The competition was about to begin. As usual, Xia Yunzhao stuffed Xianchan into Shang Shuangze’s robes, tucked Xiao Qing into his own, and walked onto the wooden platform to stand at his assigned place.
He swept his gaze around out of habit. Huh? Not everyone had arrived?
The round had not begun yet, so perhaps a few lazy people were simply cutting it close, but even after the copper hammer fell, the missing contestants still did not appear.
There should have been fifty competitors, yet only forty-seven had arrived.
Xia Yunzhao sat according to his ranking. He was first, with Guang Xingyu beside him and Bei Wan on Guang Xingyu’s other side. Both gave him a simple greeting.
Behind him sat Tantai Ning, who had ranked eleventh.
As for the three missing contestants, they had ranked fifth, seventh, and eighth.
Was that a coincidence? All three were in the top ten. Xia Yunzhao lowered his eyes without showing anything unusual. Tantai Ning might be sitting behind him, but there was no guarantee he did not have people below the stage as well.
Thinking of the audience, Xia Yunzhao raised his head and smiled at Shang Shuangze, who was sitting where he had been before.
The cold aura around Shang Shuangze softened. His lapel shifted and a little cat head poked out. Xianchan saw Xia Yunzhao onstage and mewed, so Shang Shuangze stroked its tiny head. “Don’t be afraid. He’ll come back after the competition.”
Xianchan mewed again and settled down to wait. It behaved much better in Shang Shuangze’s hands.
On the other side, the Pill Cultivator Alliance had also noticed the missing contestants. In principle, entering the competition was voluntary, so anyone could simply choose not to come. Yet the Pill Cultivator Grand Competition was held once every three years, and in all that time there had only been two cases of someone advancing and then failing to appear. One pill cultivator had entered meditative concentration while refining the night before and lost track of time, though he eventually arrived, while another had been cheated while buying spirit herbs the previous day and became so angry that he chased the swindler for eight hundred li, only realizing what time it was after the competition had already ended.
But three people disappearing at once… that had truly never happened before. Could something have gone wrong?
Pill Master Lipan frowned as well and instructed people to search for them, while the competition still began on time.
“Today we will compare how many pill recipes each of you has mastered. Every distinct pill you successfully refine earns one point. Pill level and quality do not matter, so long as the pill forms. The Pill Cultivator Alliance will provide the required ingredients. If you wish to keep your finished pills, you need only pay the cost of the raw materials; if you wish to sell them to the Alliance, the Alliance will purchase them at market price. The time limit is twelve hours, and the eighteen highest-scoring contestants will advance to tomorrow’s round.”
After speaking, Pill Master Lipan raised a hand and brought out a black stone. The stone immediately lit up, displaying the names of all fifty contestants, with every score currently at zero.
People above and below the stage immediately exclaimed, “A Phantom Stone?!”
“The Pill Cultivator Alliance really is rich!”
“What extravagance. This is only the second round and they’re already using a Phantom Stone. I wonder what treasure they’ll bring out for the final round?”
Xia Yunzhao thought, So this ordinary-looking rock is a Phantom Stone? Supposedly, Phantom Stones had no grade or level, yet each cost around one hundred thousand spirit pearls and could only be used once… Pill cultivators really were rich!
Xia Yunzhao, himself a pill cultivator, let out an envious cry.
Once everyone understood the rules, the copper hammer fell again and the competition began.
Although this round also had a time limit, it was nowhere near as urgent, so Xia Yunzhao curiously turned to look at the other pill cultivators.
Everyone took out their own pill furnace.
They were all pill furnaces, yet each was different. Guang Xingyu’s furnace, for example, was astonishingly huge, about the size of one of those massive incense burners at a Daoist temple that could accommodate dozens of people offering incense at once. Fortunately, the Pill Cultivator Alliance had reserved plenty of space for each contestant, or there would not even have been room to set the thing down.
Bei Wan’s furnace on the other side was even more interesting. It did not look metallic at all, but more like stone, gray-black in color and seemingly battered all over, with a pitted outer wall and one leg missing half its length so that it sat crooked on the ground.
Xia Yunzhao did not dare underestimate it. Even from this far away, he could feel the heat radiating from the furnace, proof that there was far more to it than met the eye.
