Rise of the Demon God

The red haired man had next picked up what seemed like black leaves. He placed them on the table near him as he started crushing them with a hammer.

"What are you doing now?" Long Chen asked, curious. 

"This is the Alchemist Qi Hammer. There are many items that are entirely made of Origin Energy. If we use them as they are in Alchemy, their excess energy will destroy the pills, and the Cauldron will blow up," the red-haired man explained carefully as he kept smacking the hammer on the table.

He smacked three times and stopped. At the same time, Long Chen noticed that the man in the distance had smacked the plants four times. 

"Why did you hit only three times and others did four times?" Long Chen asked the man. 

...

Standing in the distance, the King was smiling. 

"Great Master is really talented. He's actually testing by pretending to be naive about alchemy by asking questions that even fifteen years olds know here," he muttered, smiling.

"That's right. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought that he actually was an illiterate who didn't even know the basics. He is really talented," Gu Wang said as he nodded.

"So Gu Wang, what is your relation to him? Do you know him from before?" the King asked Gu Wang, wondering how he knew such a great guy. 

"Actually, I hadn't known him for long either. He was passing through the city, and he decided to rest at our forest that we were given last time," Gu Wang started explaining. 

" My daughter and other youngsters were also in that forest. That's where they got to know each other. And my daughter and Great Master started getting closer," he further said. 

"Ah? You mean he and your daughter? They're together?" The King asked in surprise. He had already expected that but to know it was true; he was still shocked. 

"I guess you can say that. They both love each other," Gu Wang let out, grinning. 

"Ah, so that's why he said no to my beautiful daughter. You're really lucky to get him as your future son-in-law," the King said, sighing. 

It didn't take him long before he changed his plans and continued, "On the same topic, I was wondering if I should get my daughter married in your Clan? I always appreciated your Clan."

"We should change that closeness to a relationship. My daughter can marry your Grand Elder's son. I forgot what his name was." He further said. It didn't matter if he couldn't be related to Long Chen directly. Even being indirectly related wasn't bad. 

Long Chen was their relative. He needed to be one too, so he could have a future connection to Long Chen. Who knew, Long Chen might become a really big guy one day. 

"That's a good idea. I have no problem, Your Majesty. We can get them married," Gu Wang said, nodding. 

....

Sitting behind them, Ji Shan was finding it amusing. This guy was pretending to be Long Chen's future father-in-law while Long Chen was pretending to be an expert in alchemy straight ahead. 

He just folded his arms and decided to watch and not interfere. He even opened the book that Long Chen had given him as he continued understanding the basics.

...

" We use these hammers to remove the excess Origin Energy of the materials by injecting Qi in them slowly. That's what I'm doing. If we infect too little Qi, the herbs and plants will be unstable, and the effect will be the same as not doing anything to them," the red-haired man explained. 

"On the other hand, if we inject too little, it'll make these materials useless. That's why everyone uses a different amount of Qi as per their understanding and the quality of their hammers. That's what I used too," he further said. 

"As for why others used less or more, that might be what they thought to be correct," he continued as he picked up the leaves and tossed them in the Cauldron before he closed it. 

'So that's what Xun said when she said that it'd be soon when the difference starts coming into play. Soon, everyone had placed the black leaves inside the Cauldron except Gu Lin, who was still seemingly waiting for the initial mixing.

It was only after two minutes when she got to the leaves and started hitting them. She only hit once, though, before she placed them in the Cauldron. 

'Well, it depends on the person. But I'll love to see which approach is close to perfection,' Long Chen thought. 

The red haired man again opened the Cauldron and started adding the red of the herbs. 

"The Divine Qi Grass to make the pills attract the beasts," he said as he placed the grass in the end.

"And with that, ends the recipe. All we need to do is wait," he further said as he closed the Cauldron again. 

Long Chen nodded as he started walking over to the other participants, lost in thought. 

'I need to learn a lot of things: the fire, the art of Hammering, and many more. Xun, when is my next bloodline trial going to be? Can I get knowledge of Higher Alchemy from that?' he asked Xun, wondering when it was coming.

"It won't be coming anytime soon. It'll be when your bloodline is fifty percent converted. There's still time for that. So you'll need to work hard yourself if you want to learn Alchemy," Xun replied.

"Sigh. Alright. I'll handle it myself. I only need to learn two things in any case. Hopefully, after that, it'll be easy," Long Chen muttered as he calmly started walking back after he checked up on everyone. 

He walked back to his seat in the middle of the King and Gu Wang.

"What did you think of your youngsters? Are they talented?" The King asked Long Chen. 

"Well, some of them aren't bad actually. They can have a good future," Long Chen replied like a great master. 

Time kept passing as the wait continued. It was only after half an hour had passed when the last person also opened their Cauldron, who was none other than Gu Lin. 

"Alright. Everyone, come to us with your pills one after another. We'll judge your quality," The King declared as he invited everyone. The red haired guy was the first to come. 

"This is what I made," he said as he gave one pill to the King. He didn't forget to give a pill to Long Chen either. 

"What do you think about the quality of the pill?" The king said as he shifted all the responsibility to Long Chen to judge.