Exhibition in the square
As the first rays of sunlight completely dispelled the morning mist and bathed the central square's bluestone slabs in gold, the place had already transformed into a sea of people. The stands were packed, and even the aisles were crowded with eager onlookers. The rooftops and tree branches around the square were also filled with agile spectators, and the buzzing discussions merged into a huge wave of sound that almost shook the sky.
The college guards and the court personnel stood clearly separated on either side of the square, their eyes clashing and crackling, the tension as taut as a drawn bowstring. The old Dean Maurice and the council members sat in the main seats, their faces grim, as if they sat on red-hot irons rather than soft cushions. Professor Eleanor paced back and forth in the makeshift backstage area, repeatedly reciting the proceedings, her fingers trembling slightly with nervousness. Finn, clutching his precious bag of "candy beans," looked like a flower boy preparing to scatter wedding favors, glancing excitedly and nervously at the audience.
Amidst this restless anticipation, Ling Yao made her appearance.
Without any dazzling magical lights or rousing background music, she simply wore a plain, unadorned outfit and strolled from backstage to the specially cleared circular demonstration area in the center of the plaza, as if taking a leisurely walk after dinner.
In an instant, all eyes in the room, whether curious, expectant, suspicious, or malicious, were focused on her like a spotlight!
However, Ling Yao, who was at the center of attention, seemed completely oblivious to the suffocating pressure of the attention that would weigh on an ordinary person. She even had the leisure to look up at the sky, as if to confirm whether today was a good day for drying herbs.
This rather bland entrance left the audience, who had been expecting a spectacular opening show, stunned, and the murmurs subsided.
"What's going on? They just came up like that?"
"It doesn't look like anything special..."
Shh! Be quiet! Maybe it's some kind of special ritual!
Judge Silas sat in his private area of the courtroom, a cold smile playing on his lips, and muttered, "Playing tricks! Let's see what she can come up with!"
Ling Yao surveyed the silent square, her gaze calmly sweeping over the familiar and unfamiliar faces in the stands. Then, she did something that nearly made everyone's jaws drop—
She pulled out an ordinary-looking ceramic medicine stove from somewhere, even one with slightly chipped edges, and casually placed it on the ground. It looked like the prelude to a country farmer preparing to start a fire to cook pig feed.
"Pfft—" Someone couldn't help but burst out laughing.
"She...she's really going to concoct medicine here? Using that broken jar?"
"They don't even have a decent potion cauldron? That's so shabby!"
Doubts and ridicule began to rise.
Ling Yao ignored the reactions around her. She then magically produced several common low-level light-attribute magical plants and a piece of ore containing a faint glow, and casually placed them next to the medicine furnace.
"Today, we will refine the 'Dawnlight Pill' for the first time." Her voice clearly reached everyone's ears, still carrying that unique, stiff yet precise tone, "Its effects are similar to a low-level healing spell, but its power is purer and its duration is longer."
These words caused an uproar not only among the audience but also among many potion masters who frowned. Using such ordinary materials to concoct a elixir with effects comparable to healing? What a joke! Healing spells require light mages to guide pure light elements to cast! If elixirs could do that, what would be the point of priests?
"Arrogance!" An old potion master with a white beard exclaimed angrily, his beard bristling and eyes wide with rage. "This is an insult to the art of potions!"
Silas's sarcasm deepened. He was ready to immediately accuse Ling Yao of blaspheming the sacred healing power after her failure.
Ling Yao ignored all the doubts. She extended her index finger, and with a "poof," a cluster of colorless, transparent flames emerged from her fingertip, instantly enveloping the unassuming medicine furnace. There were no incantations, no magic circles lit up; the flames burned quietly, yet they emitted a chillingly high temperature, so intense that even those in the distant stands felt a wave of heat wash over them!
"What kind of fire is that?!"
"There are no elemental fluctuations! It's not magical fire!"
"What the hell! How did she set it on fire?"
