Chapter 306: Soul-Stirring

Xiao Yan quietly stood in front of the rock table. He quietly pushed the crimson cauldron in front of him a little further away. The current him did not immediately summon out his flame and start the refinement like the other alchemists. Instead, he quietly held the thin paper with both hands, knit his eyebrows slightly together and studied what little information was written on it in greater detail.

Before doing anything, one must first make preparations. This logic was something that Xiao Yan clearly understood. He only had two chances. Any negligence would result in failure.

This time around, the examination required one to refine a tier two medicinal pill that was called ‘Bone Growing Pill’. As the name suggests, it was a kind of medicinal pill used to cure those who were quite seriously injured. It was a medicinal pill that was of the healing category. Usually, these medicinal pills were not overly expensive. If they were placed on the market, it would likely be priced at a few hundred or a few thousand gold coins. This price appeared a little shabby compared to those medicinal pills that could raise one’s Dou Qi or have other uses.

Refining the ‘Bone Growing Pill’ needed a total of six kinds of medicinal ingredients. Among all of the tier two medicinal pills, it was not considered to be extremely complex. However, this kind of ‘Bone Growing Pill’ was clearly a new kind of healing medicine specially configured by the alchemist association. Therefore, Xiao Yan still felt that the ‘Bone Healing Pill’ was a little foreign despite having seen quite a number of healing medicines before.

Although there were many different kinds of healing medicines that were mysterious and strange, all roads lead to Rome. The rough sequences used to refine these healing medicines were very similar. It was just that the degree of complexity was different. Moreover, this medicinal pill was not extremely troublesome. As long as one’s real alchemist ability was not weak, it should be possible to successfully feel around and grasp the refining method to refine the ‘Bone Growing Pill’.

Therefore, even though the medicinal formula only gave the generic things one must pay attention to, it should not be too difficult to refine it successfully if one followed one’s senses…

After memorizing, in detail, all the information on the thin paper, Xiao Yan slowly closed his eyes. A moment later, he gradually opened them and sighed gently. Placing the thin piece of paper on the table, he turned his head and looked around. He realized that the Little Princess and Liu Ling had already begun to control their flame and began refining.

The flames that were being manipulated within the medicinal cauldron were all the same dark yellow color. This was a flame that was completely catalysed by using Dou Qi. However, Xiao Yan believed that this was not the bottom line of the two of them. Perhaps they were all hiding their trump cards. With their status, it was an extremely natural thing to possess trump cards.

“Regardless of the character of these two people, their actual ability is indeed very great…” Xiao Yan sighed gently in his heart. No matter how he counted, he had only practiced for three years ever since he came into contact with alchemy, On certain aspects, Xiao Yan naturally could not catch up with Little Princess and Liu Ling, who had been groomed by their teachers since youth. After all, no matter how talented one is, it was impossible to catch up with over a decade of achievements of other people in such a short time.

It was also due to this reason that Xiao Yan did not feel any blow even though the Little Princess had already achieved a tier three alchemist level at such an age. The other party’s talent was quite good. Adding this to being in contact with refining skills for many years, it was not unexpected that she had such achievements.

At this moment, over ten minutes since the start of the examination had elapsed. During this short ten minutes, there was already red lights flickering off and on within this huge open ground. After the red light flickered, those alchemists who had failed could only choose to leave with embarrassed red faces. For these alchemists who liked to follow the rules to refine medicinal pill, this kind of examination which took a slanted path was impossible for them…

Xiao Yan indifferently glanced at an alchemist in front of him who had their head lowered as he walked out of the open ground with a face on the verge of crying, Xiao Yan shook his head. He ignored him and turned his attention completely to the refining process that was about to begin.

Xiao Yan placed the dark red cauldron properly in front of him and rubbed his hands together. He flipped his finger and a purple colored Danwan appeared between his fingers.

TL: Recall – Danwan – is a pill like thing but does not have any medicinal properties. It can even be harmful upon consumption

Flicking his finger slightly, Xiao Yan directly shot the Danwan into his mouth. He slowly chewed. A moment later, he widened his mouth and a cluster of purple flame was spat out. It was immediately held in Xiao Yan’s palm.

