Martial Peak

Chapter 850, Showing Off Meager Skills Before An Expert

After four hours, the pill furnace in front of Du Wan suddenly hissed and shook, as if something inside had come to life and was desperately trying to escape.

Du Wan’s expression became dignified as he patted his furnace several times, pouring his True Qi into it to complete the final stages of the refinement.

A moment later, he gently tapped his pill furnace once and a snow-white nail-sized pill flew out.

Du Wan eyes flashed as he swiftly pulled out a high quality jade bottle, caught the pill, and sealed it inside the bottle.

Even as he did so, a thick pill fragrance wafted about the pill room.

Having just successfully refined a Saint Pill, Du Wan nodded to himself, seeming quite satisfied.

Mi Na and Ye Xiong also couldn’t help feeling excited seeing this scene.

The five Saint Grade Low-Rank Alchemists had all begun refining their respective pills at the same time, but Old Man Du was the first to finish, it could be seen from this alone that his accomplishments in Alchemy were higher than the other four.

However, no one made a sound, only silently watching, waiting for the other four Grandmasters to complete their refinements.

Immediately after Du Wan was Kong Ruo Yu, only taking a stick of incense longer before she too extracted a Saint Grade Low-Rank pill from her furnace and stored it in her own jade bottle.

Half an hour later, Chang Bao, He Feng and Hong Fang also finished their pills.

Five Saint Pills being refined at once filled the entire pill room with a rich pill fragrance that was both refreshing and pleasant to the nose and spirit.

The five Grandmasters looked somewhat tired, especially Chang Bao whose large body was now dripping with sweat, his excess fat trembling as he breathed heavily and wiped his forehead constantly with his sleeve.

Glancing around, the five Grandmasters smiled at one another but none of them rushed to compare their finished Saint Pills, instead each of them pulling out a True Qi restoring pill and sitting cross-legged to recover.

Each of them needed some time to adjust themselves after this laborious process.

Refining Saint Pills had expended a great amount of their True Qi and Spiritual Energy.

It was only now that Mi Na and Ye Xiong dared to gasp as they reflected on everything that had transpired before them, both of them feeling like they had reaped a huge harvest, somewhat anxious to immediately refine some pills to verify the new insights they had just obtained.

“Yang Kai, which of the five Grandmasters so you think is the fiercest?” Mi Na stared in front of her intently and asked.

However, she received no response to her query.

Surprised by this silence, she quickly turned her head towards Yang Kai only to discover that he was wearing a contemplative expression, as if he was so lost in thought and had not heard her question at all.

“It looks like his gains were not small,” Ye Xiong smiled, “Don’t disturb him, he should have learned even more than us.”

Yang Kai had obviously sunk into a deep state of enlightenment. If he had not gained a massive harvest, reaching such a state would have been impossible.

Ye Xiong was somewhat envious.

“En,” Mi Na nodded quickly as she once against quieted her breathing, while waiting for the five Grandmasters to restore themselves.

A moment later though, Mi Na saw movement out of the corner of her eye and once again turned to face Yang Kai.

Looking curiously, Mi Na let out a surprised gasp.

She found that Yang Kai had at some point taken out his pill furnace as well as a number of Saint Grade spirit herbs, placed them in front of himself, and was now focused on portraying a Spirit Array into his furnace.

It was at this moment that the five Grandmasters finally finished restoring themselves and awoke from their meditation, Hong Fang letting out a loud laugh, “Our Saint Pills have been refined, now let’s let our judges see who the best among us is.”

“Good,” Chang Bao grinned meaningfully, “I hope that all of your Alchemy techniques haven’t regressed.”

“You should worry about yourself,” Du Wan shook his head and laughed, “For these past few years you’ve been patronizing a few too many restraints for your own good.”

Chang Bao grinned back at Du Wan, “But my Alchemy technique has not fallen.”

The Grandmasters all stood up as they bantered back and forth before walking over to where Yang Kai and the others were waiting.

However, they hadn’t taken more than a few steps before noticing what Yang Kai was doing and calling out in surprise.

“Oh, kid... Are you trying to show off meager skills before an expert?” He Feng said with a big smile, speaking teasingly but with no malicious intent.

On the other hand, Du Wan’s brow wrinkled as he suddenly realized something out of the ordinary. The only female Alchemist, Kong Ruo Yu, also wore a dignified expression as she raised her hand to stop her colleagues from stepping forward.

Mi Na and Ye Xiong also stepped away from Yang Kai and quickly approached the five Grandmasters.

“Old Man Du, Yang Kai suddenly started performing Alchemy, it seems like he harvested a lot of things and couldn’t wait to verify them,” Mi Na whispered.

“En,” Old Man Du nodded with a smile on his face, his eyes filled with appreciation, “Don’t bother him, he should have obtained an epiphany.”

“An epiphany?” Mi Na couldn’t help but frown, “Do such things happen in Alchemy?”

“Of course! Did you believe that one could only obtain an epiphany in the Martial Dao?” Du Wan whispered, “Such things are also possible in the Alchemic Dao. Once one enters such a state, everything around them fades away and only the sentiments and insights they suddenly obtained appear before their eyes. Right now, nothing exists in this world except his pill furnace and the herbs beside him... Fascinating, I wonder just what kind of breakthrough he’ll achieve.”

“En, speaking of epiphanies, I too once had the good fortune to obtain one many years ago,” Kong Ruo Yu recalled, “It was just as Senior Brother Du said, I couldn’t see anything else at the time, only my pill furnace and herbs. The only thing I could think of was refining that pill... Unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried, I was never able to reach such a state again. Haa... just like the epiphanies in the Martial Dao, it is something that cannot be sought, only met by chance.”

