The First Round of the Tournament: Testing Formula Analysis

The next day, while the sky was still barely light, the entire imperial capital erupted with excitement.

The once-every-eight-years Alchemy Master Tournament of the imperial capital officially began.

Everyone who had purchased tickets to watch the tournament got up early and headed toward the Royal Plaza.

Xiao Yan arrived at the Royal Plaza with the crowd and ran into Xue Mei and Lin Fei.

Each girl took one of Xiao Yan's arms as they chattered away and headed toward the Alchemy Masters' exclusive entrance.

After passing the Guild's inspection, the three of them went through a long passageway before the view suddenly opened up.

Before them lay an enormous plaza, filled with three thousand bluestone platforms.

Around the plaza were circular spectator stands, with a second tier above them reserved for VIP seats.

"Big Brother Xiao Yan, this Royal Plaza can hold tens of thousands of people. Ticket sales alone bring the Guild headquarters an enormous income."

Lin Fei pointed at the stands and said to Xiao Yan with a sweet smile.

"Tier-one tickets cost 398 gold coins, tier-two tickets cost 698, tier-three tickets cost 998, and tier-four tickets cost 1,998. The VIP seats on the second floor are even more expensive, at 19,888 gold coins."

Xue Mei said with a smile as well.

"You two little girls should be working on improving your alchemy skills. Why are you studying this stuff? It's not like those gold coins will be split with you."

Xiao Yan smiled and rubbed the girls' heads. Looking at the stands, where spectators had already begun taking their seats, he could not help feeling impressed.

The Alchemy Masters' Guild headquarters of the imperial capital earned more than ten million gold coins from ticket sales alone.

Together with all the food, drink, lodging, and other expenses incurred by the spectators during the tournament, it was tremendously beneficial to the prosperity of the imperial capital's economy.

"Hehe, there are gold coin rewards. If you achieve outstanding results, our Black Rock City Alchemy Masters' Guild will give you a gold coin reward."

Lin Fei stuck out her tongue and said with a smile.

The three of them sat in the waiting area beneath the plaza, chatting and laughing.

As time passed, more and more spectators arrived, and the Alchemy Masters participating in the tournament also showed up one after another.

More than two thousand Alchemy Masters had entered this tournament, the highest number in its history.

When a crisp bell rang out, the previously bustling plaza fell silent.

First, Jia Xing Tian, the royal representative, gave a speech that went on for over half an hour.

Afterward, Fama, the president of the Alchemy Masters' Guild headquarters, spoke for another half hour. Just as Xiao Yan was beginning to nod off, the seventh Alchemy Master Tournament officially began.

All the Alchemy Masters headed to their assigned competition areas according to their participant numbers and found their respective bluestone platforms.

Since Xiao Yan's predicted ranking was within the top ten, his position was on one of the ten massive bluestone platforms in the center of the plaza.

Not only were these ten bluestone platforms spacious, but they also stood slightly higher than the others. They were the most eye-catching central platforms.

As the predicted top performer, Liu Ling flamboyantly leaped from the waiting area onto his bluestone platform. His handsome pose drew shrill cries from countless young girls.

Little Princess Yao Yue was unwilling to fall behind. Her body drifted down onto her bluestone platform as lightly as a falling leaf, having actually used the Flying Catkins Movement Technique.

That graceful sight, coupled with the little princess's fame, naturally drew another wave of cheers from the stands.

Xiao Yan shook his head and slowly walked toward his own bluestone platform. His ordinary entrance was met with a chorus of boos.

Once all the contestants had entered the arena, the competition officially began!

Every contestant's bluestone platform held the same quantity of various medicinal ingredients, along with a pill formula.

Xiao Yan picked up the pill formula, and his brows rose slightly.

Rather than a pill formula, it would have been more accurate to call it an instruction manual.

It only contained a rough method of refinement, while all the other details were completely absent.

The first round of the tournament tested whether the contestants could infer the complete refinement method of the pill formula through the simple information provided.

