuan walked into the nine-tiered lecture hall for the unlimited division, she attracted countless probing gazes. The unlimited division had no restrictions on age or skill level; any Alchemist could participate. The massive hall held well over a thousand Alchemists—a diverse crowd of men and women, young and old.

Ning Xuan had just taken her seat when a tall, young woman walked into the classroom. Her image was projected onto the large screen at the front. "Hello, everyone. I am the pre-competition training instructor for the unlimited division. My surname is Bai."

"Dean Bai! I’m Wang Qingxiu, from the Federal First Comprehensive Academy, class of Star Calendar 963. It’s an honor to learn from you again." A young man in the front row stood up excitedly and bowed deeply to Dean Bai.

"So that’s Dean Bai from the Federal First Comprehensive Academy! Wow, I hear her teaching is really strict." Ning Xuan overheard someone whispering nearby.

"Please, be seated. Many of you here are current or former students of the Federal First Comprehensive Academy. Of course, there are also many talented individuals from other institutions. All of you are here today for the same reason: to perform well in the unlimited division of the Alchemist Competition."

"The first announcement for today: the competition venue will be drawn tomorrow at 12:00 PM. The drawing will be broadcast live network-wide."

"Second announcement: this year’s unlimited division will be more difficult than in previous years. Accordingly, the prizes have been increased. The number of Guiding Tokens to the Chaotic Divine Domain has been raised to three, and all other rewards have been tripled."

The moment Bai Xiurong finished speaking, a wave of cheers erupted. Increased rewards meant that more people would be able to win them.

"Next, I will distribute the rules for the preliminary screening before you enter the Secret Realm. You can use these to prepare with targeted training." Bai Xiurong retrieved a thick stack of files from her Space Button and gestured for an assistant to pass them out.

Ning Xuan soon received a copy of the files and began to study it carefully.

Round One: Preliminary Screening - Star Domain Selection

1. Blind Test - Ingredient Identification, Sourcing, and Refining Skills: Within 3 hours, contestants must analyze a randomly assigned, unknown interstellar exotic plant and refine it into a basic supplemental medicine that complies with the *Federal Medicinal Safety Standards*. The medicine does not need to have any practical effects, so long as it is not lethal.

Core Requirement: Contestants must perform a comprehensive analysis of the ingredient’s physical characteristics, energy properties, and compatibility, then deduce the optimal refining method.

- Must label: ingredient name, place of origin, growing environment (e.g., edge of a frozen pond, volcanic crater), and season of harvest (which affects the potency of its properties).

- Special mutated ingredients require an additional explanation for the cause of mutation (e.g., Thunderstruck Wood, insect-eaten grass). 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

2. Refined Liquid Purity Challenge: Within three hours, contestants must purify a randomly assigned liquid medicine according to the requirements. The higher the purity, the higher the score.

3. High-level Compound Potion Refining: Within three hours, contestants must follow the requirements to select and attempt to refine three different High-level Compound Potion formulas from a random assortment. The refining success rate must be 30% or higher.

Those who pass the first round can enter the second round. The rules for the second round will be determined by the competition venue drawn tomorrow.

The rest of the file packet contained information about previous competitions.

Ning Xuan flipped through several pages. All of it was information on the first round. In this thick stack, there wasn’t a single word about the second round.

"Alright, the files have been handed out. The official pre-competition intensive training begins tomorrow afternoon. Be ready." With that, Bai Xiurong left with her assistant.

After Bai Xiurong left, the lecture hall instantly filled with wails of despair. "Didn’t they say there were no skill restrictions? The preliminary screening requires us to refine High-level Compound Potions. They might as well just say you need to be at an Advanced Alchemist’s level to even participate this year," someone complained.

"The preliminary screening is way too difficult. I’ll never get past the first stage, the blind test. My dream of entering a Secret Realm to find opportunities is over," someone said, disappointed. The venue for the unlimited Alchemist competition was randomly chosen from the Ten Great Secret Realms, and each one was a land of treasures.

"With the preliminary screening being this hard, a lot of people are definitely going to be eliminated. If too few people make it to the second round, maybe they’ll change the rules," someone speculated.

"Three years ago, during the Nine Nether Secret Realm competition, a lot of people died, but many others shot to fame overnight. The number of people who signed up this time is much higher than last time."

"Let’s just prepare as best we can. Maybe if we’re lucky and get an easy topic, we can scrape by!" Those with a relatively solid foundation immediately threw themselves into intense training.

The laboratory facilities for the unlimited division were far more advanced than those for the other divisions. As Ning Xuan entered a lab, the room’s intelligent system automatically initiated a dialogue: "Please select an experimental simulation environment."

"A. Zero-gravity Environment; B. 3x Gravity Environment; C. Interstellar Storm Environment; D. Extreme Cold Environment; E. Furnace Environment."

After a moment of thought, Ning Xuan chose to simulate an interstellar storm. The instant she selected option C, she felt her body go flying, slamming into the wall with a SMACK.