Word Count: 2,796 Words
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"Arrogant!"
Hun Huzi's words drew furious rebukes from several Yao Clan elders.
Off to the side, however, Xiao Yan, currently serving as the Hun Clan's 'outsourced' alchemist, merely rolled his eyes in silent exasperation.
Who are you trying to fool?
Xiao Yan knew full well that Hun Huzi cared nothing for a hollow title. This fellow had come to the Yao Clan to measure himself against him.
There was only one chance to break through to the Emperor State. It was much like the Pill Gathering years ago, when defeating Mu Gu had brought Xiao Yan immense rewards. This time, the prize Hun Tiandi had prepared was the chance to advance into the Emperor State.
Of Xiao Yan and Hun Huzi, only one could claim that breakthrough. The other would have to rely on the power of the Nihility Devouring Flame and serve as an assistant during the refinement.
Soul State Spiritual Strength allowed an alchemist to refine tier 8 medicinal pills, and Heavenly State Spiritual Strength allowed one to refine tier 9 pills. Yet to bring a Di Tier Embryonic Pill to completion, an Emperor State soul was indispensable.
Tier 8 medicinal pills possessed spirituality. Only an alchemist whose Spiritual Strength had reached the Soul State could use it to gather spirit within them. Tier 9 medicinal pills were different entirely. They possessed a heavenly nature, the ability to command the energy of the world within a hundred miles, which let a pill achieve heaven-defying, fate-altering effects.
Xiao Yan had never tried to manipulate Origin Qi himself, but if the same logic held, controlling it would also demand an Emperor State soul. Without one, even a Di Tier pill that had reached the embryonic stage and stood a single step from completion would still fall short.
"The title of the continent's number one alchemist is not something my Yao Clan has the right to bestow at will," Yao Dan said with a mild smile. "That honor can only be won through one's own alchemy. Since you are so eager to claim it, then stay. The Yao Clan does not turn away guests lightly. So long as you abide by our rules, you will be treated as a guest. If you do not, then even if you are the Hun Clan's chief alchemist, I will personally see to it that you remain here forever."
As his final words fell, a razor-sharp chill flickered across Yao Dan's aged face. The sheer weight of a Clan Head's authority sent a tremor through the watching crowd.
"Clan Head, is it wise to let him stay?"
The surrounding Yao Clan elders were instantly alarmed that Yao Dan had allowed Hun Huzi to remain. Elder Wanhuo hesitated a moment before voicing his concern.
"The Medicinal Ceremony is the grandest event of my Yao Clan. With so many people watching, we cannot drive someone away without cause. That would only make others think the Yao Clan overbearing, and it might even hand the Hun Clan a pretext to move against us," Yao Dan replied calmly, waving a hand. "The Hun Clan must certainly be guarded against. But with so many people gathered in the Yao Realm today, are we truly afraid someone would dare act recklessly? I will keep a close watch on him personally. If he does anything suspicious, this old man will seize and strike him down himself!"
Since Yao Dan insisted, the others could only nod. Only Xiao Yan frowned faintly from his seat.
"Clan Head Yao Dan truly is magnanimous..." Hun Huzi chuckled softly. The corners of his lips lifted, and his gaze slid toward Xiao Yan. A strange smile flashed through his eyes. His figure shifted, and he appeared on a stone chair under everyone's watchful gaze. The seat happened to be not far from Xiao Yan's.
"You must be Xiao Yan, the current Clan Head of the Xiao Clan. Even in my Hun Clan, your name rings like thunder. Hehe, to think the man who nurtured someone like you was a castoff of the Yao Clan. The Yao Clan truly is foolish beyond cure." Hun Huzi settled into his seat and turned to regard Xiao Yan with a peculiar smile.
Xiao Yan smiled. "My little fame is hardly worth mentioning beside yours, the Hun Clan's number one alchemist."
Hun Huzi's expression shifted, and his tone was laden with meaning. "I've heard Clan Head Xiao can refine Tier 9 Treasure Pills as easily as he pleases. I wonder whether we'll have the chance this time to witness him refining a Tier 9 Mysterious Pill."
The moment the words 'Tier 9 Mysterious Pill' left his mouth, Old Man Shen Nong, Elder Wanhuo, and even Clan Head Yao Dan all turned their gazes toward Xiao Yan.
Many people knew that Xiao Yan had been able to refine Tier 9 Treasure Pills for years, and that fact had been confirmed as genuine. But no one had heard of him successfully refining a Tier 9 Mysterious Pill.
Xiao Yan merely smiled and glanced at Hun Huzi, Elder Wanhuo, and the others. "This junior has only just begun to make his way in the world. How would I dare flaunt my meager attainments before all you seniors? If you intend to refine Tier 9 Mysterious Pills, then this junior will simply have to tag along shamelessly and learn at your side. Perhaps I'll even attempt one myself."
