The murmurs from the stands began to surge.
At first it was whispers, but soon the voices grew louder and clearer.
“Heh, sixth-rank? With those ingredients, you have the nerve to present a sixth-rank pill?”
“Hehuan Grass paired with Longyang Vine—everyone knows what kind of pill that makes.”
“Ruan Qin’s sister? Tsk, if Ruan Qin found out her sister refined something like this, she’d probably disown her on the spot.”
“No wonder she always wears a face veil—it’s because she refines this sort of pill. Can’t show her face, right?”
“Heresy! This is clearly cutting corners! Winning with such underhanded methods—what kind of skill is that?”
“Exactly! How can the grand Alchemy Convention let a pill like this take first place? Won’t people laugh when word gets out?”
“If I were a judge, I’d just smash the pill. What’s there to appraise?”
These words stabbed at her like knives, one cut after another.
On the stands, the usually righteous cultivators now wore twisted expressions, as if Ruan Se had committed an unforgivable crime.
Someone even stood up, pointed at Ruan Se in the arena, and shouted,
“Get down! The Alchemy Convention doesn’t welcome your heretical ways!”
Ruan Se stood still, her lips pressed into a thin line beneath the veil.
She did not lower her head, nor did she retreat. She simply stood there, her gaze as cold and calm as ever, as if the accusers did not exist.
But her fingertips trembled slightly—not from fear, but from unwillingness.
Every medicinal herb she used had been taught to her by Senior. Taken individually, each one was a legitimate spiritual herb. But because they were used in an unconventional way, they earned her a bad name.
The Green Wood Harmonizing Qi Pill was a genuine sixth-rank pill.
She had not cut corners, nor had she played tricks. She had refined it through sheer skill.
Yet these people ignored the pill itself and condemned her based solely on the names of the ingredients.
Ruan Se took a deep breath and suppressed the bitterness in her heart.
She did not need these people to understand her. She only needed one person to see that she had not betrayed his teachings.
On the stage, Yin Zheng remained silent.
He raised his head and looked at Ruan Se with a complicated expression.
His eyes held a mix of admiration and hesitation, as if he were watching a genius who had taken a wrong path. He wanted to help her but didn’t know where to begin.
A sixth-rank pill could not be refined by luck alone. This girl’s talent in the way of alchemy was top-tier across the entire Cangwu Realm.
If he disqualified her strength because of the ingredients, that would be an injustice to the alchemy path.
But if he let her take first place while ignoring the issue of the ingredients, the murmurs from the stands were not entirely without merit…
Yin Zheng fell into unprecedented conflict.
Elder Sun stood expressionless. The Enforcement Hall’s position did not suit participation in this kind of judgment, but he noticed that the commotion in the stands was on the verge of spiraling out of control.
Lai Li’an stood behind the crowd, taking in everything. His brows furrowed.
Heresy? Cutting corners?
Lai Li’an sneered inwardly. These people couldn’t refine a sixth-rank pill themselves, so they were just sour grapes.
The formula for the Green Wood Harmonizing Qi Pill was taught by him; the ingredients were chosen by him. These people wanted to argue against a Heavenly Grade Pill Manual?
And they had no idea what Ruan Se had sacrificed for this pill. Over sixty furnaces of waste pills, days and nights soaked in the alchemy room, spiritual power drained again and again, burns on her hands that healed only to be replaced by new ones.
They knew nothing, yet they dared to stand on high and accuse her.
Lai Li’an took a deep breath, about to speak up to defend Ruan Se, when a cold voice rang out before he could.
“Who says this is heresy?”
Ruan Qin stepped out from among the judges and walked straight to her sister’s stone table.
Her cyan dress fluttered gently in the wind. Her cold, beautiful face showed no expression, but the aura around her made those nearby instinctively take half a step back.
Ruan Se’s body stiffened.
‘Sister…’
Her heart raced, and countless thoughts flashed through her mind. Her sister was about to scold her again, in public, in front of tens of thousands of cultivators. Her sister would belittle the pill she had refined.
Ruan Se’s fingers tightened. She wasn’t afraid of being scolded.
She had long been used to her sister’s discipline. But what she feared was that the person she cared about most would stand against her.
The murmurs in the stands paused briefly at Ruan Qin’s appearance, then exploded at a higher volume.
“Ruan Qin is here! This is going to be good!”
“Her sister refining this kind of pill—doesn’t that make her lose face?”
“Maybe she’ll smash the pill right there. The Dan Sect’s reputation can’t be tarnished.”
“Tsk, sisters turning on each other—this is more entertaining than the alchemy.”
Ruan Qin ignored those voices. She stood before the stone table, reached out, and picked up the pink jade-colored pill from the tray.
Ruan Se’s heart leaped to her throat.
‘What will she say? Will she smash it? Will she announce publicly that this pill is trash?’
Her mind was a mess. She even began to rehearse the scene of her sister scolding her.
“This is a sixth-rank pill: the Green Wood Harmonizing Qi Pill.”
Ruan Qin’s voice carried across the entire plaza, every word clear and weighty.
Ruan Se froze. Her lips parted beneath the veil, but no words came out.
‘Sister is… speaking up for me?’
