Chapter 166: Only Xun Er at a Loss?

The moment Fa Ma's voice fell, an earsplitting roar of excitement erupted from the spectator stands.

Countless people flushed red with excitement as they leapt from their seats, waving whatever they held in their hands. In an instant, the entire Guang Chang was swallowed by an ocean of noise and frenzy.

It was no wonder the audience had grown so wild and excited, because this Alchemist Convention was truly unprecedented.

In every previous convention, no matter which session, no matter whether it was the Jia Ma Empire, the Chu Yun Empire, or any of the surrounding empires, no Alchemist Convention had ever produced a Five-Grade Elixir!

One must understand that the Alchemist Convention was a competition sponsored by the Dan Tower of Zhong Zhou, intended to encourage the Young Generation of alchemists, so only those under thirty years of age could participate.

And a Fifth-Rank Alchemist under thirty simply did not exist. Forget Five-Grade, the highest rank in any previous Alchemist Convention had never exceeded a low Fourth-Rank alchemist.

Even a Fourth-Rank Peak Pill had only appeared a handful of times.

One could imagine that the title of an eighteen-year-old Fifth-Rank Alchemist would soon spread across the entire northwest, and might even reach the Black Horn Region, reach Jia Nan Academy!

"When he purged the poison from me back then, I already knew this little fellow would become the final victor." Watching the youth in the arena who, amid countless gazes of awe, worship, and even some adoration, remained calm and neither arrogant nor impatient, Nalan Jie said with satisfaction.

"Mm, he is indeed outstanding." Nalan Yanran could not help but nod slightly, her beautiful eyes fixed on that slender figure in the arena. Back then, her breaking of the engagement had nothing to do with Xiao Yan's family background or strength; she simply did not wish for her marriage to be casually decided by others.

Especially after the broken engagement, no one likely understood better than Nalan Yanran just how formidable Xiao Yan truly was.

At this moment, Hai Bodong walked over to Yan Li with a beaming smile and said, "Saved me the trouble of having to capture him."

Jia Xingtian walked over, shot Hai Bodong a look, and said, "This is a major criminal of the Jia Ma Empire."

"You can have the man, but the Na Ring stays with me."

"You shameless old fool, stealing things in broad daylight, are you?"

"How can what a cultivator does be called stealing? Besides, this is Xiao Yan's great merit in the end, so it stands to reason that whatever's inside the Na Ring belongs to him."

Fa Ma, watching from the side as the two old men had already begun dividing the spoils, could only shake his head helplessly. With Dou Huang like these, the fate of the Jia Ma Empire was truly a rocky one.

"Xiao Yan, you should pack up and rest for a bit—what are you doing!?" Fa Ma had just been about to tell Xiao Yan to take a rest, since he had just refined a Five-Grade Elixir and his Soul Force was surely severely depleted.

He saw Xiao Yan take out a Four-Stripe White Spirit Pill from the wooden box, open his mouth, and prepare to swallow it in one gulp.

"What am I doing? Eating a Pill, what else?" The Four-Stripe White Spirit Pill in his hand stopped a single inch from Xiao Yan's mouth.

"You—you're just going to eat it like that?! It's Five-Grade!" Everyone who heard Fa Ma's cry turned to look at Xiao Yan. That was a Five-Grade Elixir! And he was going to eat it right here?!

Xiao Yan's brow furrowed, and he asked in confusion, "If Elixirs aren't for eating, are they for looking at? Besides, I'm a Seven-Star Essence Refining too—why can't I eat the Pill I refined myself?"

Everyone who heard this thought it actually made sense, but somehow still felt something was off.

"And there's still one more Pill here. With all of you standing guard, there's no place safer than this, is there?"

Hai Bodong and the other Dou Huang thought about it and found no fault in that either.

In truth, Xiao Yan had a purpose in doing this. He had two Four-Stripe White Spirit Pills on him, and the Four-Stripe White Spirit Pill was a Pill he had only created the night before. In other words, no one had ever eaten one, and its effects were something Xiao Yan had deduced from pharmacological theory.

And just like the Three-Stripe Green Spirit Pill, a person could only eat one Four-Stripe White Spirit Pill in their lifetime. That meant Xiao Yan had one extra on hand, which he could only sell.

Xiao Yan's purpose in doing this was to prove the Four-Stripe White Spirit Pill—to demonstrate that the effects he claimed were real, using himself as the test subject.

With so many people in the arena as witnesses, along with several Dou Huang experts and a peak Fifth-Rank Pill Alchemy practitioner to attest, his Four-Stripe White Spirit Pill would surely fetch a high price.

