Battle Through the Heavens: Xiao Yan, who was kidnapped to another world

"Time is indeed too tight. This pill... has a slight flaw in the fusion process." Xiao Yan sighed inwardly as he spoke modestly. Even when the pill fusion process was shortened to the limit, there were still problems.

"This isn't something that can be achieved by luck," Yaoyue said with a dry laugh.

"Perhaps." Xiao Yan smiled and, following Fa Ma's instructions, sent the bone-regenerating pills he had refined to the testing machine next to him.

Seeing that Xiao Yan was unwilling to say anything more, Liu Ling and Yao Yue sighed helplessly and sent the Bone-Growing Pill into the testing machine.

With the departure of those who failed, the second round of testing began—to refine a low-grade third-rank pill, the Windwalking Pill, using the recipe and ingredients provided by the Alchemist Guild.

After glancing at the pill formula and then at the medicinal materials provided by the Alchemist Guild, Xiao Yan's lips curled up slightly. Although it was just a matter of replacing a second-grade pill with a third-grade pill, unlike the Bone-Growing Pill, the Alchemist Guild had really "tricked" the formula and medicinal materials for this Wind-Riding Pill. If Xiao Yan were only a third- or fourth-grade alchemist, he might have actually fallen for it.

Looking around at the alchemists who had already started refining pills, Xiao Yan couldn't hide his smile. Judging from Liu Ling and the little princess's actions, even the two of them hadn't seen through the problem in this pill formula.

After casually placing the unused Thick Earth Ganoderma in a place where everyone could see it, Xiao Yan repeated his previous actions, throwing all the medicinal herbs into the medicine cauldron.

However, unlike the previous round, this time Xiao Yan did not use the Black Demon, but an ordinary five-cauldron. Not to mention compared to the previous Black Demon, even the cauldrons used by Liu Ling and the little princess might be better than this five-cauldron.

The flame used was no longer a strange fire, but the seventh-tier beast fire from Douluo Continent—the Twin Dragon Extreme Ice Flame.

"What's going on?" Looking at Xiao Yan on the high platform, Mu Chen, the head of the Mu family in the VIP seats, was completely bewildered. "The Bone-Growing Pill is only a second-grade pill, yet it used that mysterious cauldron and even a strange fire. But when refining this Wind-Riding Pill, it used only an ordinary cauldron, and the flame was changed to... ordinary beast fire?"

Although the deep purple flame contained powerful energy that was incomparable to any beast fire Mu Chen had ever seen before, it was still far more ordinary than the emerald green strange fire he had used before!

"Perhaps... it's because the Soul Refining Pill in the previous two hours consumed too much energy, so that the current soul power cannot control the strange fire well?" After hesitating for a moment, Chemir, the highest-ranking alchemist in the VIP seat, tentatively offered his deduction.

However, Chemir also knew how flawed his deduction was. If the soul power consumption was too great, replacing the strange fire with beast fire could be considered a conventional choice, but replacing the obviously high-grade medicine cauldron with the ordinary medicine cauldron now was somewhat hard to understand.

It is important to know that a high-level medicine cauldron can be of great help to alchemists when refining pills. At the very least, when soul power is insufficient, a high-level medicine cauldron can even reduce the soul power requirement when refining pills to a certain extent!

"Don't look at me, I don't know either."

Noticing that everyone's eyes were on him, Hai Bodong's lips twitched slightly before he spoke, "I'm not even an alchemist, so why do you all think I would know why he uses this cauldron and this kind of flame?"

Moreover, he really didn't think that the deep purple flame Xiao Yan used was weak. At least, he himself had been frozen by that flame. Of course, the more likely reason might be that Xiao Yan had never used that strange fire against him.

Too……

Hai Bodong's words enlightened everyone. In terms of strength, Hai Bodong was indeed second to none, but his understanding of alchemy might not be as deep as theirs due to his ice attribute. After realizing this, everyone's attention returned to Xiao Yan.

It was at this moment that Xiao Yan put two greenish-blue Wind-Riding Pills into a jade bottle.

Just when everyone thought Xiao Yan was about to leave and return to the audience, he took out new medicinal herbs from his Flame Awakening Ring—herbs they had seen just a few hours earlier.

The medicinal materials needed for the sixth-grade elixir, the Soul-Replenishing Pill!

