Whoosh~
The raging flame made a clear contrast with Vicious Pill King’s wane face. The once imposing and tough old man now appeared frail and with one foot in the grave. His body swayed in the breeze, a moment away from collapsing.
But he clenched his teeth and persevered. He grinned at Zhuo Fan, who was looking back at him, with excitement.
As if to challenge Zhuo Fan, Vicious Pill King’s gestures changed and the flame soared.
Losing blood essence three times in a day along with supplying so much Yuan Qi had taken its toll on his aged body. Sweat began to fall from not just his face as his hands grew paler and seemed to age with the naked eye.
But his eyes danced in joy as he saw the pill slowly form within the flame.
His behavior even stirred the sympathy of those who hated him to the core, including Chu Qingcheng and the overseers.
“Vicious Pill King is vile and twisted, but one had to admit his alchemy skill is worthy of admiration. He lives up to his name as the first alchemist in the empire.” Long Jiu sighed in praise.
The others nodded, watching Vicious Pill King with the same feelings.
Despite being on opposite sides, a hero was worthy of respect.
Bone Soul Truefire was indeed a heaven and earth spirit flame. And in the expert hands of Vicious Pill King, the pill was completed in no time at all.
The pill was ready to be taken out of the inferno.
But right at this moment, Vicious Pill King spat more blood essence!
Everyone was nervous when it entered the fire. A humming spread and the Bone Soul Truefire burned hotter.
At the same time, a pill shined brightly and flew out of the fire with a cackle. The sound of the laughter was in fact the same as Bone Soul Truefire’s.
“Vicious Pill King bestowed the pill with spirituality!” Long Jiu sighed in amazement. The others looked on in shock at the incredible dancing pill.
It was a known fact that a heaven and earth spirit flame could instill spirituality into a pill, but doing it was a whole another matter.
In Tianyu Empire’s thousand-year-old history, there had been accounts of alchemists possessing a heaven and earth spirit flame, but none of them were able to refine a living pill.
This rumor came from outside the borders. But for such an alchemist to appear even after such a long time, it was still rarer than rare. The entire continent might not have had such a genius appearing over the last half millennia.
But Vicious Pill King had done it!
Zhuo Fan with his dazzling performance had made the people neglect this number one alchemist in the empire. But now he used his power to prove he was still the best.
With a gesture, the pill entered his hand and Vicious Pill King’s hair started swirling in the air. He slowly raised the pill in Zhuo Fan’s direction, his eyes recovering their pride and arrogance.
He was weakened but let the people see this old man teetering towards collapse like a lofty giant.
“T-this…”
Xiao Ya opened and closed her mouth speechless. In the end, she finally managed to express her doubt, “Odd, the pill looks to be above the 7th grade but not quite in the 8th. What does it mean?”
Squinting, Vicious Pill King didn’t respond. Only stared rivetingly at Zhuo Fan.
It was an open provocation.
Chuckling, Zhuo Fan said, “It is without a doubt a 7th-grade pill, albeit a perfect one. If you insist on defining it, you can call it a grade skipping pill. But it is in fact this kind of pill the hardest to refine in one’s alchemical journey. It may be a 7th-grade pill, but it’s worth supersedes a common 8th-grade pill.”
The crowd was in complete shock!
This was their first time hearing of a 7th grade pill that exceeded an 8th grade pill. Even some low-grade alchemists were dumbstruck.
Though the 5th-grade alchemists and above were fully aware of the reason.
There were, in fact, some alchemists who had a hundred percent chance of refining 5th-grade pills that could touch upon how to reach the perfect quality. But never, even after they entered the 6th grade, had they achieved it.
Thus 6th grade pills were easy to refine, while perfect 5th-grade pills were nigh impossible.
To them, refining a grade surpassing pill was a talent among talents.
Talent was already needed to become a high-grade alchemist, but for refining a perfect pill one had to be a genius.
It was clear Vicious Pill King was such a man.
In an instant, the people’s image of Vicious Pill King grew exponentially.
