Chapter 357 "Killing Takes Only One Word"
Five hundred and one Illumination Dan pills!
“May I know if there's anyone left who has any doubt about my ability to take on the Chief Alchemist position?" Raising her head high, she peers over to the fools who would dare question her authority. Sure enough, none had dared to return her gaze out of guilt.
“Alchemist Wang, do you still have any opinion? Or do you want to challenge me instead?" After sweeping her warning glare to everyone, Ling Yue's focus eventually fell back to the elder with her provocative demeanor.
As the most senior person here, how can Alchemist Wang just take it: "That's right, I also want to have a go at the Blood Cauldron."
It's undeniable that he would be shocked by how miraculously skilled the lass was, but he's also very dissatisfied with the outcome nevertheless.
What man-eating cauldron, all nonsense. If a lass like that can do it then so can I! Going with that sort of logic in mind, the elder figured he might as well take the risk. Who knows, he might even snatch the prize in the end.
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Seeing how determined the man was despite the discouragement from his peers, there's no way Ling Yue was going to stop him. She's not so kind to save her enemy.
About half an hour later, the herbs were all prepared and ready to go.
Copying what he saw, Alchemist Wang also used his spirit force to control the herbs and fire at the same time. However, he soon discovered double tasking wasn't as easy as it seems when he's the one doing it. In fact, there were several occasions where he nearly lost control and allowed the flames to extinguish. If that occur, the pills inside will be ruined.
Then there's the matter of drawing the essences out of the raw ingredients. While Ling Yue only took two hours to complete, the elder spent well over six hours before finishing, and that was barely passable in terms of completion.
So far so good, or so it seems at first anyways. When the session reached the latter half where he's supposed ignite a hundred cauldrons at once, the problem finally revealed itself. His spirit force was inadequate and could no longer support the current flame under the Blood Cauldron.
Just like that, the materials inside had become wasted.
“Alchemist Wang, you should have nothing to say now right? Forget five hundred, you couldn't even produce a single one." Though the ingredients are provided by the Alchemist Hall, Ling Yue simply can't shirk off the regrettable feeling of wasting this much material.
“Impossible, this is absolutely impossible.” The elder clearly couldn't accept this reality and ran towards the cauldron like a crazed madman, hoping to salvage the ruined pills inside.
Unexpectedly, it was at that moment something extremely spooky and frightening occurred. Making a strange grinding sound, the Blood Cauldron suddenly popped open its lid and sucked the elder inside.
Then with a loud bang, the extinguished flames under the cauldron was reignited.
“Quickly go help!” Repeated cries to go could be heard across the field, but who in their right mind would want to go near that freaky thing?
Gradually, the screams and pleas for help inside the cauldron had died down, disappearing completely by the end of it. The only remains of this ever occurring now was the slowly seeping blood coming off of that metallic surface.
This was a very unnerving scene no matter how one looked at it. To say this was a horror movie was no exaggeration.
“The Blood Cauldron really ate a person!”
“It must have been Alchemist Wang's failure that had infuriated the Blood Cauldron, that's why it ate him."
Any who managed to witness this frightening scene were all keeping their distance, afraid they might be next. And since the last obstacle had been cleared now, Ye Ling Yue can now officially take charge of the Alchemist Hall without hindrance.
“Greetings to Chief Yue.” Without exception, all one hundred alchemists took to their knees to pay their respect to the new leader. They had to, not after what they saw.
Then maybe it's just coincidence or just plain smarts, the young assistants that used to follow Alchemist Wang also came forward at this time to offer up the jade token symbolizing the Chief Alchemist position. Regardless of what their intent was, the act did please the girl very much.
With everything complete and her coronation over with, Ling Yue didn't say more, only shoving the alchemists back to work. However, her eyes clearly gave off a flash of darkness when she turned back to look at the Blood Cauldron.
Very soon, the news had spread like wildfire and reached General Su at his home.
"What? You say Alchemist Wang failed in controlling the Blood Cauldron and was burned alive?" It took quite a minute for the general to take this news in, clearly this had more of an impact than the Dan Dragon phenomenon.
"Indeed general, all of the alchemists there had seen it. The Blood Cauldron really did eat the man and bled blood afterwards. Even now, the people there say they can hear the screams still reverberating in their ears. It's horrific." The aid had to wipe the trickle of sweat rolling down his side due to how scary the story was.
Like his men, General Su didn't look so good either in his chair. He had thought the newcomer was a pushover, instead it's a tough one that directly took down the local boss in one go.
“General, this Chief Yue is likely more difficult to control than the last. What should we do?" The aid whispers to the man for his opinion.
“What are you afraid of? The fact that we can remove her last few predecessors means that we can remove her too. Let's wait a bit and see what the lass will do."
There's still time, and the city currently lacks the necessary hands. She can have her fun for now…
Things were going very smoothly for Ling Yue ever since that incident. Only one day, and the attitude towards her had changed from expulsion to utter respect and awe. This drastic change in treatment would of course not be unnoticed by Lan Caier who had just returned from gathering information for Ling Yue.
"Oh my good sister, I heard the moment I returned. That Alchemist Wang committed suicide because you pushed him off the ledge!" As the universally recognized nosy sister, there's no way the big girl would relent unless she gets the juicy details.
“Where did you hear that nonsense from? Alchemist Wang got sucked into the Blood Cauldron because he was careless and misused the thing. That had nothing to do with me." She casually explains, seemingly innocent with that tune.
“It's really not related to you?” Lan Caier doesn't buy it.
“Alright, I admit, I did have a little hand in this. While I was using the Blood Cauldron I took the liberty of binding the thing to me by leaving a wisp of my spirit force behind. If that man didn't get so rash and careless, there's no way my spirit force would've rebounded to him. It's his fault for doing something so foolish. Even an assistant knows not to dabble with a cauldron if its bound to a master." During her session, Ling Yue had come across a powerful remnant of energy inside the container, that's how she got the idea of binding it to herself.
If her guesses are not wrong, the senior who had perished centuries ago had accidentally left behind a powerful strand of his remaining spirit force when he died. That's why the Blood Cauldron would sometimes suck the user in and create those tragedies, it's the result of two different forces vying for control inside the container.
The strong eats the weak, the same logic applies to the spirit force to. That's how that pang of energy managed to survive this long, its been constantly infused with new blood every so often.
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(20$ to make me stay up late into the night is fair right for this novel?