Unrivaled Medicine God 41 to 60

 Ye Yuan felt his vision went blurry, and then he realized he was transported to a dazzling multi-colored dream world.

This was evidently an independent space.

It looks like every layer of this Illusionary Spirit Tower was split into many independent spaces. Each student was in a different space.

However, this sort of method did not count as mystical in the Divine Realm. But it was already very impressive for a tiny sect in the Lower Realms to be able to use this sort of method to groom students.

Ye Yuan was at a lost. There was nothing in this empty space. So how could the test take place?

At this moment, a voice suddenly sounded out.

"Welcome to the Illusionary Spirit Tower. This is your first time coming to the Illusionary Spirit Tower. You will undergo the Entry Advancement test shortly. I am your guide during this test."

Ye Yuan did not make a fuss over it as he knew that it was definitely the Illusionary Spirit Tower’s artifact spirit.

However, what made Ye Yuan surprised was that he was actually sent to the Entry Advancement test.

It looks like the Illusionary Spirit Tower will automatically send first-time students to the Entry Advancement test. As a result, Ye Yuan and Lu-er were now standing on the same starting line.

"What am I supposed to do now?" Ye Yuan asked.

The artifact spirit seemed to hesitate for a moment, being somewhat surprised at Ye Yuan’s composure.

As the artifact spirit was in charge of the advancement test, it had directed countless of students before. This was its first time meeting a student as composed as Ye Yuan.

"Right now, just sit down and meditate. I will bring you to the test. Later, don’t attempt to resist whatever that happens. Otherwise, bear the consequences yourself," said the artifact spirit.

Ye Yuan did not say a word, and he just sat down and meditated right away.

He was a little curious, however, at just how the artifact spirit would conduct the test.

A moment later, Ye Yuan felt his body starting to feel light. Falling into a trance, he entered an empty training room.

Seeing this situation, the corner of Ye Yuan’s mouth curled into a smile.

So that’s how it is. This Illusionary Spirit Tower’s artifact spirit is actually a Dream Tapir. The Tranquil Cloud Sect indeed have some impressive methods. A 32 restrictions Spirit Artifact . . . It looks like it should be the lowest ranking Gray Dream Tapir. Conducting tests in a dream world were both safe and fair. It seemed the person who created the Illusionary Spirit Tower was quite brilliant.

Dream tapirs were bizarre lifeforms which were intricately tied with dream worlds. They have their own consciousness, yet they do not have a fixed shape. They could silently enter the dream world of humans and even demonic beasts, strengthening themselves within the dream.

Ye Yuan knew that the highest ranking White Dream Tapir existed in the Divine Realm. It possessed incredibly powerful abilities and could even compete with Divine Kings. Their abilities all had to do with dream worlds, making it impossible to guard against.

This artifact spirit that Ye Yuan met was most likely the lowest ranking Gray Dream Tapir.

They were willing to become the Illusionary Spirit Tower’s artifact spirit, most likely because they wanted to borrow the students’ dream worlds to strengthen themselves.

Otherwise, even the lowest ranking Gray Dream Tapir was not something that a tiny sect like the Tranquil Cloud Sect could capture.

One has to know that the State of Qin was not the only country with the Dan Wu Academy. There were similarly also Dan Wu Academies in other countries under the jurisdiction of the Tranquil Cloud Sect. Their assessment of students was definitely also through the support of the Illusionary Spirit Tower.

Such a large-scale capturing of Gray Dream Tapirs would inevitably incur the vengeance of the Dream Tapir tribe. Unless these Gray Dream Tapirs willingly became artifact spirits.

Ye Yuan knew that right now, he was already in the dream world.

Most likely, that independent space just now was meant as the medium whereby the Dream Tapir would cast its Nightmare Skill, bringing students into the dream world.

While Ye Yuan was expressing his surprise at this methods, he also checked out his strength at the same time.

To perfectly project my strength in reality inside this dream world . . . The Dream Tapir tribe’s abilities are truly great! This way, there would be no possibility of any trickery. Ye Yuan sighed in admiration.

Suddenly, a middle-aged brawny-looking man appeared in front of Ye Yuan. He knew that this brawny-looking man was an illusion created by the Gray Dream Tapir. Within the dream world, Dream Tapirs could take the form of anything.

"Now, I am responsible for your advancement test. The test is about to begin. You can choose your weapon now," the Dream Tapir said.

"Choose a weapon? Uh . . . Then I choose a sword." Ye Yuan gave an indifferent look. Clearly, he was not even the slightest bit worried about the Entry Advancement test.

The Dream Tapir felt that Ye Yuan’s attitude was highly unusual. When the other students entered the dream world, they would often ask questions non-stop and did not know what was going on.

When Ye Yuan entered, the Dream Tapir noticed that he was not surprised at all. That expression on his face clearly showed that he knew that he was in the dream world.

Ye Yuan knew about Dream Tapirs, but this did not mean that others knew about Dream Tapirs too. In reality, Dream Tapirs were part of an extremely mysterious tribe, because they did not possess a fixed shape.

Even when in a dream, it was impossible to discover its existence unless the Dream Tapir let you discover it. That was because it could very well be a little mouse in your dream world or maybe even a stalk of grass.

The Dream Tapir naturally would not tell the students its identity. It would only inform them that it was the Illusionary Spirit Tower’s guide for the test.

But this Ye Yuan was not curious about anything at all . . .

The Dream Tapir waved his hand, and a completely ordinary-looking sword appeared out of thin air in Ye Yuan’s hand.

"Isn’t this too shabby?" Ye Yuan forced a smile.

The Dream Tapir said emotionlessly, "In order to ensure the fairness of the test, the academy requested for us to treat each student equally. No matter what weapon you choose, I will only provide you with the most ordinary one."

Ye Yuan drew his sword, and a sword light flashed. He said helplessly, "Alright then, I will make do with this."

This was the first time the Dream Tapir met somebody who did not care at all. However, it did not think too much about it. A mere Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm rookie was not worth too much of its attention.

To the Dream Tapir, whom he was focused on were the few students taking the Earth Rank Advancement test.

"Now, tell me your name and birthplace. I will record down your test results." The Dream Tapir remained emotionless.

"The capital, the Fragrant Medicine Pavilion, Ye Yuan," Ye Yuan reported his name and birthplace.

The Dream Tapir nodded and said, "The test will start now. They are your opponents."

The Dream Tapir made a gesture, and five black-clothed martial artists appeared out of nowhere. Impressively, they were also at the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm. Following this, the middle-aged brawny-looking man which the Dream Tapir transformed into had vanished. It was clear that it left Ye Yuan to fend for himself.

The Entry Advancement test was not worth paying too much attention to it.

Ye Yuan swept his glance at the five black-clothed Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm martial artists and could not help but smirked. These five black-clothed Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm martial artists were the most ordinary kind of Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm.

When the Dan Wu Academy recruited students, the minimum requirement was for them to break through to the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm before 16 and to be able to defeat five of the most ordinary type of Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm working together.

To the average person, this was an incredibly difficult challenge. In the dream world, weapons, equipment, and medicinal pills could not be brought inside. One could only rely on the abilities they possessed to defeat the opponents.

It was virtually impossible to successfully defeat five opponents who were the same cultivation realm as you unless you were a genius.

However . . . this was a piece of cake for Ye Yuan.

After the Dream Tapir vanished, the five black-clothed martial artists moved at the same time, attacking Ye Yuan from five different angles.

Ye Yuan stood straight up and put his sword away before lightly striking out his palm.

Stacking Waves Layered Palm, First Layer Wave!

The ripple of essence energy spread out, and the five black-clothed martial artists flew backward. . .

It was evident that the five black-clothed martial artists no longer had any combat power left as they vanished the instant they hit the ground. The next moment, the middle-aged brawny-looking man appeared once again, and he showed a stunned expression.

Ye Yuan looked at the Dream Tapir, and gave a faint smile and said, "My apologies. I forgot to tell you that I’m here to take the Yellow Rank Advancement test."Every time the advancement test took place, it would always attract a large number of students to watch. That was because the results of the test might affect their position within the ranking.

A light screen displayed everyone’s test progress outside the Illusionary Spirit Tower.

"Eh? Did someone pass the test so quickly? It’s Ye Yuan!" seeing a change in the light screen happened so quickly, someone exclaimed in surprise.

"It’s that Ye Yuan who killed Fei Qingping during the deathmatch? That fellow is sick!"

"But this doesn’t mean much either. This should be his first time taking the advancement test, so right now, it should be the Entry Advancement test."

"But that is monstrous enough! Calculating the time, he should have just started the test. Even though it’s only the Entry Advancement test, he has to face five Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm fighters. Ye Yuan is just at the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm. Could it be that he instantly killed five people at the same level?"

"Uh. That’s really a possibility! Just how great is that fellow’s combat prowess? Back then, when I participated in the Entry Advancement test, I spent the time it took for an entire incense to burn before I managed to finish them off! I’m afraid that even Fei Qingping who broke through also can’t instantly kill five Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm, right?"

"Hehe. Looks like I was right for coming today. This Ye Yuan really soared to the skies in one move. I’m really looking forward to just how far he can go during this test!"

No matter what, Ye Yuan instantly killing five martial artists of the same level caused the students to burst into an uproar.

All of these students had gone through the Entry Advancement test. But not one of them dared to say that they could instantly kill five opponents at the same level when they were at the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm.

Ye Yuan could kill Fei Qingping who was two minor realms higher than him when he was at the Third Level Essence Qi Realm. Now that he was already at the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm, just how strong is Ye Yuan’s combat strength after advancing a minor stage? 1

Everyone was curious.

Most of them came to see who could advance to Heaven Rank, but now, their attention turned to Ye Yuan.

Huyan Yong watched the light screen silently. He, unlike the rest of the surrounding students, was most concerned with Ye Yuan’s test.

When Ye Yuan passed the Entry Advancement test just now, the shock he felt was no less than the other students.

When he was at the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm, he could easily defeat five martial artists of the same level. But to talk about instantly killing them . . . that was something impossible for him.

This Ye Yuan was truly full of surprises.

"Look! Wan Yuan and Liu Ruoshui came as well. Most likely they came to scout out information to see just where the limits of Ye Yuan’s strength laid."

"Hehe. I wonder what were they thinking when they saw Ye Yuan passing the Entry Advancement test instantly."

Presently, someone noticed that there were two more people in the crowd. They were precisely Wan Yuan and Liu Ruoshui.

Wan Yuan and Ye Yuan’s conflict was no longer a secret in the academy. Now that he showed up here, it was obviously because of Ye Yuan.

As Wan Yuan looked at Ye Yuan’s progress on the light screen, his face sunk.

He happened to see the scene of Ye Yuan advancing just as he entered the Illusionary Spirit Tower. Even though it was only the Entry Advancement test, wasn’t this speed too fast?

Wan Yuan still was not aware that Ye Yuan was already at the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm. If he knew, who knows what he would think . . .

. . . . . .

Within the Illusionary Spirit Tower, the Dream Tapir was stunned as he looked at Ye Yuan.

He 2 had tested countless student over the years. Each of them possessed the power that outclassed those at the same level. Some exceptional students could easily defeat these five martial artists. However, this was his first time encountering someone like Ye Yuan who could instantly kill five opponents at the same level.

One would have to cross another minor stage, possessing the strength of a Seventh Level Essence Qi Realm, before they could instantly kill five Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm martial artists.

It was not difficult to jump ranks to do battle for genius students. However, it was extremely challenging to cross over an entire minor stage.

When Ye Yuan was at the Third Level Essence Qi Realm, he could not handle Fei Qingping even when he mastered the Stacking Waves Layered Palm, First Layer Wave. One could see just how difficult it was to jump ranks to battle.

Yet now, Ye Yuan could use his strength as a Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm to instantly kill five opponents at the same rank. Just how powerful did he have to be to do that!

"My apologies. I forgot to tell you that I’m here to take the Yellow Rank Advancement test," Ye Yuan said and smiled lightly.

The Dream Tapir was a little unpleased with Ye Yuan’s attitude. He frowned slightly and said, "Alright. The Yellow Rank Advancement test will begin now. This is your opponent."

The Dream Tapir waved, and another five black-clothed martial artists appeared. The five black-clothed martial artists that appeared this time were shockingly all at the Sixth Level Essence Qi Realm.

"Sixth Level Essence Qi Realm eh? The difficulty didn’t seem to have increased much," Ye Yuan muttered to himself.

Just as Ye Yuan said, the difficulty of the Yellow Rank Advancement test did not increase too much from the Entry Advancement test. Even though Sixth Level Essence Qi Realm was strong, without crossing a minor stage, it was not exactly insurmountable for students.

As students’ cultivation realm rose with the accumulation of time, it would not be difficult to deal with five Sixth Level Essence Qi Realm fighters.

The truly difficult ones were the Black Rank Advancement test and the Earth Rank Advancement test!

The opponents faced in the Black Rank Advancement test would rise to another level; five Eighth Level Essence Qi Realm martial artists. And the opponents in the Earth Rank Advancement test were five First Level Spirit Condensation Realm fighters!

Under normal circumstances, students would have to increase their cultivation realm in order to pass the test. Otherwise, it would be far too challenging.

One cultivation realm, one layer of heaven. Apart from geniuses like Long Tang, the average person would not be able to jump ranks to battle five martial artists of a higher realm.

One would first have to reach Spirit Condensation Realm in order to pass through the Earth Rank Advancement test to become a Heaven Rank student.

Therefore, for Wan Yuan to break through and become an Earth rank student with his Seventh Level Essence Qi Realm cultivation, this result was hard to come by. Naturally, the academy would heavily groom him.

Five Sixth Level Essence Qi Realm opponents; they were much stronger than Fei Qingping.

However, back when Ye Yuan was at the Third Level Essence Qi Realm, he could already easily kill Fei Qingping. Now that he was at the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm, these five Sixth Level Essence Qi Realm fighters were nothing difficult.

The five Sixth Level Essence Qi Realm fighters joined hands and attacked together. Ye Yuan’s sword remained sheathed, as he once again struck out with a palm.

Stacking Waves Layered Palm, Second Layer Wave!

The five black-clothed martial artists were sent flying once more, and they vanished.

The Dream Tapir stared wide-eyed in disbelief at the sight.

This brat . . . is too terrifying.

Huyan Yong’s pupils contracted as he watched the light curtain.

Another instant kill? How was this possible?!

The Yellow Rank Advancement test consisted of five Sixth Level Essence Qi Realm fighters! Each one of them was two minor cultivation realms higher than Ye Yuan! How could it be another instant kill?!

Although Huyan Yong knew that Ye Yuan was almost certain to advance to the Black rank when he saw that Ye Yuan was at the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm, he did not expect Ye Yuan to advance with such ease!

Five Sixth Level Essence Qi Realm martial artists . . . Each one of them was stronger than Fei Qingping. Even if Ye Yuan was strong, it was impossible for him to be so ridiculously strong!

"Look guys! Ye Yuan’s advancement test ended again! This time, it should be the Yellow Rank Advancement test, right? That’s to say, he is already a Black rank student?"

"T-that fellow is simply too monstrous. A-another instant kill! Just how did that fellow manage to instantly kill five Sixth Level Essence Qi Realm opponents? Even when Senior Apprentice Brother Long Tang took the Yellow Rank Advancement test, it wasn’t as exaggerated as this."

"I’m already drunk. That fellow isn’t human at all. He already surpassed my imaginations . . ."

Wan Yuan gritted his teeth as he looked at the light screen. At this moment, he was feeling an immense threat.

Ye Yuan’s improvement speed was too fast. At this rate, would he no longer be Ye Yuan’s opponent when the time comes for the Endless Trials?

No! Ye Yuan must die!Ye Yuan’s advancement speed made Wan Yuan felt a deep sense of crisis.

To be able to instantly kill five Sixth Level Essence Qi Realm opponents, Ye Yuan might already have the strength to enter the Earth ranking!

Even if he did not succeed, he probably would not be far off.

Strength like that already approached Wan Yuan’s.

His movement technique was already inferior to Ye Yuan, and now, his combat prowess was not any better. What capital did he still have to challenge Ye Yuan?

During the Endless Trials, I must definitely let Senior Apprentice Brother Su finish off Ye Yuan. Otherwise, there will be endless troubles! Wan Yuan made his decision.

"I say, do you think Ye Yuan will enter the Earth ranking?" After the shock, somebody suddenly thought of that possibility.

The moment that was said, everyone became silent.

They all knew that Ye Yuan was very strong, but wasn’t it too much of an exaggeration for a Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm to face off with five Eighth Level Essence Qi Realm martial artists?

It was not uncommon to see a Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm jumped ranks to battle with a Sixth Level Essence Qi Realm. But the Eighth Level Essence Qi Realm was an entire four minor cultivation realms higher than the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm. Furthermore, there was a minor stage in between them.

That minor stage was not easy to cross!

However, Ye Yuan challenged the Yellow Rank Advancement test and passed too easily. It was so quick that it was basically effortless, making them feel a trace of possibility.

"Quickly look! Ye Yuan really went on to challenge the Black Rank Advancement test!"

This shout broke the silence, as everyone’s gaze once again concentrated on the light screen.

"This is too crazy! Consecutively challenging three tests during his first time! I’m afraid this made into the Dan Wu Academy’s history!"

"Do you guys think that Ye Yuan can successfully pass this?" The person who made everyone fall silent earlier, once again made everybody pondered on this.

. . . . . .

Facing five Eighth Level Essence Qi Realm opponents, Ye Yuan did not take things lightly like before, and he burst forth in an instant.

Even so, Ye Yuan was still in perilous danger facing the joint attack from these five opponents.

"F*ck! You actually dare to sneak attack me! These five people actually know how to form a sword array?!" Ye Yuan shouted as he dodged.

". . . . . ."

The Dream Tapir was speechless.

When the Black Rank Advancement test started, the dream tapir secretly added an ’extra ingredient,’ making the five Eighth Level Essence Qi Realm martial artists to attack Ye Yuan with a sword array.

