Ranked first among one hundred

By the time Qin Chuan had committed the properties of the eight medicinal herbs to memory, he had already made up his mind.

With a sudden motion, he reached out toward his left hand side.

“What is this?”

Everyone around him froze. The direction of his hand was clearly toward the first or second plant on the left.

Wang Hao’s face went even paler. He cried out inwardly that he was ruined this time; that was a whole day’s pocket money down the drain. Looks like he would have to skip a meal of meat.

“Haha, that’s my Red Moon Herb! Hmm? Wait...”

Everyone present was stunned, only to see Qin Chuan pluck the Red Moon Herb from the left side, without pausing in the slightest. At the same time, he took out a jade flask and, while forming seals, drew the dew-like Green Beauty Flower into the bottle.

He had actually fed both spiritual materials to the toad.

“Uh...”

“Senior Brother Wang Hao, how do we count this?”

“Exactly. How do we count it?”

...

Qin Chuan had no idea the crowd outside the medicinal field had already exploded. He was wholly absorbed in what he was doing, while the little fellow remained hidden within his wide sleeve, not showing the slightest sign of itself.

One hundred and one, one hundred and two...

The tally kept rising.

With every silent count came a fresh wave of astonishment.

Qin Chuan had already forgotten just how many herbs he had fused together. He only knew that he must do his utmost to calculate the ever-changing interplay of mutual growth and mutual restraint among plants.

What he did not notice was that even those who were watching him intently failed to realize something else: because the toad had swallowed so many spiritual materials, the precious glow in its eyes was gradually growing richer.

“What is Junior Brother Qin Chuan trying to do?”

“Does he have a problem?”

“Isn’t that obvious? This flower is called Poisonfire Flower; its petals flicker like flames. The petals are mildly toxic, and the stamen is highly poisonous. I was once entrusted by someone to refine a special poison pill, so I know this.”

“What?”

Just as the crowd doubted his words, the jade boar hand that Qin Chuan had driven forward shot out as a strand of silk toward the Poisonfire Flower. But the moment the white filament touched the stamen, it was immediately corroded and rotted away, turning into wisps of smoke that dispersed.

“It really is poisonous!”

Under the crowd’s horrified gaze, Qin Chuan raised his hand again. This time, however, the filament shot out by the jade boar hand was exceedingly dense, faintly transparent and crystal clear.

Whoosh!

The jade boar hand was controlled with exquisite precision, directly seizing the stamen. Even as the filament hissed and smoked with green fumes, it remained solid, then coiled back and fell into the toad’s mouth.

What was strange was that this thing could corrode spiritual energy, yet its effect on living creatures was not nearly so obvious.

Xiao Tianlian’s originally dead and desolate gaze abruptly brightened, and a fierce longing rose within him.

He stared fixedly at the toad.

“Die for me, die for me!”

But the greater the hope, the deeper the disappointment. After three breaths, aside from a faint crimson rising along its back like leaping flames, the toad showed no other change.

“Pfft!”

His eyes widened, his mind went blank, and he coughed up a mouthful of reverse blood before fainting on the spot.

The crowd cried out in amazement one after another, thinking it marvelous and extraordinary, all of them gazing at Qin Chuan with burning eyes.

They did not know that even Qin Chuan himself let out a long breath of relief, feeling both fortunate and excited.

Qin Chuan knew that with this one move alone, his alchemy path had climbed to a higher level.

Though the act was risky and had a great chance of failure, the study of plants and herbs, and of alchemy itself, was not something that could be accomplished merely by understanding medicinal properties and reasoning them out. It demanded this kind of trial and risk.

Some things could not be deduced. Without venturing into danger to prove them, there would be no answer.

The toad swallowed the Poisonfire Flower’s stamen, and the originally harmless strange beast immediately gave off an unusual aura. Even touching its back with a hand seemed to produce a faint sting.

One hundred and three, one hundred and ten, one hundred and eighty... two hundred!

Half the medicinal field had already been crossed, yet the number still kept climbing.

Three hundred, three hundred and fifty.

The end of the flower path could already be dimly seen.

The herbs here were even stranger, exceedingly dazzling, almost all of them crimson or uncanny purple.

This place was nearly entirely made up of poisonous herbs.

Without realizing it, Qin Chuan seemed to have entered a state of complete absorption, continuously taking poisonous herbs and feeding them to the toad.

Yet whether because the toad had somehow gained resistance to poison, or because the herbs, through his calculations, had reached a balance of mutual generation and restraint, the toad showed not the slightest sign of weakness or poisoning. On the contrary, it was in remarkably high spirits.

Only its appearance had changed drastically. The three colors of red, green, and purple now spread across its entire body like natural patterns, and a luminous radiance flowed over it from head to toe.

“We’re here.”

When Qin Chuan fed it the final spiritual herb, he stepped out of the medicinal field.

Suddenly, he felt a pulling force draw him inward. The force was immense; even if he wished to resist, it was useless.

“Hm? Why am I still in the second formation?”

After landing and steadying himself, he looked around and discovered, to his surprise, that he was still in the second formation.

Shouldn’t he have entered the third?

“Haha!”

The wrinkles on Xiao Tianlian’s face bunched together as he laughed with venomous delight.

While the crowd was still buzzing with discussion, they suddenly heard an immensely shocking hum, like the resonance of a great cauldron bell. It seemed to be carved directly into their minds, rippling back and forth.

As though recalling some legend, everyone turned in unison toward an unremarkable stone wall behind them.

