The strange scene that suddenly appeared in the square was also a big surprise to Xiao Yan. Looking at the stunned gazes shooting towards him, Xiao Yan could only helplessly shrug his shoulders. With a wave of his hand, the blue flame was thrown into the medicine cauldron, and only then did the flames held by the other contestants return to normal.
“This guy…” muttered Little Princess, feeling somewhat depressed. She had not personally witnessed the might of the Heavenly Flame, so she had always thought that her “Qianlan Water Flame” was not much weaker than the Heavenly Flame. However, the strange behavior of her flame earlier clearly showed that it was far inferior. Otherwise, it would not have shown such a submissive appearance.
Compared to the little princess’s dejection, Liu Ling’s face was slightly unsightly. The brown flame was something his teacher had obtained with the help of many strong individuals from a Fifth Grade Magic Beast, which was comparable to a Human Dou Wang. He hadn’t expected that as soon as he displayed it, before it could really show off, it bowed to another person’s flame, which left him speechless.
“Hmph, what use is just a good flame? If you can’t control it, in the end, you’ll only end up burning yourself.” Pouring the black flame in his hand into the medicine cauldron, Yan Li sneered coldly.
In the square, as the strange scene disappeared, the contestants gradually refocused on the questions they were about to face. They poured their flames into the medicine cauldrons and then took out the herbs from their storage rings, beginning the first step of refining pills: extraction!
Xiao Yan’s gaze was tightly fixed on the medicine cauldron, occasionally waving his hand to throw one or two herbs from the stone platform into the cauldron, then controlling the temperature of the flame according to the information recorded in the formula, slowly extracting the essence needed for pill refinement.
Although he had an extremely detailed formula in his mind, Xiao Yan did not dare to be careless in the slightest. This time, there were only three sets of materials prepared. No matter which set of herbs was missing due to a mistake, it would significantly increase the failure rate of refinement, which was something Xiao Yan absolutely could not tolerate.
Therefore, even with his ability to control the Blue Lotus Heart Flame, he still dared not throw all the herbs into the cauldron at once. Instead, he chose the safer method of extracting two herbs each time.
There were quite a few people who shared Xiao Yan’s thoughts, including the little princess, Liu Ling, and even the ever-arrogant Yan Li. At this moment, they were all carefully controlling the fire, cautiously extracting each herb. Everyone knew that losing a single herb at this time would be incredibly painful.
On the huge square, all the contestants remained silent, except for the crackling sound of the flames as they refined the herbs, echoing across the square.
Under the influence of this quiet atmosphere, the originally noisy seats on both sides gradually became quieter. All eyes were focused on the pharmacists in the square below.
“Sure enough, they’re all holding back. These young people today…” Nalan Jie looked at the rising flames in the square below and couldn’t help but smile. “But looking at that strange scene just now, the little friend Yan Xiao’s Heavenly Flame is indeed a notch above the others.”
“The Heavenly Flame is a rare object that even Elder Gu has never possessed. Its energy is naturally far beyond that of the little princess and the others, who obtained their flames from Magic Beasts.”
Nalan Yanran smiled beside him.
“Hehe, yes.” Nodding, Nalan Jie suddenly turned to Nalan Yanran and frowned. “Was the person from the Yun Lian Sect this morning urging you to go back?”
“Mm,” Nalan Yanran nodded slightly.
Sighing lightly, Nalan Jie’s voice became somewhat low. “Is it because the three-year agreement is coming up?”
Hearing this, Nalan Yanran’s hand, which was about to brush aside the strands of hair on her forehead, froze slightly. She pressed her red lips together and said softly, “It should be for this reason…”
“Xiao Yan has been gone for almost two years. I’ve told you that when he left Wu Tan City, he had already formed a Qi Vortex and become a Dou Zhe. And this happened in less than a year. You should know how difficult it is to improve Dou Qi before becoming a Dou Zhe. But he rose again in less than a year. This means that the cultivation talent he strangely lost has been restored…”
Nalan Jie exhaled deeply and said in a deep voice, “These two years, there has been no news of him. But I think, given his cultivation talent, he must be at least at the Dou Shi level now…”
Nalan Yanran nodded.
