Zhai Yao once again brought up his mysterious master, piquing Yang Kai's curiosity. He had no idea what manner of extraordinary figure this person might be, but he knew that if he asked directly, he probably wouldn't get an answer.
"I have four Transcendent Third Stage martial uncles who can escort me up Heaven Gazing Peak. What about your side, Brother Zhai?" Yang Kai continued.
"Aogu will probably assign me a few Transcendent Stage experts — I'm not sure exactly how many. But as long as we work together, our chances are quite good. The initial battle will be between Transcendent Stage powerhouses, but once we reach Heaven Gazing Peak, that's where the alchemists take over. Heh heh, alchemists — none of them are particularly strong in combat. When that time comes, you and I can easily claim the Thousand-Year Devil Flower." Zhai Yao grinned slyly.
"Then it's settled. When the flower blooms, we move together." Yang Kai nodded firmly, set down the medicinal liquid he had just finished refining, and slowly raised one hand.
Zhai Yao's jaw dropped. "Already?"
In the brief time they'd been talking, Yang Kai had finished refining all of his medicinal ingredients.
The old men monitoring from the high platform were visibly stunned as well, clearly unable to believe what they were seeing.
Before they could recover, Zhai Yao hastily raised his hand too — just a hair behind Yang Kai.
A saint-grade alchemist immediately descended from the high platform, approached Yang Kai and Zhai Yao, inspected their medicinal liquids, and then announced their scores in a strange tone of voice.
Du Wan, seated on the high platform, chuckled and stroked his beard, looking as though he had long anticipated this very scene — the picture of composure, his old heart thoroughly pleased.
His old friends immediately grew restless. One of them, a gaunt-faced elder, said, "Brother Du, where on earth did you find these two little monsters? The speed at which they refined their medicinal liquids rivals our own!"
"Heh heh, that's a secret." Du Wan smiled and shook his head. "You gentlemen should just prepare to be fleeced."
The expressions on the several elders' faces darkened immediately as they realized Du Wan had clearly held the winning hand all along — and they had been foolish enough to walk straight into his trap.
But they were old friends of many years, so naturally no one intended to renege on the bet. Nothing in their Cosmos Bags would be moved either.
On the contrary, the appearance of two such extraordinarily talented young alchemists was exactly what they wanted to see. It meant that the future of this generation was still full of hope.
The first round of competition eliminated more than half of the several hundred participants. These were the ones who had failed to refine all their medicinal ingredients into liquid within the allotted time, or who had suffered too many failures during the process.
Mina successfully advanced to the second round and was absolutely overjoyed.
After the first event concluded, they moved directly into the second — inscribing Spirit Arrays.
Using the mysterious-grade mid-tier pill furnace provided in the Cosmos Bag, each alchemist was to inscribe a Spirit Array of their own design inside it. This event had no time limit — the more Spirit Arrays one could inscribe, and the more complex they were, the better the score.
Yang Kai and Zhai Yao won the top spots with ease.
The third event: control of flame intensity.
The fourth event: ingredient formulation.
The fifth, the sixth…
It wasn't until the very end that they reached the final challenge — the actual refinement of pills.
There was not a moment's rest. In just a single day, the Pill Refinement Competition ran through its entire course, and in the end, only Yang Kai and Zhai Yao remained.
Mina was eliminated during the fourth event and couldn't help feeling a little dejected, but for her age, making it this far was already remarkably impressive. After receiving a few words of praise from Elder Du, her spirits lifted immediately.
Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, in the final contest, Zhai Yao voluntarily conceded without competing against Yang Kai.
Because he knew that if things got serious, he was no match for Yang Kai. Although their attainments in pill refinement were very close, there was still that tiny bit of a gap between them.
Zhai Yao also did not want to expose his and Yang Kai's true pill refinement standards in front of so many people. The previous competitions had been scattered individual tasks that didn't reveal too many issues. But if they actually refined pills for real, it would be very easy to expose certain problems.
Their pill refinement speeds and methods were simply too unusual.
The people from the Pill Master Association were also somewhat astonished, not expecting Zhai Yao to give up such a golden opportunity. But once they sensed his calm demeanor, they understood and let the matter go.
"Brother Yang, let's meet again another day. I've been gallivanting outside all day, so I'd better head back, otherwise the teacher will scold me again." Zhai Yao said his piece, then under the protection of those two Transcendent Realm black-armored warriors, headed in the direction of the City Lord's Manor.
Liu Fu climbed the high platform and announced that the final winner of the competition was Yang Kai, distributing the rewards promised by the Grand Pill Master Association on the spot.
A Qiankun bag filled with rare medicinal herbs, and a saint-grade pill furnace.
It drew the envy of countless people.
Yang Kai casually tossed the saint-grade pill furnace to Mina. The young girl was so excited she nearly wanted to kiss Yang Kai.
"Young friend Yang, come over here." Du Wan beckoned with a smile from one corner of the high platform.
Yang Kai nodded slightly and walked over.