Off the stage, Ruan Se breathed a slight sigh of relief. The results of the first round were almost exactly as she had expected. With first place secured, she only needed to proceed steadily for the remaining matches.

Her gaze subconsciously swept over the densely packed sea of people in the stands, trying to find the figure wearing a deep cyan mask.

But the stands were teeming with people, their various robes interweaving into a colorful ocean. She searched for a moment before giving up.

She then turned her gaze to the judges’ seats. Her older sister, Ruan Qin, sat there, her cyan dress exceptionally conspicuous. Two pairs of strikingly similar amber eyes met across half the plaza.

Ruan Qin merely looked at her indifferently, her gaze holding neither praise nor expectation, as if her securing first place in the Myriad Herbs Identification was nothing more than a perfectly ordinary occurrence.

Ruan Se was momentarily surprised before lowering her head. But before the faint trace of disappointment in her heart could spread, she caught sight of a strange scene out of the corner of her eye.

Just a few seats to the right of her sister, a man wearing a dark cyan long robe and a half-mask was waving at her.

He waved his hand back and forth a couple of times, his posture casual, even carrying a somewhat provocative sense of leisure.

Ruan Se froze. Senior Lai? Why was he sitting in the judges’ seats?

From afar, Lai Li’an saw Ruan Se’s usually aloof eyes widen into perfect circles; she looked as if she had been immobilized by a body-binding spell.

Satisfied, he withdrew his hand and leaned back in his chair, barely able to hold back a laugh.

Ruan Se stood there in silence for a moment before forcefully tearing her gaze away from Lai Li’an, the tips of her ears faintly tinged with a very pale pink.

Over at the judges’ seats, Ruan Qin took in the entire scene.

She let her gaze fall on the man who was leisurely sipping tea with his legs crossed, a flash of interest in her eyes.

To think her younger sister actually knew someone on the judges’ panel, and it didn’t seem to be just a casual acquaintance. She quietly assessed him from head to toe.

A Mid Golden Core Cultivation Base. It wasn’t top-tier, but it was respectable enough. However, Ruan Se had always been haughty since childhood and cared for nothing but Alchemy. For someone to make her look at them differently, it would absolutely not be just because of their Cultivation Base.

After the first round of the competition officially ended, the platform in the center of the square was swiftly cleared. The grassy mounds originally covered in Spirit Herbs were removed, replaced by over a thousand independent stone tables.

On each stone table lay an identical set of raw materials. The Presiding Elder’s voice echoed across the arena once more: “The second round, Purifying Medicine. On the stone table in front of every contestant, an identical set of ingredients has been prepared. Crimson Sun Grass is the main herb; Ice Marrow Flower, Bitter Vine Root, and Stone Lichen Powder1 are the auxiliary ingredients, with Skyborne Water2 as the primer. Contestants must complete the refining and purification within the stipulated time and submit the purified medicinal liquid. Scoring will take purity as the primary criterion; those who fail to meet the purity standard will be directly eliminated. Among those whose purity meets the standard, a number of contestants who take the shortest time will advance. During the competition, interfering with other contestants is prohibited, and violators will be disqualified. Those who have not finished when the hourglass runs out will be eliminated.”

Following a long, resonant chime of a bell, nearly a thousand clusters of Spiritual Fire ignited simultaneously on the field, their orange-red glow casting over the entire plaza and making it look like a furnace.

Crimson Sun Grass is a fire-attribute Spiritual Herb. When refining it, one must fiercely attack the stems and leaves with High Heat to force out the medicinal power, then instantly switch to Low Heat to condense the liquid. The slightest carelessness in heat control will reduce the entire stalk of Spirit Herbs to ashes.

What is even more troublesome is that the medicinal properties of the auxiliary Ice Marrow Flower clash with the Crimson Sun Grass. The extracted medicinal liquid must be fused with the Crimson Sun Grass essence before it completely cools, otherwise both will be rendered useless.

Lai Li’an’s gaze passed over the scattered Spiritual Fires on the field and found Ruan Se.

Her movements were still unhurried, her Spiritual Power manipulation so precise it was admirable. Under the guidance of her Spiritual Power, the Crimson Sun Grass slowly shed its outer shell, revealing a cluster of golden-red essence inside. However, Lai Li’an noticed that her brows had furrowed slightly.

The problem lay with the Ice Marrow Flower. The Ice Marrow Flower was a Water Element auxiliary herb, which normally wouldn’t be an issue for a cultivator with a Wood Spiritual Root. But extracting the Ice Marrow Flower required an extremely cold environment, while the High Heat refinement of the Crimson Sun Grass had baked the entire stone platform scorching hot.

Ruan Se had to constantly switch between two diametrically opposed Spiritual Power outputs. One breath she had to use her Spiritual Power to urge the Ice Marrow Flower to crystallize in low temperatures, and the next she had to divide her attention to suppress the Crimson Sun Grass that could overcook at any moment.

