Chapter 31
On a large platform inside the arena, 48 tables and 49 people were bustling with activity. Shin Jiao was merely an extra person at Qin Lou's table. Each person on the stage had a bead of sweat on their forehead as the heat steadily increased. After a while, the aroma of refined herbs began to rise and permeate the air. Those with a good nose could judge the purity of each medicine from the smell.
In one corner, Shin Jiao was watching Qin Lou refine a Level 3 medicinal plant, the black Ganoderma. This plant was truly mysterious; its effects were always random. When eaten raw, it could double one's strength, agility, or stamina for 30 seconds. But when turned into a pill, these three attributes would be doubled for one minute, which would be a great lifesaver in a pinch.
As Shin Jiao watched Qin Lou, he was truly amazed at her alchemy skills. He became enlightened as he looked at the medicinal plant being slowly refined, with dregs being pushed out.
"She is really skilled at almost everything. It was either her misfortune that her cultivation became stagnant or a blessing in disguise," Shin Jiao thought to himself.
Shin Jiao and Qin Lou were actually planning to make a new pill they would call the Regrowth Pill. It was like the regrowth serum Shin Jiao made while traveling with Cherry Lao. The only difference was the concocting style. Serums are made through filtration and evaporation to get the concentrated extract of a medicinal plant. With proper temperature control, this would always result in 90-100% purity. Shin Jiao was unwilling to show this process in front of so many people. He knew the trouble it would cause, so he just went with the flow and followed the norms of this world.
Their goal was for Qin Lou to refine the Ganoderma to at least 90% purity. This wasn't easy since Qin Lou couldn't use her Golden Core. She was trying to efficiently control her spiritual fire, and she was already sweating profusely. The medicinal plant's refinement was at about 75%, and her Qi reserves were already running low. Qin Lou felt a little weak, and her knees began to wobble, but she held on and never gave up. Shin Jiao had promised to show her a new pill that would rival any other healing pill, so she was really looking forward to a miracle pill appearing and felt it was an honor to be able to concoct it.
"Just a little bit more, hang in there," Shin Jiao said, trying to encourage her.
Around the stage, people could see that every contestant was almost at their limit. Some had already given up after exhausting their Qi. Because they were unable to properly control their spiritual Qi, they wasted a lot of energy and fainted. Only about ten contestants were left on the stage, still busy refining and not paying attention to anyone else.
"Yes! I did it!" someone suddenly shouted, startling some of the contestants. Even Qin Lou was startled, which was evident from the fluctuation of her spiritual flame.
"That was too low... you piece of shit! You made me fail my refinement, I'll kill you!" a young man suddenly shouted as he madly dashed toward the cultivator who had just shouted.
"You're blaming me? It was your incompetence that made you fail, not me!" the man shouted as he stepped back.
The other man raised his fist and aimed at the man's face, wanting to vent his frustration on the person who had succeeded in refining his medicinal herb. But before his fist could land, an elder caught it, and the man was flung out of the stage as the elder coldly snorted.
"No!!! This can't be!" Shin Jiao suddenly heard a familiar voice shouting in frustration.
"I can't accept this! This is too difficult..." The voice belonged to Xian Jian Feng, who was now complaining about the rules.
His refinement was at around 79% when his Qi reserves were depleted. This happened even though he had already taken a bottle of Qi replenishing pills. Due to his lack of control over spiritual Qi, he lost his chance to advance a rank in his school.
"Tsk, tsk. The young master of the Feng family is truly weak. I think he spends too much time playing with women that his inner Qi is too weak and impure," an elder said upon seeing Xian Jian Feng.
Then, Xian Jian Feng suddenly looked at Qin Lou, who was still refining. An evil smile appeared on his lips, and he carefully took a small seed from his sleeve. Looking at her unmoving figure, his annoyance suddenly rose, and he unhesitatingly flicked the seed toward the pill furnace. If this seed hit, the pill furnace would fall, and the refining would fail, which was his main goal.
