Chapter 34: Dark Horses Make Their Pills at the Same Time
"Does Elder Wen really want to test a junior like this?"
In the VIP room, a man in a purple robe sat at the eight-immortal table, holding a teacup and gently blowing away the tea foam. His almost completely white eyebrows trembled and said, "There are many talented young people. I heard from my subordinates that this person already has a master. Why are you so eager to get close to him?"
There was a hint of impoliteness in his words. The old man by the window turned around but did not get angry.
He said calmly: "When you live to my age, you will understand."
"It's pointless to take advantage of your age." The purple-robed old man shook his head: "In terms of talent, your granddaughter is no less talented. You insist on passing on your experience to an outsider. You are really broad-minded."
Elder Wen glanced at him and said, "It seems that you are too idle to manage this association?"
The purple-robed old man took a sip of tea and said with a smile, "I was quite busy, but when I thought about you accepting a disciple, I couldn't help but want to watch the fun."
He finished his tea, turned the cup upside down on the table, and said, "Forget it, let me see what the genius you have chosen looks like."
…
The alchemy competition is in full swing.
The Soul Condensing Pill was not difficult to refine. However, when the others were blending the first pot of spiritual herb juice, Yue Ji's progress officially came to a standstill.
A good cook cannot cook without rice. The spiritual herbs provided by the Alchemy Association are short in weight. Do they expect them to pay for the competition?
Qi Qing put down the red gold fungus and frowned, saying, "I'll go talk to the organizer."
The man who was looking down in deep thought reached out to stop him: "Master, wait a minute."
Yue Ji controlled the fire with one hand, squinted his eyes, and said: "This is not accidental, someone may have done it on purpose."
Qi Qing was puzzled and asked, "Why are you stopping me? I am here to seek justice for you."
Yue Ji shook his head, a hint of speculation flashed in his eyes: "What I mean is, this is not a embarrassment, but a test."
Qi Qing was stunned for a moment, and as if by magic, he remembered the vague peeping from the second floor, and a vague answer came to his mind.
He asked tentatively: "Why are you so sure?"
Yue Ji used his free hand to hook the green-level token from his waist and threw it into Qi Qing's hand.
"Although the examiner didn't like me, he didn't tamper with the spiritual herbs. This shows that the Alchemy Association is not a place with lax rules. Not to mention that the finals have more than ten days to prepare, and everyone is paying attention to it. Why would they want to trip me up so openly when they want to deal with a newcomer from Middle-earth?"
The young man said calmly, "Besides, I have already gained some fame from the previous two competitions. It would be fine if I lacked one or two spiritual herbs, but what I lacked were all substitutes for the dragon blood grass... The Alchemy Association will not destroy its reputation."
"You mean..." Qi Qing pretended to be in a daze and directed the topic to the second floor: "Someone up there is secretly observing your performance?"
Yue Ji paused, the corners of his lips slightly raised, revealing an imperceptible sneer.
He glanced at Qi Qing, but did not continue the conversation. Instead, he lowered his head and fell into deep thought again.
Several groups of masters and apprentices nearby had begun to blend the second pot of spiritual herb juice. Qi Qing didn't want to disturb Yue Ji, so he had to rummage through the spiritual herbs, trying to find a little bit of spiritual herb that could replace the dragon blood grass.
But since the other party has set up this test, there is no way to leave any possibility of loopholes.
As time passed, the strings in Qi Qing's mind gradually became tense.
At the same time, I felt unhappy.
It’s fine according to the original plot, he can understand being amazed by Yue Ji’s talent for alchemy after the finals, but he is still sitting in the seat of the master-disciple track, and the old monster has started to test whether Yue Ji is qualified to be his disciple. Isn’t he too disrespectful to himself?
He thought sourly that if Yue Ji really turned around and became the disciple of the old monster, he would pretend that he had never raised this child and would never see him again in the world.
"It's almost done. You are worthy of being the Fairy Miao Zheng..."
"I think she will definitely win. There is no dark horse in front of her."
"Keep your voice down. Can't you see that black horse is right behind us?"