The furnaces belonging to the pill cultivators farther back were different in their own ways too. Pretending to glance around casually, Xia Yunzhao looked back at Tantai Ning’s furnace. It appeared completely ordinary, made of black material with hardly any spiritual-power fluctuations, almost identical to the standardized furnaces they had used yesterday.
Xiao Xia frowned. He kept feeling that it was not so simple. The furnace gave off a gloomy, oppressive sensation that felt distinctly unpleasant.
The contestants listed the spirit medicines they required, and members of the Pill Cultivator Alliance brought them over.
Xia Yunzhao put aside his thoughts and focused on the competition. He beckoned someone over and asked, “Do you have Lingwei Grass?”
The Alliance member froze. “L-Lingwei Grass? The lowest-grade spirit plant, Lingwei Grass?”
Xia Yunzhao asked in confusion, “You don’t have any?” That could not be right. They had Level-One and Level-Two spirit herbs, but no Lingwei Grass?
“We do, we do. Please wait.” The man hesitated, then ran offstage. A short while later, he returned carrying a basket of something that looked like weeds. “Is this enough?”
Lingwei Grass really was something they had not prepared… Mainly because who used that stuff to refine pills?! Even spirit beasts refused to eat it because the spiritual energy it contained was too weak! Fortunately, it was not rare, so they could gather some at the last minute.
Xia Yunzhao nodded. “That’s enough.” Ignoring what everyone else thought, he brought Xiao Qing out.
He had taken first place yesterday and was already the focus of today’s competition, with half the venue watching him. People had been confused when he asked for a bundle of Lingwei Grass, and now when they saw him take out a palm-sized pill furnace… quite a few burst out laughing.
…How should one put it? Xiao Qing looked as though Guang Xingyu’s furnace had given birth to it.
Forget the spectators. Even the Pill Cultivator Alliance members running around the platform nearly laughed aloud.
Xia Yunzhao remained perfectly composed and ignored everyone, concentrating only on processing the Lingwei Grass.
Come to think of it, he had not refined Lingwei Pills in a very long time. Seeing Lingwei Grass again reminded him of when he had first arrived in the cultivation world and lived in that broken house where wind leaked in from every direction.
Although it had been a long time, his proficiency had not declined. Processing, ignition… after the entire sequence, he actually spent less time than he did on Dew-Condensing Pills. Several pill cultivators had not even finished choosing their spirit herbs when pill fragrance already emerged from Xia Yunzhao’s furnace.
Three breaths later, he opened the furnace and five Lingwei Pills appeared inside.
Nobody could laugh anymore.
It was the same old saying: experts saw the craft, while outsiders watched the spectacle.
Even the cleverest cook could do nothing without rice. Why did so few people refine pills from lowest-grade spirit plants? Because such plants contained so little spiritual energy. Pill refining required removing impurities, and one careless moment could purify away the tiny amount of spiritual energy along with them. Even if it remained, the spiritual energy consumed during purification could exceed what the plant contained in the first place. At that point, who exactly was refining whom?
This was practically common knowledge among pill cultivators.
Yet today, before everyone’s eyes, that common knowledge had been overturned. The Lingwei Pill had simply been refined successfully, and Xia Yunzhao had done it ridiculously quickly, as though there were no difficulty at all, almost like lighting a fire and cooking a meal!
Who could stand this?
Nobody knew what the pill cultivators onstage were thinking, but another group of pill cultivators below had certainly suffered shattered Dao hearts.
Pill Master Lipan could not remain seated again. He stood and walked directly to Xia Yunzhao’s side, wanting a closer look at his technique.
He saw Xia Yunzhao put down the Lingwei Grass and choose Dew-Condensing Grass next. Pill Master Lipan immediately felt disappointed, only then remembering that this round tested the number of recipes a contestant knew, so naturally refining only one furnace of each pill made the most sense.
Even so, he did not leave and continued standing there to watch.
Xia Yunzhao sensed his gaze but did not care. Let him watch. It was not as though Xia Yunzhao would lose a piece of flesh. This time, he had chosen the Dew-Condensing Pill.
Pill Master Lipan quickly discovered that Xia Yunzhao’s refining technique was different again from yesterday. Could he really have improved further in only a single night?!
