Chapter 1223 - I’ll Compete
Ling Han didn’t pay much attention to the competition. After all, hadn’t he joined the Han Lin Pavilion to step in for Kang Xiu Yuan after he lost?
Once he—the Alchemy Emperor—stepped in, could they still lose?
Anyhow, the refinement of Level Five Divine Pills would take around 10 days. Thus, Ling Han left to look for Feng Po Yun and the others. He couldn’t waste his time. Moreover, he had to mull over how he was going to explain his other identity to them.
In the end, he decided to put that aside first. His explanation could wait until after he revealed his true identity to Kang Xiu Yuan and the others.
After eight days, Ling Han returned to the Han Lin Pavilion.
The competition between Kang Xiu Yuan and Liang Jinbo was already reaching its final stages. However, once an alchemist began pill refinement, completing one percent and completing 99% would be the same. Alchemists couldn’t become distracted or make any mistakes. Otherwise, all of their previous efforts would count for nothing.
Thus, alchemists would become increasingly serious the closer they were to completion.
After several hours, Kang Xiu Yuan and Liang Jinbo both stopped at almost exactly the same moment.
“Open!” the two of shouted as they slapped the lid of their cauldron each. They were about to remove the lid of their cauldron. However, Kang Xiu Yuan tapped the cauldron with both of his hands, causing flames to quickly jump over it. This was the Three Fire Guide, Ling Han’s revolutionary innovation.
Liang Jinbo was the first to show his cauldron to the audience. There were three round alchemical pills in his cauldron, and it seemed as if they were about to fly out. However, they were forcefully suppressed and sealed in the cauldron by Liang Jinbo.
Kang Xiu Yuan also tilted his cauldron slightly, saying, “I didn’t disappoint you, Brother Liang.”
There were also three alchemical pills inside his cauldron.
Kang Xiu Yuan secretly wiped the sweat off his forehead. Had he not raised the quality and success rate of his pills with the Three Fire Guide, he would have only been able to refine two pills.
Right now, he could only pray that his opponent had also only been able to refine three pills1. Otherwise, the loser would definitely be him.
“You’ve both refined three pills. Okay, then let’s compare their quality!”
They both poured their pills into their palms before placing them together.
Alchemists like them could determine the quality of a pill simply by looking at it and smelling it.
Kang Xiu Yuan’s expression quickly became gloomy. His opponent’s pill was superior to his, both in terms of color and in terms of smell. Moreover, it wasn’t superior by just a little bit—it was superior by quite a clear margin.
He hesitated briefly before sighing, and saying, “I’ve lost!”
“Hahaha!” Liang Jinbo laughed heartily. The Han Lin Pavilion had suffered a resounding defeat in this competition. As the strongest competitor for his side, he naturally felt even more delighted.
“No need to feel dispirited,” Ling Han suddenly said. “He’s more skilled than you because he became a Level Five alchemist long before you. In fact, he’s been at this level for tens of thousands of years longer than you. If you practice for a few more years, surpassing him won’t be too difficult.”
Kang Xiu Yuan faltered upon hearing this. He glanced at Ling Han with a look of confusion.
‘Who is this person? Why does he sound so old and mature? His tone is almost like Master’s.’
He had focused his full attention on pill refinement before, and he wouldn’t have known even if the sky were to collapse. Thus, he naturally didn’t know who Ling Han was. In fact, he didn’t even know that Ling Han had already become a member of the Han Lin Pavilion.
However, Liang Jinbo was furious upon hearing this. ‘What does he mean? A loss is a loss. Is he trying to find excuses?’
He humphed coldly, and said, “Are you people unable to accept defeat?”
“Defeat?” Ling Han laughed loudly before shaking his head, and saying, “The competition hasn’t ended yet. So, what is this ‘defeat’ that you speak of?”
‘Hasn’t ended yet? Hasn’t ended your mom! The most powerful alchemist on your side has already competed. What else do you want? Hang on… Who is this brat? Where the hell did he come from?’