Every Alchemy Master would eventually create pill formulas of their own, but that was something only high-level Alchemy Masters did in the end.

For the young Alchemy Masters currently gathered in the plaza, analyzing a pill formula was an extremely difficult task.

Thus, when many Alchemy Masters picked up their pill formulas and examined them, they frowned deeply as sighs rose one after another.

However, some Alchemy Masters were brimming with confidence, such as Liu Ling and Yao Yue. They had practiced alchemy from childhood and inherited the teachings of famous masters, so they had always trained in pill formula analysis.

After reading the pill formula for only a few minutes, the two of them summoned their own cauldrons from their Storage Rings.

Soon, more and more Alchemy Masters summoned their cauldrons and began analyzing the pill formula.

Xiao Yan was in no hurry and simply continued reading the information on the formula.

This was a second-tier pill called the Bone-Recovery Pill, used to treat broken-bone injuries.

To create a pill formula, one naturally had to first determine its effect.

Therefore, analyzing a pill formula naturally began with its medicinal effect.

Then, one had to combine the medicinal properties of every ingredient listed in the formula and analyze the steps needed to fuse them.

"If there is enough time, pill formula analysis can be done through repeated trials in a laboratory: first small-scale tests, then medium-scale tests, and finally mass production. That is how a pill formula is created."

Medicine Elder's soul voice transmission sounded from within the Portable Space.

Since the Portable Space was inside Xiao Yan's body, Medicine Elder's soul voice transmission produced no spiritual fluctuations, and no one else could sense it.

Medicine Elder then explained how to analyze a pill formula.

The ingredients for the Bone-Recovery Pill came in two sets, with six types of medicinal ingredients in each set.

The first set of ingredients was naturally meant for experimentation.

Medicine Elder's method was to extract active components of varying purity from every medicinal ingredient. The finer the divisions, the more combinations could be tested, and the closer one could get to the correct Bone-Recovery Pill.

Extracting ingredients at different levels of purity itself tested an Alchemy Master's flame-control skill. Extracting multiple purity levels in a short time placed even stricter demands on flame control and Spiritual Strength.

Xiao Yan summoned his cauldron. It was merely an ordinary two-flame-port cauldron. With a wave of his hand, dozens of jade bottles appeared on the bluestone platform.

He raised his palm, and a purple flame blazed to life. With a casual flick, the Purple Flame shot into the cauldron.

Xiao Yan placed one hand against the cauldron and poured in his Dou Qi, supplying the purple flame with a steady stream of energy.

His Spiritual Strength followed the Dou Qi into the flames, controlling the Purple Flame's temperature.

With a gesture from his other hand, Xiao Yan drew a medicinal ingredient into his palm before tossing it through the cauldron's opening.

The Purple Flame rolled and wrapped around the ingredient, slowly raising its temperature as it began refining it.

As the refinement continued, the ingredient's active components were initially extracted.

It was a ball of liquid. Xiao Yan extended his Spiritual Strength and separated one-tenth of the liquid, suspending it along the edge of the cauldron.

He then continued refining the remaining nine-tenths. Once its purity increased by one level, he separated another tenth.

In this way, Xiao Yan extracted the active components of that ingredient at purity levels one through ten.

After finishing the extraction, he waved his hand and sent the cauldron lid flying to one side of the bluestone platform.

Then, with another gesture, the ten portions of liquid at different purity levels flew out and landed in the prepared jade bottles, which he stoppered.

In the VIP seats, Fama saw that Xiao Yan had extracted active components at ten different purity levels from a single medicinal ingredient. A sharp gleam flashed through his aged eyes.

He flipped through the list of Alchemy Masters and muttered, "Han Li's extraction technique is actually this terrifying. He is a strong contender for this tournament's championship."

Outsiders watched for excitement, while experts watched for skill.

In such a short time, Xiao Yan had extracted active components at ten different purity levels from one medicinal ingredient, immediately drawing the attention of the entire venue.

