Rise from a Poor Family: My Martial Arts Counterattack

Chapter 522 Xiao Yan? It's probably a pity.

On the field!

Dozens of beams of light suddenly lit up, dividing Lin Chen and the others into small areas.

The sudden turn of events left Lin Chen and all the martial artists watching the battle with expressions of confusion.

"quiet!"

Gu Yunfeng, the Pavilion Master of the Thousand Machines Sect's Pill Pavilion, spoke, his voice clearly resounding throughout the entire arena, including the stands. Although his tone was calm, it carried the unique pressure of a sixth-level Innate Realm expert, instantly silencing the previously noisy stands.

"After discussion among the judges, it was agreed that each contestant would compete in their own designated space and would not be disturbed by others."

Upon hearing Gu Yunfeng's words, many martial artists present had strange expressions. The reason why the Thousand Machines Sect would change its rules was already quite obvious, judging from the situation on the field.

"Isn't it unfair to Xiao Yan to change the rules at the last minute?"

A martial artist whispered, but the old man beside him scoffed, "Where in this world is there absolute fairness? Don't forget that the first-place prize this time was jointly awarded by the Thousand Machines Sect and the Medicine King Valley. If you want absolute fairness, what if these two organizations abolished the prize altogether?"

Fairness is always relative.

The rewards for this alchemy competition were suddenly increased. At first, no one knew why this change was happening. But when they learned that Jiang Chen, the personal disciple of the Dan Pavilion Master of the Thousand Machines Sect, and Jiang Yaoyan, the young master of Medicine King Valley, were among the participants, the reason became clear.

These two contestants participated first, and the prize money was increased later.

A slight bias in the competition is nothing to worry about; at least the Thousand Machines Sect didn't find a reason to suppress Xiao Yan.

"It seems they're afraid my flames will affect them."

Lin Chen smiled slightly, fully understanding the reason behind the words of the senior from Qianji Sect. However, he didn't find anything wrong with it, since without Jiang Yaoyan and Jiang Chen's participation, he wouldn't have had the opportunity to observe the "Nine Revolutions Azure Spirit Record".

The rules were announced, and the medicinal materials were prepared.

At this moment, everyone began to concentrate on refining pills, and the entire competition returned to the boring state that laymen would find tedious.

In front of Lin Chen was a three-legged alchemy furnace, provided by the Li family. Although it was not as good as the furnaces brought out by Jiang Yaoyan, Jiang Chen, and Wei Yang, it was not much worse than those of the other six contestants.

As time passed, two hours later, some contestants had finished refining their pills. The moment they opened the furnace, a loud cheer erupted from the stands.

Upon hearing the sound, Lin Chen looked over and saw the pills the other party had produced. He nodded almost imperceptibly. No contestant who had made it this far was weak in alchemy.

The "Return to Origin Pill" refined by this person is also a top-tier four-star pill, and a total of sixteen pills were refined in this batch.

However, after completing the alchemy, although the contestant's expression was no longer tense, he did not smile at all, because he knew very well that he had no chance of entering the top three. In this final, he was just a participant, and his only goal was to enter the top five.

As soon as the first contestant finished refining his work, the second contestant finished a quarter of an hour later.

Second place, third place, fourth place, sixth place...

When six contestants finished refining pills, all the martial artists in the stands perked up once again, because in their opinion, the only ones truly qualified to compete for first place were Jiang Chen, Jiang Yaoyan, Wei Yang, and Lin Chen.

Of these four, whoever succeeds in refining the elixir will inevitably rank higher than the previous six.

At this moment, Lin Chen was no longer as relaxed as before. The Five Elements Creation Pill was a top-tier five-star pill. Even though he possessed four kinds of innate fire and had also fused with the Azure Dawn Flame, he dared not be careless. His powerful divine soul kept a close eye on the pill's condition, using it to control the liquid, separate impurities, and reduce the loss of medicinal power...

In the stands.

"Qin'er, after this alchemy competition, the clan has decided to entrust you with the business of the ten cities in the southern part of the Thousand Machine Domain."

Li He spoke with a smile. Upon hearing her elder's words, Li Qin's face lit up with joy. The clan had shops in all the cities of the Thousand Machine Domain, and even outside the Thousand Machine Domain. However, those who were usually in charge of business outside the Thousand Machine Domain were usually punished for making mistakes and sent to other places.

Within the Thousand Machine Domain, only those who have made contributions are qualified to share in the business of the major cities. Her branch only has five cities in front of her. If ten more cities are added, the strength of her branch will increase significantly.

"Thank you, elder."

"No need to thank me. This is the reward you deserve for finding Xiao Yan for the clan. Xiao Yan's talent in alchemy has exceeded my expectations. With his talent, he will become a master alchemist in less than five years, and it is possible that he will become a grandmaster alchemist in the future. Such a genius... if he can have a closer relationship with our Li family, it will be of great benefit to the clan."

Hearing this, Li Qin's heart skipped a beat. She understood why the Third Elder had said this at this time, and said in a deep voice, "I will try my best."

"Hmm." Li He smiled slightly and said no more.

……

……

boom!
On the field, a flame shot into the sky, and everyone saw the pill furnace in front of Jiang Chen instantly engulfed by the flames.

"What happened? Did we fail?"

"Flames engulfing the alchemy furnace is not a good omen."

Just as everyone was wondering, the flames bloomed petal by petal, revealing the true face of the alchemy furnace when the petals were fully open.

The furnace was now without its lid, and only seven pills, gleaming with a pure, glassy luster, floated there quietly.

The Crystal-Clear Elixir has been successfully refined!

Lin Chen also looked in that direction, a hint of envy in his eyes. This was the special quality of the Azure Sky Spirit Fire; its spirituality far surpassed other innate fires, even imbuing the pills with its spiritual essence. The Glazed Immaculate Pill could remove impurities from a martial artist's soul, making it purer. The Glazed Immaculate Pill refined by Jiang Chen was undoubtedly the finest among them.

One of them would probably cost tens of thousands of Flame Coins.

A batch of seven is worth nearly 300,000 Flame Coins.

This already represents the level of alchemy profits achieved by a master-level alchemist.

"As expected of Senior Brother Jiang, it would be quite good if a normal alchemist could refine five pills."

"Senior brother, I am ashamed. I have also refined this pill several times, but each time I could only make five pills. No matter how I purify it, I cannot make one more."

On the Thousand Machines Sect's side, many disciples cheered when they saw the seven pills in front of Jiang Chen.

Senior Brother Jiang, this time you absolutely delivered an outstanding performance.

Zeng Xi felt the cheers of many of his fellow disciples around him. Although he smiled, he was not as optimistic as his fellow disciples. For some reason, he vaguely felt that Xiao Yan's style of doing things was familiar. His intuition told him that Xiao Yan was not the kind of person who made empty promises.

No matter how many Glazed Immaculate Pills Senior Brother Jiang refines, as long as Xiao Yan successfully refines the Five Elements Creation Pill, the first place will still belong to Xiao Yan.

On the field, Jiang Chen looked at the seven pills floating in front of him with a smile on his face, but when he looked at Lin Chen and the other two, the smile immediately disappeared.

As an alchemist, he has participated in dozens of alchemy competitions, large and small. Every time he successfully refined a pill, he was confident that he would be number one without waiting for others to finish.

But this time, he lost that confidence.

Jiang Yaoyan goes without saying, and Wei Yang, who actually possesses the Taiyin Nether Flame, is no less powerful. As for Xiao Yan... he has repeatedly shocked and surprised him.

On the high platform, Gu Yunfeng saw his disciple finish refining the pills and smiled. He said frankly, "My disciple has never suffered any setbacks in refining pills before, which has made him arrogant. No matter what the result is this time, at least he knows that there are always people better than him. Moreover, seven Glazed Immaculate Pills in one batch is already better than his previous achievements. It has surprised me as his master."

Gu Yunfeng neither praised his disciple nor feigned humility. Although these people had not broken the rules by using their divine sense to perceive the contestants' alchemy progress, Gu Yunfeng knew in his heart that his disciple was unlikely to win first place this time.