A trace of emotion appeared on Pill Master Lipan’s usually stern face. Heroes had always emerged from the young, but talent like this was exceptionally rare.
Xia Yunzhao’s technique truly had improved. After stepping down yesterday, he had watched the techniques of the other pill cultivators for a while, especially Guang Xingyu and Bei Wan, and both had given him considerable inspiration.
That was also part of why he had been willing to warn those two. He did not have many friends who were pill cultivators, and if their temperaments suited one another, becoming friends and discussing the craft together would be a good thing.
After he finished a furnace of Dew-Condensing Pills, the score beside Xia Yunzhao’s name changed to two, while most contestants still had nothing beside theirs.
Xia Yunzhao continued selecting spirit plants, choosing the Aura-Concealing Pill this time.
This competition was quite useful. It allowed him to retrace the road he had taken, test the pills he had learned one by one, and sort through his shortcomings and improvements, which would let him travel farther along the path of pill cultivation in the future.
While choosing spirit plants, he noticed Guang Xingyu repeatedly glancing behind himself out of the corner of his eye, looking at Xia Yunzhao as though he wanted to say something but hesitated.
Xia Yunzhao turned his head and gave him a questioning look: What is it?
Guang Xingyu scratched his head, pointed behind Xia Yunzhao, and mouthed, Behind you, it looks like…
Xia Yunzhao could not help marveling again at how perceptive this fellow was. “It’s fine. I’m keeping watch.”
Guang Xingyu immediately relaxed and patted his chest, meaning, That’s good.
Xia Yunzhao continued refining. Aura-Concealing Pill, Mountain-Opening Pill, Fasting Pill…
As he worked through them one by one, even Xia Yunzhao himself was surprised. I’ve already mastered this many pills?
Everyone else was even more shocked! On the light screen, Xia Yunzhao’s name had already accumulated a full six points!
Behind him, Guang Xingyu and Bei Wan were tied with only three points each.
Farther down… Tantai Ning was in fifth place with two points.
Suddenly, a huge crash sounded diagonally behind them. A pill cultivator’s furnace had exploded. It was not the first explosion of this round, but it was certainly the most troublesome one.
The pill cultivator had been refining a water-attribute pill. Water and fire opposed each other, so water-attribute pills were already prone to furnace explosions, and once this one exploded, the moisture in the unfinished pill had not dissipated but instead carried spiritual energy with it, surging outward as an enormous torrent.
Several pill cultivators beside him were affected and nearly suffered furnace explosions as well.
The Pill Cultivator Alliance was prepared for situations like this and immediately sent someone forward to control the water with a spell, but there was nothing they could do about the steam filling the air.
Xia Yunzhao looked back and saw that the pill cultivator was positioned diagonally behind Guang Xingyu, with steam already drifting against Guang Xingyu’s back.
Guang Xingyu wore a miserable expression as he painstakingly pinched the steam out of his pill furnace bit by bit. His furnace was enormous to begin with, so it was like trying to empty a water vat with a tiny bowl, painfully inefficient.
Xia Yunzhao nearly laughed at the sight and raised a hand to signal. “May I help deal with the water?”
The Pill Cultivator Alliance members looked at him, then at Pill Master Lipan standing nearby, and did not dare answer.
Pill Master Lipan explained, “It isn’t that they have no way to deal with it, but using a water-attribute spell to draw the water out would create even greater spiritual-power fluctuations and disrupt the competition more than the current situation.”
Xia Yunzhao waved a hand. “I won’t use that.”
That immediately piqued everyone’s curiosity. If he was not going to use a spell, how would he control the water?
The contestants onstage could not talk freely, but the spectators below immediately started discussing it. “Pill Cultivator Xia’s talent in the Dao of pills is exceptional. Could he perhaps have some kind of pill that controls water?”
“What pill could possibly do that? I think he’ll refine a fire-attribute pill and use it to neutralize the water!”
“Wrong, all wrong! His cultivation method must be unusual. He’ll sit down and absorb all the steam!”
The discussion grew lively, while Shang Shuangze alone, seated on his chair, suddenly curved his lips into a smile.
Xiao Tian had rarely seen him in such a good mood when he was not beside Senior Xia and could not resist leaning closer. “Senior, how will Senior Xia deal with it?”
