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Following Xiao Yan’s heart-stopping, last-second completion of his pill refinement, the final few grains of sand in the massive hourglass slipped away completely.
Immediately, across the vast plaza, over a hundred beams of red light suddenly lit up on the stone platforms of those alchemists who had failed to produce a finished pill.
Staring helplessly at the flickering red glow in front of them, those alchemists could only smile bitterly and shake their heads, halting their work. They stowed their cauldrons away and dejectedly walked off the plaza.
Looking around again, the number of remaining participants had significantly dwindled. Just the first round had eliminated nearly a third of the contestants.
At that moment, President Fa Ma stood up and made his way to the high platform, gazing down over the massive plaza. His eyes slowly swept across the crowd, and eventually he smiled and gave a small nod. He raised both hands slightly.
The once-noisy venue gradually quieted down.
"Congratulations to all of you still standing here. You’ve successfully passed the first round of the preliminary assessment. However," Fa Ma said with a smile, "This is not yet the end."
His voice carried a trace of amusement as he continued, "I’m sure many of you know—some crafty little fellows always like to play tricks."
"They might’ve refined pills that look round and proper on the outside, but such pills lack any real healing effects. That kind of thing can’t be called a true medicinal pill at all. In fact, the ones who refined them may not even know their pills are worthless..."
"So next, we’ll be testing the Bone Growing Pills you just refined to see whether they meet the formula’s required medicinal standards."
Fa Ma’s slightly raspy voice calmly rang in everyone’s ears.
"Now, please locate the green button on the lower-left corner of your stone platform and press it."
Upon hearing this, whether confident or anxious, the remaining participants all turned their attention to their platforms and began to search.
Eventually, they discovered several small buttons of different colors, discreetly embedded near the bottom-left corner of the platform.
As instructed, everyone reached out and gently pressed the green one.
A series of faint clicking sounds echoed across the plaza. Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs novelꜰire.net
The smooth stone platforms began to tremble slightly. From their surfaces, a small stone plate slowly rose, extending about half a foot above the platform. The center of the plate sank inward, revealing a tiny hole.
"This is a testing machine. Insert your Bone Growing Pill into the hole. If the pill meets the medicinal requirements, the jade mirror on your platform will emit a green light. If not, it will glow red, which signifies failure—and failure means elimination," Fa Ma explained.
"Additionally, the brighter the green light, the closer your pill is to the original medicinal formula’s ideal effect."
"On the other hand, the brighter the red, the more your pill deviates from the intended effect—in other words, it might not even be a Bone Growing Pill, but a completely useless waste pill."
With a wave of his hand, Fa Ma signaled the next phase of the assessment.
As contestants began dropping their pills into the testing machines—
The massive plaza suddenly became a brilliant display of flashing colors, as green and red lights of varying intensity began intertwining and flickering across the area.
Those lights reflected onto faces full of emotion—some elated, some gloomy, some disappointed or furious.
"What kind of bullshit testing machine is this?!" a furious voice suddenly rang out.
A Tier 2 alchemist stood with a face like thunder, glaring venomously at the jade mirror before him—currently glowing an unmistakable, blinding red. He was gritting his teeth in rage.
His red glow was arguably the brightest and most intense across the entire plaza.
As a result, countless stunned gazes instantly shifted in his direction, their eyes full of disbelief as they stared at the fuming young man.
Good grief. That red is intense!
You were supposed to make a Bone Growing Pill, but what—did you end up with a Bone-Melting Poison Pill instead?
Honestly, it wasn’t surprising.
Some alchemists lacked a solid understanding of medicinal theory, yet insisted on fiddling with the process, overconfident in their creativity.
They’d try adding random ingredients or making strange tweaks. What was meant to be a healing pill might end up as a poison instead.
If a patient took that by mistake... game over.
Cases like that had happened before.
So, many people silently made a note of this particular youth.
This guy was dangerous. Best to keep your distance in the future.
