Though the content differed from last time, as long as the format was the same, Jiang Chen felt absolutely no pressure whatsoever.
To him, these tasks were as easy as eating and drinking. Cauldron appraisal and fire control — he swept through both like a force of nature.
Without a shred of doubt, he blazed through both stages at the fastest speed and advanced to the third round.
Seed Identification.
This round was slightly more difficult, but for Jiang Chen, it posed no real challenge either.
The requirement was to find five seeds of identical attributes from among a thousand — and only those five. Pick even one wrong, and you were eliminated.
Moreover, among those five matching seeds, one was a dud seed that also needed to be identified and separated.
Jiang Chen activated his Heavenly Eye Divine Pupil to its most refined level. Like a magnifying lens, it amplified the attributes of each seed infinitely, projecting them clearly before his eyes.
His fingers danced as he picked out the five seeds sharing the same attribute.
As for the dud seed — it might have posed a problem for ordinary Spirit Alchemists, but for Jiang Chen, it was no trouble at all. A dud seed was simply one devoid of any sign of life. After a brief sensing sweep, he plucked it from the five without hesitation.
The third round — swept through just as effortlessly.
Seeing Jiang Chen advance this quickly, every other competitor was struck with silent shock. Even the top favorites in the Alchemy Grand Prix had only just entered the third round at this point.
And Jiang Chen had already moved on to the fourth.
The fourth round was Spiritual Medicine Combinations, and its difficulty was again a step above the third.
A total of ninety-nine types of Spiritual Medicine were laid out, and competitors were required to identify at least eighteen valid combinations among them.
A Spiritual Medicine combination was essentially a pairing — the art of matching ingredients for pill refinement.
In the world of Alchemy, Spiritual Medicines were divided into primary and secondary materials. Which medicines could serve as primary ingredients? Which were suited for secondary roles? And which could fulfill both? Once those distinctions were made, the next question was how to pair primary and secondary ingredients together. This was a deep and intricate art.
The more pairings one knew, the deeper one's knowledge, and the higher one's mastery of the Dao of Alchemy.
This game was as simple as children stacking building blocks for Jiang Chen. One glance at a Spiritual Medicine, one touch, one sniff — after these three steps of seeing, feeling, and smelling, there was no medicine that could stump him.
Soon, Jiang Chen had identified thirty-six combinations, every single one absolutely correct.
Seeing Jiang Chen so relaxed and effortless, even the judges were dumbstruck.
This wasn't a competition — it was a lecture demonstration. And his methods, his speed, his composure were even more effortless than teaching.
The most stunned person of all, without question, was Elder
Elder Yun Nie naturally knew that Jiang Chen's alchemy talent must be extraordinary — otherwise, he could never have crushed Yan Hongtu so easily back then, nor helped him complete the refinement of the Six-Line Mysterious Dragon Pill.
But Jiang Chen was young, after all. In the matter of the Six-Line Mysterious Dragon Pill, Elder Yun Nie had always felt it might have been a fluke — perhaps Jiang Chen had happened to come across that pill recipe at some point.
However —
Now, watching Jiang Chen blaze through the competition like this, Elder Yun Nie understood. This young man's mastery of Spiritual Medicine was genuine, absolute genius. In all of Danqian Palace's history, no one this young had ever displayed such monstrous talent.
In that moment, Elder Yun Nie's heart surged with both shock and excitement.
For decades, he had been consumed by one worry: that Palace Master
More and more young disciples had fallen for the martial path, neglecting Alchemy without even realizing it.
Over the past sixty years, Danqian Palace's alchemy standards had been in decline — not among the older generation, but in the younger generation's lack of successors. That was an undeniable fact. If the young generation weren't in such a sorry state of succession, someone like
What worried Elder Yun Nie even more was the upcoming Heavenly Lake Mountain Alchemy Grand Prix.
Over these decades, he had gathered intelligence on the major sects of the Myriad Domain through various channels. Every piece of information pointed to the same conclusion: the six great sects of the Myriad Domain had been frantically cultivating alchemy prodigies over the past several decades. The Triple Star Sect and the Carefree Sect, in particular, had produced a wave of young talents in pill refinement.
In comparison, Danqian Palace's young geniuses had abandoned their ancestors' traditions in single-minded pursuit of the supreme martial path.
Pursuing martial arts wasn't wrong — Elder Yun Nie knew that perfectly well. But obsessing over it to the point of abandoning the alchemy tradition was an undeniable fact.
That was why Elder Yun Nie had been so anxious about the approaching Heavenly Lake Mountain Alchemy Grand Prix. Could Danqian Palace's young Alchemists possibly stand up to the Triple Star Sect and the Carefree Sect? He had no confidence.
But that worry, in this very moment, suddenly lifted from his shoulders.
Because —
He had found Jiang Chen!
In the time Elder Yun Nie had been lost in thought, Jiang Chen had surged ahead again, already arriving at the fifth round: Pill Recipe Decomposition.