Shang Shuangze only said, “Just watch.”
Everyone nearby who had been secretly listening withdrew their metaphorical ears and immediately stared at the stage with shining eyes.
Xia Yunzhao did not keep anyone in suspense and directly pulled a green section of bamboo from his Hundred-Compartment Pouch.
Someone recognized it. “Thousand-Jointed Bamboo? Is he going to use the bamboo section to scoop the water out?”
Then Xia Yunzhao took out Purified Sand, Ironwood Charcoal…
Finally, he formed the Earthfire Art.
Everyone began to have a bad feeling.
The next moment, Pill Cultivator Xia, whose pill-refining talent was exceptional and who very well might win this entire Pill Cultivator Grand Competition, began refining an artifact right there on the competition platform.
Everyone: “…”
Three Pill Cultivator Alliance members who were running back and forth delivering spirit herbs instantly tripped. As they hit the ground, all three screamed inwardly, Why?!
This is a competition! A pill-refining competition! And you’re refining an artifact?!
No… wait, how can someone refine artifacts while also refining pills?! How old are you, you ancient monster?!
“Wait, this round has a time limit! Isn’t it too reckless to waste time refining an artifact right now?”
“M-maybe he’s only going to do a little sacrificial refining. It shouldn’t take long…”
Before the speaker even finished, reality slapped him across the face. The emerald bamboo section stretched and rounded, gradually taking on the shape of a gourd. This was no minor sacrificial refining. Xia Yunzhao was genuinely refining an artifact.
The next moment, Xia Yunzhao caught the floating gourd in his hand… He finished it?!
Damn!!! Another group of cultivators below suffered a breakdown. How the hell is his artifact refining even faster than his pill refining?!
Xia Yunzhao had no idea what they were muttering about. He had only casually refined a Water-Purifying Gourd, and with a toss of his hand, the gourd floated into the air and sucked both the restrained spirit water and the surrounding steam into its belly.
He actually owned a Water-Purifying Gourd already, but it was stored inside the Green Bamboo Carriage. Thinking about taking out the Green Bamboo Carriage, enlarging it, then going inside to retrieve the gourd… forget it, that would attract too much attention. It was less conspicuous to simply refine another one. Pill refining and artifact refining used similar movements anyway, so surely nobody would notice.
The pill cultivator whose furnace had exploded had thought this round was over for him, only for Xia Yunzhao to solve the problem in less than seven and a half minutes. He repeatedly cupped his hands and bowed toward Xia Yunzhao in gratitude. Xia Yunzhao had practically saved his ranking!
Guang Xingyu smiled gratefully at Xia Yunzhao as well, while the circle of cultivators around them also cupped their hands in thanks.
The spectators below repeatedly shook their heads. After so many years of watching the Pill Cultivator Grand Competition, who had ever seen a scene like this? The round was not even over, yet an uncrowned king had already appeared onstage… although the eventual crowned king would probably be him too.
Xiao Tian looked toward Shang Shuangze, hesitated, then asked, “Senior, Senior Xia can refine artifacts too?”
Shang Shuangze replied calmly, “Naturally.”
That calm tone contained unmistakable pride… Xiao Tian silently shrank back. For some reason, he felt as though something had just been stuffed into his mouth. So full…
Amid the harmonious atmosphere, only Xia Yunzhao could feel a gaze from behind stabbing him like thorns.
By now he was certain Tantai Ning simply wanted to win and hated anyone who ranked well. When Xia Yunzhao was still unknown, Tantai Ning had targeted Guang Xingyu and Bei Wan. After yesterday’s round, he had started hating Xia Yunzhao instead.
Perhaps the three absent pill cultivators had even been secretly harmed by him.
At that moment, Pill Master Lipan said, “Refine your own pills. Do not disturb others.”
The gaze behind Xia Yunzhao disappeared.
Xia Yunzhao’s thoughts shifted. Was Pill Master Lipan warning Tantai Ning? No. If Tantai Ning were that easy to see through, he probably would not still be Pill Master Lipan’s disciple.
Then again, people could not be judged by appearances. Pill Master Lipan might not be the same inside as he appeared on the surface either.
