Everyone's a Grind King

"Dong... dong... dong..." Nine long bell chimes echoed over the square, announcing the start of the competition.

Fa Ma rose from his chair with some difficulty. Leaning on his cane, he slowly walked to the edge of the viewing platform. His ancient voice rang out, piercing every listener's mind:

"I believe that after surviving the second round of eliminations, everyone still standing here is a genius among geniuses. And today is the final round of this competition. It is also your best chance to display your greatest abilities and claim supreme glory. So give it everything you have! Bring out your finest skills and seize the crown of the Alchemist Competition champion!"

"Roar! Roar! Roar!" The old man's impassioned opening words ignited the crowd's enthusiasm. Everyone roared in unison, their voices piercing the clouds and resounding through the heavens.

Xiao Yan slowly opened his eyes and swept his gaze across the impassioned audience. He then glanced at Liuli before finally fixing his eyes on Yan Li, who was sneering and mocking the spectators as idiots. The corner of his mouth curved upward slightly as he murmured, "Sometimes, it's because of their expectations that we have to... give it everything we've got!"

"Alright, alright, quiet down a little and let this old man finish speaking." Fa Ma raised both hands in a calming gesture, smiling warmly.

The excitement in the arena gradually eased somewhat.

"The key theme of this third round is 'freedom.' We, the organizers, will no longer provide any assistance, nor will we impose any requirements. What pills you refine will be entirely up to you Alchemists. The judging criteria will be the Pill Grade and effectiveness." Fa Ma smiled faintly as he explained.

Everyone was stunned upon hearing this. Soon after, the faces of some poorly prepared Alchemists turned pale. Some of them might not even have enough ingredients to make up a single prescription.

Xiao Yan had learned the competition details from Fa Ma beforehand, while Liuli knew the plot. The two tacitly put on looks of surprise.

Yan Li, on the other hand, had probably known the competition details as well, but he did not bother pretending. He simply continued sneering. He wore the skin of a rather cute young boy, but with that expression, he looked more like a pervert.

Xiao Yan glanced at him and did not pay him any more attention, focusing instead on waiting for Fa Ma to announce the start.

"Alright, that is all I have to say. I believe you all understand the rules now." Fa Ma cleared his throat, his voice rising several degrees. "I hereby announce that the third-round Finals of the Seventh Jia Ma Empire Alchemist Competition begin now!"

"Dong..." Another long, melodious bell chime sounded, and every contestant grew serious.

"Now we'll see whose stockpile is the richest!" Hai Bodong leaned back lazily in his VIP seat and teased.

"Hehe, just enjoy the show." Jia Xingtian also watched below with great interest. Every Alchemist was currently motionless, apparently deep in thought as they considered what to refine.

"Just wait. Plenty of people will be showing off soon enough." Fa Ma returned to his seat. Without Dou Qi enhancing it, his voice sounded as hoarse as dry firewood.

At that moment, the little princess Yao Yue was the first to break the silence. She took a green Medicine Cauldron from a delicate Storage Ring.

"Mm, not bad. They actually let her use the Azure Flame Cauldron. They really spared no expense." Fa Ma could not help nodding.

With Yao Yue taking the lead, more and more people brought out their Medicine Cauldrons, kindled flames in all sorts of colors, and began preparing to refine their pills.

Xiao Yan glanced at Yao Yue's and Liu Ling's Medicine Cauldrons, his expression unchanged. He silently took out the Third-tier Four-mouth Fire Cauldron that he had spent a great deal of money on yesterday.

Although this cauldron was considered quite good among the contestants present, it was still somewhat lacking compared to those of Yao Yue and Yan Li, especially Liuli's.

However, Xiao Yan did not feel any regret. He had handled Old Yao's Black Demon Cauldron countless times! Medicine Cauldrons and the like were merely external objects. What truly mattered was strength.

Besides, he possessed something superior to anything any of them had: the Heavenly Flames within his body.

He took out one set of ingredients for the Crimson Firmament Spirit Pill. Although it was a Fifth-grade Pill, it required only twenty-seven types of medicinal ingredients, making it comparatively simple.

"But a Fifth-grade Pill..." Xiao Yan sighed quietly. He had not even attempted a Fourth-grade Pill before, yet he was skipping two grades at once. The difficulty was truly no small matter.

"What is Yan Xiao doing... Why are the ingredients he took out different from those needed for the Three-patterned Green Spirit Pill?" Fa Ma had been watching Xiao Yan all along. When he noticed the difference, he could not help frowning.

"Let's wait and see. Yan Xiao must have his own plan." A trace of gravity flashed through Jia Xingtian's eyes, but he still reassured Fa Ma.

"All our hopes are resting on him. Nothing must go wrong!" Fa Ma stroked his beard, the tension on his face not easing in the slightest.

