"But these five spirit pills look somewhat similar to the fourth-tier Spirit Elixirs produced by the four fourth-tier Alchemists earlier. Could they be five fourth-tier Spirit Elixirs?"
"Impossible. Absolutely impossible."
"In the hundreds of years since the True Elixir Pavilion held the pill competition, no one has ever managed to produce five pills at once, let alone five fourth-tier Spirit Elixirs."
The spectators chattered among themselves, all guessing at what had happened.
At that moment, even Master Qin Qi could no longer sit still. He immediately rose and went to the five spirit pills floating above the Alchemy Furnace.
He wanted to inspect them personally, and he stared at the four fourth-tier Spirit Elixirs in astonishment.
Then, with an excited tone, he announced, "The Tianchen City Branch produced five fourth-tier Spirit Elixirs and has received two hundred points."
Master Qin Qi knew that even he could not produce five fourth-tier Spirit Elixirs in one batch, which was why he was so excited.
As soon as the highly authoritative Master Qin Qi made his announcement, the entire venue fell silent.
It was the first time anyone had seen Master Qin Qi personally inspect and announce the results with such excitement.
The result that the Tianchen City Branch had produced five fourth-tier Spirit Elixirs exploded in everyone's minds like a thunderclap, leaving them deeply shaken.
After all, not one person present had ever seen anyone produce five fourth-tier Spirit Elixirs in a single batch.
They all knew what this meant. It meant they had witnessed the birth of a legend.
Wu Xulong's sworn enemy, Feng Qiulin, refused to accept the result when he heard it.
He shook his head violently, as though trying to wake himself up, muttering, "This is impossible. This is impossible."
Only after a while did murmurs begin to spread. Everyone looked at Yang Lingtian as if they were looking at a monster.
Some even wondered whether Yang Lingtian was truly only eighteen years old.
Could he be a hidden Alchemy Grandmaster in disguise?
At that moment, Yang Lingtian still looked utterly calm and unconcerned.
He knew that to become a strong cultivator, he had to remain calm and composed no matter what happened.
Master Qin Qi also stared fixedly at Yang Lingtian. He wanted to see whether Yang Lingtian was truly only eighteen.
After watching him for a while, Master Qin Qi's vision, backed by his Golden Core peak cultivation, could naturally determine the bone age of someone at the Foundation Establishment Early Stage.
After personally confirming it, Master Qin Qi found that Yang Lingtian was indeed only eighteen years old.
To refine fourth-tier Spirit Elixirs, one had to be at least a fourth-tier Alchemist.
This greatly shook the heart of Master Qin Qi, an Alchemy Grandmaster who had lived for several hundred years.
An eighteen-year-old fourth-tier Alchemist was exceedingly rare—unheard of throughout the world.
While everyone was still immersed in shock and unable to recover, the host began announcing the third part of the competition.
The final trial was pill identification. They had to write down the name of each spirit pill and its effects.
Most importantly, they also had to write down its formula and the spirit herbs used to refine it.
The main pavilion would bring out thirty first-tier Spirit Elixirs, twenty Tier 2 Spirit Pills, ten third-tier Spirit Pills, five fourth-tier Spirit Elixirs, and two fifth-tier Spirit Elixirs for them to identify.
Completely identifying a first- or second-tier Spirit Elixir was worth one point, a third- or fourth-tier Spirit Elixir was worth five points, and a fifth-tier Spirit Elixir was worth ten points.
Identifying all the spirit pills correctly would earn a perfect score.
Just as all the spirit pills were about to be brought out, Master Qin Qi stood up and shouted, "Wait!"
He then walked to the table where the spirit pills had been placed but had not yet been brought onto the platform.
He gently lifted the cloth covering the spirit pills, and one of them appeared in his hand.
He removed one of the fifth-tier Spirit Elixirs and replaced it with the pill he had just taken out.
Master Qin Qi secretly thought, I'll replace a fifth-tier Spirit Elixir with a rare sixth-tier Spirit Elixir. I wonder whether that kid can identify it.
This sixth-tier Spirit Elixir was something I obtained by chance. It's exceedingly rare.
I memorized its formula long ago, but even after more than a century, I still haven't been able to refine it.
This sixth-tier Spirit Elixir is far too important. I've never taken it out before.
This time, in order to probe that kid's limits, I have no choice but to bring it out.
After Master Qin Qi secretly switched the pills, the table of spirit pills was sent onto the platform.
Everyone could see these pills, but each competing Alchemist was shrouded in a layer of invisible energy.
This energy formed a partition that prevented sound from entering.
The Alchemists could only look at the spirit pills and write their answers on paper.
When the cloth covering the spirit pills was lifted, all the pills entered everyone's view.
At that moment, aside from Master Qin Qi, the other Alchemists among the judging team were stunned when they saw the sixth-tier Spirit Elixir on the table.
A very small number of people inside and outside the venue also recognized the sixth-tier Spirit Elixir on the platform and were equally shocked.
Suddenly, someone cried out, "A sixth-tier Spirit Elixir! There's actually a sixth-tier Spirit Elixir on the platform!"
The shout immediately attracted the attention of the spectators.
"What? A sixth-tier Spirit Elixir?"
"That's impossible, isn't it? Our Star-Moon Dynasty doesn't even have a sixth-tier Alchemist. How could there be a sixth-tier Spirit Elixir?"
"What is the True Elixir Pavilion's main pavilion trying to do? It actually brought out an exceedingly rare sixth-tier Spirit Elixir as one of the pills to identify."
