The next day, just as dawn broke, the entire Imperial Capital bustled with noise and excitement.
The once-every-eight-years Imperial Capital Alchemy Master Tournament officially began.
Everyone who had purchased tournament spectator tickets woke up early and headed toward the Royal Plaza.
Xiao Yan followed the flow of the crowd to the Royal Plaza, where he ran into both Xue Mei and Lin Fei.
Each of the two young women grabbed one of Xiao Yan's arms, chattering away as they walked toward the dedicated entrance for alchemy masters.
After passing the guild's inspection, the three of them walked through a long passageway, and the view suddenly opened up.
Before them lay a gigantic plaza, set with numerous bluestone platforms—three thousand of them in total.
All around the plaza stood tiered spectator stands, and above those was a second level, which served as the VIP seating area.
"Big Brother Xiao Yan, this Royal Plaza can hold over ten thousand people. The ticket sales alone bring in a massive revenue for the guild headquarters."
Lin Fei pointed at the spectator stands, speaking to Xiao Yan with a charming smile.
"Tier 1 tickets are 398 gold coins, Tier 2 tickets are 698 gold coins, Tier 3 tickets are 998 gold coins, Tier 4 tickets are 1998 gold coins, and the second-floor VIP seats are even more expensive at 19,888 gold coins."
Xue Mei also said with a smile.
"You two little lasses, instead of properly improving your alchemy, why are you studying these things? It's not like they're going to share these gold coins with you."
Xiao Yan smiled and rubbed the heads of the two young women, feeling a sense of emotion as he looked at the stands where spectators were already taking their seats.
For the Imperial Capital Alchemy Masters' Guild headquarters, the ticket revenue alone amounted to tens of millions of gold coins.
Coupled with the various expenditures of these spectators on food, drink, and lodging during the tournament, it brought immense benefits to the prosperity of the Imperial Capital's economy.
"Hehe, they do share the gold coins. If you achieve outstanding results, our Black Rock City Alchemy Masters' Guild has a monetary reward, you know."
Lin Fei stuck out her delicate tongue and said with a smile.
The three of them sat in the waiting area below the plaza, chatting and laughing.
As time passed, the spectators grew more numerous, and the alchemy masters participating in the tournament arrived one by one.
Over two thousand alchemy masters participated in this tournament, making it the largest in history.
When a crisp bell chime rang out, the originally bustling plaza grew quiet.
First, Jia Xing Tian, the representative of the imperial family, gave a speech, rambling on for more than half an hour.
Following that, Fama, the president of the alchemy masters' guild headquarters, delivered a speech, which also lasted over half an hour. Just as Xiao Yan was about to fall asleep from listening, the 7th Alchemy Master Tournament officially began.
All the alchemy masters walked toward their respective competition areas according to their contestant numbers, then found their individual bluestone platforms.
Since Xiao Yan's projected score placed him in the top ten, his position was one of the ten massive bluestone platforms in the center of the plaza.
These ten bluestone platforms were not only spacious but also slightly higher than the other platforms, making them the most eye-catching and the center stage among the bluestone platforms.
As Liu Ling, who was predicted to place first in scores, he leaped from the waiting area to his bluestone platform with a flamboyant flair, his handsome posture drawing shrill cheers from countless young maidens.
Princess Yao Yue did not fall behind either, her body fluttering down onto the bluestone platform like a falling leaf as she unexpectedly employed the Flying Catkins Movement Technique.
This beautiful posture, combined with the little princess's fame, naturally drew another wave of applause from the stands.
Xiao Yan shook his head and walked slowly toward his bluestone platform. His entirely ordinary entrance elicited a chorus of boos.
As all the contestants entered, the match officially began!
On every contestant's bluestone platform lay the exact same portion of various medicinal ingredients, along with a medicinal formula.
Xiao Yan picked up the medicinal formula, his brows slightly raising.
Rather than calling it a medicinal formula, this piece of paper was more appropriately an instruction manual.
It only contained the general refining method, while completely omitting all other details.
The test for this first round of the tournament was to deduce the complete refining method of a medicinal formula through the simple information provided on it.
Every alchemy master would eventually create their own unique medicinal formulas, but that was something high-tier alchemy masters did only at the very end.
For these young alchemy masters currently in the plaza, analyzing this medicinal formula was an extremely difficult task.
