Chapter 37 Pill Battle
Chapter 37 Pill Battle
Translator: BornToBe
“You heard your master. So just how should I play with you?”
Everyone was flabbergasted at his words. Fatty Yu, Shou Hou, and the others’ jaws all dropped to the ground. “Damn, brother Long really is brother Long. Just one sentence of his can choke the whole crowd.”
Xia Baichi’s face was ashen from rage, and her eyes glared daggers at him; if looks could kill, then Long Chen would already have been turned to pulp.
Grandmaster Yun Qi’s expression was odd, and he shook his head slightly. But he was relaxed inside; Long Chen was actually helping him relieve his own anger. Was this what it meant for evil people to attract retribution?
“This rascal!” Chu Yao’s face was completely red. This Long Chen was too crude! Seeing Xia Baichi trembling from her anger, she wondered if she would even have the energy left to refine later.
“Kid, must you be so boorish? The old man only asked you up here for a small competition,” said Wei Cang angrily. He truly wanted to give this youngster a slap on the face.
“I’ll stop. Do I get that if I win?” Long Chen pointed to the bottle in Wei Cang’s hand, sounding a bit undetermined if he should participate.
“Hmph, naturally this old man’s words are true. I definitely won’t renege out of this,” snorted Wei Cang.
Xia Baichi finally calmed herself down enough. Gritting her teeth, she spat out, “You must be dreaming if you think you can beat me. If you lose, I want you to kneel down and kowtow to me three times. Then, you’ll crawl to me and lick my feet clean.”
Xia Baichi’s voice shocked everyone. From her angry words, they suspected that there was a great deal of enmity between the two of them.
They suddenly realized that Wei Cang’s arrival here was definitely not a coincidence. Apparently, it was to target Long Chen and grandmaster Yun Qi.
Xia Baichi’s terms were far too malicious. No person would accept such a thing.
Wei Cang had personally said that Xia Baichi was his apprentice, so her pill arts must definitely be shocking.
But Long Chen’s pill arts were something no one had ever seen before. Whether he could truly refine pills was still doubtful.
Even if he knew how to refine pills, just how long had he known grandmaster Yun Qi? How much could he have learned in two months? It was unlikely for him to have gained even a superficial understanding!
Chu Yao’s face was pale now with worry. Although she hadn’t known Long Chen for long, she could sense that Long Chen’s pride had seeped into his bones. Even in death, he wouldn’t accept such humiliation.
“Long Chen, since you aren’t my apprentice, you don’t need to jump into this trap,” Yun Qi warned him. He was very clear that Long Chen hadn’t gained his inheritance.
“I know it’s a trap… but… the bait is just too tempting.” Long Chen appeared unwilling to give up, his face knotted in contradiction.
Fatty Yu and the others almost vomited blood. Brother Long, if you know it’s a trap, then why are you accepting?
Everyone’s expressions were strange; was Long Chen actually stupid, or was he just acting stupid?
He hesitated for a moment, before saying, “I accept, but I have another condition.”
Seeing Long Chen’s acceptance, Xia Baichi sneered and ridicule flashed in Wei Cang’s eyes.
“Fine, what’s your condition?”
“If I win, I don’t want to get her as a bride. With her relations with you, I’d be afraid of getting a disease,” said Long Chen.
“Long Chen… I’ll kill you!” Xia Baichi’s rage was exploding. Her originally pretty features were completely twisted into an extremely frightful visage.
“Long Chen…” Wei Cang was clenching his fists tightly, the veins on his forehead bulging. Despite being calm all the way until now, he actually started to tremble in fury.
“Old fellow, you didn’t get a blood clot in your head, did you?” asked Long Chen worriedly.
Wei Cang was a monster who had lived for who knew how many years. His restraint exceeded Long Chen’s expectations, and he actually quickly suppressed his anger with a snort.
“This pill battle will be decided with the Blood Condensing Pill. The medicinal ingredients must be prepared on your own, and you can have at most three portions. We’ll start in fifteen minutes.”