Chapter 196 The Prelude to the Grand Performance

'As expected, apart from Mr. Yan Xiao, no one noticed the problem with the pill formula…'

Fa Ma glanced around the square and saw the contestants starting to refine pills after confirming that there were no problems with the pill formula. He felt a sense of helplessness. In order to take care of these contestants whose average level was only second grade, the medicinal herb they added to the Wind Chaser Pill formula could be said to have put its own problems in its name.

Even so, apart from Xiao Yan who put the Thick Earth Ganoderma aside, no one else in the arena picked it out!

'Oh, no, there's another one... But I remember he was an alchemist from the Izumo Empire?' Finally, in a quiet corner of the plaza, Fama noticed the second alchemist who had picked out the Thick Earth Ganoderma. Although he was from the Izumo Empire, he still breathed a sigh of relief.

'Speaking of which, his alchemy skills are quite proficient. Could he be a newly emerged high-grade alchemist in the Izumo Empire?'

After taking a brief look at the alchemist from the Izumo Empire, Fa Ma noticed that his alchemy skills were extremely proficient, as if he had been a high-level alchemist for decades. He raised an eyebrow slightly, but quickly looked away.

'Perhaps a newly emerged fourth-grade alchemist,' Fa Ma muttered, 'probably trying to win the Alchemist Tournament and prove that the Chuyun Empire is stronger than our Jia Ma Empire or something…'

"It's just bad luck, especially this year," Fama thought with a hint of schadenfreude. "In any other year, even the year when Furukawa first emerged, I might have been worried, but this year the champion is practically predetermined."

As for whether this alchemist is a sixth-grade alchemist...

If the Izumo Empire truly had a sixth-grade alchemist of that age, the vice president of the Izumo Empire's Alchemist Guild wouldn't have colluded with poison masters.

'A total of four hours?' Xiao Yan muttered to himself as he slowly arranged the medicinal herbs.

Perhaps considering that most of the alchemists in the square were at the second or third rank, even though they were only refining low-grade third-rank pills, the second round of the competition was given a full four hours.

Of course, it's more likely that the Alchemist Guild manipulated the pill formulas, making them feel that if they weren't given more time, this year's Alchemist Conference might see only one person pass the second round of competition.

"If classified by attributes, this medicinal herb is actually a dual-attribute plant, containing both wood and earth elements, with the earth element even outweighing the wood element. Therefore, we don't need to worry too much about its outer shell peeling off when extracting its medicinal properties..."

After noticing that Fa Ma's soul power had been transferred over, Xiao Yan waved his hand at the medicinal herbs on the table. The first herb slowly floated up. After briefly introducing the medicinal properties of the herb and the precautions for refining it, the herb was directly put into the medicine cauldron.

Unlike the last time when the refining speed was deliberately slowed down, this time, the deep purple flame in the cauldron almost instantly enveloped the medicinal materials, and the pure medicinal liquid was refined in just a few minutes.

As before, he placed it into the jade bottle, sealed it with flames, and then waved his hand to send the second medicinal herb into the cauldron.

"The medicinal properties of the second herb are different from the first one..."

As before, he first introduced the medicinal properties of the herbs and the extraction method. After the introduction, Xiao Yan began to extract the herbs. Of course, just like the first herb, the extraction speed was so fast that Fa Ma could hardly imagine it.

'So, Mr. Rock Hawk deliberately slowed down the refining process before?'

As Xiao Yan poured the medicinal liquid from the second herb into the jade bottle, Fa Ma gave a wry smile. 'Even if I deliberately slowed down, can I still complete the refining of a sixth-grade pill within two hours?'

After a soft sigh, Fa Ma focused his attention on the third medicinal herb that Xiao Yan had taken out. Of all the herbs he had observed, the extraction process of this third herb was the one that he couldn't quite figure out...

'Speaking of which, Mr. Yan Xiao shouldn't actually be just a fifth-grade alchemist, right?'

After Xiao Yan finished explaining the medicinal properties and extraction method of the third herb, and then refined it at a speed that Fa Ma couldn't comprehend, Fa Ma vaguely thought, 'Seventh grade... or eighth grade?'

Although he knew that pill lightning would fall after the seventh and eighth grade pills were refined, and that Yan Xiao's strength was only around the Dou Huang level, which didn't seem like he could withstand the pill lightning, the idea that "Yan Xiao might be a seventh grade alchemist" was deeply rooted in Fa Ma's mind.

When Xiao Yan finished refining all the medicinal herbs and began the final fusion, a slight muffled sound rang out in a certain part of the square. There, a third-grade alchemist stared blankly at the medicine cauldron in front of him.

At the bottom of the cauldron, a pile of pitch-black ash was expelled, signifying his first failed attempt at refining medicine.

As time slowly passed, one after another, soft muffled sounds rang out from the medicine cauldrons on the huge plaza. The failed alchemists stared in astonishment at the black ash falling from the bottom of the cauldrons. Their bewildered eyes revealed that they didn't seem to know what went wrong.

However, Fa Ma completely ignored the expressions of the alchemists, and paid no attention to those alchemists who didn't think about where the mistakes were and just blindly started refining the pills. At this moment, all his attention was on Xiao Yan.

Xiao Yan, who explained every detail of the precautions during the blending of medicinal herbs and even asked from time to time if he understood, was no different from Yao Lao in Fa Ma's eyes. In Fa Ma's decades of life, there were only two people who were willing to teach strangers they had only met a few times.

Bang!

Bang!

Finally, even Liu Ling and Yao Yue encountered problems with their refining process. Almost instinctively, they both looked at Xiao Yan, who was located in the very center.

As expected, Xiao Yan was refining the same Soul-Replenishing Pill as before, but the process seemed to be much faster. Only a little over an hour had passed, and he had already reached the fusion stage.

Because of the vast difference between people, both of them sighed subconsciously. Then, they both noticed the two Thick Earth Ganoderma lucidum plants that Xiao Yan had placed in a very conspicuous position!

After a brief moment of confusion, the two quickly came to their senses and looked around. When they discovered that most of the alchemists were already engaged in the second round of alchemy and had no doubts about the formula, they couldn't help but feel fortunate that they were not far from 'Rock Owl'. Although they couldn't understand 'Rock Owl's' method of refining sixth-grade pills, at least they wouldn't be eliminated in the second round of the competition.

In a quiet corner of the square, the alchemist from the Chuyun Empire was slowly carrying out the final fusion process of the Windwalking Pill. As a veteran alchemist, he was naturally not fooled by such a simple trick. However, after noticing Xiao Yan in the center of the square, he silently lowered his head, intending to mock him.

Although he didn't believe that the master who could refine sixth-grade pills was from the Jia Ma Empire, but... what if he was?

Disrupting the alchemist conference of the Jia Ma Empire was tantamount to failure. At this moment, he only wanted to complete the alchemy of this pill as soon as possible and then escape from the Jia Ma Empire. As for the idea of ​​taking this opportunity to understand the difference between sixth-grade alchemists and fourth-grade and fifth-grade alchemists...

After realizing that he couldn't even understand Xiao Yan's actions during the fusion process, he gave up. The gap between the fourth and sixth ranks was much larger than he had imagined.

Of course, it might also be related to the fact that his mind was never really on alchemy?

Time passed second by second. After Liu Ling and Yao Yue noticed the problem with the pill formula, the several third-grade alchemists around them also realized that the Thick Earth Ganoderma was a scourge. However, even so, in the final period of time, the number of alchemists who could refine the Windwalking Pill and had the materials to do so was still not many.

When the hourglass hanging on the wall had completely poured down, the contestants, who were bathed for the second time in the energy ripples brought by the sixth-grade elixir, were all somewhat dazed.

Within the limited time, seeing through the Alchemist Guild's tricks and refining a low-grade third-rank pill would have been enough to keep them sweating profusely, but Yan Xiao was actually able to refine a second sixth-rank pill. Moreover, judging from his expression, refining two sixth-rank pills in a row seemed to have had no effect on him whatsoever.

Next came the routine test. Just like before, Xiao Yan was once again the one with the best pill effect. However, the second place went to an alchemist that was unfamiliar to everyone. After this alchemist came Liu Ling and Yao Yue, who were third-grade alchemists with considerable strength.

After the test was over, the sky gradually darkened, and a sliver of a crescent moon slowly appeared on the horizon.

"Ladies and gentlemen, let's conclude today's competition here. Please take a good rest. Tomorrow is the final round of our competition, a crucial match to determine the champion. Please do not miss it due to any unforeseen circumstances, or you will regret it for the rest of your lives," Fa Ma said with a hearty laugh.

After Xiao Yan's two consecutive demonstrations, he gained enough confidence in refining the Soul Rejuvenation Pill. Not to mention that after the second refinement, Xiao Yan specifically instructed that he would still refine the Soul Rejuvenation Pill the next day. In fact, the next day he would not use any items that could assist in refining the pill, and would refine the Soul Rejuvenation Pill again under the most rudimentary conditions.