After the five black-clothed martial artists used a sword array, their combined might was no weaker than a powerful Ninth Level Essence Qi Realm.

Ye Yuan himself was an array master. The moment these five moved out, he discovered it.

It naturally was not difficult for him to break the array with his mastery in array formations. But the combined power of these five people was too great. This sort of crushing advantage left Ye Yuan unable to do anything else, let alone break the array.

The enormous difference in power was not something that insights could compensate for. Even if these five people’s sword array were full of holes in Ye Yuan’s eyes, he could not make a counterattack.

Everything was a blur in front of Ye Yuan’s eyes, as sword shadows permeated the surroundings.

Luckily, Instant Flash was a small radius movement technique; it was perfect for this sort of group battle. Otherwise, even if Ye Yuan had ten lives, he would have long died.

Even so, Ye Yuan would still be grazed by sword qi every now and then, leaving him covered with wounds.

Although he was in a dream world, the sensation of pain was unbelievably realistic. The Dream Tapir Tribe’s Nightmare Skill was truly powerful.

Before long, Ye Yuan’s clothes were already tattered.

As the Dream Tapir looked at Ye Yuan who was trying to cope with the situation, he had a hint of a smile on his face. It was as if satisfied with his revenge.

Although Dream Tapirs were born in dream worlds, they also had emotions such as pleasure, anger, sorrow, and joy.

He did not know why, but from the start when Ye Yuan was unperturbed by everything, it left him very displeased.

All these while, he had always been mysterious and haughty. But today, in front of Ye Yuan, he felt like he was stripped naked without any secrets left.

Who among the students participating in the test was not full of respect towards him? It only had to be Ye Yuan with his indifferent attitude. He even postured with instant kills twice, making him feel that he had no face left.

Hence, when the Black Rank Advancement test was starting, he secretly added a sword array for those five black-clothed martial artists, increasing their power.

"Brat, this is the result of slighting this seat. 1 Thinking about passing the Black Rank Advancement test? Go back and train first!" The Dream Tapir was secretly pleased.

He had been watching the battle, and he knew that Ye Yuan’s defensive radius was shrinking. His injuries were also increasing, so he would be defeated sooner or later.

However, the Dream Tapir was shocked in his heart at how tenacious Ye Yuan was. To be able to fight with five Eighth Level Essence Qi Realm opponents until now with his Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm strength. It was simply unthinkable.

The Dream Tapir had seen countless geniuses before, but he had never seen a genius who was able to perform to such an extent.

But . . . it should end here.

. . . . . .

Lin Tiancheng was sent out in dismal. He had failed once again. This was already the fifth time he failed to impact through the Heaven ranking!

Thinking about the musing looks and those eyes filled with mockery outside, Lin Tiancheng became frustrated.

Lin Tiancheng was already at the half-step Spirit Condensation Realm. Facing five First Level Spirit Condensation Realm martial artists was truly a little too forced.

It was not that Lin Tiancheng wasn’t talented enough and was unable to take that final step. But it was because he had been suppressing his cultivation realm at half-step Spirit Condensation Realm.

In the Dan Wu Academy, the lower one’s cultivation realm was when passing the test and the smaller the age, showed that one’s potential was greater. The importance attached to you would naturally be different as well.

If he broke through to the First Level Spirit Condensation Realm, it would obviously be a cinch for him to defeat the five martial artists. But that way, it would be acknowledging that his talent could only go so far.

Hence, he had always been tolerating other people’s contemptuous look, wishing to pass the Earth Rank Advancement test with half-step Spirit Condensation Realm strength.

The top figures on the Martial Roll of Honor such as Long Tang, Zuo Bugui, and Su Yishan, without exception, all of them passed the Earth Rank Advancement test when they were at the Ninth Level Essence Qi Realm.

That was to say, these top geniuses already had a battle power surpassing the First Level Spirit Condensation Realm when they were at the Ninth Level Essence Qi Realm!

But he, Lin Tiancheng, was already at the half-step Spirit Condensation Realm, yet he still could not pass the Earth Rank Advancement test. The difference was clear at a glance.

Lin Tiancheng walked out of the Illusionary Spirit Tower looking incomparably dispirited.

He already made the decision that as long as there was the slightest bit of scorn in anyone’s eyes, he would rush over and violently beat him up.

The moment he stepped out of the Illusionary Spirit Tower, Lin Tiancheng swept his fierce gaze over and suddenly became stunned.

There was actually no one looking at him. Everyone’s eyes were fixated on the light screen, with some people watching nervously.

’ What happened? ’

Lin Tiancheng also followed everyone’s gaze and looked over at the light screen as well, but he failed to see anything. The light curtain did not have fighting scenes within the Illusionary Spirit Tower. It could only roughly display the conditions of everybody inside.

"What are you all looking at?" Lin Tiancheng casually grabbed someone and asked.

"Ah? It’s Senior Apprentice Brother Lin? Are you already out? We are looking at Ye Yuan. He is taking the Black Rank Advancement Test right now, but it looks like he can’t hold on any longer." The student did not seem to have too big a reaction to Lin Tiancheng being out.

"What? Black Rank Advancement test? Isn’t that fellow overestimating himself? With his strength, even passing the Yellow Rank Advancement test would be a little forceful. He actually went to take on the Black Rank Advancement test?" Lin Tiancheng was stunned initially, followed by a mocking smile.

That student gave Lin Tiancheng a look, and the expression in his eyes made Lin Tiancheng feel extremely uneasy. Before he reacted, that student opened his mouth again and said, "I’m afraid Senior Apprentice Brother Lin doesn’t know yet, right? Ye Yuan already long passed the Yellow Rank Advancement test! During his Entry Advancement test and Yellow Rank Advancement test, he instantly killed his opponents! Even right now, during his Black Rank Advancement test, he already held on for the time it takes for an incense stick to burn!"

"In-instant kill?"

Lin Tiancheng suspected that he heard wrongly. However, that student no longer bothered with him and turned his head back to the light screen."Sigh. It looks like there’s no hope for Ye Yuan to create a miracle. But it’s already very impressive to go this far. He is only at the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm. A once in fifty years genius appeared in our State of Qin’s Dan Wu Academy once again."

As the light representing Ye Yuan on the light screen became increasingly faint, Huyan Yong could not help but feel sorry.

However, immediately afterward, he found himself funny. The power that Ye Yuan displayed was already shocking enough. To let him challenge the Black Rank Advancement test with his Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm was truly a little too forced.

After passing the test this time around, Huyan Yong believed that as long as Ye Yuan broke through to the Sixth Level Essence Qi Realm, no, just the Fifth Level Essence Qi Realm was enough to pass the Black Rank Advancement test!

"Aiya. It’s over, it’s over. Ye Yuan can’t hold on anymore!"

"Sigh. He doesn’t have a chance anymore. Right now, he probably already suffered heavy injuries, right? It was already good enough that he could last until now."

"Miracles really aren’t so easy to create! However, Ye Yuan is already very impressive. Back then, Senior Apprentice Brother Long Tang only passed the Black Rank Advancement test when he was just about to break through to the Seventh Level Essence Qi Realm. Ye Yuan is only at the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm presently!"

"Damn his sister! Your father spent half the day watching, but he still ended up losing."

As the glow symbolizing Ye Yuan slowly became fainter, the surrounding students started talking about it. Quite a few people felt pity for Ye Yuan’s failure.

Wan Yuan watched the light screen as a trace of a sneer flashed across his mouth. Right here, the one who hoped Ye Yuan would fail the advancement test most of all was him.

"Overestimating himself! To actually dare challenge the Black Rank Advancement test when you just broke through to the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm. Do you think that these tests were just ornamental?"

After watching for so long, Wan Yuan was already aware that Ye Yuan broke through to the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm. A deep sense of crisis followed the shock.

Now that he saw Ye Yuan was about to fail, that constriction in Wan Yuan’s chest eased up a little.

. . . . . .

At the Illusionary Spirit Tower, the Dream Tapir felt that something was not quite right as he looked at the group battle over there.

Right! Ye Yuan’s defensive radius seemed to have not shrunk for a while now!

What was going on?

Ye Yuan was clearly covered in injuries, but why did not his last line of defensive collapse, and how was he still holding on?

En? He used the sword!

The Dream Tapir suddenly discovered something abnormal. Ever since the Entry Advancement test begun, Ye Yuan had never used that lousy sword!

But now, Ye Yuan actually used the sword!

The Dream Tapir recalled back to the beginning where Ye Yuan chose his weapon leisurely like it did not matter. He thought the sword was just an accessory, and that his true killing move was the Stacking Waves Layered Palm!

The Dream Tapir naturally knew about the Stacking Waves Layered Palm. Ye Yuan was already very heaven-defying to be able to comprehend the Second Layer Wave.

It was precisely because Ye Yuan had comprehended the Second Layer Wave that he could easily pass through the Yellow Rank Advancement Test.

Hence, the Dream Tapir thought that the Stacking Waves Layered Palm was Ye Yuan’s greatest trump card. He never expected Ye Yuan’s sword art to be so superb.

Currently, Ye Yuan was still on the defensive; like a tiny sailboat in a storm. But he still stubbornly held on, and his boat just would not overturn!

The dream tapir even realized that ever since Ye Yuan used the sword, he had not been struck once by the black-clothed martial artists.

The initially flawless sword array was currently showing signs of instability.

Ye Yuan seemed to be able to see through the weakness of the sword array. Although he was forced to be on the defensive, each stance and each strike started to make the entire sword array unstable.

Could it be that this Ye Yuan was also an array expert?

The Dream Tapir felt that his brain was a little incompetent to process this notion.

Ye Yuan naturally would not randomly choose his weapon. He was indeed a sword expert in his past life.

Of course, this so-called expert was only when comparing to the Lower Realms. In the Divine Realm, there were plenty of people who could mutilate him as they liked.

The sword art that Ye Yuan currently using was something that he created during his leisure time while in the Divine Realm. The name of the sword art was Falling Flower Floating Zero Sword.

There was one time when he was talking and drinking with a few friends in a sacred sakura forest. As the skies filled with the falling petals of the sacred sakura flowers, it formed a falling flower rain.

As Ye Yuan watched the flowery scenery, he gained enlightenment and created this sword art, naming it as Falling Flower Floating Zero Sword.

Back then, there was an Extreme Sword Divine King, Kuang Tianming, among his friends. He was a Divine King who used a sword to affirm his Dao; this person had extraordinary accomplishments in the Sword Dao.

After Ye Yuan finished performing the Falling Flower Floating Zero Sword, the Extreme Sword Divine King praised it highly.

At that time, Kuang Tianming said, "Brother Qingyun is amazingly talented. Tianming is inferior to you! If this sword art were to be perfected, it would definitely dazzle the Divine Realm in the future. If Brother Qingyun would devote yourself to the Sword Dao, your future accomplishments won’t be inferior to your Alchemy Dao!"

Unfortunately, the Qingyun Zi back then had no interest in the Martial Dao. Creating the Falling Flower Floating Zero Sword was just because of a moment of interest. After creating it, he threw it aside and never used it again.

Kuang Tianming did not praise the Falling Flower Floating Zero Sword because the sword art was really that powerful.

At that time, Qingyun Zi’s cultivation realm was high, but his development in the Martial Dao was very limited. Kuang Tianming meant that if Ye Yuan devoted his thoughts on the Martial Dao and continuously raised his comprehension of the Sword Dao, the Falling Flower Floating Zero Sword would become a terrifying sword art.

The sword art was strong, but Ye Yuan current cultivation realm was too low. Without the support of essence energy, he could not even unleash half of the power.

However, the focus of the Falling Flower Floating Zero Sword was elegance and agility, which happened to pair very well with Ye Yuan’s modified Instant Flash. The power multiplied several times over after combining the two.

Using the Instant Flash together with the Falling Flower Floating Zero Sword was just enough to defend against the combined attacks of these five people.

These five people’s sword array appeared to be extremely powerful, but in reality, it was full of flaws in Ye Yuan’s eyes. What he needed right now was an opportunity!

And this opportunity finally appeared under the attack of his movement technique and sword art.

These five people did not have corporal forms, so their cooperation was flawless. However, this sword array was too simple. It was a weakness that could not be changed!

Under the sword array, these five people would have a combined attack every dozen moves or so, and the combined attack this time was incredibly powerful. Previously, even though Ye Yuan used his movement technique to avoid the combined attack by the skin of his teeth, he still suffered rather heavy injuries.

But this time around, because of Ye Yuan’s assault, one black-clothed martial artist’s movement slowed by a beat.

Ye Yuan would not let such a good chance slip by. Before the five people’s combined attack arrived, he pushed Instant Flash to the extreme and directly flashed out of the sword array!

These five black-clothed martial artists did not know exhaustion at all. Ye Yuan had just left the encirclement when they retracted their sword momentum, and once again formed the sword array wanting to attack.

Ye Yuan obviously would not give them the chance to enclose him again. At the same time he exited the encirclement, he gathered all the remaining essence energy left in his body and unleashed a palm strike before the five people attacked.

Stacking Waves Layered Palm, Fourth Layer Wave!

Eight times the power exploded out, bringing a palm wind like a fierce gale; sending the five black-clothed martial artists flying.

Ye Yuan knew that this was not over yet, and he gathered the tiny bit of essence energy he had left. With Instant Flash, he moved in front of a black-clothed martial artist and stabbed his heart with one sword strike. That black-clothed martial artist died and vanished after that.

The power of that one palm was indeed great, but the difference in cultivation realm between Ye Yuan and the black-clothed martial artists was too great. So he could only heavily injure them.

Repeating what he did, Ye Yuan gave the other four people one sword strike each, concluding the battle.

After making the final move, Ye Yuan threw the sword aside and dropped his knees on the ground, gasping for air.

The Dream Tapir stood there dumbstruck as he watched on, and he did not dare to believe what just happened in front of his eyes.

"Hey, after passing this round, are you not going to heal my injuries? At this rate, I will die from excessive blood loss. You can’t expect me to challenge the next round like this, right?" Ye Yuan caught his breath and shouted at the dream tapir.

"N-next round?"

The dream tapir was at a complete loss. Ye Yuan actually wanted to challenge the Earth Rank Advancement test?

Oh please, did he make a mistake?

The Black Rank Advancement test was already so forced, yet he still wanted to challenge the Earth Rank Advancement test?

Could it be that this brat was a fool and didn’t know the difference between the Spirit Condensation Realm and the Essence Qi Realm?

This was a major realm!

Ye Yuan gnashed his teeth in pain and sucked in a cold breath, crying out, "F*CK! Quickly heal me! What are you stoning there for?! If you still don’t heal me, I’m going to suicide and complain to the dean about you!"

Black lines appeared on the Dream Tapir’s head. This brat was a masterpiece.

He really did not know if Ye Yuan was a genius or a fool. Why were his words always full of foolishness?

The Dream Tapir was even more senior than the dean. Would the dean dare to bother with him?

He was at a loss whether to cry or to laugh because of Ye Yuan. But he still helped to treat his injuries.

The dream tapir lightly tapped, and Ye Yuan was instantly full of vitality.

Feeling the surging essence energy in his body, Ye Yuan gave a sly smile and said, "Hehe. The dream world is the best. No matter how heavy the injuries, I can also revive."

At this moment, the dream tapir already recollected himself and looked at Ye Yuan with a smile that wasn’t a smile. He asked, "How did you know this is the dream world? I don’t recall saying that we are in the dream world. Also, do you know what I am?"

Ye Yuan rolled his eyes and played possum. "Oh please. You are insulting my intelligence! If this isn’t a dream, then why would I suddenly have a sword out of nowhere? If this isn’t a dream, then why did those martial artists disappear after dying? As for you, aren’t you the examiner? You are still insulting my intelligence! And also, why did you use an underhanded trick just now?! I want to report you!"

The dream tapir knew that Ye Yuan was not being truthful, but he could not be bothered to argue.

No matter what, it was a good thing for the Dan Wu Academy to have one more genius student.

"You really want to challenge the Earth Rank Advancement test?"

"Do you think I’m joking with you?" Ye Yuan rolled his eyes and asked back.

"Good. You have courage. You also felt it just now, the pain that you feel is linked to reality. Although you dying in here doesn’t mean true death, it wouldn’t be pleasant."

"I say, Lord Examiner, can you stop wasting my time? I’m very busy!" Ye Yuan replied impatiently.

"Fine. As you wish!"

The Dream Tapir gave a faint smile and summoned five black-clothed martial artists once more. Except for this time around, these five black-clothed martial artists were shockingly all at the First Level Spirit Condensation Realm!

. . . . . .

Outside the Illusionary Spirit Tower, the crowd was currently seething with excitement.

"How is that possible? Ye Yuan, he really did it!"

"Am I seeing things? Just now, he was clearly on his dying breath. How did he suddenly finish off his opponents?"

"Ye Yuan really created a miracle! He should be the Earth Rank student with the lowest cultivation realm since the establishment of the Dan Wu Academy!"

"And also the one with the greatest talent!"

"Just what on earth happened to that fellow? Could it be that he pretended to be so useless in the past? Unbelievable!"

Many students felt honored to have witnessed a historical moment.

But no matter how they racked their brains, they just could not understand how Ye Yuan improved so quickly. Previously, he was clearly the last place in the academy. But now, he soared to the skies in one move, rising to become an Earth Rank student.

The miracle that happened on Ye Yuan’s body was simply a paragon counterattack!

A change like this would strike a sympathetic chord among many students.

If these students were in the outside world, they would naturally be geniuses. But in the Dan Wu Academy, the vast majority of them were just average people.

Ye Yuan’s result no doubt stirred up their fighting spirit.

Huyan Yong looked at the light screen and cursed in his heart. This brat dares to mess with me?! He actually waited until the last moment before advancing successfully! It looks like he didn’t even use 30% of his power during his deathmatch with Fei Qingping!

Although he scolded, Huyan Yong was actually thrilled in his heart.

With Ye Yuan’s potential, perhaps he would have the strength to pass through the Heaven Rank Advancement test in the future?