Xiao Yan really was poor. He had only just refined one Five-Grade Elixir; to become a true Fifth-Rank Alchemist, he still needed vast quantities of Fifth-Rank Medicinal Material to practice with. Even with the Miter Trading Company's help, it was still not enough. Xiao Yan had to sell Pills to trade for materials.

The moment his words fell, under the witness of tens of thousands of spectators, Xiao Yan truly swallowed the Four-Stripe White Spirit Pill in one gulp.

As Xiao Yan's throat bobbed once, everyone present subconsciously swallowed as well. After all, it was a Five-Grade Elixir—very few people present had ever eaten a Pill of this caliber.

!!! With a thunderous boom, a burst of explosive sound suddenly erupted from within Xiao Yan's body. From the surface of his body, streams of four-colored flame energy surged forth like a fountain, violently bursting out from within him.

With a rumbling roar, the four-colored flames transformed into a fiery vortex that completely enveloped Xiao Yan.

"Does the Three-Stripe Green Spirit Pill do this!"

Fa Ma's expression turned grave. He shook his head and said, "This is no longer the Three-Stripe Green Spirit Pill. Besides, the Three-Stripe Green Spirit Pill I refined never used a Strange Fire, nor did it use multiple kinds of flame simultaneously to inscribe Pill Patterns like Xiao Yan did."

Xiao Yan, engulfed by the flame tornado, could feel with perfect clarity that the four Strange Fires were opening the pores connected to his Meridians, acting like a wind tunnel, absorbing energy at a speed more than ten times fiercer than before.

This Four-Stripe White Spirit Pill not only accelerated the refinement and condensation of Dou Qi, the Strange Fire energy also helped clear the blockages within his Meridians.

The stagnant blood left by hidden Battle wounds, the acupoints clogged by erroneous Cultivation, the residual energy from Elixirs—all were burned through and opened up by the four Strange Fires.

An unprecedented clarity spread throughout his entire body. Finally, all the energy, after being circulated by the Burning Art, gathered into the Qi Cyclone.

At this moment, Xiao Yan's Dou Qi was climbing steadily, from Four-Star to Five-Star, Six-Star, and finally reaching the strength of a Seven-Star Essence Refining!

No wonder Pill Alchemists were yearned for by countless people. Years of Cultivation could not match a single Pill—how could one not be enchanted?

Of course, the fact that a Seven-Star Essence Refining could already use a Five-Grade Elixir was also something that made people terribly jealous.

After roughly ten minutes, the four-colored flame tornado dispersed, and the rise of Dou Qi halted at Seven-Star Essence Refining.

When the flame tornado faded, everyone in the arena stared dumbfounded at Xiao Yan in the center of the Guang Chang, each face wearing an extraordinarily vivid expression.

With a slap, the little princess closest to him plopped down on her bottom. Usually so clever and mischievous, she was now so frightened her face had gone deathly pale. Her eyes held a look of utter disbelief as she stared at Xiao Yan—she had been scared right onto the ground.

In the VIP seats, Yao Ye, who had been sitting with one leg crossed over the other and her chin propped on her hand, curved her lips into a smile. A strange gleam flashed through her beautiful eyes as she clicked her tongue in admiration: "Tsk tsk tsk, my heavens, this is outrageous."

Ya Fei beside her, in that very instant, felt a wave of heat surge through her jade-like form. The visual impact made her powder-dusted face flush crimson, as alluring as the evening glow—such a bearing that it stole one's soul away. Ya Fei could not help but recall what Hai Bodong had once said.

Nalan Yanran, who had been following Yun Yun in Cultivation all along and had never had contact with men, felt her pupils contract. She subconsciously swallowed, gently bit her lower lip, and could not help but picture certain youthful scenes in her mind. If she had not broken the engagement back then, wouldn't she and Xiao Yan have...

Quite a few women in the spectator stands even fainted with smiles on their faces.

Xiao Yan himself had not expected that the energy of the Four-Stripe White Spirit Pill would be so terrifying that it burned his clothes right off!

The body he had tempered since childhood practicing the Eight Extremities Collapse was as tough and sturdy as steel. Combined with the body strengthened by the Ten Thousand Beast Spiritual Flame, Xiao Yan's physique was like a fierce beast in every respect!

Like a fierce beast!!!

"Ah!!" Xiao Yan instantly pulled out a Soul Robe from his Na Ring and threw it on, bursting forth with a speed that even Dou Huang would feel ashamed of, and vanished in an instant.

Ling Ying, hiding in the shadows, could not help but smile bitterly and shake his head: "This is more than just a fate entwined with romance—who would have thought the Ten Thousand Beast Spiritual Flame would have this effect too."

At this moment, far away at Jia Nan Academy, Xun Er was the one at a loss.

(End of this chapter)