The young alchemist slammed his fist onto the stone platform, his face dark with humiliation. No longer able to stick around, he stored away his cauldron into his ring, cursed under his breath, and left the stage under the gaze of hundreds—storming off the plaza with a livid expression.
"Damn it! If it’s a competition, then just compete properly. What’s with all this extra crap?! Can’t you people refine pills the normal way? A bunch of old farts!" another alchemist cursed loudly as he stormed off.
"I went through all the trouble of fusing the ingredients together—and now you hit me with some kind of test machine? Hell, you only gave us a simple prescription! Other than the pill’s name, there wasn’t a single useful detail! How the hell was anyone supposed to refine that?!"
More muttering and swearing followed as he exited.
He was met with nothing but contemptuous glares from the crowd.
This test was like a demonic mirror, exposing the many faces—and the ugly truths—behind the identities of the alchemists.
It became clear that not all alchemists were worthy of respect.
Some lacked moral integrity. They had no medical ethics.
In a way, these kinds of people were even scarier than demons.
As the test continued, another hundred or so alchemists—faces red or pale—walked off the plaza, one after another.
Only a bit more than half of the original participants remained.
At the center of the stone platform—
Xian’er, Xiao Yan, the Little Princess, and Liu Ling exchanged glances.
None of the four had tested their pills yet.
"Miss Xian’er, please," Liu Ling said with a confident smile, gesturing toward her with gentlemanly flair.
"Mr. Xiao Yan, after you," the Little Princess said playfully, tossing her pill up and down with a smile.
There was a clear look of competition in their eyes.
"How about we all go together then?" Xiao Yan suggested casually, shrugging.
And with that, the four of them simultaneously dropped their pills into the black holes of their testing machines.
At once, countless gazes locked onto them.
This was the most eye-catching group on the plaza.
Everyone was eager to see which of these seed-level contenders would emerge on top.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
After a brief silence, the jade mirrors let out a series of dull thuds.
Then—four thick green beams of light shot up from their stone platforms.
The intensity of these green beams was clearly far greater than any of the ones seen earlier.
Two beams were slightly fainter—that of the Little Princess and Liu Ling.
The other two were bright and rich as imperial jade, radiating a vibrant, irresistible green.
These belonged to Xian’er and Xiao Yan.
Xiao Yan’s beam was a little dimmer, while Xian’er’s light outshone his by a slim margin.
That alone was enough to determine the ranking.
"Wow! Look at that color!"
The spectators were stunned, staring at the twin jade-like green beams. Exclamations of awe echoed across the stands.
"Haha, Miss Xian’er truly lives up to her reputation as Master Wei’s student," the Little Princess said admiringly, eyes sparkling as she looked at the dazzling beams. "And Mr. Xiao Yan—you clearly knew what you were doing. Even though you took the longest time, the effect of your pill easily surpasses mine. I, Yue’er, concede defeat."
"Thank you for your kind words," Xian’er responded calmly with a polite nod. "You’re quite impressive yourself, Princess."
"It was just luck," Xiao Yan said modestly, though his gaze had become serious as he looked at Xian’er. He could feel a growing pressure from her presence.
Xian’er returned his look, giving him a small nod. For once, her eyes held a rare glimmer of anticipation as she smiled softly. "Xiao Yan, just as Brother Yang said—you are my greatest rival. I’m really looking forward to what comes next."
"I’m looking forward to it too," Xiao Yan said seriously, exhaling slowly.
Off to the side, Liu Ling’s lips twitched as he took a deep breath. He turned his head to stare at his own jade mirror, which was still glowing green—but less brightly.
A sudden urge to smash the damn thing came over him.
After all, he had been raised with formal training, and his teacher was none other than the famous Pill King Gu He.
And yet, he had lost.
Among the four, he only managed to rank third, barely beating the Little Princess—and that was probably due to his age advantage.
Losing to Xian’er, he could accept. Her mentor, Master Wei, was a Tier 6 alchemist on par with his own teacher.
But losing to Xiao Yan, this wild, self-taught rogue, was something he just couldn’t stomach.
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