The two people who were the unhappiest were naturally Wan Yuan and Liu Ruoshui. The two of them had just passed the Black Rank Advancement test. That is to say that currently, Ye Yuan already had the strength to threaten them?

Impossible! Half a month ago, Ye Yuan was still a First Level Essence Qi Realm dreg. And now, half a month later, he could already threaten me?

Then what were all my years of hard work for?!

Ye Yuan that punk must have used some trick! His true strength shouldn’t be that strong!

That must be the case!

No matter what, I must quickly eliminate Ye Yuan.

Wan Yuan did not want to wait for even a second longer. He wished he could immediately call Su Yishan to kill Ye Yuan.

Thinking of which, he had already made the decision to kill Ye Yuan several times today. And this thought got stronger each time.

When Wan Yuan had just arrived, he paid not much attention to him. But now, he could sense deeply that Ye Yuan was already standing on the same level as him!

Recalling Ye Yuan’s moves, the great circle stage Instant Flash coupled with the Stacking Waves Layered Palm, Second Layer Wave’s colossal attack power; could he really escape unscathed?

Wan Yuan felt a cold shiver ran through his body.

To be able to defeat five Eighth Level Essence Qi Realm showed that Ye Yuan’s attack power could already threaten him!

Was there anything even scarier than that?

"Quickly look! Ye Yuan challenged the Earth Rank Advancement test! My God! Is he mad?"

"It’s true! That fellow is really a madman! No matter how heaven-defying he is, there’s no way he could defeat five First Level Spirit Condensation Realm martial artists! He is only at the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm!"

"I’m already numbed by him. Let him play however he wants . . ."

Wan Yuan looked at the light screen as his heart involuntarily froze.

That fellow, could it be . . .

. . . . . .

The moment the five black-clothed martial artists appeared once more, Ye Yuan felt an overwhelming pressure hitting him head-on, making him feel short of breath.

In this sort of test, these five people would not have any sort of compassion. The moment they attacked, it was with piercing cold killing intent.

Even while facing opponents a major cultivation realm higher than him, moreover, five of them, Ye Yuan remained in full fighting spirit.

"Bring it on!"

Ye Yuan howled, his dangling pair of fists turning into palms.

All the essence energy in his body surged, creating a whirlwind which made Ye Yuan’s sleeves flapped wildly.

The Dream Tapir looked at this scene and involuntarily drew a cold breath. He muttered to himself, "This brat actually mastered the Eighth Layer Wave! Such terrifying talent!"

Ye Yuan’s hand posture right now was precisely the Stacking Waves Layered Palm, Eighth Layer Wave!

During the deathmatch with Fei Qingping, everybody thought that Ye Yuan was bitterly training the Second Layer Wave, which was why he was late. In reality, he was practicing the Eighth Layer Wave back then!

And this Eighth Layer Wave was also the final move of the Stacking Waves Layered Palm. The fragmented martial technique recorded on the jade slip stopped there.

Even if it was only the Eighth Layer Wave, sixteen times the unleashed power was sufficient for Ye Yuan to traverse proudly through the Essence Qi Realm.

Sixteen times the unleashed power was on par with the great circle stage Absolute Yang Finger. And Ye Yuan’s Absolute Yang Finger was only trained to the small success stage.

Which was to say, this Stacking Waves Layered Palm, Eighth Layer Wave was currently Ye Yuan’s greatest trump card!

Unlike being surrounded and assaulted by the previous five Eighth Level Essence Qi Realm martial artists, these current five First Level Spirit Condensation Realm martial artists did not seem to be in a rush to attack. Instead, they were waiting for Ye Yuan to make his move.

Ye Yuan knew that this was the Dream Tapir’s doing. In an actual life and death battle, who would give him such a long time to use a big move?

After he finished preparing his stance, the five black-clothed martial artists finally moved.

At the same time, Ye Yuan’s unleashed his palm strike.

Smash!

Both parties collided heavily against each other, and Ye Yuan’s consciousness gradually blurred . . .

"Damn his sister, it scared me shitless. I thought he would even make it through the Earth Rank Advancement test. He was finally killed!"

Outside the Illusionary Spirit Tower, God knows who said that sentence which verbalized everyone’s inner thoughts . . .

"He finally died!"

"Was Ye Yuan messing with us? He could clearly leave unscathed, but he just had to exit in such a manner. It gave me such a huge fright!"

"Yeah. Although it’s in the dream world, the feeling of death isn’t pleasant. Every time I was killed, it made me feel like I was really about to die."

"It pisses me off. I thought that he really had the strength to challenge the Earth Rank Advancement test. Who would have thought that he would be instantly killed right away. Isn’t that messing with us?"

. . . . . .

’Scared me shitless’ was like a bomb that went off among the initially quiet onlookers.

The innocent Ye Yuan still did not know that his actions incurred the wrath of everybody, drawing everyone’s grievances.

The main issue was that he previously whetted everybody’s appetite too much, inevitably making everyone think that he had a probability of passing.

If Ye Yuan lost after a fierce battle, then the students’ reactions at least would not be this huge. But who would have thought that he would be instantly killed the moment he went up, making everyone drop their glasses in shock.

The difference between expectations and reality was too large. No wonder everyone felt like they were being made fun of.

Huyan Yong also stared blankly at the light curtain and could not help laughing.

He and the other students were the same. Ye Yuan stirred up their emotions, making them think that he really had some killing move to pass the Earth Rank Advancement test. Who knew that this fellow was just fearless because of ignorance; sending himself to his death.

"But . . . to be able to pass the Black Rank Advancement test, becoming the youngest student as well as the student with the lowest cultivation realm to enter the Dan Wu Academy’s Earth Rank . . . Ye Yuan’s strength has already surpassed my imagination." Huyan Yong gave his approval.

He did not feel that Ye Yuan purposely tricked everyone. On the contrary, he felt that Ye Yuan’s martial heart was steadfast.

Most people would definitely choose to retreat when facing an opponent who was a major realm higher. But Ye Yuan decided to fight. His choice already highlighted a lot of problems.

Of course, if he knew what Ye Yuan did inside the Illusionary Spirit Tower, who knew what he would think?

Within the Illusionary Spirit Tower, Ye Yuan had already returned to reality. There were only the Dream Tapir and the other four black-clothed martial artists left in the combat arena.

The astonishment in the Dream Tapir’s eyes had yet to fade . . .

Just now, when Ye Yuan chose to fight the five black-clothed martial artists head-on, Ye Yuan naturally died from the other party’s powerful attack.

But at the last moment, Ye Yuan’s Eighth layer Wave struck one of the black-clothed martial artists, killing him!

Even though Ye Yuan would not really die inside the dream world, and there was suspicion of trickery involved, he really finished off a First Level Spirit Condensation Realm fighter!

That means that Ye Yuan already had the strength to threaten a Spirit Condensation Realm!

A Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm with the strength to threaten a First Level Spirit Condensation Realm. Was this a fantasy story?

The Dream Tapir swallowed hard as he thought about how unreal this world was.

. . . . . .

"Oh? I should have finished off one of them just now, right?"

Ye Yuan was lost in his thoughts as he walked out of the Illusionary Spirit Tower and did not notice everyone’s peculiar expressions. He was still thinking about just now when he faced off with the five black-clothed martial artists.

Lu-er was the first to rush up to Ye Yuan. She completed the Entry Advancement test long ago and already officially became a student of the Dan Wu Academy.

Passing the Entry Advancement test as a Third Level Essence Qi Realm, Lu-er’s strength naturally had no room for doubt. Huyan Yong also noticed this inconspicuous little girl.

Of course, Lu-er could pass the test because Ye Yuan passed her a rather powerful martial technique called the Profound Ice Nine Forms. This set of martial technique was precisely the martial technique that the Spirit Snow Divine King became famous for. It was incredibly powerful when paired with Lu-er’s cultivation law.

What Lu-er cultivated in were all top cultivation laws and martial techniques in the Divine Realm. Hence, it naturally was not much to jump ranks to defeat five Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm fighters.

"Young Master, you are amazing! You actually passed through three levels of tests at once!" Lu-er pulled Ye Yuan’s sleeve as she exclaimed with pride.

Watching Ye Yuan pass the test made Lu-er feel even happier than passing it herself.

Ye Yuan looked at Lu-er, and with a smile, he said, "It’s just the Black Rank Advancement test. It wasn’t even hard at all. If that damn examiner didn’t use underhanded tricks to mess with me, I would have passed it long ago."

The surrounding students were stunned once again. This fellow’s ability to brag was even greater than his strength.

Just now, he was clearly being thoroughly wrecked. But now, he is out here bragging.

The Illusionary Spirit Tower’s examiner tested countless students and was always fair and just. How could he possibly use underhanded methods to mess with a Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm student?

"Hehe. Anyway, Young Master is the most amazing! It’s a shame that Big Brother Tang is in a closed-door seclusion. Otherwise, he would also be happy for Young Master."

After this period of accumulation, Tang Yu’s cultivation realm had already stabilized. He just happened to enter a closed-door seclusion training two days ago to break through to the Sixth Level Essence Qi Realm.

Ye Yuan gave Tang Yu a batch of transcendent-grade Essence Qi Pills. Breaking through the Sixth Level Essence Qi Realm was just a matter of time.

"Hahaha. After Tang Yu exits seclusion, he should come to participate in the Yellow Rank Advancement test. Looking at you, you should have also passed the test," Ye Yuan said with a smile.

Lu-er smiled as she nodded her head and replied, "Isn’t it all thanks to Young Master?"

Ye Yuan laughed and said, "What does that has got to do with me? You were the one who cultivated out your essence energy."

The master and servant stood side by side as they talked, making the onlookers envious.

Initially, everyone’s attention was attracted by the light screen and did not notice that there was such a pretty young lady in the crowd.

Now that she and Ye Yuan stood together, it immediately attracted many eyes.

The crowd just noticed, since when was there was such a pretty young lady among the students?

In terms of appearance, the yet-to-mature Lu-er was already much prettier than Liu Ruoshui. However, that pure and innocent air that Lu-er had was something which Liu Ruoshui was not equipped with.

Seeing everyone’s expression, Ye Yuan knew that Lu-er would most likely become the target of pursue by many students in the academy.

At this moment, a student walked in front of Ye Yuan. Those who saw him immediately recognized who he was.

"Quickly look! Isn’t that Senior Apprentice Brother Wu? He is famous in the academy for being infatuated with martial arts; he is a top figure ranked 15 on the Martial Roll of Honor! Could it be that he is already eyeing Ye Yuan? Then Ye Yuan is screwed!"

Wu Luochen cupped his hands towards Ye Yuan and said, "Congratulations to Junior Apprentice Brother Ye for advancing as an Earth Rank. I am Wu Luochen, Heaven Rank."

Ye Yuan was not clear with what was going on, but he still returned a greeting. He then replied, "Many thanks, Senior Apprentice Brother Wu."

"Junior Apprentice Brother Ye’s talent stands above all others. I believe that before long, you will advance as a Heaven Rank. At that time, I wish to arrange with Junior Apprentice Brother Ye for us to spar. I hope that Junior Apprentice Brother Ye won’t decline."

Even though it was expected, Wu Luochen’s words still caused a big stir among the crowd.

Wu Luochen was infatuated with martial arts and liked to go around the academy to challenge experts. The people on the Martial Roll of Honor all felt a headache whenever they saw him.

Because he pursued martial arts wholeheartedly, Wu Luochen’s improvement was also very fast. In half a year’s time, he fought his way from the bottom of the Heaven ranking to being ranked 15 on the Martial Roll of Honor.

Ye Yuan sized Wu Luochen up. He then suddenly smiled and said, "Since Senior Apprentice Brother Wu think highly of me. Why wouldn’t I dare fight?"

Wu Luochen was initially somewhat solemn looking, but now, he cracked a smile and replied, "Good! You are indeed the student with the greatest potential in the academy! If you encounter any problems in the academy from today onwards, you can look for me anytime!"

"Haha. Then many thanks to Senior Apprentice Brother Wu," Ye Yuan laughed as he replied.

After Wu Luochen left, many people went up to congratulate Ye Yuan.

After this test, Ye Yuan’s name as a genius had already been established. His position in the academy would undoubtedly rise.

Taking the opportunity to be on friendly terms with a future Martial Roll of Honor expert was a must.

At the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm, he could already finish off five Eighth Level Essence Qi Realm fighters. This kind of power . . . Once Ye Yuan broke through to the Seventh Level Essence Qi Realm, just how horrifying would his strength become?

Who knows, maybe when he’s at the Seventh Level Essence Qi Realm, he would indeed have the strength to challenge the Earth Rank Advancement test!

However, those who came up to say hello to Ye Yuan were mostly Heaven Rank students. Those Earth Rank students were destined to never mingle with a genius like Ye Yuan.

One would not hit a smiling face. Ye Yuan dealt with these Heaven Rank students’ goodwill gestures one by one.

There was no lack of experts from the Martial Roll of Honor among these people. So naturally, there wasn’t any downside to becoming acquainted with them.

Watching Ye Yuan benefitting from everyone around, Lin Tiancheng felt as uncomfortable as if having eaten a fly.

What was funny was that he called Ye Yuan a trash earlier on. But after this test, the situation suddenly changed. Ye Yuan actually became popular among the bunch of Heaven Rank students; he was a genius in the eyes of all students.

But he, Lin Tiancheng, remained as the mediocre person struggling to advance becoming a Heaven Rank.

In comparison to Ye Yuan’s results, he was the trash.

Passing the Black Rank Advancement test when he was at the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm, if Ye Yuan could not make it into Heaven rank, everyone would laugh their heads off.

Thinking up to this point, Lin Tiancheng sighed and vanished from the crowd.

"Senior Apprentice Brother Lin, what’s wrong? Why do you seem a little absent-minded?" Just as Lin Tiancheng was about to leave, a melodious and alluring voice sounded behind him.

Turning his head, it was Wan Yuan and Liu Ruoshui who pushed their way out of the crowd long ago.

. . . . . .

"Quickly look! Isn’t that Teacher Feng Ruoqing? What’s she doing here?" someone suddenly cried out among the crowd.

"It’s really Teacher Feng! She’s walking towards me. Could it be that she is looking for me? Aiyo. What did you hit me for?" Someone was daydreaming when he immediately got hit on the back of his head and was pulled aside by someone.

"Moron. How could Teacher Feng be looking for you? A good dog wouldn’t block the path. Quickly move aside."

"Why isn’t it possible for her to look for me? Maybe she knows that I’m her loyal fan, and was touched by that, so she came to look for me?"

". . . . . ."

Everyone looked at him like he was a retard, and then they automatically made a path for Feng Ruoqing to pass through.

Feng Ruoqing walked pass the crowd and did not even spare a glance for that moron.

"Damn! Lu-er, quick, run!" Ye Yuan grabbed Lu-er and started running.

Ye Yuan was still engaging with people just now. Now that he noticed Feng Ruoqing, he immediately chose to flee in any way he could.

"Ye Yuan, if you dare to run again, you can forget about passing any of your classes!" Feng Ruoqing saw that Ye Yuan was running and immediately shouted.

Ye Yuan was completely indifferent to this sort of threat, as he continued running.

"Stop him for me!" Feng Ruoqing cried out frantically.

The students around were stunned . . .

What was happening?

Why did the fairy-like Teacher Feng become like an abandoned wife?

Looking at Ye Yuan again, didn’t this seem like a wife who was trying to catch her heartless man?

It was evident that Feng Ruoqing was explicitly looking for Ye Yuan, and Ye Yuan seemed to be terrified of seeing Feng Ruoqing.

Everyone could not help guessing what was going on between these two people.

Even Huyan Yong who was normally composed had a curious light flashing in his eyes. Clearly, he wanted to know what was going on just like the rest of the students.

Just now, when Ye Yuan passed the test, many people looked towards him with worship or with envy.

But now, everyone looked towards him with killing intent in their eyes without any prior agreement.

It looked like if they were to discover that Ye Yuan really profaned the dream lover of all the men in the Dan Wu Academy, these students would definitely rush up and tear Ye Yuan to shreds.

The most painful thing in this world was having the goddess in their heart being defiled by other men, even if that man was the newest genius in the Dan Wu Academy!

Ye Yuan had incurred the wrath of everyone.

He wanted to run, but he was completely blocked by a group of people.

Initially, there were still some gaps around. But now, they congregated without any prior planning, giving Ye Yuan no chance to escape at all.

In this short while, Feng Ruoqing already reached Ye Yuan.

"Run then. What? Not running anymore?" Feng Ruoqing was fuming as she looked at Ye Yuan.

"It’s not that I don’t want to run, but I can’t run! Teacher Feng, your rallying power is too strong!" Ye Yuan smiled bitterly as he answered her.

"Why are you hiding from me?" Feng Ruoqing was secretly a little pleased, but she still pulled a long face and asked.

"Me? When did I? Teacher Feng, you really maligned me!" Ye Yuan blinked his eyes innocently.

"You still dare to say you didn’t? Then why did you run just now?"

"I suddenly remembered that I have something to do and was just about to leave. Coincidence! It was definitely a coincidence!"

"Stop trying to pull anything over me! Quickly follow me!"

"Teacher Feng, I really have something very important to do!"

"I don’t care how important it is! If you don’t come, I’m going to use force!"

’Don’t, don’t! I’ll follow you, alright?"

"That’s more like it!"

Under everyone’s stunned eyes, Feng Ruoqing grabbed Ye Yuan and left . . .

Actually, Feng Ruoqing had already looked for Ye Yuan several times these past few days. But every time, Ye Yuan was sleeping.

With Lu-er blocking the way outside, it was not nice for Feng Ruoqing to barge in.

Ye Yuan also did not attend medicinal theory lessons these past few days, making Feng Ruoqing unable to find Ye Yuan even if she wanted to.

As for Ye Yuan, why would he be interested in becoming an assistant?

The things that Feng Ruoqing was playing with was not much different than children playing with mud. If it was not a waste of time for him to be an assistant, then what was?

Ye Yuan’s most pressing concern at the moment was to increase his strength. Where would he have the energy to go be an assistant for this little lass?

With Feng Ruoqing’s tiny bit of ability in Alchemy Dao, she was not even qualified to be an assistant for Ye Yuan. Now, she actually wanted him to be her assistant? Wasn’t this a joke?

That day, all he wanted to do was to quickly get rid of Feng Ruoqing. He did not expect that slightly revealing a bit of his ability would invite such troubles.

Hence, he made the decision to play cat and mouse with her when he heard from Lu-er that Feng Ruoqing was looking for him.

Who knew that he would be caught red-handed by Feng Ruoqing after only hiding for a few days?

Coincidentally enough, Feng Ruoqing did not know that Ye Yuan was taking the test here. But when she passed by, she heard that students were gathering over at the Illusionary Spirit Tower.

Feng Ruoqing was somewhat curious about what was happening over at the Illusionary Spirit Tower. So she stopped a student to ask about it.

Who knew that this inquiry would result in information on Ye Yuan. Furthermore, this news also gave her sufficient shock.

She naturally knew that Ye Yuan had just broken through to the Third Level Essence Qi Realm not long ago. But he actually broke through to the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm in a few days’ time.

If it was just breaking through to the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm, then forget it. But Ye Yuan actually challenged three rounds consecutively, becoming an Earth Rank student. The shock it gave her was too great.

Who would have expected that Ye Yuan’s attainments in Martial Dao were also incredibly impressive.

Back in the medicinal theory class, Ye Yuan left a very profound impression on Feng Ruoqing.

A Yellow Rank student who was not even an Alchemy Apprentice actually had such understanding towards a high-level Tier 2 pill formula. He also knew an obscure refinement technique like the Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique. Hence, she had the thought of making him an assistant.

Who would have thought that Ye Yuan that fellow would actually hide from her!

Feng Ruoqing who had never known rejection became even more stubborn. She must capture Ye Yuan to become her assistant!

"I’m going crazy! Just what on earth is going on between Teacher Feng and Ye Yuan?!"

"That’s right. Their conversation was unclear. I only know that one was running, while the other was chasing."

"Oh God. My Goddess! If Ye Yuan dares to do anything, I will definitely kill him!"

"That’s right. We must find out what happened! If Ye Yuan really did something that angers men, even God, then we must eliminate that hateful fellow!"

Only Ye Yuan and Feng Ruoqing knew what their conversation was all about, which drove everyone crazy.

Under this circumstance, the ’Protect Ruoqing Alliance’ was officially established.

There were two primary missions in this alliance. The first was to figure out what happened between Ye Yuan and Feng Ruoqing.

The second was a priority over the first mission. The moment they discovered that Ye Yuan really did something, they will beat Ye Yuan half to death. Then afterward, they will beat him up every time they saw him! That would make him regret what he did for the rest of his life!

Regardless of how powerful Ye Yuan was, he just became an Earth Rank student. One could casually grab a bunch of Earth Rank students who were stronger than Ye Yuan.

Of course, there were some who linked it to the medicinal theory class that day. But Teacher Feng only asked Ye Yuan to be an assistant. It should not have caused such a ruckus, right?

Furthermore, it was a wonderful thing to be Teacher Feng’s assistant. How did it turn into a public pursuit?

After understanding the situation, the ’Protect Ruoqing Alliance’ filtered out that possibility. They felt something else must have happened between the two of them.

At the same time, multiple speculations about what happened between Feng Ruoqing and Ye Yuan started to spread among the students and even among the teachers in the Dan Wu Academy.

Of course, this was all for later. Currently, all Ye Yuan was thinking about was how to get rid of this pestering Feng Ruoqing as soon as possible.

Ye Yuan could tell at a glance that Feng Ruoqing truly loved alchemy. That was because she was exactly the same as the past him.

Dealing with this sort of people was tough. She would become like a curious baby whenever she encountered something interesting related to Alchemy Dao and would only let it go after she understood it.

Presently, Feng Ruoqing was like that. She was fixated on Ye Yuan because she felt that Ye Yuan could help her refine the Tier 2 Qi Returning Pill, helping her to successfully breakthrough to the high-rank Alchemy Master!

However, Ye Yuan really did not want to waste too much time on this.

On the one hand, Feng Ruoqing might go from bad to worse if Ye Yuan taught her.

On the other hand, it was a little outrageous for a student to teach a teacher, possibly causing some unnecessary trouble.

Ye Yuan walked in front while Feng Ruoqing followed behind, keeping a close eye on Ye Yuan’s every move to prevent him from running.

Ye Yuan felt a headache coming on and realized that he could not escape today.

"Teacher Feng? What a coincidence." At this moment, a man dressed in yellow blocked their path, greeting Feng Ruoqing with zeal.

Ye Yuan did not recognize this person, but looking from his clothing, he should be a teacher in the Dan Wu Academy.

"I have seen Senior Apprentice Brother Song Qian." Feng Ruoqing frowned lightly, but she still returned the greeting.

Ye Yuan sneered secretly by the side. This Song Qian’s eyes shone when he saw Feng Ruoqing and never even looked at him. He was clearly one of Feng Ruoqing’s fanatical pursuers.

However, this Song Qian was around 25 to 26 years old. He should be considered young and talented among the academy’s teachers.

But sadly, judging from her reaction, Feng Ruoqing did not seem to be interested in this fellow.

A woman like this who was infatuated with Alchemy Dao probably could not be subdued by any ordinary man.

Looking at Song Qian’s appearance, he seemed to be prepared to enter the pill refinement chamber as well.

Ye Yuan speculated could it be that this Song Qian knew that Feng Ruoqing was coming, so he waited here since long ago?

"Teacher Feng is going to the pill refinement chamber again?" Song Qian asked a pointless question.

"Yes," Feng Ruoqing replied indifferently.

"Teacher Feng is so diligent! But this is the teachers’ pill refinement area. Teacher Feng brought this student over for?"

Hearing Song Qian, Ye Yuan rolled his eyes involuntarily. So this guy actually noticed him. Ye Yuan thought that he was air in his eyes.

"Ye Yuan is the assistant I found."

"Assistant?" Only now did Song Qian take a look at Ye Yuan. With a frown, he said, "If I’m not wrong, he isn’t even an Alchemy Apprentice. This Song is incapable, but I dare say that I’m capable enough to be Teacher Feng’s assistant."

Song Qian could tell at a glance that Ye Yuan was not even an Alchemy Apprentice. That was because alchemists who were ranked would display the badge issued by the Alchemist Association on their chests. It was a symbol of one’s status as an alchemist!

Song Qian and Feng Ruoqing both displayed a badge on their chest with two blinding stars on it. This represented the identity of a Tier 2 Alchemist!

The Alchemist Associate also existed in the Divine Realm, but in his previous life, both Zhengyang Zi and Qingyun Zi didn’t have this sort of badge. That was because the two of them had never taken part in the Alchemist Association’s tests.

However, nobody in the Divine Realm dared to take the father-son pair lightly, because their attainments in Alchemy Dao was not inferior to the president of the Alchemist Association, Ou Yezi.

But right now, Ye Yuan did not have the time to reminisce his past life. Song Qian’s words made his eyes light up!

Just as Feng Ruoqing was about to speak, Ye Yuan interrupted, "That’s right! That’s right! Teacher Feng, I’m not even an Alchemy Apprentice. How can I possibly help you? Teacher Song is a fine gentleman who is also an Alchemy Master. With his help, what medicinal pills can’t be refined? Since that’s the case, then I have no more business here. I will be making a move first."

While Ye Yuan was talking, Song Qian looked at him approvingly. He thought to himself that this punk really knew what to do. He could give him guidance in the future.

"Teacher Feng, you see . . ."

Feng Ruoqing did not even look at Song Qian. She suddenly clawed at Ye Yuan, and an indistinct essence energy thread immediately coiled around Ye Yuan’s ankle.

If the students who watched Ye Yuan’s deathmatch were here, they would see that Feng Ruoqing’s move was precisely the Lesser Capturing Hand that Fei Qingping used before!

Except that the power of the exact same move, when displayed by Feng Ruoqing could not be mentioned in the same breath.

Ye Yuan was about to sneak away after he finished talking when he felt as if his legs were suddenly filled with lead, and he face-planted the ground from the inertia.

"Aiyo!"

Ye Yuan wailed in pain on the ground. The difference between the two was too great. Feng Ruoqing did not even move, and she could knock him down.

After knocking him down, Feng Ruoqing took two steps forward. As she walked by Song Qian, she did not even bother to look at him.

Walking in front of Ye Yuan, Feng Ruoqing frowned as she said, "Are you a man? How can you go back on your word? I don’t need other people to be my assistant. I only want you! If you run again, I don’t mind reporting you to the dean to get you expelled from the academy. I believe my words will have some standing."

After she said that, Ye Yuan could not muster up any temper.

In the cultivation world, it was an undeniable fact that disciples from sects were stronger that loose cultivators.

As the outer sect of the Tranquil Cloud Sect, the Dan Wu Academy gathered virtually every single top geniuses. There was no better place than here to temper himself.

Ye Yuan did not have any interest in the Dan Wu Academy’s resources, but he had some interest in the geniuses here.

Seeing Ye Yuan finally yielded, Feng Ruoqing felt delighted from subjugating him. She finally caught this punk.

Turning to Song Qian, she said, "Many thanks for Teacher Song’s good intentions, but it’s enough for Ye Yuan to be my assistant. Teacher Song definitely has many things to do as the Dan Wu Academy’s rising star. I won’t delay your time."

"Ye Yuan, let’s go."

Ye Yuan sighed and obediently followed behind Feng Ruoqing.

Although he did not turn his head back, Ye Yuan clearly sensed that there was a pair of eyes filled with ill intent staring at him.

At the Dan Wu Academy, alchemy instructors had their own personal pill refinement chamber. Of course, Feng Ruoqing was not an exception.

Feng Ruoqing’s pill refinement chamber had a very well-planned layout. All sorts of medicinal herbs were categorized and stored neatly.

In the center of the chamber was a red-colored pill cauldron. With Ye Yuan’s judgment, he could obviously tell with a glance that this pill cauldron was a superior-grade Tier 2 pill cauldron. Most likely, there was no better one than this among the alchemy instructors in the Dan Wu Academy. However, a pill cauldron like this was worthless to Ye Yuan.

Ye Yuan pursed his lips and found a place to sit down.

That scene happened to have caught Feng Ruoqing’s eyes, suddenly making her feel irritated.

"It seems like you despise my Red Lotus Cauldron?"

"Ah? This cauldron? Not bad, not bad. Haha." Ye Yuan laughed it off.

With just one look, she could tell that it was completely insincere.

"You have seen better Tier 2 pill cauldrons?"

"Me? Haha. I’m just a student who isn’t even an Alchemy Apprentice. Where would I see such a high-tier pill cauldron? It’s called Red Lotus Cauldron right? Good name, good name!"

Ye Yuan did not expect that his subconscious contempt for the pill cauldron would actually result in a series of questioning from Feng Ruoqing, so he had to humor her a little.

But he really did look down on this sort of pill cauldrons. Back in his past life, he would not even bother to use this sort of pill cauldron to boil water with.

In the past, if someone were to say that her pill cauldron was not good, Feng Ruoqing will immediately flip out. But Ye Yuan gave her an exceptional feel.

The corner of the iceberg that Ye Yuan revealed during the medicinal theory class had already exceeded the boundaries of the Dan Wu Academy’s students.

Even the first place on the Alchemy Roll of Honor could not possibly know how to refine the Tier 2 Qi Returning Pill using the Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique.

It was possible to have coincidentally seen the pill formula before, but the Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique was not something that the average person would know.

Even Feng Ruoqing only happened to have seen this refinement technique from an extremely obscure ancient record.

Back then, it was like she obtained a treasure. She spent a period of time practicing this refinement technique in a frenzied craze, but she had no choice but to give up in the end.

This refinement technique was too hard!

And because of that, Feng Ruoqing was very interested in Ye Yuan, making him her assistant.

To think that this fellow did not appreciate it and even repeatedly hid from her. This made the proud Feng Ruoqing go crazy. Hence, her actions today.

Feng Ruoqing did not know why, but even though Ye Yuan repeatedly brushed her off and also looked down on her, she felt that Ye Yuan’s scorn came naturally from the heart. He was not pretending to be an expert.

Like just now, Feng Ruoqing had always been very confident with her Red Lotus Cauldron. Virtually every alchemist who came by her pill refinement chamber would be shocked by the cauldron. But Ye Yuan only pursed his mouth and had a scornful look.

Feng Ruoqing did not detect even a trace of amazement from Ye Yuan’s eyes.

Could it be . . . that Ye Yuan really knew the Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique?

Feng Ruoqing was frightened by her own thought. How was it possible?

Feng Ruoqing practiced the Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique before and was well aware of the difficulty of this refinement technique. Ye Yuan was only fifteen. How could he know this refinement technique?

"I asked you to be my assistant, not be a lord. What are you sitting there for? Hurry up and come prepare the herbs," Feng Ruoqing said coldly.

"O-oh. Coming, coming."

Ye Yuan staggered up to the operating stage. There were all sorts of medicinal herbs placed on it. He took a look at the herbs and asked curiously, "Aren’t you going to refine a Tier 2 Qi Returning Pill? Why all the ingredients you prepared are Tier 1?"

Feng Ruoqing flushed slightly and immediately replied angrily, "I asked you to prepare the medicines, so just do it. Why are you asking so many questions?!"

Looking at the situation, Ye Yuan instantly understood that this woman had yet to master the Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique. She was using these Tier 1 medicines to practice.

However, this Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique was not something that could be mastered in one or two days. How long would he have to accompany her to train with these Tier 1 medicines for practice?

His time was highly precious, and he did not have the time to accompany this woman to refine pills!

Ye Yuan sighed and just turned around to prepare the medicines.

Feng Ruoqing turned around and entered the quiet chamber to meditate and trying to adjust her mental state.

Pill refinement was a highly complicated form of knowledge. One must not be distracted even in the slightest when refining pills. It must be finished in one go.

Even the smallest disturbance could affect the quality of the medicinal pill, possibly even resulting in a useless pill.

Hence, the majority of alchemists would choose to meditate before refining pills. They would only start refining after they adjusted their mental state to be unperturbed by anything.

But Feng Ruoqing had just adjusted herself and was yet to fully enter a meditative state when there was a knocking on the quiet chamber’s door.

This time, Feng Ruoqing really got angry. Dropping the fact that Ye Yuan repeatedly hid from her despite that being her assistant was a wonderful task that every man in the academy would fight to do, now that he was helping out as her assistant, he was causing trouble instead of properly performing his tasks!

If there was no justified reason, she would definitely beat him up brutally, and then hang him for three days to warn the public.

The door creaked open, revealing the raging Feng Ruoqing.

"Haha. I didn’t expect Teacher Feng to open the door so hastily. It made me jump." Ye Yuan gave a startled expression.

Ignoring Ye Yuan, Feng Ruoqing raised her right palm. Traces of essence energy flowed along the palm as if it would strike any moment.

"I asked you to prepare the herbs! What are you doing?! Don’t you know that I’m meditating?! If your reason isn’t justified, be ready to receive this palm!" Feng Ruoqing snarled.

"Don’t! Teacher Feng, if you said you had violent tendencies, then I wouldn’t have become your assistant even if I had to copy the ’Herbal Compendium’ a hundred times back then! The herbs are all prepared already. I even finished refining two sets of medicinal essences before coming over to call you. I didn’t think that you would take so long to meditate!" Ye Yuan jumped far away with a shout.

"What? The medicinal essences are all refined?"

Feng Ruoqing could not immediately process his words. It had only been about 15 minutes since she entered the quiet chamber. Not only did Ye Yuan finish preparing so many herbs, but he also managed to refine the medicinal essence?

How was that possible?

"That’s right. This reason is passable, right? I don’t want to be smacked to death," Ye Yuan said gloomily.

Putting down her hand, Feng Ruoqing gave a cold humph and said, "If I find out that you are talking nonsense, then it wouldn’t be as simple as a single palm."

After saying this, Feng Ruoqing walked over to the operating stage and was immediately stunned.

Two sets of medicinal essences quietly sat in their jade containers. The color was extremely pure. It was clear that they were excellently refined with all the useless medicinal dregs purged away.

Feng Ruoqing looked at Ye Yuan and opened her mouth, but no words came out of it.

"Teacher Feng, do you want to say something? Aren’t you going to smack me to death? At most, I will call you later next time. How long do you normally take to meditate?" Ye Yuan asked innocently.

". . . . . ."

Feng Ruoqing was speechless.

After a while, Feng Ruoqing finally sucked in a deep breath and asked Ye Yuan, "This is the medicinal essence you refined?"

Ye Yuan looked around and asked curiously, "Are there other people in here?"

"B-but how did you do it so quickly?"

An ordinary Alchemy Apprentice would spend an hour just to prepare the herbs. In addition to refining the medicine essence, it would take at least two hours!

Preparing the herbs was not merely just pairing it together. One needed to accurately weigh out the quantity. Even the tiniest bit of error would not be tolerated.

Hence, an alchemist’s assistant would always be very cautious when preparing the herbs. As a result, a lot of time was spent on it.

Even Feng Ruoqing herself needed over an hour to refine a Tier 1 pill’s medicinal essence.

But Ye Yuan only used 15 minutes. This was just unheard of!

"Isn’t it just refining a Tier 1 pill’s medicinal essence? Why do you need to spend so long on such a simple task?" Ye Yuan nonchalantly questioned her.If it was about martial arts, Ye Yuan might be more humble. But as for alchemy, Ye Yuan really did not know how to be modest.

It could be said that Ye Yuan spent his entire past life busying with alchemy. He was simply too familiar with medicinal herbs and pills.

This sort of familiarity was engraved into the soul. Even if he changed his body, that sort of familiar feeling which came from the soul would automatically make the body carry out the most appropriate actions.

