With Yun Yilan’s word, the matter came to a conclusion just like this. Lord Hulun Hehe’s face was stunned blue and white. He glanced at Qin Yu briefly before flicking his sleeves and stomping away.

The security guards left the field with awkward expressions.

Qin Yu instantly became the target of many burning hot gazes. The female cultivators were thinking, ‘My big brother Ning Qin is so fierce!’ And the male cultivators were feeling bitter inside, wondering just what sort of dogshit luck this boy walked into.

Those from Philosophy Watch had become clowns. After putting on such a laughable performance and still having half their people crippled, they still weren’t able to accomplish anything. Now that everyone knew that the Exalted Yun Yilan was interested in Ning Qin, even if Philosophy Watch was a hundred times braver they still wouldn’t try to move against him in the future.

The bearded man’s lips twitched but he couldn’t force out a smile. He and the several other cultivators from Philosophy Watch felt as if they were about to cry together.

But at this time, Qin Yu didn’t feel overjoyed or proud at all. Rather, he was completely silent. He was well aware that if it weren’t for the accident with the pill furnace, Yun Yilan definitely wouldn’t have interfered and his ending today wouldn’t have been so lucky.

Looking at this from another angle, Yun Yilan had appeared without warning, and while it seemed that he had protected Qin Yu from today’s disaster, with his status, he wouldn’t have done this without a reason.

Then what was the reason?

Qin Yu thought that the most likely cause was the low-profile pill furnace in his hands that always pretended to be a pig to eat a tiger.

He originally just hoped to come here and get first place in the competition. After obtaining the treasure furnace’s incomplete spirit for the Fleeting Flame Furnace, he could leave. But how had things suddenly spiraled out of control? Hulun Hehe’s hostility towards him was one thing, but Yun Yilan’s attention was of prime importance.

Qin Yu sighed and tossed these thoughts to the side. Under countless gazes, he arrived at the field for the fourth stage. The location was the same; it was where the third stage had been located. But now, all those low hanging cabins had been demolished, and earth-attribute magic arts had been used to construct wide rows of spacy stone buildings.

The official announced the rules. “The fourth stage will determine your final ranking. In other words, everyone here has already entered the finals.” As he said this, the numerous participating cultivators all revealed looks of excitement.

In truth, before the competition even started, the majority of people here knew that it was impossible to obtain one of the top spots with their abilities. To be able to step into the finals was more than satisfactory for them. By using the status of someone who was a finalist in the Southshine Nation’s Youth Alchemy Competition, their future road of cultivation would be much easier to walk down.

After all, the tens of thousands of contestants encompassed nearly all the geniuses from the younger generation in the Southshine Nation. If they could stand out amongst this crowd and bloom upon entering the fourth stage, they would absolutely be praised as talented youths.

“This time, you must refine a pill using the exchanged materials from the third stage. Then, you will be ranked according to the grade and efficacy of your pill. This stage will last for a total of three days. I wish all of you luck and a smooth refining.”

The competition began.

Qin Yu used his tag number and found his own stone building. He pushed open the door and walked in.

As before, he swept the area with his divine sense. After not sensing anything strange, he took out an array plate and set up an array formation around the stone building.

The Demon Puppet Pill was rarely refined and required a considerable amount of skill. This was also Qin Yu’s first time seeing it and he had no experience in refining it. Still, he had considerable confidence that he could succeed.

First he needed to feed his blood to the eternal night demon mushroom, and then refine three of those together into one, forming the Demon Puppet Pill. Upon further investigation, Qin Yu discovered that the quality of one’s blood had a tremendous influence on whether the pill refining was a success. Since he had a Demon Body and also Ning Ling’s demonic bloodline, they should naturally be helpful in refining the Demon Puppet Pill.

Next, there was also this pill furnace in front of him. Although he still didn’t know what its origins were, if it could cause someone like Yun Yilan to appear, it definitely wasn’t anything minor. Moreover, he hadn’t failed once in his previous refinements. Because of that, Qin Yu had to recognize this pill furnace’s abilities.

