Chapter 401: Soul Advancement

Seeing the two give up, the people from the Bai and Qiu clans felt relieved. If the two had acted on impulse and insisted on competing with monsters like Xiao Yan, they might not even have passed the assessment.

Following the withdrawal of Bai Ying and Qiu Ji, the three people in the square continued to catch the iron beads falling from the ceiling. At this point, each of them had caught over a hundred iron beads—a score that far exceeded the record Cao Ying had left behind.

Seeing the three competing with such intensity, the people in the hall secretly held their breath, staring at the center of the square without blinking, afraid of missing any detail.

After all, this was originally just an assessment for the five great clans, but it had unexpectedly evolved into a competition.

Everyone understood that this competition would also determine the results they could achieve in the upcoming Pill Gathering. After all, this assessment was closely related to soul manipulation. During the alchemy process, one might use hundreds of medicinal materials; if one's soul power was not used skillfully, the possibility of failure would greatly increase.

As time passed bit by bit, Dan Chen's small face began to show some color. After all, she was not in good health to begin with, and it was difficult for her to squander soul power as freely as Cao Ying and Xiao Yan.

Dan Chen sighed, and after catching a few more iron beads, she felt her body reaching its limit, so she gave up directly. After all, if she accidentally injured her soul, the upcoming Pill Gathering would be greatly affected. After all, passing the five great clans' assessment was enough; the Pill Gathering was the top priority.

With Dan Chen exiting the field with a score of 125 iron beads, only Cao Ying and Xiao Yan remained in the square.

At this moment, Cao Ying's forehead was covered in fine sweat, and her small face was slightly flushed. After all, she was not much different from Dan Chen; since Dan Chen had reached her limit, she could not persist much longer either.

Cao Ying glanced toward Xiao Yan and found that he was not flushed, not panting, and was still catching iron beads leisurely, as if he were playing.

After struggling to catch ten more iron beads, Cao Ying's body trembled slightly, and she finally reached her limit. She turned to look at Xiao Yan and found that he was still completely fine. She sighed, knowing she had lost. If she continued, she might make a fool of herself; if she messed up and failed the assessment, it would be a huge joke, and she would likely be laughed at by everyone.

Cao Ying exited the field with a score of 136 iron beads. In the past, achieving such a score would have shocked the entire audience, but with Xiao Yan still in the square, her glory was immediately overshadowed.

At this moment, Cao Ying only wanted to know how many iron beads Xiao Yan could catch. Of course, there were many others with the same thought; they were all watching Xiao Yan catch the iron beads with rapt attention, silently counting how many he had caught.

"138, 139, 140... 198, 199!"

Seeing Xiao Yan catch 199 iron beads in one go, the people in the hall gasped. Was he even human?

Cao Ying and Dan Chen looked at each other, feeling a sense of powerlessness in their hearts. Where did this monster come from?

Elder Sheng Yao looked at Xiao Yan, his heart filled with surprise. However, when he looked at Xiao Yan, he also felt some worry—not about whether Xiao Yan could pass the assessment, but whether he could catch the next iron bead.

Two hundred steel balls was a boundary, the threshold for stepping into the level of an eighth-grade advanced alchemist. Once he caught this two-hundredth iron bead, it meant Xiao Yan had crossed this threshold.

Elder Sheng Yao hoped Xiao Yan would catch one more iron bead, because that way, Xiao Yan would become a titan of the Pill Tower. The Pill Tower was very eager to have such a potential and powerful person join them.

However, at this moment, Xiao Yan was covered in sweat, and his body was trembling continuously. Xiao Yan felt as if a mountain was pressing down on him. Although he only needed to move his hand to move the mountain, Xiao Yan knew this was a threshold; once he stepped over it, he would save a lot of effort.

But Xiao Yan truly felt he had reached his limit. If he couldn't catch it, his soul would be injured, which would affect the upcoming Pill Gathering.

Reason wanted Xiao Yan to give up; after all, this was just a normal assessment, and passing was enough. Besides, he was already in first place.

The constant suggestion in his heart made Xiao Yan feel annoyed. Not only did it not make him give up, but it instead ignited his rebellious spirit.

Xiao Yan had always been like this: the more you didn't let me do it, the more I would do it.

With a ruthless heart and gritted teeth, he directly caught one more iron bead. As he caught it, Xiao Yan's soul not only did not collapse but instead seemed to sublimate, becoming spirited once again.

The dragon claws condensed from soul power caught the iron beads falling from the ceiling at an even faster speed, far exceeding his previous pace.

Seeing this, Elder Sheng Yao smiled, because Xiao Yan's soul advancement had succeeded.

At this moment, the people in the hall saw Xiao Yan catching the iron beads falling from the ceiling at an extremely fast speed again, and they felt a sense of suffocation. Was he even human?

Cao Ying and Dan Chen looked at each other again. They had always regarded each other as rivals, but once Xiao Yan appeared, their rival had changed directly. They secretly made up their minds that after this assessment, they would return to their clans to practice alchemy diligently and never be arrogant or complacent again. As the saying goes, there is always someone better than you; living in a halo of compliments all day really makes one lose their original heart.

Cao Ying felt quite regretful at this moment. In fact, with her talent, she could have gone further, but ever since she achieved a remarkable record in the last assessment, she felt invincible. Although she had worked hard afterward, this effort was far from as dedicated as before.

Xiao Yan did not know that his actions had changed the character of Cao Ying and Dan Chen. But even if he knew, it wouldn't matter to him; Xiao Yan would never let others affect him.

Xiao Yan caught a few dozen more iron beads and felt his soul reaching its limit again, on the verge of collapse. This time, he did not continue as he had before; after all, one could only break through their limit once in a short period. Forcibly breaking through again would likely result in losing everything.

In the end, Xiao Yan took first place again with the terrifying score of 288 iron beads.

Xiao Yan had taken first place twice with extremely high scores. In everyone's eyes, the owner of first place in the third assessment was already beyond doubt.

After all, the third assessment tested soul aggression. Although Xiao Yan had not used soul attacks since entering the square, judging by his counterattack against Cao Ying earlier, Xiao Yan's victory was already a certainty.

Sure enough, after the third round began, the five people formed a circle. Although the rules stated they could attack each other, Cao Ying and the other four all set Xiao Yan as their primary target.

Facing the wheel of attacks from the four, although Xiao Yan's soul power was very strong, he felt somewhat uncomfortable. After all, these four all knew some soul-type Dou Techniques, and their lethality was truly extraordinary.

However, Xiao Yan would not be foolish enough to stand there and take a beating; that would be too pathetic. He secretly wrapped himself in the Three-Origin Return to One Qi and began to observe the soul skills they were using.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 402 =====