After stating the rules, he returned to his seat. He had actually become a bit afraid of Long Chen. That bastard’s ability to anger people was definitely heaven-defying. He was actually afraid of losing his control and slaughtering him in his fury.
Xia Baichi’s medicinal ingredients had naturally already been prepared by Wei Cang. As for Long Chen, he could only rely on grandmaster Yun Qi. This time, Wei Cang was using Xia Baichi to disgrace Long Chen and also Yun Qi. Yun Qi would definitely not look on without lifting a finger.
“Grandmaster, can you please lend me the medicinal ingredients?” Long Chen spread his hands.
“Long Chen, you have to think about this carefully,” warned grandmaster Yun Qi solemnly.
“Grandmaster, I did this all for myself. Don’t worry, I am sure of myself,” said Long Chen.
“Then, fine.” Although he had some concerns, seeing how determined Long Chen was, he merely nodded. He had a Pill Apprentice go back to the guild to get the medicinal ingredients.
The Blood Condensing Pill was a second tier medicinal pill. It was a precious pill for Blood Condensation experts that allowed them to break through the minor levels and was very expensive.
The ingredients to refine it weren’t particularly rare. The most expensive main ingredient of it was the Blood Spirit Fruit.
The pill’s quality was mostly dependant on the purifying of the Blood Spirit Fruit. It had a great deal of impurities within and purifying it was difficult. If the flame’s temperature increased just slightly, then it would immediately burn into ashes.
But if the flame wasn’t strong enough, then the impurities wouldn’t be separated out, which had a huge effect on the pill’s quality. It could be said that the Blood Condensing Pill was extremely difficult to refine, even amongst second tier pills.
Moreover, refining in front of a crowd was even more troublesome. Although three sets of medicinal ingredients sounded like three chances, it was still extremely risky for a pill with as high a failure rate as the Blood Condensing Pill.
Both parties finished preparing very quickly. Two small refining stages were set up atop the martial arena. The whole crowd would be able to see both of them very clearly as they refined.
“Let the competition begin. You both get two hours. After two hours, whoever has refined the higher quality Blood Condensing Pill will be the winner.”
With the start of the competition, Long Chen and Xia Baichi both walked to their respective stages and placed their medicinal ingredients on top of it.
Long Chen suddenly blinked. A very conspicuous plump fruit was sitting on her pill stage.
“A Blood Spirit Fruit that’s over a hundred years old?”
Long Chen was startled. It appeared Xia Baichi had truly come prepared. Two of his Blood Spirit Fruits were only thirty years old, and the best one he had available was only fifty years old.
“Hmph, it’s already been said that the medicinal ingredients would be prepared by yourself. You can only blame your guild for being too poor.” Xia Baichi coldly laughed at him when she saw him looking over.
Grandmaster Yun Qi’s expression sunk slightly. “Even after all these years, you still use these underhand methods.”
Grandmaster Yun Qi’s words weren’t targeted to anyone in particular, almost as if he was speaking to himself. But Wei Cang still coldly laughed, “The winner is the king while the loser is nothing; all I care about are the final results. It was you guys who were careless. Who else can you blame?”
“Grandmaster, did they mess around with the ingredients?” Although Chu Yao couldn’t tell the age of the Blood Spirit Fruits, she still caught onto a couple of clues from their exchange.
Yun Qi nodded. “Their Blood Spirit Fruits are all over three hundred years old. The essence refined from them will be extremely pure which will definitely increase the refined pill’s quality.”
“Then isn’t that very disadvantageous for Long Chen?” asked Chu Yao worriedly.
Their opponents were already ahead before the refinement even began. Chu Yao couldn’t help being worried. Grandmaster Yun Qi sighed, “It’s my fault, I underestimated how thick Wei Cang’s skin was.”
For a moment, the entire crowd was restless. Grandmaster Yun Qi’s words weren’t quiet, and the people nearby all heard it clearly.