“Sigh, I don’t want to say too much. You won’t listen anyway. But I hope that no matter who wins or loses this three-year agreement, you can apologize to him.”
Nalan Jie rubbed his forehead, looking tired.
“Apologize?” Hearing this, Nalan Yanran’s delicate brows furrowed, and she stubbornly stared at Nalan Jie. “I didn’t do anything wrong! Why should I apologize?”
“You could have privately gone to the Xiao family and nicely asked Xiao Zhan if the engagement could be canceled. That might not have caused all these problems. But you used the power of the Yun Lian Sect to force the Xiao family to cancel the engagement. You know very well how much damage this has done to the reputation of the Xiao family. But over the years, because of your increasingly prominent status, you haven’t wanted to, and haven’t been willing to apologize…”
Nalan Jie looked at his granddaughter indifferently. “But you know that continuing like this will only deepen the rift between Xiao Yan and you.”
“Even if the rift is deep, I and he can never be together. Since it’s impossible, then the depth of the rift doesn’t matter.”
Nalan Yanran raised her eyebrows, stopping Nalan Jie’s words with her hand. “Grandpa, stop interfering in my affairs. After this three-year agreement, I will never have anything to do with him again. Your granddaughter isn’t lacking in suitors. Why keep thinking about him? Alright, don’t say any more, and just watch the competition in peace…”
With that, Nalan Yanran turned her head and looked at the square, a faint Dou Qi covering her ears, clearly indicating that she did not want to hear Nalan Jie’s nagging anymore.
Seeing her like this, Nalan Jie, though a bit angry, could do nothing. Plus, this was a public place, so he could only glare at her fiercely and then look at the square with a helpless expression.
…
At this point, nearly half an hour had passed since the start of the exam.
On the square, some of the pharmacists with fewer materials to extract had already finished and were preparing for the next step.
Ignoring those who had finished extracting, Xiao Yan kept his eyes fixed on the medicine cauldron, occasionally throwing in a herb with his left hand, while his right hand quickly drew out the extracted material and put it into a jade bottle.
As he busied himself, sweat began to form on Xiao Yan’s forehead. Ignoring it, he threw the last herb on the stone platform into the cauldron. Ten minutes later, he carefully drew out the last extracted material and put it into a jade bottle.
Seeing the smooth extraction process, Xiao Yan finally let out a long sigh of relief. Turning to look around, he was surprised to find that the little princess, Liu Ling, and Yan Li had not yet finished extracting.
“Tsk, tsk, it seems that the grade of the pills they want to refine is also not low. Although the number of herbs extracted cannot represent the grade of the pills, generally speaking, the more complex the material and the more required, the higher the grade should be.”
Shaking his head slightly, Xiao Yan took a short rest before starting the next step of fusing the pills with a serious expression.
The blue flame slowly rose in the medicine cauldron, and Xiao Yan’s eyes were tightly fixed on the dancing flames. Moments later, his hands suddenly began to move, and the bottles of previously extracted essence materials were poured into the cauldron one by one in an orderly manner. The flames immediately surged and enveloped the materials…
Closing his eyes, a surge of soul power spread from Xiao Yan’s forehead. At this moment, almost all of his soul power was released. Every subtle reaction in the fusion of the materials in the cauldron would instantly be fed back to his mind. He then quickly compared it with the description in the formula to determine if the refining process was correct.
When Xiao Yan started fusing the pills, the little princess, Liu Ling, and Yan Li also successively finished the extraction. Without any rest or idle talk, they immediately put the extracted materials into the cauldron and began the fusion process.
On the huge square, there were occasional muffled sounds. These sounds were familiar to the pharmacists, as they were the extremely annoying sounds that occurred every time a pill failed to be refined…
And with these sounds, there were often disheartened contestants leaving the field with downcast expressions. As a result, the number of over a hundred contestants in the square was gradually decreasing…
This grand assembly was like a sieve with many small holes, filtering out the weaker and less capable contestants, and the ones who could survive several rounds of screening were naturally the best of the younger generation.