Xia Yunzhao wore the Golden-Silk Inner Armor and was not afraid of Tantai Ning attacking him from behind. More importantly, Shang Shuangze was right below the stage. Xia Yunzhao trusted him ten thousand percent. Even if everyone else failed to react in time, Shang Shuangze would definitely save him.
So he continued refining pills without worry.
Clouds drifted with the wind, and eight hours passed in the blink of an eye.
Xia Yunzhao finished refining every Level-One pill recipe he had mastered and looked up.
His name sat high at the top of the rankings with twelve points. Bei Wan was second with seven points, followed by Guang Xingyu with six.
Unlike yesterday’s round, today’s gap was enormous. Even if Xia Yunzhao stopped now and simply waited for the others to catch up, they could not overtake him.
He himself was somewhat surprised by the result, but after thinking about it, he understood. He had never had a teacher, but he had drawn plenty of pill recipes. If he continued accumulating them at this rate, one day he might know more recipes than some major cultivation families.
After all, inheritances such as pill recipes, cultivation methods, and artifact blueprints were things one often could not buy even with spirit pearls. A single unusual pill recipe could allow an unaffiliated cultivator to rise from obscurity and establish a small family or even a small sect.
Still… possessing treasure made one a target. Since victory was already secure, there was no need to expose even more.
Xia Yunzhao did not refine any of the Level-Two recipes he knew. Instead, he selected a new recipe to try.
Delicious Fasting Pill.
Once Xiao Xia set aside his disdain for the recipe, curiosity quickly won out. Delicious? Just how delicious can it be? If it leaves your stomach feeling just as empty as an ordinary Fasting Pill, does it really have the nerve to call itself that?
Xia Yunzhao unfolded the recipe and swept his gaze down the page… then the corner of his mouth twitched.
The ingredients at the beginning were normal enough, all common Fasting Pill materials. The Spirit Licorice later in the list was not too outrageous either, probably there for flavor. But what the hell was the Blackfall Sand at the end?
Blackfall Sand was a nest-building material produced by an insect slaughter beast called the Black-Armored Ant. Black-Armored Ants ate a special kind of spirit soil, mixed the soil with their own saliva, shaped it into millet-sized grains of sand, and used those grains to build their nests.
…Can this stuff really be eaten?
With deep suspicion, Xia Yunzhao requested the ingredients and began refining. The Pill Cultivator Alliance really lived up to its name. They even stocked an obscure material like Blackfall Sand… though Xia Yunzhao had no idea what kind of pill they normally used it for. It certainly was not a Fasting Pill…
As soon as Xia Yunzhao had shown the recipe, Pill Master Lipan moved away to avoid suspicion, even though Xia Yunzhao had revealed only the ingredient page and not the section describing the refining method.
Yet when Pill Master Lipan saw the ingredients Xia Yunzhao requested, even he looked unusually bewildered. What is he refining? A Fasting Pill plus a Licorice Pill plus Blackfall Sand? Or is he refining an artifact? Is he building the Black-Armored Ants a sweet-flavored house?
If even Pill Master Lipan was confused, the people below were worse. The ordinary cultivators were still all right, but some pill cultivators had already started pulling at their hair. “What is this now?! Am I an idiot? How can I not even understand the ingredients?!”
“Fellow Daoist Xia’s thinking cannot be judged by ordinary standards. Perhaps we can reason it out this way: maybe the Black-Armored Ants he keeps in his storage pouch are hungry, and Fellow Daoist Xia is asking for food to feed them…”
“Idiot! Living creatures can’t be kept in storage pouches!”
Xia Yunzhao had no idea that one simple ingredient list had driven an entire group half mad. He calmly refined his pill… and then his furnace exploded.
Furnace explosions were normal for pill cultivators. Even while refining their most familiar pills, most still had a ten to twenty percent chance of failure. Xia Yunzhao was different. This was his very first furnace explosion in two days of competition.
A small commotion rose below. Everyone had seen him studying a pill recipe just now, so some guessed that he might be attempting a new pill.
Then they remembered that this was a competition. Learning a new pill recipe during the competition… Forget it. The more they thought about it, the worse they felt.
This became the longest furnace Xia Yunzhao had refined onstage, continuing for a full hour before, just as the competition was nearing its end, a powerful fragrance finally burst from the furnace.
