The day slowly turned to night and the bustling Golden Leaf city was swarmed with lights. If one looked from above, it was like a nest of fireflies which scampered to and fro.
At the gate, a group of youths carrying heavy sacks were present. They all went together to the center of the city where they exchanged all of their loot. As it was getting late, they divvied up their earnings and left with joyful smiles on their faces.
"Not bad, 5 thousand spirit stones for five tier 6 beasts, even if we had to split the earnings I still made a fortune!" Zhao Fan thought to himself happily.
"It should be just enough to start our business" Hei Long dropped a bucket of cold water on Zhao Fan's head.
"A thousand just to start?" Zhao Fan almost yelled out loud. He wanted to spend every dime on improving his strength!
"Yes, the meeting with the suppliers will be held in less than a week so we need to get everything set up." Hei Long explained. Zhao Fan couldn't object so he only sighed in grief. He understood that long-term benefits were more important than a small increase in battle power.
"So what should I do now?"
"What should we do now? Hire an alchemist of course!"
__________
Zhao Fan arrived before the majestic building near the center of the city. He walked in and wanted to put out a notice when he saw a group of people in front of him.
“A tier 4 Alchemy Apprentice challenged a tier 7 apprentice in a pill duel! Quick, let’s go watch!” Zhao Fan overheard their conversation and decided to follow them to the place of the duel as an idea popped up in his head.
"A tier 7 versus a tier 4? What is this guy thinking? A tier 6 genius can maybe defeat a tier 7 alchemist, but he could only bow down if he was a measly tier 4!"
"Haven't you heard? Zheng Luo apparently bribed Senior Cao Sheng to abandon his disciple Yun Tian after the latter opposed him in a Pill Forum. Even if he is talented, this Yun Tian is too bold, with no respect for those above. He doesn’t have any money and is not from a powerful family, what is he thinking? The tallest tree faces the strongest winds, if the tree is not strong enough, it can only snap!" Two spectators conversed while observing the Pill Duel happening on stage.
While the two talked with anticipating expressions, a youth quietly listened nearby.
"So it's like this! This guy has no background and has good talent, it should be easy to recruit him once he loses!" Hei Long and Zhao Fan came to a shared conclusion.
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On the stage, two youths faced each other. Both of them had a pill cauldron in front of them exuding different colors and effects.
Yun Tian’s white hair was ruffled and messy, his face revealed a focused expression. His hands flew around at crazy speeds, doing multitudes of actions. One moment, he threw in a herb, the other, he adjusted the flame under the cauldron by a degree, the next he stirred two materials together. His cauldron contained a dark purple sludge whose properties were being morphed by Yun Tian every passing moment.
“Sh*t!” Veins flared on his head as the sludge turned considerably darker. Without wasting a second, Yun Tian threw three yellow stalks which caused the pill to continually change colors like a chameleon. Finally, it turned back into its former dark purple color.
While Yun Tian was wiping sweat off his brow, Zheng Luo, standing opposite from him, was leisurely stirring the cauldron. Occasionally, he threw in some ingredients and mixed them together. When the green sludge in his cauldron started changing color unexpectedly, he casually unleashed a trace of his qi which flew into the cauldron and helped to fix the mistake.
“What a madman, to challenge a Foundation Establishment cultivator as merely a tier 6 Qi Gathering cultivator, this Yun Tian has balls as hard as his cauldron!” Everyone was extremely clear about the difference between the two ranks.
“Agreed! Even though he is bound to lose, his boldness is commendable.” Although there were not many spectators, the ones which were observing the duel were shocked by Yun Tian’s challenge. A Foundation Establishment cultivator could control his qi outside of his body which was a huge advantage in a field like Alchemy.
“Why are the most talented disciples the most stupid!”
The elder who sat in the middle and observed the duel was disappointed. What a shame! If Yun Tian, who was clearly talented, cooled his temper, he could easily become someone important in the future. Instead he chose to face-off against someone with a much higher strength and status than his. If that was not asking for death, he did not know what was! Did he think he was some protagonist?
“Condense” Zheng Luo’s face broke out in a smug smile as a lid flew on the cauldron and closed it firmly. A rumble resounded in the room, as the heavy cauldron faintly shook. Thin streaks of multicolored vapor rose from the lid, signifying the completion of the pill.
“Only this little energy wasted? This must be a nearly perfect pill!” The audience shook their heads. Now that Zheng Luo succeeded, his opponent would not even have the chance of winning by luck.
“CONDENSE!” Yun Tian’s situation was far more dire by comparison. After so much effort spent to carefully manage the situation in the cauldron, Yun Tian’s eyes were bloodshot and he was panting from exhaustion. He quickly threw on the lid and intensified the flames.
A loud rumble resounded and thick plumes of smoke rose from the cauldron. Yun Tian was exhausted so instead of holding down the lid, he sat on it. His relaxed expression suddenly tightened as the smoke reached his nose, making his face shrivel up as he went into a coughing fit.
The crowd struggled to look at the shameful scene, even Zhao Fan was having second thoughts after seeing the guy’s undisciplined behavior.
“Alright, now that both sides have finished, open the lids and let the results of the competition be known!” The elder declared.
The two competitors both took off the lids at that moment and scooped out the pills onto a plate where they could be seen. The elder came over to Zheng Luo’s plate and examined it first.
“Not bad, these are Cloud Descent pills, mid-rank Mortal Realm pills which allow a cultivator to enter a calm state which helps subdue heart demons and recover from illusion attacks. Their quality is near perfect, only about five percent of their efficacy were lost. One out of the batch of eight pills here would sell for roughly three hundred spirit stones” The elder proclaimed loudly.
No one was surprised as any tier 7 Alchemist Apprentice could do the same. Zheng Luo didn’t put his opponent in his eyes at all which is why he made such an average pill.
“It seems like pills and potions are classified like treasures and not like cultivators. I must have sounded like an idiot when I asked Gong Yu about the tier 1 qi potion ingredients!” Zhao Fan had a moment of realization. He had never bought or used pills or elixirs outside of what his party provided so it was normal for him to be so clueless.
“Now let’s see Yun Tian’s pills!” The elder declared in a monotone voice and headed over to the nearby plate.
“Let’s see what kind of trash a tier 4 Apprentice can make” Zheng Luo laughed which made Yun Tian’s expression darken. To Zheng Luo, it was a shame to even have a pill duel with someone so far below him, if it was not for Yun Tian provoking him with a heavy bet, he would not have agreed.
The elder didn’t listen to the insult and arrived at Yun Tian’s plate, observing the pills carefully. As he did so, a shock overtook him.
“These are low-ranked qi gathering pills!”