Chapter 34
On one of the stages in the arena stood a wooden table. On that table were three pill containers, and surrounding this table were all the elders who acted as judges for the alchemy contest. They were there to test the efficacy of each of the pills presented. The containers followed the color of the pills, and below them was a piece of written information about the pills inside.
The first one was a green pill, which Xing Meng claimed to be his original creation. He called it the Heavenly Touch Pill, and the effect of the pill was to numb the mind, causing the user to feel no pain for an hour.
When the elders saw this, they were shocked. This was a new pill; with it, a soldier could fight without worrying about his wounds and would be like a berserker in battle. It was a very powerful pill for those on the battlefield. It could also be used to treat someone with a heavy injury so they wouldn't feel the pain.
"Truly an amazing pill. He is surely a prodigy of our school. Haha. The chief alchemist would be too proud once more of this disciple of his," an elder praised.
But on Lu Hao Duang's face, a sneer appeared. He was clearly familiar with this pill, as he had seen it on one of his travels. The true name of this pill was the Mind-Numbing Pill, which affected a person's mind so that they could not feel any pain. The reason this pill was not well-known was that it was banned by the empire a long time ago for its side effects. If one took this pill more than three times, they would become addicted to it and would always crave it. Lu Hao Duang decided that he would reprimand Xing Meng later, not in front of these many people, to save the face of the school's chief alchemist.
Then they checked the second pill, which was made by Susu Ling. It was an improvement of the basic Spirit Gathering Pill, and to be able to turn this normal pill into a high-grade pill was truly amazing. Those at the late-stage Golden Core realm were the only ones who should be able to make this kind of pill, as one should have enough control of their spiritual sense and Qi to be able to control its pill formation.
"She was able to make three high-grade pills while in the primary stage of the Golden Core realm. How monstrous is her control over her spiritual Qi? I'm guessing that she's almost at the level of that child Qin Lou," Hu Ao commented.
"A good talent, too. I never noticed her before," a female elder said.
"Um... she also has the background to support her," another one chimed in.
Then they excitedly checked the curious pill that Qin Lou had made. They were too amazed at the pill's clarity and aura.
"If I couldn't see the golden aura of this pill, I would have suspected that this is a sky-grade pill."
"Yeah, and how can this gel thing hold such liquid inside? Would it break immediately when eaten?"
"I think so too. There seem to be traces of a spiritual marker in them. I think if it is dropped in saliva, this pill will melt, right?" an elder suddenly asked as he looked at Qin Lou, who nodded.
All the elders suddenly understood the gel container, which was new to their eyes. Every one of them had a desire to experiment with the gel container and couldn't wait to use it in their pills. But then their heated curiosity was doused when Lu Hao Duang said something.
"The container might be a viable replacement for forming a pill, but it has its limits. One of them is that it cannot contain solids and highly concentrated elemental medicine," Lu Hao Duang pointed out.
Upon hearing this, everyone had an enlightenment and agreed. But still, if this were the case, then just making the basic alchemical concoction would be enough. If an alchemist had a success rate of only 20% when forming a pill, with this, their 20% would become 80% unless they were a failure at refining. So the only thing an alchemist should concentrate on is refining to be able to make a good pill.
"Little lass, this pill doesn't have any description. What is this pill called?" Hu Ao asked, looking at Qin Lou.
Qin Lou glanced at Shin Jiao, who nodded. This made Hu Ao and Lu Hao Duang furrow their brows in confusion, but they didn't mind this, as they knew the master and servant had a good relationship. When Qin Lou saw that Shin Jiao agreed with a nod, she took a deep breath.
Before entering the contest, Shin Jiao had told her his plan. When she heard the name and the effect of the pill they were concocting, she showed a horrified face. What stuck in her mind was the word, rapid-cell regeneration. It was a new word for her, but when Shin Jiao explained its meaning, her heart was shaken. Although this pill would not let a person grow a new limb if it were cut, the rate of healing a person's wound when taken or poured onto it was truly terrifying.
Twenty seconds...
That's how fast a knife wound would heal. At most, it would take a day for one pill if there were truly too many wounds on the body. Qin Lou didn't know that this was the run-down version of the regrowth serum that Shin Jiao had discovered. If she had been able to process it with the full ingredients, it would have been called the Regrowth Pill. But since the pill forming had failed and only three drops of the Ganoderma extract were used, they would just call it the Rapid Hemostatic Pill.
"Seniors, we call it the Rapid Hemostatic Pill. Its main function is to rapidly close any wound in the body within 20 seconds after taking or pouring the pill on a wounded part of the body. The pill would stimulate the blood in the body to rapidly close any external and internal wounds. If the wound is too heavy, a person can take two, but not more than five, as it will not have the same effect with more pills taken," Qin Lou explained.
When she finished her explanation, all the elders were dumbfounded. What was this heavenly pill? Twenty seconds. What did that mean? If an army could carry at least five of these pills per soldier, then everyone would be fearless. As long as one was alive, even a fatal wound could be healed within 20 seconds. That was a truly terrifying medicine. Although some pills would act like the Rapid Hemostatic Pill, they were not as effective as to heal a wound in just 20 seconds.
"Then, after healing, what would happen next?" Hu Ao curiously asked, wanting to find out the side effects. They would not believe that this kind of heaven-defying pill would not have any side effects.
"Um... Well... there is a fatal side effect... it is that the pill would be in effect inside the body for around 20 minutes. So if a poisonous object enters one's body, it would be fatal as the wound will automatically close itself within 20 seconds. Other than that, I think there is nothing else. Your body will be back to normal after 20 minutes," Qin Lou replied while thinking.
