The Dou Wang expert froze for a moment when he saw Xiao Yan write down "Emperor's Extreme Pill," then shock spread across his face.
"Are you really going to refine an Emperor's Extreme Pill?" he could not help asking as he looked at Xiao Yan's still somewhat youthful face.
The Emperor's Extreme Pill was a sixth-grade pill, and one of the finest among them at that.
"Is there a problem?" Xiao Yan asked with a polite smile.
"No, no problem at all." The Dou Wang expert hurriedly shook his head, then turned to hand over the slip and arrange for the ingredients.
The Pill Tower's coffers ran deep. Since it had said they could choose any ingredients below the seventh grade, it certainly had them ready. Besides, the ingredients for two sets of Emperor's Extreme Pills were not coming out of his pocket, so this Dou Wang naturally had no objections.
Still, whenever he thought of the boy's delicate, youthful face, he could not suppress the shock in his heart.
"Elder! This is the pill Venerable Yao's disciple wants to refine!" He handed the slip on the red tray to a high-level seventh-grade elder.
"Mm... hmm?" The elder nodded slightly, only for his eyes to go round the next instant.
"A sixth-grade Emperor's Extreme Pill!" He looked toward the white-robed boy in the square, studying his frighteningly young face.
"Go on. It's only two sets of ingredients for an Emperor's Extreme Pill. If this lad really can refine one..." The elder fell silent.
Anyone who could refine a fifth-grade pill at fifteen was already a monstrous genius. If someone that age could refine a sixth-grade pill, which was countless times harder than a fifth-grade one, then even "monstrous" could no longer describe the boy's talent.
At least, he had never encountered such a genius in his entire life.
At the highest level of the Pill Tower, Xuan Kongzi had already returned from the square some time ago. Four people stood there now: the Pill Tower's Three Giants and Yao Lao.
"Tsk, tsk. There certainly are plenty of outstanding youngsters this time around," Yao Lao said with a chuckle as he watched the youths in the square.
"You old rascal, I think you just want to show off that disciple of yours." Xuan Yi rolled her eyes at Yao Lao.
"Hehe." Yao Lao said nothing else and merely stood there smiling.
Seeing his mysterious air, even Xuan Kongzi could not help growing curious. Knowing Yao Chen's temperament, just how heaven-defying did his disciple's alchemy have to be to make him show off like this?
To remain so confident even against Cao Ying, the boy probably had to be at least fifth grade. Perhaps he had even reached the peak of the fifth grade.
"If that's the case, this boy's talent really does defy the heavens." At that thought, Xuan Kongzi could not help glancing at the white-robed boy in the square.
The boy was still all smiles, trading barbs with Cao Ying while teasing the Dan Family's young girl until her face flushed crimson.
Just then, the Dou Wang experts returned, each carrying a Storage Ring on his red tray.
"Here are the alchemy ingredients you requested." The Dou Wang expert handed his Storage Ring to Xiao Yan.
"Thank you." Xiao Yan stopped trading barbs with Cao Ying and sent his soul power into the Storage Ring to inspect its contents carefully. Although the Pill Tower was almost incapable of making such a mistake, maintaining caution was the greatest respect he could show himself.
Only after confirming that everything was correct did Xiao Yan set the Storage Ring beside him with peace of mind.
"Look at how cautious you're being. Do you think our Pill Tower could make such a trivial mistake?" Seeing Xiao Yan's careful manner, Cao Ying could not resist mocking him.
"Being thorough means taking responsibility for yourself. Would you really want to leave something important to you entirely in someone else's hands?" Xiao Yan lectured her in return.
Cao Ying snorted coldly, but she too began carefully inspecting her Storage Ring.
Once everyone had finished their inspections, another bell rang out across the square.
Dong!
"The time has come. Contestants, prepare yourselves. I hereby declare that the competition officially begins now!" a Pill Tower Elder stood up and announced as the bell reverberated.
The instant his words fell, dazzling flames of every color rose from over a thousand medicinal cauldrons in the square, almost simultaneously.
"Whoa!" The vast crowd in the square erupted with excitement at the sight. Though this competition could not compare to the staggering grandeur of the Pill Gathering, it was still an exceptionally lively occasion in the Pill Region.
Today, they might witness the birth of rising stars in the world of alchemy.
As everyone fed their flames into their cauldrons, Xiao Yan waited no longer. He opened his mouth and spat out a little azure lion, which flew into his cauldron. The next instant, azure flames surged within it.
"I really wonder what pill this fellow is trying to refine!" Beside him, Cao Ying cast a glance at Xiao Yan with her long, beautiful eyes, then immediately gathered her focus.
Once pill refinement began, one could not let one's attention wander, or the chances of failure would rise dramatically.
Xiao Yan had entered that focused state even earlier than Cao Ying.
After making sure his mind had settled, Xiao Yan first took the magic core of a sixth-tier fire-attribute magical beast from his Storage Ring and tossed it into the cauldron.
Boom! The moment the magic core entered the cauldron, azure flames engulfed it and began fiercely calcining it.
The magic core of a sixth-tier magical beast was extremely tough. With Xiao Yan's current Dou Qi and beast flame, he would need to calcine it for at least two hours before he could extract its essence.
Beside him, the magic core of a fifth-tier magical beast was also burning within Cao Ying's cauldron.
About two hours later, Xiao Yan had calcined the magic core into a mass of crystal-clear red liquid.
With a sweep of his finger, more than a dozen medicinal herbs fell into the cauldron. Dividing his attention among multiple tasks, he left one stream of flame to continue calcining the magic core's energy while separating out over a dozen more to purify the herbs' essences.
"Dustless grass, spirit-cleansing cold marrow..." Another hour passed before Xiao Yan added the extracted medicinal essences to the mass of red liquid energy one after another.
Hiss, hiss. Upon contact with the medicinal essences, the red energy hissed and sent up wisps of white smoke.
Xiao Yan remained composed, his black eyes deep and dark as he continued the fusion in an orderly manner.
After the time it took an incense stick to burn, the originally fiery-red energy had been neutralized by the various medicines and cleansed into colorless, transparent, attributeless energy.
The first step in refining an Emperor's Extreme Pill was to wash away the elemental attribute from the energy within a sixth-tier magical beast's magic core, then repeatedly purify it until the mass of energy was completely pure.
Only after confirming that the energy was sufficiently pure did Xiao Yan place it in a small bottle made of warm jade.
With a sideways glance, he saw Cao Ying controlling several medicinal ingredients as she steadily calcined them.
Those are ingredients for refining a Dou Ling Pill. Looking at the beads of sweat on Cao Ying's forehead, Xiao Yan inwardly rejoiced that he had spent these past days diligently honing his alchemy with Yao Lao. Otherwise, at his previous level, he might not have been able to maintain a firm edge over Cao Ying.
Now, however, things were very different.
"Little lady, just you wait until I conquer you." Xiao Yan gave a wicked chuckle, then glanced at Dan Chen's earnest face beside him. Taking a deep breath, he brought out a piece of old vine gleaming with golden light and tossed it into the cauldron.
Flames surged and scorching heat blazed. Explosions from failed refinements occasionally rang out across the square, mingling with the excitement of those who had completed their pills and the shouts of the spectators. Yet at the highest level of the Pill Tower, its Three Giants of old stared, dumbstruck, at the white-robed boy who had tossed the old vine into his cauldron.
"Cleansing and refining a sixth-tier magical beast's magic core, emperor's extreme immortal vine... Yao Chen, could this disciple of yours actually be trying to refine an Emperor's Extreme Pill?!"
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