The reason Aoki dared to attempt to seize the position of hall master from Yang Danlin was that he had a certain degree of confidence and capability.
“Vice Hall Master Aoki is truly formidable. This round is surely in the bag.”
“What do you mean ‘surely’? It’s definitely a win. No matter how talented Ling Xiao is, at best he can only refine a superior-grade pill. Could he possibly produce a perfect spirit pill?”
“Right, hasn’t he only been learning alchemy for less than half a month?”
“Exactly. So I’m starting to wonder if Old Hall Master Yang is tired of his position and deliberately wants to hand it over to Vice Hall Master Aoki.”
“Hey, you know, that might actually be possible.”
After Aoki’s pills were completed, all sorts of comments floated around, but everyone shared one common thought: in this wager, Old Hall Master Yang was doomed to lose.
“Still hoping to refine a superior-grade pill? I bet what he’s produced is just a furnace of defective, useless pills!”
Hei Suo sneered coldly. He had already stood up, ready to leave, lingering only to catch a glimpse of Ling Xiao’s ashen, humiliated expression.
The more miserable Ling Xiao was, the happier Hei Suo felt.
No matter how the surrounding environment shifted, Ling Xiao remained immersed in his alchemy.
From the moment he truly began refining to now, it had taken just over a quarter of an hour—far less time than Aoki.
Unfortunately, he had wasted too much time earlier, which made his completion later than Aoki’s.
But now, it was about time.
Ling Xiao calculated the timing, then slowly withdrew the true essence he had been channeling.
The flames in the alchemy furnace gradually died out, leaving only a trace of residual warmth to indicate that pills had just been refined.
“Look, Ling Xiao’s pills are done too!”
Someone’s shout drew many eyes toward Ling Xiao.
Ling Xiao took a deep breath and slowly reached out to lift the lid of the furnace.
In that instant, twenty dazzling golden beams burst forth.
Not only that, these golden beams were noticeably brighter and more radiant than the glow from Aoki’s pills.
The timing of opening the furnace was critical. Too early, and the raw pills wouldn’t fully mature; too late, and they risked burning or even exploding.
In the worst case, the furnace itself could explode, causing catastrophic damage.
Such incidents weren’t unheard of. In fact, the Yuehua Sect had experienced several similar accidents, with the alchemy room in the medicine hall being destroyed multiple times.
“Please, elders, evaluate the results.”
Ling Xiao stood respectfully, bowing slightly to the three elders of the medicine hall.
The three elders had no grudge against him; at most, they thought him a bit arrogant, but that wouldn’t affect their scoring.
They approached Ling Xiao’s furnace, their faces showing astonishment—an expression they hadn’t displayed even when inspecting Aoki’s pills.
The onlookers grew tense.
The golden light had been so dazzling that many who had previously dismissed Ling Xiao began to feel uncertain.
“Good heavens, twenty pills, all fully formed, and all perfect spirit pills!”
One elder exclaimed in a tone of utter delight.
“Not just good! All twenty pills have a perfection rate of one hundred percent! Were these really refined by a novice alchemy apprentice?”
Another elder gasped in shock.
“It’s unbelievable. In all my years of alchemy, I’ve never seen pills with such outstanding perfection. The effects of these twenty superior true essence pills are practically equivalent to qualified supreme true essence pills. Can you believe an alchemy apprentice could refine yellow-grade lower-tier pills?”
The third elder, holding one of the pills, trembled with excitement, his beard quivering.
Aoki was visibly shaken, his face drained of colour, pale as death. He was clearly terrified.
“No, I don’t believe it. This is impossible!”
He rushed over, staring at Ling Xiao’s twenty perfect superior true essence pills, his eyes filled with confusion and despair.
Hei Suo was equally stunned, frozen in a daze.
The disciple beside him, who had transported the alchemy materials, was trembling all over, likely already imagining the consequences awaiting him.
The three elders gazed at Ling Xiao with astonishment, their expressions tinged with doubt and disbelief.
Their looks were remarkably complex.
“Young man, did you really just learn alchemy?” one elder asked.
“Replying to the elder, this disciple’s cultivation is only at the peak of the eighth martial vein. Even if I wanted to refine pills before, it wouldn’t have been possible. Only after joining the Yuehua Sect did I learn alchemy from Old Hall Master Yang and Senior Sister Lan. Is something amiss?”
He had nothing to fear. The world was full of geniuses, and someone like him wasn’t that extraordinary.
“No, no, nothing’s wrong. We were just asking. It’s just too astonishing. No wonder Yang Danlin dared to wager his position as hall master. He knew what he was doing.”
With that, the nearly two-hundred-year-old elder shot Yang Danlin a glare, as if annoyed that Yang hadn’t tipped them off, causing them to lose composure.
Yang Danlin gave a wry smile. He knew Ling Xiao was exceptional, but he hadn’t expected him to be *this* exceptional.
“Alright, we declare that in this alchemy competition, Ling Xiao is the victor. Vice Hall Master Aoki, do you concede?”
“I concede!”
How could he not?
With the three elders present, if he dared to say he didn’t concede, he’d be kicked out of the medicine hall—or even expelled from the Yuehua Sect.
“Good. Since you concede, from now on, you must not suppress Ling Xiao under any pretext. If we three old fellows find out, you won’t stay in the Yuehua Sect.”
The elders weren’t fools. They could clearly see Ling Xiao’s extraordinary talent in alchemy. Though he wasn’t yet on par with Aoki overall, it wouldn’t be long before he likely became the Yuehua Sect’s most outstanding alchemist.
For such a gem, abandoning Aoki was a no-brainer.
“Elders, I have not suppressed Ling Xiao under any pretext,” Aoki said, though as vice hall master, his status and seniority were far below the elders, so his tone was extremely deferential.
“Enough. We know about your dirty deeds but didn’t want to call you out and embarrass you. Aren’t you going to reflect?”
One elder snapped coldly.
Aoki’s face turned ashen.
He realised how naive he’d been, thinking no one knew about his actions. In truth, they’d seen everything but considered the matters too trivial to bother with.
“I admit my mistake,” Aoki said, head bowed.
“Admitting your mistake isn’t enough. After discussion, we’ve decided to temporarily strip you of your vice hall master position. If you perform well in the future, you may be reinstated. That’s all.”
A vice hall master competing against a novice alchemy apprentice was already unseemly, and using underhanded tactics during the process was even worse. Without punishment, the medicine hall would become a laughingstock. Thus, the three elders removed Aoki from his position as vice hall master.