Upon hearing her explanation, almost all the elders' jaws dropped. This was not a side effect; it was a hidden trump card. One could imagine being unstoppable in battle with this pill. Upon hearing this, Elder Ao quickly made his move. He grabbed Qin Lou and asked her to come with them, and the rest of the elders supported this. It was as if they were protecting a very valuable treasure. They knew that if this recipe were exposed, a large commotion would happen in the whole empire. Many would seek out and kidnap this young genius, so they rushed to protect her.
"Truly a good talent. I can't believe she discovered and finished something that I have been researching for a long time now," Lu Hao Duang said to himself.
But there was something that was bugging him all this time. He could actually feel something mixed in the concoction. Something that he himself could not see. Then his eyes went to the figure of Shin Jiao, a mortal servant who had a smile on his face. But Lu Hao Duang brushed off that idea in his mind, as no matter how special Shin Jiao was, he was but a mere mortal.
"Sigh, I guess I've caused her trouble this time. Hopefully, she would cherish this opportunity and take hold of her dream," Shin Jiao said to himself as he started to pack the things they had used.
Meanwhile, at a hidden entrance of a secluded valley, a solitary figure of a woman nonchalantly walked, following a particular path. The woman seemed to be young, judging from her build, but her cultivation had already reached the middle stages of the Golden Core realm. It looked like she had just made a breakthrough, as her aura seemed to be still stabilizing. Her head was covered with a hood made of beast leather, which shadowed and hid her face.
The clothes she was wearing were a little tattered, and it looked like she had been fighting with some beasts while traveling. But curiously, although her clothes were ripped and unkempt, and even her hair was disheveled, her body had no trace of a wound or a scar.
When she reached the hidden entrance, two people suddenly jumped out and appeared in front of her. They bowed in courtesy as her cultivation was higher than theirs.
"Senior, this is the entrance to the Lotus Sect. We are afraid that we must ask you to tell us about the purpose of your visit," one of the youths said with his head still lowered.
A sneer came from inside the hood. Then she lifted her jade-white hand, and the two young men felt their movement was restricted. The woman just waltzed in and approached the barrier protecting the valley's entrance.
"Senior, please, don't offend our Lotus Sect. We have no enmity with you," one of the young men suddenly shouted.
The woman didn't reply. She just approached the barrier, chanted a spell, and the barrier opened by itself.
"How did she know how to deactivate the barrier? Shit, we need to warn the sect."
When the woman entered, both youths were released and gained their movement back. One of them suddenly grabbed a sound transmission talisman and sent an alarm to the sect.
Inside a large and luxurious hall, where everything seemed to be like a heavenly palace above the clouds, eight people stood wearing white and blue robes, conversing with each other. On their backs, an emblem of a large lotus flower could be seen. These people were the elders and the sect head of the Lotus Sect.
While these people were discussing something, the frantic footsteps could suddenly be heard entering the hall.
"Elders, Sect Head, we have a problem... There is an intruder in the sect," a youth wearing a blue robe suddenly announced as he bowed his head and kneeled on one knee.
"What! Who dares trespass on our sect?" an elder suddenly shouted.
"I'm not sure, Elder... but according to the juniors watching the entrance, it's a woman... she seems to be young but already in the middle stage of the Golden Core realm."
"Are you certain about this?" the sect leader asked in a deep voice.
"Yes, he is certain..." a melodious young voice suddenly interrupted them.
Everyone's attention suddenly went toward the floating figure of a young woman who was gradually approaching them. What surprised the group was that the robe the woman was wearing was one that a core disciple would wear in the Lotus Sect.
"Who... are you?" This time, a woman in the group of elders asked with some suspicion.
"It seems that the master has forgotten about this disciple," the woman replied as she took off the leather hood covering her face.
"Cherry Lao!" almost everyone blurted out her name.
But before anyone could say anything else, Cherry Lao's figure suddenly blurred and appeared in front of her master. Then a muffled sound echoed through the hall, and the figure of a woman came flying through and crashed into a wall.
"That is what you deserve... my master," Cherry Lao said. After that punch, she couldn't control her feelings anymore, and two beads of tears slowly trickled down her cheeks.
Everyone was dumbfounded by this scene, as no one had noticed how Cherry Lao had moved. This was one of the moves she had learned from watching Shin Jiao, and besides that, she had become stronger because of the medicine he gave her on her travels. Ever since she cut off her feelings for him, her cultivation had increased. Though it hurt her feelings, she endured just to be able to take back what she had before. In her heart, she promised that if she ever saw him again, she would help him one time as repayment for what he did for her and for the feelings they once had for each other.
Meanwhile, after the alchemists took Qin Lou away, Shin Jiao became idle as all he did was roam around the small village camp. There were still four days before the students would return to the city of Er, and Shin Jiao wanted to follow them and go to a big city to experience the feeling of being in a cultivation city.
"I wonder when these people will act? It's been a day now that they are following me. I'm getting bored already; come on, act now!" Shin Jiao thought, trying to scold those people in his mind.
Behind him was a group of five people who had been tailing him for the whole day. As a person with some experience in espionage, he had experienced a lot of kidnappings and threats in his life. So, by instinct, he already knew what was going to happen, but he wouldn't stop it. He was feeling bored with nothing to do, so why not go along with this charade?
And so that afternoon, Shin Jiao was taken away by a group of thug-like people. It seemed that he was taken to a secluded place while his head was covered with a cloth. They didn't expect that a mere mortal could use a spiritual sense, so Shin Jiao was able to know where they were. But to his surprise, he actually saw a familiar face: the one they called the alchemy prodigy and genius of the Floating Lotus Alchemy School, Xing Meng.