“What happened then? Did Grandmaster Kong successfully refine that pill?” Mi Na asked curiously.

Kong Ruo Yu smiled and nodded, “Naturally I succeeded. Moreover, the quality of that pill was extremely good with almost none of the medicinal essence going to waste; it is a work I am still proud of to this day that is stored in my collection.”

“Amazing,” Mi Na said, her eyes’ filled with respect.

“Wait, haven’t you all noticed something odd about the materials this little boy selected...” He Feng frowned, “Why are there so many Saint Grade materials? It couldn’t be that he wants to refine...”

Hearing these words, everyone’s attention was immediately drawn back to the pile of materials in front of Yang Kai and upon careful examination they discovered that all of the herbs he had laid out were indeed Saint Grade.

“Is he trying to refine a Saint Pill?” Chang Bao exclaimed.

Du Wan’s eyes lit up as he chuckled, “If everything turns out well, he could refine a Saint Pill with these materials!”

“Du Wan, stop joking around!” He Feng rolled his eyes, “How hard it is to refine Saint Pills, all of us both know well. It’s true his aptitude is astonishing and his skills profound, enough so that I can declare without doubt he will one day become a Saint Grade Alchemist whose achievements will far outstrip our own, but that’s a matter for the future. Refining a Saint Pill at his present age, isn’t that expected a bit too much?”

“Young people are always headstrong and fearless, thinking there is nothing they cannot accomplish by recklessly charging ahead, facing some setbacks along the way is by no means a misdemeanor. It’s just unfortunate that in his epiphany he did not chose Spirit Grade materials instead; if he had, he would likely have reaped more benefits,” Hong Fang said with a look of regret.

Chang Bao and Kong Ruo Yu also sighed in agreement, all of them feeling that Yang Kai trying to refine a Saint Pill now was him overestimating his skills.

Du Wan, on the other hand, just smiled lightly and said nothing more.

Although he hoped that Yang Kai would succeed, even he felt that Yang Kai was overreaching.

Being able to successfully refine a Saint Pill meant Yang Kai would already be qualified to call himself a Saint Grade Alchemist. One had to know that throughout all of Tong Xuan Realm there weren’t many such Alchemists, and each of them was an old monster who had been immersed in Alchemy for countless years.

Yang Kai was simply too young.

“We should observe what he does carefully so later we can give him pointers on any shortcomings he shows. That will be what’s best for his future growth,” Kong Ruo Yu suggest.

Everyone else nodded before silently focusing their attention on the pill refinement in front of them.

Yang Kai’s movements weren’t as fluid as their own but they were nonetheless meticulous and steady, each one executed with impeccable precision and timing.

Seeing this, the several Grandmasters were all secretly amazed.

Yang Kai’s foundational skills were incredibly solid and even to their highly critical eyes, the way he condensed his medicinal liquids was without the slightest flaw.

Moreover, the True Qi that he revealed from his body was both pure and vigorous. None of them knew what Spirit Array he had drawn inside his pill furnace in advance, but each herb he placed inside it was purified into the highest quality medicinal liquid without the slightest bit of waste.

The medicinal liquids that had already been condensed were then wrapped in his True Qi and suspended beside the pill furnace, waiting to be used later.

Witnessing these motions, each of the Grandmasters couldn’t help nodding lightly, showing their approval.

After roughly half an hour, all the herbs had been condensed into medicinal liquids, causing the five Grandmasters to be somewhat stunned.

Even if they were to trade places, they would not have been able to accomplish this step faster or better than Yang Kai; in fact, most of them would likely take even longer.

This could only mean that the purity and potency of Yang Kai’s True Qi was higher than their own and the Spirit Array he was using was superior.

After all the medicinal liquids were condensed, Yang Kai waved his hand quickly and a burst of light suddenly appeared inside his pill furnace. It seemed like he had instantly destroyed the Spirit Array which he had portrayed earlier.

Seeing this scene, Chang Bao couldn’t help muttering, “This little boy is too careless. Destroying his Spirit Array so haphazardly, how will he re-draw a new one in time?”

The medicinal liquids had already been condensed, and even tightly wrapped in True Qi. The longer they were left as is, the more their medicinal efficacies would diminish, so returning them to the pill furnace as soon as possible was of paramount importance.

They too would replace the Spirit Arrays they used during refinement, but only after fully preparing them beforehand. Also, they would not completely destroy their previous Spirit Arrays and instead use it to build up a new one, saving both time and effort, which increased their efficiency.

On the other hand, Yang Kai had directly destroyed his original Spirit Array.

Each of the Grandmasters couldn’t help showing a worried look, almost as if they could see Yang Kai refining an inferior quality pill, wasting a large number of precious Saint Grade materials.

However, Chang Bao had barely finished his words when another flash of light appeared inside Yang Kai’s pill furnace and it began twinkling faintly once again. Each of the Grandmasters had excellent vision so it only took them a moment to discover that a new set of markings was rapidly appearing inside the pill furnace.

“So fast?” He Feng was so stunned, somewhat unable to believe what he was witnessing, “That’s impossible...”

The shimmering rays of light were a clear sign that a new Spirit Array had taken shape.

It was only a moment ago that Yang Kai had destroyed his previous Spirit Array, yet he had already finished portraying the next. Such speed far exceeded the understanding of all five Grandmasters!