Rise from a Poor Family: My Martial Arts Counterattack

Chapter 523 The Final Ownership

On the field, Jiang Yaoyan and Jiang Chen locked eyes. Jiang Yaoyan's lips curled up, and there was a hint of smugness in his eyes.

He won the contest.

Jiang Chen was a step below him.

Seeing Jiang Yaoyan's upturned lips, Jiang Chen felt a pang of regret, but not anger. His skills were inferior, so there was nothing to say.

In alchemy, skill is everything.

This competition also served as a wake-up call for him. In the past, when he sparred with his fellow disciples and other young alchemists from the Thousand Machines Sect, he always won easily, which made him somewhat arrogant. This competition made him realize the truth.

Losing this game might not be such a bad thing.

As for Jiang Yaoyan... although he defeated me, it doesn't mean he can take first place.

Jiang Chen's gaze shifted to Wei Yang and Lin Chen, who were still not finished. Jiang Yaoyan, seeing the direction Jiang Chen was looking, sneered, "Xiao Yan has no chance now. As for Wei Yang... even with the Taiyin Netherfire, the Yin-Yang Pill is not so easy to refine."

As the young master of Medicine King Valley, Jiang Yaoyan's arrogance stemmed not only from his status but also from his absolute confidence in his alchemy skills.

The Five Elements Creation Pill has a standardized refining process, and every step must be done correctly. If it is too fast or too slow, the final refining process will fail.

Normally, the elixir can be accelerated by the innate fire, allowing it to be purified or condensed more quickly. However, the Five Elements Creation Pill is made by combining five different medicinal materials of the five elements with other auxiliary materials.

These five main ingredients, from the liquid to the solidified form, require meticulous attention to detail; a difference of more than three breaths will result in failure.

Now, the only one who can compete with him for first place is Wei Yang.

Both of their gazes fell on Wei Yang at the same time.

……

"Pity!"

On the stands, Li He sighed softly, "Xiao Yan was too overconfident this time. If he had chosen to refine a mid-level five-star pill like Jiang Chen and the others, it would have been better."

"Third Elder, what do you mean by that?"

Li Qin, standing to the side, was somewhat puzzled. Li He said regretfully, "The refining of the Five Elements Creation Pill requires very strict control over time. Xiao Yan wasted a lot of time on the purification step, and ultimately could not condense it."

Upon hearing the Third Elder's words, Li Qin was taken aback... Xiao Yan had failed?

"Actually, it's better if we fail. If we had succeeded, I'm afraid our Li family wouldn't have had the chance."

Despite his regret, Li He smiled again. If Xiao Yan had successfully refined the Five Elements Creation Pill in this alchemy competition, countless forces would have been eyeing him, including some far more powerful than the Li family. At that point, the Li family would have lost all competitive advantage.

Even now, even if Xiao Yan fails, there are still many forces eyeing him.

There were many alchemists in the stands, including many alchemy masters. Even those who were not alchemy masters, as long as they were outstanding intermediate alchemists, knew the requirements for refining the Five Elements Creation Pill, and at this moment they all made the same judgment as Li He.

It's a pity that the dark horse missed out on first place.

Fortunately, there was another dark horse.

With these alchemists' explanations, everyone's attention turned to Wei Yang. Everyone knew that the winner of this year's alchemy competition would depend on how well Wei Yang refined the Yin-Yang Pill.

One breath, two breaths, three breaths...

Wei Yang's expression was serious. At this moment, his hands were constantly changing hand gestures, and as his hand seals changed, the Taiyin Netherfire under the alchemy furnace was also constantly pulsating.

"This is the drawback of subduing rather than refining the innate fire. To achieve ultimate control over the innate fire, one needs to use cultivation techniques. However, if the innate fire has been refined, one can communicate with it simply through the soul. You must remember this point and not choose the path of subduing for the sake of ease."

Seeing Wei Yang constantly changing his hand gestures, Zhuang Lie also began to instruct the sect disciples around him.

Even within the Myriad Fires Sect, many disciples have chosen the path of subduing innate fire. Although the power released by refining the innate fire is stronger than that of subduing it, the difficulty of subduing innate fire is much lower than that of refining it.

One is fine, but two or even three...

Many disciples choose the path of subjugation in order to quickly improve their strength. If power is insufficient, they compensate with quantity; if subjugating one is not enough, they subjugate two, three...

Subduing two innate flames and achieving a brief fusion upon release is stronger than refining a single innate flame.

Although the path of subjugation has a maximum limit of five paths, for many disciples, it is impossible to refine even four innate flames in their entire lives, let alone master martial arts.

These disciples did nothing wrong in choosing the path that best suited them, given their abilities and self-awareness. This is why the higher-ups of the Myriad Fire Sect did not object.

From Zhuang Lie's perspective, these kinds of disciples are not capable of shouldering the future of the sect, while those who came with him to the Thousand Machine Domain to watch the competition are the future hope of the sect. If they also take the path of subjugation, it would be considered self-abandonment.

"The power of the innate fire is not only in its strength, but also in its many wonderful uses. The only way to unleash the full potential of the innate fire is through the path of refining."

"Thank you for the reminder, Elder Zhuang. We will remember it."

"Master, rest assured, your disciple will absolutely not take the path of subjugation," Zhao Haoyang and his fellow disciples immediately replied respectfully.

……

……

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Wei Yang finally completed the alchemy.

There was no sudden surge of flames, no explosion of the alchemy furnace; the flames simply died down, and there was a slight upturn at the corner of his mouth.

"open!"

Wei Yang whispered something, and the lid of the pill was lifted, revealing two pills, one half white and the other half black, to everyone.

Between the two pills, a yellow glow could be seen flowing.

"A top-grade Yin-Yang Pill!"

On the stands, many alchemists' eyes lit up the moment they saw the two pills.

"The Yin-Yang Pill can only be refined once. Half of the medicinal power of the herbs will be lost due to the Yin-Yang repulsion, but Wei Yang made up for the Yin-Yang repulsion with the Taiyin Netherfire."

"I originally thought that Jiang Yaoyan would be number one, but now it seems that Wei Yang is not out of the question. This is the first time in the last dozen or so sessions that the number one has not been decided after the pills have been made."

Many alchemists can no longer analyze who is number one; in their view, all three are very strong.

Even the most skilled alchemists were now deep in thought, trying to determine in their minds which of the three pills was the most powerful.

As for Lin Chen, he has been ignored by everyone.

"What do you think?"

On the high platform, Gu Yunfeng looked at the others and said, "I am Master Jiang Chen, and I will not cast this vote."

"I'm just here for the fun, so don't bother me," Yang Rongtian added.

Only the president of the Alchemy Guild and two alchemy masters remained at the scene.

"It is indeed difficult to evaluate. However, Wei Yang's ability to refine the Yin-Yang Pill relies more on the Taiyin Netherfire. If he were to refine other pills, he probably wouldn't have such a significant advantage. Based on this, I'll give my vote to Jiang Yaoyan."

Gu Yunfeng was not surprised at all when he heard that the president of the Alchemy Guild had voted for Jiang Yaoyan. Medicine King Valley was also a top alchemy force, and the Alchemy Guild needed Medicine King Valley's cooperation and respect on many matters.

"I don't think about that much. This is a competition. Whoever performs better will be number one. I'll give my vote to Wei Yang."

Jiang Yaoyan and Wei Yang each have one vote, so now only one person remains.

"Let's go with Wei Yang!"

Wei Yang got two votes!

Gu Yunfeng nodded, and just as he was about to announce the results, Lin Chen's alchemy furnace suddenly started to spin.

(End of this chapter)