Chapter 477: Chapter 397: Jade Heaven Essence Pill, The First Signs of Conspiracy (Part 2)

“I’ve heard that the girl in white is even stronger than the one in purple,” someone whispered, providing more specific information, “One is from the side branch, the other from the direct lineage, yet the side branch’s talent and strength surpass the direct lineage’s. This is rare in a big family.”

“In terms of looks, the one in white is also superior, with such a clean aura.”

The discussions in the audience drifted intermittently into the ears of the eight contestants. Some ignored it, closing their eyes to adjust their state; some moved their fingertips subtly, silently familiarizing themselves with the herbs in front of them; and some, like Dongfang Xi, hung their heads low, long hair covering the cold surging in her eyes—those discussions pierced her heart like needles, with anger and jealousy growing wildly in her chest.

At this moment, Dongfang Xi’s gaze unintentionally swept towards Dongfang Mingyue opposite her, only to suddenly pause—Dongfang Mingyue’s expression was somewhat off, her eyes vacant, as if distracted, lacking the focus and tension of someone about to compete.

What’s going on? Is her cauldron really broken, and she hasn’t resolved it yet?

A wave of glee surged in Dongfang Xi’s heart. No matter the reason, if Dongfang Mingyue competes in this state, only failure awaits her!

“What’s wrong with Miss? Why does she look so lost?” On the edge of the spectators’ area, bodyguards from the Dongfang family also noticed Dongfang Mingyue’s unusual state and couldn’t help exchanging worried glances.

“Not sure, she was like this on the way here.” A burly guard replied with a frown, “I quietly asked Xiaoyu, and she said it was nothing, so I didn’t ask further.”

Guard captain Min Wenbing followed his gaze to the stage, where Xiaoyu was staring directly at Dongfang Mingyue, with a hint of tension and unease in her eyes.

Min Wenbing frowned tighter but said nothing more, only heightened his vigilance in secret.

Soon, the finals of the quarterfinals officially commenced.

Without lengthy preambles, an elder in a cyan robe, with a heavy aura, took the stage. He was Gu Chaoxian, the Eighth Tier Alchemist sent by the Alchemist Association’s headquarters.

Simultaneously, staff members handed eight jade slips to each of the eight contestants.

“Everyone, the quarterfinals of the Starry Sky Cup start now,” Gu Chaoxian’s deep voice resonated throughout the venue via an amplification array, without a single extra word, straight to the point, “The elixir you need to refine today is called ’Jade Heaven Essence Pill’. Recently developed by Seventh Grade Alchemist Lou Kecheng, this elixir can temporarily triple the spiritual energy of a Tier Six Spiritualist upon consumption, and speeds up injury recovery with no side effects.”

As the words fell, the scene instantly erupted, with discussions surging like a tide.

Triple spiritual energy enhancement

This means that in a battle of evenly matched opponents, the one consuming this elixir can instantly reverse the situation, leading to a crushing victory; even if severely injured, they can make a quick recovery with the elixir, making it a ’trump card-grade’ elixir for Tier Six Spiritualists!

Seeing the audience’s enthusiastic discussion, a faint smile appeared on Gu Chaoxian’s face. An alchemist competition was always a great opportunity for the association to promote new elixirs—by leveraging the attention drawn by the competition to make new elixir formulations known to more people, thereby gaining external recognition and orders, this has been the association’s norm for years.

Using a new elixir formula as the competition topic is undoubtedly a huge challenge for the contestants, but this is precisely the point of the competition.

Just like ordinary academic competitions don’t use previous questions, but instead test students with new questions to assess their real abilities.

Using a new formula in an alchemist competition not only maximizes fairness but also truly tests the contestants’ fundamental skills and on-the-spot adaptability.

Of course, for contestants, this is not an unprofitable trade—the new elixir formula, for an alchemist, is comparable to a secret manual for a spiritualist, learning a rare sixth-tier formula for free is naturally a good thing.

Compared to other sixth-tier elixirs, although the Jade Heaven Essence Pill’s formula is new, the overall difficulty is not particularly high, making it a well-chosen formula suitable for competition by the association.

“Alright, no more unnecessary words,” Gu Chaoxian raised his hand to quiet the crowd, “The competition time is ten hours, after which the judging panel will score the elixirs you refined, and the four highest scorers will advance to the finals.”

As soon as the words fell, the stone slabs under the eight contestants simultaneously lit up with a soft white light, and eight semi-transparent spiritual energy arrays slowly rose, enveloping each person in a separate space—isolating them from external noise to avoid interference and ensuring the alchemists’ safety in case of emergencies.

The contestants picked up the jade slips in their hands, injecting their spiritual power into them.