As the tiny seed flew toward the burning-hot pill furnace, Xian Jian Feng's evil smile became too evident as he forgot to mask his feelings. He was unwilling to accept that Qin Lou would be admitted as an inner disciple of the school. If this happened, all his plans would be for nothing. He wouldn't be able to get his hands on her secret techniques and martial arts, along with some artifacts. But now, seeing the seed travel faster than a bullet, he almost laughed out loud.
When the seed was inches away from hitting the red-hot pill furnace, a shocking thing happened: it disappeared. No one could see what happened, so Xian Jian Feng gained the courage to attack again. This time, he used a part of his cultivation essence, which might turn the pill furnace into pieces if it hit.
Xian Jian Feng's eyes didn't even blink as he watched the seed approach inches away from the furnace. He clearly saw a thin layer appear in the blink of an eye and then disappear again.
Unknown to everyone, Shin Jiao had stealthily placed a formation disk under the table that would only activate upon detecting an approaching force no more than 1/4 of a kilogram. He had already expected someone would deal an underhanded blow, and he had already experienced the shamelessness and lawlessness of this world. If he couldn't protect himself and the people around him, then what was the point of learning his skills and strength?
But Shin Jiao was dumbfounded as he saw what was happening. Judging from the flickering of lights from the defensive array, it seemed that not just one but many people were trying to attack Qin Lou's pill furnace. Then, before everyone could react, Qin Lou suddenly stopped transmitting her Qi, and her spiritual flame slowly diminished.
"What? Did she fail?"
"I guess even for her, refining up to 85% is too much."
"Well, I guess we expected too much from the trash. Haha!"
"Shut up! You're saying she's trash? What about you? Trash!"
People started to argue about what had happened, but oblivious to those on the stage, an old man from the judges slowly stood up with trembling hands. His gaze was glued to the pill furnace on Qin Lou's table as he slowly walked toward the stage. But someone suddenly shouted, waking everyone from their stupor.
"Why is there a formation on your table! You're a cheater!" a youth shouted, pointing at Qin Lou with anger-filled eyes.
"Yeah, it seems there's something protecting your pill furnace," another one chimed in.
The elders in the front frowned. They were aware of what had happened, but these two brainless students couldn't think clearly as their minds were clouded with jealousy and anger. This meant many people on the stage were aiming to take Qin Lou down. This made the elders a little angry; they themselves could sense that Qin Lou's refinement was successful, but they couldn't smell the aroma that usually came out after or even during refinement.
As the people began to murmur and grow restless, Qin Lou, on the other hand, had her eyes closed. She could smell the heavenly aroma of the refined Ganoderma and the strong spiritual Qi coming from the furnace, which slowly revolved around her body. She could feel her meridians being strengthened. Although she couldn't absorb this into her Golden Core, her body seemed nourished, making her feel strength and power slowly coursing through her. The calm and warm feeling almost made her moan in pleasure, but luckily, she was still a little aware that people were around her.
Shin Jiao looked at Qin Lou with complicated eyes. He was truly amazed at her ability to use her inner spiritual fire without exerting her Golden Core to the maximum. Cherry Lao had done this before, but she used her newly formed Golden Core to refine the herbs that Shin Jiao used to concoct the serum. Still, Qin Lou's talent was truly terrifying, making Shin Jiao admire her even more.
The judges saw that Qin Lou was not replying to the people berating her for cheating, so one of them stood up.
"Student... I am one of the third-tier alchemists in the Floating Lotus School. My name is Hau Lu. I wanted to ask, why is there a formation array on your table? Do you know that it is a known rule that using a formation array in concocting pills is forbidden in this contest?" a man wearing a blue and white robe, the uniform of Floating Lotus school teachers, asked.
"That's right! Her result should not be accepted! She is cheating!" someone from the crowd shouted, which made others nod in agreement.
"Yeah, kick her out of here. She has always joined the alchemist contest but would always fail with an exploding furnace. It's impossible that she made it this time."
Some in the crowd shouted scornfully at Qin Lou, but most just watched the show silently, waiting to see how she would defend herself. She had already shown her martial prowess, and many were angered that she seemed to have recovered from being "trash," which could threaten their school rankings, especially those who came from the top five schools.