Amidst countless astonished and uncertain gazes, Ling Yao began processing the materials at a leisurely pace. Her movements appeared slow, even somewhat relaxed, yet each step was terrifyingly precise, carrying a strange sense of rhythm. The magical plants were swiftly cleansed of impurities in her hands, transforming into pure medicinal powder; the light ore was easily crushed, extracting the core essence of light energy.
Then, she did something that almost gave all the potion masters a heart attack – she threw all the materials whose properties were not completely compatible, or even slightly conflicting, into the potion furnace!
"Nonsense!!" Professor Eleanor, backstage, almost screamed. Although she had seen it many times before, her potions instincts still made her heartbroken every time she saw this kind of "hodgepodge" operation. "The energy conflict is about to explode!"
The old potion masters in the stands were heartbroken, as if they could see someone burning a famous painting as firewood.
Silas leaned forward slightly, bracing himself for a spectacular explosion.
However, the expected explosion did not occur.
The furnace was eerily quiet, enveloped in colorless flames. Ling Yao hadn't even put the lid on, and everyone could clearly see the various materials inside rapidly melting and mixing under the high temperature, yet without any violent energy reaction. Instead, they began to slowly merge, like a gentle stream!
"This is impossible!" The old potion master stood up abruptly, his eyes wide with shock. "What about energy balance? What about attribute harmony? How could they..."
Ling Yao's technique began to change. Her ten fingers danced like butterflies flitting among flowers, forming one mysterious and incomprehensible hand seal after another. Sometimes she would lightly tap the furnace wall, and sometimes she would point at the medicinal liquid inside. Each tap and finger strike landed precisely at a key point in the energy change, accurately guiding the fusion and sublimation of the medicinal properties.
Gradually, an indescribable, warm, and pure aura emanated from the medicine furnace. The aura wasn't strong, yet it seemed to penetrate all obstacles, quietly soothing the anxiety and unease in people's hearts. Some spectators who were still in pain even felt a comfortable warmth emanating from their old wounds.
"It feels so...so good..."
"It's like basking in the winter sun..."
"My chronic back pain seems to have eased a little?"
Whispers of surprise began to replace doubt.
Ling Yao's movements became increasingly rapid, until she was almost a blur of afterimages. The medicinal liquid in the furnace began to churn violently, emitting an increasingly dazzling yet not blinding pure white light!
Just as the light reached its peak, Ling Yao suddenly pointed her fingers like a sword and shouted into the furnace, "Condense!"
Buzz—
A clear, resonant hum echoed across the square! The blinding white light suddenly receded, retreating entirely back into the furnace. The furnace lid had been closed sometime earlier.
The entire room fell silent, everyone holding their breath and staring intently at the small medicine furnace.
Ling Yao casually slapped the stove lid.
The moment the lid was opened, twelve milky-white streams of light shot into the sky! Like twelve miniature stars, they drew graceful arcs in the air before obediently falling into the jade plate that Ling Yao had prepared beforehand.
As the light faded, twelve round, flawless pills, each the size of a longan, radiating a soft white glow and a refreshing fragrance, lay quietly in the jade plate. On the surface of each pill, faint, cloud-like patterns flowed, making them exceptionally wondrous.
The entire square fell into a deathly silence.
It worked? It actually worked? Using such a mess of methods and materials, they managed to refine a pill that exudes such a pure and luminous aura?
This completely overturned their understanding of alchemy and light magic!
“This is the ‘Dawnlight Pill’.” Ling Yao’s voice broke the silence. She picked up one of the pills, and the pill emitted a warm glow on her fingertips. “It heals wounds, dispels evil, and calms the mind. It belongs to the realm of light, but it is not a divine art.”
Her gaze swept towards the courtroom, her tone flat and emotionless: "Is there anyone willing to try?"
Silas's face turned ashen, and the judges behind him exchanged hesitant glances, none daring to step forward. The light emanating from the elixir was indeed pure and warm, unlike anything evil, but it was completely beyond their comprehension.