It's good that this alchemy competition has helped to curb his disciple's arrogance, so that he can go further on the path of alchemy in the future.

"Sect Master Gu is too modest. When I was the same age as Jiang Chen, I dared not guarantee that I could refine seven Glazed Immaculate Pills."

The president of the Alchemy Guild chuckled and chimed in, while another alchemy master remarked with a sigh, "In this year's alchemy competition, it's hard to say who will win first place until the very last moment when the furnace is opened."

"Haha, I think this kind of competition is more interesting. While it is amazing to see one person leave the competition in the dust, it is more interesting to watch this kind of close competition."

While Gu Yunfeng and the others were talking, Jiang Yaoyan had also finished refining the pill. His pill furnace was emitting a red light, which shone with an eerie red glow.

boom!
Three breaths later, the alchemy furnace suddenly exploded!
This scene stunned all the martial artists in the stands; it was truly an explosion.
But soon everyone realized that this was Jiang Yaoyan's deliberate act. As the alchemy furnace exploded, a stream of red alchemical mist shot out, but the next moment, something seemed to exist within the mist, drawing all the mist back in.

Three captivating red pills floated in the air.

"The Blood Soul Pill of Ten Thousand Beasts!"

The pill, condensed from the blood essence of a hundred kinds of demonic beasts, was so powerful that even when it was just floating quietly in the air, many martial artists of lower cultivation levels dared not look directly at it.

"Both are of top quality, and there are three of them. Between Jiang Yaoyan and Jiang Chen, who is better?"

The martial artist, who was not very knowledgeable about alchemy, couldn't help but ask the alchemist beside him. They naturally knew about these two kinds of pills, but as for their value... the value of such pills was not fixed. For a martial artist, whichever one they needed was more precious.

However, the selection of alchemists is different. In addition to the value of the elixir, the difficulty of its refining, the quality of the elixir, and the extent of loss of its medicinal effects must also be considered.

"It's hard to say. If we look at the loss of medicinal efficacy, Jiang Yaoyan should be better. Normally, those medicinal materials would only yield two pills per batch, but Jiang Chen clearly produced more. We can't judge that. No wonder several grandmasters personally oversaw the process this time."

On the high platform.

Gu Yunfeng looked at the three pills in front of Jiang Yaoyan and said calmly, "Jiang Yaoyan wins!"

As a master-level alchemist, he would not favor his own disciple. In terms of the difficulty of the pills, Jiang Yaoyan and his disciple were on par, but Jiang Yaoyan had one more pill, while his disciple, although he had two more, was still slightly inferior in terms of controlling the repulsion of the medicinal power. If he could have one more pill, his disciple would have won this round.

"Sigh, never before has the difference between winning and losing been so narrow."

The president of the Alchemy Association also sighed softly, noting that in previous years, those who won first place had always led by a huge margin.

"maybe."

Yang Rongtian, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke up, smiling and saying, "Didn't you all say that if Xiao Yan could refine the Five Elements Creation Pill, he would undoubtedly be number one? If Xiao Yan succeeds, the gap will widen, won't it?"

Upon hearing Yang Rongtian's words, the several alchemy masters present exchanged glances.

"That's true, but Xiao Yan's progress is a bit off. If we look at the timing of the Five Elements Creation Pill's formation, Xiao Yan should have entered the pill condensation stage long ago. But now Xiao Yan is still purifying the medicinal liquid, so I'm afraid it will be difficult for him to form the pill."

A master alchemist sighed. This was the same person who had spoken up for Lin Chen earlier. He had hoped that Xiao Yan could give him a surprise, but unfortunately... Xiao Yan's Five Elements Creation Pill missed the optimal time for condensation. The purification of the medicinal liquid took too long, which would make it difficult for the pill to take shape in the end. In other words, the pill would have cracks and become a defective product.

"I know nothing about alchemy, I'm just talking casually."

Yang Rongtian nodded, but didn't say anything more.

Failure... It's better to fail, at least it will save him some trouble later, otherwise he really wouldn't be able to fulfill his old friend's request.

(End of this chapter)