“Wow. Purple colored flame?” Due to Xiao Yan being at a spot that attracted the most attention and adding the special appearance from before, there were countless of people from both the VIP seats and the audience seats who were observing all of Xiao Yan’s movements during the entire time. Seeing the bright purple flame that he had created, waves of exclamation immediately sounded.

Although the large open ground did not lack strange and unique colored flames, the strange method where Xiao Yan used his mouth to spit out the flame pulled many gazes over.

“Purple colored flame?” Eyeing the cluster of purple colored flame hovering above Xiao Yan’s palm, Fa Ma was slightly surprised. Immediately, he laughed softly, “This little fellow really does have some foundation.”

Hearing this, Hai Bo Dong by the side smack his lips. After living together with Xiao Yan for so long, he knew this fellow’s bottom line only too clearly. This kind of purple colored flame was merely the weakest flame among the flames that he could control. The other dark and cold white colored flame as well as the ethereal green colored flame were the terrifying ‘Heavenly Flames’ that even Hai Bo Dong feared.

The purple colored flame danced around lively on Xiao Yan palm like a fairy. A moment later, Xiao Yan waved his palm gently. The purple flame was directly shot into the fire outlet. Immediately, the turbulent Purple Flame soared and burned within the medicinal cauldron. The temperature of the icy cold cauldron was swiftly raised…

When the temperature within the medicinal cauldron was raised to a certain stage, Xiao Yan placed his palm at the fire outlet. He slowly closed his eyes and his Spiritual Strength was extended out, gradually controlling the Purple Flame that was rising.

Due to his ability to control the Purple Flame being far less precise than the ‘Green Lotus Core Flame’, Xiao Yan could only use his hand to touch the medicinal cauldron in order to accurately control the Purple Flame. If he controlled it away his hands away like the Green Flame, it was likely that his already high failure rate would soar… Xiao Yan really did not dare to take such a risk on this examination which only had two chances.

Under the control of Xiao Yan Spiritual Strength, the purple colored flame suppressed its temperature extremely obediently. It did not pose the slightest resistance. After this continued for some time, Xiao Yan beckoned with his palm. A medicinal ingredient on the rock table was sucked into his hand. He gently molded it and then threw it into the medicinal cauldron. Immediately, the Purple flame tumbled and rolled over, swiftly wrapping around it…

Xiao Yan closed his eyes and frowned slightly. He used his Spiritual Perception to slowly refine the medicinal ingredients. In order to refine the medicinal pill, the medicinal ingredients must be refined to a certain degree. Sometimes, if the purity was a little higher or lower, it could result in the refining process failing. It was also for this reason that an orthodox medicinal formula appeared to be extremely important. This was because on most of the orthodox medicinal formulas, there would be a detailed record of the degree of purity each medicinal ingredient needed to be refined to.

Unfortunately, Xiao Yan currently did not have that precise medicinal formula. Everything would have to rely on him using his Spiritual Perception to slowly investigate.

A low-grade medicinal ingredients had in total consumed over ten minutes of Xiao Yan’s time before it gradually achieved an extent that he thought was right. At this moment, he then carefully placed the second type of medicinal ingredient into the medicinal cauldron.

Using the brief instance when he threw in the medicinal ingredients, Xiao Yan glanced at his two sides. He realized that the Little Princess and Liu Ling may have appeared to have similarly serious faces, their movements did not show the slightest sign of being flustered. Their faces also did not display any emotion that showed that they were at a loss. It appeared the refining process was entirely within their control.

“Bang!”

Just as Xiao Yan withdrew his gaze, a cauldron on a rock table not far away where the flames were raging could not suppress the increasingly high temperature. It suddenly exploded. Following the explosion of the cauldron, the medicinal pill that was being refined within it had also announced its end. Therefore, the merciless red light in the mirror shone in an eye-piercing manner.