Just then, a commotion suddenly broke out at the back of the crowd.
"Make way! Make way! Priest! Call the priest!" Several mercenaries, dressed in a panic, carried a stretcher and squeezed through. On the stretcher lay a young mercenary, his arm charred black and radiating a strong dark aura. He had clearly been injured by some powerful dark magic or monster, and his wound was worsening; he was on the verge of death.
"It's the Black Corrosion Curse!" someone knowledgeable exclaimed. "Low-level healing spells are completely useless!"
"Quickly, take him to the cathedral! Perhaps His Holiness the bishop..."
"It's too late! His life force is rapidly fading away!"
In the chaos, the stretcher was carried to the vicinity of the demonstration area. The mercenary carrying the stretcher, seeing the pills in Ling Yao's hand, grasped at them like a last straw and knelt down with a thud: "Master Pharmacist! Please! Save him! He did it to protect us..."
All eyes immediately focused on Ling Yao again.
Silas abruptly stood up, shouting sternly, "Heretic! Do you intend to use living people for experiments? Such a vicious curse is not yours to..."
Before he could finish speaking, Ling Yao had already flicked her finger.
A "Dawn Pill" transformed into a stream of light and precisely entered the mouth of the dying mercenary.
The elixir melts instantly upon entering the mouth.
The next second, an astonishing scene unfolded!
The dense dark aura at the mercenary's wound, as if encountering its nemesis, hissed and disappeared rapidly at a visible speed! At the same time, a gentle yet powerful life force emanated from his body, the charred flesh began to peel away, and fresh flesh grew and healed at an incredible speed!
In just a dozen or so breaths, the mercenary, who had been on the verge of death and almost swallowed by darkness, groaned and slowly opened his eyes! The horrific wound on his arm had disappeared, leaving only some tender new flesh!
He sat up blankly, moved his undamaged arm, and looked at the stunned crowd around him: "I...I'm not dead? I think I just ate something very warm..."
quiet.
A deathly silence.
Then, like a volcanic eruption, huge shouts of surprise, exclamations of admiration, and incredulous screams instantly swept across the entire square!
"By the God of Light! What have I seen?!"
"Instantly healed the Black Corrosion Curse?! This effect is even stronger than a high-level healing spell!"
"That's a pill? That's practically a miracle!"
"She really did it! With such ordinary materials!"
The old alchemist who had previously been the most skeptical was now trembling, tears streaming down his face, muttering to himself, "A new system... this is a completely new system of potion-making... I... all my life's learning has been like a frog at the bottom of a well..."
Professor Eleanor was so excited backstage that she almost fainted, but Finn quickly helped her up.
Finn himself was flushed with excitement, straightened his back with pride, and took the opportunity to whisper his recommendation: "See? This is the power of the Eastern Secret Medicine! Don't be afraid of getting injured or poisoned in the future! Just look for the Eastern Secret Medicine brand!"
Judge Silas stood frozen in place, his face turning from pale to red, his knuckles white from gripping the gavel. He stared intently at the mercenary who was now able to stand on his own, then at the calm Ling Yao, a gurgling sound coming from his throat, but he couldn't utter a single word.
Facts speak louder than words!
Faced with such irrefutable facts, any accusations of "evil" or "heresy" appear so pale and laughable!
Ling Yao ignored the uproar in the audience. She simply looked at the mercenary who had recovered completely and was being excitedly embraced by his companions, and nodded slightly.
"This pill is mild in nature. After three days of recuperation, you will be fine."
After saying that, she put away the remaining eleven Dawnlight Pills and glanced around the room again, as if she had just done something insignificant.
"The wonders of alchemy have only just begun."
Her voice wasn't loud, but it clearly drowned out all the noise, carrying a convincing, calm power.
"Next, let's look at the talisman."
The entire venue fell silent once again, and everyone's eyes were filled with unprecedented anticipation and fervor!
The first presentation was already a showstopper!
The allure of Eastern metaphysics is beginning to emerge!
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