Qi Qing heard the surrounding discussions and quietly looked in the direction of Miao Zheng. Suddenly, he heard Yue Ji mutter, "Red Gold Ganoderma."
Qi Qing turned to look at him, only to see the young man holding the half piece of red gold fungus in his hand, as if he was thinking about something.
"Why is it Red Gold Ganoderma?" The young man seemed to be asking himself, "If I only keep half of it, it might be useful if it reduces the efficacy..."
Since he was free anyway, Qi Qing thought of the books on spiritual herbs he had read these days and couldn't help but ask, "Dragon Blood Grass is hot in nature, and Red Gold Ganoderma is cold in nature. Why do they have the same medicinal effects?"
Yue Ji said: "Of course it's because..."
He was about to answer when an idea suddenly occurred to him.
——Yes, blood!
It is said that the dragon blood grass was named after the blood of an ancient dragon that was injured in battle and spilled into a valley, dyeing the unique magical grass in the valley red. The red gold ganoderma was named after a herbalist who was injured and bleeding to save the village from the epidemic. He moved the mountain god and gave him the cliff ganoderma dyed with his blood.
Could it be that the essence of refining the Spirit-Concentrating Pill lies not in the spiritual herb itself, but in the word "blood"?
The boy's eyes became serious, but he did not immediately verify it.
Many people nearby were already showing signs of completing their elixir. Qi Qing suppressed his anxiety and saw that Yue Ji had obviously thought of something, so he asked, "Do you want Master's help?"
Yue Ji was still thinking, and when he heard this, his eyes fell on his hands.
The young man's fingers were long and clean, with thin calluses between them. When he wasn't holding the sword, he always liked to let them rest lazily. His skin was very thin, with a few faint green streaks visible under the skin, and there were often small scars on the back of his hands caused by spiritual herbs.
Now that I’m away from home, my hands don’t have to tend to the spiritual herbs. I’ve finally managed to restore my skin and flesh, so how could I get new injuries again?
The young man stared at it for a few moments, and suddenly made up his mind.
He spread out his left hand, and used his fingers as a sword, quickly and hastily cutting a half-inch long wound on the palm of his hand.
Drops of blood immediately gushed out and dripped into the cauldron.
"What are you doing!"
Qi Qing didn't expect that he would start cutting his hand and bleeding without saying a word, and hurriedly took out the ointment. The alchemy practitioners who had been paying attention to the movements here also showed confused expressions.
Are you kidding?
They don’t know whether there is dragon blood in the dragon blood grass, but this kid doesn’t think his blood can compete with the dragon blood grass!
The moment the blood drop dripped into the cauldron, the flame rolled up and licked it, sweeping away the blood drop.
A faint smell of blood filled the cauldron, and a thin blood mist enveloped the refined spiritual herb juice, weaving a misty net.
Before the blood and qi floated out of the cauldron, Yue Ji decisively threw in the red gold fungus, and the medicinal fragrance immediately overwhelmed the blood and qi.
But the blood boiling at this moment did not escape the attention of the people on the pavilion.
“This aura…”
The purple-robed old man was shocked and turned to look at Mr. Wen.
Strange yet familiar - the child is so young, so young that one would think it was an illusion.
There was a cold light in Master Wen's eyes, and then he smiled solemnly: "I didn't expect there would be such a 'surprise' waiting for me. It seems that I must accept this disciple."
The purple-robed old man frowned and said, "This person is not simple. Can you handle him if you take him back?"
Mr. Wen stopped looking down and turned back behind the screen. His tone became colder: "It's just a fish that slipped through the net. I'm not so incapable of dealing with such a young boy."
The windows of the VIP room closed quietly.
Noticing this, Qi Qing felt a little uneasy for some reason.
But Yue Ji was about to complete the elixir, so he had no time to think about it, so he suppressed his thoughts for the time being and focused on protecting the young man.
The juice of the spiritual herb collided with the blood mist and began to roll and tremble violently, as if it had encountered something hotter than fire. It shrank and dried up little by little, and finally turned into fine red lines, like blood vessels opening up on the surface of the pill.
