Forced to become a pure and innocent female pharmacist in order to cultivate immortality.

“Alright, since that’s the case, let’s begin. Elder Ye, you’re only a top-grade blue-level alchemist, while I’m a mid-grade purple-level alchemist. There’s quite a gap between us. I won’t bully the weak. How about we compete in the speed and final quality of refining top-grade blue-level pills?” Tang Zhichun took a deep breath and then explained his method of competition.

Ye Liuyun's two big eyes rolled around for a moment, then he nodded with a smile.

"Okay, I have no objection. If there are no problems, let's begin," Ye Liuyun said with a smile.

Tang Zhichun looked at her with a silly expression. He was getting bored. How could a purple-level alchemist like him have to compete with a blue-level top-grade alchemist? It was too embarrassing. Was it even necessary?

However, he had no choice but to defeat Ye Liuyun first before challenging the others. He couldn't say anything offensive to mock the Taishang Ganying Sect.

"Alright then, let's begin. We'll refine top-grade pills, any type of pill is acceptable. After we're finished, we'll have the seniors here who are knowledgeable about pills judge them," Tang Zhichun suggested.

Ye Liuyun nodded.

After the two had reached an agreement, Elder Tianjian immediately announced it.

"Since you two have already discussed the method of the duel, let's begin."

As soon as Elder Tianjian finished speaking, Tang Zhichun waved his hand, and a golden medicine furnace flew out from his storage magic treasure and landed in front of him.

This medicine furnace is a low-grade earth-level magic treasure; that's quite extravagant.

When Ye Liuyun saw the other party take out a medicine furnace, she originally intended to take out her own Myriad Medicines Immortal Cauldron. However, when she thought that many people had seen her Myriad Medicines Immortal Cauldron, she felt embarrassed because she did not have any other medicine furnaces or cauldrons.

And so a comical scene unfolded.

"Senior Sister Tai Rong, I forgot to bring my alchemy tools. Could any of you lend me a medicine furnace or cauldron?" Ye Liuyun called out to Tai Rong without any shame.

Upon hearing this, Tang Zhichun nearly coughed up blood and nearly vomited Ye Liuyun's anger.

Is an alchemist still an alchemist if he doesn't have any alchemy tools?

Everyone on Yaofeng's side felt incredibly embarrassed, but since Ye Liuyun had spoken up, someone had to contribute their alchemy tools.

Upon hearing this, Nalan Yan couldn't help but chuckle. She felt that Ye Liuyun was doing it on purpose, so she waved her hand and handed her alchemy furnace to Ye Liuyun.

"Elder Ye, please use mine."

Nalan Yan's alchemy furnace is a beautifully crafted blue glass alchemy furnace, and it is also a low-grade earth-level magic weapon.

However, she could only use this thing as a medicine-refining furnace and could not unleash its full power.

Ye Liuyun caught the medicine furnace with a casual gesture.

"Haha, thank you." Ye Liuyun said thank you, then placed the medicine furnace in front of him.

As for Tang Zhichun, seeing Ye Liuyun's casual manner, she felt even more disappointed.

"Everyone, the pill I'm going to refine is a top-grade blue-level pill called the Heavenly King Heart-Protecting Pill. Fellow Daoists who understand pills will certainly know its value, so I won't go into details," Tang Zhichun said loudly.

Even if most cultivators don't know how to refine medicine, they still know the effects of various common grades of pills.

This Heavenly King Heart-Protecting Pill is one of the top-tier blue-grade pills, possessing excellent healing effects.

After Tang Zhichun finished speaking, he took out the medicinal materials for refining the Heavenly King Heart-Protecting Pill and prepared to start refining the medicine.

Ye Liuyun naturally needed to explain what kind of pill she wanted to refine, but she was in trouble because she didn't have the medicinal materials for the pill she wanted to refine, or rather, she couldn't gather the medicinal materials that could be used to refine a top-grade pill.

"Damn, all the common medicinal herbs I've used over the years have gone into the Cloud Realm. Plus, I don't refine regular pills much, so I don't have any suitable herbs on me." Ye Liuyun was embarrassed again.

