Yao Song waved his hand like he was about to play a zither. The ring on his index finger glowed before several thousand ingredients appeared around him. Each ingredient, encased in its own luminescent glow, flew toward the work stations. This was followed by a basic alchemy cauldron landing on the station as well.

It seems he wants us to use a standard cauldron to see who among us has the best alchemy skills.

Alchemy cauldrons were ranked just like profound spirit weapons and armor. Higher ranking cauldrons were made from better materials, which made it easier to refine pills. Some special cauldrons could even provide more benefits like help regulating the cauldron’s temperature or assisting in the refining of ingredients.

The cauldrons being used here were middle-quality earth grade, which meant they were the most basic kind of cauldron money could buy. That they brought out this kind of cauldron made it clear they wanted this round to be a test of skill.

Zhou Lihua found an unused workstation. She began studying the ingredients but was forced to stop upon feeling a set of malicious eyes on her. Turning her head, she looked at the beautiful young woman to her left. Said woman had pure white skin, red eyes, and white hair. She was an albino. Zhou Lihua had never met a woman like this, but they were considered a rarity. Some people assumed they were blessed by the heavens, while others believed they were cursed.

“Can I help you?” asked Zhou Lihua.

“I saw you going out with His Majesty, second prince Cì Chuān, the other day. I don’t care how pretty you think you are. I won’t let a woman I’ve never heard of before lay hands on the prince. My name is Lili Ling. You had better remember it. I’m going to be the one who defeats you in this tournament. I’ll prove to the second prince that I’m a far better woman than you!”

Zhou Lihua stared at the woman who spoke with a shrill, cutesy voice. Sugary. That’s how she would have described this woman’s voice. It was like if someone had spun sugar and made it into a sound.

Oh, dear. This woman obviously has the wrong idea about my relationship with that prick--I mean, the prince. What should I do about this?

On the one hand, Zhou Lihua did not like the fact that this woman thought she was in any way interested in the arrogant and lascivious prince. On the other, she understood that once someone got an idea into their head, nothing she did would convince them they were wrong. Even denying that she was close to Cì Chuān would sound like evidence to the contrary now.

“Well, good luck with that,” Zhou Lihua decided to rile the woman up by sounding like she didn’t care--and it worked.

“Ooooh! People like you burn me up! I definitely won’t let you win now!” Lili Ling shouted.

“Hey! No talking during the test!” snapped Zhong Mu.

“S-sorry, Elder Zhong,” Lili Ling apologized, looking chastised. She glared at Zhou Lihua as if this was somehow her fault.

Zhou Lihua ignored her from this moment on and instead studied the ingredients she had been given. They were different from the ingredients that both Lili Ling and the man to her left were given.

Let’s see. There’s imperial bamboo, demon berries, cedar bark, eternal brier, urchin horn, ginseng root, aconitum carmichaelii, yellow licorice grass, chrysanthemum leaves…

All of the ingredients were quite common and used in the refining of tier 3 pills. She ran through the list of pills she could refine in her head and thought about what she could make with these ingredients. There was only one pill she could refine that used every ingredient available to her.

Cat’s Eye Pill.

The Cat’s Eye Pill was a vision enhancing pill that both enhanced a person’s eyesight and gave them night vision. Like most pills, the effects only last for a limited time--about one hour. It didn’t last long enough for there to be any lasting side effects, but it would cause a loss of vision if someone used it too much. Master Wong Jiu had even told her a story about a man who went blind because he used it every day for five years.

The story went that a young cultivator who used a cultivation method that required him to cultivate at night bought Cat’s Eye Pills because he was afraid of the dark. He didn’t want to cultivate when there was no light out, and so he bought those pills to make it look as close to day time as possible. He was so happy with the results that he would buy those pills whenever he ran out and used them every night.

After a year of using them, his vision became slightly blurry. He didn’t think much of it, and the years passed. His eyesight eventually became so bad that he could no longer see anything more than slight shapes. By the time he realized what had caused his bad eyesight, it was already too late. He eventually lost his sight completely and was cast into eternal darkness.

She didn’t know if the story was true, but it told the lesson about becoming overly reliant on alchemy pills. They were meant to supplement a person’s cultivation and abilities. They were not meant to be used constantly.

Zhou Lihua opened the lid to her cauldron and placed the first ingredient inside. She closed the lid, formed the tiger seal with her hands, and circulated her chi. Flames burned into existence underneath the cauldron. She inhaled a deep breath, then breathed out as she increased the flame’s heat, causing the cauldron’s bottom to turn red.

Everything around Zhou Lihua disappeared from her mind, and she focused only on the ingredients she was refining. She turned all her senses onto the ingredient inside, listening to the pop and sizzle as it turned into a liquid, smelling the impurities as they were burned away. Once she had refined the ingredient, she placed another ingredient inside.

Refining became harder the more ingredients you added into the cauldron. You not only had to keep the other ingredients you already refined safe from the flames, but you had to continue refining more ingredients at the same time, adding more and more. This was one of the reason higher tier pills were so hard to refine. It was difficult to protect hundreds of ingredients at the same time whilst controlling the flames to purify another set of ingredients.

But Zhou Lihua already exelled at multitasking. Refining ingredients and turning them into a pill like this was what she enjoyed doing the most in this world.

***

This was the first time in a long time that Wu Jian had been without a companion. Sure, Wong Jiu was present, but he didn’t really know the man, and he couldn’t let this person know who he really was. It made conversing with him difficult. Wu Jian worried he would give himself away.