His tone was perfectly polite, the very image of a humble junior seeking guidance, as though he had no intention of competing for first place.
Yet everyone present was an old fox. They saw the quiet confidence behind Xiao Yan's smile and understood what his words truly meant: If you want to play something thrilling, I'll keep you company.
If everyone was going to refine a Tier 9 Mysterious Pill, then so would he.
How did that look anything like a man admitting defeat!
Even Hun Huzi's eyes sparked with battle intent the instant Xiao Yan's words fell. A strange grin spread across his face. "Jie Jie Jie... Interesting. Truly worthy of being the Clan Head of the Xiao Clan."
Time trickled past. Yao Dan's gaze swept slowly across the surroundings and lingered a fraction longer when it passed over Xiao Yan. Then his calm voice spread outward, rolling across the realm like muffled thunder.
"The hour has arrived. Let the Medicinal Ceremony begin!"
The Yao Clan had risen through alchemy. It possessed the largest body of alchemists on the entire Dou Qi Continent, and rumor had it that Emperor Yao, the clan's founder, had been the first Dou God to attain the Dao through medicine.
Because of this, the Yao Clan held a certain pride when facing the alchemists of the Central Plains. In their eyes, their ancestor had created the path of alchemy itself. They were the orthodox lineage, the true standard.
That pride, however, was not without basis.
Whether because of their bloodline or the inheritance Emperor Yao had left behind, Yao Clan members found the study of alchemy unusually natural. Their ranks did not lack talented cultivators, either. Grandmasters famed across the Central Plains for refining tier 8 pills were not as common as grass within the Yao Clan, but neither were they rare. With such foundations, a measure of arrogance toward other alchemists was inevitable.
Of course, that applied only to the middle ranks of the alchemy world. At the true summit of the pyramid, the Yao Clan held no great advantage. Bloodline could smooth the path, but it could not carry anyone to the peak of alchemy by itself. Sometimes that talent even became a hindrance on the road to the highest level.
Perhaps that, too, was one of the subtle drawbacks of bloodline strength.
Alchemists were divided into tiers one through nine, with tier one the lowest and tier nine the highest. Tier 9 Pill Gurus were further split into three levels: Treasure Pill Guru, Mysterious Pill Guru, and Golden Pill Guru.
As for Xiao Yan, he had stepped into the level of a Mysterious Pill Guru when he refined the Lightning Calamity Pill, a Tier 9 Mysterious Pill. That achievement had never been certified by any organization, of course. At this level, no single faction was qualified to judge them, because they themselves already stood at the peak of the alchemy world.
A Mysterious Pill Guru stood at essentially the highest echelon of the continent's alchemists. By Xiao Yan's estimate, only five people present could refine a Mysterious Pill: Hun Huzi, Yao Dan, Old Man Shen Nong, Elder Wanhuo, and himself.
For most of those present, the prelude to the Medicinal Ceremony was a fascinating affair. The Yao Clan's younger generation truly possessed the kind of talent ordinary alchemists could only covet. Every contestant who took the stage was at least a tier 6 alchemist, and a thousand medicinal cauldrons rising in unison made a magnificent spectacle.
To Xiao Yan and the few others seated at the top, however, watching such refinements was like watching adults look on as children squabbled. There was nothing worth studying. They rested with their eyes closed even as the crowd cheered each new pill's emergence.
Only two figures in the arena drew a second glance from Xiao Yan. They stood at the very front: Yao Ling and Yao Tian.
Yao Ling moved with an unhurried grace before her medicinal cauldron. Her slender figure remained steady beside the rising flames, her fingers shifting through seal after seal with practiced precision as she adjusted the heat to the finest degree. The warm glow of the fire softened the usual coolness of her features and lent her an absorbed grace that was hard to look away from. Even Xiao Yan had to admit that the way she refined pills carried a rare elegance.
Her talent was undeniable. She had been born with a special physique, and her Spiritual Strength had already reached the perfected Heavenly State. All she lacked was the accumulated experience to cross into tier 9.
Yao Tian's hand was steadier for now, but he too bore the burden of excessive praise. If Xiao Yan ever spared the time to properly guide Cao Ying and Dan Chen, the two women might well surpass him one day.
This opening stage of the Medicinal Ceremony lasted more than half a month before it finally drew to a close. Fortunately, none of the spectators on the mountain were ordinary people. Throughout that half month, many had not so much as shifted in their seats.
On the seventh day, the Nightmare Heavenly Fog holding Yao Wangui had dissipated on its own.
By then, however, not a trace of arrogance remained in the old man. He did not even dare look in Xiao Yan's direction. To him, Xiao Yan's methods and strength were beyond comprehension.
This young man was practically a second Purifying Lotus Demon Saint!
When the final results of the youth division were announced, there were no surprises. Human Medicine, who had once entered the Heavenly Tomb, claimed third place, and the other young woman from that expedition took fourth. Yao Ling secured second. Her younger age and slightly lesser experience kept her a narrow step behind, though with her natural gift, surpassing Yao Tian was perhaps only a matter of time.
First place went to Yao Tian without dispute. He was the foremost talent of the Yao Clan's younger generation, and the pill he refined summoned nine-colored Pill Lightning. It edged out Yao Ling's pill and outshone the rest of the field. Quite a few Yao Clan elders watched with broad, satisfied smiles.
Then their eyes drifted toward Xiao Yan, resting quietly in his chair, and the proud smiles faded, replaced by a heavy sense of gloom.
Xiao Yan could already refine tier 9 pills, which drew down the far more terrifying Black Demon Lightning. Beside that, Yao Tian's nine-colored Pill Lightning lost much of its luster. Only a single step separated nine-colored Pill Lightning from Black Demon Lightning, yet countless Yao Clan elders and younger members had failed to cross that chasm in an entire lifetime.
"Sigh... I used to think that with a Grade 9 Dou God Bloodline, refining a tier 9 pill would come naturally... Who would have thought that even after years of seclusion, I still can't refine a Tier 9 Treasure Pill on my own?" Yao Tian murmured. He looked down at the pill still crackling with nine-colored lightning in his palm, then raised his eyes toward Xiao Yan, who sat in the same row as the Clan Head and Elder Wanhuo. Bitterness and regret mingled in his chest.
Several years ago, he had assisted the clan's elders in refining a Tier 9 Treasure Pill. The entire clan had believed it was only a matter of time before he refined one by himself, and he had believed it too. When word first reached him that Xiao Yan had succeeded ahead of him, his pride as a bearer of Emperor Yao's bloodline had refused to accept that an outsider could surpass him.
Beside him, Yao Ling looked at her older brother and sighed silently. Yao Tian did not lack talent, but the Yao Clan had harmed him by placing him on a pedestal and indulging him for too long.
Xiao Yan's path had been the exact opposite. He had relied on Yao Chen's notes and legacy, fought for every herb and resource on his own, and advanced one cauldron and one pill at a time through relentless effort. He had reached heights no one his age could touch.
As the thought crossed her mind, Yao Ling's gaze drifted toward Xiao Yan of its own accord. He sat calmly among the greatest alchemists on the continent, entirely at ease, as though the seat had belonged to him from the start. Without realizing it, she let the look in her dark eyes soften.
A moment later she caught herself, quickly looked away, and turned back to Yao Tian.
"Brother, it isn't too late to set aside your pride and learn."
Yao Tian nodded, too absorbed in his own thoughts to notice his sister's brief distraction. He clenched his fists and kept his eyes fixed on Xiao Yan. The jealousy he had once harbored was gone. In its place was a quiet, eager anticipation to see just how far Xiao Yan had traveled on the path of alchemy.
When the youth competition ended, the atmosphere on the peak did not cool. It blazed hotter than ever. Thousands of fervent gazes swept past the clearing and converged on the row of stone seats to the north. Everyone knew that the true heart of the Medicinal Ceremony was about to begin, a clash among the Pill Gurus standing at the very pinnacle of the alchemy world.
And among those supreme figures of the Dou Qi Continent, Xiao Yan had a seat of his own.
Ever since he had inherited Yao Chen's legacy in Wu Tan City, he had walked the alchemist's path alone, one step at a time. Today he finally stood at the summit of the continent.
"Hehe, it's finally starting..." Xiao Yan slowly opened his eyes, and a faint smile touched his lips as he felt the surging heat of the crowd. His fingers lightly traced the rim of his jade cup. After watching from the sidelines for more than half a month, his own hands had begun to itch.
He rose from his seat and removed his Clan Head's outer robe. With a sharp snap of fabric, he swept on the alchemist's robe that carried so much meaning for him.
Boom!
He released not a single wisp of Dou Qi. Yet the moment the robe settled over his shoulders, Xiao Yan's presence shifted like a true dragon opening its eyes. He radiated the unstoppable momentum of a sovereign ready to soar into the heavens.
The sight of him in that robe, his bearing unyielding and his gaze blazing with a champion's confidence, drew a flicker of surprise even from Yao Dan.
"Since the four of you are ready, please take the stage," Yao Dan said. He cupped his hands toward them, then turned to address the vast audience.
Hun Huzi moved the instant Yao Dan's voice fell. His figure materialized in the sky above the arena like a specter, ahead of all the others. A placid chuckle drifted down, laced with unmistakable arrogance.
"Hehe, I have long heard that the Medicinal Ceremony is the most prestigious gathering of alchemists on the Dou Qi Continent. Today, I have come to ask for your guidance! As for the title of the continent's number one alchemist... my Hun Clan happens to be rather fond of it, so I intend to take it back with me."