And as a Bone Tempering Realm expert, Lin Fan's senses and control were far stronger than an ordinary person's. Even with the same level of skill in Alchemy, the pills he refined would be somewhat better.
Lin Fan quickly sorted the ingredients for one batch of Qi-Blood Pills from the herb rack and arranged them neatly on the wooden table beside him. He set the Purpleblood Flower, Blazing Sun Fruit, Might Essence Root, and several other fiercely potent ingredients apart so he could add them to the furnace in order.
Unlike the previous two batches, Qi-Blood Pills could briefly increase a martial artist's combat strength, making them the hardest to refine. Their ingredients had conflicting properties; the slightest mistake could throw the medicinal powers into conflict and blow the batch. Even veteran alchemists who refined them regularly had to summon every ounce of concentration.
Lin Fan's eyes remained clear, without a trace of impatience or carelessness. Beneath the furnace, blazing charcoal flames licked its base as the ingredients inside melted and mingled.
While Lin Fan refined his third batch, the other veteran alchemists finished their first batches one after another. Aside from the alchemist who had produced a low-grade Blood-Reviving Pill and the one who had lost because he was slower than Lin Fan at producing a High-Grade Pill, the other three produced one high-grade pill and two mid-grade pills.
Ordinarily, those would have been excellent results. But with Lin Fan's shining example before them, the crowd looked on without much reaction.
The veteran alchemists drew deep breaths and exchanged glances. The certainty of victory had vanished from their eyes, replaced by grave concentration. After taking some time to steady themselves, they began their second batches one after another.
Time passed little by little.
Inside Lin Fan's furnace, ingredients whose properties should have clashed mingled smoothly. He kept making minute adjustments to the charcoal fire, now stoking it fiercely, now letting it warm the mixture gently, all while employing a range of Alchemy techniques. Gradually, he kneaded their conflicting medicinal powers into one.
Hummm—
Another low hum sounded from the furnace, and its lid trembled lightly. A powerful, forceful medicinal vapor burst from its mouth and spread through the air, filling the surroundings with fragrance. Lin Fan lifted the lid. The pill at the bottom was a deep reddish gold, round and full, its surface covered in fine, continuous pill markings. Its medicinal power was dense and contained, without the slightest sign of spilling out wildly.
"Another high-grade pill!" A Su Family member responsible for judging pill quality hurried forward and took out the pill to examine it. He could not help exclaiming, "Look at these markings! He blended several conflicting medicinal properties perfectly! Its power is immense. The boost it gives when taken will be astonishing!"
The crowd erupted.
Three batches in a row, every one high-grade!
One veteran alchemist had also chosen to refine Qi-Blood Pills for his second batch. When he heard that Lin Fan had produced a high-grade pill from such a difficult recipe, his mind wavered. Even he could produce mid-grade pills at best, while most people would count themselves fortunate to make a low-grade one. Realizing his batch was bound to lose, he made a slight mistake in his handling. The medicinal properties inside his furnace, already difficult to contain and balance, instantly fell out of harmony. With a muffled bang, black smoke spewed from the furnace mouth. Dregs flew everywhere, and the entire batch was ruined.
The veteran alchemist stared blankly at the blackened furnace mouth, as if every bit of strength had been drained from him. His face fell. He had let the shock unsettle him so badly that he had failed to produce even a low-grade pill. In front of all these people, he had lost face completely.
Seeing that the veteran alchemist refining Qi-Blood Pills had blown his batch, the Su Family judges exchanged glances and immediately announced the result.
"Lin Fan wins the Qi-Blood Pill round and earns another point!"
Three matches, three victories.
The courtyard fell deathly silent, then broke into a buzz of discussion.
"Three batches, all high-grade! Skill like that beggars belief!"
"Those veteran masters couldn't even match a boy. No wonder he received a golden token as a guest elder!"
"Exactly! And I hear Lin Fan's martial cultivation is impressive, too. Miss Su Qingwei certainly has a good eye. She managed to invite someone this remarkable to serve as our Su Family's guest elder."
"At this rate, is he going to win all fifteen rounds? Produce a high-grade pill every single batch? Is he even human?"
Lin Fan refined pills quickly. Each batch took only fifteen to twenty minutes, less than half the time the other veteran alchemists needed. After the Qi-Blood Pills, he refined another two or three batches in succession. Every batch was still high-grade.
By then, the other veteran alchemists had finished their second batches as well. Aside from the one whose furnace had blown, the other four produced two mid-grade and two high-grade pills. Compared with Lin Fan's unbroken run of high-grade pills, they were clearly more than a step behind.
The veteran alchemists took a moment to steady themselves and swallowed pills to restore their energy and strength. They exchanged bitter smiles. None of them still expected to win; they only hoped their side would not lose too badly. They had to keep their minds steady for their final batches. They could not afford another blown batch like the Qi-Blood Pill alchemist's. If that happened before so many Su Family members, it would be hard for them to hold their heads up in the family afterward. The Su Family's Pill Pavilion treated them much better than the other alchemy establishments in the small town.
While they took their pills and recovered, Lin Fan finished another batch. It, too, was judged high-grade. Some pills had mild properties and could be taken by people who did not practice martial arts. The restorative pills the veteran alchemists had just taken, for instance, were suitable even for ordinary people without cultivation. But given their price, ordinary people would hardly ever buy them.
The onlookers around the courtyard were in an uproar. At first, most had waited to see Lin Fan lose badly and make a fool of himself. Yet as the contest went on, the boy produced a high-grade pill from every batch, overwhelming five established Su Family alchemists single-handedly. Many now looked at him with awe.
"Every batch so far has been high-grade. How did this boy become so skilled at Alchemy? Did he start learning the day he was born?"
"Five veteran Pill Pavilion masters joined forces and still couldn't beat one boy. Who would believe it?"
"Do you think all fifteen of his batches will turn out high-grade?"
The murmurs rose and fell as every gaze stayed fixed on the six furnaces, their owners afraid to miss a single detail.
Su Qingwei stood to one side of the crowd, still faintly on edge. Lin Fan had won every round so far, but refining continuously at such intensity must have drained his mental energy beyond what most people could imagine. And because he worked so quickly, he used his formidable control to rush through steps he could otherwise have taken slowly. That surely demanded even more concentration.
Su Qingwei summoned a young medicine attendant and handed him a porcelain bottle from her sleeve, asking him to pass it to Lin Fan. Lin Fan was refining pills, so the onlookers could not approach him freely. Otherwise, someone might deliberately disturb him and affect the result.
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