"Isn't this a little excessive? Those Alchemists can barely write the formulas for fifth-tier Spirit Elixirs."
"And now they've brought out a sixth-tier Spirit Elixir, something that exists only in legends. Who could possibly write its formula?"
Sixth-tier Spirit Elixirs were extremely scarce in the Star-Moon Dynasty. One could practically say that they were not sold at all.
As a result, in many people's minds, sixth-tier Spirit Elixirs existed only in legends.
Some people even revealed a trace of greed in their eyes, but no one dared act rashly.
As for this sixth-tier Spirit Elixir, none of them knew its exact name.
Naturally, they had even less chance of knowing its formula or medicinal effects.
Yang Lingtian was also drawn to the aura radiating from the sixth-tier Spirit Elixir.
Fortunately, he was highly proficient in pills, and he quickly recognized that this sixth-tier Spirit Elixir was called the Foundation Solidifying Pill.
Its effect was to make the Spiritual Power in one's dantian purer, allowing one to display greater strength.
However, refining this sixth-tier Spirit Elixir required supreme-grade spirit herbs, and such herbs were exceedingly rare.
Thus, even if one knew the formula and knew how to refine it, it could not be produced without the materials.
He then swiftly wrote down the names, formulas, and effects of all the spirit pills.
The others, meanwhile, were still scratching their heads and racking their brains as they tried to recall the formulas of the spirit pills.
Most people knew the names of the spirit pills, but the most difficult part was still understanding their formulas.
Master Qin Qi looked at Yang Lingtian's relaxed expression and could not figure him out. That kid stopped writing so quickly.
Could it be that he recognized this sixth-tier Spirit Elixir too and even knows its formula?
Soon, the time was up, and all the papers were collected. The judging team began grading them one by one.
However, whenever someone wrote down the formula for the sixth-tier Spirit Elixir, the other judges would bring the paper to the chief judge, Master Qin Qi.
That was because they did not know the formula of the sixth-tier Spirit Elixir and could not determine whether the answers were correct.
Quite obviously, many Alchemists had simply written nonsense.
But when Master Qin Qi received Yang Lingtian's paper, his eyes widened, and enormous waves surged through his heart.
Master Qin Qi was deeply shocked. He actually wrote out the formula for the sixth-tier Spirit Elixir. How is that possible?
Back then, when I happened to obtain this sixth-tier Spirit Elixir, I also obtained its complete formula. Only then did I learn the proportions of its ingredients.
Yang Lingtian actually wrote it out without the slightest mistake. Could he be the reincarnation of a Pill Saint?
After the competition, I have to find him and learn more.
After reviewing the papers, the judging team compiled all the scores.
Then the host began announcing the scores for the final round and the overall rankings.
This time, the top ten and bottom ten would both be announced in front of everyone.
With a booming voice, the host first announced the scores of the top ten in the final round.
When everyone heard that the Tianchen City Branch had once again received a perfect score, the entire venue erupted in astonishment.
"My heavens! We've witnessed history—the first perfect score in the history of the pill competition!"
"I never expected a branch in a remote city to win first place in the pill competition."
"What was that young Alchemist called again? He claimed earlier that he would take first place, and it turns out he wasn't bragging."
"His name is Yang Lingtian. I heard that before the competition, he was even setting up a stall in the street. That was when he boldly declared that he would take first place."
"An Alchemist this young and this formidable is probably unprecedented and will never be surpassed!"
"Tianchen City is such a barren place, yet it actually managed to nurture such a formidable Alchemist."
Most of the people at the venue were now praising Tianchen City, making Wu Xulong beam with delight.
This time, Tianchen City had truly held its head high, surging from the bottom straight to first place.
Meanwhile, Feng Qiulin, the pavilion master of the Mingkai City Branch, wore an expression of jealousy and displeasure. He had never expected Yang Lingtian to be so formidable.
Although Yang Lingtian's revealed talent and strength in pills had convinced many people present, Feng Qiulin was still unwilling to accept it.
He felt that he had lost all face.
After all, he had just mocked Yang Lingtian frenziedly, only to have his face slapped again and again.
Yet something even more humiliating was about to happen to him.
Soon, the top ten in the overall rankings had been announced. As expected, Tianchen City took first place in the pill competition with a perfect score of four hundred points.
Next came the announcement of the bottom ten. This time, they would begin with tenth from the bottom.
After the ninth- and tenth-from-last rankings were announced, the Mingkai City Branch was nowhere among them.
Feng Qiulin breathed a sigh of relief. Last time, they had ranked eleventh from the bottom.
Tianchen City had surged out of the bottom ten and moved ahead, and he had worried that his branch would be pushed down one place into tenth from the bottom.
Now that nine of the bottom ten had been announced without his branch appearing, he believed that his branch would not be among the bottom ten.
At that moment, the much-anticipated last-place ranking was about to be announced.
"Now, we will announce the branch in last place. It is the Mingkai City Branch, with ninety points."
As soon as the host finished speaking, the entire venue erupted.
In every pill competition, the rankings that attracted the most attention were first place and last place.
These two "firsts" were often the subject of people's idle post-meal gossip.
At that moment, Feng Qiulin looked as if he had been struck by a bolt from a clear blue sky. He stood there blankly.
He had never imagined that his branch would actually take last place.
This meant that his branch's reputation was ruined, and from now on, it would also have to hand over fifty percent of its profits every year.
Before you continue