That alchemists hair was burned until it was charred black. His face had also completely changed as he stood there foolishly watching the flickering red light. A long while later, he finally cursed out loud as he descended from the platform. He clenched his teeth and walked out of the open ground under countless gazes. As he walked passed Xiao Yan’s front, the latter was somewhat surprised to realize that this failure was actually a tier three alchemist from another country…

“What a pitiful fellow…” Xiao Yan laughed somewhat gloatingly in his heart. He then threw aside this small interlude and continued to place the medicinal ingredients carefully into the medicinal cauldron one at a time. After which, he patiently probed for the most optimum purity that they should be refined to. With the earlier lesson from that failure, the current Xiao Yan had undoubtedly become more careful.

……

As time slowly flowed by, red lights were repeatedly flashed on the huge open ground. One by one, green faced or crimson faced alchemists would helplessly leave the platform and under the countless of regretful eyes from the viewing platform, moodily left this place which caused them sadness and anger.

While the examination this time around possessed quite great difficulty, it must be said that many of those who had participated in the Grand Meeting were people who possessed great skills. Other than those competitors who had failed due to many different reasons, there was still nearly around half the alchemists who were quietly probing the degree of purity of the medicinal ingredients just like Xiao Yan.

After nearly half of the sand within that huge hourglass on the wall had fell, Xiao Yan’s probing of the degree of purity of the ingredients had finally completed. Other than having accidentally incinerated two medicinal ingredients during the refinement process, Xiao Yan’s final result could be considered to be quite good.

TL: Im guessing that although there are only two portions, there is room for error so even though XY burned to ingredients, there is still enough for a second try.

The next thing was to begin merging the different kinds of medicinal ingredients, turning them into the real ‘Bone Growing Pill’.

This step would be even more troublesome than the refining earlier. During this period, if Xiao Yan were to even slightly lose his concentration, he would have to start from scratch.

Being extremely clear of the importance of this step, Xiao Yan had already made preparations, transforming his Dou Qi into a film which covered his ears, shielding him from the noise of the outside word.

As the noise from the outside world faded, Xiao Yan’s mind gradually began still. He let out a mouthful of coarse air, closed his eyes once again and swiftly picked up a jade bottle on the rock table. Inside it was the essence of a medicinal ingredient that Xiao Yan had refined earlier. He held the jade bottle, paused for a moment, before pouring it all into the medicinal cauldron. Immediately following that, he swiftly threw the other two bottles of medicinal ingredients that he had refined into the medicinal cauldron…

Xiao Yan’s Spiritual Strength cautiously controlled the Purple Flame and slowly grilled those medicinal ingredient powders, that would not mix. Their special response when they merged slightly together was passed through the Spiritual Strength within the flame and swiftly entered Xiao Yan’s mind. After which, he would be able to use the information to distinguish if the merging method was correct.

This kind of feedback analysis was an analyzing job that greatly exhaust Spiritual Strength. Fortunately, Xiao Yan currently only needed to analyze a tier two medicinal formula. If it was tier three or even tier four, it was likely that even him, who was around a tier three alchemist would not be able to analyze it. Even if it was a tier four or tier five alchemist, it would basically be impossible for them to analyze. After all, if analyzing a medicinal formula was such a simple thing, then medicinal formulas would not be so valuable…

“Bang…”

With a slight frown, Xiao Yan carefully sensed the merger of of medicinal ingredients. At one instance, his expression suddenly changed slightly. The Purple Flame writhed wildly within the medicinal cauldron and a soft muffled sound was emitted from the medicinal ingredient. The three kinds of medicinal ingredients that were halfway done merging had instantly turned into dark black ashes. After the ingredients turned into ashes, the Purple Flame rising in the medicinal cauldron was also quietly extinguished…

Xiao Yan narrowed his eyes as he watched the medicinal ingredients that had turned into ashes. He opened his mouth slightly and patted his head in annoyance. Due to his mind being too focused, he had actually forgotten that the Purple Flame did not have any continuous support. Therefore, it could at most burn for an hour.

