Xuankong Zi's hand holding the teacup froze midair, and a rare look of emotion appeared on his lean face.
"This aura... he feels only around twenty years old. Such a young Eighth-Rank Mid-Stage Alchemist? And he triggered Five-Colored Pill Lightning?"
Xuankong Zi rose to his feet, the Spatial Power within him rippling faintly.
Outside the hall, a young girl in a blue-black gown was slowly approaching.
She looked about seventeen. Her features were exquisite and stunning, her long phoenix eyes carried an innate arrogance, and her raven-black hair was casually tied behind her head. She exuded an air of pristine beauty and aloof pride.
She was Cao Ying, Xuankong Zi's direct disciple, hailed as the foremost prodigy among the younger generation of the Pill Region.
Cao Ying had just finished refining a Sixth-Grade High-Level Pill and was preparing to ask her master about breaking through the Seventh-Grade Threshold.
Hearing the conversation between the three giants within the hall, Cao Ying froze slightly, her crisp voice carrying a trace of defiance.
"Master, what did you just say?"
"A twenty-year-old Eighth-Rank grandmaster? How is that possible?"
"Among the younger generation of the entire Central Plains, apart from that girl Dan Chen, only I have managed to touch the threshold of the seventh grade at this age."
"For someone to refine an Eighth-Grade Pill capable of triggering Five-Colored Pill Lightning at twenty, he must have used some trick to conceal his true age."
Cao Ying lifted her chin slightly, her eyes filled with doubt.
She had been praised as an alchemy prodigy since childhood. At fifteen, she had entered Xuankong Zi's tutelage, and now, at seventeen, she was already a Nine-Star Dou King and a Sixth-Grade Intermediate Alchemist. Her soul power was even innately formidable.
Among her peers, she had never thought highly