Vicious Pill King, however, didn’t care about such things. His eyes were on one man only. That man was the sole person qualified to make him stake his life in this competition.
Following his eyes, the crowd’s sight landed on Zhuo Fan. They now knew why Vicious Pill King went all out in this refining, even risking his life to make a perfect pill. It was all to beat the strongest opponent he ever had.
They were all watching Zhuo Fan eager to see his reaction.
A clash between heavyweights, a match among peak grandmaster alchemists was a rare occurrence. After today, none may get the chance to see another again. This only worked to raise their spirits higher.
Taking a deep breath, Zhuo Fan began pondering.
None disturbed him either in the deafening silence that ensued. Yet the people’s eyes were fixed on Zhuo Fan, not leaving him for even a blink.
With gloom ever-present on his face, Huangpu Qingyun’s killing intent only grew. The more Zhuo Fan could grasp the hearts of the people, the more threatened he felt of his authority.
He was certain of one thing, Zhuo Fan had to be dealt with.
Long Jiu’s group frowned, waiting for Zhuo Fan’s next move. Chu Qingcheng and the overseers watched on edge.
The strangest thing that happened was Chu Qingcheng no longer cared about the prevalent grudge between Pill King Hall and Drifting Flowers Edifice. Her mind was solely preoccupied with Zhuo Fan, of how he would respond to Vicious Pill King.
In this tense atmosphere, even the crowd forgot this was an alchemy contest, only caring about the match between two peak grandmaster alchemists.
It mattered not who won, because they were waiting for the two of them to give them the shock of their lives.
After a moment of deep thought, Zhuo Fan let out a long breath and his face revealed a mysterious grin, “So that’s how it is. Let’s give it a try.”
Chuckling, he turned to Vicious Pill King, “Any man who spat blood essence five times is bound to die. Old man, you did it four times today, which was quite impressive. If I don’t get it together and show something special, I would only be insulting you.”
“You are correct!” Vicious Pill King grinned fearlessly and as excited as before.
There was nothing more thrilling than seeing one’s greatest opponent answering his challenge by going all out.
Zhuo Fan noticed his excitement and chuckled as he walked next to his cauldron.
With him moving, so did the countless pairs of eyes. Zhuo Fan was now the center of attention, the life of the party. His every gesture stirring the hearts of many.
Rustle~
He leisurely lit up the fire and snapped his finger. Tens of spirit stones revolved around the cauldron before falling into an intricate and bizarre shape.
The people looked at each other dumbly.
[What is Grandmaster Song doing? Setting an array? What did that have to do with alchemy?]
Even Vicious Pill King as well as the rest of the alchemists were clueless of his intention. Since time immemorial, alchemy and arrays never intersected. What was his purpose?
Ignoring the baffled audience, Zhuo Fan’s hand made a sign and chanted, “Heaven’s gate, earth’s locks, open for me! Let thy spiritual energy flood this array! Assist my heavenly fire in opening its eyes! Let spirits and dragons enter this pill!”
The world quaked and with it, the Drifting Flowers Arena started to rumble.
Everyone was rattled, not knowing what was happening.
Right then, creepy laughter echoed as dark shadows from all directions flew towards Zhuo Fan and revolved above his head.
Then they slammed into the core of the array.
At the same time, Dragon roars echoed and dragon images flew from the core of the array, under the gobsmacked faces of everyone.
When the world stopped shaking, the shadows were gone and the sky was crowded by nine dragon images.
Zhuo Fan snapped his finger and threw an azure flame into the cauldron.
The dragons seemed elated as they flew around agog before slamming inside the cauldron.
In a blink, a deeper dragon roar was heard and an azure fire dragon burst out of the cauldron.
It was then followed by the other 8. The azure fire inside the cauldron was now gone, absorbed by the dragons.
With his eyes flashing, Zhuo Fan grinned as his hands danced.
Hundreds of ingredients took to the sky at that moment.
“Secret pill array, Cradle Returning Dragons!”
Zhuo Fan shouted and the nine fire dragons responded with a roar before flying into the ingredients floating about…