Chapter 388: Liu Ling's Usual Risky Moves!

  While the crowd was captivated by the power of Liu Ling’s heavenly fme, Xiao Yan’s gaze remained fixed on the pile of ingredients on Liu Ling’s ptform. It was clear that the quantity of materials Liu Ling had prepared far exceeded the twenty herbs required for refining a Three-Patterned Green Spirit Pill.

  Suddenly, an old, familiar voice echoed in Xiao Yan’s mind.

  “Xiao Yan, stop staring. That boy’s ingredients are clearly meant for refining a fifth-grade pill!”

  “A fifth-grade pill? Does that mean he’s already achieved the level of a fifth-grade alchemist?” Xiao Yan’s face was filled with disbelief at Yao Lao’s words.

  “Xiao Yan, don’t get so worked up. Liu Ling is about two years older than you. If he reach the level of a fifth-grade alchemist now, you could achieve the same in two years. Besides, his current skills would hardly impress the elite alchemist s in the Dan Region. Ba my day…”

  Seeing Xiao Yan’s rea, Yao Lao began to boast about some of his past experiences.

  “Xiao Yan, focus on refining the Three-Patterned Green Spirit Pill as we practiced. Don’t get distracted by all this. If Liu Ling succeeds in refining that fifth-grade pill, you won’t stand a ce to win. But if he happens to slip up or faces a problem during the fusion process, you might still have an opportunity.”

  “Yes, teacher, I uand!”

  Hearing Yao Lao’s guidance, Xiao Yan realized he couldn’t let external distras affect him as they had in the first round.

  He held a small hope in the back of his mind—that Liu Ling might enter a failure during the refining process. After all, even the best alchemists ’t guarantee a hundred pert success. Refining a fifth-grade pill also takes much lohan a frade pill, so if Liu Ling made a mistake during the fusion stage, he would have no time to prepare a sed set of materials.

  …

  As the unusual se caused by Liu Ling’s heavenly fme dissipated, the testants gradually refocused on the challenge ahead. They directed their fmes into their cauldrons, retrieved their materials from their ste rings, and began the first step in alchemy: extra!

  Xiao Ya his eyes locked on his cauldron, occasionally tossing one or two herbs from his ptform inside. Carefully trolling the fme temperature, he followed the instrus from the formu, meticulously extrag the esseneeded for the pill.

  Even though the instrus were precise in his mind, Xiao Yan couldn’t afford any carelessness. Fa Ma had only given him two sets of ingredients st night, so any mistake that led to the loss of even one herb would signifitly increase his ces of failure. This was something Xiao Yan couldn’t tolerate.

  As a result, he didn’t rush, throwing in four or five herbs at once. Instead, he chose a more cautious approach, refining one or two herbs at a time.

  At this moment, most testants were as careful as Xiao Yan. However, there were exceptions.

  On Liu Ling’s side, he boldly grabbed four herbs and tossed them all into the Crimson Serpent Cauldron at once, beginning the refining process.

  “Sigh, that boy… reckless as ever, with no caution!”

  Seeing Liu Ling’s as, Fa Ma let out a heavy sigh. His worst fear had e to pass.

  Based on Liu Ling’s previous performances, his skill level was undoubtedly the highest among the testants. Yet, Liu Ling’s refining approach was always exceedingly risky—something that could prove disastrous in a petition.

  Reizing this fw in Liu Ling, Fa Ma had met with Xiao Ya night to prepare a backup pn.

  In the VIP se, Nahdrew his gaze from the testants and turo Nan Yanran. “Yanran, you’ve been hiding up on Yunn Mountain these past two years. Were you afraid of fag yrandfather’s reprimand?”

  “Reprimand? Why would you se, Grandfather?”

  Hearing his words, Nan Yanran looked puzzled.

  “You ehe e with the Xiao family without sulting us. Do you think you were entirely justified? Regardless of the oute of your three-year challe would be best if you apologized to the Xiao family afterward,” Nan Jie said with a slightly reproachful tone.

  After Gu He cured Nan Jie of his poison, he learned about the broken e. Taking time to visit the Xiao family as a friend of the family elder, Xiao Lin, he discovered that Xiao Yan’s cultivation talent had returhis knowledge influenced his current advice.

  “I did nothing wrong! When I went to break the e, I even offered pensation, but he not only rejected it but insulted me, saying he’d divorce me!” Nan Yanran replied stubbornly.

  “You could have gone privately to the Xiao family and spoken to Xiao Zhan kindly about annulling the e. Perhaps it wouldn’t have caused su i. Instead, you chose to wield the authority of Yuo force the e's dissolution, disregarding the damage it would do to the Xiao family’s reputation. That e was arranged by yrandfather and Xiao Zhan’s father. How does this put me, yrandfather, in a respectable position?” Nan Jie looked at his granddaughter, his tone calm but firm.

  Hearing her grandfather’s words, Nan Yanran’s expression grew plex. After a moment, she spoke evenly, “Grandfather, I won’t gh with a marriage I don’t want, no matter what. No one force me. Besides, I won’t lose ihree-year challenge. When Xiao Yan is defeated, I’ll offer him some pensation.”

  “You’re that fident? The boy from the Xiao family is not g in talent. After three years, he may well have reached the rank of Dou Grandmaster.”

  “There’s no need for you to worry about that. Just focus on watg the match,” Nan Yanran responded, sidestepping her grandfather’s probing and using her Dou Qi to temporarily block her hearing, tuning out his chatter.

  Though Nan Jie was irritated by her attitude, he couldn’t do much about it. After all, they were in a public setting, and he had no desire for the Nan family to bee the subject of ridicule.

  By this point, the final round had progressed for some time. Naiced that during his versation with Nan Yanran, the most dazzling testant, Liu Ling, had already used up two-thirds of his ingredients, while most others had barely finished extrag three or four herbs.

  “This speed is simply astounding!”

  While others were refining third-grade pills, Liu Ling was w on a fifth-grade pill. Yet his pa extrag thirty to forty herbs nearly matched others’ speed with only seven ht. It was enough to leave everyoonished.

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