Liu Ling snorted coldly. He had only extracted five levels of purity.

Little Princess Yao Yue also noticed Xiao Yan's actions. Her beautiful eyes shone with surprise. She had not expected this ordinary-looking young man to possess such formidable extraction skills.

Xiao Yan could not be bothered with anyone else. He activated his Dou Qi to form a thin membrane over his ears, blocking out the surrounding noise as he focused on extracting the ingredients' active components.

Soon, the sixty jade bottles on the bluestone platform were filled with the active components of six medicinal ingredients at ten different purity levels.

The next step was fusion testing: using Spiritual Strength to sense whether the medicinal properties produced by combining different purity levels approached the pill's intended effect, thereby determining the optimal purity.

This step tested Spiritual Perception and patience.

Xiao Yan tested the fusion of those active components at different purity levels one by one and quickly found the optimal purity.

Of course, the optimal purity was not necessarily one of the purity levels Xiao Yan had extracted earlier.

For example, Xiao Yan had extracted one ingredient at purity levels one through ten, from low to high. Through testing, he found that the required purity lay between level five and level six. From those tests, Xiao Yan could determine that the ingredient's optimal purity in the Bone-Recovery Pill formula was 5.6.

That 5.6 level was also based on Xiao Yan's own experience.

To obtain a more precise level, he would need to extract more purity levels: ten, twenty, thirty, or even over a hundred.

However, only a laboratory had the time and conditions to divide purity levels so finely.

Having obtained the necessary optimal purity levels, Xiao Yan extracted the final set of medicinal ingredients one by one.

He then poured all the active components from the six ingredients into the cauldron and fused them together.

Time was running out, so Xiao Yan had no choice but to do so. However, his skill gave him confidence, and the pill took shape just before time expired.

A round pill shot out of the cauldron!

After time ran out, red lights flashed atop the bluestone platforms of the Alchemy Masters who had failed to produce a pill. Those Alchemy Masters were eliminated.

At once, half of the Alchemy Masters left the arena, including Lin Fei and Xue Mei.

They were only first-tier Alchemy Masters. Asking them to analyze a second-tier pill formula and refine it successfully was simply a fantasy.

Every minute and second on the bluestone platforms had felt like an eternity to them, so after being eliminated, they instead let out sighs of relief, smiles appearing on their pretty faces.

Of course, successfully refining a pill did not mean one had passed. Its medicinal effect still had to be tested, and an effect of forty percent was required to qualify.

Following Fama's instructions, Xiao Yan pressed a green button in the lower-left corner of his bluestone platform.

As the button was pressed, a cylindrical stone pedestal rose from the ground. At the top of the pedestal was a depression where the pill would be placed for testing.

At that moment, an Alchemy Master placed his pill into the depression atop the pedestal. As the pill dropped in, the depression sank slightly. A moment later, three white lights flashed on the stone pillar.

That indicated that the Bone-Recovery Pill refined by this Alchemy Master possessed only thirty percent of its intended effect and was judged unqualified.

The Alchemy Master slammed his fist against the bluestone platform in frustration, cursing under his breath.

More and more Alchemy Masters then placed their pills onto the pedestals for testing. Those who passed were beaming, while those who failed looked utterly dejected.

Nearly a hundred more Alchemy Masters were eliminated at the testing stage alone.

Liu Ling's pill tested at seventy percent effectiveness.

The little princess's pill had sixty percent effectiveness.

A mysterious gray-robed man's pill had eighty percent effectiveness.

Knowing the plot, Xiao Yan naturally knew that the mysterious gray-robed man was Yan Li, the vice president of the Cloud Empire's Alchemy Masters' Guild.

After Fama checked the records and learned that the other party was an Alchemy Master from the Cloud Empire, his expression changed slightly.

If that man won the Alchemy Master Tournament, the Jia Ma Empire's Alchemy Masters' Guild would lose all face.

When Xiao Yan's pill tested at ninety percent effectiveness, everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief.