Lou Mu Yan and the others first went to Emperor Bei’yuan’s private room to rest, and by using the identity of the people in this private room, they didn’t have to queue up.
Today was the last alchemy competition at the Northern State Alchemy Pagoda’s branch venue, so the people queuing up outside formed long queues, bustling with no room to spare.
“Mu Yan, do you have confidence in winning the championship?” Fei Yan Chen personally poured a cup of spiritual tea for Lou Mu Yan.
Lou Mu Yan smiled confidentially: “Mm, I’ve got more than fifty percent confidence.”
She had observed the pill refining skills of the other nineteen people who entered the third competition in the Northern State branch venue this time and she judged that the person with the strongest ability was only a grade 6 alchemist, so she actually had one hundred percent certainty in winning.
“Then we’ll first congratulate Young Miss Lou here in obtaining the championship and advance to the finals at Central State.” An Yu Quan raised his teacup to Lou Mu Yan like a toast.
“Thank you!”
Only twenty people entered the finals this time so there was no need to divide into several rounds, and the official start will begin after an hour.
When the twenty people, including Lou Mu Yan, all gathered and stood on the competition stage, a white-haired, ruddy-faced elderly man with the demeanour of a transcendent being appeared.
“This third match of the finals will be hosted by this old man.” The Deputy Pagoda Master restrained his aura, and many people present couldn’t see through his cultivation base.
However, Lou Mu Yan could tell that this was a powerhouse at Lower Unification Realm.
With the increase of her time on Guang’ling World, her knowledge had also continued to increase. Coupled with the additional information from Ming Xiu each month on the hidden and common things, she also knew a lot of things that ordinary people wouldn’t be able to know.
For example, Sword Masters at Unification Realm were also divided into several individual realms.
Sword Masters at Unification Realm could be regarded as standing at the peak of the powerhouses on Guang’ling World, and they were divided into Lower Unification Realm, Intermediate Unification Realm, Upper Unification Realm, and the Celestial Unification Realm. Each realm was divided into Initial-Phase, Middle-Phase, Late-Phase, and Peak-Phase, which was similar to other stages.
Each realm in the Unification Realm also belonged to its own large realm that spanned across, and it was even more difficult to skip-realm battle between two of those realms.
For example, many peerless genius Sword Masters at Core Elemental Realm could challenge Earth Elemental Realms, but it was said that it was as difficult as ascending to Heaven for Lower Unification Realm Sword Masters to challenge Intermediate Unification Realms.
She heard from Ming Xiu that after reaching Unification Realm, one must rely on the comprehension of the elemental laws of this world to advance, and every strong Unification Realm powerhouse has mastered some kind of profound law derived from it. They weren’t people that Sword Masters below Unification Realm could compare to.
The difference between the Lower Unification Realm and the Intermediate Unification Realm wasn’t only cultivation base, but also the realm of their mastery of the profound laws. If one wanted to skip-level battle, their cultivation base was secondary—only those who had broken through the laws could skip-level battle.
In her previous life, she had only just broken through to Incarnation Stage before being brought to this world due to a spatial storm. According to the Sword Master’s cultivation base, she’d only be an Initial-Phase Heaven Elemental Realm, so her cultivation experience and skills could only support her to advance to Heaven Elemental Realm.
In the future, she could only rely on herself to re-explore and find a path of the strong that truly belonged to herself.
Therefore, after arriving on Guang’ling World, she continued to compress every bit of elemental energy in her body to eventually turn it into the purest spiritual energy. The speed of her cultivation was also suppressed, otherwise she would’ve already broken through to Earth Elemental Realm.
She needed to lay a strong foundation for the purity of her body, soul energy, mental energy, and spiritual energy, so that it’d be more conducive to her breakthrough to Unification Realm.
“The top ten winners in this third competition will go to the Central State to participate in the finals of the Alchemy Pagoda’s competition in half a year, so you lot must go all out today. Such an opportunity only comes once every fifty years, and you only have one chance to participate in your lifetime.”
The Human Realm’s Alchemy Pagoda would only hold an alchemy competition on this continent every fifty years, and all alchemists under the age of one hundred could participate. Therefore, every alchemist of the younger generation had only one chance before the age of one hundred.
Compared to mortals, a hundred-year-old Sword Master was actually very young.
After all, as long as a Sword Master broke through to Core Elemental Realm, they could live for a thousand years, and the stronger they become, the longer they could live, and after reaching Unification Realm, they could even live tens of thousands of years.
The Deputy Alchemy Master continued: “The third competition is very simple. You choose a pill to refine yourselves, and the pill can be taken if you brought your own ingredients. If you need our Alchemy Pagoda to help you with ingredients to refine pills, then you need to leave half for exchange.
“It’s best for you all to choose the best and highest-grade pill you can refine. The top ten refined with the best grade, best quality, and with the highest pill yield rate will participate in the finals. The ranking from the champion to the twentieth will also be judged by this standard.
“Alright, those who need to apply for materials from the Alchemy Pagoda should now quickly go to the few judges beside you to explain, while those who brought your own materials can start refining now.
“The time limit for the third match is six hours. Once this time is exceeded, those who haven’t finished refining will be eliminated directly. There is no limit to the number of times you refine.
“I announce the official start of the third match!”
As soon as the Deputy Pagoda Master’s voice fell, some of the twenty people went to a specific place to apply for borrowing materials.
Lou Mu Yan didn’t immediately begin, but instead waited for everyone to start refining their spiritual herbs before deciding what pill to refine.
The other nineteen people had already decided what pill they wanted to refine inwardly, and they all exerted their strongest.
But Lou Mu Yan was different. She was already a grade 8 alchemist, and she didn’t want to reveal too much strength in this kind of competition—she’d wait for the finals to slowly have fun.
Therefore, as long as the grade or quality of the pills exceeded these nineteen people, it’d be fine.
It was some time after the start of the competition that Lou Mu Yan took out the Seven-Coloured Glazed Cauldron, and took out a bunch of spiritual herbs for refining an advanced-level grade 6 pill.
Her alchemy style was already unique to herself, so she wouldn’t refine them slowly one by one like the others in order to not show her uniqueness.
She still tossed it all into the pill cauldron directly. Her natal spirit flame wasn’t necessary to refine grade 6 pills.
Her fire elemental energy attribute had already reached the peak of Great Achievement Realm and using it to refine was much stronger than many alchemists who had mastered beast flames.
Similarly, while others were still refining one by one, and some even failed once or twice before continuing, all the spiritual herbs in her pill cauldron turned into powder and began to fuse and condense into pills.
Lou Mu Yan had become a master at playing with fire, whether it was because of the fire attribute elemental energy, or the spirit flame in her body. She didn’t need to be highly concentrated to control the size of the main flame like other grade 6 alchemists.
All she needed was one thought, and the flames used to refine pills would be displayed delicately.
Her movements were graceful and skilled, and each step seemed to be steady and orderly, but in fact took a very short time.
The Deputy Pagoda Master and the several other superior Elders of the Alchemy Pagoda’s branch kept their gazes on Lou Mu Yan. Even they had to admit that this girl appeared pleasing to the eye when refining pills.
[CLANG!!]
Before an incense stick of time had even passed, Lou Mu Yan patted the pill cauldron lightly, and eight round, plump, honey-coloured pills flew out of the pill cauldron and fell into the bottle on the table one by one.
The Deputy Pagoda Master and the others had already recognised the grade and quality of the pills between the moment they flew up until it landed, and their pupils constricted subconsciously.
What Lou Mu Yan refined was actually eight advanced-level peak-quality grade 6 pills.