The eyes of the surrounding alchemists were all drawn to it. The aroma of medicine mixed with spiritual energy was incredibly strong. If one only took the finished pill for people to taste and told them that it contained only half of Red Gold Ganoderma, no one would believe it.
At the same time, the three incense sticks are about to burn out.
The last wisp of residual ash fell, and the two people on different tracks started their furnaces almost at the same time and completed the elixir.
Everyone present held their breath.
In Miao Zheng's cauldron, a golden pill slowly rose up. Its medicinal properties had been refined to near perfection. The pill's surface was smooth and flawless, as if it had condensed the purest medicinal power between heaven and earth. Just a slight sniff of it was enough to calm one's soul and mind.
Yue Ji's elixir is just the opposite.
The pill flying out of the cauldron was red all over, like a magnified drop of blood, with countless fine red threads flowing on its surface. At first glance, it looked as strange and scary as a living thing, and the people around it gasped.
Is this really the Soul-Condensing Pill? The medicinal properties are real, but the appearance is nothing like the Soul-Condensing Pill they know, and it is terribly evil.
The incense is gone, the elixir is ready, and the final is over.
The boys who had led the way before reappeared from all directions and took away the pills and cauldrons of all the contestants without saying a word, even if some of them had not yet completed their refining.
They marked the pills with jade slips, and then someone clapped his hands lightly, causing the ground to shake slightly.
A huge shadow of a cauldron rose from under the feet of the crowd and slowly floated into the air.
The boys looked calm as they threw the pills and the jade slips into the cauldron. The pills fell into the cauldron and instantly turned into green smoke, disappearing before people's sight.
"My pill!" someone shouted.
The boy responded calmly, "Please be patient, sir. The results of this competition have been presented to the president and the elders of the Dan Sect. Just wait for their comments."
After these words were spoken, everyone felt relieved and waited anxiously in the backstage.
Not knowing how long it would take to get the results, Qi Qing stood up and rubbed his sore neck. Seeing Yue Ji staring at his palm in a daze, he said, "Come, I'll bandage you."
Yue Ji turned his eyes away and avoided his action without saying a word.
"What are you hiding from?"
Qi Qing grabbed his hand, forced it in front of him, and applied the prepared ointment: "It's not like I haven't bandaged you before, open your hand."
As he was applying, he couldn't help but sigh.
This was probably the last time he applied medicine to Yue Ji, but the child didn't appreciate it. Did he really have to wait for the old man to apply medicine before he would be happy?
After the ointment solidified slightly, Qi Qing took out clean gauze and carefully wrapped it around, saying softly, "If you get hurt in the future, you must bandage it well, understand? In the future, when Master is not around, you must take good care of yourself and don't let others worry about you."
Yue Ji let him fiddle with it for a few times, then suddenly asked, "Why isn't Master by my side?"
Qi Qing smiled and said in a relaxed tone: "I am not your shadow, how can I follow you all the time? When you grow up, get married, and can stand on your own, then I will let go and do my own thing."
Just as he finished speaking, his hand was suddenly held by Yue Ji, and he felt the cool touch of the ointment on the back of his hand.
Qi Qing said quickly: "Don't move so quickly, I haven't finished wrapping it yet!"
"I won't leave Master." Yue Ji held his hand tightly, with doubt in his eyes, and said firmly: "Master, take me with you if you want to do anything."
"Let go first."
Yue Ji said stubbornly: "No."
Qi Qing pulled a few times but failed to pull it out, so he simply wrapped up the place where the two were holding each other, and said with a tut: "Are you happy now?"
Yue Ji lowered his head and looked at it carefully, then said, "It's OK."
It was as if he and his master were tied together.
The young man curled his lips, thinking that he was childish. Just as he was about to untie it, a few figures suddenly appeared beside him.
Several boys flew down from the second floor and landed beside them with smiles on their faces. The leader spoke gently, "Is this young man Yue Ji? The elders of the Dan Sect would like to invite you to the second floor for a chat."
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