Qin Chuan was somewhat curious why the others had all suddenly looked in one direction at once.

At that very moment, a second bell toll rang out, abrupt yet overwhelmingly magnificent, spreading like a wave across the entire alchemical cliff face.

The sound struck Xiao Tianlian’s heart. His expression filled with terror, and he once again coughed up reverse blood. He staggered back seven steps and toppled sideways. This time, however, no one moved to help him; all were immersed in their own astonishment!

The stone wall was not large, hidden beneath the shade of trees, and normally no one would pay it any mind.

The instant the second toll sounded, the rough surface of the wall shed layer upon layer of broken stone. With a sharp crack, it revealed the smooth inner face and the inscriptions upon it.

It seemed to be a ranking board, densely written with the names of a hundred people.

Just as everyone thought as much and, full of awe, wanted to see where Qin Chuan ranked, a flash of gold suddenly appeared, like an extremely sharp blade, carving a name straight into the first place on the list.

Qin Chuan.

These two characters were plain and unadorned, no different from the other inscriptions, yet they drew wave after wave of astonished exclamations from everyone present.

“First place!”

“Brother Qin Chuan is truly gifted. He fused three hundred and sixty-five kinds of herbs, including several poisonous ones, and still took the top spot.”

When the others came back to themselves and looked at Qin Chuan, they saw him standing there with a puzzled expression, one hand rubbing his chin as if he did not understand.

“I’m Wang Hao. May I ask what is troubling you, fellow Daoist?” He was the quickest-witted of them all and stepped forward at once to ask.

“Is there a reward?”

Wang Hao seemed to hear the word reward, but thinking it over, such an expert surely was not like the others, obsessed with profit. “Ah? What did brother say? My ears aren’t good; I didn’t catch that.”

If Qin Chuan could hear what he was thinking, he would surely rush to deny it. No, no, no, I’m just an ordinary person. What I lack most is treasures and spirit stones.

...

There was no reward at all, not even the shadow of half a spirit stone.

Swaying a little, Qin Chuan stepped into the light gate of the third formation, already thinking that once this was over, he would definitely refine more pills and drain the old foundations of the Jade Mat Mountain dry.

A pulling force immediately tugged at him. This was already the second time it had happened, so he was not surprised.

When he stepped out, the world before his eyes suddenly brightened, and the scenery around him changed dramatically.

He was now beneath the alchemical cliff, where quite a few people had already gathered. A servant on the side saw Qin Chuan arrive at the third formation and strolled over unhurriedly. After checking his information, he explained the rules briefly and left.

From the servant’s expression, it seemed he did not know that Qin Chuan had taken first place in the second formation. Qin Chuan thought that was for the best; it would save him from attracting too much attention.

The first formation tested an alchemist’s control over spiritual energy.

The second tested an alchemist’s ability to distinguish herbs, understand their properties, and grasp the principles of transformation.

This third formation tested an alchemist’s actual pill-refining skill. No wonder one had to pass the third formation before the title of alchemist would be recognized by Jade Mat Mountain.

This formation was the true key; the first two were merely preliminaries.

The rules here were not complicated, but there were restrictions.

It was not as simple as refining a single pill. Instead, one had to engage in a pill-refining duel, and only the victor could pass smoothly.

What was a pill-refining duel?

There were two kinds of alchemical contests: literary duels and martial duels.

A literary duel meant that no interference was allowed during pill refinement. A martial duel, however, allowed a certain number of chances to interfere with one’s opponent.

This made the elimination rate in the third formation extremely high.

Two people duel; one stays and one leaves.

Even in the ideal case, the elimination rate was fifty percent. But if, because of the martial duel, neither side refined a pill successfully, then both would be eliminated.

Some enthusiastic onlookers had made detailed statistics on the passing rate of the third formation, and it was only thirty percent.

The moment Qin Chuan heard the martial duel rules, his eyes narrowed. His gaze swept to his opponent, and just then that man happened to look back at him.

“I am Qin Chuan.”

“Wu Lu.”

This man was a few years older than Qin Chuan, about twenty-five or twenty-six. His long hair fell over his shoulders, and he seemed not to be skilled in conversation. After a simple cupped-fist salute, he turned away to gather his focus.

Qin Chuan remained exceptionally calm. He found a cushion at random and sat down, watching the ongoing contests.

Although he had heard of martial duels long ago, he had never seen one. The method was not widely circulated, because there were far more uncertainties in it than in a literary duel.

To put it plainly, beyond skill, one also needed luck.

Qin Chuan turned his head and saw Wu Lu with his eyes closed in meditation, unconcerned with the bouts on the field. It was clear he had either experienced martial duels before, or had once taken part in the third formation and failed.

The rules of martial duels were not all that complicated, but there were many techniques involved. How to make the best use of the few opportunities one had to interfere was exactly what Qin Chuan wanted to study.

In the time it took to drink a cup of tea while he watched and learned, five cauldrons had exploded. Only one was due to careless handling; the other four were all because the opponents had interfered.

Time passed quickly. Before he knew it, an hour had gone by.

“Are you Qin Chuan?”

Just as he was watching with great interest, a young disciple came over to ask him.

Qin Chuan stood up, knowing his turn had come.

“That’s me.” With that, he handed over his waist token.

“You already know the rules of the martial duel?”

“I do.”

After hearing Qin Chuan’s confirmation, the youth gave a slight nod. “Then come with me.”

Qin Chuan knew where he was being led, though he had not expected it to be his turn so soon.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Wu Lu following behind another young attendant, heading off to the side.