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**
A massive plaza.
All the participants were staring at the thin piece of paper in front of them, reading it carefully, their faces showing various expressions.
For a time, the entire square was silent.
This calm and tense atmosphere lasted for about five minutes, until suddenly, an ancient bell rang out loudly across the plaza.
Hearing the bell, all the contestants simultaneously put down their papers and made a sweeping motion with their palms.
Boom—
In that instant, more than two thousand alchemy cauldrons of varying colors and shapes suddenly appeared on the stone platforms.
On the high platform, President Fa Ma, who had been sitting with his eyes half-closed, slowly opened them.
His gaze swept across the plaza, and his calm voice echoed clearly in everyone's ears.
"I believe you've all more or less figured it out by now. The first round of the assessment is for you to refine a completed pill based on this incomplete recipe."
"You each have two attempts. If, after two tries, you still fail to produce a successful pill, then the jade mirror on your platform will light up red. Once it flashes, you are eliminated."
"On the far wall, there is a massive hourglass. That marks the time limit. If you fail to produce a finished pill before the sand runs out, that also counts as failure."
"Is that all clear?" Fa Ma asked with a smile.
"Yes!"
Over two thousand voices thundered in unison from the square like muffled thunder.
"Very well. In that case, the first round of assessment—begins now!"
Raising his hand slowly, Fa Ma smiled before bringing it down suddenly.
Instantly, over two thousand colorful flames erupted across the square—an awe-inspiring sight that stirred the blood.
...
Xian'er stood atop her stone platform.
In front of her sat a slightly compact crimson pill cauldron, inside which a deep-red flame was burning fiercely.
This cauldron had been one of the treasures she had obtained from Gu Te and had been using ever since.
Given her current peak Tier 4 rank, it was still adequate for her needs.
And since the cauldron wasn't unique or exclusive, she wasn't worried about Gu Te recognizing it when used publicly.
She let the fire warm the cauldron, but unlike many of the other alchemists who immediately began refining, she continued to quietly study the thin piece of paper in her hands.
She understood well that sharpening the axe won't delay the job of cutting firewood.
With only two chances allowed, any minor oversight could lead to failure.
Fortunately, she had been exposed to alchemy from a young age, even if it had started as self-study.
After she became Wei Yang's student at around twelve years old, she was introduced to numerous medical texts and foundational knowledge under his guidance.
So in terms of basics, while she couldn't compare to someone like the little princess or Liu Ling—who had received formal training from childhood—she was not lacking either.
Moreover, her alchemist rank spoke for itself: peak Tier 4.
She also possessed a well-organized and detailed inheritance of alchemy knowledge ranging from Tier 1 to Tier 4, and even up to the peak Tier 7.
With Wei Yang, a Tier 6 alchemist, personally guiding her on a regular basis, combined with her own exceptional diligence and dedication—
Even if she couldn't reverse-engineer or outright create a new pill formula from scratch in a short amount of time, she should still be able to deduce the properties, compatibility, and timing involved based on the existing incomplete formula.
She had confidence in herself.
...
The pill to be refined in this round of assessment was a Tier 2 pill known as the Bone Growing Pill.
As the name suggested, it was used to treat injuries related to bones.
This type of healing pill wasn't considered particularly rare or valuable.
On the market, a single Bone Growing Pill would likely fetch no more than a thousand gold coins.
Compared to pills that could boost Dou Qi, enhance combat ability, speed up cultivation, or offer other practical advantages, its value seemed almost pitiful.
Refining the Bone Growing Pill required only six types of medicinal ingredients. All of them were commonly available healing and bone-mending herbs, making this pill relatively simple among Tier 2 medicinal pills.
However, this particular formula for the Bone Growing Pill appeared to be a newly developed healing prescription specially designed by the Alchemist Association. It had not previously appeared on the market.
So, even though Xian'er had seen many healing pill recipes, this Bone Growing Pill still felt unfamiliar to her.
That said, while healing pills could be wildly diverse and often strange in formulation, in the end, all roads led to the same destination.
Especially when it came to first- to third-tier pills, the general structure and process of refining healing pills were often quite similar—differences lay only in complexity, ingredient ratios, and so on.
Besides, even among Tier 2 pills, the Bone Growing Pill wasn't particularly complicated or intricate. As long as one's alchemy skills were sufficient and their theoretical knowledge solid, then by referring to this simplified formula, it wasn't too difficult to deduce the actual refining method step by step.
Xian'er slowly closed her eyes. In her mind, she quickly reviewed all the first- to third-tier pill recipes related to healing bone injuries, trying to find among them ingredients with similar properties, matching fire control methods, and proportions. Then, she compared these with the simplified formula in her hand.
By combining the general cautions noted on the simplified recipe with her broad knowledge and practical experience, she followed that faint mental thread, gradually assembling what she believed to be the most reasonable and effective refining method.
...
Moments later—
Xian'er opened her eyes, a faint smile flashing across them.
"This should do it. I may not be able to perfectly reconstruct the original full version of the Bone Growing Pill recipe, but I can probably restore at least ninety percent of it."
She murmured quietly, the corners of her lips lifting into a confident smile.
"Let's begin."
Her hands moved, forming a series of seals.
Boom—
The flame within the cauldron surged upward and, under her control, gradually stabilized at an appropriate temperature.
Then—
Swoosh—
Six medicinal ingredients floated into the air. Without hesitation, she threw them all into the cauldron at once.
The deep-red flame surged forth, instantly splitting into six separate streams, each one wrapping around a different ingredient.
In an instant, it was as if six miniature deep-red suns had appeared within the cauldron, hovering and rotating gently. They did not interfere with one another, yet complemented each other perfectly, as though they were following some special trajectory.
Chi chi chi—
Under the burning of a fifth-tier beast flame, the herbs twisted and deformed rapidly, their physical forms fading. Residual dross fell away, leaving only their essences, which continued to be tempered within the flames.
This scene left the little princess and Liu Ling—who had already begun refining their pills—utterly dumbfounded.
The two of them had actually been quietly watching both Xian'er and Xiao Yan from the corners of their eyes the entire time.
They knew very well that among all the contestants, only these two posed a real threat. The others were of little concern.
And among those two, it was undoubtedly Xian'er who made them most wary.
Why?
Because standing behind Xian'er was none other than a genuine Tier 6 alchemy master—Wei Yang.
And sure enough…
Now look at what she just did!
Damn it—she's refining six ingredients at once?!
Liu Ling's eyeballs nearly popped out of his head, his hand trembling slightly. He nearly ruined the ingredient he was refining on the spot.
She's cheating!
The little princess's mouth also opened into an adorable O-shape, stunned speechless.
Not far away, even Xiao Yan had his eyes wide open.
Hey, isn't that a little too much?
Wei Yang, come rein in your wife!
...
On the high platform, in the front row of the VIP seats—
Many bigshots, especially the alchemists among them, narrowed their eyes.
That technique!
It was strikingly similar to what Wei Yang had demonstrated back when he refined the Dou Spirit Pill.
While Xian'er's technique was still a bit raw and not quite as profound or intricate as Wei Yang's had been, it nevertheless carried a noticeable trace of his style and brilliance.
Immediately, she drew the attention of the various heavyweights. They all watched with great interest, studying every detail.
Especially those alchemists who had been present on the day Wei Yang refined pills—they were now trembling with excitement.
Their eyes were glued to Xian'er's hand seals, not missing a single movement. It was as if they wanted to burn every gesture into their memory.
Of course, without proper tutelage and inheritance, blindly imitating what they saw wouldn't allow them to even grasp a fraction of its essence.
But for many of them, even less than a fraction was already more than enough.
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