Therefore, when many alchemy masters picked up the formula to inspect it, their brows immediately furrowed, and a succession of sighs rang out.
However, there were also confident alchemy masters, such as Liu Ling and Yao Yue. Having practiced alchemy since childhood and having received instruction from famous mentors, they had undergone constant training in the analysis of medicinal formulas.
After reading the formula for just a few minutes, the two of them summoned their respective medicine cauldrons from their storage rings.
Shortly after, more and more alchemy masters summoned their medicine cauldrons and began analyzing the formula.
Xiao Yan was in no rush; instead, he simply read the information on the medicinal formula.
This was a Tier 2 medicinal pill called the Bone-Recovery Pill, which was used to treat fractured bone injuries.
Creating a medicinal pill naturally began with determining its therapeutic effects.
Therefore, analyzing a medicinal formula naturally started with its healing properties.
Then, by combining the medicinal properties of each ingredient provided in the formula, one analyzed the steps required for fusion.
"When analyzing a medicinal formula, if you have sufficient time in a laboratory, you can continuously experiment—conducting small-scale trials, then medium-scale trials, and finally mass production. That is how such a medicinal pill is created."
Inside the portable space, Medicine Elder transmitted his voice via soul transmission.
Since the portable space was located inside Xiao Yan's body, Medicine Elder's soul transmission carried no soul fluctuations whatsoever, making it imperceptible to anyone else.
Following that, Medicine Elder explained how to analyze a medicinal formula.
The ingredients for the Bone-Recovery Pill came in two portions, with six ingredients in each portion.
The first portion of ingredients was naturally meant for experimentation.
The method Medicine Elder taught was to extract active components of varying purities from each medicinal ingredient. The finer the division, the greater the number of experimental combinations, and the closer one would get to the correct Bone-Recovery Pill.
Refining the purity of medicinal ingredients heavily tested an alchemy master's fire-control techniques, and having to extract various purities in a short period of time placed even stricter demands on fire-control techniques and soul power.
Xiao Yan summoned his medicine cauldron—merely an ordinary two-flame-vent medicine cauldron—and with a wave of his hand, dozens of jade bottles appeared on the bluestone platform.
He held his palm upward, and a purple flame flared to life. With a casual wave, the purple flame shot directly into the medicine cauldron.
Xiao Yan pressed one hand against the medicine cauldron, injecting his battle Qi to ensure a continuous and steady supply of energy for the purple flame.
His soul power entered the flame along with the input battle Qi, controlling the temperature of the purple flame.
With a beckon of his other hand, Xiao Yan drew a medicinal ingredient into his palm and dropped it through the entrance of the medicine cauldron.
The rolling purple flame enveloped the medicinal ingredient, slowly raising the temperature to begin calcination.
Through calcination, the active components of this medicinal ingredient were initially extracted.
It formed a pool of liquid. Xiao Yan's soul power probed outward, separating ten percent of the liquid from the rest and suspending it along the edge of the medicine cauldron.
Then he continued refining the remaining ninety percent of the liquid, separating another ten percent once the purity increased by a single degree.
In this manner, Xiao Yan extracted the active components of this medicinal ingredient from one to ten degrees of purity one by one.
Upon finishing the extraction, he flicked his hand, sending the cauldron lid flying off to the side of the bluestone platform.
With another wave of his hand, the ten pools of liquid with varying purities flew out, landing inside the pre-prepared jade bottles before he tightly screwed on the corks.
In the VIP seating area, Fama saw that Xiao Yan had actually extracted ten different purities of active components from a single medicinal ingredient, and a sharp glint flashed across his aged eyes.
He flipped through the list of alchemy masters and muttered to himself, "This Han Li's extraction technique is actually this terrifying. He is a strong contender for the championship this time."
Laymen watched the bustle, while experts watched the technique.
Xiao Yan extracting ten degrees of purity of active components from a medicinal ingredient in such a short amount of time instantly drew the gazes of the entire audience.
Liu Ling let out a cold snort; he had only managed to extract five levels of purity.
Little Princess Yao Yue likewise noticed Xiao Yan's actions, her beautiful eyes shimmering with brilliant colors as she had not expected this ordinary-looking youth to possess such formidable extraction techniques.