Lin Qingyou, Ye Liuyun's master, felt that Ye Liuyun was going to make her lose all face.

"You, you little girl, you've gotten so used to making medicine haphazardly that you don't even prepare any regular medicinal herbs. It's really embarrassing," Lin Qingyou complained.

Ye Liuyun gave an awkward smile, and then she suddenly called out to Tang Zhichun opposite her.

"Fellow Daoist Tang, could you lend me some of the ingredients for the Heavenly King Heart-Protecting Pill? I want to refine the same pill as you," Ye Liuyun shamelessly asked.

Tang Zhichun, who was just about to release flames into the alchemy furnace, trembled upon hearing these words, his heart skipped a beat, and he almost choked on his own anger at Ye Liuyun.

Upon hearing this, the members of the Taishang Ganying Sect felt ashamed to watch the match.

"Are you kidding me? Is she an alchemist? She doesn't even have a medicine furnace or any medicinal herbs. I suspect she got her alchemist status through connections." The disciples of the Supreme Response Sect couldn't help but complain.

As for the cultivators from other regions and other areas of the Nine Heavens Domain, they laughed without any restraint.

"This Elder Ye is truly an oddball. I haven't seen such an eccentric alchemist in a long time."

Ye Liuyun listened to the laughter of the people around her, but she didn't care. She pretended not to hear it and stared at Tang Zhichun with a smile.

Tang Zhichun sighed heavily again, then with a wave of his hand, tossed a batch of medicinal materials for refining the Heavenly King Heart-Protecting Pill to Ye Liuyun.

"Take it, it's yours. Please take the competition seriously, Fellow Daoist Ye, and please don't disturb my alchemy anymore," Tang Zhichun said, somewhat angrily and helplessly.

After saying that, he didn't bother to look at Ye Liuyun anymore. Instead, he forced out a ball of pale golden flame from his body. This was actually a beast fire, not an ordinary flame.

After Ye Liuyun obtained the medicinal herbs, she only glanced at Tang Zhichun before raising her hand to release her true essence fire. She certainly couldn't use the Myriad Medicine Immortal Fire here.

"White, transparent flames, what kind of flames are these?" Everyone was quite curious after seeing the flames released by Ye Liuyun.

There were many alchemists present, but none of them could recognize Ye Liuyun's True Essence Fire.

Tang Zhichun only glanced at it before focusing on refining the medicine.

As for Ye Liuyun, after the fire started, she did something that other alchemists considered shocking: she grabbed all the medicinal materials for refining the Heavenly King Heart-Protecting Pill and threw them all into the furnace.

"Pfft! This, this is medicine making? This is soup making!" The disciples of Medicine Peak were the first to lose their composure.

They suspected that Ye Liuyun had gotten in through connections, because in their understanding, medicinal herbs had to be processed one by one, not all at once thrown into the furnace.

However, Tai Rong showed a surprised expression at this scene, and she couldn't help but look at Nalan Yan.

Because when Nalan Yan first started learning medicine, she also used this strange method of alchemy. The key point is that Nalan Yan succeeded in refining it in the end, and that's how she caught Nalan Yan's eye and eventually became her little apprentice.

However, those who doubted Ye Liuyun quickly shut up, because the medicinal herbs from Ye Liuyun did not produce the results they had imagined.

They initially thought the medicinal herbs would have been burned, but the result was quite surprising.

"Huh? That's strange. There's no damage, and several herbs are being extracted at the same time? This alchemy technique seems familiar to me." The disciple of Medicine Peak frowned.

After thinking for a moment, they all turned their gazes to Nalan Yan.

"Junior Sister Xuan Yan, how come Uncle Ye's alchemy method is so similar to yours?" Xuan Chen couldn't help but ask.

Nalan Yan was momentarily embarrassed upon hearing this.

“Yes, and your relationship with Uncle Ye seems to be quite special. I heard that you and Junior Sister Xuanmiao were once from the same sect,” Xuanhe added.

Nalan Yan didn't know how to answer, so she could only awkwardly say...

