Chapter 262 Reactions from All Parties
However, the actual ranking greatly surprised many alchemists—Alchemist Zhong was suddenly thrust into the top tier of top alchemists!
The nine fifth-level pill kings ahead of him were all at least at the Fusion Realm—in fact, on the entire Sky Pill Ranking, there were no more than a handful of pill refiners who were at the Suspended Illumination Realm and could refine pills beyond their level—and apart from Zhong Cai, the rest were all at the very bottom of the Sky Ranking.
For a fifth-level alchemist in the Suspended Illumination Realm, each batch of fifth-level pills requires more mental effort to sustain the consumption of profound energy. Controlling fifth-grade wood and fire at a lower realm is also more difficult, and each batch of pills takes at least twice as long as for an alchemist who is not above the next level!
Moreover, refining or processing level-five medicinal herbs is quite difficult for cultivators of the Suspended Illumination Realm, and it also takes more time.
Naturally, in the same amount of time, the training that a higher-level alchemist can receive is far less than that of a non-higher-level alchemist.
In addition, these fifth-level Sky King Pill Masters have been immersed in the art of alchemy for far too long, all of them being over five hundred years old—Zhong Cai's age is not even one-tenth of theirs!
The tenth Dan King who was just ousted by Zhong Cai was 732 years old.
—Among the current hundred Sky King Pill Masters, Zhong Cai is the youngest!
Among those who made the list, none were under fifty, and only Zhong Cai was included.
Fewer than ten people under the age of 100 made the list.
So, can we blame the many alchemists for being astonished?
Zhong Cai is young, above average, and ranked tenth... it's all too terrifying no matter how you look at it.
·
Involuntarily, many alchemists turned their attention to this newly crowned tenth alchemy king.
However……
The young alchemist, who looked like a tender young boy, was all smiles and looked very proud... which was quite unsteady.
Moreover, he was clinging to his partner's shoulder and whispering to him, almost jumping onto him!
Many alchemists: "..."
They silently looked away, deciding not to watch any longer.
It's a bit too much for my eyes.
Let's wait and see if we can offer any congratulations.
·
Zhong Cai was indeed happily chatting with her husband, Wu.
The content he was muttering about... was the Sky Pill Ranking he was currently seeing.
This is completely different from what we saw when he wasn't on the list!
·
When Zhong Cai was only a fifth-level alchemist when he viewed the Sky Pill Ranking, those alchemists only had very simple introductions. However, after Zhong Cai also climbed up to the alchemist ranking, he saw many new additions.
The introduction of Zhong Cai is as follows:
[Tenth place: Zhong Cai.]
[Mid-stage Suspended Illumination Realm, a transcendental alchemist. A nascent alchemist.]
[Dual cultivation of elixirs and poisons.]
[Specialties: Capable of refining twenty-four kinds of top-grade elixirs, including the Poison of Lovesickness.]
[Achievements: Defeated Dan King Wei Li, ranked twenty-eighth, developed an antidote for bone-corroding poison, and saved 690,000 people in Qingyu Town.]
·
Apart from Zhong Cai, the introductions of the other alchemists were largely the same.
In short, in addition to simple information such as the original name and origin, it also mentions the level of skill and strengths.
In Zhong Cai's view, the Sky Ranking would not reveal all the details of a pill master, but it would list some of the strengths that best represent a pill master's abilities.
For example, Zhong Cai's "twenty-four kinds of top-grade pills" refers to his expertise in pills, while the love poison is the most noteworthy among poison formulas.
The other alchemists were in similar situations.
Moreover, only alchemists who have made it onto the Sky Ranking can see these more specific details.
Zhong Cai asked Wu Shaogan, but Wu Shaogan could only see the simplest information.
So Zhong Cai selected quite a few from top to bottom to explain to her husband, Lao Wu.
While the two were chatting idly, Zhong Cai was basically certain that if he didn't successfully develop an antidote for the bone-corroding poison, his position on the Sky Ranking would probably be below fiftieth.
