First-Rank Alchemist

Nalan Sheng waved his right hand, caught the Hemostatic Pill, and examined it closely. The corners of his mouth lifted despite himself. "The quality might be nothing special, but I finally made one. This stuff isn't as hard as I imagined~"

If other first-rank alchemists learned that Nalan Sheng had successfully refined a Hemostatic Pill in less than a day without a teacher's guidance, they would surely have questioned everything they knew.

Under normal circumstances, even with a teacher guiding them, an apprentice alchemist would need at least two or three years before they could possibly refine a first-rank pill and become a first-rank alchemist.

"Keep going!"

After savoring his happiness for a while, Nalan Sheng turned his attention back to the remaining ingredients and continued refining Hemostatic Pills.

With his first successful refinement under his belt, Nalan Sheng's success rate began climbing steadily as he continued.

At first, Nalan Sheng's success rate hovered around sixty percent, but it gradually rose to around eighty percent.

By the time Nalan Sheng had used up fifty sets of ingredients, his success rate had already approached one hundred percent.

By then, Nalan Sheng was no longer satisfied with refining a single Hemostatic Pill at a time. He began refining several simultaneously.

Refining several Hemostatic Pills at once required fusing several sets of ingredients simultaneously. Naturally, this made mistakes more likely during fusion and increased the difficulty of the refinement.

So Nalan Sheng did not get too greedy. He only refined two Hemostatic Pills at once.

Although refining two Hemostatic Pills simultaneously was considerably harder than refining just one, it remained well within Nalan Sheng's control.

Once Nalan Sheng had adjusted to the difficulty of refining two Hemostatic Pills, he began trying to refine three at once.

By the time Nalan Sheng had exhausted all his remaining ingredients, he could refine five Hemostatic Pills simultaneously. Such skill was enough to crush most first-rank alchemists.

However, Nalan Sheng knew perfectly well that knowing how to refine Hemostatic Pills alone did not make him a true first-rank alchemist.

Thus, Nalan Sheng next went to a medicine shop and bought dozens of sets of ingredients for other first-rank pills. Only after he could proficiently refine five common kinds of first-rank pills did he head to the Alchemist Guild Headquarters to take the First-Rank Alchemist Assessment.

The result held no surprises. Nalan Sheng passed the First-Rank Alchemist Assessment smoothly, and the news attracted considerable attention.

After all, Nalan Sheng's status was exceptional, and fifteen-year-old first-rank alchemists were rare.

When Nalan Jie learned of this, he was overjoyed. He immediately sent people to deliver invitations to the major families, planning to hold a celebratory banquet at the Nalan Family's residence.

Besides celebrating Nalan Sheng's advancement to first-rank alchemist, the banquet would also serve as an opportunity to announce that the Brand Poison in Nalan Jie's body had been cleared, thereby intimidating those ill-intentioned petty villains.

More than half a month later

As night slowly fell, luxurious carriages pulled up one after another outside the Nalan Mansion, and figures stepped out of them.

Judging by their clothing, these people were clearly either wealthy or influential.

Led by the mansion's maids, these prominent guests from the Imperial City made their way toward the hall where the banquet would be held.

More than a hundred people had already gathered in the banquet hall, roughly divided into three circles.

The younger generation, led by Nalan Sheng, formed a circle of their own.

The somewhat older guests gathered around Nalan Su, forming another circle.

As for the guests whose strength had reached the Dou Wang level, they formed a third circle with Nalan Jie.

Since today's banquet had been arranged specifically to celebrate Nalan Sheng passing the First-Rank Alchemist Assessment and Nalan Jie clearing the Brand Poison from his body, Nalan Sheng had changed into an alchemist's attire for the occasion.

Nalan Sheng wore a black alchemist's robe, holding a glass of red wine in his right hand with his left tucked at his waist.

Xiao Yi Xian, dressed in a long white dress, held Nalan Sheng's arm and smiled as she accompanied him through the crowd.

Looking at Xiao Yi Xian standing beside Nalan Sheng, many noble young ladies could not help showing expressions of envy, jealousy, and resentment.

To protect Xiao Yi Xian, Nalan Jie had deliberately concealed the matter of her woeful poison body. He had also instructed Nalan Su to announce that Xiao Yi Xian had happened to obtain a Seventh-Rank Detoxification Pill, which she had used to clear the Brand Poison from Nalan Jie's body.

Since Nalan Sheng and Xiao Yi Xian loved each other, Nalan Jie had personally arranged their engagement to repay Xiao Yi Xian for saving his life, making her Nalan Sheng's fiancée.

Once Nalan Sheng had completed his coming-of-age ceremony, he would formally marry Xiao Yi Xian and bring her into the family. She would then become the wife of the Nalan Family's young patriarch.

The position of the Nalan Family's young patriarch's wife had already caught many people's eyes.

Especially after news spread that Nalan Sheng had passed the First-Rank Alchemist Assessment, even more people began eyeing that position.

Yet before those people could make their moves, Xiao Yi Xian, who had appeared from who knew where, had claimed the position for herself. It was easy to imagine their frustration.

What none of them knew, however, was that Nalan Jie had been so eager to arrange the engagement because Xiao Yi Xian's cultivation talent was terrifying.

After more than half a month of refining it with all her effort, Xiao Yi Xian had already refined most of the Brand Poison in the Eight Spider Lances. Her cultivation had also soared from One-Star Dou Zhe to Seven-Star Dou Zhe.

Although Nalan Jie had already learned from Nalan Sheng how terrifying the woeful poison body was, witnessing Xiao Yi Xian's cultivation rise so quickly still gave him an enormous shock.

Truth be told, Nalan Jie had begun to feel that his precious grandson was not worthy of Xiao Yi Xian.

That was why Nalan Jie had hurried to arrange their engagement. He had even privately hinted to Nalan Sheng several times that he should turn the raw rice into cooked rice with Xiao Yi Xian as soon as possible, preferably getting her pregnant with his child.

That way, even if Xiao Yi Xian someday disdained Nalan Sheng for being too weak, she would not simply kick him aside, for their child's sake.

Just as Nalan Sheng and the others were entertaining the younger guests, three more figures entered the hall, immediately drawing everyone's attention.

The woman in the lead wore a moon-white gown with wide sleeves, and a gentle smile graced her exquisitely beautiful face. She was none other than the Second Young Miss of the Nalan Family-Nalan Yanran!

The figure to Nalan Yanran's left was a handsome young man who looked barely into his twenties.

Like Nalan Sheng, this man wore a

black alchemist's robe, but the badge on his chest was that of a second-rank alchemist.