Just a Stroke of Luck

What a knockout!

As someone who had once lived on Earth, Xiao Yan found that the girl's hair color perfectly matched his countrymen's usual tastes, and he could not help stealing a few extra looks.

The girl remained quite composed under Xiao Yan's gaze, merely furrowing her brows slightly.

At the sight of the old man and the girl, the two guards smiled again.

"President Frank, Miss Xue Mei, you're here too."

The silver-haired girl called Xue Mei glanced inside the Alchemist Guild. The distinctive fragrance in the air told her that Lin Fei had already arrived.

"If she can come, naturally, so can I. Otherwise, wouldn't people say I was inferior to her?"

Xue Mei's tone was cool, her face revealing little emotion, but the two guards knew perfectly well that she meant Lin Fei.

Black Rock City had two leading alchemists: Master Otto and Master Frank.

The two had studied under the same master and possessed similar talent. They had competed all their lives, yet neither had managed to gain a decisive victory.

Now that they were growing old, they wanted to continue their contest in another form by teaching disciples.

Otto had chosen Lin Fei, the daughter of Black Rock City's lord, while Frank had chosen Xue Mei, the only daughter of the city's prominent Xue Family.

They had taken Lin Fei and Xue Mei as their respective disciples a year earlier, originally intending to teach them for three years before letting them attempt to qualify as first-rank alchemists.

Yet after only a year of study, Lin Fei felt completely confident in her control over pill refinement and had come here ahead of schedule.

Upon hearing this, how could Frank possibly sit idly by? Ordinarily, the guild president was like a divine dragon whose head appeared but whose tail remained unseen, yet today, he too had brought Xue Mei to the Alchemist Guild for the examination.

Both men knew that their students' skills were still immature, giving them at most a ten or twenty percent chance of refining a first-rank pill.

But if one disciple truly succeeded through an extraordinary stroke of luck, who knew how long the other master would be mocked?

The rivalry between the two veteran alchemists was common knowledge throughout Black Rock City, so the guards were long accustomed to it.

"I heard a commotion here so early in the morning. Has something happened?"

Frank questioned the guards in a gentle tone, while also turning his attention to Xiao Yan.

The boy before him was very young, perhaps even a year or two younger than his own disciple.

Yet he actually found it difficult to see through the boy's strength. He was not merely a fourth-rank alchemist, but also a three-star Dou Ling.

Logically, a boy in his teens should have been a Dou Zhe at most. Even if he were a genius who had reached the Dou Shi level, he should not have been so inscrutable.

That was precisely why Frank had deliberately stopped, suspecting that Xiao Yan carried some unusual treasure that concealed his aura.

"President Frank, this young man wishes to enter the Alchemist Guild, but he has neither an alchemist's badge nor a recommendation letter from a mentor. We really can't let him through."

Frank nodded, then addressed Xiao Yan. "Young man, are you also here to take the alchemist examination?"

Xiao Yan nodded. Although the man was the president of this Alchemist Guild, his tone remained neither servile nor arrogant. "That's right, Senior. My name is Xiao Yan. I happened to be passing through Black Rock City and thought I would stop by the Alchemist Guild to take the first-rank alchemist examination. I was stopped outside because I don't have a recommendation letter from a mentor."

"My young friend Xiao Yan, may I ask who your mentor is? To take the Alchemist Association's examination, you need the endorsement and recommendation of at least a third-rank alchemist.

"Otherwise, if we let large numbers of unqualified people slip in, even the Alchemist Guild's wealth couldn't withstand the losses of medicinal ingredients from failed examinations. I hope you understand."

Xiao Yan felt rather helpless about this. He had merely spent a little over a month studying some notes. Where was he supposed to find a mentor?

"Senior, I have no mentor. I simply happened to obtain a volume of Alchemical Notes and studied on my own for several months. I felt I had made some progress, so I wanted to try taking the first-rank alchemist examination."

Xiao Yan was essentially telling the truth, but the moment he said it, everyone present's expression changed.

"Several months of self-study? Are you joking? If alchemy were so easy to learn on your own, wouldn't everyone be an alchemist?"

The speaker was Xue Mei. She had spent a year studying under the one-on-one guidance of Frank, a fourth-rank alchemist.

Even then, she could only occasionally refine a properly formed pill.

Yet Xiao Yan claimed that after a few months of self-study, he dared to take the first-rank alchemist examination. Unless he possessed monstrous talent, it could only mean that he had no grasp of the situation whatsoever and had simply come to make a fool of himself.

Even Frank struggled to maintain his composure. "Young man, an alchemist is not a physician. Refining pills is extraordinarily complex, not something you can accomplish through a little self-study. You should go home. After a few more years of research, perhaps you'll be able to pass the first-rank alchemist examination."

Frank was already being exceedingly tactful. Throughout the Jia Ma Empire, no one had ever heard of someone becoming an alchemist through self-study-not even Pill King Gu He had done so.

"But I really have successfully refined a first-rank pill. That's why I dared to come here. Senior, could you truly not make an exception?"

Hearing Xiao Yan's reply, Frank could no longer maintain his pleasant expression.

"My young friend Xiao Yan, I have been an alchemist for over forty years, and I have never seen anyone become an alchemist after just a few months of self-study, much less refine a first-rank pill.

"How about this? If you can prove that you can refine pills, I'll recommend you for the Alchemist Guild's examination. If not, you should leave at once."

Fortunately, Frank had a good temper. A more irritable alchemist would probably have thought Xiao Yan was making a fool of him and ordered the guards to throw him out long ago.

Xiao Yan's eyes lit up as an idea immediately came to him. "In that case, let me prove it to you, Senior."

With that, he slowly extended one hand. The movement startled both guards into drawing their weapons, thinking he was about to pull out a weapon of his own.

But when he opened his palm, there was nothing on it.

"My young friend Xiao Yan, what is the meaning of this?"

The last shred of Frank's patience had been worn away. He had actually entertained the slightest possibility that this greenhorn was telling the truth. He really must have grown old and muddleheaded.

Yet in the very next instant, a cluster of blood-red flames suddenly rose from Xiao Yan's hand.

Everyone present immediately stared with wide eyes.

"Manifesting flame! That's an ability only fourth-rank alchemists possess! Have you already reached the fourth-

"rank?"

Even Frank was startled. In all of Black Rock City, only he and Otto could do this, yet the boy before him was no older than seventeen or eighteen!

"You misunderstand, Senior. I'm not a fourth-rank alchemist."

Xiao Yan's explanation allowed everyone to breathe a little easier. A fourth-rank alchemist in his teens would have been far too outrageous.

"I was simply fortunate enough to subdue a heavenly flame. Just a stroke of luck."