“An ancient lost pill formula,” Ruan Qin continued. “It is based on yin-wood spiritual herbs such as Hehuan Grass, Longyang Vine, Xuan Musk Incense, and Jade Vase Spring Flower.”
She paused, raised her eyes, and swept her gaze across the crowd.
“The aphrodisiac properties are transformed into a nourishing force that warms and strengthens the meridians.”
At these words, the entire venue erupted into uproar.
“Transformed? What does that mean?”
“Does that mean these herbs originally have aphrodisiac effects, but after refinement, the medicinal nature changes into something that warms the meridians?”
“That can’t be. How can the medicinal nature of herbs change just like that?”
“But it’s Ruan Qin who said it. If she says it can be transformed, then it probably can.”
The murmurs from the stands shifted from unanimous condemnation to a chaotic debate.
Some believed it, some didn’t. But at least no one dared to curse as wantonly as before.
Ruan Qin gave them no time to argue. She continued,
“When taken by a cultivator with a Wood Spiritual Root, it strengthens the foundation, nourishes the origin, and nurtures the meridians.”
After saying this, her eyes fell on her sister’s face and lingered for a moment.
There was a warmth in that gaze that Ruan Se had never seen before.
Ruan Se’s eyes reddened instantly. She had thought her sister would scold her, humiliate her in public.
She had thought her sister would stand against her, but her sister did not.
Her sister stood in front of her, shielding her from all the gossip, and with the coldest tone, spoke the strongest defense.
Ruan Se’s lips trembled. She used all her strength to keep the tears from falling.
Ruan Qin withdrew her gaze and turned to the stands.
“The rules clearly state that the Alchemy Convention has no restrictions on formulas, ranks, or materials.”
“The pill is complete, of sixth rank, with superior quality.”
“Is there any question about who takes first place?”
Her eyes swept over those who had been cursing the loudest. When they met her gaze, they seemed to choke on something, their faces turning red as they looked down, not daring to breathe.
Ruan Qin did not press further. She gently placed the pill back on the tray, stepped back, and stood beside her sister.
Ruan Se bowed her head. Her sister’s words echoed in her mind over and over—words she had never heard from her sister before.
Ruan Qin seemed to sense her sister’s emotional shift. She tilted her head slightly and glanced at her.
“Don’t space out,” Ruan Qin said, her voice very low, meant only for the two sisters to hear. “Once we get the Qingxuan Root, go back and save your friend. As for this pill…”
She paused.
“Well refined.”
Those last four words landed on Ruan Se’s heart like a feather.
Ruan Se’s fingers tightened. She fought to keep the moisture in her eyes from spilling over.
She had waited so many years to finally hear those four words from her sister’s mouth.
Yin Zheng was silent for a moment, then slowly nodded. The other judges exchanged glances and ultimately nodded in unison.
The sarcastic voices from the stands vanished completely, replaced by uncontrollable admiration.
“Sixth-rank… it really is sixth-rank!”
“Ruan Qin appraised it herself. Could it be false?”
“The Green Wood Harmonizing Qi Pill, an ancient lost pill formula. Just who is this female cultivator?”
“Being able to transform aphrodisiac properties into meridian-nourishing power—that’s not heresy. That’s true alchemical mastery!”
Someone began to reflect on their earlier words:
“I said she was cutting corners… but now it seems she was on the right path all along.”
“A sixth-rank pill—even if you cut corners, could you pull it off?”
“It’s not cutting corners. She really has skill. Transforming the medicinal nature of those herbs requires extremely precise spiritual power control and a deep understanding of the properties. That’s much harder than refining an ordinary sixth-rank pill.”
Ruan Qin’s words were like a bucket of cold water dousing the accusing flames. The fire died, the smoke cleared, and people finally began to look at the pill itself.
Ruan Se’s pill was not heresy, but genuine alchemical strength. The transformed properties, the redefined herbs—all of them spoke to her understanding of the alchemy path, far beyond the shallow notion of “herbs have right and wrong.”
Pills have no right or wrong. It depends only on the hand that uses them and the heart that refines them.
The presiding elder cleared his throat and announced loudly,
“The champion of this Cangwu Alchemy Convention: Ruan Se of the Dan Sect Main Sect. Runner-up: Shao Jiao of the Wuyue Sect. Third place: Meng Qiuran of the Dan Sect Branch.”
The stands erupted in thunderous cheers. The Luminous Mirror suspended above the plaza simultaneously displayed the names of the top three, golden characters shimmering brilliantly under the sunlight.
Countless cultivators rose from their seats. Cheers, discussions, and applause merged into one, echoing over the Yunze Market for a long time.
Ruan Se was still somewhat dazed. She turned her head, instinctively searching for something.
On the judge’s side, Lai Li’an was being surrounded by a group of old alchemists, led to the center of the plaza, talking about something amidst the throng of onlookers.
As if sensing something, he happened to look in her direction.
Their eyes met across half the plaza. The corners of Lai Li’an’s mouth lifted slightly. He discreetly extended his right hand from his sleeve and gave her a thumbs-up.
The corners of Ruan Se’s mouth finally curved slowly beneath her veil. Her eyes sparkled with a bright, dazzling light.
The convention officially ended.