Because a glance reveals that even the lowest-ranking fifth-level alchemists on the Sky List can refine more than ten types of top-grade pills, and almost all of them have more than fifteen types.
By the time they reached around the seventieth rank on the Alchemist Ranking, they had all mastered more than twenty types of pills—not including those that they had mastered but had not yet refined into top-quality pills.
After all, not everyone is Zhong Cai, who can refine all the pills he has researched into top-grade ones!
This Pill King, currently ranked fiftieth, can refine more than thirty kinds of top-grade pills.
At this moment, Zhong Cai glanced at the ninth-ranked Pill King, who was a "six-year-old Pill Master" and could refine sixty-six kinds of top-grade pills!
If you go any further up, don't bother looking anymore.
Which of the top three Pill Kings can refine more than eighty top-grade pills?
The first one has over a hundred kinds! And there are three poisonous formulas that deserve special mention, listed in a way that resembles "nineteen kinds including so-and-so, so-and-so, and so-and-so".
Such terrifying strength... there's really no other way to describe it but as terrifying.
but……
Zhong Cai looked at her own title of "Young Alchemist" and then at the titles of other alchemists, such as "Young Alchemist" and "X-Age Alchemist," and felt a bit complicated.
No matter how you look at it, that "young age" seems a bit strange, as if they're treating him like a child.
But he's already forty years old!
Although he himself wasn't quite sure of his age, it was roughly that age.
In his original world, forty years old was at least considered a prime of life, a middle-aged man.
The result was a "young child" here.
·
Seeing the changes in his wife A-Cai's expression, Wu Shaogan roughly knew what she was thinking, and a smile appeared on his face.
Zhong Cai watched for a while, feeling somewhat frustrated.
Wu Shaogan pulled Zhong Cai into his arms, nuzzled his head with his chin, and said with a smile, "This means that Cai is the youngest!"
Zhong Cai snorted.
After a dry laugh, Wu Shao continued, "According to A Cai, the ranking of alchemists might represent the age range of alchemists, or it might be an introduction to the time each alchemist has spent immersed in alchemy."
Zhong Cai pouted: "Young... I should mean I'm not yet fifty years old, or I haven't been practicing alchemy for fifty years."
Wu Shaogan agreed, saying, "It's more likely that it refers to age. A young alchemist should be between fifty and one hundred years old. Someone over one hundred years old is called a 'one-year-old alchemist.' Someone six hundred years old is called a 'six-year-old alchemist.' The word 'year' actually represents 'one hundred years old.'"
Zhong Cai still harbors resentment over that "young age" thing.
Wu Shaogan gently nuzzled Zhong Cai's ear and transmitted his voice to her.
[Ah Cai, Master Sang told us to come to the Top Continent before we turned fifty, perhaps because, for the Top Continent, anyone under fifty is considered young.]
Zhong Cai's attention was drawn to this topic.
Wu Shaogan's eyes were filled with a joyful smile: "A-Cai is the only young one on the Alchemist Ranking, which proves that A-Cai is indeed the most powerful!"
Hearing his husband Wu's enthusiastic praise, Zhong Cai beamed with joy. Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, he secretly turned around, stood on tiptoe, and gave his husband Wu a quick kiss on the cheek.
Wu Shaogan's smile deepened.
The other alchemists, who weren't looking in their direction but were occasionally listening to the commotion, were speechless.
They were all cultivators at the Fusion Realm; even if their combat strength was lacking, their hearing was still quite good.
Even the softest "sucking" sound is still very clear to their ears!
Unbelievable...
Isn't this couple's relationship a little too good?
The alchemists didn't quite understand.
How could Zhong Danwang, who was young and had a low level of cultivation, have raised his alchemy skills to this level while also spending a lot of time on romance?
Don't even mention that he doesn't usually get intimate with his Daoist partner.
