Volume 2: [Title hidden for now]
Chapter 1: The Decisive Battle's Qualifications
To the clansmen, the Second Elder was always in a deeply dark mood and there was never anyone who saw him smile. His marriage, his children, it was all the same; he permanently maintained the same carved expression.
When he was promoted to become the clan's Second Elder, an event that other people would be going crazy with joy for, Yao Wuhuang's expression never changed from the start to the end ….
People wondered if maybe his two sons had never even seen him smile.
In Yao Feng's position, a sudden explosive noise rang out, and the medicinal cauldron started shaking incessantly. The Nine Isolation Wind Flame tightly bound the medicinal cauldron to keep it steady. The medicinal pill Yao Feng was currently refining was too high tiered, and adding onto the Nine Isolation Wind Flame's destructive strength, the steel essence medicinal cauldron was already unable to support it, and one after another cracks started to form all over it. However Yao Feng's expression didn't change at all, and from the storage ring on his hand he took out a fist sized lump of black iron. When this lump appeared, a crisp sound rang out into the air that sounded like metal on stone striking each other.
"Black Jade Essence Metal Stone!"
Outside, the Inflammation clan's elder Yan Xiao's face trembled slightly. This Black Iron Essence Metal Stone was something that could be used to refine a treasured seventh tier pill! Unexpectedly they actually gave it to a youth who was refining what appeared to be a third tier medicinal pill, or at most it would not be greater than a fifth tier medicinal pill.
The Yao clan really was rich and imposing… no other entity under the heavens was even comparable to their ability to trade medicinal pills, meaning they basically had a monopoly. Adding to that their position as one of the 8 Ancient Clans, there was no one capable of collecting financial resources greater than the Yao Clan.
"What he's refining, is it possible that it's the fourth tier medicinal pill, Black Jade Forming Life Pill? The formula was destroyed, just when did elder Wuhuang manage to repair the whole thing? And he didn't even tell me."
From the elder's stage, the First Elder was faintly smiling, as he looked at Yao Feng throw in the lump of Black Jade Essence Metal Stone without the slightest hesitation into the medicinal cauldron. Yao Wanhuo turned questioningly towards the Second Elder.
"First Elder, don't be suspicious. This destroyed formula wasn't something that I repaired, but it was my two sons who fixed it. I only gave them a couple of minor pointers."
Hearing Yao Wuhuang's humble words, Yao Wanhuo became startled, "Yao Feng and Yao Wangui repaired the Black Jade Forming Life Pill together!? Who was the main person responsible?"
"Of course it was Wangui, however Feng-er also had a couple pretty good suggestions, and he did make crucial contributions." Yao Wuhuang's words were hintingly saying that Yao Feng deserved to be groomed. In fact, both his sons were actually worthy of nurturing.
Yao Wanhuo still simply muttered to himself, and in the end he only said, "Since Feng-er has this kind of talent, I'm afraid that this time's Medicine competition will have no one else who can compete with him. If he is most suitable to win, then he will be crowned."
"Hearing First Elder say these words, I really am relieved. My Yao Wuhuang's son, as long as no one decides to cheat him, will naturally obtain the Medicine Competition's number one place as easily as stretching out a hand."
Following after Yao Wanhuang's words, in the refining area a sudden burst of red light exploded out. Of course it was Yao Feng. His two hands pressed down onto the cauldron as he attempted to finish and receive the medicinal pill. Red light was spilling out from the cauldron, and apparently it was the sign of the pill forming.
Following his attempt to complete the pill, a loud booming noise sounded out. The Nine Isolation Wind Flame winked out of existence, and just when the pill was about to be finished, the whole medicinal cauldron loudly broke apart. Nine spots of red light floated like living spirits in midair, but they quickly disappeared when Yao Feng collected them into his pill bottle.
Now that Yao Feng had completed his goal the Nine Isolation Wind Flame was also put away, and all the other disciples could finally relax and once again focus their thoughts back on their refinements.
The second person to complete their pill was impressively Yao Tong. It seemed as if the Nine Isolation Wind Flame didn't have a very large influence on him, and just a quarter hour after Yao Feng he completed his pill. When completing it, a huge rumbling noise sounded, and similarly his cauldron also shattered apart and five strange lights were released which were collected into his pill bottle.
After Yao Tong, successively one after another, more and more people started to finish their pill. All kinds of different pill collecting methods were used, and all over the refining area bursts of radiant lights exploded, looking like lights celebrating a holiday. At this time, the alchemists who had still not managed to complete their pill were at an extreme disadvantage. Those explosions of light caused them a lot distraction, and it wasn't only the sound but actually the visual influence was even more distracting. The explosions that occurred during the completion of the pills would influence the other alchemists' attention, and their Spiritual Perception towards the refining medicinal cauldron would naturally suffer by making their perception less clear. Under normal circumstances they could perhaps calm back down and properly deal with it, but looking at what was happening, some people were nervous, some people were careless, and any of them could cause destruction.
Boom…. Once the first disciple failed and caused a cauldron explosion, following him one after another like spring bamboo after rain more and more disciples began to fail.
If it wasn't a cauldron explosion then it was just a batch of garbage bills. The group of people all looked at Yao Feng who had already long since finished as if he owed them something. If he hadn't used the Nine Isolation Wind Flame and affected their mindset, with their strength even if they couldn't enter the top eight they still wouldn't fall to be able to refine their pills.
With great difficultly, they had passed through many trials and suffered untold hardships in order to obtain the qualifications to attend the Medicine Competition, but in the end they bitterly ended up failing their refinement. This was like being thrown down from high in the clouds to an all time low valley floor.
Time passed by like a white horse past a crack. In the refining area, only a few people were persevering.
"It's already this time. If you still haven't finished your pill then just consider it an automatic failure. Why waste our time," Yao Wuhuang coldly said. Towards the Medicine Competition, Yao Wuhuang didn't really care too much. Just how could the main bloodline's families' offspring understand just how difficult one Musk Essence Foundation Strengthening Pill was to obtain in the poor branch families, as they tried to change their destiny of being poverty-stricken.
Yao Wanhuo didn't say anything though, and his face also didn't have any expression. The disciples who hadn't finished could stay for as long as they wanted in his opinion, and there was no need to belittle them. They were all elites, merely they hadn't reached the stage where the assumed personal responsibility. As his gaze roved around, he saw the neglected Yao Chen, and his eyebrows couldn't help but to wrinkle.
This time's Yao Chen seemed as if he was separated from the rest of the world. Yao Wanhuo's Spiritual Strength swept forth, using some kind of strange method it penetrated the medicinal cauldron, allowing him to sense that all kinds of medicinal ingredients were currently undergoing an extremely slow and extremely rhythmic merger. As for the impurities, bit by bit they were being eliminated out of the merger, but instead of being tossed out of the cauldron, they once again underwent a transformation as they unceasing gathered together to form a second merger.
One furnace, two pills!
This was an alchemist's talent. To have one furnace produce two medicinal pills, with the two that pills having different medicinal properties and different effects. Even if someone was shockingly talented in their Spiritual Perception, they would still not be able to do this. This relied purely on diligent training and hard work. Only then would someone be a true talent and be able to do this.
Merely, Yao Wanhuo was still doubtful, as these medicinal ingredients were all provided by the clan and were used only for refining ordinary pills. Unexpectedly, there was not even a single uncommon medicinal ingredient amongst them.
In addition, looking at Yao Chen's current state it was obvious that he did not have any intention of using any of his prepared medicinal ingredients.
On a different stage, there was no talking. Sitting on the stage were all women like lovely flowers swaying in the breeze. Some of them looked extremely bewitching, and some of them seemed fresh and pure. Any kind of beauty a woman could have could all be found on this stage. However no male present would dare to even stare at them, they might only take a couple pleasing sneaking glances. A faint demonic air condensed around them.
Demon clan!