"Are you just going to feign ignorance? Speak, student!" the teacher named Hau Lu shouted.
Seeing this, some teachers sneered at his shameless behavior. They were already aware that Hau Lu was under someone with an impressive background: the young prodigy of the Floating Lotus Alchemy School, Xing Meng, the sole disciple of the chief alchemist, Master Kong.
Qin Lou suddenly opened her eyes and noticed that everyone seemed to be looking at her. She hadn't noticed the commotion as she was too focused on absorbing the rich, heavenly spiritual Qi from the purified Ganoderma. Before she could react, a handsome young man walked around the table and stood in front of her. Qin Lou realized it was Shin Jiao.
Shin Jiao was aware that Qin Lou was still absorbing the thick and rich spiritual Qi that was trapped within the formation array he had set up.
"Please, my master is still regaining her spiritual Qi. Could you wait for a while?" Shin Jiao said with helplessness displayed on his face.
Seeing that a mere mortal was trying to talk to them, almost all those who held grievances against Qin Lou became furious. Since they couldn't hurt her, they would teach her mortal servant a lesson instead.
"Get out of here! No mere mortal should speak when cultivators are discussing something," a middle-aged man shouted as he threw a small pebble toward Shin Jiao.
Although this action was a normal thing for cultivators, as they wouldn't be hurt by this tiny thing, it was different for mortals, as it could cause them a great injury or even death. But everyone didn't pay this to mind, as Shin Jiao was just an insignificant mortal man.
But to their surprise, a thin leaf suddenly flew out of Qin Lou's palm, which she casually threw. It sliced the pebble in two and changed its trajectory. The middle-aged man became furious upon seeing that Qin Lou had protected her servant. Shin Jiao didn't say anything more and just walked aside, nodding his head toward Qin Lou, who nodded back. They seemed to understand each other as they just silently watched the show.
But before anyone could make more commotion, a loud voice echoed throughout the arena.
"Enough! Do you think we judges are just air that doesn't exist? Are you people trying to challenge our authority?" It was the old man who had a trembling hand after his spiritual sense saw what was inside Qin Lou's pill furnace.
"Senior, we..."
"Shut up! Teacher Lu, if you spout any more nonsense from your mouth, I will personally kick you out of the school. Let's see if Master Kong can protect you." The old man said in anger.
Everyone kept their silence. No one knew who the old man was, but Hau Lu clearly knew. While Master Kong, the chief alchemist, was well-respected in the Floating Lotus Alchemy School, this old man was an eccentric elder whom none in the school knew. They were only warned not to cross his path, or else no one could protect them from his wrath.
Seeing that none dared to defy him, the old man slowly went down and walked in front of Qin Lou's table. Then he slowly stretched forth his hand and opened the lid of the furnace. His eyes suddenly went wide in disbelief as he could now smell the heavenly aura and aroma of the refined Ganoderma inside. He also discovered that he had entered a formation, but he didn't mind it as he knew it was a spiritual essence trap formation—an array that would not let spiritual essence escape from a certain point.
The old man suddenly closed his eyes as he felt the rich and thick spiritual Qi permeate his old body, making him feel a little stronger.
"Haha! I will accept you as my disciple." He suddenly blurted out after opening his eyes, as he had never thought he could find such a great talent in this simple competition.
This old man had not wanted to come here, but something told him he would find something good. So he waited and waited and got bored. Then, all of a sudden, he saw something that truly dumbfounded him: someone with a terrifying control of spiritual Qi, a truly good talent that he had been looking for to pass down his knowledge and legacy. Now that he had found Qin Lou, he would fight anyone who would harm her or take her away from him.
In his mind, the old man was already thinking of hiding Qin Lou and training her until she was ready to go out and face the world and become the greatest alchemist for thousands of years to come. And, of course, his name would follow as the master of the greatest alchemist. This made him smile foolishly as he imagined his name being spread all over the land. But someone suddenly woke him from his reverie.
"I disagree! Master, you can't shamelessly take her as your disciple. I found her first!" a loud voice echoed.