This couple can be so affectionate and clingy while looking at the Sky Rankings. Who would believe that they are usually serious and focused on cultivation and never talk about love?
Impossible! Absolutely impossible!
·
Time passed quickly.
About an hour later, an invisible force descended upon Zhong Cai.
Zhong Cai was stunned for a moment, then quickly realized that this thing must be the beam of light that enveloped Lao Wu when he received his reward.
Thinking about it now, the light pillars, besides providing positioning, should also have the task of delivering rewards to the Fighting Kings.
Just like now, the Sky Ranking did not reveal the location of the Sky Pill Kings, concealing the radiance of the light pillars, and only delivered the mustard seed bag to Zhong Cai's hands.
Zhong Caihun scanned the mustard seed bag with his mind.
There were hundreds of rare level-five herbs inside, each of which Zhong Cai had never seen before!
Presumably, the Sky Ranking also knows that Zhong Cai comes from the Flying Star Continent and needs to know about some medicinal herbs that are not recorded in the inheritance.
Besides the precious medicine, there was also a key.
Clearly, the key is also meant to open some kind of door, sending alchemists inside for "advanced studies"—Zhong Cai hopes this thing also leads to the Celestial Temple.
And that was it.
Zhong Cai pondered that this reward was simply to make up for what he lacked. If what he lacked was Xuan Stones, his storage bag would probably be overflowing with them...
·
Many alchemists—especially those on the Sky Ranking—are already very familiar with the reward mechanism.
When Zhong Cai obtained the mustard seed bag, the alchemists looked over again—but they did not peek inside the bag.
Zhong Cai put the scanner away as soon as she received it.
Many alchemists breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that Zhong Cai was no longer clinging to his Daoist partner. Then they all walked over and congratulated Zhong Cai with clasped hands.
Zhong Cai was surrounded by people congratulating her, and given the good relationship she had developed with everyone recently, she naturally remained polite and courteous...
·
This latest update to the Sky Pill Master Ranking has also caused a huge uproar.
The story of the Evil Poison Master's enlightenment has spread far and wide, and people in many parts of the continent, some closer and some farther away, have gradually come to know about it.
In many counties, news of "righteous alchemists defeating evil poison masters" is circulating.
Although the real names of the righteous alchemist and the evil poison master have not yet been revealed, their existence is still quite famous.
Naturally, countless cultivators believed that this righteous alchemist would definitely make it onto the Heavenly Ranking!
However, they also did not expect that when many level 5 cultivators found out the ranking of this alchemist, it turned out that, just like the third Dou Wang from last month, he was an outsider!
To debut on the list at such a high position is a true example of an unexpected arrival.
A rumor is circulating among some of the larger cities and more powerful forces that the newly appointed Battle King from last month and the newly appointed Pill King from this month are said to be a couple.
Um……
How is that possible?
Currently, there are some martial arts cultivators and miscellaneous cultivators who have formed Daoist couples on the fifth-level Sky Ranking, but their rankings are generally not high.
The higher a cultivator's rank, the higher their requirements for a Daoist partner, and each person has a strong personality, so they may not necessarily get along.
Moreover, even if some top geniuses have emotional entanglements, they don't want to settle down too early... Cultivators have such long lifespans, and the geniuses on the Sky Ranking are basically all Heavenly Seeds and Invincible Nirvana Seeds, so they can live for several thousand more years!
What's the rush?
So, it probably isn't true.
·
Although only a month or so has passed, others who had interacted with Zhong Cai and Wu Shaogan have also been deeply shocked in such a short period of time.
·
White Fish Island.
The commanders, who had just seen the list and reported the news, stared wide-eyed, their hearts pounding with emotion, unable to utter a word.
Duan Xingchen and his son Duan Jin looked at each other in bewilderment.
"That young master Zhong didn't have the scent of pills on him, yet he's actually... the tenth Pill King?"
"Young Master Zhong... no, Master Zhong, it's only been a short time since you left! It seems you've accomplished something extraordinary! You've saved so many people!"