Originally, Ye Yuan wanted to be low-key. But once he touched those medicinal herbs, he could not help but to complete the preparation of herbs and refine the medicinal essence.

Others might be filled with trepidation towards measuring the quantity of the medicinal herbs and did not dare to carelessly leave out anything. But Ye Yuan just had to casually grab them with his hands, and the quantity of the herbs would definitely be accurate.

This was the ability developed through million and million times of practice. Nobody could imitate that.

Feng Ruoqing stared blankly at Ye Yuan and did not know what to say.

Refining a Tier 1 medicinal pill was . . . simple?

"D-do as you like. I-I’m going to the quiet chamber to meditate!"

After saying that, Feng Ruoqing turned around, and entered the quiet chamber once more.

This round of meditation was four hours; it was much longer than initially planned.

Feng Ruoqing’s mental state was a mess and was not able to enter a meditative state for a long time. She only managed to purge her distracting thoughts after two hours, and then she entered the empty state.

After exiting the quiet chamber, Feng Ruoqing recovered her haughty and cold attitude once again. Walking in front of the Red Lotus Cauldron, she instructed emotionlessly, "Bring the medicinal essence over. Fire up the cauldron. Refine!"

Ye Yuan did not waste these four hours either. He was training while meditating the whole time.

In comparison with his past life, the current Ye Yuan was much more diligent.

The Ye Yuan who managed to become an Alchemy Emperor before understood that there were no shortcuts to cultivation. No matter how talented one was, there was only hard work and more hard work.

Hearing Feng Ruoqing’s instructions, Ye Yuan passed the two jade containers with the medicinal essences in them over to her and prepared to fire up the cauldron.

Feng Ruoqing looked over at Ye Yuan in surprise. Initially, she was prepared to open her mouth to instruct Ye Yuan on what to do. But who would have thought that Ye Yuan would perform what an assistant should do with such familiarity.

The Dan Wu Academy’s pill refinement chambers were established on top of an Earth Vein. Earth fire was guided over to refine pills.

This sort of pill refinement style was only suitable for low tiers. High tier pills must use heaven and earth flame sources. But Ye Yuan was not a stranger to this style of refinement.

Opening the fire valve, the scorching earth fire burst out from the ground, instantly raising the temperature in the pill refinement chamber.

Although earth fire could not be compared to heaven and earth flame sources, it was extraordinary among the mortal fires. It was more than sufficient to refine a Tier 1 medicinal pill.

Ye Yuan rapidly formed seals with both hands and slowly moved towards the fire. The fire immediately became like an obedient baby while still being incomparably docile. 1

Following which, Ye Yuan spread his hands apart and cried out, "Stabilize!"

The earth fire automatically separated into two and scorched the two sides of the Red Lotus Cauldron uniformly.

Looking at this scene, a trace of surprise flashed across Feng Ruoqing’s eyes once again.

She had never heard of this kind of fire controlling skill!

Earth fire was abnormally wild. It could only be used after layers upon layers of array formations were placed on top of the academy.

Even so, this fire was not something that an average Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm could easily control.

But this fire was just like a house pet in front of Ye Yuan. If he asked it to lay down, it would not dare to stand.

However, the refinement procedure had already begun. Feng Ruoqing could not afford to be surprised and hastily recollected herself.

Feng Ruoqing formed hand seals with one hand and pointed a finger towards the Red Lotus Cauldron. The cauldron lid flew up by itself.

Following that, she gestured with her other hand, and the two medicinal essences flew through the air into the pill furnace.

"Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique! Activate!"

With a low cry, Feng Ruoqing’s two jade-like hands moved like phantom images.

Right now, it was no longer Ye Yuan’s business. He took it easy as he watched Feng Ruoqing repeatedly change seals continuously to temper the medicinal essence. Watching this, he could not refrain from nodding his head.

This woman more or less had some standards. It looked like she spent no little effort on the Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique.

But she had yet to fully master the Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique, so it appears executing it was a little forced. It seems like this furnace of medicinal pills was going to be wasted.

The Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique was not so easy to master. During the refining process, the alchemist had to do two things at once. One hand had to perform Yang-attribute seals, while the other hand had to execute Yin-attribute seals. Furthermore, it had to be carried out simultaneously with no room for any error.

Any mistake during the process would result in the furnace of medicinal pills to be wasted.

This was an extremely challenging test towards the alchemist’s mental strength, soul strength, and familiarity with the seals.

In the beginning, Feng Ruoqing did quite well. But around the mid-stage of the refinement, it was clear that her strength was failing. Small beads of sweat started appearing on her forehead, and she looked like straining herself.

Puff!

A black cloud appeared.

The pills were ruined . . .

Feng Ruoqing stomped her feet angrily and shouted at Ye Yuan, "Again!"

Ye Yuan looked at Feng Ruoqing but did not say anything and immediately went to prepare the herbs.

This time around, Feng Ruoqing finally saw how Ye Yuan prepared the herbs, and she was left utterly speechless.

Ye Yuan grabbed at this herb and grabbed again at another herb. After that, he threw them into a jade container and started mashing them; appearing highly irresponsible.

However, Feng Ruoqing was unable to open her mouth to scold him. That was because she knew that the medicine essence Ye Yuan refined, regardless of quality or precision, was much better than her doing it.

Just how in the world did this guy do it? Could it be that his hands were measurement tools? How did he know exactly how much was required?

The way Ye Yuan prepared the herbs was really too casual . . .

Seeing Feng Ruoqing’s expression, Ye Yuan gave a dry cough and laughed awkwardly. "This . . . came from family teachings. You are also aware that my father is an Alchemy Grandmaster. I was forced since young. Haha . . . Haha."

Feng Ruoqing glared fiercely at Ye Yuan. Believe my foot!

But she also knew that Ye Yuan would not tell her the truth, so it was pointless to ask.

After 15 minutes, Ye Yuan finished refining the medicinal essence once more.

Feng Ruoqing swallowed a Tier 2 Qi Returning Pill. After meditating for a while, her essence energy had more or less recovered.

Looking at this, Ye Yuan was secretly dumbstruck. Just what was this Feng Ruoqing’s background?

A Tier 2 Qi Returning Pill naturally was not much in Ye Yuan’s eyes. But it was not something common in the State of Qin. The price was very high.

Feng Ruoqing casually took one out to eat and did not even blinked.

Also, that Red Lotus Cauldron, it was absolutely a high-grade medicine cauldron in the State of Qin. Ordinary people simply could not get a hold of it.

It seemed like this Teacher Feng had a very powerful backing!

The result of the second try of the Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique was inevitably another failure.

Following this, the third time, and then the fourth time. Not even once did it succeed.

The medicinal essence would basically turn into a black cloud of smoke when refining at the latter stages, becoming ruined.

Feng Ruoqing became increasingly depressed, and she actually knew that the reason why she could last only up to the latter stages was due to the medicinal essence Ye Yuan refined, as well as his control over the fire. Otherwise, she might not even have lasted to the late stages!

Just how in the world do I master this damn Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique?!

"Again!" Even though there were Tier 2 Qi Returning Pills to recover essence energy, in reality, Feng Ruoqing already could not hold on much longer from such an intense day of refining.

Ye Yuan looked at Feng Ruoqing again and felt a little conflicted in his heart.

"What are you looking at?! Go prepare the herbs!" Feng Ruoqing barked irately.

Ye Yuan did not go to prepare the herbs but sighed instead. He walked to the table and grabbed a piece of paper and two brushes.

Feng Ruoqing was curious about what Ye Yuan took the brush and paper for, so she went toward him.

It was only to see Ye Yuan holding one brush each with his left and right hand, then he simultaneously drew two shapes on the paper. His left hand drew a circle, while his right hand drew a square.

"Don’t train anymore. This way of training won’t work. We will see again after you master this."

After he finished, Ye Yuan passed the two brushes over to Feng Ruoqing.

"Train? What’s the point of this training?" Feng Ruoqing asked blankly.

Ye Yuan shrugged his shoulders and said, "Up to you whether you want to train or not. If you keep on training the Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique like you did just now, then you might as well find a way to directly increase your soul strength. It isn’t so easy to jump ranks to battle."

"Tch. What’s so hard about this? I will draw right now for you to see!" Feng Ruoqing refused to concede.

Saying that she pushed Ye Yuan aside and also drew on the paper.

But as she drew, the right hand became a circle. Furthermore, an uneven circle.

"I don’t believe this!"

Feng Ruoqing drew again. She concentrated on making her right hand’s drawing into a square. The result was that the right hand drew a square, and the left hand also drew a square!

After a few more times, Feng Ruoqing was thoroughly defeated.

"Why is this so hard?! Not drawing anymore!"

Feng Ruoqing threw the brush aside in a fit like a little girl throwing a tantrum. Where was the proud and cold female teacher?

"It’s because it is difficult; that’s why I asked you to draw it. Train well. After you master this, you shouldn’t be far from crossing the entry threshold of the Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique. Alright. I’ve already taught you the secret. I don’t need to be your assistant for the next few days anymore, right? I’m leaving."

"Halt! Do you think that you can hoodwink me by coming up with this crap? If you dare to walk out today, I will make the dean expel you! If you don’t believe me, just try!" Feng Ruoqing was livid.

Ye Yuan came up with some dubious thing and said that it would help in mastering the Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique. Was it not insulting her intelligence?

"Aunt, who are you arguing with?" At this moment, a girl dressed in white martial outfit pushed the door open and entered.

This person was similarly a stunning beauty, with watery almond-shaped eyes like a crescent moon, and a slender waist that looked like it had no bones. Silky hair flowed down her shoulders; she wore white colored martial clothing while carrying a sword, giving off a heroic spirit.

Looking closely, this girl and Feng Ruoqing’s eyebrows had some similarity. No wonder she called out ’Aunt.’

It was just that the age difference between this aunt and niece pair was too small. They looked just like sisters instead.

Ye Yuan had never seen this girl before, but he quickly figured out who this white-clothed girl was.

The most popular instructor in the Dan Wu Academy was Feng Ruoqing, and the most popular female student was Feng Zhirou.

Who could such a stunning beauty with the ’Feng’ surname be other than Feng Zhirou?

It was just that Ye Yuan previously did not link these two together, and he did not know that the two of them were actually aunt and niece.

Feng Zhirou looked at Ye Yuan and looked at the disheveled looking Feng Ruoqing; she was stunned. She immediately cried out, "You scoundrel! To actually dare molest my aunt! I’m going to teach you a lesson!"

Finishing, she did not wait for Ye Yuan’s explanation, and a sword already flashed in front of Ye Yuan’s chest like lightning.

Ye Yuan did not expect this girl to be so unreasonable; indiscriminately striking with her sword to harm him.

He wanted to evade, but Feng Zhirou was rank three on the Martial Roll of Honor; a figure that Ye Yuan simply could not hope to match.

Being locked down by Feng Zhirou’s sword qi, Ye Yuan was actually unable to move. Even Instant Flash became sluggish.

This was a lethal sword.

This unforeseen situation occurred too quickly. Feng Ruoqing clearly did not manage to react in time either. Even if she wanted to help, it was already too late.

"Ah!" Feng Ruoqing screamed and shut her eyes in fright.

In the time of crisis, Ye Yuan could not be bothered to conceal his abilities. In a flurry, he executed an Absolute Yang Finger.

Ding!

Following the crisp sound was the sound of the sword’s edge slicing open the skin.

Ye Yuan pushed Instant Flash to its limit at the same time he used his finger, dodging this sword by a hair’s breath. Even so, he still suffered some injuries. The sword’s edge made a cut on his right arm.

"STOP!" Feng Ruoqing was shocked by Feng Zhirou’s action and hurriedly called out for her to stop.

She had the intention to stop it just now, but she was way too slow.

After practicing the Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique for such a long time, both her essence energy and mental strength was already completely dried up. How could she possibly stop Feng Zhirou’s attack?

Watching Feng Zhirou’s sword stabbed straight towards Ye Yuan’s chest, Feng Ruoqing’s heart leaped to her throat. Who knew that Ye Yuan would miraculously evade this lethal attack?

Feng Zhirou also did not expect her sword to be evaded by Ye Yuan. She saw through Ye Yuan’s strength at a glance, only at the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm. Someone at the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm actually managed to dodge her sword?

Even though Feng Zhirou only used 30% of her strength and not her full power, it should still not have been evaded by a Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm.

Especially Ye Yuan’s finger just now. The impact even made the web between her thumb and index finger go numb. How was this possible?!

"Zhirou! What are you doing?!" Feng Ruoqing asked angrily.

Only now did Feng Zhirou realized that she seemed to have gotten into trouble. She playfully stuck out her tongue and said, "A man and woman staying together in a room. I saw you lose your temper, and your clothes were also disheveled, so I thought . . ."

Feng Ruoqing blushed heavily at what she said. "If you continue saying nonsense, watch me tear your mouth! We have been refining pills all this while. Ye Yuan is the assistant that I invited! When will you fix your mischievous attitude?! Otherwise, you will cause a disaster sooner or later!"

Feng Zhirou pouted her lips and said in an aggrieved tone, "Aunt, I was wrong okay? I won’t dare to next time."

"Why haven’t you apologized to Ye Yuan yet?" Feng Ruoqing asked furiously.

Before Feng Zhirou even apologized, Ye Yuan erupted first.

He really had enough of it today! He was driven like a duck onto a perch, forced to become some bullshit assistant for Feng Ruoqing. The result was that Feng Ruoqing was such a noob that he could not even bear to look on anymore.

He taught Feng Ruoqing the method on how to dual-task. But the result was that instead of expressing her gratitude, this woman refused to stop bothering him.

And now, there was this completely unreasonable Feng Zhirou who jumped out, nearly killing him with her sword!

Ye Yuan barely managed to get this life. If he were to die again, then he would be screwed.

"What apology?! I’ve really had enough of the two of you aunt and niece! One keeps pestering me, and the other is savage and unreasonable! I came here to help out of goodwill, and the result was that I nearly lost my life! Just who did I provoke?! This Young Master can’t stand this frustration anymore! Feng Ruoqing, if you have the ability, then just get me expelled! If this place won’t keep me, there will be a place willing to take me! Farewell!"

Finishing, Ye Yuan strode out of the door.

Feng Zhirou was originally ready to make an apology but was rebuffed by Ye Yuan; she could not help it but become angry. "Who’s that? He’s so bad tempered! Just now, I didn’t make clear of the situation. But didn’t he only suffer some light injuries?"

Feng Ruoqing did not stop Ye Yuan this time. But after hearing Feng Zhirou grumbling, she inevitably became annoyed. "Look who’s talking?! That sword of yours nearly killed him just now, and you are still acting so righteous! Imperial Brother really spoiled you! When I go back this time around, I’ll definitely report all of your misdoings in the academy to Imperial Brother to make him ground you!"

The moment Feng Zhirou heard ’ground,’ she immediately grabbed Feng Ruoqing’s arm and begged, "Good Aunt, I was wrong, I really know I was wrong. Please, please don’t snitch on me to Imperial Father. I don’t want to stay in the palace all day."

"Humph! If you don’t want to be grounded, then fine. Turn around and go apologize to Ye Yuan! Remember, it’s apologizing! If Ye Yuan doesn’t accept your apology, then just wait to be grounded. I will tell Imperial Brother all about your matters, one by one!" Feng Ruoqing was in a panic now. If Ye Yuan were really killed by Feng Zhirou just now, then she would probably live in guilt for the rest of her life.

"Alright, alright! I will go, okay?! I will definitely apologize properly to that fellow and ask that great man to not harbor grievance for my past wrongdoing. Alright?" Feng Zhirou did not have any choice, so she could only agree.

"That’s much better! Oh right. Why did you suddenly come to look for me?" This niece had always avoided her in the academy. She definitely came to find her today because of some matter.

"Aiya. If you didn’t mention, I would have forgotten about it already. It’s all because you interrupted me!" Feng Zhirou looked like she was suddenly enlightened.

". . . . . ."

"Actually, I came to say goodbye to you. I’m going back to the capital in five days to participate in the Alchemy Master test. After I passed the test, I will be the same as you, an Alchemy Master!" Feng Zhirou exclaimed proudly.

"With the way you are, you still want to be an Alchemy Master? Talk again after you pass." Feng Ruoqing took her down a peg without hesitation.

Advancing as an alchemist was entirely different from the martial path. To advance to Alchemy Master, the first requirement was to cultivate and reach the Spirit Condensation Realm. But that did not mean that one could become an Alchemy Master just by advancing to the Spirit Condensation Realm!

Feng Zhirou already reached Spirit Condensation Realm long ago, but she never passed the Alchemy Master test, even though she was top three on the Alchemy Roll of Honor. From this, it was clear just how rare and respected the position of Alchemy Master was.

Feng Zhirou pouted and said, "What kind of aunt are you? You actually cursed your own niece to fail the test!"

Feng Ruoqing ignored her and muttered to herself, " Oh. Is it a group test again? I wonder how far Ye Yuan can go. With his standard, becoming high-rank Alchemy Apprentice shouldn’t be an issue, I think. Zhirou, I will go along with you tomorrow to visit Ye Yuan. I want him to go take the alchemist test together with you."

"Hehe. Aunt, you still said that nothing was going on between you two. Every time you open your mouth, it’s all Ye Yuan." Feng Zhirou laughed at her.

"Damn lass. It looks like you are really asking for a beating!" Feng Ruoqing was totally embarrassed. The aunt and niece pair started wrestling each other.

After messing around for a while, Feng Zhirou suddenly thought of something and asked, "Ye Yuan . . . I suddenly find this name really familiar. Oh right! Is it the Ye Yuan who fought in the deathmatch?"

"You only realize this now? He is the hottest topic of discussion in the academy recently. I’m sure you aren’t aware of it yet. Just this morning, he took on three tests consecutively and joined the ranks of the Earth Rank students with his Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm cultivation. Zhirou, he might become a powerful rival to you in the not too distant future!" Feng Ruoqing said solemnly.

