The Taiyuan Pavilion was jointly operated by
The Taiyuan Tower currently housed the former disciples of the Dan Qian Palace, along with some of
After rescuing
Elder
Before
On either side of the Taiyuan Pavilion, several new medicinal pill shops had opened — each with an extravagantly grand and lavish storefront, projecting an air of tremendous prestige.
Their signboards were so enormous they seemed to dwarf the Taiyuan Pavilion itself.
Were they courting misery?
Everyone in the entire Glazed King City knew that the Taiyuan Pavilion was the premier Spiritual Medicine establishment in the city. Never mind opening a shop right next to the Taiyuan Pavilion — even pill shops three to five hundred meters away had seen their business dry up since the Taiyuan Pavilion's rise.
Opening a store right beside the Taiyuan Pavilion? That was practically asking for death.
Yet judging by the scale of these new shops, they clearly weren't looking to die. On the contrary, they were deliberately looking to cause trouble — flanking left and right, forming what amounted to a pincer siege against the Taiyuan Pavilion.
That alone would have been enough.
But at this very moment, both shops had erected stages in front of their entrances, the unmistakable setup for a public challenge. A pill master was currently holding court on a raised platform outside one of the shops, delivering a lecture on alchemy. The area around the stage was packed with onlookers, a sea of heads indicating a massive audience.
While the spectacle didn't quite match the grandeur of
The Taiyuan Pavilion, always bustling with activity, now had a strangely desolate air about it.
Under normal circumstances, with the Taiyuan Pavilion's current standing in the Glazed King City, something like this should have been impossible.
Who didn't know that the Taiyuan Pavilion's backing was the Alchemist King Zhen — or more precisely, the Peacock Sacred Mountain, or even the Great Emperor Peacock himself?
With such powerful backing, for someone to openly challenge them like this meant the other party clearly had no fear.
A flash of irritation rose in
Who could have imagined that someone would still dare act this brazenly?
He stood before the stage for a while, listening to the pill master lecture on alchemy. After listening for a bit,
He hadn't interacted with every Alchemist King in the Glazed King City, but he had a general sense of the overall standard of alchemy in the city.
It wasn't that this person's foundation in alchemy surpassed the old masters of the Glazed King City. Rather, the man didn't appear particularly old — at most a middle-generation Alchemist King.
Yet this seemingly young Alchemist King was delivering content that displayed a remarkably deep foundation, his level audibly impressive.
"Where did this fellow come from?"
The lecturer spoke with eloquence and flair, his words flowing like a river. The content he covered was not only wide-ranging but also carried considerable depth, and he delivered it all in a lively and engaging manner.
Meanwhile, members of the audience below would occasionally pose questions, and the man answered each one with effortless fluency, never breaking a sweat.
This surprised
The questions posed by the audience were highly specialized and deeply insightful. And the man's answers were equally impressive in quality, delivered without a moment's hesitation.
This level of performance required a truly formidable foundation.
However, after watching for a while,
There were subtle exchanges of glances during the Q&A.
Those involved were blind to the trick, but an outside observer could see it clearly. From his vantage point as a detached spectator,
In other words, they weren't genuine attendees — they were plants, paid to play along.
This meant that the questions they asked and the answers the Alchemist King gave, however profound and impressive they appeared, were entirely scripted in advance.
The technical content of the exchange was still high, but if everything was pre-arranged, then no amount of technical sophistication meant anything.