After everyone who was participating made it to the arena, Sao Yong stepped forward. Wu Jian had been told only a little about this man. He was the head of the Zhou Kingdom’s Alchemist Association and a Gold rank alchemist. That made him one of the best alchemists in the entire world.

The man spread his hands out in a grand gesture. “Welcome, everyone, to this year’s Young Alchemist Competition! This is where young men and women who have chosen to study the Dao of Alchemy compete to show their talent! This is where talent is recognized! The winner shall receive more than just fame and glory! The one who wins this tournament shall be granted the greatest reward an alchemist can ever want!”

Wu Jian felt it before he saw it. Power. Raw and undiluted. It made his skin feel like it was blistering. A sweltering heat unlike anything he’d felt before. Even the desert of the Qing Province had not made him feel like this.

He looked toward the source and saw none other than the second prince walking toward Sao Yong, carrying what appeared to be a glass container. It couldn’t be glass, however, because it would have already melted under the intense heat of those flames, which Wu Jian could feel even though he was several dozen chih away.

The flames were pure silver. Wu Jian at first thought they were like that because of the container, but the container was crystal clear and didn’t have a single distortion. These flames were truly silver. Just being near it sent chills down his spine.

What kind of fire is that? I feel like I’m walking alongside death.

“This is the Heavenly Ghost Flame. Do not let yourself be fooled by it's small size and beautiful appearance. These flames are hot enough to burn your very soul if you are not careful. The Heavenly Ghost Flame is ranked fiftieth on the heavenly flame ranking chart. It is perfect for a young alchemist to assimilate into their own alchemy flames.”

Wu Jian did not know what the ranking meant, but fortunately, Master Wong Jiu was present to explain it since Sao Yong was not.

“The heavenly flame ranking is a chart that ranks all the currently known heavenly flames on a combination of their rarity, power, and usefulness in alchemy. There are sixty-six known heavenly flames. The Heavenly Ghost Flame was only recently discovered last year and given the ranking of fifty. It’s very rare, but it’s not as powerful as many other flames.”

“Is it good with alchemy?” asked Wu Jian.

Master Wong Jiu nodded. “That is the reason it received a rank of fifty instead of sixty-six. While there are better heavenly flames for alchemy, this one is both powerful enough to refine ingredients with ease and easy enough to control that even a beginning of alchemy can use it well. What makes the Heavenly Ghost Flames particularly interesting is that it is also ideal for combat and torture.”

Wu Jian stared at the flames as he imagined Zhou Lihua wielding them in both alchemy and combat.

“Is that not the case for most alchemy flames?” he asked.

“Of course, you can use alchemy flames for combat if you want. They do burn, after all, but that is not how they are meant to be used.” Master Wong Jiu paused to stroke his beard. “Heavenly flames are quite different. Even the weakest heavenly flame excels at being used in both combat and alchemy once assimilated. All of them are very good at both, but some are better being used in combat while others are better being used for alchemy.”

“What is the Heavenly Ghost Flame better at?” asked Wu Jian.

“This is just what I heard during a meeting between alchemists, but the Heavenly Ghost Flame is equally good for both alchemy and combat. However, it has a very unique ability when used on living creatures, which is that it burns the soul rather than the body.”

A chill went down Wu Jian’s spine. Burns the soul? The soul was the immaterial essence of an individual and not something that you could see with the naked eye. So how did people realize these the flames could burn the soul?

Master Wong Jiu chuckled when he heard that question. “You’re a cultivator and you’re asking that? Surely, you’ve seen people with strange and unique powers that attack more than just your body? There are plenty of cultivators out there who can not only see souls but even interact with them and rip a person’s soul right out of their bodies. I’ve even heard of someone who can consume the souls of the dead and use them to power their techniques.”

Wu Jian did not like the idea of someone who could use the souls of people who died for their techniques. It sounded vile. According to Master Wong Jiu, people who did that were called dark cultivators. They had existed thousands of years ago, but they were mostly stamped out during the Era of Four Dieties, which was when the four guardian spirits founded their sects.

While Master Wong Jiu shared this history, Sao Yong continued talking. “Now, allow me to explain how this competition will work. Round Two is about to begin. During this second round, participants will have five hours to refine a pill of the Alchemist Association’s choosing. We have made sure that the pill to be refined is one that none of you have never refined before. You might be wondering how I know no one has refined it. That is because I made this pill myself. It is a new pill. And I have not shared this recipe with anyone.”

Creating a new pill was not something that just anyone could do. It required an innate understanding of alchemy, how the ingredients interacted with each other, and your flames. Even then, it took many years of trial and error. Only someone on the level of a Gold rank alchemist had that kind of talent. Refining your own pill was even one of the requirements to becoming gold rank.

“Now, then, here is the recipe for the pill you youngins will be refining,” said Sao Yong. He waved his hand and several sheets of rolled parchment emerged from the ring on his finger. Each scroll flew toward the arena floor and landed on one of the tables. “You will each be provided with enough ingredients for two attempts. Do not touch that recipe until the competition starts. You will begin at the sound of the gong.”