"I'll quickly refine one batch first and get familiar with it!" Xiao Yan made up his mind. The third round allowed ample time, testing the depth of an Alchemist's reserves. Xiao Yan had four sets of ingredients on hand, enough to test the waters once or twice.

He raised his palm slightly, and a graceful Green Flame slowly rose from his fingertips. In an instant, the temperature across the entire square soared. Meanwhile, everyone else's flames began to flicker and weaken, as though yielding in submission.

"When Heavenly Flames appear, all flames submit. As expected, they are one of the most miraculous creations of heaven and earth." Fa Ma nodded softly. The sight reminded him of a similar scene from his youth.

Seeing the entire arena's attention shift to him, Xiao Yan shrugged helplessly. With a flick of his finger, the Green Lotus Core Flame flew into the Medicine Cauldron, then swiftly ignited and spread.

Yan Li glanced at the Heavenly Flame that Xiao Yan controlled so effortlessly, then sneered. "Hmph, no matter how powerful the flame is, he's still just a brat. If he can't refine a pill, it's all useless!"

Xiao Yan moved quickly, placing at least three medicinal ingredients into the Medicine Cauldron at a time and using the Heavenly Flame to refine them at high speed. The Heavenly Flame blazed within the cauldron. The needed portions of the differently shaped ingredients gradually melted into Medicinal Liquid, while the rest turned into residue and fell to the bottom of the Medicine Cauldron.

Liuli, meanwhile, was in no hurry. She had only come to join in the fun this time. She took out a set of ingredients for the Core Condensing Pill, then removed a red pill from her Storage Ring and placed it in her mouth.

Immediately afterward, an exceptionally bewitching Dark Red Flame slowly rose from her hand.

It was a Beast Flame. Before she absorbed the Heavenly Flame, Gongsun Sanbu had gone to the Seeking Demon Mountain Range to find it for her. It was called the Crimson Dark Ghost Flame, apparently a source flame "borrowed" from some Eighth Order Magical Beast.

In any case, she intended to conceal her strength, so she might as well casually refine with this.

She tossed all the ingredients needed for the Core Condensing Pill into the Medicine Cauldron at once, then directly controlled the Dark Red Flame to refine them simultaneously. Her speed was terrifyingly fast.

Xiao Yan did not notice Liuli's bold, sweeping method of refinement beside him. He was carefully controlling the heat, cautiously transforming medicinal ingredients with different melting points into their proper forms.

For a time, the atmosphere in the arena was extremely quiet. Only the crackling of flames refining ingredients inside the Medicine Cauldrons could be heard. This solemn stillness also lowered the volume of the audience's discussions and chatter.

"The little princess and Liu Ling both intend to refine Fourth-grade Pills, don't they?" Chemir, the vice president of the Alchemist Guild, watched the two below and nodded in satisfaction.

"In a competition like this, there's no competitiveness without refining a pill above the fourth grade!" Fa Ma said with a smile, though his eyes remained fixed on Xiao Yan, leaving him deeply troubled.

What pill was this little fellow refining? He truly had never seen it before. Wouldn't it have been better to honestly refine the Three-patterned Green Spirit Pill he had prepared? As long as he refined two patterns, victory in this competition would be all but assured.

Xiao Yan had no time to concern himself with that. After half an hour of intense concentration, he had finally refined all the medicinal ingredients.

Letting out a soft breath, he looked around and discovered that Yao Yue, Liu Ling, and the others were still refining their ingredients. Although he intended to rush through this attempt, it was not hard to see that the pills those two were preparing required highly complex ingredients as well.

However, when he turned toward Liuli, he was instantly dumbfounded.

Dark Red Flame nearly filled her entire Medicine Cauldron, carrying scorching energy as though it had enveloped the young girl herself. Xiao Yan probed Liuli's Medicine Cauldron with Soul Power and discovered that she had actually already begun shaping the pill!

"What terrifying speed! And she hasn't even used her Heavenly Flame!" Xiao Yan sucked in a breath.

Pill refinement mainly consisted of three steps: extraction, pill fusion, and shaping.

The most complex and difficult was the second stage, pill fusion. It required following the prescription's records and using the Alchemist's Soul Power to make seemingly vastly different Medicinal Liquids merge together. Most Alchemists failed at this stage.

Yet Liuli had already completed the second stage and entered the final one.

"If the pill she refines is also of an excellent grade and effect, then this girl's strength is way too monstrous!" Xiao Yan's mouth twitched as he could not help sighing.

However, he did not lose heart. Instead, he began reconsidering his plan.

He intended to extract all the ingredients from several sets first, then begin refining. That way, if he failed, he could swiftly proceed to the next attempt at pill fusion.