With one Mystical Orb, Forus could easily pass through the inspection of the city's guards, after all, none of the guards would want to offend any sorcerers, even if they were only the first-layer sorcerer apprentice. Any mortals would fear the supernatural power that the sorcerers wielded.

Forus took many detours and turned around at many corners to avoid those who tried to follow him and finally arrived at his rented house. He quickly wrote all the details about the incident into his daily. No matter how useless or insignificant they were, he would not neglect them as they could provide some unexpected results.

Now that Forus couldn't use his Death Aura and decay-related spells, he needed to strengthen his power by practising his ice-element and light-element manipulation as they were the easiest for him to control because of his affection.

After he rearranged his thought process, Forus dressed himself up and went out of his house, making his way towards the Steel Cauldron's recruitment examination.

Along his way towards the Steel Cauldron, he had deliberately chosen to detour towards the remote and secondary roads where not many people would walk. Forus needed to avoid the crowded place and the eyes of the sorcerer-bloodline families. Although they were silent and didn't actively try to find him, the damage he had done to them was beyond their bottom line.

Even if he didn't do anything to damage the reputation of the sorcerer-bloodline families, the mistress of the Coruscare Family would still try to find him. A moment of careless of his had created this situation, and now Forus had to live with it.

Thinking about all his past mistakes and how to avoid them, Forus unknowingly arrived at the destination. Noticing that he had reached the Steel Cauldron's recruitment area early, he went and found himself a random seat to relax and read his daily, trying to improve his understanding of his powers and tried to formulate unique and useful methods of employing his limited skills.

Losing in his thoughts, Forus tried to comprehend the features of his spells. He envisioned them inside of his head and practising them in his mind. Although this would increase his mastery of the spells, it also took a considerable amount of his mental concentration, causing his soul to wear down.

Once he regained his consciousness, Forus found that the sound of the ringing bell was the one that woke him up. The ringing of the bell signified the start of the examination.

"Greeting mister, how may I help you?" The smile of the receptionist was still the same as last time Forus saw it. Her smile was refined and elegant.

She looked at the man in front of her, his appearance still hadn't changed one bit, except for his eyes. He had covered his right eye with an eye pad, making him looked mysterious.

"I came here to participate the Steel Cauldron's recruitment. My name is Falsus Nomen." Throwing a Mystical Orb at her, Forus cooly announced his intention. His expressionless face caught the attention of some people, but upon seeing that he was an unknown guy, all of them quickly stopped paying their attention to him.

"Oh. I'm sorry about your right eye, Mister Falsus. I hope you get well soon." The receptionist carefully held his hand as she voiced her worry. Her action caused jealously to appear within the heart of the onlookers, but seeing his mysterious and cold face, they all backed off.

"Here is your pendant, please don't lose it." After handling some paperwork, she took out a pendant with Falsus craved on it and handing it to him. Her behaviour was very soothing and attractive, winking at him seductively.

"Thanks." Forus looked at her coldly and took the pendant before walking into the examination ground, not even batting his eye at her. In his eyes, she was merely trying to get close to him to leech off his property.

Although he could avoid this issue by not showing off how wealthy he was, he needed to establish his reputation as a foundation for his member status in the Steel Cauldron. It was the same as when he lured some thugs to beat them up. He needed to have some exploitable weaknesses for the higher-ups to take notice of him.

Naturally, his action caused the male sorcerers to become annoyed at him, attracting a lot of envy and dissatisfaction. Other people would feel joy when a pretty girl tried to get close to them, but Forus himself wasn't a person of this generation, not to mention that he had already had a wife and a daughter.

His personality and mental state weren't the same as ordinary people. After experiencing the state of nothingness and came out of it, Forus knew that he wasn't regular human anymore, he had struck between the border of life and death.

The very thought of death had numbed him of almost all emotions. Nothing mundane could stir his feeling anymore, except for the memories of his first life. Forus even asked himself that if he forgot his past, would he be able to feel emotion anymore?

"Everyone, you are very fortunate today. There is a special guest that would like to see the process of recruitment. If any of you could rise her interest, consider it your good fortune." An old man made his announcement abruptly, causing everyone to look at his direction.

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Behind that man was an orderly row of servants, standing completely still, welcoming their mistress as respectful as possible. Forus could see a figure covered in a veil of mysteriousness in both physically and mentally.

Her manner was refined and elegant, causing a lasting impression in others' mind. Forus instantly froze when he saw the maiden covered in the orange veil. Her long reddish hair and dark orange dress danced with the gentle breeze, creating a unique scenery to the eyes.

If not for his great self-control, Forus would have stood up and tried to get away as soon as possible. Between him and her, Forus could see an infinitesimal thread of fate connected between him and her.

Forus slowly lifted his hand to pull down his robe, further concealing his appearance before taking out a book and read it as if he was killing time. He intentionally slowed down his actions to make them as natural as possible.