…
Time slowly passed, and on the square, some of the contestants who had been calm-faced started to pant slightly. Such high-intensity consumption was truly exhausting.
“Can you tell who is refining the higher-grade pill?” Hai Bo Dong walked slowly to Fama’s side, looked at the square, and asked in a low voice.
“Not yet…” Fama shook his head and pondered. “But before the pills are formed, some clues can be seen. The fourth-grade pills will produce different fragrances before they are formed. The stronger the fragrance, the higher the grade of the pill being refined. And the fifth-grade pills, when they are formed, will produce visible energy ripples due to the excessive amount of energy contained within them…”
Hai Bo Dong nodded slightly and stopped asking. With his hands behind his back, he waited quietly for the end of the competition.
As time passed by, another half-hour, Fama’s expression suddenly changed, and a pleased look appeared on his aged face as he looked in the direction of Xiao Yan. There, a faint medicinal aroma was slowly spreading from the dark red cauldron.
“This kid, he’s about to complete the pill so quickly? The Heavenly Flame is indeed extraordinary…”
The faint medicinal aroma emanating from Xiao Yan’s cauldron was also noticed by the little princess, Liu Ling, and Yan Li nearby. The former two were slightly surprised, but after sniffing the aroma, Yan Li sneered disdainfully. According to the intensity of the aroma, it was still not as good as the pill he was refining. If this was the limit of that guy, then the champion this time should undoubtedly be him, Yan Li.
Fixing his eyes on the rolling blue pill in the cauldron, Xiao Yan also sniffed the medicinal aroma and shook his head slightly. It would be very difficult to win with just the ordinary Three-Stripe Blue Spirit Pill.
“Looks like I have to give it my all…”
Letting out a soft sigh, Xiao Yan suddenly took a deep breath of the air tinged with the fragrance of the pill. His right hand quickly took out a light purple pill from his ring and put it into his mouth, chewing it slightly. At the same time, the soul power controlling the blue flame suddenly retracted. As the soul power retracted, the originally surging blue flame quietly diminished. Just as the blue flame was about to disappear, Xiao Yan opened his mouth, and a ball of purple flame shot out, finally surging into the cauldron.
“Is this kid trying to refine the Two-Stripe pill?” Seeing Xiao Yan’s action, Fama, who had just relaxed, felt his heart tighten again. He knew that if Xiao Yan wanted to win, relying solely on the ordinary Three-Stripe Blue Spirit Pill was impossible. However, refining the Three-Stripe Blue Spirit Pill, every time the flame was converted, it was the most difficult part to control. Even he had failed two or three times before succeeding when he was refining it. And Xiao Yan had only obtained the formula the night before, and there were still many key points he had not fully mastered. After all, even with his talent, it was impossible to thoroughly study a fourth-grade formula in such a short time…
“Little guy… be careful… you don’t have many chances.”
Muttering softly, Fama’s expression suddenly changed at one point. He suddenly noticed that the originally peaceful flame in Xiao Yan’s cauldron had suddenly become chaotic. This was the most common and hardest-to-avoid mistake when changing the flame.
His gaze fixed on the center of the square, where the purple flame in the cauldron was almost breaking through the lid’s restraint. The air around the stone platform was also becoming slightly illusory due to the heat.
With such a commotion, the audience’s gazes immediately focused on the area. When they saw Xiao Yan’s sweaty and flushed face, they all exclaimed in surprise.
“Sigh… it failed…”
Feeling the increasingly violent fluctuations, Fama sighed lightly after a while, a slight bitterness appearing on his aged face.
Shortly after Fama’s words, a dull sound suddenly came from the cauldron in front of Xiao Yan. The purple flame quietly extinguished, and a faint black ash spilled out of the cauldron…
“Sigh…”
Hearing the dull sound, the audience on both sides of the square let out a chorus of regretful sighs.
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