Xiao Yan could not be bothered to care about others. He urged his battle Qi to form a thin membrane of light plastered over his ears, cutting off the surrounding sounds so he could concentrate on extracting the active components of the medicinal ingredients.
Soon, the sixty jade bottles on the bluestone platform were filled with the ten degrees of purity of active components from all six medicinal ingredients.
Next came the experimental fusion. By sensing through soul power whether the medicinal properties produced under different purity fusions approached the final therapeutic effects of the medicinal pill, the optimal purity would be deduced.
This step tested soul perceptive ability and patience.
Xiao Yan tested and fused these active components of varying purities one by one, quickly arriving at the optimal purity.
Naturally, the optimal purity was not all the purities Xiao Yan had extracted earlier.
For instance, for a certain medicinal ingredient, Xiao Yan had extracted purities ranging from low to high, from 1 to 10 degrees. Through experimentation, he discovered that the required purity for this ingredient actually lay between 5 and 6 degrees. By testing, Xiao Yan was able to analyze that the optimal degree for this medicinal ingredient within the Bone-Recovery Pill formula was 5.6 degrees.
The 5.6-degree figure was also derived through Xiao Yan's own experience.
To obtain an even more precise degree, one would have to extract far more levels of purity—10, 20, 30, or even over a hundred.
However, subdividing into so many degrees was something only a laboratory had the time and conditions to perform.
Having obtained the required optimal purity, Xiao Yan proceeded to extract the final portion of medicinal ingredients one by one.
Afterward, he poured the active components of all six medicinal ingredients into the medicine cauldron all at once to fuse them together.
Because time was running out, Xiao Yan had no choice but to do this, yet his profound skills gave him the boldness. Right before the time limit expired, the medicinal pill took shape.
A perfectly round medicinal pill shot out from within the cauldron!
When the time ended, the bluestone platforms of those alchemy masters who had failed to refine a medicinal pill began flashing with red lights, and those alchemy masters were subsequently eliminated and disqualified.
Right then and there, fully half of the alchemy masters exited the field, among whom were Lin Fei and Xue Mei.
They were merely Tier 1 alchemy masters, and wanting to analyze a Tier 2 medicinal formula and actually refine it was nothing short of a fairy tale to them.
Every single minute and second on the bluestone platform had felt like years to them, so once they were eliminated, they instead let out a light sigh of relief, charming smiles blooming on their pretty faces.
Naturally, the alchemy masters who had successfully refined a medicinal pill did not mean they had passed outright; they still needed to have the therapeutic effect of their pills tested, and achieving at least 40 percent therapeutic efficacy was considered passing.
Following the method Fama had explained, Xiao Yan pressed a green button located at the lower left corner of his bluestone platform.
As the button was pressed, a cylindrical stone platform rose upward, atop which sat a depression meant for placing the medicinal pill to be tested.
At this moment, some alchemy masters placed the medicinal pills in their hands into the depression atop the stone platform. As the medicinal pill was dropped in, the depression sank slightly, and a moment later, three streaks of white light flashed across the stone pillar.
This signified that the Bone-Recovery Pill refined by this alchemy master possessed only 30 percent therapeutic efficacy, and was judged as failing.
This alchemy master pounded his fist against the bluestone platform in frustration, cursing angrily under his breath.
Immediately afterward, more and more alchemy masters placed their medicinal pills onto the stone platform for testing. Those who passed wore faces full of joy, while those who failed wore dejected expressions.
Just the testing phase alone eliminated nearly a hundred more alchemy masters.
The medicinal pill Liu Ling refined tested at 70 percent therapeutic efficacy.
The little princess's pill had 60 percent therapeutic efficacy.
As for a mysterious gray-robed figure, his pill tested at 80 percent therapeutic efficacy.
Knowing the plot, Xiao Yan naturally knew that this mysterious gray-robed figure was none other than Yan Li, the vice president of the Cloud Empire's alchemy masters.
After Fama inspected the information and learned that the other party was an alchemy master from the Cloud Empire, his expression shifted slightly.
If the other party were to snatch the championship of the Alchemy Master Tournament, the Jia Ma Empire's Alchemy Masters' Guild would lose all face.
When Xiao Yan's medicinal pill tested at 90 percent therapeutic efficacy, everyone present finally breathed a sigh of relief.
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