"Master Zhong Dan is indeed kind-hearted..."
"Father, the longevity pills we bought were probably refined by Master Zhong himself."
Both father and son took a deep breath.
What kind of top geniuses did they know?!
·
Inside the Hong family.
The patriarch and elders didn't want to keep thinking about it, but the outside turmoil had just subsided a little, and now the uproar had become louder again.
After all, there was another person in their family who had just been poisoned.
Although the Alchemist Ranking is indeed relatively secretive, related information still leaks out in secret.
The Poison of Lovesickness... Many people know that Hong Shaoling has been poisoned, and many also know that even though the Hong family has conducted internal research and consulted with alchemy experts, they still haven't been able to develop an antidote.
Therefore, this lovesickness poison must be the one on Hong Shaoling's body.
The Hong family's higher-ups were in a bad mood, and their resentment towards Hong Shaoling, who had already suffered a lot, increased.
How should I put it?
This younger member of their family is incredibly capable!
First, he offended the Third Dou King, and then he offended the Tenth Dan King.
How can he be so amazing?!
They're so powerful that the Hong family will be dragged out and ridiculed again, and they've even offended two future powerhouses!
An atmosphere of unease permeated the Hong family compound.
Many members of the tribe were in extremely low spirits.
We can only keep waiting.
Once this storm has passed...
·
What the Hong family didn't expect—or rather, they hadn't even considered—was that within days of the Alchemist Ranking being revealed, other Sky King Alchemists would come to visit them.
It's not just level 5, there are also level 6 and 7 Sky King Pill Masters.
In the past, when the Azure Sky Pill King came to visit, the entire Hong family would be overjoyed.
But this time... well, it's hard to explain.
The only purpose of these Azure Sky Pill Kings was to use Hong Shaoling's "help" to research an antidote for the Lovesickness Poison!
The poison of lovesickness! It was specifically listed here!
After some calculations, many Sky Pill Kings vaguely felt that even if Zhong Danshi defeated Xie Dushi, his ranking would not jump into the top ten, given that Zhong Danshi only had more than twenty kinds of top-grade pills.
So, besides the alchemy he displayed in developing the antidote for bone-corroding poison, what else further improved his ranking?
Based on the Heavenly Ranking, it must be the Poison of Longing!
Therefore, many Sky Pill Masters are very curious.
Especially after they arrived, they discovered that there were already level eight alchemists researching this earlier!
However, a complete solution has not yet been found...
It's clear that the poison of lovesickness is truly difficult to bear.
Many of the Azure Sky Pill Kings became even more interested.
They even thought that the bone-corroding poison could be resolved by spending more time, and many of the ideas and techniques involved were not particularly sophisticated in the eyes of the higher-level Sky Pill King.
The poison of lovesickness can pose a challenge even to alchemists of level seven or eight...
The techniques involved here are probably even more sophisticated.
Perhaps they themselves couldn't see through it quickly enough.
The reason why Master Zhong was able to rise to the tenth position and suppress so many "elderly" alchemists was largely due to the contribution of the Lovesick Poison!
·
In the mountains outside Qingyu Town.
Many more level-nine forces arrived, but none of them went to disturb them.
They had been waiting patiently here for a long time, and were very curious about Zhong Cai's true strength. Naturally, they were also paying close attention to Zhong Cai's position on the Sky Ranking.
No one expected that Zhong Cai would be the tenth Pill King!
The eyes of the Lingxian Sect and the other alchemist sects instantly brightened.
If their expectation and determination to win over Zhong Cai reached 100% because they suspected he could climb the Sky Ranking and believed he had great potential to defeat Wei Li, then now it has reached at least 120%!
They were determined never to let go, but now that Zhong Cai's abilities have exceeded expectations, the tension is even higher!
Previously, if Zhong Cai hadn't chosen their own faction, these alchemist factions might have just been very unhappy and regretful... But now that Zhong Cai has chosen another faction, they will feel incredibly pained!
