The Dou Wang-level expert was momentarily stunned when he saw Xiao Yan write the words "Huangji Pill". Then, a look of utter shock appeared on his face.
"Are you really going to refine the Huangji Pill?" he couldn't help but ask, staring at Xiao Yan's still somewhat youthful face.
The Huangji Pill was a sixth-grade pill, and among sixth-grade pills, it ranked near the top.
"Is there a problem?" Xiao Yan asked politely with a smile.
"No, no problem at all." The Dou Wang expert hurriedly shook his head and turned to deliver the note and prepare the materials.
The Pill Tower was wealthy and generous. Since they had promised that any materials below the seventh grade could be freely chosen, they had naturally prepared everything in advance. Since he wasn't paying for the ingredients, the Dou Wang had no objections.
But thinking about the boy's youthful and delicate face, he couldn't help but feel deeply shocked.
"Elder! This is the pill that the disciple of Yao Zun-zhe wants to refine!" He handed the note from the red tray to a high-level seventh-grade Elder.
"Hmm?" The elder nodded slightly, but the next moment, his eyes widened in astonishment.
"The sixth-grade Huangji Pill!" He turned to look at the white-robed youth in the square, carefully examining his astonishingly young face.
"Go ahead. It's just ingredients for two batches of Huangji Pill. If that boy can really refine the Huangji Pill..." the elder trailed off into silence.
To be able to refine a fifth-grade pill at the age of fifteen was already considered a monstrous level of genius. But if he could refine a sixth-grade pill—which was exponentially more difficult—then the term "monstrous" wouldn't even suffice to describe his talent.
In his entire life, he had never encountered such a genius.
At the highest level of the Pill Tower, Xuan Kongzi had already returned from the square. Now, four people stood here—it was the three great elders of the Pill Tower and Yao Lao.
"Tsk tsk, there are quite a few outstanding youngsters in this generation," Yao Lao said with a cheerful smile, watching the young participants in the square.
"Old geezer, you're just trying to show off your disciple," Xuan Yi rolled his eyes at him.
"Hehe." Yao Lao said nothing, only standing there with a mysterious smile.
Seeing this attitude, even Xuan Kongzi couldn't help but feel curious. Knowing Yao Chen's personality, if something made him this proud, then his disciple's pill-refining skills must be shockingly high.
To face Cao Ying so confidently, the boy must at least be a fifth-grade alchemist—maybe even at the peak of the fifth grade.
"If that's the case, this boy's talent truly defies heaven." Thinking this, Xuan Kongzi also glanced toward the white-robed youth in the square.
He was still smiling, bickering with Cao Ying while teasing the Dan Clan's young girl, making her cheeks flush with embarrassment.
Just then, those Dou Wang experts returned, each carrying a red tray with a storage ring on top.
"Here are the materials you requested," said the Dou Wang, handing the storage ring to Xiao Yan.
"Thank you." Xiao Yan stopped arguing with Cao Ying, released his soul power into the storage ring to check its contents. Even though a mistake from the Pill Tower was unlikely, it was still wise to be cautious—it was the highest respect one could show to oneself.
After confirming that everything was correct, Xiao Yan calmly placed the ring next to him.
"Look at how cautious you are. Do you think our Pill Tower would make such a silly mistake?" Cao Ying couldn't help but mock him upon seeing his careful inspection.
"Being meticulous is a sign of self-respect. Would you hand over something important to someone else without checking it yourself?" Xiao Yan shot back.
Cao Ying snorted coldly, but she also began carefully inspecting her own storage ring.
Once everyone finished checking their materials, another bell rang out, echoing across the land.
"Dong!"
"Time's up. Contestants, prepare yourselves. I hereby announce that the competition officially begins now!" An Elder of the Pill Tower stood and declared as the bell echoed in the background.
As soon as he spoke, thousands of alchemical furnaces in the square ignited with colorful flames.
"Woah!" The crowd watching burst into excited cheers. Although this competition wasn't as grand as the Pill Gathering, it was still a massive event in the Pill Realm.
Today, they might witness the rise of new stars in the pill-refining world.
As everyone channeled flames into their cauldrons, Xiao Yan also made his move. He opened his mouth and spit out a small green lion that landed in the furnace. In the next moment, a green flame burst into life inside the cauldron.
"I still have no clue what this guy is trying to refine!" muttered Cao Ying, narrowing her beautiful eyes at Xiao Yan before refocusing. Once pill refinement began, one could not afford distractions, or failure was almost guaranteed.
Meanwhile, Xiao Yan was even quicker to enter the zone.
Once he confirmed his mental state was stable, he first took a sixth-rank fire-attribute magic core from his storage ring and tossed it into the cauldron.
"Boom!" As soon as the core entered the cauldron, it was engulfed in green flames and began to burn intensely.
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A sixth-rank magic core was quite solid. Even with Xiao Yan's current dou qi and beast flame, it would take about an hour to fully extract its essence.
On the other side, Cao Ying was also refining a fifth-rank magic core in her cauldron.
About an hour later, Xiao Yan had burned the magic core into a ball of crystal-clear red liquid.
With a flick of his finger, he dropped over ten medicinal herbs into the cauldron. Multitasking, he kept one stream of flame refining the magic core's essence, while over ten other flames extracted the essences from the herbs.
"Dustless Grass, Cleansing Cold Marrow..." After another half hour, Xiao Yan began combining the refined essences into the red liquid.
"Sss sss..." As the medicinal essences merged with the red energy, a sizzling sound rang out, with wisps of white smoke rising.
Xiao Yan's expression remained calm. His dark pupils were deep and composed as he steadily continued the fusion process.
After the time it takes to burn one incense stick, the once-scarlet energy had become colorless and transparent through the neutralization process, turning into a non-attribute energy.
The first step of refining the Huangji Pill was to strip a sixth-rank magic core of its elemental properties and purify it until the energy was completely clean.
Once Xiao Yan confirmed the energy was pure enough, he stored it in a small bottle made of warm jade.
He glanced over and saw Cao Ying manipulating several herbs in mid-air with great precision.
"Those are ingredients for the Douling Pill." Seeing the sweat on Cao Ying's forehead, Xiao Yan secretly thanked his intensive training with Yao Lao over the past few days. Without that, he wouldn't have had the stability and finesse to suppress Cao Ying today.
But now? It was a whole different story.
"Little lady, just wait to be conquered by me." Xiao Yan grinned wickedly, then glanced over at Dan Chen, who was watching him intently. Taking a deep breath, he pulled out a golden, glowing vine and tossed it into the cauldron.
The flames roared, the temperature soared, and explosions from failed concoctions echoed occasionally. Sometimes, cheers rang out from those who succeeded, while spectators yelled excitedly.
But at the highest floor of the Pill Tower, the once composed three great elders were now staring, dumbfounded, at the white-robed youth who had just thrown the old vine into his cauldron.
"He refined a sixth-grade beast core... and now the Huangji Immortal Vine. Yao Chen, your disciple—is he really trying to refine the Huangji Pill?!"
(End of Chapter)