Lin Xiao’s spiritual power first swept through the medicine cabinet, roughly familiarising himself with the herbs inside.
“I’ll just refine a first-rank Fuyuan Pill. These ingredients are just right, and with spiritual energy to refine it, the grade potency certainly won’t be lacking.” In the end, Lin Xiao decided to refine a first-rank beginner-level Fuyuan Pill, which could be directly made using the ingredients provided by the Spirit Master Alliance.
Comparatively speaking, the lower the rank of the pill, the stronger its grade potency might be. After all, the higher one’s spiritual power, the easier it is to control the refinement of a lower-rank pill, and it also saves materials and effort.
Besides, this was only the first round; there was no need to refine a highly difficult pill.
“Grade potency? Heh, perfect. I’ve prepared spirit wood from Huoyan Mountain. Using it to refine a pill, the grade potency shouldn’t be too low.” Not far off, Meng Sheng touched his storage ring, and immediately, a fiery red piece of wood emerged, standing before him.
“What? Spirit wood from Huoyan Mountain? That’s an extremely potent fire-attribute spirit wood! As long as it’s controlled well, it burns more thoroughly during refinement, increasing both the success rate and the pill’s quality compared to ordinary spirit wood!”
“Exactly! Prince Meng Sheng is probably going to shine in this first round.”
“Worthy of a prince, able to get his hands on such rare, top-tier items!”
“I’ve seen this Huoyan Mountain spirit wood at a pharmacy before. It’s worth a fortune, one piece costs ten thousand gold! Hardly anyone uses it for low-rank pills. To bring out such a treasure in the first round, only a prince with a golden carriage could afford such wealth.”
Even before the refining began, the crowd erupted into waves of gasps and exclamations.
For a spirit pill to have spirituality, it requires spirit fire, and the spirit wood used to generate that fire is crucial. Most people use ordinary spirit wood, but special spirit wood can produce unique flames. As long as these special flames are well-controlled, the quality of the refined pill naturally improves.
However, such special spirit wood is extremely rare, and few people go out of their way to acquire it.
Unless they’re wealthy or part of a major faction, few have the resources to master this method.
Prince Meng Sheng was one such individual, clearly a cut above the rest.
“Heh, as it happens, I’ve also prepared snow mountain spirit wood for this alchemy competition.” At that moment, Ye Yu, standing nearby, chuckled. With Prince Meng Sheng stealing the show, how could he, the disciple of Ye Fenghua, not have something to show for himself?
With a casual flip of his hand, an almost transparent piece of spirit wood appeared, floating in front of Ye Yu. A cold, icy aura emanated from it.
“What? Snow mountain spirit wood? That’s spirit wood grown in the snow mountains, infused with the essence of ice! It’s gentler during refinement, and it’s said it can even handle ice-attribute ingredients. With snow mountain spirit wood, both quality and success rate increase by several times!”
“This snow mountain spirit wood is even rarer than Huoyan Mountain spirit wood, and its value is several times higher! As expected of Ye Fenghua’s nephew, his resources as a spirit master far surpass Prince Meng Sheng’s!”
The crowd erupted into another round of astonished cries.
On the main platform, Emperor Meng nodded slightly in approval and said, “Alliance Leader Ye, it seems Ye Yu is very well-prepared!”
“You’re too kind, Emperor Meng. This spirit wood was something I stumbled upon while gathering ingredients. I had plenty, so I gave some to Ye Yu,” Ye Fenghua replied calmly. To him, snow mountain spirit wood wasn’t particularly rare.
Basking in the crowd’s envious gazes, Ye Yu smirked smugly. With a flick of his hand, several ingredients floated out of his storage ring and settled above the Huoyan Mountain spirit wood. As his spiritual power sparked, vibrant, fiery flames ignited, beginning to refine the ingredients.
Then, he turned his head toward Lin Xiao and said with a smile, “I suppose a super genius who can refine the Nine Flame Wood to ten revolutions must have some extraordinary spirit wood or special ingredients of his own?”
At that moment, the crowd was stunned again. Who refines pills while chatting with others? Probably only someone of Ye Yu’s calibre could manage that.
At the same time, everyone’s eyes turned to Lin Xiao, curious to see what kind of resources this super genius, who had been sought after by major factions even before the competition, possessed.
To their disappointment, however, they only saw Lin Xiao open the medicine cabinet drawers one by one, with a few ingredients rising out.
It was obvious that Lin Xiao was using the ingredients provided by the Spirit Master Alliance.
“Heh, as expected from someone from the countryside!” Zhou Ruoyi’s eyes flashed with thick disdain as she mocked him aloud.
Glancing at Ye Yu and Zhou Ruoyi, Lin Xiao gave a faint smile and said, “No special ingredients here. As for spirit wood, I don’t use that stuff.”
With that, Lin Xiao’s spiritual power stirred, and a cyan flame surged forth from between his brows.
“What, is that… spiritual energy?”
In that instant, everyone’s eyes widened in shock, staring dumbfounded at the cyan flame erupting from Lin Xiao’s forehead.
There was only one kind of energy that could be stored in the mind and summoned from it, an inexhaustible source of the world’s energy: spiritual energy!
“How is this possible? How could he have spiritual energy?” Ye Yu was utterly stunned. He had just been mocking Lin Xiao for not having rare spirit wood, only to find that Lin Xiao didn’t even need spirit wood, he used spiritual energy instead.
Spiritual energy, a treasure of heaven and earth, was worth thousands, tens of thousands, of times more than his snow mountain spirit wood. Even his uncle, the alliance leader, didn’t possess spiritual energy!
Zhou Ruoyi’s face turned pale. This “country bumpkin” had dealt her a massive shock.
“Spiritual energy!” On the main platform, Ye Fenghua’s eyes narrowed as he stood up in shock. Le Zheng Hongmao, Situ Guang, and the other spirit masters also rose to their feet.
Spiritual energy, it was something they had dreamed of obtaining! For countless years, no one in the entire Lanlan Empire had possessed it, yet here it was, in Lin Xiao.
Especially for Ye Fenghua, who had once led an expedition to Tianmo City for spiritual energy only to return empty-handed, seeing someone wield it now stirred his emotions beyond measure.
“Not simple, not simple at all. He actually has spiritual energy, no wonder he could refine the Nine Flame Wood to ten revolutions!” Le Zheng Hongmao exclaimed in awe.
Zhou Moyi and Zhou Xiong were equally stunned. For Zhou Xiong in particular, when he had fought Lin Xiao, the latter hadn’t even used spiritual energy. If he had, wouldn’t Zhou Xiong have been even more outmatched?
This made his plans for revenge far more difficult.
Nearby, Emperor Meng’s eyes lit up brightly, practically glowing. Though he wasn’t a spirit master, he understood the significance of this worldly energy. Then, his gaze shifted toward Meng Ying with even deeper meaning.
Beside him, Meng Ying, aside from her shock, had a strange glint in her eyes. This boy’s talents and methods were simply too terrifying, weren’t they?
Of course, she also noticed her father’s peculiar look.
On the main platform, the calmest ones were Chen Wendao, Chen Yan, and the Feng family members, because she had secretly informed them earlier that Lin Xiao possessed spiritual energy.
Yet even Feng Lanyue herself was more astonished now. She had seen Lin Xiao’s spiritual energy before as a cyan-black energy, so why had it now turned into a pure cyan flame?
This puzzled her greatly. But what shocked her even more was that this cyan flame spiritual energy matched the description the family head had once given her, someone they should try their utmost to recruit.
She never could have imagined that the boy with spiritual energy the family head had encountered was none other than the Heimu standing before her now.
