Long Chen was doing the same thing as last time. He threw in all his medicinal powers at once. Did he think this was the same thing as last time?

Last time, he had only had seven medicinal powders. But now he was refining a fifth tier pill. There were over a hundred ingredients.

“Hmph, does this idiot think this is still a second tier pill?”

“Hehe, he has no choice but to be this stupid. There’s not enough time. He can only risk it all.”

“Oh? Brother Guangyuan, don’t you also like to evaluate people? Why aren’t you saying anything today?”

The person called brother Guangyuan shook his head. “I don’t feel like it. My face hurts.”

Last time Long Chen had refined the pills, he had been the one to criticize him the most. As a result, he had been the one to receive the most resounding slap.

A hundred and seven medicinal powders entered Long Chen’s pill furnace, along with his vast Spiritual Strength. His Spiritual Strength kept the powders separated. Although they grew hotter within the furnace, they didn’t begin to merge yet.

If he merged them now, this wouldn’t be refining pills but simply creating a furnace of paste. But seeing Long Chen was keeping all the ingredients separated from each other, every alchemist here was startled. Even the tower administrator’s expression changed.

The tower administrator and the three family heads were also able to do this. But just how old was Long San? He was a fraction of their age, but he already possessed such terrifying Spiritual Strength.

“This Long San really is a marvel. It’s just regretful he wasn’t raised by us from a young age. Then his accomplishments would be so high that we could only look up to him,” sighed Fang Mingyuan.

Such a brilliant pearl had been lost in the mountains for so many years. If he failed this time, it really would be regretful. After all, this competition only occurred once a century, and if he missed this chance, he would have no destiny with the Pill Emperor Competition ever again.

“Damn. Long San has merged the Yuxin Grass with the Small Fowl Flower. That will greatly reduce the pill’s quality.” Fang Mingyuan’s expression suddenly changed.

Although Long San would still be able to refine the pill, this would cause the quality to drop. Let alone three rings, even one ring would be difficult.

Chai Gaoyang and Fang Mingyuan were both bitter. They blamed themselves for not paying enough attention to Long San and not treating the opening round as anything important. This one mistake had caused a complete failure.

Currently, everyone else had already finished refining. Ninety percent of the people had succeeded. There were also some who weren’t mentally strong enough to refine in such an environment and failed to meet the specifications.

“There’s still half an incense stick’s worth of time. Do you think Long San will make it?”

“Either way, I’m completely convinced. Even if he fails, just this terrifying Spiritual Strength is something I could never hope to achieve. It’s too abnormal.” In the face of Long Chen’s Spiritual Strength, countless people had to admit defeat.

“There’s no ‘if ‘about it. He’ll definitely be eliminated. The merger of the Yuxin Grass and Small Fowl Flower ensured that he would fail. He doesn’t even recognize the medicinal ingredients; he deserves to fail. What’s the point of just showing off?” There were also people who felt intense jealousy.

“Fuck off! If you had such terrifying soul energy, you could also show off. But if you don’t have that ability, then don’t randomly crap all over the place.”

“Exactly. You don’t have any ability, and you don’t want to see anyone with more skill than you. Just how dark is your heart? In your entire life, you’ll only be able to be a weak Pill King,” sneered someone upon seeing his identity badge.

That person was enraged, but there were so many people against him. Furthermore, they were Pill Emperors, and he had no choice but to slip away.

He had no choice but to slip away, as he was worried others would remember him. If they made life hard on him in the future, he would be screwed.

“The pill fragrance has come out.”

A burst of fragrance came from Long Chen’s furnace. That was what occurred when the moisture in the furnace was being forced out.

But Fang Chang and Chai Liehuo weren’t the slightest bit excited about that. Instead, they were sorrowful. Who would have expected the preliminaries would be so difficult this time? The medicinal ingredients and pill formulas Fang Chang had left for Long Chen had actually been useless.

Long Chen sensed the medicinal energy in the furnace was about to take the form of a pill and sighed inside. “Only now is the time to show off. For the Enlightenment Palace Star, for the sake of refining the dragon blood, I even had to drag down my own face.”

BOOM!

Suddenly, Long Chen’s Spiritual Strength gushed forth, forming a thirty-meter whirlpool in the air above his furnace.

“What?” Everyone let out startled cries. Even the tower administrator stood up.

“This is… the Spiritual Pill Upgrade Art? He’s actually able to use it? How vast is his Spiritual Strength?!” Fang Mingyuan was filled with shock.

