Sure enough, his unease was entirely justified—it was a premonition of disaster. The moment the cauldron emitted that resonance, it became a complete curse that brought Shi Xuan's spirit to the brink of collapse.
This speed of heating the cauldron—no matter how confident Shi Xuan was, he knew he simply could not surpass it. His mind went completely blank, unable to accept what was unfolding before him.
How was this possible? How on earth had this wet-behind-the-ears brat accomplished all of this?
Jiang Chen smiled unhurriedly. "Shi Xuan, you may turn around now."
Shi Xuan's whole body flinched slightly, his expression turning ugly in an instant. He understood better than anyone—he had lost. Truly lost.
And he had lost without the slightest room for argument.
His mind was still a tangled mess. How had he lost? How had the Eternal Sacred Land produced such a monstrous prodigy?
Under the gaze of the entire crowd, Shi Xuan wanted nothing more than to renege on the bet—but the moment he recalled the blood oath, a spasm of dread ran through his heart.
He finally understood that his reputation, built over an entire lifetime, had been utterly destroyed today.
Jiang Chen didn't rush him, simply waiting for the cauldron to cool down naturally. This process wasn't exactly quick, but Jiang Chen was in no hurry, patiently biding his time.
The expressions of everyone present were quite peculiar. On the Eternal Sacred Land's side, there was barely contained joy; but from most of the other factions, the prevailing reaction was sheer astonishment. Clearly, they found Shi Xuan's defeat in this wager almost inconceivable.
If they hadn't witnessed it with their own eyes, and someone had told them what happened, they would never have believed it.
Shi Xuan had originally risen to fame by defeating Pill Dao giants while still young, stepping his way up one rung at a time. Who would have thought that one day he would suffer the same fate—humiliated by someone using the very method he excelled at, kicked mercilessly from the heavens straight into the mud?
And yet, the inconceivable had happened just like that.
The cauldron continued to cool. Jiang Chen glanced at it and saw that it had cooled nearly enough.
Jiang Chen's tone was flat. "Shi Xuan, if you win, win with dignity. If you lose, lose cleanly. Now it's your turn. Are you going to play dead, or are you going to renege?"
Shi Xuan's face was ashen. If there were a crack in the ground, he would have burrowed right into it and never returned to Wanyuan Island, never shown his face in this place that had stripped him of all dignity.
But he couldn't leave.
There was no crack to hide in, and the heavenly oath would not permit him to renege or deny it.
Regardless—technically, he hadn't yet attempted to heat the cauldron. As long as he hadn't done so, he hadn't officially lost. At least, there was still a chance.
Shi Xuan decided he would go up and try.
Perhaps the cauldron was simply easier to heat than it appeared?
Sadly, Shi Xuan's hopeful thinking did not match reality. His fire-control technique was, admittedly, quite masterful.
But by the time he finished heating the cauldron and the resonance finally rang out, the incense stick had already burned past the one-third mark.
That time was nearly double what Jiang Chen had taken.
The most critical point was that although the resonance from his heating was reasonably loud, it completely lacked the fervent, passionate intensity of Jiang Chen's.
Even someone with zero knowledge of Pill Dao could feel the difference.
The quality of the cauldron resonance reflected how well the heating step had been completed—and it also revealed a pill master's degree of harmony with and control over the cauldron.
There was no denying it: Jiang Chen had overwhelmed Shi Xuan in every respect.
Shi Xuan staggered. He wished he could smash the cauldron to smithereens, wished he could destroy the Eternal Sacred Land on the spot.
But those were things he could not do.
And so, the wager came to its end. Each side was to pose three challenges, yet they hadn't even reached the third round before Shi Xuan had lost two consecutive rounds—completely and utterly defeated by Jiang Chen.
Shi Xuan had previously boasted that apart from the Taiyi Heaven Supplement Pill, everything the Eternal Sacred Land knew, he knew as well.
Now it seemed that boast had been made far too early. And precisely because of that boast, Shi Xuan's reputation was ruined beyond repair, and he had even lost his freedom.
From somewhere in the crowd, applause broke out.
It didn't become a thunderous roar, but many people followed suit, clapping along. The applause surged like a tide, leaving Shi Xuan standing in the middle of it like a buffoon performing on stage.
A middle-aged man from the Bai Sheng faction suddenly shouted, "No, no! I sense there's something fishy here—it's definitely a trick! Everyone, think about it calmly. How extraordinary is our Lord Shi Xuan's talent in Pill Dao? And how old is this brat? How could he possibly defeat our Lord Shi Xuan? I suspect this is a trap—a trap designed from start to finish. The Eternal Sacred Land ambushed our Lord Shi Xuan!"
This man was likely Shi Xuan's attendant or follower. At this moment, he was hopping around like a clown, clearly trying to overturn the wager.
Yan Qingsang heard this and was not pleased. "From the sound of it, you intend to go back on your word? Go ahead—see whether heaven has eyes and decides to strike you down! A trap? I honestly wonder whether the thing on your shoulders is even a human head! How exactly do you claim he set a trap against your master? Did he somehow know in advance what tall tale your master was going to spin? Was he a prophet who knew what your master would say and arranged the entire wager to match? Do you really think that's possible?"