Starting as a stray dog, I embarked on a journey of cultivation.

The old fox snapped out of his daze, looked at Gou An again, and announced directly, "This pill is of extremely high quality, truly a top-grade product. You are undoubtedly the winner of this competition!"

The other alchemists were speechless upon hearing this result.

After all, the quality of these pills is clearly superior to theirs, so who has the right to say anything?

Baihe then announced the rankings of the top ten in this competition.

Gou An deservedly won first place.

Long Youzi ranked second.

The remaining rankings are determined by the quality of the elixirs.

The last one was the only demon cultivator from the Spirit Pill Hall to make it to the final round.

Although some people suspect that Gou An might be a plant arranged by the City of Ten Thousand Demons, after all, he succeeded in making such a difficult pill on his first try, so easily and comfortably.

It's clearly not the ability that a demon cultivator or alchemist possesses.

But this was, after all, the City of Ten Thousand Demons, the territory of the demon race, so even the alchemists who cultivated here dared not say anything.

"Next, we'll begin selecting the prizes in order of ranking from one to ten!"

As Bai He finished speaking, he took out his storage bag again.

Open the bag and shake it, and the ten previously introduced treasures will fly out of the bag and float in mid-air.

According to the rules, Gou An was the first to step forward and make a selection.

Although Gou An wanted all ten things, he could only choose one.

Therefore, Gou An did not hesitate much and directly chose 50,000 spirit stones plus 5 million demon gold.

After making his selection, Baihe waved his hand, and two storage bags flew towards Gou An's location, gently landing in his hand.

One storage bag contained spirit stones, and the other contained demon gold.

Gou An probed into the room with a wisp of demonic power and found that the number of demons was indeed just right.

Next, Long Youzi stepped forward to choose, and he ultimately chose the Xuan'an Protective Armor plus three million demon gold.

The other alchemists then made their selections, and in the end, only the Tempering Flame Furnace was left for the demon cultivator from the Spirit Pill Hall.

Although this alchemy furnace is quite good, it's not essential for an alchemist. After all, who doesn't have a suitable alchemy furnace?

There's no need to replace it if there's nothing much better than the one I have.

With the prizes selected, the event officially concluded.

Gou An was about to leave after receiving the prize when the old fox stopped him.

Not only Gou An, but also the top ten alchemists were kept.

"Please don't leave yet!" the old fox said to the crowd. "Tonight, the Demon King's Palace is hosting a banquet, specially prepared for you all, to relieve your hard work in refining pills these past few days."

Although Gou An was somewhat reluctant to go, he didn't want to offend the old fox, so he nodded in agreement.

The same was true for the other alchemists; no one dared to refuse.

"In that case, please follow me!" After the old fox finished speaking, he waved his hand and a wind tunnel was formed, leading directly to the Demon King's Palace.

There is a no-fly formation in the City of Ten Thousand Demons; without a special token from the Demon King's Mansion, one cannot take off.

Even if you force yourself into the air, the physical exertion and stress will be enormous.

Within this wind tunnel, one can temporarily escape the constraints of the great formation.

After Gou An followed the old fox and flew along the wind path to the Demon King's Palace, he was quickly led into a grand hall.

The hall was brightly lit, with incense smoke swirling around it.

The table was already laden with rare spiritual fruits, fragrant spiritual wines, and various medicinal dishes to nourish the soul and enhance cultivation.

In addition to the ten alchemists, the heads of the three major alchemy halls also came in.

"Now that everyone is here, let's all take our seats!" the old fox said to the crowd.

Only after receiving permission did they take their seats.

The old fox is a powerful demon in the Nascent Soul stage; all the people present combined might not be enough to defeat him.

Inside the Demon King's palace, everyone was extremely respectful, afraid of saying or doing anything wrong.

"What are you all standing there for? There's plenty of spirit wine tonight, so feel free to ask for anything you want to eat or drink!" The old fox raised his hand, signaling everyone to start eating.

Everyone thought the old fox would take the opportunity to say something, but to everyone's surprise, the old fox ate more heartily than anyone else and paid no attention to anyone else.

Gou An even suspected that the old man was taking this opportunity to serve his favorite foods.

As everyone drank three cups of spirit wine, the atmosphere gradually became more lively.

Master Xuanding of Lingdan Hall walked up to Gou An with a wine cup in hand, raised the cup to Gou An and said, "Fellow Daoist Gou, you have truly shone brightly today. I never expected your alchemy skills to be so high. I am truly impressed."

Before Gou An could answer, he continued, "It's a pity that someone with your abilities is forced to serve under that old thief Wenxu."

At this point, he even pretended to sigh, clearly indicating that he wanted to poach Gou An again.

Seeing this, True Immortal Wenxu immediately chimed in, "Fellow Daoist Xuanding, you're poaching people right in front of me again. Isn't that a bit unfair?"

"Fellow Daoist Gou hasn't signed a contract of servitude with you, nor is he a slave. Naturally, he has the right to choose!" Master Xuanding replied with a forced smile, adding sarcastically, "Although most of the alchemists in our Pill Hall are demon cultivators, at least we're better off than some pill halls that are on the verge of bankruptcy."

