Battle Through the Heavens

“The association will no longer give any help to the participants during the third round of the competition. You will each have to rely on yourself for everything including the medicinal formula, medicinal ingredients, etc. In other words, you must successfully refine a type of medicinal pill within your ability during the time that has been allocated. The final victor will naturally be the one whose medical pill is the highest tier along with being the most useful.”

When the competitors in the open ground heard the clear voice that sounded by their ears, most of them were stunned by the unexpected examination prompt. A long while later, there were some competitors whose faces were among the first to become pale. Clearly, these people did not prepare any suitable medicinal formulas or sufficient medicinal ingredients. For such an examination prompt, the result of failing to meet these two requirements was very obvious. Their chances of failure would increase greatly.

Although Xiao Yan had already known the examination problem beforehand, he still put on an act and changed his expression slightly. After all, one would inevitable be doubted if one maintained a clam express when faced with such an unexpected question.

As Xiao Yan controlled the change in his expression, his gaze also swept all around him. He discovered that although the Little Princess and Liu Ling were initially somewhat stunned when they they heard the examination question, they managed to swiftly recover. The expressions on their faces did not appear too ugly.

“They really do have rich foundations. Seeing their expressions, the examination question simply caused them to be a little surprised and does not appear to hinder their performance.”

While Xiao Yan muttered in his heart, he once again shifted his gaze toward Yan Li a short distance away.

Currently, the latter was also tightly knitting his eyebrows together. A while later, he coldly laughed and spoke in a soft voice, “No matter what kind of strange and unique question that you come up with, the champion position will be mine!”

“Since everyone is already familiar with the examination rules, the...” On the high platform, Fa Ma slowly raised his hand and abruptly waved it down. A faint sound reverberated throughout the entire place, “The third round of the examination will now begin!”

Once Fa Ma’s voice fell, the open ground, which had many private conversations, instantly quieted down. From the audience seats, countless gazes stared intently at the over one hundred competitors on the huge open ground below, waiting for their splendid performance today.

After Fa Ma’s voice fell, all the competitors on the open ground did not do anything. Instead, they coincidentally remained silent and mused with a frown, thinking of a method to handle the examination this time around.

The silence persisted for nearly ten minutes before Little Princess and Liu Ling chose to break it. The two of them slowly walked closer to their rock table and beckoned with their hands. Two somewhat ancient looking green and red cauldrons containing a faint, deep aura appeared on the stone table.

Hearing the sound of the cauldon landing on the rock table. Xiao Yan tilted his head and frowned slightly. The cauldrons that the two of them pulled out were clearly not the same ones they used yesterday. Seeing the deep auras that were emitted from the cauldrons, it was clear that the tier of the cauldrons clearly surpassed the red cauldron that Xiao Yan was using.

“Tsk tsk, Old Man Jia your Imperial family is indeed generous. You actually took out the ‘Green-Flame Cauldron’. That is a tier five cauldron. I recalled that there were quite a number of tier four alchemists had gotten into a big fight over it back then. It really is unexpected that it finally ended up in your hands.” Fa Ma smiled and said in surprise as he eyed the green colored cauldron that the Little Princess had summoned.

“Ke ke, I am also not too certain about that. It is most likely that the little girl had pestered her father repeatedly with all kinds of tactics in order to get it.” Fa Ma shook his head and smiled faintly, “Gu He also acted extraordinarily. That red colored medicinal cauldron of Liu Ling’s seems to be the treasure that Gu He relied on to become famous back then, the ‘Fire-Mountain Flame Cauldron’. That is also a tier five medicinal cauldron.”

In the alchemist world, a medicinal cauldron was extremely helpful to an alchemist. When refining a medicinal pill, the best cauldron has the notable ability to increase the chances of success. Moreover, some of the low tier medicinal cauldrons didn’t have a very great ability to withstand heat. This would result in the cauldron suddenly bursting apart when refining medicinal pills. Therefore, the medicinal cauldrons also had quite a detailed difference in their grade. The cauldrons increased in quality from tier one to eight. Above tier eight, there was the ‘Heavenly Cauldron Ranking’. There seemed to be only thirteen medicinal cauldrons belonging to this grade. From this, it could be seen just how valuable they were. Xiao Yan’s dark red cauldron, on the other hand, was merely one that had just reached a shabby tier two regardless of how one tried to stretch its ability. Basically, it had no additional effect on the refining process and might not be able to withstand a complete refining of a high tier pill.

Of course, no matter how much help a medicinal cauldron provided, it was merely an external assistance. The most important thing was one’s personal ability. This was the reason why Yao Lao had only roughly mentioned the ‘Heavenly Cauldron Ranking’, but did not tell Xiao Yan in detail about the grades between the medicinal cauldrons.

A true alchemist grandmaster could use his palm as a cauldron and refine pills as he desired, without any limitation. Only that elegant demeanor could show the true style of a grandmaster.

“Yes, it is indeed that ‘Fire-Mountain Flame Cauldron.” Fa Ma nodded his head and smiled as he continued speaking, “Back then, Gu He used it to take the champion spot during that year’s Grand Meeting. Since he is willing to give this medicinal cauldron to Liu Ling to participate in the Grand Meeting, it appears that he really has quite the expectation for the latter.”

“Unfortunately, if this year didn’t have that fellow or Yan Xiao, it would not be impossible for Liu Ling to become the champion. However, it is quite difficult now.” Hai Bo Dong shook his head and gloatingly smiled.

Fa Ma merely smiled, but did not speak. He threw his gaze toward the open ground.