They were in a booth meant for alchemist master’s whose disciples were competing. Several hundred alchemists were already present and mingling. Master Wong Jiu, being the anti-social old man that he was, had opted to stand in a corner and sip his rice wine instead of fraternize. To him, these people were rivals.

Wu Jian didn’t know these people. He wasn’t an alchemist. The only reason he was even here was because he had come with Master Wong Jiu. He stood near the glass window that overlooked the arena floor, where the second round would take place.

His thoughts were on Zhou Lihua. How was she fairing in the first round? He knew she was skilled, as he had watched her perform alchemy many times now, but he didn’t know how her skills compared to everyone else. Wu Jian had complete faith in her abilities. However, without knowing how talented the others were, his worry continued to gnaw at him from the inside out.

“My apprentice is quite fond of you,” someone said to his left.

Wu Jian turned to look at Master Wong Jiu, who now stood beside him with a glass of wine in hand. He was looking at the room, filled with people standing around tables filled with food, a red carpet underneath their feet, and young men and woman walking around with glasses full of wine.

“We do get along well,” Wu Jian admitted.

“Too well,” Master Wong Jiu affirmed, turning to stare at him. “Do not think I haven’t noticed how close you two have become. She’s far too comfortable with you for someone she just met several months ago.”

Wu Jian shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you. I suppose she’s comfortable with me because Jingshu has vouched for me.”

“That may be it… or it may be something else,” said the old alchemist master.

Shit. Does he know? Does he suspect me?

While Wu Jian had refused to distance himself from Hou Jingshu and Zhou Lihua, he had made sure to always wear his mask and necklace. No one should have suspected his identity… right? That’s what the necklace was for. Or was it? He really didn’t know how the necklace worked. He assumed it would help prevent people from recognizing him, but maybe it served a completely different function.

“I don’t care who you are, but do not give my apprentice a reason to cry. She’s already suffered enough heartache,” Master Wong Jiu gave him this warning before leaving.

Wu Jian watched him disappear into the crowd and bit his lip. A young servant came his way with a plate filled with glasses of wine. He grabbed one before slowly drinking, using spatial manipulation to drink through his mask, which he was glad no one could see through right now.

***

Zhou Lihua had been so focused on refining her pill that she didn’t realize how much time had passed until someone called out to them.

“You only have five minutes left to finish refining your pill!”

Knowing that she didn’t have much time, Zhou Lihua focused on the last ingredient she needed to refine. The ginseng root bubbled and sizzled as it turned into a liquid. She waited until the smell coming from her cauldron turned exceedingly pure, then formed another hand seal.

It was the monkey seal.

Zhou Lihua steadied her breathing as she enforced her will and chi upon the many disparate ingredients inside her cauldron, bringing them together so they would merge into one. The key here was to make sure all the ingredients merged completely. She remained focused as someone sounded a countdown.

“Five. Four. Three. Two.”

Once the countdown hit two, Zhou Lihua ceased her flames, popped open the lid, and retrieved the pill. It was a yellow sphere roughly the size of her thumb. Traveling through one side was a slit that looked like a cat’s eye. That was how she knew the pill had been properly refined. She rolled the pill over, checking to see if there were any abnormalities, and she was pleased to find that there were none.

“Hah. It looks like you were only able to refine one pill. Seems your skills as an alchemist are only so-so.”

Zhou Lihua turned her head as Lili Ling grinned at her and held aloft two bright red pills. There were many alchemy pills that were this color, but she recognized this particularly vibrant sheen as belonging to a high-quality Blood Restoring Pill. Both pills looked to be of the same quality.

“Very impressive,” Zhou Lihua said before ignoring her.

Lili Ling ground her teeth together, but she was unable to say anything as Sao Yong tapped his staff against the ground to get their attention.

“Time is up. If you have not managed to refine a pill, then you are automatically disqualified. Those who have not refined one, please leave.”

Several dejected looking alchemists left with their heads hanging. There were about a dozen. The rest stayed, though some shifted nervously.

“We will now begin the quality test. If you look at the top right corner of your tables, you will see that they are numbered. Come up when I call your number.”

My number is… 442.

One by one, Sao Yong called people up, and one by one, alchemists placed their pills in the quality assurance device to have it tested. Every time a tier 3 pill was placed inside, the crescent mark would light up, and the arrow would move across it like the hand of a clock. The first several pills were graded between five and six, meaning they barely passed. Even though they were close to failing, the alchemists who passed breathed sighs of relief as they went back to their stations.

Finally, someone failed.

“Your pill is ranked at four. You fail.”

“What?! No! Please, give me another chance! I’ll do better next time!”

“What next time? Do you think alchemists always get second chances? When someone comes to you to have a pill refined, they must always present you with two batches of ingredients, and thus you have two chances to refine a pill. We gave you two chances and you failed. Leave now, or I’ll have you removed from both the premise and the Alchemist Association in its entirety,” Sao Yong said, voice stern, expression unwavering in the face of this young man’s obstinance.

The young man left, complete dejected. Seeing this caused Zhou Lihua to shake her head in pity.

Lili Ling’s number was eventually called, and she skipped up to the device, where she placed the first pill inside. The crescent lit up, the arrow began moving, and Zhou Lihua bit the inside of her mouth when she saw the number it lit up on.

Sao Yong smiled. “It looks like we have our first ten. I expect nothing less from you, Ling’er. As expected of Yun Chi’s apprentice.”