It was an extremely unusual aroma, sweet and fragrant… Even those who had never smelled anything like it before found their most instinctive desire for good food, especially sweets, being stirred awake.
Even Xia Yunzhao nearly lost his composure. He swallowed and thought, Why does this smell a little like chocolate?
Several pill cultivators who had already finished could no longer sit still and kept glancing over. What is Fellow Daoist Xia refining? Is this pill refining or cooking? Why does it smell this good?
Xia Yunzhao watched the timing and decisively opened the furnace.
At exactly that moment, the copper hammer fell too, its clang ringing across the entire venue.
Five pills spun into Xia Yunzhao’s hand. He looked down. …Damn, they’re Mylikes!
Elio’s Notes: Mylikes are Chinese chocolate-coated malted milk balls, which is why the round brown pills immediately remind Xia Yunzhao of candy.
A member of the Pill Cultivator Alliance shouted, “The competition is over! Everyone may check the rankings for yourselves. The top eighteen, come forward to collect your tokens!”
There was hardly any need for the announcement. Everyone already knew their own scores, and at the moment they were far less interested in the rankings than in surrounding Xia Yunzhao. “Senior Xia, what pill did you refine at the end? Why does it smell so good? Are you selling it?”
“The last time I smelled something this fragrant was when I ate pastries at Sweetflavor Workshop, but even those can’t compare with this…”
“May I ask whether that is a Level-One pill or a Level-Two pill, Fellow Daoist Xia? Why does its medicinal effect feel somewhat like a Fasting Pill?”
“…” Xia Yunzhao said dryly, “It’s just a Fasting Pill with a different flavor. As for selling…” He thought for a moment and picked out the two high-grade pills. “I’ll sell these three. Let’s set the price at twice the usual price of a Fasting Pill. Who wants one?”
“Me, me, me!” A slightly plump figure squeezed through, eyes shining at the Delicious Fasting Pills. “Fellow Daoist Xia, sell them to me! I love tasting delicious things more than anything. I’ll take all three and pay triple!”
The declaration immediately provoked the “wrath of the masses,” with the surrounding pill cultivators cursing Guang Xingyu for snatching food from a tiger’s mouth and leaving nothing for anyone else.
In the end, Xia Yunzhao had to mediate, choosing the three highest bidders and selling one pill to each.
Only then did everyone disperse.
Guang Xingyu immediately tossed the Mylikes… no, the Delicious Fasting Pill into his mouth, closed his eyes to savor it for a while, and repeatedly praised the taste. Then he said, “Fellow Daoist Xia, can I commission an entire furnace of these? I have a junior brother who’s been lying injured at the inn these past couple of days. If I bring some back for him, he’ll definitely like them!”
Xia Yunzhao said, “You can, but there are some ingredients I don’t have, so you’ll need to provide them. Is your junior brother badly injured? I have healing pills too.”
“Nothing serious.” Guang Xingyu smacked his lips, reluctant to swallow and letting the pill slowly dissolve in his mouth. “He was naughty and sneaked out, then got stung by a Withered-Leaf Vine. He’ll be fine after resting for a few days.”
Xia Yunzhao understood. Withered-Leaf Vine was a common wild plant whose vines and leaves were covered in tiny backward-facing barbs. Once they pierced the flesh, they interfered with the circulation of spiritual power and could only be slowly forced out by circulating one’s cultivation method. It was not particularly dangerous, only troublesome, and pills could not cure it. Otherwise, with Guang Xingyu’s pill-refining ability, there was no way he would let his own junior brother suffer.
As they spoke, Bei Wan, who had been waiting behind them, approached. Her attitude toward Xia Yunzhao was much friendlier. “Fellow Daoist Xia, I concede defeat.”
Xia Yunzhao smiled. “Fellow Daoist Bei is too polite. I only got lucky.”
Bei Wan shook her head. She had scored eight points in this round, which was already extremely impressive for a Level-Two pill cultivator without a sect or family. She had also attempted a ninth recipe just now but failed. With her eyesight, she could naturally tell that Xia Yunzhao’s final recipe had also been his first attempt at refining it.
Xia Yunzhao had succeeded, while she had failed, so her admission of defeat was completely sincere.
Once everyone around them had left, Bei Wan finally asked her next question. “Fellow Daoist Xia, do you know Tantai Ning’s background?”