Meanwhile, Shao Jiao also began his refining. Before him was still that rusty bronze furnace, and the materials he took out were simply appalling in their simplicity.
But anyone with discerning eyes could recognize at a glance that his pill formula was no simple matter either—it was also fifth-rank.
And his every movement was fluid from start to finish, as if refining a fifth-rank pill was nothing more than routine for him.
Time trickled away, spiritual flames weaving into a dazzling canopy of light above the competition grounds.
Three hours later, a series of crisp furnace chimes broke through the clamor of the arena. Many participants had successfully formed their pills, all of them excellent fourth-rank or higher.
Not long after, Meng Qiuran’s furnace let out a sound as well. The lid popped open, and a pill of deep crimson rose slowly from the furnace, its surface flowing with five clear and distinct pill patterns.
The Blazing Sun Snow-Melting Pill was complete, with superior appearance.
The stands erupted in deafening cheers. Meng Qiuran let out a long breath, reached out to collect the pill into a jade bottle, and finally a hint of a smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
He had done it. A fifth-rank mid-grade pill with excellent appearance—the best batch he had ever refined.
But before he could catch his breath, another furnace chimed from the other end of the arena.
Shao Jiao held up the milky-white fifth-rank pill that had risen from his furnace. After Lai Li’an’s guidance, he had achieved his highest standard, and its appearance was better than any he had ever produced before.
The stands were in complete uproar. These two had both achieved fifth-rank, elevating the Final Competition’s level by an entire tier.
Those participants still laboring over fourth-rank pills looked ashen-faced. Fourth-rank was utterly insignificant at this point.
Pei Changjing leaned back in his chair and spoke lazily,
“Two fifth-rank pills. This year’s batch is indeed impressive. This outcome probably caught most people off guard.”
Yin Zheng said nothing, simply gazing quietly at the cyan-clad figure in the arena who had yet to open his furnace.
Time continued to flow, and in the blink of an eye, only the time of one incense stick remained.
Just as everyone thought the battle for Champion would be settled between Meng Qiuran and Shao Jiao, a faint humming came from the southern side of the arena.
Every person present caught an unusual scent of medicinal fragrance in that instant.
That aroma was extremely faint, almost intangible, yet it drilled into the nostrils like an invisible thread, inexplicably quickening heartbeats and warming cheeks.
All eyes landed at once on the furnace before Ruan Se, which had begun to tremble slightly. A wisp of faint, almost imperceptible pink mist seeped from the gaps in the lid.
Discussion on the stands erupted instantly.
“Is that… a sign of pill formation?”
“No way? Can something made from that kind of lowly ingredient actually form a pill?”
“Even if it does, what then? Something refined from Hehuan Grass will be nothing more than a fourth-rank medicinal pill. Can it even hold its head up?”
“Fourth-rank medicinal pill? Smell that pill fragrance. Could a fourth-rank have such a scent?”
The pink mist grew thicker, swirling above the furnace without dispersing.
Lai Li’an sat on the Judges’ Seat, sensing the complex emotions of the old fogies around him, and couldn’t help but curl the corner of his mouth.
Pei Changjing was the first to freeze. He straightened up involuntarily, those perpetually drowsy eyes now wide open.
Everyone was waiting—waiting for the furnace to reveal its secret, waiting to see what kind of answer the alchemist everyone had scorned would ultimately deliver.
Suddenly, Ruan Se withdrew both hands sharply and formed a Pill-Sealing Hand Seal before her chest, letting out a crisp command.
“Open!”
The furnace lid popped off, and a pill slowly rose from the furnace, hovering in midair as it gently rotated.
It was a translucent pink-jade color, its texture warm and smooth. Six pill patterns clearly shimmered with a faint glow, and the spacing between each pattern was precise to an almost horrifying degree.
The entire venue fell dead silent for three full breaths. Everyone widened their eyes at the same moment, as if seeing something utterly incomprehensible.
“S-sixth-rank?” stammered a Hundred Herbs Hall disciple, his voice trembling. “Such a pill can be refined to sixth-rank?!”
The middle-aged alchemist who had mocked Ruan Se earlier turned pale, his soul seemingly sucked out of him. His lips quivered but he couldn’t utter a single word.
Pei Changjing shot up from his chair, so abruptly that he nearly knocked over the tea cup on the table. His pupils contracted sharply.
“This is no ordinary sixth-rank pill!”
He stared fixedly at the pill patterns flowing across its surface.
“Such an appearance… how is it possible?”
Yin Zheng also rose to his feet, gazing solemnly at the pill.
“The Green Wood Harmonizing Qi Pill… an ancient lost pill formula. Based on yin-wood spiritual herbs like Hehuan Grass, with Green Wood Spirit Fruit as the sovereign ingredient, it transforms the aphrodisiac properties into a nourishing force that warms the meridians.”
So-called pills know no good or evil; medicinal properties are merely possibilities yet to be understood.
Those who had been sneering at Hehuan Grass moments ago were now dead silent.
The Hundred Herbs Hall disciples who had mocked Ruan Se for “walking crooked paths” now looked ashen-faced, wishing they could crawl into a crack in the ground.
Shao Jiao was the first to react. He glanced at the pill in his own hand, then at the pill above Ruan Se’s furnace, and finally set down his jade bottle.
There was no regret—only a kind of release. He even let out a soft laugh. In the end, he had still fallen short by a single move, hadn’t he?
Meng Qiuran gripped his own pill tightly. On that perpetually casual face, there was now no trace of resentment. He looked up at the pill and burst into loud laughter.
“Hahahaha! I knew it!”
He laughed so hard his eyes were squeezed into slits.
“I knew Senior Lai’s apprentice couldn’t be ordinary! Fifth-rank is even too little!”
On the Judges’ Seat, Ruan Qin remained seated. From start to finish, she had not spoken a single word nor shown any hint of surprise. Her gaze fell on her younger sister below, and in those perpetually cold eyes, something was slowly melting.
The corner of her mouth curled up slightly.
Lai Li’an lounged with his legs crossed, sipping his tea, watching everything below. He blew lightly on the foam floating in his cup, unhurried. Who gave her that pill formula, after all?
The entire venue’s attention was fixed on that slowly rotating pill, fixed on that young woman.
A sixth-rank pill was not unheard of in the history of the Cangwu Alchemy Convention, but that was centuries ago. That alchemist had later become an Elder of the Main Sect of Alchemy Sect. And today, standing here was a female cultivator at the Foundation Establishment Stage.
Ruan Se held the pill in her hands, raised her head, and her gaze passed over the dense sea of people on the stands, over countless eyes, and landed on that figure leisurely drinking tea at the highest point of the Judges’ Seat.
In those amber eyes, a smile flickered.
‘Senior,’ her voice was drowned out by the clamor, ‘I did not disappoint you.’
And on the Judges’ Seat, Lai Li’an seemed to have heard something. The corner of his mouth curved into a grin, and he raised his tea cup in a distant toast to the young woman below.