***

Zhou Lihua took several slow, calming breaths as she tried to center herself. The stifling silence as every person in the arena waited on baited breath was getting to her. It felt like this moment was stretching on forever, leaving her with nothing but worries and doubts.

How long does it take to sound a simple gong? Is Sao Yong doing this on purpose? Is he trying to make us so nervous that we can’t think straight and will mess up?

Being an alchemist often meant working under high stress since there was always a good chance of something going wrong. You could fail to refine a pill. Your cauldron could blow up. Zhou Lihua once heard a story about a man who tried creating a pill beyond his level and had his soul sucked out of his body as a result. Every alchemist knew that studying the Dao of Alchemy was the same as walking alongside death.

She glanced at all of the people in the stands. This arena was said to fit up to one hundred thousand, and it looked like they had a full house. There were so many people they looked like little more than a blob of blurring colors.

Zhou Lihua glanced away. Looking at all those people made her dizzy.

A gong suddenly sounded, echoing to all corners of the arena and knocking Zhou Lihua from her daze. She shook her head. Now was not the time to let nerves get the better of her. She needed to focus.

She unrolled the scroll and read the contents. The pill she was to refine was called Refreshing Pill. It was a low-rank tier 4 medicinal pill that made the person who consumed it become even more sensitive to the world’s energy. This would allow someone to absorb energy at a much higher rate.

Zhou Lihua was impressed. While the pill was low ranked, it was much better than the Middle-Grade Chi Gathering Pill, which only contained condensed chi for the body to absorb. According to the notes, this pill’s effects laster longer depending on its quality when refined. A low-quality pill would only provide one hour’s worth of effects, but a high-quality pill would offer a whole 24 hours worth.

The ingredients needed to refine this pill had already been provided. She read the list, then checked each ingredient for imperfections, but her mind was wandering while she worked.

Something seems odd here. It says it requires a rank 3 monster core with a lightning affinity… but doesn’t the lightning affinity conflict with the gentle nature of the Pure Heart Clover?

While all the other ingredients seemed fine, these two seemed off. Pure Heart Clover was a plant with purple feathers and a pink core. She could tell the item provided to her was at least forty years old by the veins running through the leave. Meanwhile, a rank 3 monster core was something that came from an Asura Realm magical beast. This particular monster core was yellow and had thunder brewing inside of it.

The Pure Heart Clover was gentle in nature, while the lightning affinity monster core was sheer destruction. Combining them into a single pill seemed counter intuitive to her.

I don’t think Sao Yong would purposefully give us the wrong recipe… am I just thinking too hard?

Sao Yong was a gold rank alchemist, meaning he was much better than her at refining pills and understood a lot more than she did. Perhaps he simply knew something that she didn’t.

Everyone else was already beginning to refine their ingredients. Even Lili Ling and Xiao Wei had begun refining the pill like nothing was wrong. Both of them were using what appeared to be a personal alchemy cauldron. Lili Ling’s looked like it was made of gold, but it had to just be gold plated. It was a bad idea to use gold while refining. Xiao Wei’s, on the other hand, was pure black and appeared ominous.

I must be overthinking things.

Zhou Lihua summoned her cauldron. It was also a personal cauldron. The dark crimson cauldron was called the Crimson Chrysanthemum Cauldron, and it had once belonged to Master Wong Jiu’s master. She had passed on many decades ago and the cauldron had sat unused inside of her master’s storage ring for a long time. He had given this to her before they left for the Zhou Kingdom, saying she would need a good cauldron that wouldn’t explode in her face.

The first ingredient on the list was ten year spirit bamboo, which she tossed in after igniting her flames underneath the cauldron. Lucky bamboo contained earth element attributes, so she made the snake seal. It was commonly affiliated with the earth affinity. She breathed in, then breathed out, strengthening the flames surrounding her cauldron with that single breath.

The spirit bamboo was quickly refined, then she tossed in the next ingredient on the list. She repeated this several times until the time came for her to add the pure heart clover. Zhou Lihua hesitated for a moment before tossing it into the cauldron and refining it.

An explosion erupted from down below. Zhou Lihua nearly leapt out of her hanfu. The flames around her cauldron sputtered, but she managed to regain cauldron. She glanced at where the noise had come from and found a young man coughing as smoke poured from his cauldron, which looked like it now had cracks running through it.

So someone failed to refine this pill? That is… strange. According to the recipe, it should not be that hard…

At that moment, sixteen more explosions went off as more people failed to refine the pill. Zhou Lihua was shocked, but she became even more shocked when both Lili Ling and Xiao Wei’s cauldrons exploded. The pair backed off as black smoke poured from the vents on their cauldrons.

Zhou Lihua bit her lip, but then she tossed the rank 3 monster core into the cauldron and began refining it. She almost immediately realized why everyone had failed to refine this pill when the monster core began reacting violently to the other ingredients as she tried to refine it. Her eyes widened as she tried to exert control over the ingredient to keep it from reacting, but it was no use.

Her cauldron exploded and black smoke began billowing from the vents.