But grandmaster Wei Cang also wasn’t wrong. The ingredients were self-supplied, so it was their own fault.
“Do you guys think brother Long will be okay?” asked Shou Hou worriedly.
“What a joke. Who do you think brother Long is? Just watch and see.” Fatty Yu was actually filled with confidence.
Long Chen saw that Xia Baichi was already busy with her own refining. However, he was just standing there, not preparing his ingredients nor warming up the cauldron.
“Hmph, have you given up? Just wait to lick my toes.”
Seeing Long Chen was completely motionless, she thought Long Chen had been too intimidated to continue. She raised her hand, and a pale yellow flame puffed into existence.
Although Xia Baichi definitely didn’t get a high ranking on the scale of personality, her Pill Flame’s quality was actually quite high.
She was definitely at the peak of all Pill Apprentices. It was no wonder she was so confident and dared to throw out such a bait.
However, Long Chen had already been attracted by that bait. That Flame Leopard’s beast flame wasn’t particularly high ranking in terms of beast flames, but it was at least ten times better than his current Pill Flame.
If he could refine that Flame Leopard’s beast flame, then it would be of definite assistance to him. He would be able to refine the top grade Starfusing Pill that Chu Yao was in dire need of.
That was because the foreign energies in her body had been there for too long. It was as if a seed had already sprouted into a huge tree. It required the top grade Starfusing Pill in order to completely refine those energies.
This was something Long Chen was very aware of. That was also why he had accepted this pill battle despite knowing it was a trap. It was as he had said: the bait was just too enticing.
Xia Baichi’s movements were very smooth and fluid as she finished warming up her cauldron. Each step was completed without the slightest hesitation.
Wei Cang smiled and stroked his beard, his eyes filled with confidence.
“Baichi is worth cultivating. If she can refine a Blood Condensing Pill today that isn’t too low in quality, then she can be promoted to Pill Adept.”
The Blood Condensing Pill was one of the requirements to be promoted to Pill Adept. If she could refine it in front of this many people, then it would express to everyone here that Xia Baichi could advance in ranks.
“This is all due to grandmaster’s training. Grandmaster has just arrived and must be tired. Changfeng has already found a place for you to rest,” said Xia Changfeng.
After saying that, he whispered in a voice that only the two of them could hear, “Changfeng has also found two beautiful twin sisters for grandmaster that haven’t been broken in yet.”
The solemn Wei Cang immediately lit up at that, but he quickly suppressed it. In a normal voice, he said, “I just need to randomly rest a bit. There’s no need for such a thing.”
“I know grandmaster doesn’t want such a thing. But wouldn’t it be nice of you to let the people who worship you to have such a chance?” smiled Xia Changfeng.
But inside he was cursing: you old lecher, your lust is something everyone under the heavens knows about, yet you still put on such a fake act.
“Haha, just let someone set that up. My heart’s not up to such a thing,” said Wei Cang.
Your heart’s not up to such a thing? Of course not, because you’d rather force yourself on them. Xia Changfeng muttered inside for a while when his expression suddenly went rigid as he noticed Xia Baichi had begun to refine the Blood Spirit Fruit.
The success of the Blood Condensing Pill was largely related to the Blood Spirit Fruit. If you could extract the pure essence out, then it would increase the probability of success greatly.
Xia Baichi carefully placed the Blood Spirit Fruit inside her cauldron and slowly increased the Pill Flame’s temperature. In truth, this was the first time she had refined such an aged Blood Spirit Fruit, so she didn’t dare to be careless.
“AHH! HEY!! AHH!!”
What shocked everyone was that at such a crucial moment when the entire plaza was silent, Long Chen suddenly started to yell and shout.
BANG!
Xia Baichi’s hand shook and her Pill Flame sharply increased, causing that Blood Spirit Fruit to immediately turn to ashes.
The entire plaza turned deathly silent as they gazed in shock at Long Chen.