Moreover, they were not from an ordinary Demon clan, but were a clan that had been passed on from the almighty Sacred Demon.[i]
Sometimes, a rare and strange ingredient was required for refining medicine that simply could not be harvested by the human race. To collect it required certain Demon clan members with demonic human bodies to raise and collect them. So this specific Demon clan ended up with quite a good relation with the Yao clan, and even the rest of the 8 Ancient Clans.
Of course, the extremely powerful strength of the Sacred Demon was the real reason which ensured their relationship stayed good.
So for the Yao clan's Clan Competition they of course sent out a diplomatic team to attend.
Sitting there was a maiden wearing a veil over her face. Her body was lithe and graceful, her skin white as snow, her beautiful eyes were like the moon's reflection on Mirror Lake,[ii] and they could reflect a person's image.
"Yuanyuan, I'm so bored, when can we return? The Yao clan is not fun in the least."
The maiden's gaze pierced through the veil. Her lips issued an order whose sound could cause a male to become enchanted, as each word seemed to bring with it a bewitching force. Even the women sitting beside her were like moths flying into the flame, unable to refrain themselves from paying attention to her, and in their hearts arose a desire of wanting to help her complete anything her heart desired.
"Cough, Sacred Lady… Old Xiu is getting older, can you please not use your bewitching eye technique."
The maiden's mouth pouted as she obviously didn't accept this, rolling her eyes she disapprovingly said, "After today's ceremony, Old Xiu must deliver this Sacred Lady back to the Sacred Land, ok?"
"Can't, it's rare just to come out…."
"Then I'll follow Old Xiu and stay in the Yao clan for a couple of days, but after the Medicine Competition we can go back and amuse ourselves on the road."
"Ok… there's no other way, we'll just have to go with this."
The Sacred Lady narrowed her eyes, as she appeared to be bored to death as her eyes swept over the refining area. Although the human race's alchemists sounded interesting, but actually being in front of them watching was stiff and boring, and was of absolutely no interest.
Thinking about it, the Sacred Lady narrowed her eyes as she once again looked at Yao Chen. With her gloomy mind, it was especially this fellow whose movements who seemed to be working extremely attentively such that even his spirit was completely focused that made her feel like she wanted to purposely mess him up.
On the other side, the disciples who had already finished refining their medicinal pills had once again returned to the competitor's area with tranquil and indifferent expressions. They formed their own rings of friends as they chatted.
Yao Feng took the lead amongst the main bloodline's social group, however beside the main bloodline's ring would always unavoidably be the branch bloodlines who were trying to suck up. Yao Yun was beside him, but his gaze would occasionally shoot towards the refining area's Yao Chen.
"What? Not satisfied?" Yao Feng noticed Yao Yun's glances, and he indifferently brought up this subject just to pass time.
Yao Yun lowered his head, "It's not that, it's just that thinking about how I lost to this kid, it really was shameful."
"Haha, to have a sense of shame is also brave and not bad. However, this Yao Chen's luck is really amazing; even after all this time he unexpectedly still hasn't caused a cauldron explosion."
The clan school could also be counted as a social group. Lin Yanxin, Zuo Hongle and the others had all assembled together. Even Yao Tong who rarely was so well-disposed had trickled over to stand beside them. But it was very clear he maintained a sure distance from the other people. Coming and going alone had always been one of Yao Tong's characteristics.
Zuo Hongle had the habit of always chattering, so now that he had finished refining and relaxed he led everyone to chatter nonstop, from time to time saying things like, "Yao Feng is really impressive, but as a main bloodline member, he actually had this kind of money to directly use a Black Jade Essence Metal Stone, ugh."
Li Yanxin shook his head, "Illness comes from the mouth, and a loose tongue causes trouble; you should just shut up. Even if someone gave you the Black Jade Essence Metal Stone, do you have the ability to use it?"
Zuo Hongle turned sluggish for a moment, laughing and saying, "You're right, the Black Jade Essence Metal Stone is a seventh grade material, even if you gave it to me I wouldn't know how to use it."
After saying this, the air within their group became a bit colder.
Although any Yao clan disciple could enter the clan school, but any families with actual power would personally train their family's most talented, and only the less talented disciples would be sent to the clan school.
The clan school's top eight sounded like they were extremely strong, but actually their foundation could be considered much weaker. "Sigh, I don't know if Yao Chen will be able to get lucky again this time."
Zuo Hongle was after all Zuo Hongle. With the cold air in his group, he couldn't help but to once again bring up a new topic to talk about.
Yao Chen. Everyone's gaze turned over to the refining area, where Yao Chen was still busy refining in front of his medicinal cauldron. But watching him, he seemed to take an extremely long time just to put in a small portion of medicinal ingredients into the cauldron, and furthermore all these medicinal ingredients were all very ordinary everyday ones. His cauldron's flame was not low, but neither was it high, and there was not even the slightest auspicious omen of forming the pill.
When forming a pill there would always be auspicious signs. Pills above the fifth tier, when they were successfully refined, already had a kind of consciousness. Although this consciousness was very vague, but when it was taken out of the cauldron it instinctively tried to fly away. It was due to this that there needed to be pill receiving techniques.
"It appears to be extremely ordinary."
Zuo Hongle was the one who opened his mouth. Truthfully he was actually a bit disappointed. Originally he had believed that he might have another rival for him to compete against in the clan school, but looking at what was happening it appeared to be a letdown. At the clan school's Great Competition he probably had already used up all his potential. And anyone who used an explosive technique to reach a Dou Shi level strength was incapable of recovering in just an extremely short one month's time.
"During the clan school's Great Competition, he had to take a Violet Flame Pill in order to momentary burst out with a Da Dou Shi's strength. Now it appears he should be suffering from the sequelae. Looking at his flame, it appears to still be at the level of a nine star Dou Zhe and hasn't increased at all.
Zuo Hongle enthusiastically discussed his analysis, and the other clan disciples also nodded their head in agreement. By now everyone had learned that the Violet Flame Pill had the effect of breaking through bottlenecks. For such a pill that could increase your strength but only had the side effect of temporarily causing you to lose consciousness after, wouldn't it be a defiance of the heavens?
"Haha, looks like Yao Chen really isn't capable of competing with us. Who do you guys think will be able to get into the top eight's decisive battle? Of course, excluding Yao Feng…."
"Our brother Tong should definitely be one of them."
"Yeah. I also know that amongst the main bloodline there's also a Yao Chen…." (different Yao Chen.)[iii]
"I think that…."
Rumbling.
Suddenly in the refining area a loud sound boomed accompanied by an intense shaking. Even with the formation separating them, everyone could still feel the ground's intense vibrations.
A burst of concentrated white smoke rapidly filled the whole refining area.
"Not good, someone caused a huge cauldron explosion."
"There's no problem. Ignoring the fact that everyone looks tranquil, but actually every disciple has a clan expert standing by to protect them, so nothing bad can happen."
"Now that I think about it, it should be time for the conclusion."
Refining originally required there be a peaceful and calm environment, but now that there was a huge cauldron explosion that shocked them, any disciples who still hadn't finished had probably completely failed.
"First Elder, shouldn't we remove the formation." On the elder's stage, a disciple was bowing towards Yao Wanhuo. Yao Wuhuang indifferently replied, "Since it's already over, just take it down."
"Yes."
"Wait, there's still someone refining." Suddenly, the First Elder waved his sleeve, stopping him.
"Huh?" Yao Wuhuang startled. Sending his perception past the dense white gas, he felt a strange fluctuation that was being born in the white smoke.
BOOM….
Another loud boom rang out; however these loud noises seemed to stand out different from other noises, bringing with them a beautiful charm, as if following one of the world's hidden laws.
"Now it's finished."
Yao Wanhuo brightly laughed, quite pleased with that disciple. He indicated to undo the formation. When the formation slowly faded, the refining area's rolling thick smoke rapidly dispersed, and a faint hazy figure could be seen within. Only thanks to the clan's experts taking action to suppress the huge exploding cauldron's destruction did they manage to save all the refining area's disciples. A couple disciples were sitting on the ground, their faces frightened and confused.
Yao Chen was also sitting on the ground, but the difference was that Yao Chen's expression seemed both happy and sad, and in his hand he was tightly holding onto a jade pill bottle. Clearly in the extremely dangerous moment just now he had managed to finish refining and successfully collected the pill.
However no one managed to clearly see just what pill he refined. As it turned out, at the most critical time there was someone who had made an error while refining and caused a huge explosion. Not only did the thick smoke from the explosion block the people's sight, even the elder's spirits received an impact, so they were unable to see clearly.
"Yao Chen, this is your refined medicinal pill?"
At this time there was naturally a clan guard who wanted to bring the pill over the elder's stage in order for the elders to evaluate just who managed to enter the top eight.
Only now did Yao Chen come back to his senses. Taking a deep breath he turned to the clan guard and responded, "Yes, sorry for the inconvenience."
"No need to be so polite." The clan guard smiling lightly, taking the jade bottle and placing Yao Chen's name card on top of it, he took the pill bottle over to the elder's stage under the eyes of everyone.
Currently all the most consummate alchemists of the Yao clan, including the Clan Chief, were all present for doing the evaluation. And since the pills were refined at the scene, the evaluation was completely impartial.
In order to maintain the main bloodline's power, it was unavoidable that there were be some preferential bias towards the main bloodline. But at the same time, there must be at least some impartiality; the Yao clan had been passed down since ancient times, and its branches and leaves were many. Just the branch families with Yao as their surname would number over one hundred, and if including the other various branch bloodlines and families then their number simply could not be counted. And there was even more clans and families that had all kinds of relationships, in-laws, who had ended up adhering to the Yao clan. Only all of this combined was the real Yao clan, and if they didn't want chaos to ensue then there couldn't be any obvious bias.
The Medicine Competition was like this, and of course the Clan Monument also had this impartiality.
Of course, the main bloodline even with this "impartiality" still had their advantages. Just looking at Yao Feng who could take out the Black Jade Essence Metal Stone which was a seventh grade medicinal ingredient, how could a branch family have this kind of ability? So of course it was unfair, but it was still something that everybody could accept by tacit approval.
But when it came to evaluating the pills there was an absolute guarantee of fairness. From the Clan Chief to the clan school elder's, each had their own say in the judgement, and it was only like this that the Medicine Competition ended up becoming a sacred competition within the hearts of everyone in the Yao clan! Since even the Clan Chief was taking part in it, the evaluation of the pills proceeded extremely fast. After all, all of these pills were fourth tier and below; no matter how talented the disciples were, they were still part of the younger generation.
At this time, except for the elder's stage, the whole plaza was completely silent. This was a sacred moment. On the elder's stage were the Clan Chief, clan elders, and some senior members of the clan who were discussing and exchanging their opinions. It was already near the end of the evaluation, and the final names were about to be selected.
Yao Chen was calmly waiting. Time had never listened to other people's sufferings.
Suddenly, the elders all stopped, and Clan Chief Yao Dan faced the crowd, calmly rising into the air with no fluctuations.
Yao Chen's heart tensed; it was finally time for the results.
Truthfully, Yao Chen didn't have any confidence. He had already used up all his effort and done his best, but his opponents were extremely formidable, and there was no need to doubt their strength. Especially Yao Feng's Nine Isolation Wind Flame; it had nearly caused him to give up, and although he had recovered from it, but the influence was still there.
"Brother Chen, how's the situation? Just now with the huge cauldron explosion I was almost scared to death!" Luo Shu's household walked over from the side, quietly asking.
"I'm fine." Yao Chen shook his head; the huge cauldron explosion didn't have a large impact on him.
"Haha, brother Chen don't be nervous, later I'll treat you to eat out." Hearing Yao Chen say he was fine, Luo Shu finally relaxed. He thought that Yao Chen's pill would probably just be ordinary and would be very lacking compared to the winner. Therefore he slapped his chest and tried to cheer him up.
Yao Chen laughed. His heart was touched, but he still didn't say anything.
