The bell rang—a deep, resonant gong that echoed across the mountain.
A voice rang out: "You may now begin your refinents!"
Han Yu’s fingers moved like water over stone. He ignited the fla array with a tendril of his spirit sense—precise, unwavering. The cauldron glowed to life with a dull blue fla beneath it, and the herbs hovered in the air before him.
It was clear this was a high grade fla array as the flas that rose from it were blue instead of the usual orange or yellow.
First thing Han Yu picked was the dried and roasted Leaf of Mindvine, infusing it with a touch of wind spirit qi provided by a talisman. Then ca the powdered root of Ghost Callia, slowly lted in spiritual water. As the ingredients blended, a sweet, cloying scent filled his station.
And then ca the crucial step.
The Twin Dust Blossoms and Flicker Ironwood Sap.
As soon as they t, a burst of violet vapor hissed upward. Han Yu’s vision shimred—he could see the haze starting to twist, form, take shape.
And then—mory Echo activated.
A brilliant loop of ntal clarity wrapped around his soul, muting the hallucination. The mist danced before him like smoke, but it held no sway over his mind. His hands moved like clockwork, tossing in the final herb and clapping the lid onto the cauldron.
Monts passed.
Seconds stretched.
The cauldron rumbled once—twice—and finally settled.
Han Yu slowly opened it.
Inside, a single glowing pill shimred like a pearl dipped in liquid moonlight. No cracks. No burn marks. Just the soft glisten of success.
He leaned back, smiling faintly.
’Another good one down.’ Victory was just beginning for Han Yu.
Han Yu gently lifted the pill from the cauldron with a specialized spirit-infused spatula, careful not to let any lingering heat or ambient qi interfere with the result.
The Mind-nder Spirit Pill rested perfectly in the center of the jade-tinted dish—round, smooth, and radiating a faint pulse of calming spirit energy. A slight glow hovered around it, a sign of refined purity and stable form.
He examined it briefly.
No cloudiness. No energy leaks.
Its fragrance was restrained but rich, like clean parchnt soaked in spiritual dew—exactly as it should be.
He sealed the pill in a transparent crystal case and marked it with his spirit sense before setting it on the small platform next to his station.
"Submission complete," he whispered, and the platform blinked once in acknowledgnt, the pill being silently transferred to the judging chamber through a hidden array.
Around him, the test hall had already beco a hive of activity. Dozens of alchemists were deep in their refinents, so sweating profusely as the ntal fog of their own pills took hold, others desperately trying to maintain their cauldron’s balance.
There was the sharp pop of a failed refinent two stations away—an explosion of red fus and coughing. Han Yu didn’t even glance over.
He simply leaned back, fingers locked behind his head, looking skyward at the towering jade statues above as if asking them, "Was that good enough for you?"
The next two hours passed in waves of tension, eruptions, failures, and silent triumphs. Several instructors and elders occasionally strolled among the rows, nodding at promising work and frowning at unstable brews.
When it was finally over, the overseer’s voice rang out again:
"All participants, stand by. Judging will now comnce. Finalists will be displayed shortly."
The cauldrons deactivated. Everyone’s pills were now sealed in spirit-crystal cases and whisked away by an array toward the judging platform high above the hall. A set of five elders, each with a distinct robe color and a jade tablet, now sat at a half-moon table looking down over the test floor.
One of them—an elder with thin eyebrows and a silken beard—tapped his finger on the tablet. Glowing symbols danced into the air.
Above the heads of all participants, a large projection appeared in shimring golden script:
Top 5 Pills – Evaluation in Progress...
A hush fell over the crowd. Even those who had clearly failed stood still, desperate to see the nas. Han Yu, anwhile, stretched and yawned theatrically, completely relaxed.
And then, finally:
1st Place (Provisional): Han Yu — Mind-nder Spirit Pill — Grade: High Purity, Peak Stability
2nd Place (Provisional): Xu Renshu — Burning ridian Pill — Grade: dium Purity, Stable Form
3rd Place (Provisional): Lin ng’er — Bloodroot Essence Pill — Grade: dium Purity, Slight Instability
4th Place (Provisional): Yu Fei — Cold Silken Qi Pill — Grade: Low Purity, Stable Form5th Place (Provisional): — Under Review —
There was a collective gasp from the entire hall. A few disciples outright dropped their pill containers in shock.
Even in the observation balcony, so of the instructors leaned forward. One of them, a core elder with a sharp goatee, muttered aloud, "Han Yu... wasn’t he that outer court brat Li i picked up?"
Another replied, "Didn’t he just join the Alchemy peak a couple months ago? I heard Junior Elder Zhou and Xuan personally brought him in."
Han Yu watched all of it unfold with a faint smirk. His eyes caught flickers of Eight Emotions Energy drifting in the air—bright yellow of joy, soft green of admiration, even a few grey slivers of surprise and dull red sparks of irritation.
All beautiful, all useful.
Backstage in the small betting shed, the skinny disciple was holding the token Han Yu had given him, his eyes wide with disbelief.
He whispered to himself, "...This madman actually bet on himself and might win?!"
Then he gulped. If Han Yu truly placed first—and it certainly looked like he would—that ant the betting house would have to pay him double.
Three hundred thousand rit points.
The boy paled. He scrambled to alert his superiors so that they could adjust the odds and shift bets, but it was too late.
anwhile, Han Yu was being called to the front of the hall.
An instructor beckoned him with a neutral tone, "Han Yu, co forward. The judging elders wish to speak with you."
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