"Fellow Daoist Xuanding, isn't that a bit off?" True Master Wenxu retorted directly, "Our Wan Dan Hall is just experiencing a recent downturn. Once the alchemists who took leave to go back to work return, we'll be able to immediately return to our former glory."

"I've heard that getting back is quite troublesome!" Master Xuanding shook his head. "It's not even certain whether they'll be able to return!"

Faced with the two bickering, Gou An was momentarily speechless.

These two usually get along quite politely, but when something happens, and after drinking a few more cups of spirit wine, their voices get louder and louder, and they take the opportunity to vent their frustrations.

Gou An ignored them and instead sat down next to another alchemist.

"Fellow Daoist, did you enjoy your meal?" Gou An greeted him with a polite smile.

That cultivator achieved fifth place in this alchemy competition, which is not bad. Gou An remembers that his Daoist name was something like Herdsman of the Ox.

He looked to be an ordinary person in his forties or fifties, with messy hair and a somewhat unkempt appearance.

At this moment, he was happily gnawing on a leg of lamb. This was all meat from demonic beasts, which was delicious and full of spiritual energy, making it a great tonic for cultivators.

Upon seeing Gou An, he looked up at Gou An and smiled, revealing a mouthful of teeth covered in meat flakes, with a simple, honest grin. Then he turned his head and picked up the wine bowl again, gulping it down.

Before he could finish the wine, he grabbed a handful of small spirit fruits and threw them into his mouth. He ate voraciously, like a starving ghost reincarnated.

No wonder there were empty seats next to him; his eating manners were rather unseemly, and no one wanted to sit too close to him.

"Fellow Daoist, you look like you've been hungry for a long time?" Gou An greeted him again.

The herdsman smiled and replied, "I practiced abstinence for a while recently, and my stomach is already empty. It's a rare opportunity to have such a grand feast, so I mustn't waste it."

"I have something to discuss with you, fellow Daoist!" Gou An stated directly, getting straight to the point.

The herdsman frowned slightly upon hearing this: "What is it?"

"I want to buy something from you, fellow Daoist, with spirit stones!" Gou An whispered into the ear of the Herdsman, in a voice only he could hear.

"Buy something? What do you mean?" The herdsman was even more puzzled.

"It's the prize you just picked out, the Innate Fire Seed!" Gou An said, "If you're willing, I can buy it for two thousand spirit stones."

Upon hearing Gou An's words, the Herdsman immediately shook his head and refused: "Only two thousand? Not for sale!"

"Do you know that for us alchemists, innate spiritual fire is extremely important in the art of alchemy? It's something that's extremely rare and hard to come by!"

"Two thousand spirit stones are simply not enough to buy it."

Faced with the rejection, Gou An was not surprised, and simply said, "Fellow Daoist is right, this innate fire seed is indeed very important, but why was it chosen by you only as the fifth one, given its importance?"

"This..." The herdsman was speechless for a moment, and only after a long while did he explain, "That's because they don't know its value!"

"Let me tell you the answer!" Gou An smiled slightly, "The innate fire seed is indeed very precious, but the problem is that what you have is a raw fire seed stone."

"Not only is it unknown what kind of fire is inside, but more importantly, the refining process is extremely troublesome."

"To control the fire within, we need to slowly refine and eliminate the crystal layer on the surface of the fire. This process can take several years at the fastest, and decades at the slowest."

"Most importantly, the refining process is prone to failure, and the explosion of the ignition source could injure oneself."

"If it really comes to that, there will be no going back. Don't end up with nothing but hurt!"

Hearing this, the herdsman frowned even more deeply.

He knew Gou An was telling the truth, but two thousand spirit stones was indeed too little, so he offered, "Give me eight thousand spirit stones, and I'll sell it to you!"

"Eight thousand is too much!" Gou An shook his head: "You should know that ten thousand spirit stones can buy a top-quality magic weapon, and this raw stone is worth more than that."

"Then how much do you want?" asked the herdsman.

"I'll give you a maximum of three thousand spirit stones!" Gou An held up three fingers.

The three cowherds were about to refuse, but Gou An spoke up first, saying, "In addition, I can spend another two thousand spirit stones to buy the five hundred thousand demon gold you obtained."

"Five thousand spirit stones in total, for the fire seed and demon gold you possess!"

Upon hearing this, the herdsman shook his head even more: "Fellow Daoist, your prices are getting more and more outrageous!"

"Not outrageous at all!" Gou An shook his head with a smile: "Fellow Daoist, you obviously won't stay in the City of Ten Thousand Demons, so these 500,000 demon gold coins are just a pile of scrap metal to you."

"But there's nowhere in the City of Ten Thousand Demons where you can exchange demon gold for spirit stones, so unless you live in the City of Ten Thousand Demons for a long time, there's nowhere you can use it."

"I'm willing to spend two thousand spirit stones to buy it; that's already more than enough."

"And once you leave me, I'm afraid no one will be willing to buy your spark. If you end up with it stuck in your hands, it will really be worthless."

"Five thousand spirit stones in total, to buy your fire seed plus demon gold. Think about it."