“Your sister’s Wood Element control is indeed masterful,” Pei Changjing had sat up straight at some point, the drowsiness in his phoenix eyes lessening a bit. “But pairing Crimson Sun Grass with Ice Marrow Flower is inherently unfair to competitors with Water or Wood Spiritual Roots. Alchemists with a Fire Spiritual Root refine Crimson Sun Grass as easily as cooking a small dish, but those with a Wood Spiritual Root must expend double the Spiritual Power to suppress the heat. I, Old Pei, said from the very beginning that this rule should be changed.”

Yin Zheng picked up his teacup and said calmly, “Extracting medicine tests general techniques, not Spiritual Root preferences. When an Alchemist travels the world in the future, will every medicinal ingredient they encounter be compatible with their Spiritual Root? Being able to hold one’s ground at a disadvantage is in itself a part of one’s strength.”

Pei Changjing raised an eyebrow, noncommittal, and his gaze drifted back to the arena.

Ruan Se’s hands remained steady. The essence of the Crimson Sun Grass gradually condensed into a golden-red liquid bead within the High Heat, while the Ice Marrow Flower on the other side crystallized into frost at a visible rate.

She was simultaneously processing two medicinal ingredients with completely clashing properties, and her progress was no slower than the other competitors, though her face was growing increasingly pale.

Suddenly, a familiar muffled thud came from the eastern side of the plaza. Someone had made an error while extracting the Ice Marrow Flower, causing the cold energy to backlash and freeze the entire batch of materials into a solid lump of ice.

The young Alchemist jumped back, clutching his hand, and was quickly escorted out of the arena by disciples of the Law Enforcement Hall. This minor interlude caused a brief commotion, but Lai Li’an didn’t even glance over; his gaze remained glued to Ruan Se.

Right at this moment, another commotion suddenly erupted toward the south-central area of the plaza.

“Are you kidding me? What kind of furnace is that?”

Lai Li’an looked toward the source of the voice and saw Shao Jiao, who was standing in the furthest corner.

On his stone platform, a dilapidated bronze cauldron was set over a Spiritual Fire. Its body was covered in scratches and rust, looking as if it had been picked out of a junk pile.

A competitor next to him, dressed in a magnificent brocade robe, glanced at the broken cauldron in his hands and sneered, “Fellow Daoist, just how poor is your Sect? You can’t even afford a decent Alchemy Cauldron? Do you want me to lend you one? Lest you lose later and blame it on your tools.”

Shao Jiao ignored him. He tossed the Crimson Sun Grass into the broken cauldron, rested the five fingers of his right hand lightly against the cauldron wall, and slowly infused his Spiritual Power.

A moment later, a stream of extremely pure Crimson Sun Grass essence flowed from the bottom of the cauldron, pouring into the jade bottle he had prepared in his left hand.

The essence’s color was so pure it was almost transparent, without a single trace of impurities.

The brocade-robed competitor’s laughter caught in his throat. He wordlessly retracted his gaze and did not cast another glance in that direction.

“Interesting.” Pei Changjing tapped his fingers lightly on the armrest from the judges’ seats. “That cauldron, although the patterns on its body are worn, one can vaguely tell it’s the craftsmanship of an Ancient Bronze Cauldron. It’s even more exquisite than those Magic Tool-grade Alchemy Cauldrons sold on the market nowadays. This kid knows his stuff, and he knows how to use that kind of old cauldron.”

Lai Li’an raised an eyebrow slightly, but at this moment he was in no mood to pay attention to others, because Ruan Se’s progress had noticeably slowed down.

It wasn’t that her technique was lacking, but rather her Spiritual Power was running out; her Wood Spiritual Root was being consumed too rapidly in the face of the fierce fire of the Crimson Sun Grass.

Suddenly, Ruan Se abruptly withdrew her hands, tracing an arc in the air. The essence of the Crimson Sun Grass and the crystals of the Ice Marrow Flower were simultaneously enveloped by two streams of Spiritual Power, drawn above the stone table, and then slammed together as her ten fingers intertwined.

Cold and heat clashed, sending a cloud of white mist soaring into the air and swallowing up most of her figure. A moment later, the white mist dissipated, and resting quietly on her stone table was a Medicinal Crystal, unexpectedly, it was the even rarer crystallized form.

The Herb Appraiser stepped forward, tested it with a Magic Tool, and announced loudly, “Ruan Se, ninety-eight percent purity, pass!”

Earth-shattering cheers erupted from the stands. Lai Li’an slowly leaned back in his chair and let out a long exhale.

By the time Ruan Se walked back to the resting area, her footsteps were noticeably heavier. She closed her eyes as soon as she sat down; this second round had nearly drained the majority of her Spiritual Power.