He could feel that something was different from the usual Ocelia that he feared. Her temperament seemed to experience a comprehensive change, becoming much more delicate and refined. Her supernatural aura also became a lot more dominant that it could suffocate any weak-willed person.

Although Forus didn't want to admit it, he had already figured out that she had already reached the stage of the true sorcerer, a genuine first ranked sorcerer. The difference between his power that got restained by the spiritual seed and her unrestrained strength was enormous.

"Greeting everybody, the Steel Cauldron had invited me to this wonderful event. How could I refuse them? I hope every one of you would become famous and successful." Her smile was alluring, igniting the burning desire of the onlookers. Even some ladies started to blush just by witnessing her smile.

There were only some unique people that kept their indifference altitude towards her, including Forus. Those people had tempered their mental state to a great extent, enabling them to become unfazed by that smile.

"Thank you for your kind words, Miss." The same old man walked towards the mistress of the Coruscare Family and offered her some praise before instructed his assistants to start the tests.

Due to the strange appearance of Ocelia Coruscare, Forus had to keep things under control. He mustn't exhibit too much potential, as it would attract her interest. His plan to grow his reputation needed to change immediately.

"Follow me, everyone." A female assistant spoke with her lovely voice, magnified by magic, making it possible for everyone to hear her. She led everybody to the examination ground before leaving the rest of the tasks with another assistant.

"The first test is for all of you to record down all the components that you could recognise. You could also write down the recipes of any potions you could remember. We will check for the correct version of the answers, as well as their rarity and property. The more rare and high property it has, the more point you would get." A man cloaked in a green robe that was the uniform of the Steel Cauldron walked into the testing ground and announced the content of the examination.

The atmosphere of the examination ground was very solemn and heavy, coupled with the presence of the special guest, they would need to perform better than the rest for her to take notice of them. If they succeed in getting the interest of that guest up, their future would be limitless, but if they performed poorly, the wrong impression would develop inside everyone's mind, causing their reputation to worsen.

With that frightening thought in their mind, virtually everyone was nervous, except for a few extraordinary and confident people. These people would be the one with great backgrounds, having the backing of a large family, or a prodigy of a great clan, excelling in the art of alchemy.

Sitting down, Forus didn't begin the profound and rare medical ingredients yet. He wrote the basic ones while surveying his surrounding, looking for the location of Ocelia. If he did too well in this test, he would gather the attention of both the higher-ups and her, which would be disastrous.

...

Ocelia Coruscare swept her vision across the testing ground, looking for any abnormality. After her breakthrough, her temperament had changed completely, becoming more refined and less hot-blooded. She could also vaguely feel that there was some connection between her and that mysterious man.

It was as if a string had connected both of them like a knot of love. She could sense that the man she desired would meet with her again here. That was why she agreed to come to this dull place.

She could see that some of the descendants of the big family of the city had come here to register as an alchemist. These people had lost in the internal war for the successor, so they had to come here to build their faction.

Only a few people could make her glared twice. The man with a plain black robe who relaxingly wrote down the spiritual plants on his paper, the man cloaked in red cloth had already finished his writing and was now meditating, the woman in purple who elegantly wrote her paper at lightning-speed.

On the closer look, she could see that the black-robed man had a complicated injury at his right eye. His right eye also occasionally emitted faint icy cold breeze, making the temperature around him dropped for an instant.

Ocelia's interest perked up as she carefully observed his condition. Due to her talent and great comprehensive ability, she could deduce that the man had suffered a strike from a powerful actual ice sorcerer. The blow was so devastating that it bound his regenerative spell and disabled his right eye, making him blind.

Thinking about how the man had survived an attack of a true sorcerer while he was a third-layer sorcerer apprentice, her interest in him jumped up a little before died down afterwards. After all, she was there for her target, not for watching some random alchemists.

"Greeting, Miss Ocelia. Why is it that you, the eldest mistress of Coruscare Family, come to this unworthy place?" A male voice disrupted her thought process, causing her to glare that the incoming figure. Her indifferent personality instantly returned when she saw that figure.

"Pleased to meet you, Mister Glacies, the eldest young master of the Ninguis Family." Ocelia bowed down elegantly, but it was without any hint of emotion or interested, completely disregarded the person before her.

"I just came here to congratulate you on your breakthrough, and also to find a criminal that disrespected our family." Behind him, a timid servant in grey walked out. After he had escaped death and returned to the Ninguis Family, he had spread the words of the incident, painting Forus as a bloodthirsty murderer who killed their young master.

"Sorry, Miss Ocelia, but the information we received from this servant tell us that the criminal will reveal themselves at this meeting." The words from Glacies caused the servant to tremble for an instant before regaining his composure. In his eyes, a hint of confusion quickly manifested itself.

"Very well, let us watch the show then." Ocelia smiled lightly before returning to her seat.