Chapter 95

This was the voice of Elder Dan, a voice Shen Xiang would never forget. Her words also made everyone in the Eighth Courtyard tremble. The Grand Alchemy Hall had eight small courtyards, and above these eight courtyards was the Grand Alchemy King Courtyard, a place only Alchemy Kings were qualified to enter!

"If you lose, all your benefits in the Great Martial Sect will be given to Yaohai Sheng, how about that?" Elder Dan said with a cold smile.

Yaohai Sheng was delighted; he could see that Elder Dan was deliberately helping him.

Shen Xiang smiled slightly, "Alright, if I can come in first, not only can I go to a nice place, but I can also take on a disciple."

"You will never win, I have been the first for five consecutive years! You are far from it!" Yaohai Sheng sneered, as if he could already see Shen Xiang's miserable defeat.

Everyone in the Great Martial Sect knew about Elder Dan's targeting of Shen Xiang, but now Shen Xiang had entered the Inner Sect and received abundant resources. Elder Dan's actions were also aimed at cutting off Shen Xiang's access to resources. However, no one expected Shen Xiang to actually agree to such a thing.

"Young people are like this, they never admit defeat. One day you will suffer for it," Wu Kaiming sighed after hearing the news. "Elder Dan, this boy tried to curry favor with you and even gave you two Qingxuan fruits. Why are you still targeting him?"

Elder Dan snorted, "This boy hasn't suffered. I need other materials to refine the Foundation Establishment Pill, and his Qingxuan fruits are the rarest. I searched for so long and couldn't find them. Now I have no choice but to accept it! If he really wanted to curry favor with me, he wouldn't have asked me to refine the Foundation Establishment Pill for his two little lovers!"

Wu Kaiming, upon hearing this, thought it was indeed the case. In this aspect, Elder Dan had indeed suffered a bit.

"I must make him bow to me. If he comes to me, apologizes, and admits his mistake, I might even take him as a disciple!" Elder Dan said and then floated away.

"This competitive and arrogant woman will probably never get married," Wu Kaiming said with a helpless smile.

The alchemy competition began three days later in the Eighth Martial Hall. During these three days, Shen Xiang was in seclusion, and others thought he was preparing, but in fact, he was studying the spirit patterns in the Alchemy Treasure Manual.

"Sister Meirao, Sister Youyou, you should be more familiar with these spirit patterns! These are very profound things that can generate strange powers. What do you think would happen if I carved these spirit patterns appropriately on the pills, or carved tiny spirit patterns inside the pills during the refining process?" Shen Xiang asked.

The Su Meirao and Bai Youyou inside the ring were speechless. They had never thought about this before. To them, alchemy was just about blending various herbs to form pills.

Su Meirao, after drawing a deep breath, said, "I don't know, but you can try! However, this requires very powerful divine sense to quickly carve the spirit patterns during the pill formation. If you are carving inside the pill, you need even more powerful divine sense."

"That's right, and you also need suitable spirit patterns! My master said that in the ancient times, some spirit talismans had the same effects as pills. For example, sticking a spirit talisman to one's dantian could quickly gain a large amount of true qi, and sticking it to the arm could make the arm stronger," Bai Youyou said.

Shen Xiang was secretly excited. If it really worked, he might be able to enhance the effects of the pills several times over, and even achieve the same effects without using some extremely precious herbs. However, the spirit patterns he currently mastered were still too few.

Three days passed, and Shen Xiang had no significant gains. The spirit patterns were too complex, requiring a lot of mental effort to analyze, memorize, and master, which was not something that could be done in a short time.

This alchemy competition was just a small annual event, while the major competition was held every ten years. At that time, not only the alchemists of the Great Martial Sect but also the alchemists from the entire Great Martial State would participate.

Many people were not interested in watching the process of the alchemy competition because it was rather dull. Only the large competition held every ten years was grand and lively, and one could see some amusing scenes of people exposing themselves.

"Big Brother Shen, good luck! We'll be here waiting for you in ten days!" Yun Xiaodao was somewhat worried about Shen Xiang because he had said that Shen Xiang would definitely come in first. If Shen Xiang lost, it would be his fault.

Elder Dan walked over and said coldly, "Shen Xiang, I will supervise your alchemy process. I heard you just won a thousand True Qi Pills. If you cheat, you will definitely win!"

Shen Xiang sighed helplessly, "Elder Dan, I still have seven hundred True Qi Pills. I gave one hundred to Yun Xiaodao and sold two hundred to Zhu Rong and Zhang De. I will hand over these seven hundred True Qi Pills to you for safekeeping to avoid any accusations of cheating."

Shen Xiang took out seven boxes, which surprised Elder Dan. When others learned that Shen Xiang had seven hundred True Qi Pills on him, they couldn't help but feel jealous, but they didn't dare to have any ideas about Shen Xiang. Even if they were stronger than Shen Xiang, if the Great Martial Sect found out, their days would be over.

Elder Dan opened each jade box, confirmed that there were seven hundred pills, and then stored them in her storage bracelet. Only at the Elder level did storage treasures become more exquisite and beautiful.

Elder Dan also wanted to see how Shen Xiang refined the True Qi Pills. She really didn't believe that someone his age could do it.

The competition began, with each person in a room, guarded by a disciple. The images of their alchemy processes were transmitted to the Elder Hall, where some old men closely monitored them to prevent cheating.

Shen Xiang learned that the fastest person to refine True Qi Pills here took one and a half hours per batch, while he could refine two batches in half an hour using the Flame Dragon Treasure Furnace. To avoid surprising others, he planned to refine one batch in a little over an hour, which would also make it easier for him.

Elder Dan opened Shen Xiang's Flame Dragon Treasure Furnace. Apart from seeing that the furnace was beautiful and well-made, she didn't notice anything special. Only the owner of the treasure furnace could discover its unique qualities; otherwise, Meng Bo wouldn't have casually used it as a bet.

"Elder Dan, how long does it usually take you to refine a batch of True Qi Pills? How many pills per batch?" Shen Xiang asked.

"The fastest is one and a half hours for two batches, with a maximum of six pills per batch, but it takes longer," Elder Dan said truthfully. This was a performance she was proud of. Alchemists at their level didn't always refine high-level pills; sometimes they had to refine low-level pills when the sect was short of them.

If they were refining high-level pills, they would go into seclusion. Elder Dan hadn't been in seclusion for years because she was collecting herbs.

The herbs for the competition were provided by the Great Martial Sect, but if one failed, they had to pay crystals, so everyone was cautious and didn't rush. However, Shen Xiang had a heaven-defying Flame Dragon Treasure Furnace, and he could refine as fast as he wanted. If he pushed to his limit, he could refine three batches of True Qi Pills in half an hour!

Elder Dan saw Shen Xiang handling the herbs with great skill, without even looking, and processing multiple batches at once. The quantities were perfectly even, and his speed was astonishing. Only someone who had refined many times would have such experience. Even in the Great Martial Sect, only a few old men could do this.