Chapter 504: This is a Dark Horse

Three days later.

Heaven-Craft Pavilion.

As the iconic building in every city of the Thousand Machines Domain, the Heaven-Craft Pavilion is located in the very center of each city.

At this moment, people entering and leaving the Heaven-Craft Pavilion are endless. There are ranked martial artists, and there are also Innate martial artists.

"If the lord wants to sign up for pill refining, as long as you show the certificate, you can directly skip the preliminary competition."

The ranked martial artist responsible for registration saw Lin Chen walking over, and his stiff face also revealed a smile.

"What certificate?"

"It's the rank certificate issued by the Artifact Refining Guild. Does the lord not have it?"

The ranked martial artist listened to Lin Chen's inquiry, and his whole person was a bit stunned. Generally, those who take the pill refining path start refining pills from the ranked martial arts stage, and by the time they reach the Innate Realm, at the very least they are an intermediate artifact refiner.

It's impossible to cultivate to the Innate Realm and then come to start refining pills; that would be putting the cart before the horse.

What is artifact refining for? Besides those who are truly obsessed with artifact refining, most artifact refiners are for obtaining resources, for assisting their own Martial Way cultivation, and for having the opportunity to step into the Innate Realm by borrowing artifact refining.

"No."

Lin Chen's expression didn't have any changes, and he said faintly: "Why, can't I sign up without a certificate?"

"Ye... yes you can. This is your competition number plate, lord. After you go in for a while, choose the Pill Refining Hall, and someone there will guide you, lord."

The ranked martial artist explained hurriedly, and at the same time handed Lin Chen a jade plate. On the jade plate was engraved a number.

Taking the number plate, Lin Chen headed straight for the Pill Refining Hall, not caring at all about the strange eyes of other people around him.

Pill Refining Hall.

At this moment, it was bustling with people. The entire hall had quite a few side halls, each with a hundred pill furnaces. At this moment, quite a few people had already started refining pills.

The rules for the preliminary competition of the artifact refining competition were very simple: refine three furnaces of pills within the specified time. The medicinal materials were provided by the competition organizer. Completing it counted as passing the re-examination.

Compared to other contestants who had to find pill furnace locations themselves, Lin Chen enjoyed special treatment. Personnel from the hall personally led him to a pill furnace and sent him medicinal materials.

An Innate powerhouse—his status and treatment naturally couldn't be compared with those ranked martial artists.

An hour later, Lin Chen opened the furnaces for three furnaces of pills at the same time. This scene caused shock among other pill refiners in the hall. You must know that they were all refining one furnace after another, ensuring as much as possible that the pills could be successfully refined.

Everyone only had one chance. Once they failed, they were eliminated.

Refining three furnaces at the same time, and they were also different pills—only if one had absolute confidence in one's own strength would one dare to try this way.

In the entire side hall, Lin Chen was the earliest to finish refining. After being announced as having passed the preliminary competition, Lin Chen didn't rush to leave, but observed the pill refining situation of others in the side hall. But after observing for a while, he was uninterested. The pill refining techniques of these pill refiners were not even as good as him, a newcomer.

For Innate Realm martial artists to refine pills, even if they were just starting to try, for those ranked pill refiners, it was a dimensionality reduction strike.

Those powerful pill refiners should be participating directly in the re-examination.

Having lost interest in watching, Lin Chen left the side hall directly. The re-examination would start the day after tomorrow. Rather than wasting time here, it was better to go home and refine a few more furnaces of pills to familiarize himself.

The next day.

Pill Refining Hall, several old men sat on chairs, each with a list in their hands.

This was the list of contestants who had passed the preliminary competition and entered the re-examination.

"It seems that in this session of the pill refining preliminary competition, there are no latecomers."

The artifact refining competition is the top-tier event in the Thousand Machines Domain and is related to the interests of various cities. Various cities attach great importance to it. But the families and sects of various cities don't count on the contestants of the preliminary competition to have good rankings in the final competition.

But just because they can't count on them now doesn't mean it's not important. The artifact refining competition is held once every five years. These good seedlings in the preliminary competition are the subsequent living forces, the candidates for the final competition in the next session or the session after next.

Many cities will make decisions based on the situation of the preliminary competition contestants. If no good seedlings are found in the preliminary competition, they will find ways to dig up some artifact refiners with talent from other cities.

"There is indeed a powerful one who refined three furnaces of different pills within an hour."

Listening to the words of the old man on the left, other old men smiled helplessly. Being able to refine three furnaces of different pills within an hour in the preliminary competition and succeeding is indeed considered very strong talent.

But the key is that this contestant is already an Innate powerhouse.

If this contestant were a ranked artifact refiner, even if it were a high-grade one, it would be considered good talent. But placed on an Innate powerhouse, it couldn't be counted as anything.

"This Xiao Yan should have started coming into contact with pill refining after entering the Innate Realm. Being able to have this result is more due to the advantage of his spirit."

Those present were all Innate powerhouses and were also pill refiners. They clearly knew how much help an Innate powerhouse's spirit had for pill refining. And this round of refining was all relatively ordinary pills, so the difficulty was not great.

And while these old men were discussing here, at this moment, the outside world was also discussing.

The pill refining sub-competition in the artifact refining competition has always been the most concerned, because this is what all martial artists come into contact with the most. As long as one is a martial artist, one has taken pills.

"Have you heard? In this session of the preliminary competition, the first place refined three furnaces of different pills within an hour."

"So powerful, has another genius appeared in our Hundred-Refinement City?"

"Hehe?"

"What is the meaning of your smile?"

"That person is already an Innate powerhouse."

On the scene, there was silence.

An Innate powerhouse still comes to participate in the preliminary competition?

This has nothing to do with pill refining talent. This Innate powerhouse named Xiao Yan being able to take first place is purely relying on his own powerful spirit.

The name Xiao Yan began to spread among the crowd paying attention to the pill refining competition.

Li Family Trading Firm.

Li Chongshan heard this news, and the corners of his mouth twitched. If he remembered correctly, when he gave this Brother Xiao the invitation letter, this Brother Xiao didn't even understand the artifact refining competition well and asked him quite a few questions.

As long as one is a pill refiner, one will more or less know some rules of the artifact refining competition.

That is to say, this Brother Xiao learned pill refining after getting the news from him, and then went to sign up for the pill refining competition.

"Manager Li, do you know this person?"

In the courtyard behind the trading firm, a young woman saw the strange expression of Manager Li, put down the list in her hand, and asked curiously.

"Eldest Miss, I do know this Xiao Yan. Not long ago..."

After listening to Li Chongshan's words, the young woman also smiled: "Looking at it this way, this Xiao Yan should just be joining in the fun. The preliminary competition is easy to pass, but the re-examination hurdle might not be certain."

Those Innate-level pill refiners in Hundred-Refinement City are at least intermediate, and they don't need to participate in the preliminary competition, which is why Xiao Yan was able to take first place.

But entering the re-examination, there are quite a few Innate-level pill refiners, and they have all been immersed in pill refining for more than ten years or even decades. Without the advantage of spirit, Xiao Yan cannot pass the re-examination assessment.

The next day!

The Heaven-Craft Pavilion is even more lively than it was three days ago.

The re-examination of the Hundred-Refinement City artifact refining competition has begun. Those who can enter the re-examination are all quite famous in Hundred-Refinement City.

"Why, not together with me?"

"I'm afraid of losing face."

Before the main gate of the Heaven-Craft Pavilion, Hearing Yin Yue shook her head. An Innate martial artist participating in the preliminary competition—without thinking, one knows it will definitely cause discussion. If it were just discussion, that would be fine. The main thing is that she has no confidence in Lin Chen.

A person who has started pill refining for less than seven days in total dares to come to participate in the pill refining competition. Lin Chen is not afraid of losing face, but she is.

"Okay then, take this invitation letter."

Lin Chen threw the invitation letter Li Chongshan gave him to Hearing Yin Yue, walked into the main gate by himself, and walked toward the direction of the contestants. As for Hearing Yin Yue, she went to the guest seat.

The venue for the re-examination was still in the Pill Refining Hall, but not inside the hall, but in the square outside the main hall.

When Lin Chen walked into the square, quite a few contestants were already standing in the square. The pill furnaces in front of these contestants were varied, but just by looking with the naked eye, Lin Chen could also judge that the extraordinariness of these pill furnaces was not something the pill furnaces provided by the organizer in the preliminary competition yesterday could compare to.

Lin Chen looked awkwardly at the young man leading the way in front, and asked: "You don't provide pill furnaces for the re-examination?"

As soon as this was said, the young man in front stiffened, turned his head and said: "Lord, many lords are used to refining pills with their own pill furnaces, so the re-examination allows everyone to bring their own pill furnaces. However, if the lord needs it, we can also provide it."

Needing them to provide a pill furnace for the re-examination—this was the first time he had encountered it.

"Mm, I forgot to bring my pill furnace when I went out today. Just provide me with one."

Lin Chen's expression didn't have any changes, and he just stood in his position, waiting for the young man to go get him a pill furnace. It was just that several pill refiners around him looked at him with strange expressions, and some even revealed sneers on their faces. But sneers were sneers; no one spoke to mock him.

Perhaps it was because those who could stand here were not greenhorns and wouldn't easily form grudges with people, or perhaps it was because Lin Chen's Second Stage Innate strength made these people wary.

On the contrary, at this moment, in the guest seat in the viewing stand, quite a few people's eyes fell on Lin Chen.

In the entire square, other contestants all had pill furnaces in front of them, only Lin Chen stood there alone. It would be strange if he didn't attract attention.

"This lord didn't bring a pill furnace?"

"How is that possible? For a pill refiner, how important is a pill furnace? A good pill furnace and a pill furnace that is easy to use can increase the probability of successful pill refining by ten percent or even several tens of percent."

"If it were other lords, I certainly wouldn't say that. But I also met this one yesterday, and he is the Xiao Yan who appeared in the preliminary competition field."

"Xiao Yan? Is that the Xiao Yan who stepped into the Innate Realm but isn't even an intermediate pill refiner?"

"He wouldn't be without even a pill furnace, right?"

"Shou... should not be, right? After all, this is the re-examination. If he didn't have some ability, why would he participate? Perhaps he really forgot." ===== CHAPTER 505 =====