Pill King Yu could barely contain his eagerness to reveal the answer, for this guest Pill King of the Wei family had left even him with the unsettling feeling that he simply couldn't read the man.
Was this fellow nothing more than a frivolous person putting on an act of composure, or did he truly have everything under control?
Pill King Yu set Pill King Rong's scroll aside and opened Jiang Chen's scroll first.
It was only natural that Jiang Chen, having submitted his scroll first, would be examined first.
But what happened next was anything but ordinary.
The moment Pill King Yu's eyes swept across the scroll, they seemed to be drawn by some invisible force — he simply couldn't look away.
The next instant, he shot to his feet, his face a mask of shock and wild joy. And then it escalated — his brows lifted high, his eyes gleamed, his entire being lost in a kind of rapturous trance…
Every emotion, every subtle shift, played out vividly across the face of this Ninth-Rank Pill King — a man known for his immense dignity and composure.
The sight left the entire hall stunned.
What on that scroll could possibly be so captivating as to make a Ninth-Rank Pill King — who had always been steady and serious — behave so strangely?
The other Pill Kings couldn't help but crane their necks to get a look.
After they looked, every single judge crowded around, jostling to get a glimpse of the scroll. They looked like children fighting over fruit — not one willing to yield to another.
"Hahaha…" Pill King Yu suddenly burst into laughter, but even as he laughed, his eyes reddened and tears streamed down his weathered face. He collapsed over the table and wept uncontrollably.
This bizarre scene left the entire hall dumbfounded once again.
What now?
How had Pill King Yu started crying all of a sudden? Was it really that moving? Had the Taiyuan Pavilion's Pill King not written a pill formula but instead penned some melodramatic story?
Otherwise, how could he have reduced a man who had lived no fewer than a thousand years to such a state — weeping like that?
"I never imagined, never imagined… I never thought that I, Yu, would one day see the complete Zhenlong Heavenly Pill Formation. I never imagined… Could this be the will of heaven?"
The Zhenlong Heavenly Pill Formation?
Those words struck the room like a thunderbolt. Many of the Pill Kings had heard of the Zhenlong Heavenly Pill Formation, but they knew it only by name — never by substance. Forget having seen all thirty-six pill formulas; most of them had never even laid eyes on the thirty-six types of spiritual medicine ingredients.
But the great name of the Zhenlong Heavenly Pill Formation was something many had heard whispered about.
As a veteran of the Dao of Alchemy, Pill King Yu had seen much of the world. He had witnessed the thirty-six types of spiritual medicine ingredients with his own eyes, but never the complete set of thirty-six pill formulas.
That was why, upon seeing Jiang Chen's scroll, he had been so overwhelmed that he couldn't help but collapse over the table in tears.
He was simply too emotional. He had spent centuries studying the Zhenlong Heavenly Pill Formation, and even with all his abilities as a Ninth-Rank Pill King, he had only managed to work out twenty-three of the formulas.
He had always believed the formation to be a myth — something romanticized by ancients who had never truly managed to assemble all thirty-six formulas.
But today, seeing it laid out before his very eyes, he realized that despite being a Ninth-Rank Pill King, he had been nothing more than a frog at the bottom of a well.
The Zhenlong Heavenly Pill Formation — a legendary arrangement spanning ten thousand ages — how could it possibly be false?
The other judges, too, had been staring at the scroll in a daze, lost in fascination. It took them a long while to slowly come back to their senses.
When they turned to Pill King Rong's scroll, they saw it contained a total of only nine pill formulas. While achieving that within the time limit was already quite impressive —
Compared to Jiang Chen's scroll, it was nothing short of garbage.
Pill King Yu struggled to regain his composure and declared in a loud voice: "First round — the Zhenlong Heavenly Pill Formation — Taiyuan Pavilion wins with an absolute advantage!"
This time, Pill King Yu had clearly injected a great deal of subjective bias into his ruling. A phrase like "absolute advantage" was something a judge would normally never say.
But Pill King Yu felt that even those words were insufficient to express the staggering wonder and joy surging within him.
"The Zhenlong Heavenly Pill Formation — countless top Pill Kings across the Divine Abyss Continent have failed to crack it. I never imagined that today, I would witness the full picture with my own eyes. To have seen this in my lifetime — if in the morning I hear the Way, I can die content in the evening!"
These rather literary words went over the heads of many of the rougher alchemists present, but the general meaning was clear: Pill King Yu was overcome with emotion. He felt that witnessing the complete Zhenlong Heavenly Pill Formation was so extraordinary that even if he died now, his life would be complete.
The Pill Kings around the hall turned pale with shock.
The complete Zhenlong Heavenly Pill Formation?
Could someone on the Divine Abyss Continent actually solve the Zhenlong Heavenly Pill Formation in its entirety?
According to legend, it was an unsolvable puzzle on the Divine Abyss Continent!
This unknown, insignificant Pill King of the Wei family — he had actually solved the complete Zhenlong Heavenly Pill Formation? All thirty-six pill formulas assembled?