“What? Blue light?”
Wu Gong and Ye Yu’s expressions stiffened abruptly. At the same time, the crowd was struck with astonishment. Even the group on the main platform widened their eyes in shock.
They knew full well what blue light signified, an extraordinary grade potency. Even Le Zheng Hongmao, Situ Guang, and the others inwardly sighed that they couldn’t surpass this level.
If even they were this stunned, the reaction of the onlookers was unimaginable. After a few moments of silence, the entire venue erupted.
Waves of gasps and exclamations filled the air.
This surpassed the results of both Ye Yu and the dark horse Wu Gong!
Looking again at the black-robed youth who retrieved the pill, he appeared to be nearly thirty, with a face so ordinary it couldn’t be more plain. This only reinforced their belief that this alchemy competition was teeming with hidden talents, another obscure dark horse, and a super one at that.
Sensing the crowd’s fervent discussion, the youth merely turned back, gave a slight smile, and glanced at Ye Yu, Wu Gong, and Lin Xiao. With an arrogant tone, he declared, “Ye Fenghua’s nephew Ye Yu? A dark horse? A super genius with spiritual energy? Sorry, I don’t even consider you worth my notice!”
The scene reached a fever pitch, boiling over once again.
“Arrogant, outrageously arrogant!”
“Dominant, utterly dominant, especially that line about not even caring about Ye Fenghua’s nephew!”
“No idea where this guy came from, this skill level is simply heaven-defying!”
“Ye Yu’s been outright dismissed, this alchemy competition just got interesting!”
Some were furious, others exhilarated. Many felt their blood boiling. This was the true alchemy competition, one dark horse after another, each stronger and more audacious than the last, with tension thick in the air.
Ye Yu’s expression was the ugliest. For the first time, he heard someone say they didn’t take him, Ye Fenghua’s nephew, seriously. Yet with the facts before him, he had no rebuttal.
Being matched by an unknown youth was bad enough, but now another nameless figure had surpassed him. Ye Yu found it utterly intolerable.
This dealt him a massive blow, far greater than when he refined the Nine Flame Wood. Refining materials and refining pills carried vastly different weight.
Now, in pill refining, he’d been blatantly scorned.
Of course, Wu Gong wasn’t feeling much better. His target had been Ye Yu alone, but now a bigger dark horse had emerged, something he too couldn’t accept.
He’d gone from being the most thrilled person in the arena to having the wind knocked out of him in an instant.
“This guy… he’s definitely not simple!” Lin Xiao frowned slightly as he observed the nearly thirty-year-old youth. He couldn’t sense the man’s true spiritual power at all.
He hadn’t expected someone like this to appear. This person might well be a formidable rival.
“But having opponents is what makes this competition meaningful,” Lin Xiao suddenly smiled, then stepped forward, took out his pill, and placed it on the testing stone.
“Look, that Heimu’s starting his test now!” someone shouted. All eyes turned towards Lin Xiao.
“With a blue-grade potency already out there, even if his grade is high, it’ll pale in comparison,” someone shook their head.
“It definitely won’t beat Brother Meng Sheng!” Zhou Ruoyi muttered to herself.
Ye Yu and Wu Gong both fixed their gazes on Lin Xiao. Now, they only hoped his grade would be low, so they could vent their frustrations on him.
After Lin Xiao placed his pill and waited a moment, no light emerged. The atmosphere in the venue thickened once more.
“Uh… it’s not… failing to reach a light grade, is it?” someone stammered.
“Quite likely, he condensed his pill at the last second, probably rushed it and messed up…”
“This’ll be a huge joke…”
After waiting a while with no response, the crowd began buzzing with discussion. On the main platform, Ye Fenghua and the others stared at the testing stone with rigid expressions, their faces a mix of vivid emotions.
Outside the arena, Wen Renliang and his group were dumbfounded. If a miracle didn’t happen, this would indeed become a massive embarrassment, a humiliation spread across the nation.
“No light, haha…” The black-robed youth let out a burst of raucous laughter.
But just as Wu Gong and the others were about to join in the mockery, “Hiss!”
A dazzling, radiant purple light shot skyward, illuminating all directions, filling the heavens and earth.
The black-robed youth’s expression froze on his face.
“What!” The crowd gasped, their eyes and jaws nearly dropping to the ground.
Ye Yu, Wu Gong, Zhou Ruoyi, and the others practically turned to stone.
“Purple light, it’s actually purple-grade potency!” Even Ye Fenghua lost his composure, standing up in excitement. Le Zheng Hongmao and Situ Guang did the same.
These three were the top spirit masters of the Lanlan Empire. Even for them, crafting a purple-grade healing pill required their utmost effort, the best ingredients, and refining a low-rank pill, with only a slim chance of success.
Because purple light represented perfect grade potency!
“This kid, he’s too good at stirring people up, ugh, my old heart, cough…” Wu Meng couldn’t help but grumble. First giving the impression of a no-light failure, then unveiling the highest purple grade, the rollercoaster of emotions was just too thrilling.
Wen Renliang and the others shared the same sentiment.
“Didn’t expect there’d be such a figure in the Lanlan Empire. If this lad doesn’t join a faction here, fine, but if he joins a major power, he’ll absolutely be a massive threat to the Moyu Empire in the future!”
Among the crowd outside, a black-robed elder narrowed his eyes, regarding Lin Xiao ahead with intense wariness.
In the stone platform arena, Lin Xiao retrieved his pill, then muttered to himself in confusion, “Cough, this grade, how’d it get so high…”
Hearing this, the young spirit masters around him felt an urge to go up and smack him. This was blatant, shameless showing off!
The expressions of the black-robed youth, Ye Yu, Wu Gong, and the others stiffened further, their faces burning with embarrassment.
Especially the black-robed youth, whose face turned somewhat purple. He’d boasted about not caring about anyone, and now it felt like another heavy slap had struck his face ruthlessly.
“No wonder he’s the little man I saw Feng Huo kiss!” Watching Lin Xiao step out, Feng Huo beamed brightly, swaying her graceful figure as she walked towards him.
As Lin Xiao emerged, receiving praise from Feng Huo, Wu Sha, and a few others, the grade potency testing resumed. Feng Huo’s grade was cyan, matching Ye Yu and Wu Gong. Wu Sha’s was green, and Xuanxuan’s was yellow.
After another half-stick of incense burned, all the results were finally tested. This round eliminated over five hundred participants, all outstanding young spirit masters from various regions. This underscored the sheer difficulty of just the first round.
But out of over two thousand, eliminating five hundred wasn’t an excessively high rate.
The remaining fifteen hundred smoothly advanced to the second round.
“The second round, also basic alchemy,” Ye Fenghua’s voice rang out again as the first round concluded. Yet none of the youths present believed this was mere “basic” alchemy, it was clearly their utmost limit, far from easy.
“We’ll provide you with pill recipes and ingredients. Refining a qualified pill counts as passing. There are two sets of ingredients in the medicine cabinets, and you’ll have half an hour. Prepare to begin now!” With that, Ye Fenghua’s spiritual power stirred, sending delicate jade slips inscribed with pill recipes flying towards the over one thousand youths in the arena.
The youths reached out to catch the recipes, glancing over them briefly. Almost instantly, they all let out the same exclamation.