"I'm sorry, this is my secret, I can't tell you."

This sentence stunned everyone, and they felt that Ye Liuyun had secrets they didn't know about.

"What a peculiar alchemy technique! He can extract several portions of medicinal herbs at once. I underestimated him." Tang Zhichun became wary immediately after watching Ye Liuyun's alchemy method.

He didn't know Ye Liuyun's method of refining medicine, so he had to speed up the process of refining medicinal materials, otherwise he definitely couldn't keep up with Ye Liuyun's speed.

As a mid-grade purple-level alchemist, if he can't even keep up with a blue-level alchemist in speed, it would be very embarrassing even if he wins in the end.

After he finished refining the first medicinal herb, Ye Liuyun had already finished refining all the other medicinal herbs. After the herbs were refined, the next step was to inject the pill powder to fuse them into the pill.

Time passed second by second, and after seeing Ye Liuyun's speed in refining medicine, none of the surrounding cultivators dared to say that Ye Liuyun was an amateur anymore.

Since Ye Liuyun had already begun fusing the pills, only five minutes had passed. At this rate, barring any unforeseen circumstances, he should be able to finish refining the pills within ten minutes.

"Wow, so fast! How can it be so fast? Elder Ye of Medicine Peak may not seem to have a high cultivation level, but his alchemy skills are truly amazing. We were all blind just now." The big shots couldn't help but exclaim in amazement.

Ten minutes passed quickly.

With a smile, Ye Liuyun waved his hand, and a round, golden pill rolled out of the medicine furnace, which he then caught in his hand.

"Done." Ye Liuyun smiled smugly.

Although she rarely refines conventional pills and has never practiced the Heavenly King Heart-Protecting Elixir, she refines it with ease, as if it were her first time.

"What, ten minutes? My god, he successfully refined this top-grade blue-level pill in just ten minutes? Elder Ye's alchemy skills are quite superb. Is he really just a top-grade blue-level alchemist? Could it be a fake?" Everyone was very confused.

Tang Zhichun, who was opposite him, had just finished refining the last batch of medicinal herbs.

"How could it be so fast? He finished refining a top-grade blue-level pill in just ten minutes. Is he really just a top-grade blue-level alchemist? Could Yao Feng be lying to me?" Tang Zhichun began to doubt Ye Liuyun's true alchemy level.

However, she was definitely losing in terms of speed, so she could only gamble on the quality of the pill. But when her divine sense swept over the pill in Ye Liuyun's hand, Tang Zhichun's eyes bulged and the power controlling the flames in her body instantly gave way.

This sudden burst of energy caused the fire to intensify, and the medicinal herbs that had just fused together in his furnace exploded instantly, meaning he had failed to refine the medicine.

When the people of the Kaiyang Shenxiao Sect saw that Tang Zhichun had failed in his alchemy attempt, they felt extremely ashamed. The elders of their Lingdan Sect also felt a bit embarrassed to face anyone.

"Impossible, pill patterns?" Tang Zhichun had no time to think about alchemy anymore. He rushed to Ye Liuyun's side to admire the pill in Ye Liuyun's hand.

Tang Zhichun only stopped breathing when he saw the cinnabar pattern on Ye Liuyun's hand.

He was already slower than Ye Liuyun, and after seeing the quality of Ye Liuyun's pills, he lost even more confidence.

Ye Liuyun was startled when Tang Zhichun suddenly ran up to him.

"Eh? Fellow Daoist Tang, you're not refining medicine anymore?" Ye Liuyun asked hurriedly.

At this moment, Tang Zhichun's eyes were only on the pill in Ye Liuyun's hand, seemingly oblivious to everything else.

"Such a rich elixir light, and such beautiful elixir patterns, heavens, what is there to compare? Fellow Daoist Ye, could you please allow me to take a good look at your elixir?" Tang Zhichun pleaded with wide eyes.

Ye Liuyun certainly understood Tang Zhichun's mindset at this moment, so he generously handed the pill to Tang Zhichun.

Tang Zhichun took the pill and looked at it from left to right.