The muffled bang within the medicinal cauldron was not small. Hence, not long after it sounded, the Little Princess and Liu Ling not far from him turned their gazes over. When they saw that Xiao Yan’s medicinal cauldron did not have any flame, they were all surprised. The former was a little better, simply revealing a helpless expression. The latter’s mouth was lifted as he gloated, giving a feeling of being asked to be beaten.

On the high platform, Fa Ma and the others were momentarily blank as they eyed Xiao Yan whose flame had suddenly been extinguished. However, they did not say anything and simply quietly waited. Although the flame was extinguished and the time allocated for the examination was about to be up, Xiao Yan should have one portion of medicinal ingredients on his table. Therefore, he still had a chance. Of course… the precondition was that he must hurry up. This was because there was only one third of the sand in the huge hourglass remaining.

……

Xiao Yan gently inhaled a breath of somewhat hot air. He eyed those dark black ashes within the medicinal ingredients and closed his eyes. A moment later, he slowly opened them and suddenly smiled faintly. Although he had failed this time around, he had grasped an approximation of the method needed to refine this ‘Bone Growing Pill’. The next thing he needed to do was to gracefully and easily refine it…

Xiao Yan took out another purple colored pill and placed it into his mouth. He slowly chewed it. Using this short amount of them, he swept his gaze around him and discovered that within the cauldrons in front Little Princess and Liu Ling, an initial pill like shape thing was already beginning to be agglomerated. Clearly, they should be able to form pills not long later…

“Their speed is not bad… they really do have some clout.”

Xiao Yan lifted his eyebrows slightly. He opened his mouth and once again spat out the purple colored flame. After which, he poured it into the medicinal cauldron. His hands were stilled before they abruptly began to move a moment later. As his hands danced, he poured all six small jade bottles placed in front of him into the medicinal cauldron…

“He actually wants to merge all six medicinal ingredients together? In this way, he would be able to save a lot of time, but if his Spiritual Strength is not strong enough and can not control it properly, it would be basically seeking death…” As they watched the action of Xiao Yan below, Fa Ma, Ao Tuo, and the group of very experienced people softly muttered.

Xiao Yan’s gaze stared at the writhing flame within the cauldron. His Spiritual Strength controlled the Purple Flame and separated all the medicinal ingredients within it. After which, he slowly moved them closer as he grilled them. As they grew closer, they finally began to gradually show a tendency to merge…

The sand within the enormous hourglass swiftly scattered down.

“Clang!”

Finally, a clear sound of the cauldon being tapped sounded in the open ground.

Liu Ling was first to heavily tap on the cauldron. The cover on the cauldron shot up and a round medicinal pill came flying out. After which, he leaped and grabbed it in his hand. The pride on his face was difficult to hide.

“Clang!” With another clear sound, the Little Princess beckoned with her delicate hand and a medicinal pill shot out from within the medicinal cauldron.

“Clang, clang, clang…”

Following the two continuous sounds, it appeared that a chain reaction had occurred within the large open ground. Numerous cauldron covers were shot up and a few hundred, different shaped medicinal pills shot out from medicinal cauldrons, flying to the sky. After which, their owners excitedly caught them with their hands.

“Time is almost up…” Ao Tuo stared intently at Xiao Yan in the center spot who still had his eyes closed. He then looked at the sand in the hourglass that had almost completely fell. His hand abruptly tightened. Each time this fellow took a test, he would keep people on tenterhooks.

Within the large open ground, countless of gazes were slowly thrown to the middle spot where Xiao Yan was at. They then eyed the sand in the hourglass that was splashing down. All of these people wanted to know if this young person who stood in the spot that attracted the most attention would be able to complete the test in this round at the last minute.

The very little sand within the hourglass quietly descended. The moment the last piece of sand came rolling down, a pitiful sounding hiss came from the audience seats and the VIP seats.

“Clang…”

The young man who had his eyes tightly closed suddenly opened them. His palm patted the cauldron and its cover flew up. A round medicinal pill flew out at the very last moment, in a dazzling manner that caused people’s eyes to become blurred…