Feng Zhirou opened her mouth wide and exclaimed in amazement, "He’s that amazing? It looks like our State of Qin’s Dan Wu Academy has been quiet for far too long. Looks like things are finally going to become interesting."

Feng Zhirou left, and Feng Ruoqing unexpectedly picked up two brushes, and she started diligently drawing squares and circles on the paper over and over again.

. . . . . .

The next day, Feng Ruoqing and her niece went together to Ye Yuan’s residence but was turned away at the door by Lu-er.

"My apologies to the two of you. My young master is recovering from his wounds, and he said that he won’t meet with anyone," Lu-er said emotionlessly.

Feng Zhirou immediately lost her temper. "Hey! Didn’t he just suffer from some light injuries?! My aunt and I already came here to apologize. What else does he want?"

Lu-er was lovable and adorable, but when it came to Young Master, she was completely stern.

Yesterday, when Young Master came home with injuries, her heart ached for a long time. Now that Feng Zhirou was totally insincere with her apology and even swaggered around, she obviously did not need to be polite.

"Light injuries? I don’t understand. You clearly injured someone, but you are still so stuck up in front of other people’s house. Who taught you such manner? An apology like that is too precious, so save it for yourself. Our family’s Young Master dare not accept it. I only pray that you stay further away from our family’s Young Master. I’m not going to see you out!" Lu-er directly chased them away.

Feng Zhirou was about to retort when Feng Ruoqing quickly clamped her mouth shut. This lass is only good at ruining things!

"Miss Lu-er, it’s all our fault. Please don’t be mad. Actually, Zhirou this lass didn’t have any ill-intentions. She is just straightforward and outspoken, and she is always rash when doing things and ended up injuring your young master. In reality, she feels really guilty in her heart. It’s just that her mouth is unforgiving. You mustn’t try to gain back face with her. One of the reasons we came to look for your young master was to apologize. The other is that we have some important matters to look for him. Just let us go in," Feng Ruoqing said amicably but was much more sincere.

Right then, Ye Yuan’s voice sounded from within the house. "Lu-er, tell them that I’m not in!"

". . . . . ."

". . . . . ."

". . . . . ."

The three people outside the house were collectively speechless.

Feng Zhirou was infuriated by Ye Yuan’s attitude and was about to rush into to dice Ye Yuan into pieces, but she was pulled back by Feng Ruoqing.

"If you cause trouble again, just wait to be grounded when you get back!" Feng Ruoqing warned coldly. It was clear that she was exasperated by this niece.

Feng Zhirou could not muster up her temper anymore. Only then, did Feng Ruoqing called out towards the house, "Ye Yuan, it was Zhirou’s fault yesterday. I apologize to you on her behalf. And also I apologize for my attitude yesterday. I won’t force you to be my assistant in the future, alright?"

Creak.

The door opened, and Ye Yuan appeared.

"You’re the one who said it! A good woman is as good as her word. You can’t go back on it!" Ye Yuan was currently in high spirits. Where were there even any signs of injuries?

"Ye Yuan, you!" Feng Zhirou took a look at Ye Yuan and wished that she could raise her sword to kill him again. But she was completely blocked by Feng Ruoqing.

"You, what you? Don’t think that I’m scared of you just because you are some Martial Roll’s expert! Wait until I break through to the Spirit Condensation Realm. I can kill you with one hand!"

Ye Yuan was very displeased with this woman!

The Feng Zhirou in the legends was extremely cold and proud and would not spare a glance for anyone. Who knew that when he met her yesterday, she would actually be a complete lunatic!

Ye Yuan had walked around the gates of hell once again. It would be weird if he were pleased to see her!

"Aunt, let me go! I’m going to kill him! I’ll see what he has to break through to the Spirit Condensation Realm!" Feng Zhirou struggled desperately but did not manage to break free.

"Enough of this! Just try moving again if you dare!" Feng Ruoqing really released Feng Zhirou, but her words made Feng Zhirou stop.

"Ye Yuan, if you don’t want me to force you to be my assistant, fine. But you have to promise me one thing! If you can do it, I will let you off," Feng Ruoqing said calmly.

Hearing her words, Ye Yuan raised his guard instinctively.

This woman might look good-natured, but in reality, she was as unreasonable as Feng Zhirou deep down in her bones. Previously, she had already set a trap for him. Now, who could guarantee that it was not another trap!

"Say what it is first! Better not force me. At most, I will just go back to the capital to continue being a silkpants!" Ye Yuan answered like a hoodlum.

However, Feng Ruoqing did not seem to care. Instead, she gave a sweet smile. "In four days’ time, the academy will organize students to go to the capital’s Alchemist Association to take part in a group test. I want you and Zhirou to take the test together!"

"Alchemist test?" Ye Yuan was stunned. He did not expect Feng Ruoqing to actually raise such a request.

Taking the test was not much. But he instinctively held some resistance towards the Alchemist Association.

In his past life, he, and his father had poor relations with the Alchemist Association. The two were ostracized by all the other alchemists as deviants.

Now that Ye Yuan was asked to take the test, he felt kind of weird.

"That’s right. I want you to participate in the Alchemist Association’s Alchemy Apprentice test. And you must go all out! Don’t tell me that you can’t even pass an Alchemy Apprentice test?"

Feng Ruoqing knew now that Ye Yuan’s level was definitely much higher than an Alchemy Apprentice. It was just that he was limited by his strength so he could not refine high-tier medicinal pills.

But with Ye Yuan’s Alchemy Dao prowess, would becoming an Alchemy Apprentice not be just like playing around?

Ye Yuan did not immediately reply to Feng Ruoqing, but he paced around to ponder about it for a moment. Finally, he nodded his head and then answered, "Fine. I will join.""Dean, the talent that this Ye Yuan displayed was truly astonishing. I feel that the academy should nurture him well. The Ten Nations Competition will be taking place in half a year’s time. We had already lost for many years. If we are at the bottom three again this time, we would really have no place to put our old face in public."

Within the loft, in a deep part of the Dan Wu Academy, Huyan Yong was standing respectfully in front of a middle-aged man.

This man was the dean of the Dan Wu Academy, Jiang Yunhe. He was a figure that carried tremendous weight in the entire State of Qin!

His position in the State of Qin was not even beneath His Majesty!

But Jiang Yunhe was very low-profile as a person, and he rarely showed himself. He pretty much left it all to the associate deans to handle things and did not do anything.

During the few years which students spend in the Dan Wu Academy, they might not even get to see him once.

Even among many of the instructors, Jiang Yunhe was a highly mysterious figure.

Clearly, Huyan Yong was one of the few people in the academy who could meet with Jiang Yunhe.

It was evident that Huyan Yong specifically came to report to Jiang Yunhe about Ye Yuan’s matter.

He recounted Ye Yuan’s stunning performance to Jiang Yunhe. But Jiang Yunhe only listened quietly and did not comment anything.

"Oh Huyan, calm down. Victory and defeat are common for soldiers. There’s no need to fuss over the details. Life is full of ups and downs. When it’s time for us to rise up, other people cannot stop it," Jiang Yunhe said nonchalantly.

"But Dean! Ye Yuan, he . . ."

Huyan Yong wanted to say a few more words for Ye Yuan, but Jiang Yunhe gestured to stop him. "I already said calm down. Sigh. Huyan, you are always like this. What are you anxious about? We haven’t even started competing yet. Furthermore, we also have quite a few outstanding students this time around such as Long Tang, Zuo Bugui; oh , and also Feng Zhirou that lass. They are all good seedlings. Well, this Ye Yuan that you mentioned isn’t bad, but a genius that has not matured yet isn’t a genius. Any genius who hasn’t broken through and reached the Spirit Condensation Realm doesn’t count as a genius, understood?"

After Jiang Yunhe said all that, Huyan Yong slowly calmed down. He seemed to have understood something faintly. "Dean, are you afraid that . . . Ye Yuan is going down the unorthodox path?"

Thinking about it now, Ye Yuan was just a First Level Essence Qi Realm little rookie a month ago. In a month’s time, he already reached the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm with actual combat power surpassing top geniuses at the Eighth Level Essence Qi Realm. This sort of leap was a little too exaggerated.

Without mentioning about others, even a genius like Long Tang would probably require at least a year’s time to train from the First Level Essence Qi Realm to the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm? But Ye Yuan did it in only a month.

Such astonishing growth was truly inconceivable. The most immediate idea was most likely that he had over exhausted his potential, right?

And the price for over exhausting one’s potential was sacrificing future growth!

Jiang Yunhe smiled and said, "I didn’t say that. But let’s observe for a period of time first. You don’t have to worry too much about resources and what not. Didn’t Ye Yuan plunder several tens of thousands of Essence Qi Pills? It shouldn’t be a problem to train to the Ninth Level Essence Qi Realm."

Huyan Yong sighed and took his leave.

After Huyan Yong left, Jiang Yunhe walked to the window with his hands behind his back and muttered to himself, " Oh Ye Yuan, I really hope that you are a peerless genius. Don’t let me down!"

. . . . . .

The alchemist test would be taking place in the capital in four days’ time. Ye Yuan figured that he might as well skip classes, and brought Lu-er back home to stay for a few days.

As he had just broken through not long ago, Ye Yuan planned to use these few days to properly consolidate his realm. The next step would be to directly assault the Sixth Level Essence Qi Realm.

Within a minor stage in the Essence Qi Realm, Ye Yuan could completely disregard the bottleneck between realms and directly cross them.

This was already after intentionally slowing down. If it was not out of fear that his foundation would become unstable, Ye Yuan could even break through several realms within a day.

After all, the Essence Qi Realm was simply too easy for Ye Yuan who was once a Divine King.

"If Master and Madam know that Young Master became an Earth Rank student, they would be ecstatic." Lu-er was full of pride as if she was the one who became an Earth Rank student.

"It’s just being a stupid Earth Rank student. Who cares?" Ye Yuan curled his lips in disdain.

"Of course it’s impressive! You don’t know what kind of expression they had outside. Each of them stared at the light screen as if they saw a ghost. Initially, I didn’t know how amazing Earth Rank students are. But afterward, I heard that there had never been anyone in the Dan Wu Academy who advanced and became an Earth Rank when they were at the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm. That’s when I found out that Young Master is so incredible!" Lu-er said excitedly.

" Haha. There will be plenty more times for them to be shocked in the future. If you are this way each time, wouldn’t it be exhausting?" Infected by Lu-er’s mood, Ye Yuan also started laughing heartily.

"Why would that be tiring? If that were the case, I would be happy every day!" Lu-er replied seriously.

"Then I will make my Lu-er happy every day, okay?"

"Hehe. Young Master is still the best! Lu-er is already very happy right now! Yii? Why are there so few people in the Fragrant Medicine Pavilion? Normally in the past, the queue would be super long at this time."

The master and servant pair arrived at the Fragrant Medicine Pavilion without realizing it. But then Lu-er found that something was not quite right with the Fragrant Medicine Pavilion.

In the past, the entrance to the Fragrant Medicine Pavilion was always crowded with streams of people. But today, it looked a little deserted.

"Let’s go in to check it out."

Ye Yuan entered the Fragrant Medicine Pavilion with Lu-er and discovered that there were really much fewer people. It was not even half of the norm in the past. What was going on?

"Young Master Ye, why are you back?"

The shopkeeper was clearly idling today. The moment Ye Yuan walked in, he noticed this and hurried over to greet the former.

"Shopkeeper Feng, why are there so few people in the Fragrant Medicine Pavilion today? What happened?"

The shopkeeper was surnamed Feng and was the third-born; so he was called Feng San 1 . He was an old employee of the Fragrant Medicine Pavilion and was completely loyal. Even Ye Hang was very respectful towards him.

Hearing Ye Yuan’s question, he involuntarily let out a long sigh. "Sigh . . . Isn’t it all thanks to that Drunken Star Manor. Who knows where they got the pill formula of something called Essence Gathering Pill. The medicinal effects are 50% stronger than even the effects of a high-grade Essence Qi Pill! These few days, they released the new medicinal pills, attracting everyone over. As a result, our Fragrant Medicine Pavilion’s business fell drastically. Sigh. With this sort of medicinal pill, the Drunken Star Manor is now undefeatable. The owner has also been troubled by this these few days!"

"It’s really Drunken Star Manor again! Essence Gathering Pill huh . . ." Ye Yuan started to muse.

"That’s right. The price of this Essence Gathering Pill is about the same as a high-grade Essence Qi Pill, but the medicinal effects are 50% stronger. As long as one is a martial artist, who could possibly resist this kind of temptation? Sigh. It looks like hard times are ahead for our Fragrant Medicine Pavilion."

Feng San sighed and groaned. His face was full of worry. It was apparent that he spent the past few days distressed over it.

This move by the Drunken Star Manor came too suddenly without any signs at all. The Fragrant Medicine Pavilion was caught unaware. As a result, this led to the current situation.

"Don’t worry too much, Shopkeeper Feng. It’s just a tiny little Essence Gathering Pill. It can’t cause any huge waves." Ye Yuan smiled as he consoled the shopkeeper.

Feng San looked at Ye Yuan and sighed as he said, "Young Master probably isn’t aware of what this 50% medicinal effect means. This is something that can change the medicinal pills market in the State of Qin! With this, the Drunken Star Manor can become a monopoly power in the future!"

Ye Yuan knew that any explanation was futile, so he smiled and asked, "Shopkeeper Feng, is my father in the shop? I will go look for him."

"Yes. The owner has been in a closed-door seclusion in the pill refinement room these past few days."

Ye Hang’s hands moved like phantoms as he operated the pill cauldron. The medicinal pill in the pill cauldron was about to form as it gave off a faint light.

"Set!’

Ye Hang gave a low cry, and the light on the medicinal pill dissipated, forming a dark green medicinal pill.

Making a gesture of grabbing at it, the pill flew into Ye Hang’s hand.

"Sigh. I was too overconfident. If it were so easy to invent a new medicinal pill, how could it be that it’s my, Ye Hang’s, turn to do it?" Ye Hang shook his head and threw away the newly refined pill.

Presently, Ye Hang looked utterly haggard. It was evident that he was greatly exhausted.

He was attempting to develop new medicinal pills without getting any sleep or rest these few days in order to prevent the Fragrant Medicine Pavilion from declining. But all of his efforts were in vain.

Even though Essence Qi Pill was not among high-tier pills, after countless years of development, it was actually incomparably mature.

How could it be easy to develop a new medicinal pill which had even stronger medicinal effects than Essence Qi Pill to replace it?

"I didn’t think that after working hard for so many years, I, Ye Hang, still can’t escape the outcome of defeat. What a failure!" Ye Hang sighed again.

Unwittingly, Ye Yuan’s figure suddenly appeared in Ye Hang’s mind, and some clarity was restored in his hazy eyes.

"If I’m defeated, then I’m defeated. At least my son has that mysterious teacher. His future accomplishments will definitely be limitless."

He was naturally aware of Ye Yuan’s performance in the Dan Wu Academy these past few days, and he was delighted in his heart.

But he was still not aware that Ye Yuan had already advanced to the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm, passed the Black Rank Advancement test, and became an Earth Rank student.

Ye Hang was originally a sanguine person and did not take defeat heavily. It was just that this bunch of old fellows at the Fragrant Medicine Pavilion had followed him for a long time. His individual success or failure was connected to the livelihood of many people. That was why he tried day and night to regain some lost ground.

Perhaps their hearts were connected. Just as Ye Hang thought about his son, Ye Yuan’s knocking on the door sounded. "Father, this Child is back. May I enter?"

Ye Hang’s heart shook slightly, and he went to open the door. Sure enough, it was Ye Yuan.

"Father, I heard that you were in a closed-door seclusion, so I came here directly. I didn’t interrupt you, did I?" Ye Yuan bowed towards Ye Hang and asked.

"Haha. What’s there to interrupt? Yuan-er is back. Any important matter has to be put aside! Come, let us father and son talk in the study room. Tell me what happened in the Dan Wu Academy." Ye Hang pulled his son and headed out.

Ye Yuan was touched. Ye Hang’s love for his son really surpassed everything.

Even at this time, Ye Hang was interested to find out about Ye Yuan’s experience in the Dan Wu Academy rather than finding a way to save the situation. One could only imagine Ye Yuan’s place in Ye Hang’s heart.

Before leaving, Ye Yuan swept his eyes around the pill refinement room and sniffed the medicinal fragrance lingering in the air. He already knew the goal of Ye Hang’s closed-door seclusion.

. . . . . .

"Yuan-er, I heard that you had a deathmatch with that brat from the Wan Family whose surname was Fei, right after you returned to the academy? And that you finished him off with your Third Level Essence Qi Realm strength? That is so satisfying! Yii? Y-you . . . already broke through to the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm?"

Just now, Ye Hang did not notice yet. But as he was talking, he discovered that Ye Yuan’s aura was much stronger than before he left. Clearly, he already broke through to the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm, so he could not help but be astonished.

"Haha. I was fortunate and broke through two days ago. I also passed through three advancement tests consecutively yesterday. Now, I’m already an Earth Rank student."

Ye Yuan was not showing off, but it was because he knew that his father was in a lousy mood. So he found something to cheer him up. It was clear just how much effort he expended from how worn out Ye Hang looked. Ye Yuan felt his heart ache just by looking at him.

As expected, when Ye Yuan told him that, Ye Hang immediately perked up and exclaimed in delight, "The heavens had opened their eyes! My son really became competent! That brat from the Wan Family only just advanced to become Earth Rank, but my son only used a month to do the same! What a resounding face-smacking difference! Hahaha!"

After a bout of hearty laughter, Ye Hang gradually quietened down. But the joy on his face could not be concealed.

Suddenly recalling something, Ye Hang frowned slightly and asked him, "Yuan-er, it’s naturally a good thing for your strength to advance so quickly. But would it affect your future cultivation?"

Ye Hang’s worry happened to coincide with Jiang Yunhe’s. This concern was not without reason.

Cultivating the Martial Dao always focused on moving along carefully each step of the way. It was cultivation’s great taboo to neglect a solid foundation in pursuit of a temporary spurt of progress.

Ye Yuan’s advancement was truly too rapid. As a father, he was naturally concerned whether or not his son’s foundation was unstable, and if it would affect future cultivation.

"Don’t worry, Father. I know what I’m doing. The cultivation law that Master passed on to me is highly mystical. If I didn’t fear that my cultivation realm rising too quickly would affect my foundation, it wouldn’t be a problem for me to cultivate to the Seventh or Eighth Level Essence Qi Realm right now," Ye Yuan replied indifferently.

After he said that, Ye Hang calmed down even though he was still a little worried.

The Master in Ye Yuan’s dream was unfathomable and passed him so many techniques. He most likely would not harm him.

"Then it’s alright. Oh right. You just went to the academy a while ago. Why did you return to the capital again? Do you lack cultivation resources?"

The matter of Ye Yuan participating in the alchemist test was only decided yesterday. Ye Hang did not receive the news yet.

"In four days’ time, a party from the academy will undergo a group test at the Alchemist Association. I’m here to take part in the alchemist test."

"Alchemist test? Oh. You can refine Heart Inch Fissure. So taking the Alchemist Apprentice test is obviously not an issue. It’s just that the alchemist test only has three chances. Yuan-er, your experience is still too little after all. Are you confident?"

The way Ye Hang saw it, Ye Yuan definitely failed countless times before he succeeded in refining the Heart Inch Fissure back then.

Nobody knew him like his father. In the past, Ye Yuan basically never even touched alchemy before. How could one possibly increase the success rate of pill refinement without their technique being tempered through countless practices?

"I trained quite a bit these past few days, so it shouldn’t be an issue." Ye Yuan smiled.

"Then that’s good. Take these two days to adjust yourself properly to take the test in your best condition." Ye Hang encouraged him.

Ye Yuan naturally nodded and acknowledged those words. Following which, he took the opportunity to ask,"Father, when I just came back, I asked shopkeeper Feng. Are you worrying about the Essence Gathering Pill these past few days, Father?"

When Ye Yuan mentioned this matter, a trace of uneasiness flashed across Ye Hang’s face. But it was quickly covered up as he smiled and said, "Yuan-er, you just have to cultivate well in the academy. Don’t worry about what’s happening at home. Wan Donghai couldn’t do anything to your father after so many years. This time around, it’s obviously going to be the same."

Ye Yuan let out a sigh and said, "Father, I’m already grown up. This kind of low-level lie won’t work on me."

Ye Hang gave an awkward look. "H-haha. Actually . . . this time around . . . it’s a little bit problematic."

"Father, Master taught me many areas of alchemy in my dream. There is a type of medicinal pill called Explosive Yuan Pill. The medicinal effects are multiple times of the Essence Qi Pill. It should help you tide over the crisis this time," Ye Yuan said solemnly.

"Multiple times? You are talking about Tier 2 medicinal pills, right? Then it’s useless." Ye Hang shook his head. He did not think that there were any Tier 1 medicinal pills with multiple times the medicinal effects of the Essence Qi Pill.

However, Ye Yuan shook his head and said, "Not a Tier 2. It’s only a Tier 1 medicinal pill."

"What? A Tier 1 medicinal pill? Multiple times? How is that possible?!" Ye Hang stared wide-eyed at him, with disbelief written all over his face.

Modifying a matured medicinal pill formula to improve its medicinal effects was an extremely difficult thing.

Ye Hang was already a low-rank Alchemist Grandmaster, and even he could not improve the medicinal effects of the Essence Qi Pill. It was clear at a glance just how challenging that was.

As for creating a new Tier 1 medicinal pill with medicinal effects multiple times that of the Essence Qi Pill? That was merely a fantasy. Otherwise, how could the Drunken Star Manor’s Essence Gathering Pill possibly give Ye Hang such enormous pressure?

And now, the fantasy really became a reality. Imagine the shock in Ye Hang’s heart.

Ever since Ye Hang stepped onto the Alchemy Path, he had never heard of any Tier 1 medicinal pills with medicinal effects multiple times that of the Essence Qi Pill over the past few decades!

But Ye Yuan said that this Explosive Yuan Pill actually had such a miraculous effect!

Ye Hang was extremely conflicted right now. Reason told him that this was entirely a lie. But the person who uttered this lie was his son. So should he believe it or not?

After sucking in a deep breath, Ye Hang gave a pained look and asked, "Yuan-er, you aren’t joking with father, right?"

But Ye Yuan just smiled and said, "Why don’t you try it to see for yourself, father?"

Ye Hang quickly stood up and dragged Ye Yuan along. "Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go to the pill refinement room!"

"Don’t be anxious, Father. I still have something to tell you." Ye Yuan did not move.

"Aiya. If there’s anything, we can talk about it later. Refining the Explosive Yuan Pill is the top priority." Ye Hang already could hardly wait.

This concerned the survival of the Fragrant Medicine Pavilion. Even though Ye Hang looked calm on the outside, he was actually incomparably anxious on the inside.

The Fragrant Medicine Pavilion was the fruit of his life’s labor. No matter how sanguine about it he was, he was not willing to watch the monkeys scatter overnight when the tree falls.

However, Ye Yuan was not anxious at all. Pulling his father back to his seat, he smiled and said, "Explosive Yuan Pill is just a minor thing. I have countless pill formulas that Master passed on to me. What I’m about to say is the crucial thing. Just be a little more patient, Father."

Ye Hang was a little perplexed. "What could be more important than saving the Fragrant Medicine Pavilion? En, En, alright, you talk, I’ll listen."

Ye Yuan returned to his seat and said seriously, "There were many miscellaneous things that Master imparted to me in my dreams. But there are two sets of techniques I need to inform you about, Father. The first is called the Spirit Bristle Nine Yang Divine Art. The other is called the Thousand Augmenting Soul Incantation. Father, you can switch to these two cultivation laws. 1 I believe that in the future, the Tranquil Cloud Sect would merely be a small sect to you."

Listening to the names of the two cultivation techniques that Ye Yuan said shocked Ye Hang greatly. This time around, the shock that he felt was even greater than hearing about the Explosive Yuan Pill.

"Thousand Augmenting Soul Incantation? Is that a cultivation technique for cultivating soul strength?" A tremor could be heard in Ye Hang’s voice. He was apparently very agitated.

Ye Hang did not know what the hell the Spirit Bristle Nine Yang Divine Art was. But he immediately connected the name Thousand Augmenting Soul Incantation to a soul cultivation technique.

It was impossible to use words to describe just how valuable soul cultivation laws were in a place like the State of Qin.

Even if the lowest rank soul cultivation law came into being, it would set off a blood storm. It simply could not be measured using monetary terms.

For martial artists, essence energy cultivation techniques were commonplace. It was just differentiated into whether it was good or bad. But something like soul cultivation technique was so rare that it made one’s hair stand on end!

In comparison to essence energy, the soul was more arcane and veiled in mysteries. Wanting to create a set of soul cultivation laws was even harder than reaching the heavens!

Since ancient times, only major powers who had reached an exceedingly high realm in terms of soul cultivation and had an incredibly profound understanding towards the soul could create a soul cultivation technique that belongs to them.

The number of soul cultivation techniques was not even one in one hundred thousand of essence energy cultivation techniques. One could imagine the rarity of it.

However, the preciousness of soul cultivation techniques did not lie on increasing the strength of martial artists. In fact, how powerful a soul was had a very limited impact on the strength of a martial artist.

The prestige of soul cultivation techniques laid in that it could mass-produce alchemists! And what did alchemists mean? It meant endless medicinal pills. It meant that a sect could swiftly raise its strength!

Just imagine, if a sect had a large number of peak level Spirit Condensation Realm martial artists, but these martial artists were unable to break through due to limitations of their talent; at this time, the sect’s alchemists obtained a book on soul cultivation laws, and their strength soared, enabling them to refine medicinal pills capable of allowing Spirit Condensation Realm martial artists to break through.

Just how terrifying would something like that be?

Alchemist was an occupation with a very low entry threshold but was extremely difficult to raise further.

The low entry threshold was because One Star Alchemist, commonly called as Alchemy Apprentice, had very low requirements toward soul strength. One could reach it with just the soul strength of an Essence Qi Realm martial artist.

However, there was an enormous threshold from Alchemy Apprentice to Alchemy Master. That was because for Tier 2 medicinal pills onwards, there would be a drastic increase in the soul strength required for the alchemist!

This threshold called soul strength had blocked countless potential alchemists outside its gate.

Every time a martial artist advanced a major cultivation realm, their soul would receive the nourishment from heaven and earth essence energy and experience a substantial growth from there. However, this sort of growth could not catch up to the increase in soul strength requirement for alchemists.

Feng Zhirou had been a high-rank Alchemy Apprentice for a long time and also broke through to the Spirit Condensation Realm long ago. Yet, she still could not become an Alchemy Master. The reason for that was insufficient soul strength.

Now, a set of soul cultivation laws was in front of Ye Hang. How could he not be agitated?

Ye Hang had remained a low-rank Alchemy Grandmaster for many years and was unable to break through all because his soul strength was lacking.

With the Thousand Augmenting Soul Incantation, it was only a matter of time for Ye Hang to step into the middle-rank Alchemy Grandmaster!

Ye Yuan was right. That Explosive Yuan Pill and other matters were insignificant when compared to this Thousand Augmenting Soul Incantation.

Even if he were beaten by Wan Donghai to the point where he could not retaliate right now, with this set of Thousand Augmenting Soul Incantation, it would be as easy as flipping his hand to overturn the Drunken Star Manor in the future.

"That’s right. This Thousand Augmenting Soul Incantation is precisely a soul cultivation law technique." Ye Yuan gave his father an affirmative look.

’That’s excellent! Excellent! Excellent! With this Thousand Augmenting Soul Incantation, Wan Donghai is nothing! Hahaha!"

One could tell just how excited Ye Hang was to say three ’Excellent’ consecutively.

After his exhilaration, Ye Hang suddenly felt that something was not quite right. He asked Ye Yuan, "Yuan-er, these two cultivation laws were imparted by that expert. If in the future, he found out that you secretly leaked out his cultivation techniques by imparting them to me privately, wouldn’t that make things hard for you? I-I better not learn them. You just tell me the pill formula for the Explosive Yuan Pill, and that would do."

Ye Hang gritted his teeth and rejected Ye Yuan’s good intentions. But anyone could see the reluctance in those eyes.

However, Ye Yuan was shaken to his core.

He knew clearly the temptation a soul cultivation law had among alchemists. If one placed the throne, beautiful women, and a soul cultivation technique together, an alchemist would definitely choose the soul cultivation technique!

As an alchemist himself, Ye Yuan was all too clear on this point.

One could say that with a soul cultivation law, fame, status, and beauties would come forth one after another. How could an alchemist be foolish enough to choose the others?

After all, strength was the foundation for alchemists just like martial artists.

But Ye Hang would rather forsake the opportunity to become a high-tier alchemist for his sake. How could this not shock him?

Since reincarnating until now, every little bit that Ye Hang did for him came into his mind, heavily affecting Ye Yuan’s heart. Unknowingly, tears started to fall . . .In both his past and present life, this was the second time Ye Yuan cried.

The first time he cried was when his father, Zhengyang Zi, was killed by that traitor while protecting him.

Even after experiencing life and death samsara, that scene remained equally vivid in his memory.

The pain which was engraved into his bones and heart also pushed the Ye Yuan today to cultivate diligently in hopes that one day, he could slaughter his way back to the Divine Realm and kill that traitor with his own hands.

This was the second time Ye Yuan cried. Even though it was not during a matter of life and death, Ye Hang’s selfless fatherly love deeply touched Ye Yuan.

Ye Yuan had only felt this feeling from Zhenyang Zi before. Regardless of whether Ye Hang was his real father or not, that unconditional love for him was true.

Qingyun Zi inherited and was influenced by Ye Yuan’s body. So he naturally felt close to Ye Hang.

In addition, Ye Hang’s impression on the newly reincarnated Ye Yuan was pretty good. Ye Yuan felt guilty in his heart, so he acknowledged this father.

But deep down inside him, Ye Yuan only treated him like somebody he was close with and did not have that kind of true father-son relationship.

In Ye Yuan’s heart, his real father was only Zhengyang Zi. Hence, he did not impart these things to Ye Hang previously.

But now, Ye Yuan approved Ye Hang as his father from the bottom of his heart.

Two lifetimes and both fathers had fatherly love akin to a mountain. It thawed Ye Yuan’s heart.

At first, when Ye Yuan took out these two sets of cultivation laws, he was actually still a little hesitant. However, if Ye Hang were ’eaten up’ by Wan Donghai, his future cultivation road would become increasingly difficult.

With Wan Donghai’s personality, he definitely would not let the weakened Ye Hang off. Ye Yuan was currently still weak, and could not defend himself.

Thinking over and over again, Ye Yuan finally made this decision.

But now, Ye Yuan was wholly assured.

Looking at Ye Yuan’s tear-stricken face, Ye Hang was alarmed and quickly asked, "What’s wrong, Yuan-er? Did father say something wrong?"

Ye Yuan shook his head and said, "I’m fine. I was just feeling touched. I wasn’t sensible in the past and made you worry. In the future, I will definitely become your pride!"

Hearing this, Ye Hang calmed down and was overcome with emotion. "Haha. Silly son. You even learned to become melodramatic. We are father and son. Aren’t you treating me like a stranger by saying that? However, Yuan-er, do you know what made me relieved was not because you obtained some peerless expert’s inheritance, but because you grew up and became sensible! Men should never look back, but to go forward with indomitable will until they break through this world!"

Ye Yuan was visibly moved when he heard that speech. It was rarely seen for someone like Ye Hang in a tiny mortal country to harbor such ambition.

Ye Yuan knew that Ye Hang’s talent was not mediocre. What he lacked were resources.

As long as there were sufficient resources, Ye Hang’s future accomplishments definitely would not be small.

Ye Hang was not more than 40 years old this year. He was still considered young on the road of martial arts, so the probability was still relatively huge.

Ye Yuan gave Ye Hang a bow and said, "This child has learned well. However, Father still has to learn these two sets of cultivation laws. There’s nothing wrong with it. When that expert imparted these things to me, he didn’t say anything about not allowing me to pass it on. So clearly, he left it up to me to decide. Furthermore, I’m not imparting it recklessly. You are my closest kin. I believe that he wouldn’t say much if I pass it on to you."

"This . . . is this really alright?" Ye Hang was still a little hesitant.

"Just think, Father. Would a peerless figure like that possibly make such a low-level mistake? If he didn’t allow me to spread these things, then he would definitely have warned me severely. But he didn’t even mention anything, so he should have left it to my discretion. If he really wanted to find somebody to pass his mantle onto, he most likely wouldn’t cripple me just because of this? At most, I will inform him of this the next time he comes to look for me. If he feels that it’s inappropriate, then let us father and son shoulder it together!"

Ye Yuan said all that with a heroic spirit that soared, dispelling Ye Hang’s misgivings.

"Fine. We, father and son, will shoulder it together!" Ye Yuan also said valiantly.

Although he said this verbally, Ye Hang actually thought otherwise.

If that expert really comes to look for trouble for Yuan-er, then I will just cripple my martial arts as an apology! I can’t allow Yuan-er to shoulder this matter.

Of course, Ye Hang was not aware that the so-called expert did not even exist . . .

. . . . . .

The following days, both Ye Yuan and Ye Hang were in a closed-door seclusion and did not leave.

Ye Hang spent all of his time on comprehending the Thousand Augmenting Soul Incantation, while Ye Yuan was consolidating his cultivation realm.

Before entering a closed-door seclusion, Ye Hang instructed for the Fragrant Medicine Pavilion to continue operating as per usual. Regardless of what the Drunken Star Manor did, they were not to do anything rash. Everything will wait until he exited his closed-door seclusion.

Now that he had the Explosive Yuan Pill, he was not in a hurry to make his move. He would first let Wan Donghai toss and turn around for a while, and then beat him to death with a single blow!

With the Fragrant Medicine Pavilion’s foundation, it was impossible to take down the Fragrant Medicine Pavilion in a short period of time even if Wan Donghai had those Essence Gathering Pills.

Ye Hang wanted to make use of this time to swiftly raise his strength!

In this world where the strong feasts on the weak, strength was the absolute truth.

Ye Hang knew that the Explosive Yuan Pill’s medicinal effects were multiple times of the Essence Qi Pill. But once it was exposed, the impact would not just be multiple times!

Without sufficient strength, this Explosive Yuan Pill would instead become the root of a calamity!

Ye Hang initially placed all of his attention on the Thousand Augmenting Soul Incantation and lacked interest in the Spirit Bristle Nine Yang Divine Art. However, he only knew the terrifying might of this Spirit Bristle Nine Yang Divine Art after cultivating it.

In only three days’ time, his cultivation realm that was stuck for a long time started to loosen. This was also the result of him cultivating the Thousand Augmenting Soul Incantation at the same time.

Borrowing the power of medicinal pills, Ye Hang burst through the hurdle in one move, rising one minor cultivation realm.

Above the Spirit Condensation Realm was the Crystal Formation Realm. In the Crystal Formation Realm, the difficulty of trying to break through a minor realm did not fall below that of training from the First Level Essence Qi Realm to the Ninth Level Essence Qi Realm!

Some people might not even be able to break through a minor realm in five years or maybe even ten years! The difficulty could not even be imagined.

But Ye Hang discovered that ever since he cultivated the Spirit Bristle Nine Yang Divine Art, the essence energy in his Dantian became much thicker. His crystallized essence energy seemed to show signs of liquefying and recondensing!

As for the Thousand Augmenting Soul Incantation, that was the soul incantation which Ye Yuan cultivated in his previous life. The pricelessness of it was naturally without any question.

Similarly, within three days, Ye Hang’s soul strength broke through, and he successfully broke through to become a middle-rank Alchemy Grandmaster.

However, Ye Hang still did not have any intention of exiting his closed-door seclusion. He wanted to continue and concentrate entirely on the Spirit Bristle Nine Yang Divine Art. Only then could he raise his strength.