"Haha, it's so beautiful! This is what real elixir looks like! Compared to this, my elixir is nothing but dog shit. Tsk tsk, it's too beautiful. I lose, I lose!" Tang Zhichun said loudly, holding the elixir.

As soon as he conceded defeat, the alchemists around him, especially those of blue rank or higher, descended from the sky and stood before Tang Zhichun with expressions of shock.

"It truly has a pill pattern! This is a blessing from the Celestial Venerable of Longevity! I thought I was blind. Young friend Tang, please allow me to admire this pill." An old man in the Transformation Realm said excitedly as he looked at the pill in Tang Zhichun's hand.

Tang Zhichun had seen enough, so naturally the other alchemists should also have a look.

And so Ye Liuyun's pills were passed around among a group of purple-level and yellow-level alchemists.

"It's so beautiful! Putting aside the pill patterns, just the luster of this pill alone is something I probably couldn't achieve in my entire life," exclaimed a Yellow-rank alchemist.

The people at Yaofeng were equally shocked. Tai Rong and Tai Fu were at a loss for words to express their excitement and astonishment.

They can also refine pill patterns, but their limit is that they can only refine pill patterns on white-grade pills.

Laymen, on the other hand, were completely bewildered.

"What's wrong with these alchemists? It's just a blue-grade pill, why are they so excited?" The cultivators from the Five Poisons Sect wondered.

But immediately a Five Poisons Sect alchemist began to berate the guy.

"Blind and ignorant, what do you know? These are Dan patterns! Damn it, if I weren't a cultivator from another region, I would have gone over to admire them too."

After he finished scolding, he explained to everyone what Danwen was. Many people didn't understand, but when they compared it with the patterns on artifacts, those who didn't understand would understand.

Chapter 529 Poison Refining Competition (5000 words + 4300 monthly votes bonus chapter)

Comparing the patterns on the alchemy vessel with the patterns on the vessel itself can indeed easily demonstrate a person's alchemy skills.

However, there are still some differences between the two, because there are two ways to generate the patterns on the artifacts.

The first method relies on the weapon refiner's superb weapon refining skills to imbue the magic weapon with weapon patterns. Weapon refiners with such skills are probably few and far between on the Divine Continent.

The second method relies on nurturing the material with rare and precious natural elements to improve its quality, thereby naturally producing patterns on the surface.

However, this method is extremely expensive, and apart from a few major sects and factions that have the financial resources, other forces do not.

This shows how precious the pill patterns of alchemists are. Moreover, most pills that can be refined with pill patterns are not usually seen on the market, mainly because high-grade pills with pill patterns are generally unaffordable for ordinary people.

The three three-patterned pills auctioned at Wanbaolou last time demonstrate how precious and rare pills with patterned markings are.

The three-patterned pill purchased by Yaofeng is currently enshrined in the Hall of Successive Peak Masters of Yaofeng and admired by the disciples.

As for pills of too low grade, even if they have pill patterns, they have little practical value because they cannot be mass-produced, so one or two are meaningless.

Anyway, there were at least a lot of purple and yellow-level alchemists present, but they couldn't refine blue-level pills with pill patterns.

After observing for a while, the alchemists realized that they seemed to care too much about the pill and had overlooked the owner who made it. So, a group of alchemists gathered around Ye Liuyun's location.

"Haha, young friend, may I ask which master you studied under? Judging from your calm demeanor, you must be able to frequently refine pills with pill patterns, right?" The Yellow-level alchemist asked with a smile as he approached Ye Liuyun.

"Yes, Elder Ye is so young yet possesses such superb alchemy skills, which makes us all feel ashamed."

Everyone chimed in with their own praise, practically showering Ye Liuyun with compliments.

This was the first time Ye Liuyun had been surrounded by so many people, especially a group of old men, all of whom wanted to exchange ideas on alchemy with him.

Ye Liuyun was quite perplexed. He hadn't expected that a mere pill pattern could evoke so many high-level alchemists praising her.

If she were to refine a regular pill with nine pill patterns, wouldn't they consider Ye Liuyun to be the reincarnation of the Celestial Venerable of Immortality?