As long as Zhong Cai, who is under fifty years old and is the tenth-level alchemist, is alive and his cultivation level improves smoothly, he will definitely become a ninth-level alchemist!
They might not become a Pill Master, but at level nine... in their eyes, that's practically a guaranteed promotion.
Moreover, such a potential Pill King has a much higher chance of becoming a Pill Master than other top-tier Pill Masters.
Zhong Cai alone overpowered so many level-five alchemists who were hundreds of years old! His accumulated experience was far inferior to those alchemists, yet he was given such a high evaluation by the Sky Ranking after only showing a few alchemy skills!
She is truly outstanding.
These alchemists deserve even better treatment!
We absolutely cannot be outdone by other forces, and we absolutely cannot let Zhong Cai be snatched away because of slightly inferior treatment!
Even more so...
Many of the ninth-level forces who have achieved Nirvana are not only planning to improve their treatment, but also figuring out who should speak first and when they should speak up when recruiting Zhong Cai.
The timing of speaking is very important.
Many level-nine forces were worried that Zhong Cai would be lured into joining by other forces beforehand, and they were also worried that although they offered generous benefits first, those who came later would raise the prices even higher than theirs, putting the first to speak at a disadvantage...
However, after thinking it over, all the factions decided to speak first.
After all, if you speak first, even if the offer isn't high enough, you can still "bid" for it later; but if you speak later and Zhong Cai agrees to other forces first, then no matter how much you improve the offer, it won't matter.
·
After the Sky Ranking was refreshed again, some level nine forces also made moves.
Some forces that were initially hesitant, and even those located further away, are now sending people at breakneck speed to arrive.
Some nearby forces that had already sent people over felt that the resources their envoys had brought were insufficient, so they quickly prepared more and sent them over as soon as possible!
The various forces waiting outside Qingyu Town were finally starting to get restless.
That couple is truly amazing!
The Third Dou Wang and the Tenth Dan Wang are figures that any power would want to recruit.
In addition, they are a married couple, and the information obtained from Qingyu Town also shows that they are deeply in love and do not want to separate... Although many forces have both alchemy and martial arts skills, they will inevitably have shortcomings, making it difficult to attract two people at the same time.
But because they are so loving and inseparable, if they try their best to offer them a deal that is hard for either of them to refuse, they may very well be able to recruit them both to their home!
Among the many forces previously involved, perhaps they only had high hopes for one particular individual.
But if you could have both... who wouldn't want both!
If we can work together to get them, then we should definitely try to get them all as quickly as possible!
As this anticipation grew stronger and the prospect of a bright future came to mind, even the Nirvana Messenger, whose mind was usually calm, was still moved.
·
Five or six days passed after the Sky Ranking was refreshed.
The alchemists in Qingyu Town, accompanied by their martial artists, emerged one after another.
Many level-nine forces watched from afar, searching for Zhong Cai and Wu Shaogan's whereabouts—surely they wouldn't just run away using the teleportation array like before?
It's unlikely.
If they were still worried about danger, these two wouldn't have stayed in Qingyu Town for so long; they would have run away much sooner.
Things didn't turn out as the Nirvanas had predicted.
About an hour later, sure enough, a beautiful couple walked out of the town, chatting with several alchemists and accompanying martial artists.
At that very moment, all the cultivators from the various level-nine forces who were guarding inside and outside the town quickly flashed to the outside of the town and politely stood in front of the group.
Of course, they were all very respectful and warm.
The cultivators from all the factions took out a letter and presented it to Zhong Cai and Wu Shaogan.
The content of the post was, of course, an invitation to meet.
As for the number of posts...
Zhong Cai and Wu Shaogan paused for a moment.
Their hands were stuffed with invitations; a quick estimate suggested there were at least a dozen or twenty!
·
Zhong Cai and Wu Shaogan exchanged a glance.
This is an invitation from a level nine power.
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