He laid down the pill furnace and took out the seven eternal night demon mushrooms. He wasn’t in a hurry to begin the refinement. His eyebrows pressed together and a light flashed in his eyes. It was unknown just what he was thinking.

After several breaths of time, Qin Yu finally said, “Pill furnace, I know you can understand my words, so I’ll get straight to the point. You chose me out of everyone here, so you must have your reasons. I will acknowledge that I have my own secrets, but I cannot trust you. So, unless you give me a sufficient guarantee, I would rather lose this competition than refine pills.”

This was a matter involving the little blue lamp and he couldn’t allow any chance that it would be exposed. Otherwise, with his current cultivation, he would immediately be torn to shreds.

These words might contain a bit of threat towards the pill furnace, but if it continued to play dumb, Qin Yu would make that fantasy into a reality.

After a moment of silence, the pill furnace suddenly shook. With a slight hum, faint traces of light flowed out from it, turning into a sphere of light in the air.

One could see countless tiny characters in this sphere of light. Unfortunately, these characters were extremely strange and even when one looked directly at them, it was impossible to figure out what they said.

Kacha –

With a light sound, another crack appeared on the pill furnace’s surface. Although it was tiny, and even though it seemed quite ordinary amongst the rest of the numerous cracks, this sight still caused Qin Yu’s heart to skip a beat. His intuition told him that in order for this pill furnace to summon this sphere of light, it had paid a considerable price.

Moreover, he didn’t feel any threat from this pill furnace. After a moment of hesitation he lifted his hand and searched the sphere of light. Immediately, a great deal of information flowed into Qin Yu’s mind and he understood that this sphere of light was actually an extremely ancient contract. He had already signed it once he touched it. There were no severe requirements in this contract. The only point was that both signatories could not have the intent of harming the other party, otherwise the contract would be activated and a backlash would occur. If that happened, the other party would undoubtedly die!

The sphere of light vanished. Through the contract, Qin Yu could faintly feel the boundless aura emanating from the pill furnace. However, this aura was already torn to pieces and had barely managed to keep itself together. Right now, less than a single percent of this aura’s strength could be used, but this 1% was already amazing. If this pill furnace could be restored to its original state, then…it would be unimaginable!

Qin Yu suppressed his shaking heart and cupped his hands together. “Since Brother Pill Furnace has expressed sufficient sincerity; I won’t speak too much. The first place position in the competition is already ours. Of course, the premise is that Brother Pill Furnace is willing to be merciful and not swallow any Demon Puppet Pills. After all, these are all the materials that I have.”

Hu –

The flames ignited on their own, drawing in heaven and earth spiritual energy. The furnace lid opened, clearly approving of this.

Qin Yu faintly smiled. He picked up the first eternal night demon mushroom and tossed it into the furnace.

It wasn’t as easy as feeding one’s blood to the eternal night demon mushroom and then tossing it in. First, one needed to use the pill furnace to refine out all the impurities within the eternal night demon mushroom, only retaining the medical efficacy. Then, one could begin adding their blood.

This step continued smoothly. The eternal night demon mushroom within the pill furnace turned into a liquid form that was nearly pitch black in color. Then Qin Yu flicked his finger and a small cut appeared on it. Several drops of blood flew out and were sucked into the pill furnace. His face slowly paled with it, but in several breaths of time this paleness disappeared and Qin Yu’s face returned to a rosy color.

In refining the Demon Puppet Pill, the quality of blood was extremely important. Even though he had the little blue lamp, the Land of Divinity and Demons was a place of crouching tigers and hidden dragons, so he had no choice but to remain careful. So, what he used just now was his blood essence. Each drop was incredibly potent. This was something that only someone like him who possessed the Demon Body and wasn’t afraid of losing some blood essence would dare to do. If it were any other alchemist, they would shrink at the sight of this.

Of course, having the Demon Body was one part, but an even more important reason was the limitless amount of pills at his disposal. Otherwise, if he relied only on his mortal body to regenerate all its lost blood essence, this would take a month if not longer.