At this time, First Elder Yao Wanhuo had already stood up, saying, "The Medicine Competition's preliminaries for the decisive battle have gratifying ended. Now we will declare the list for the decisive battle."
"First place, Yao Feng, fourth tier alchemist."
"Second place, Yao Tong, fourth tier alchemist."
"Third place, Ceng Lou, third tier alchemist."
Directly after each name, their official alchemist title was given. Compared to the outer alchemist guild's title it was not the same, but rather it was additionally a symbol of that person's honor and strength within the Yao clan. Not anyone could obtain this kind of title. And it was also very obvious that compared to the outside world's third tier alchemists, the clan members conferred with the title of third tier alchemists were stronger, and not just by a small margin.
"Eighth place, Yao Chen…."
Yao Wanhuo read to here, when his eyes paused on Yao Chen, before continuing, "The top eight names are now set, and in the evening their names will be publically published. As for the top eight, three days later you must gather again, and you must finish your preparations by then." After saying this Yao Wanhuo rolled up the scroll in his hand and turned back to sit in his seat. At this point, all his tasks had been completed and the following tasks to be completed were managed by some senior elders. The clan's senior elders were all rare gems, and the clan couldn't just let them do nothing. In addition, it was also time for them to get a disciple to pass on their heritage. Being able to pick from the talented disciples who didn't make it to the top eight was extremely excellent for them.
Off the stage, the audience was rumbling. The news about the Violet Flame Pill was actually not very big news, and many clan members didn't know about it. Now they were all wondering just who this eighth place Yao Chen was and what his origins were. They had never even heard of a hint of him; just what family secretly cultivated such a trump card?
Yao Feng faintly smiled, looking towards Yao Yun, "Looks like it's getting more interesting."
Yao Yun's expression was deathly pale, the veins on his hands bulged out, and his eyes' hatred could not be hidden.
On the other spectrum, when the fatty Luo Shu heard Yao Chen's name, his leg almost slipped out of him and he nearly fell. He had no way of believing his own ears. What? Yao Chen entered the top eight?
"This, this couldn't be an error right? Or did I hear wrong, brother Chen? It's not that I'm trying to insult you, but looking at your previous state it didn't seem like one with the strength to pass. Actually it even had me a little afraid for you."
"Afraid, my ass." Yao Chen shook his head; however being afraid was something that nothing could be done about. Up to the final point where he had finally finished refining, just how much trouble had he went through? Other than just the normal difficulty, there was also a huge cauldron explosion that let out huge tremors and a powerful force. Although the clan's expert that was in charge of protecting them appeared, but this kind of experience was like having someone sharply scream and howl at you while you were having a good dream.
However, although it was difficult, he still managed to finish. In addition, he had also entered into the list for the top eight. Just at this moment, Luo shu suddenly clapped his hands, in a bewildered voice he said, "Wait a second, something's not right! How come they didn't call out your alchemist tier title after your name?
Yao Chen knit his forehead. He also didn't understand. The first seven names were all given at the very least a tier two alchemist title. And such a title wasn't useless; every month they could enter the clan treasury to withdraw quite a few training resources and they could even buy third grade medicinal ingredients for refining on credit.
But he unexpectedly didn't receive a title. Was it possible that his final pill had some kind of problem? If there wasn't a problem then why would they neglect to give him the title of a second tier alchemist? No matter how he thought about it he couldn't figure it out.
However Yao Chen's temper was always under his control, and in a short time he stopped thinking about this issue, instead telling Luo Shu, "Let's go."
"Where to?" Luo Shu muddle-headedly replied.
"Obviously to go eat. I just agreed to treat you just now."
"You got eighth place, how can it be you treating me."
"When men make agreements, they must stick to them. I'll treat."
"Tch, I'm the fat one, and growing fat by eating my own words is also the way of man. Ok you treat."
[i] Sacred Demon might get translated to Demon Saint; it seems as the term used the word for Dou Sheng.
[ii] A real river from ancient times 镜湖 known for being as flat as a mirror.
[iii] The main character Yao Chen's name means dust, while this Yao Chen's means daybreak.