“Who is this person?” Liang Jinbo asked. “Brother Kang, Brother Yun, since when did this person become the master of the Han Lin Pavilion?”
Ling Han waved his hand, and said, “I’m a newly hired alchemist of the Han Lin Pavilion. I’ll compete against you people in the next round. Are there any Level Six or Level Seven alchemists among you? Let them out for a walk.”
‘F*ck!
‘Let them out for a walk?
‘Do you think alchemists are dogs? F*cking let them out for a walk?!’
Liang Jinbo fumed upon hearing this. There was a menacing look in his eyes, and he said, “Brother Kang, Brother Yun, how long are you going to let this brat muck around for?”
Kang Xiu Yuan was just about to speak, yet Ling Han suddenly walked over and snatched the three pills from his hand. Although he was at the low extreme of the Sun Moon Tier, such cultivation was completely insufficient before Ling Han.
“If the tiger doesn’t roar, you’ll think I’m an ill cat.” Ling Han tossed the three alchemical pills back into the cauldron. He then started to refine them.
‘What? You’re tossing refined pills back into the cauldron to temper? Are you f*cking retarded?!’
To say nothing of alchemical pills, even forged items couldn’t be tossed back into flames to temper if one weren’t satisfied. There was martial intent in God Tools, and recklessly tempering them would only lead to the destruction of both the martial intent and the God Tool.
Alchemical pills were much the same. However, instead of having martial intent, they possessed divine patterns that were formed from the intertwining Regulations of heaven and earth. Moreover, these divine patterns were even more fragile. Why did alchemists have to be so careful when refining pills? This was because any mistake in intertwining the Regulations would cause the entire cauldron of pills to become useless.
Kang Xiu Yuan was just about to stop Ling Han, yet he was pulled back Yun Yong Wang. “Why?” he asked in confusion.
“He’s called Ling Han!” Yun Yong Wang replied.
“What?!” Kang Xiu Yuan was stunned. However, he immediately shook his head. This person couldn’t be their master. Their master had already been dead for over 10,000 years. However, because of their identical name, he decided to let Ling Han muck around this one time.
Ling Han continued his refinement. Flames burned brightly, and after a short while, an astonishing fragrance wafted from the cauldron. This fragrance could be smelled from five kilometers away.
“Huh? The cauldron actually didn’t explode!” Liang Jinbo was completely stunned.
Level Five Divine Pills contained a huge amount of energy. Thus, refining them with flames could easily destroy the balance within the pills. Such an imbalance would result in an explosion of energy. If the imbalance weren’t serious, it would lead to the explosion of the cauldron. If it were very serious, it would lead to a huge explosion that was as powerful as the full-power attack of 10 or even 100 elites at the low extreme of the Sun Moon Tier.
Similar to the Ultimate Arrow, this was a concentrated explosion of energy. Thus, its might and power was far above its actual level.
Ling Han had foolishly attempted to temper a refined pill, yet the cauldron actually hadn’t exploded. This was extremely surprising and strange. The onlookers could barely believe their eyes.
‘Could it be that he didn’t put the alchemical pills in?’
Ling Han was completely focused on the task before him. He was going to elevate the quality of the pills, a task that was extremely difficult even for an Alchemy Emperor like him. Fortunately, these were only Level Five Divine Pills. His alchemy skills had already reached Level Seven, and it was because of this that he had a chance at success.
The difficulty of this task was far too high. In fact, it was no easier than refining a cauldron of Level Seven Divine Pills. Thus, even Ling Han had to be extremely careful.
He extracted the divine patterns from the Divine Pills, and continued to finetune their intertwinings.
Elevating the quality of alchemical pills wasn’t equivalent to refining them anew. Thus, doing so wouldn’t take a great amount of time. Ling Han stopped after just two hours. He had completed the task of elevating the pills’ quality.
He opened the cauldron and retrieved the pills. He then tossed them toward Liang Jinbo, and said, “Ignoramus, do some learning, yeah?”
Liang Jinbo instinctively caught the pills. He swept his gaze over them, and his expression instantly became one of disbelief.