Within the open grounds, Xiao Yan may have been somewhat astonished by the high tier medicinal cauldrons that Liu Ling and Little Princess had, but having received Yao Lao’s philosophy, he still thought that the medicinal cauldron was merely a foreign object. Therefore, he immediately withdrew his gaze and waved his hand. His dark red cauldron which appeared somewhat shabby looking when compared to Liu Ling and the Little Princess was carelessly called out by him.

Once the dark red cauldron appeared, it attracted somewhat stunned gazes from around him. Many people thought that Xiao Yan was similar to Little Princess and the others, keeping the best things until the last moment. However, it was unexpected that he still took out this lousy thing at this moment.

Xiao Yan was not too concerned about the gazes around him. He closed his eyes and thought for a moment. Then, he flicked his finger gently and a set of the ingredients needed to refine the ‘Three Line Green Spirit Pill’ appeared on the stone table. Looking at it, there was at least twenty different ingredients. This was the first time since Xiao Yan began learning how to refine medicine that he had to refine a medicinal pill made up of so many ingredients.

“Yes, the difficulty for a tier four medicinal pill is indeed quite great.” Xiao Yan sighed softly. He lifted his head and glanced around him, only to realize that there were quite a number of competitors who had already began raising their flame and preparing to refine medicinal ingredients.

“Although this ‘Three Lines Green Spirit Pill’ is a tier four medicinal ingredient in name, I think that it would need to have at least two Pill-Lines if I want to surpass everyone. If it is only an ordinary ‘One Line Green Spirit Pill’, it should still be quite difficult to become the champion.” Xiao Yan frowned gently and muttered softly in his heart.

“Wow, it’s actually a blue color flame?” Just as Xiao Yan was about to raise his flame, a surprised noise suddenly rose from the audience seats.

Xiao Yan raised his head, feeling somewhat puzzled. He was immediately surprised as he saw that an azure flame was rising from the Little Princess’ delicate hand by the side. Waves of ripples like water waves were strangely forming around the rising flame.

“What kind of flame is that?” Xiao Yan was somewhat at a loss as he eyed that azure flame with surprise.

“But is appears to look quite familiar?” Xiao Yan knit his eyebrows slightly together and thought deeply for some time. His eyebrow suddenly twitched. Finally, he had recalled it. “This azure flame seems to have appeared on the Imperial family crest on the horse carriage that she had ridden on back then.”

The crest of the Imperial family was a huge unique beast that had its head raised as it let out a long roar. The body of the unique beast was shrouded by this kind of strange flame which had such ripples.

According to legend, in the early years of the founding of the Jia Ma Empire, the Jia Ma Empire Imperial family possessed a divine beast which was extremely strong. It had saved the Jia Ma Empire’s Imperial family a number of times before. However, the little rumors among the people were mostly baseless assertions that were repeated and could not be treated as the truth. Therefore, there were not many people who believed them. Of course, this was other than those who had insider information.

“Eh? Don’t tell me that this flame is that ‘Shock-Wave Dragon’s’ ‘Dry Blue Water Flame’?” On the high platform, Fa Ma and Hai Bo Dong were momentarily surprised when they saw the blue colored flame that the Little Princess had summoned. A while later, it appeared that they had recalled something and they turned their heads around to ask in astonishment.

“Haha.” Jia Lao smiled but did not open his mouth to reveal any information regarding the ‘Shock-Wave Dragon’ that the two of them had mentioned.

“What a lucky girl. It is really unexpected that the fellow which was in a deep slumber for god knows how long is actually still alive.” As they watched Jia Lao’s manner, Fa Ma and Hai Bo Dong helplessly shook their heads. They exchanged glances and saw the meaning contained within each other’s eyes. Although the ‘Dry Blue Water Flame’ could not be compared with the unique natural object like the ‘Heavenly Flame’, it was considered to be among the top when it came to the so called ‘Beast Flames’. Moreover, this kind of flame was tilted toward being dark and gentle. If a female were to use it to refine medicinal pill, the extent of the flame formability would be significantly raised.

Not long after the Little Princess summoned the dry blue flame, the audience seat once again emitted two other shocked noises. At this moment, Liu Ling had unexpectedly summoned a hazel colored flame. The other exclamations were emitted because of Yan Li. The flame that he had summoned was not of the normal yellow color, but a black colored flame.

As they eyed the multi-colored flames on the open ground, the emotions of everyone in the audience seat became somewhat excited. From the looks of this, it was clear that many people had held something back in the examination yesterday. This undoubtedly caused the examination today to become even more worthwhile to watch.

“Everyone indeed held something back.” As he eyed the many different colored flame, Xiao Yan suddenly laughed softly. He slowly raised his hand and flicked his finger gently. An elegant green colored flame suddenly rose from it. Instantly, the temperature of the open ground rose abruptly. At this moment, the originally happily dancing flames summoned by the Little Princess and the others had quietly become much more sluggish for some unknown reason.

In the open ground, a gentle breeze suddenly blew past. Those different colored strange and unique flames suddenly slanted slightly. The thing that caused people to be amazed at was that the direction that these flames tilted was actually toward Xiao Yan at the middle of the open ground. Accurately putting it, it should be the elegant and otherworldly green colored flame on his palm.

This kind of strange phenomenon was like the subjects deferring to a king.

“When the ‘Heavenly Flame’ appears, all flames submit. This remark is indeed true.” As he eyed the strange phenomenon in the open ground, Fa Ma, who was on the high platform, sighed gently. He had seen such a spectacular scene once when he was young. He did not expect that he would actually be able to witness it again, at this moment.