Of course, what brought a bright smile to his face was that last sentence—

"By the way, I don't mind explaining the refining process of the Soul Rejuvenation Pill in detail in front of everyone," Xiao Yan said casually while tidying up the medicine cauldron. "Most of the fourth-grade alchemists from the Alchemist Guild are here, right?"

"I will explain in detail so that even these fourth-grade alchemists can understand most of it."

"Don't miss the finals tomorrow!" Suddenly remembering something, Fama spotted the alchemist from the Izumo Empire among the crowd who had passed the second round of testing. "Missing it would be a lifelong regret!"

Even though he was from the Chuyun Empire, a fourth-grade alchemist of such a young age, under the influence of Yao Lao and Xiao Yan, Fa Ma couldn't bear to see him give up the final.

However, seemingly mistaking Fama's words for a threat, the gray-robed youth raised his head, gave Fama a cold look, and then turned and left.

After leaving the square with the crowd, before Xiao Yan could even relax, a pleasant voice suddenly came from behind him: "Mr. Yan Xiao, congratulations."

Turning his head, Xiao Yan looked at Yao Ye and Ya Fei who had emerged, chuckled, and said, "What's there to congratulate? The pills you refined in the two rounds of tests were only second or third grade. You couldn't possibly have failed, could you?"

"But, besides these two kinds of pills, Mr. Yan Xiao has also successfully refined a sixth-grade Soul Rejuvenation Pill, right?" Yao Ye chuckled. "Now, Mr. Yan Xiao... can be considered a sixth-grade alchemist, can't he?"

Even though Yao Ye didn't know anything about alchemy, after seeing Xiao Yan refine a sixth-grade pill within two hours, she understood that Yan Xiao, who always claimed to be a fifth-grade alchemist, might already be a sixth-grade alchemist. It just seemed that he hadn't made it public in the past in order to keep a low profile.

Although she saw through "Yan Xiao's" disguise, Yao Ye pretended not to see through it in order not to offend Yan Xiao.

Seeing that Yao Ye didn't intend to expose him, Xiao Yan was happy to have some peace and quiet: "That's right, I finally succeeded in refining a sixth-grade pill. At least I don't have to worry about my teacher's teaching duties anymore." He squinted, looking relaxed and carefree.

"In that case, would Mr. Yanxiao be willing to attend the celebratory banquet I have prepared for Yue'er and Liu Ling?" Yao Ye asked with a smile.

"Then let's skip it," Xiao Yan shrugged. "Although I have successfully refined the Soul Rejuvenation Pill, my goal is not limited to it. I have my own research project tonight, so please forgive me for not being able to attend the banquet."

Even though she was prepared, Yao Ye still felt somewhat helpless after hearing Xiao Yan's refusal.

"By the way, Princess Yaoye, please remind the little princess to get enough rest," Xiao Yan reminded her before turning to leave, "Tomorrow's final is also quite important for the little princess."

After saying this puzzling thing, Xiao Yan turned around, blended into the crowd, and disappeared.

"What did Mr. Yan Xiao mean by his last words...?" Yao Ye looked at Ya Fei blankly.

Ya Fei, who was equally bewildered, shrugged helplessly after hearing this. How could she possibly know what Xiao Yan meant by this sudden remark?

"Perhaps... Mr. Yan Xiao is preparing to guide the little princess in alchemy during tomorrow's final competition?"

Hearing Ya Fei's guess, Yao Ye slowly nodded. According to what Guild Master Fa Ma said at the end of today's meeting, tomorrow's final competition will not end until the last alchemist has refined the pill. And Yan Xiao is fully capable of refining the pill within two hours, perhaps...

Is he really planning to teach other alchemists?

'Go back and tell Yue'er to prepare properly, preferably to bring out the highest grade pills she can refine.' Yao Ye silently made a decision.

Similarly, on the other side, Liu Ling, who had been reminded by Fa Ma, was also preparing to go back and discuss with her teacher, to bring out the highest-grade pills she could refine, and preferably to bring her teacher to watch tomorrow's final.

Chapter 197 The Final Round

The next day, Xiao Yan, standing in the VIP section, looked at the sea of ​​people in front of him, chuckled, and turned around: "Gentlemen, let's go, it's time for us to go on stage."