The next second, the information about the Jade Heaven Essence Pill, including the recipe, herb proportions, refining steps, and details, clearly flowed into their minds.

Nobody moved immediately; all of them held their breath and focused intently on studying the formula, attempting to thoroughly understand every detail, and even simulating the entire alchemy process in their minds—the more prepared they were with a new formula initially, the lower the probability of errors later.

About a quarter of an hour later, someone finally took the first action—a gray-haired elder, whose fingertip emanated a faint red spiritual energy. With a gentle point towards the charcoal stove in front of him, a blue flame burst into life, its height consistently stable at around three inches without the slightest flicker.

This was a typical fire spiritual energy application, using precise fire control to directly refine the herbs.

Soon after, the other contestants also began to take action one after another.

Some, like the elder, activated their fire spiritual energy; the flames varied in strength but were firmly controlled, adding herbs into the cauldron in batches to decompose the essence through high heat. Others, like Dongfang Mingyue, had their fingertips wrapped in a pale green spiritual energy, akin to fine vines entwining the herbs, using the “vital force” of wood spiritual energy to accurately strip away impurities, extracting the herbs’ effective components with extraordinary purity—both approaches had their merits, drawing approving nods from the audience who were also alchemists, their eyes locked on each detail in the arena for fear of missing techniques they could learn.

Only Dongfang Mingyue displayed some sluggishness in her actions from the very start.

The wood spiritual energy at her fingertips remained pure, but occasionally showed subtle fluctuations. Her rhythm in decomposing the herbs was also half a beat slower than usual—the remnants of a nightmare still lingered in her mind, with Xiaoyu’s image constantly flashing in her thoughts, making it hard to fully concentrate.

Min Wenbing and others in the audience felt a tightening in their chests as they watched. Xiaoyu gripped her clothes tightly, her nails almost embedding in her palm—she knew that Miss was distracted because of her.

Time ticked by, and two hours passed in the blink of an eye.

Some contestants had already completed the initial refinement of the herbs and were preparing for the critical step of merging the medicinal properties.

At this moment, a light “buzz” suddenly emitted from Dongfang Mingyue’s cauldron, followed by a wisp of black smoke slowly rising from the cauldron’s mouth, causing the spiritual energy fluctuation to become chaotic instantly.

“Oh no! The elixir is ruined!” someone beneath the stage exclaimed in a low voice.

Everyone’s eyes focused on Dongfang Mingyue—the appearance of black smoke during herb refinement meant the medicinal properties had been destroyed, and this batch was completely wasted.

The audience was filled with surprise, even Gu Chaoxian on the judges’ bench frowned, “That’s odd, with Dongfang Mingyue’s skill, she shouldn’t make a mistake in such a fundamental step.”

The judge beside him nodded in agreement, evidently also finding it unusual.

Out of the corner of her eye, Dongfang Xi saw this scene and couldn’t help but curl her lips into a secretive smile, although she didn’t know the reason, something had obviously affected Dongfang Mingyue!

Beside the cauldron, Dongfang Mingyue looked at the wisp of black smoke, her body stiffened for a moment, then she slowly closed her eyes. Images of Xiaoyu’s smiles from last night flashed through her mind, interspersed with the coldness of the snow in her nightmare and Xiaoyu’s worried gaze just now.

She was silent for a full half minute, and when she opened her eyes again, the confusion was gone, leaving only determination.

She turned her head to look at Xiaoyu beneath the stage, their eyes meeting across the crowd—Xiaoyu nodded towards her with force, eyes full of trust.

Dongfang Mingyue took a deep breath, raised her hand to clean the residue of herbs from the ruined cauldron, then opened the spare jade box to retrieve new raw materials.

This time, the wood spiritual energy at her fingertips was incredibly stable, her movements in decomposing the herbs were seamless and precise as if practiced hundreds of times, without wasting a single bit of spiritual energy.

“That’s more like it!” Min Wenbing secretly breathed a sigh of relief, his tense shoulders finally relaxing somewhat. Xiaoyu also smiled, although her eyes were slightly red—she knew that Miss was forcing herself to focus, to let go of her worries.

Yet alongside the relief came concern—others were already two hours ahead, with only eight hours left until the competition ended. Could Dongfang Mingyue catch up by starting over again?

Everyone’s focus returned to her, some with anticipation, others with doubt.

“Old He, I’m going to the restroom,”

In a corner of the audience, Nie Yunxing patted He Wu on the shoulder and stood to head to the restroom.

Upon reaching the restroom, as Nie Yunxing unzipped his pants to relieve himself, he suddenly smelled a peculiar aroma. His vision blurred, and his mind felt as if it was pricked by needles. Gradually, his eyes became hollow.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep