A Winning Start

The Bone-Fixing Pill was one of the pills martial artists used regularly. Though its name made it seem as if only those in the Bone Tempering Realm would use it, that was not actually the case. Even in the Skin Tempering Realm, a martial artist's bones underwent a certain degree of strengthening. It was simply that, compared to the bones, the strengthening of flesh and skin was more obvious, which was why it was called the Skin Tempering Realm. Otherwise, if bone strength remained unchanged while only flesh and skin were strengthened, a martial artist's immense power could cause their own bones to fracture and shatter with the slightest exertion in battle.

Hearing the Su Family members' appraisal of the pill Lin Fan had refined, a suppressed uproar immediately rose from the crowd.

The few people who had just mocked Lin Fan, claiming that he cared only for speed and could refine nothing but low-grade pills, turned green and white in the face and shut their mouths.

The five elderly Su Family alchemists who were refining pills nearby also paused slightly, their peripheral vision sweeping over the high-grade pill in Lin Fan's hand as stormy waves surged in their hearts.

Especially the old alchemist who, like Lin Fan, was refining a Bone-Fixing Pill. Sweat had begun to bead on his forehead. The Bone-Fixing Pill was one of the pills he was most proficient at, yet he had actually failed to refine it as quickly as Lin Fan. At this moment, the medicinal liquid in his pill furnace had only just completely melted. Lin Fan had been nearly twice as fast as him. Moreover, most of the time, he could only refine mid-grade pills, and only occasionally produced a furnace of high-grade ones. Knowing he had already lost this round, the old alchemist still did not dare stop. After all, the medicinal ingredients had been supplied by the Su Family, so he could only grit his teeth and finish refining.

Seeing Lin Fan produce a high-grade pill so quickly, Su Qingwei's suspended heart eased slightly. A glimmer of brightness quietly flashed through her eyes, and her tightly clenched fingertips gradually relaxed. High-grade was already the finest quality among pills. Even if the other elderly alchemists also refined high-grade pills, they would still fall short of Lin Fan in refinement time. Thus, the Su Family members at the side immediately declared Lin Fan the winner of the Bone-Fixing Pill round, awarding him one point.

Lin Fan's expression did not change. He took another set of medicinal ingredients from the shelf beside him. They were ingredients for a Blood-Reviving Pill, which could help martial artists swiftly heal their injuries. It was an essential healing pill for martial artists in battle.

Lin Fan reached out and stirred the charcoal fire beneath the pill furnace. The furnace temperature slowly rose, yet there was not the slightest trace of impatience on his face. On the other side, seeing Lin Fan choose to refine a Blood-Reviving Pill for his second furnace, the old alchemist who was also refining Blood-Reviving Pills gradually began to feel his heart tighten. But he was already halfway through. There was no way Lin Fan could finish before him now, right?

Gathering his thoughts, the old alchemist took a deep breath, swiftly grabbed medicinal ingredients and tossed them into the furnace, doing everything in his power to quicken his rhythm. He was determined to win back a round with the Blood-Reviving Pill. The Blood-Reviving Pill was one he refined often in daily life; if he had not refined a thousand furnaces of it, he had refined at least eight hundred. And he usually refined multiple portions of ingredients at once. Refining multiple portions together was somewhat more difficult than refining a single portion.

Someone stood beside every alchemist to keep time during refinement. After all, the final judgment for each type of pill depended not only on pill quality, but also on refinement time.

The spectators in the courtyard fell quiet once more, every gaze gathering again on Lin Fan's pill furnace. Su Qingwei watched Lin Fan. The young man's eyes were bright and clear, his techniques practiced, steady, and sure.

Su Qingwei knew that the difficulty of refining a Blood-Reviving Pill lay in temperature control. If the fire was even slightly too high, the blood essence within the ingredients would burn away and disperse; if the heat was insufficient, the medicinal properties could not blend together, making it exceedingly easy to produce a useless pill. Producing a useless pill meant refinement had failed. It was inferior even to a low-grade pill.

Lin Fan turned a deaf ear to the discussions around him. He continued to add ingredients calmly, regulate the furnace temperature, and tap against the furnace walls. The entire sequence of movements flowed with extreme smoothness, as though he had refined this type of pill countless times before. His timing for adding each type of ingredient was impeccable.

Time slowly passed.

Before long, the pill furnace before Lin Fan let out another deep hum. The lid trembled slightly, and a rich, vibrant medicinal fragrance of blood essence rushed toward them, even stronger than the scent from the previous furnace of Bone-Fixing Pills.

"Another pill is about to be completed!" someone cried in a low voice.

Meanwhile, the old alchemist who was also refining Blood-Reviving Pills had only just condensed his medicinal liquid into a single mass.

Lin Fan raised a hand and lifted the furnace lid. A Blood-Reviving Pill lay quietly at the bottom. The pill was crimson red, its color even and translucent. A faint layer of pill patterns also lingered across its surface. Pill patterns formed when a pill's medicinal potency was too abundant and suffered no loss during refinement. The excess medicinal power condensed upon the pill's surface.

Several Su Family members responsible for appraisal hurriedly reached out to receive it. The Blood-Reviving Pill felt warm and smooth to the touch, its color even. The surging blood essence inside was firmly sealed within the pill, and it still carried the warmth of having just left the furnace.

"It is confirmed to be high-grade! The blood essence in this Blood-Reviving Pill is contained within, and it contains very few impurities!"

"With such quality, its effects in promoting blood circulation and healing injuries may well surpass ordinary high-grade Blood-Reviving Pills by a considerable margin!"

After several Su Family members examined it in turn, they finally delivered their appraisal. The moment the news came out, the crowd stirred again. Among them, Su Yuanshan also had a trace of surprise flash through his eyes. This young man's Alchemy truly seemed extraordinary.

Hearing the announcement, the old alchemist who was also refining Blood-Reviving Pills could not help but falter. His hand shifted slightly while adjusting the heat. Yet it was precisely this tiny deviation that caused an exceedingly faint sizzling sound to ring out from within the pill furnace, where the pill had been on the verge of completion. Soon afterward, a faint burnt odor drifted out. It's burnt. The old alchemist's heart sank with a thud, and his face instantly became incomparably ugly.

He hurriedly tried to salvage it, but by the time he finally finished refining and opened the furnace, the pills within bore several scorched marks. Pills that should have been at least mid-grade had barely reached the level of low-grade.

The Su Family members responsible for judging merely glanced at them from afar. Seeing the conspicuous charred black marks on the white pills, they could tell they were low-grade pills. There was no need to take them for a detailed inspection. The few exchanged looks, then immediately announced in loud voices.

"In the Blood-Reviving Pill round, Lin Fan wins again and gains another point!"

He had won both rounds.

Having just successfully refined the Blood-Reviving Pill, Lin Fan did not pause in the slightest. He immediately reached out for the next set of medicinal ingredients, preparing to begin refining the third pill.

For the third pill, Lin Fan chose the Qi-Blood Pill. Unlike the Blood-Reviving Pill from the previous furnace, which was used for healing, the Qi-Blood Pill enhanced a martial artist's explosive power, allowing their strength to increase somewhat for a short period. In battle, such an increase might well be the key to deciding victory or defeat. Its importance therefore went without saying.

After several days of accelerated cultivation with a thousandfold training effect every day, combined with the period he had already spent practicing Alchemy in Small Mountain Village before coming to the Su Family, Lin Fan had long reached a level in Alchemy for the Three Body-Tempering Realms that was almost at the peak, with nowhere left to advance. Of course, he still could not refine pills for the Qi Force Realm.

Although those elderly alchemists had studied Alchemy for several more decades than ordinary people, that was still nothing compared to Lin Fan. Bone Tempering Realm experts inherently possessed far greater mental strength and learning ability than ordinary people. With the added acceleration of a thousandfold training effect, a single day for Lin Fan could equal more than ten years, or even several decades, for those old alchemists.