Chương 27: The Four Nights Festival - Alchemy Tournament (Part 1)

After waiting for all ten participants to prepare their workstations, An began walking from table to table, taking small chests out of the white pouch, two chests per table. This spatial pouch had materialized along with him, right under his feet, when he was teleported to this place. Just as An started placing the chests on the tables, Gu Bai's voice rang out from the sky.

"Finally, the time has come for our second event, the Alchemy Tournament! To judge this Tournament, I give my place over to my dear sister Wu Xin! As you all know, she is an outstanding alchemist, so who better than her to judge and lead this tournament?!" Gu Bai continued praising the only woman among the leaders while An ran between tables. He decided not to use his Qi, as he had noticed that the assistants in the previous tournament had carried everything and moved between tables without using any techniques.

So he decided not to stand out from the crowd and behave like everyone else. After everything was laid out and prepared, An went back to where he had been standing before and, without thinking twice, plopped down on the ground.

"Today's Tournament will be held in two stages! First: each participant is given ten sets for refining a first-rank pill, the Endless Sun!" As soon as Wu Xin in the sky said the name of the pill, everyone around gasped. An twisted his face, he remembered this pill from his book. Even though its recipe needed a large number of ingredients, it wasn't actually that hard to refine if you strictly followed the instructions.

"For those who don't know, this pill is considered one of the main first-rank pills and one of the most difficult to prepare! The recipe contains four ingredients and three catalysts!" Wu Xin created a projection next to herself, of the pill itself and its ingredients. Everyone watched the projection with interest. Although most of the spectators couldn't care less about the pill, all their attention was fixed on the charming Wu Xin.

Even the participants mostly ignored her words, completely captivated by her beauty.

"The second stage of today's tournament is a pill bordering on the second rank, the Whale's Breath pill! Only three ingredients and one catalyst are needed, but the difficulty lies in the preparation parameters! The slightest mistake can lead to complete failure!" Wu Xin created a new projection showing the Whale's Breath pill.

"In front of you are two chests. Each chest contains sets for each pill!"

"The winner will be the one who completes both stages with the lowest loss of effectiveness!"

"I wish you all good luck!"

"Begin!!" She made deliberate pauses between each sentence, not for drama, but to allow both the spectators and participants to snap out of their trance, since she herself knew and was proud of what her appearance could do. Dong! Dong! Immediately, the ringing of bells echoed through the entire sect, carrying a melodic sound across the grounds. All participants got to work. Many closed their eyes and began meditating, standing by their tables.

Others immediately opened the first chest and began preparing everything to refine their pills. An glanced at the ten participants he was responsible for. The seven people he hadn't even bothered to give temporary nicknames had already started refining. The Named Trio were still standing there, in no hurry. Distracted, An thought about the pills. The Endless Sun was a pill for strengthening the body by absorbing the fire element into one's body, not dantian.

It was only suitable for cultivators with a dominant Fire element. Essentially, one ate the pill and endured the pain while the raging fire Qi absorbed into the body through every pore. The pill itself was useless to An, but he thought about its concept. If he could implement this concept with the wood element and then combine it with the Beginning of the Body Qi Path pill, maybe something useful would come out of it. The only difficulty was the cost of one set of ingredients.

The second pill, Whale's Breath, an alternative for cultivators with the water element, had no pain and a much weaker effect. Five minutes after the tournament started, two of the ' Seven' had already ruined their first sets for the Endless Sun pill. Ten minutes later, Pink Braids opened her chest and began refining. An decided to watch her skill, eagerly waiting to see what she could show him. An was surprised, he wasn't expecting to see how masterfully and precisely Pink Braids refined her pill.

By the time she nearly reached ' forming', she hadn't made a single mistake. Her hands worked like a machine, all her movements were clear and well-practiced. For someone who couldn't see and read Qi flows, this was very commendable. At that same moment, Arrogant Lady began the preparation process. An decided to watch her process too.

Unexpectedly, she made several minor mistakes during the ' regulation' stage, which confused An, as that was essentially the easiest stage of the process, where one just needed to memorize the timings. Looking at her more carefully, at her facial expression, at how she carried herself even during refining, An concluded that she took everything for granted, as if it was all beneath her, and participating in the tournament didn't matter to her. Boom! One of the ' Seven' had his cauldron explode.

Shaking off his surprise, An looked to see who the culprit was, reluctantly stood up, and walked over to the unfortunate one. Approaching, he pulled out an exact copy of the cauldron and placed it in front of him. Seeing that his cauldron had been replaced, the culprit didn't even glance at An, let alone offer any thanks. Ignoring it, An turned around and quickly returned to his spot, afraid of missing something interesting. Pink Braids and Arrogant Lady had already moved on to ' forming'.

An noticed a large number of mistakes and shortcomings in both of them. Nodding or shaking his head from time to time, exhaling and worrying about the participants, as if he were the one refining the pills, An caught a few sideways glances from some of the lucky ' Seven'. About thirty minutes passed, and Arrogant Lady was the first to refine a pill from her first set. An almost clapped his hands but quickly stopped himself.

Even though she hadn't taken the pill out of the cauldron yet, he could already see that her loss was 23%. After taking out the pill, an artifact resembling a mirror materialized in her hand. An craned his neck, trying to see every detail. He recognized this device, it was needed to determine pill quality and was called the Purity Measurer. There was a mention of this artifact in his alchemy book. Placing the pill on the mirror, after a few moments, numbers appeared on it like on a clock, showing 20%. An nodded.

The book described that such mirrors measured with a margin of error. To get them close to the true value, one needed to follow the environmental conditions, first and foremost, be indoors rather than outdoors. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Seeing the number 20%, Arrogant Lady frowned and threw the pill on the ground. Then she took out her second set and started over.

Seeing this, An rolled his eyes and almost snorted at such wastefulness and disregard for her own work. Shaking his head, he became disappointed in her and shifted his attention back to Pink Braids. She was already finishing ' calming'. He noticed that the quality of her pill would clearly be higher than Arrogant Lady's. If, of course, she didn't make a mistake at the last moment. And unfortunately, she made a mistake, the pill ended up with a 29% loss.

An exhaled, shook his head, having expected more from her, and threw his gaze toward Golden Boy, who was still standing with his eyes closed by his cauldron.

"Just like a protagonist in a novel... Heh, he'll probably surprise everyone... Ah! Oh! What a talent! What a gem! From nothing to the genius of all geniuses! Hehe..." An muttered under his breath. This time, even Arrogant Lady threw a frowning glance in An's direction, hearing him muttering something and giggling like an idiot to himself. Clicking her tongue in annoyance, she continued refining her second set. Over the next three hours, most of the ten moved on to preparing the second pill, Whale's Breath.

During these three hours, An had to replace another six cauldrons. Watching everyone, he noticed that among the lucky 'Seven' there was one dark horse. A young man, possibly in his second year at the sect, only at the third layer of Qi Condensation, short and skinny, so much so that even his white robes couldn't hide it. He had no emblem on his chest. His unusual dark green hair and black eyes created a strong color contrast. An decided to call him ' Dark Horse'.

This Dark Horse managed to achieve a loss of 14% for the Endless Sun pill, which put him in first place among the ten participants. The rest of the ' Seven' showed their best results at 24% loss, which was still very good, considering An hadn't expected anything from them at all. Pink Braids managed to achieve 19%, and Arrogant Lady, 17%. But Arrogant Lady's work process continued to disappoint An time after time.

She believed too much in her own perfection, thinking that every movement of her hand was flawless, and as a result, she made many simple mistakes that weren't even present among the lucky 'Seven'.

"I wonder, does her teacher choose not to notice her mistakes, or is he the same way?" An shook his head, looking at this girl. He couldn't understand, judging by her age and her Practitioner emblems in both Alchemy and Artifacts, she clearly had a high status in her sect, even while still being an outer disciple. That meant her master should be on the same level as Shoa Ediso, meaning he could see and read Qi flows.

'More than half is already over... There's only a little over three hours left until the Talisman and Formation Tournament starts, which means even less than three hours to prepare the pills,' He glanced at Golden Boy, waiting for this guy to start showing a master class the likes of which hadn't been seen for thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of years. An couldn't help himself and smiled widely, barely holding back laughter.

You could hardly blame him, sitting here watching this tournament, he hadn't found anything new or useful for himself. All the elegant movements, the unique and secret techniques of the participants, they were just slightly modified versions of the four basic techniques, and not always for the better. His thoughts were the only thing saving him from boredom. Close to an hour later, most had already prepared their first batches of Whale's Breath, and once again, Dark Horse was in the lead with a loss of 22%.

During this hour, An had to replace cauldrons eleven times, again. Each time, muttering under his breath and cursing the participants for their carelessness, he efficiently replaced them. A few times, people shouted at him from behind, having heard his words directed at them. The content of his muttering was usually along the lines of, " If you can't even control a cauldron, what kind of pills are you refining, then?"

Some who heard this got so heated that they almost jumped on him, but remembered just in time where they were. Even two of the ' Trio' glanced back at this assistant, hearing his strange words. Sitting back down, he suddenly looked sharply at Golden Boy. The Golden Boy had finally started moving.' It's about time!' An's mood immediately lifted, and he began watching intently, mentally rubbing his hands together in anticipation. Opening his eyes, Golden Boy shouted and struck the cauldron with an open palm.

The impact sent it flying into the air. With a movement of his hands, spreading them apart, the cauldron began to spin in the air, hovering at head height. Everyone around immediately turned their attention to him, especially his flashy movements, which were uncharacteristic for such tournaments. Even the focus of all the projectors shifted to him. Waving his hand, the chest with the Endless Sun sets opened, and all ten sets flew out straight into the cauldron.

"All ten at once!"

"Ha! What idiot got into the Tournament? Who let him in?!"

"Is this some kind of technique? Or is he just a moron?" The spectators watching the tournament began whispering among themselves, splitting into two camps, critics and admirers, with the former heavily outnumbering the latter. Using a technique to obtain water through Qi, he directed it into the cauldron. Waving his hands again, the cauldron sped up and flew closer to him, stopping almost at his chest.

"Ignito Flame!" he shouted. The center of his chest began to glow from within, rising quickly up his throat into his mouth." ROAR!!" The flame burst from his mouth directly onto the cauldron. With flames still spitting from his closed mouth, he began manipulating the fire, distributing it evenly across the entire surface of the cauldron. Seeing this, An almost gasped in shock. He recognized that fire. The golden color and the name that Golden Boy had shouted, this was one of the Immortal Flames: Ignito.

It was considered fifth on the list of all known Immortal Flames. An had first learned about these flames during Elder Shoa's first lecture, though the topic had only been covered superficially.

"I-Immortal Flame!"

"Oh my god! Which one is that?"

"I-is it the Miroa Flame?!"

"No! That's Ignito! The Immortal Flame Ignito!" Everyone in the stands started shrieking and chattering among themselves. The entire stadium came alive like never before, more was happening among the spectators than on the arena itself. In the Clouds." Haha! Finally! A true talent in my White Dragon Sect!" Black Marcus couldn't hold back and burst into laughter.

"The Ignito Flame? So he's a descendant of the Ruste Clan?" Wu Xin frowned, remembering that clan, and asked Marcus." Mhmm, Sister Wu, nothing escapes your delightful and bewitching eyes!" Black Marcus smiled broadly and winked at Wu Xin. Seeing this, she simply shook her head and lowered her gaze back to Golden Boy.

"Ruste... The only one that comes to mind is Ruste Zen, the last of the main branch of the Ruste Clan." Wu Xin continued, glancing at Black Marcus for confirmation of her speculation.

"You're right, this is indeed young Ruste Zen. He enrolled last year, when he was already thirteen. Now he's fourteen." Marcus sighed deeply.

"Enrolled at thirteen? Did you really abandon your principles and accept a student into the sect, breaking one of the fundamental rules?" Wei Leo, hovering nearby, having found an excuse, couldn't resist reprimanding Marcus, eagerly watching his face.

"Eh... It's much more complicated than it seems. His enrollment was put to a general vote of the Main Council..." A flash of killing intent and deep disappointment in himself flashed through Black Marcus's eyes, mostly from helplessness. Wei Leo, seeing his face, almost rolled his eyes from the satisfaction he got. Gu Bai, standing nearby, paid no attention and simply continued watching the tournament.

"He's been nominated as a Seed of the Future for your sect, hasn't he?" Wu Xin tilted her head, examining the flame around Golden Boy's cauldron. Black Marcus simply nodded.

"Eh... Even with our cultivation, we have to bow to political decisions..." Wei Leo said on an exhale, almost silently, but his eyes began to radiate cold. All three nodded upon hearing this, fully agreeing. As soon as Ruste Zen began using his Ignito Flame, four cauldrons exploded simultaneously around him. Snapping back to reality from the explosions, An briefly considered replacing them with new ones using his Qi, so he wouldn't have to get up and miss what would happen next.

But he quickly caught himself on the verge of a ' near-fatal' mistake. He jumped up quickly, manually replaced all the cauldrons, rushed back to his spot, sat down, and propped his chin on both hands, continuing to watch the ' show'.

"Ha!" Ruste Zen stopped the cauldron with a single strike, and it immediately stopped, but it kept hovering in the air. The moment it stopped, the pills inside began to form immediately. An watched this whole strange process through the Qi flows. He immediately saw that the losses would be very low, and he could tell that three pills were forming from each set. But he understood that this wasn't a really good thing.

Due to the unique modifications to the pill preparation techniques and the concocting of three pills during forming, the loss of potency increased. If Golden Boy had refined only one pill per set, An was sure his losses would be below 10%, without a doubt. But alas, behind such a flashy modification that had created such a great first impression, this huge flaw was hidden. BOOM! The cauldron's lid flew into the air with force. With a movement of his hand, Ruste Zen pulled it back, not letting it fly too far.

Striking the bottom of the cauldron with his palm, all thirty pills flew out, and with a smooth flick of his wrist, he scattered them into pre-prepared flasks. Reading all the information from each pill, An understood that all of them had come out with a 12% loss. Shaking his head, he was still impressed, to make thirty pills at once meant that Golden Boy was definitely a genius, and his mastery of such a unique technique was proof of that.