This Spiritual Pill Upgrade Art was something used when the pill was about to form. It could absorb the medicinal energy within the pill fragrance to increase the pill’s quality.

Essentially everyone present knew about this technique, but ninety-nine percent of them had never used it.

It wasn’t that they didn’t want to use it, but that they weren’t able to. They didn’t have enough soul energy. Of course, if a Pill Ancestor wanted to refine a fifth tier pill, then with their powerful Spiritual Strength, they would be able to use this technique.

But what Pill Ancestor would be so bored as to waste their precious Spiritual Strength to refine fifth tier pills? Then they really would have something wrong with their heads.

Pill Ancestors refined sixth tier pills, and that exhausted a great deal of Spiritual Strength. They didn’t have enough left over to use this Spiritual Pill Upgrade Art.

So this Spiritual Pill Upgrade Art was something everyone here knew how to use, but they would never use such a trash technique. The principles were very simple, but there was no practical value behind it.

The fact that Long Chen knew how to use this technique wasn’t shocking. It was that he had endless Spiritual Strength.

Even the many ancient pill seniors present had never seen someone with such vast Spiritual Strength.

Alchemists valued the quality of the Spiritual Strength more. In the registration, the only thing they tested was the quality. The amount of Spiritual Strength wasn’t so important. As long as you had enough to refine a furnace of pills, it was enough. You could just rest and recover your Spiritual Strength before the next furnace. So no one cared about it.

Well, it wasn’t necessarily that they didn’t care about it, but simply that no one had such vast Spiritual Strength. So Long Chen’s usage of this technique deeply shook them.

The huge whirlpool above Long Chen’s pill furnace rapidly sucked in all the surrounding air.

“I get it! This little fellow really has some skill. Perhaps he can pass.” Fang Mingyuan suddenly slapped his leg.

Chai Gaoyang also nodded. “Now that hundreds of people have refined the Blood Soul Merging Pill, the medicinal fragrance in the air is extremely dense. This technique can absorb all that scattered medicinal energy for his pill. He might not be able to pass if it was just his own pill fragrance he was absorbing, but now? He really is brazen.”

“Time’s up!” shouted the person in charge of watching the hourglass.

BOOM!

At practically the same time, a loud explosion rang out. That sound was like heavenly music in the ears of the Fang and Chai families.

Even with their calm, Chai Gaoyang and Fang Mingyuan’s hearts jumped a couple of times. As for Fang Chang and Chai Liehuo, their hearts practically rose out of their chests. Long San was an alchemy genius; no, they couldn’t use genius anymore. He had to be something beyond that.

His alchemy potential was limitless. If he had studied here from a young age, the two of them would probably have been so stifled that they would want to kill themselves.

Long Chen’s expression was ‘nervous’ as he slowly opened the lid. Nine medicinal pills lay inside his furnace. Eight of them were dark. But one shone with brilliant lines. There were three rings on it.

“Oh, I succeeded!” Long Chen pumped his arm. But inside he cursed. This act had been too tiring.

When using the Spiritual Pill Upgrade Art, he had poured all the medicinal energy into just one pill. Long Chen had essentially been watching as three rings appeared on the pill. If he had wanted to, he could have continued increasing the quality.

He had clearly known the result, but he had still had to act so nervous, and then act like he was incomparably relieved and excited. Long Chen was starting to admire himself more and more. He really was becoming more and more shameless.

“Hahaha, success!” Now that the preliminaries were over, Fang Chang and Chai Liehuo cheered and laughed. This sudden reversal made them go crazy with joy, and they had an urge to hug Long Chen and kiss him.

“The preliminaries are over! Those who passed, take your new badges so you can attend the elimination round.” The tower administrator waved his hand, and there were people who immediately walked over, handing out badges. As for those who failed, they could only sadly leave.

“Little fellow, you really are not bad.” The tower administrator actually praised Long Chen before leaving.

“Haha, Long San, let’s go celebrate!” Fang Chang pulled Long Chen directly out of the arena.

Long Chen had made a perfect reversal, his radiance completely outshining Huo Wufang who had refined a six-ring pill and finished his refinement first. Huo Wufang’s current expression was ugly, and he also brought his people away.

“Hahaha, brother Chai, let’s go celebrate with the children.” Fang Mingyuan laughed and left with Chai Gaoyang. They didn’t even give a glance at the gloomy Huo Changsheng.

“Long San, is it? Just wait. You’re playing with fire.”