The refining continued.

Three eternal night demon mushrooms were soon fed full with blood. They floated in front of Qin Yu, their black and red mottled color emitting a strange and ghastly aura. Qin Yu wasn’t in a hurry to refine. He closed his eyes in meditation for four hours. With the support of a massive amount of pills, he slowly restored himself and then opened his eyes.

A sharp light flashed in his eyes and he pointed a finger at the pill furnace. The three eternal night demon mushrooms flew into the pill furnace and the flame below instantly erupted, drawing in a tremendous amount of heaven and earth spiritual strength. It was so much that one could even hear it rushing inside.

Qin Yu had a dignified expression. His hands constantly formed law formulas, and the pill furnace’s temperature rose at a dramatic speed. Within the pressure of an absolutely high temperature, the three eternal night demon mushrooms began to slowly fuse together because of the similar blood essence within them.

…

In Zhao Jiutian’s eyes, the pill furnace began to turn crimson because of the high temperature within it. The heat rushed out, causing his face to flush red.

He lifted a hand and took out a black lotus leaf with ugly textures that resembled a ghost face on it. He used a bit of effort and shattered it.

Then, this lotus leaf actually emitted a shrill and sorrowful scream like that of a fierce ghost. The powder was swallowed up by the pill furnace and that originally crimson pill furnace became an even deeper red, like roiling magma.

Zhao Jiutian’s face revealed a bit of hesitation. Then, he clenched his teeth and pressed his hand directly onto that blazing red furnace.

Sizzle –

There was the sound of burning flesh and blood. His face immediately paled and because of the pain that surged up his arm, he unconsciously trembled.

Sweat moistened his robes. It even began to drip onto the ground from the corner of his robes.

The flesh and blood of Zhao Jiutian’s palm quickly melted away to reveal white bone. And, that melted flesh and blood was absorbed by the pill furnace.

“Child and Mother Yinyang Pill, open for me!”

Bang –

The pill furnace popped open and two pills flew out, one small and one large. They were blood red in color and had horrendous ghost faces on their surface.

Zhao Jiutian flicked his sleeves and caught the two pills. A look of excitement lit up his pale face.

“Medium-grade…they’re actually medium-grade…” As he thought, this method of feeding blood could forcefully enhance a pill by one rank.

But this wasn’t the end. Although a medium-grade Child and Mother Yinyang Pill was rare, if he wanted to secure first place, it was still a bit lacking.

He carefully placed the pills in the extinguished pill furnace. Then, he flipped his hand and took out a piece of ice.

This was a true shard of ice. When it appeared, it emitted a horrifyingly low temperature. A layer of white frost began to form on the edges of Zhao Jiutian’s eyebrows.

But what was most shocking was that sealed within this terrifying shard of ice, there was actually a flame!

Even though it was in a sealed condition, the beating flame still peacefully burned.

Zhao Jiutian’s complexion became incomparably earnest. He lifted a hand and there was a crack on the shard of ice; a small crack had appeared on the surface.

Without any delay, he tossed the shard of ice into the pill furnace. Then, he used his other hand to rapidly form law formulas.

The sealing array below the pill furnace activated and a loud and deep bang erupted, causing the entire pill furnace to gently tremble.

Zhao Jiutian had a worried look. After several breaths of time, the humming fell silent. His heart relaxed and his face lit up with joy.

It worked!

Hahaha! With this extreme cold fire that he had exchanged for with his points to temper the pills, the quality of the Child and Mother Yinyang Pill rose by yet another level.

A high-grade Child and Mother Yinyang Pill was something that not even a great grandmaster level alchemist would be able to accomplish on the first try. This time, he was sure to be the champion of the competition!

White Fengfeng…

The Great Desolate Lake’s young master – what a prestigious name. But in the end, she was nothing but a little girl. From the beginning, he had never placed her in his heart.

Qin Yu’s figure subconsciously flashed in his mind and his lips lifted in a mocking smile.

So what if he had that furnace from the ninth level?

With just you alone, you don’t have the qualifications to compare with me!