That was because Ye Hang was not certain what kind of a stir the Explosive Yuan Pill would cause once it surfaced.

. . . . . .

After four days, it was finally the day of the test. Ye Yuan exited seclusion and then headed to the Alchemist Association to gather with everyone.

When Ye Yuan arrived, the great hall of the Alchemist Association was completely fully packed.

He had not seen most of the people before, but he recognized a few of them, such as Feng Ruoqing, and her niece, as well as . . . Wan Yuan.

Wan Yuan indeed came from a family with profound teachings. He was already a middle-rank Alchemy Apprentice long ago. This time around, he should be here to participate in the high-rank Alchemy Apprentice test.

Furthermore, it was said that Wan Yuan’s soul strength was rather robust. It would not be an issue for him to become an Alchemy Master in the future. And because of that, Wan Yuan received a great deal of attention in the Dan Wu Academy.

Currently, Wan Yuan was talking to Feng Zhirou about something, while Feng Zhirou was as cold as ice and gave him the cold shoulder.

Wan Yuan did not feel disgruntled by Feng Zhirou’s action, but instead, had a smile on his face.

However, at this time, Feng Zhirou caught sight of Ye Yuan and suddenly showed an overjoyed expression. She shook off Wan Yuan and rushed over to Ye Yuan.

"Ye Yuan, why did you only arrive now? My aunt and I waited so long for you. We thought you were scared that you couldn’t pass and decided to not come!" Feng Zhirou said intimately.

Ye Yuan knew that Feng Zhirou was doing this to shake off Wan Yuan and could not help looking over at Wan Yuan. As expected, he saw that face which turned the color of a pig’s liver, along with a stare which could kill.

Ye Yuan felt speechless as he saw a crafty look flashed across Feng Zhirou’s eyes.

This lass definitely knew about the horrible relationship between Wan Yuan and me, so she purposely shook aside Wan Yuan to greet me.

This was drawing agro to Ye Yuan. But he and Wan Yuan were already at the stage where one of them had to die, so a little more did not matter.

Ye Yuan had a headache. Why was Feng Zhirou’s personality completely different from the sayings? To think that he even used her last time to annoy Liu Ruoshui.

"What’s the point of coming so early? It hasn’t even begun yet. No need to make a huge fuss over it. It’s just a test." Ye Yuan grumbled.

"Humph! I already heard all about you from Aunt. All the way until now, it’s just empty talk. Who knows where you saw a bunch of crap from some records or books, to actually coax my aunt like this." Feng Zhirou snorted.

Ye Yuan could not be bothered to explain to her, and he directly walked past her to greet Feng Ruoqing.

This scene when reflected in Wan Yuan’s eyes looked more like flirting between couples, making him gnash his teeth in hatred.

Although he liked Liu Ruoshui, Feng Zhirou greatly outclassed her. If he could win the heart of this beauty, would that little Liu Ruoshui even matter?

Feng Zhirou was the goddess of the male students, and that naturally included Wan Yuan as well. It was just that Feng Zhirou’s status and his was too far apart in the past. So there was no opportunity to make contact with her.

Presently, Wan Yuan was an Earth Rank student. Moreover, he was a middle-rank Alchemy Apprentice. He had full confidence in passing the high-rank Alchemy Apprentice test this time.

Wan Yuan believed that before long, he could stand on the same starting line as Feng Zhirou.

With adequate strength, Wan Yuan naturally started having other thoughts.

Wan Yuan did not expect to meet Feng Zhirou during this alchemist test. So he thickened his face and introduced his background. But Feng Zhirou did not even react to it.

Within the State of Qin, a middle-rank Alchemy Master was absolutely a figure that everyone wanted to curry favor with. If that was not the case, why would Liu Ruoshui walk so closely with Wan Yuan?

However, this title did not seem to be very useful with Feng Zhirou. It was like she had never even heard of the name Wan Donghai.

Wan Yuan was stunned for a moment, but he felt relieved after thinking for a moment. The future accomplishments of the top three figures on the Martial Roll of Honor would definitely not be beneath his father’s. Being a little proud was normal.

However, once these thoughts started to stir, it could no longer be suppressed.

When chasing girls, the harder it was, the more it would arouse the fighting spirit of men.

Except that Wan Yuan did not expect to see Ye Yuan here. Furthermore, Ye Yuan actually looked like he was on pretty good terms with Feng Zhirou. Besides, there were those vague rumors about Feng Ruoqing and Ye Yuan, making Wan Yuan’s heart ablaze with the flames of jealousy.

Who was Ye Yuan to even have such deep connections with the two great goddesses of the Dan Wu Academy?

Although Ye Yuan recently rose up fiercely and even made Wan Yuan feel threatened, his scorn for Ye Yuan was deeply ingrained. He instinctively felt that Ye Yuan was not worthy to have all these.

Feng Ruoqing’s eyes lit up when she saw Ye Yuan and pulled him aside to talk to him quietly.

"I’ve pretty much mastered the left hand drawing a circle and right hand drawing a square training that you asked me to do. I didn’t think that it would be quite beneficial for the Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique!"

Feng Ruoqing was always calm and collected, but she was quite agitated right now. If not for the fact that this was not a suitable place, she even wanted to let out a cry of relief.

The truth was, she already had practiced this Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique for a long time. But no matter how much she trained, she could not find a way to learn it.

Now, after training for a few days according to Ye Yuan’s method, her Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique unexpectedly improved by leaps and bounds.

Ye Yuan rolled his eyes at Feng Ruoqing and then said indignantly, "Didn’t you say it was useless back then? Why did you pick it up again?"

Feng Ruoqing’s excitement was abruptly cut, and she gave an embarrassed look. At the same time, she cursed endlessly in her heart, why did this punk not have the slightest bit of tenderness towards women? He actually embarrassed me right in front of my face!

"You didn’t say anything back then. How would I know whether it’s useful or not? You should have at least explained to me why I had to do it!" Feng Ruoqing was somewhat aggrieved.

Looking at Feng Ruoqing’s pitiful appearance, Ye Yuan did not feel it was nice to deride her anymore. "The essence of the Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique is dual-tasking. When you are using the technique, your essence energy was chaotic, and your two hands were not able to coordinate. It would be weirder for you to succeed! I asked you to train drawing so that you could learn how to dual-task. But this is just the initial step. You still need bitter hard work if you want your two hands to control essence energy to the point of Yin Yang harmony."

Feng Ruoqing gave a look of sudden realization. "So that’s the case. No wonder I couldn’t improve no matter how much I trained!"

In all matters, the beginning was the hardest. Although Ye Yuan said that Feng Ruoqing had just taken the initial step, as long as that step was taken, the path in the future would be much smoother.

As an alchemist, Feng Ruoqing’s talent was not bad. What was missing was outlook and experience.

"Alright. I don’t need you to pay any tuition fees. But don’t look for me to be an assistant in the future. I’m very busy." Ye Yuan waved his hands.

Hearing this, Feng Ruoqing felt another wave of bitterness. Other people could not wait to become her assistant, but Ye Yuan avoided her like the plague. Was she really not that attractive?

Women were mysterious creatures. Sometimes, the more you chased her, the more she found you irritating. But after you maintained a distance away from her, she would feel a sense of loss.

These two people whispering to each other naturally drew a lot of attention.

Even though nobody knew what they were talking about, Feng Ruoqing looked like a little wife getting scolded.

The crowd could not help but wonder if there really was something going on between the two of them.

At this time, several red-robed old men walked into the hall from the side door. Two of the old men even brought along a young lady each with them.

Feng Ruoqing was the instructor leading the group for this test. She was swapped in at the last minute.

This was obviously the time for her to step out.

"Haha. Are you well, Miss Feng? You haven’t been to our association for some time. I’m afraid you are probably absorbed in researching alchemy again, are you? If you carry on like this, us old men are going to feel ashamed!"

An old man at the front seemed to be old acquaintances with Feng Ruoqing and started a small talk right away.

At this moment, Feng Ruoqing recovered her demeanor as the beautiful, otherworldly instructor. She smiled lightly as she greeted the group of old men, "Chairman Wang, Chairman Sun, and elders. How do you do? Chairman Wang is pulling my leg, the last time I was here was half a year ago. How was that long? With Ruoqing’s measly cultivation, how would I dare to make Chairman Wang feel ashamed? You are the leading authority in the alchemist world in the State of Qin!"

"Haha. Miss Feng really knows how to talk. But I, Old Wang, am not joking around. The way I see it, the State of Qin would probably have another Alchemy Master in less than three years." Chairman Wang did not seem to be faking it and was actually full of praise for Feng Ruoqing.

Feng Ruoqing smiled faintly and said, "Chairman Wang is too kind. Ruoqing is not worthy."

Chairman Wang laughed loudly. "You are worthy! Worthy! Yii? Isn’t this Honorable Nephew Wan Yuan? I didn’t think that you would also come to take part in the test this time. Taking the high-rank Alchemy Apprentice test?"

Instantly, all eyes turned to Wan Yuan. Clearly, they did not expect Wan Yuan to know the deputy chairman of the Alchemist Association.

Wan Yuan looked gloatingly at Ye Yuan and went up to greet them. He then said, "Have you been well, Chairman Wang? This Little Nephew is here to take part in the high-rank Alchemy Apprentice test."

"Good. Good. Honorable Nephew really has profound family teachings to already have the strength of a high-rank Alchemy Apprentice at such a young age. Old Brother Wan has a worthy successor! Each new generation really excels the old one. I’m really old already."

Chairman Wang ridiculed himself slightly.

"Chairman Wang is still in your prime. Why would you say that you are old? All the elders here are our State of Qin’s alchemists, people who are supporting the cauldron. Chairman Wang and Chairman Sun are even the leading figures. We juniors still have a long way to go." Wan Yuan’s flattering was so resounding that he threw everyone in.

"Haha. I’m old, old already. Can’t compare to back then. Miss Feng, Old Sun and I brought along two juniors today. Do you mind us cutting your queue here?" Chairman Wang turned to Feng Ruoqing.

Feng Ruoqing nodded slightly and said, "To let them witness your two accomplished disciples’ power and know that there is always someone better is undoubtedly a good thing."

"Don’t say that! This is my last disciple, Xu Feng-er. The one beside Old Sun is my granddaughter and also his proud successor, Sun Keyun. These two juniors are good-for-nothings, so don’t laugh later, Miss Feng. The two of you, why haven’t you come to greet Teacher Feng? She’s only a few years older than you, but she is already a middle-rank Alchemy Master. You two have to learn more from her."

Even though Chairman Wang belittled the two young ladies, he could not hide the satisfaction in his eyes.

It looked like were it not for these two young ladies, with Chairman Wang’s and Chairman Sun’s status as Alchemy Grandmasters, they would not have personally came to host the test.

"Feng-er (Keyun) has seen Teacher Feng." The two ladies gave Feng Ruoqing a bow, their eyes filled with worship.

To become a middle-rank Alchemy Master at this age was absolutely a target worth prostrating to for all young people.

Ye Yuan silently sized up these two lasses. Their soul strength was indeed mighty. It looked like it should not be an issue for them to become Alchemy Masters after stepping into the Spirit Condensation Realm.

"Alright. Everyone is an outstanding student of the Dan Wu Academy. Some of you have already participated in this test several times before so I won’t go through the rules too much. The first test that takes place will be the Alchemy Apprentice test, followed by the Alchemy Master test. Each group will have five people entering the refinement room. Now, those participating in the Alchemy Apprentice test stand on the left. Those taking the Alchemy Master test stand on the right." Chairman Wang organized them into groups.

There were only twenty people from the Dan Wu Academy participating in the test this time. Including Xu Feng-er and Sun Keyun, there were only twenty-two people. The majority of them came to participate in the Alchemy Apprentice test, and only two of them are taking the Alchemy Master test. One of them was Feng Zhirou, while the other was one rank below Feng Zhirou on the Alchemy Roll of Honor, Cao Yu.

After Chairman Wang said this, a large group moved to the left, while Feng Zhirou and Cao Yu stood to the right; leaving Ye Yuan standing in his original position and not moving.

Seeing this, Chairman Wang frowned and was slightly displeased. "This Young Friend, didn’t you hear what I said?"

Everyone looked at Ye Yuan in amazement, while Wan Yuan had a gloating face. This punk was indeed still an eccentric. Was it not courting death to behave like that in front of a top figure like Chairman Wang?

Seeing that Ye Yuan still did not move, Feng Ruoqing became anxious and called out, "What are you still standing there for, Ye Yuan? Quickly move to the left!"

"Uh . . . Actually, I want to ask if I can stand on the right side," Ye Yuan said a little helplessly.

He did not want to be unconventional, but since he promised Feng Ruoqing to go all out, Ye Yuan did not plan on concealing his strength.

When he promised Feng Ruoqing, Ye Yuan thought about it a little.

In the future, with the increase in strength, he would not be able to avoid this hurdle called Alchemist Association. If his Alchemy Dao was extraordinarily strong, but he did not take part in the alchemist tests all the way, then he would genuinely be a maverick.

If at that time, it spreads to the ears of that traitor or the Alchemist Association’s Headquarters, then it would not be fun. It would be very easy to arouse their suspicion.

"Hahaha . . ." There was an uproar of laughter.

"A Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm wants to participate in the Alchemy Master test? Are you joking or are you making fun of both Chairman Wang and Chairman Sun?" Wan Yuan berated out loud, but he actually had the sinister intentions of making the two chairmen get a terrible impression of Ye Yuan.

As expected, when the two of then heard what Wan Yuan said, their faces turned ugly.

"This Young Friend, didn’t you hear clearly? The right side is for those taking the Alchemy Master test!" Chairman Wang’s face fell, and his words became less courteous. It was clear that he was unhappy.

"Ye Yuan! Why haven’t you apologized to the two chairmen? This is the Alchemist Association! You can’t act wildly here!" Feng Ruoqing repeatedly signaled with her eyes at Ye Yuan worriedly. Offending the two big heads of the Alchemist Association at the same time was no laughing matter.

The Alchemist Association had always been an aloof existence. Even the Imperial family could not command them. Nobody had dared to make fun of the Alchemist Association’s chairmen before.

But now, Ye Yuan set a new precedent! Of course, this was how the others saw it.

However, Ye Yuan did not seem to see it like that. Instead, he smiled and then said to Chairman Wang, "This Junior has heard clearly, and I want to stand on the right side. I want to participate in the Alchemy Master test."

"You, a Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm, wants to join the Alchemy Master test?" Chairman Wang indeed became angry.

"That’s right." Ye Yuan remained fearless.

"Whose family’s brat are you?! To actually be so impertinent! Did you come here today to beguile us elders?!" Chairman Wang was already on the edge of exploding. If it was not for the sake of Feng Ruoqing’s face, he would have thrown Ye Yuan out long ago.

At this time, Wan Yuan came forward very naturally to follow up. "Please calm down, Chairman Wang. This person has always been arrogant, and he never respects his elders. But speaking of his family, I believe Chairman Wang also knows his father."

"Oh? Do say, Honorable Nephew. Who is his father?" Chairman Wang asked curiously.

"His father is Ye Hang, the owner of the Fragrant Medicine Pavilion," Wan Yuan replied respectfully.

Hearing that, Chairman Wang frowned and said, "He is actually Old Brother Ye’s son? Old Brother Ye is a tiger father, how could he possibly beget such a shallow and frivolous son?"

Ye Yuan was around the same age as Wan Yuan but was only at the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm. Clearly, he was someone who made no effort to seek progress.

If he was only at the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm, then forget it. But he actually did not know what was good for him and wanted to participate in the Alchemy Master test. Did he think that Alchemy Masters were like cabbages?

He had gradually advanced along the Alchemy Path for so many years now, but he had never heard of any Ninth Level Essence Qi Realm becoming an Alchemy Master, let alone a Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm.

God knew how many Spirit Condensation Realms were stopped outside the gate of Alchemy Master, yet a Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm shamelessly boasted that he wanted to participate in the Alchemy Master test. If this was not causing trouble on purpose, then what was?

"I’m not bored enough to be here and entertain you. I just feel that taking the test one rank at a time wastes too much time, so it’s better to just take the Alchemy Master test directly." Ye Yuan’s words shocked everyone greatly.

"Humph! Taking into account that you are Ye Hang’s son, I will overlook this sin of disrespect, but I think you can forget about this test. Miss Feng, it’s not that this old man isn’t giving you any face, but this brat is too mischievous. Men, throw this person out for me!" Chairman Wang finally lost his temper.

Wan Yuan was bursting with joy right now and thought to himself that the evil that people brought on themselves were the hardest to bear.

"Hold on!" at that moment, Feng Ruoqing finally called out to stop this.

"Hold on!" Feng Ruoqing went forward without any hesitation.

Feng Ruoqing’s action sparked a wave of murmuring among the students. It seemed like the relationship between these two was becoming more apparent.

"Please calm down, Chairman. May I speak with him?" Even though Feng Ruoqing was an instructor in the Dan Wu Academy, her qualifications were still somewhat lacking in the Alchemist Association’s territory.

Chairman Wang pondered for a moment before nodding his head.

Feng Ruoqing looked at Ye Yuan with complicated eyes, trying to see if whether he really had a plan or he was messing around. But after staring for a long time, she could not see anything.

"Let me ask you, Ye Yuan. Is our agreement earlier still valid?" Feng Ruoqing asked in a low voice.

It was just that this question seemed a little ambiguous, so apart from Feng Zhirou who knew the details, everyone’s imaginations ran wild.

Ye Yuan replied somewhat helplessly, "If it wasn’t for keeping our agreement, do you think that I enjoy being looked on by them like I’m a freak?"

Hearing Ye Yuan say this, Feng Ruoqing’s state of mind somehow became relaxed.

Other people did not know Ye Yuan’s Alchemy Dao prowess, but Feng Ruoqing was very clear on it.

To be able to casually instruct her, a middle-rank Alchemy Master, what Ye Yuan was lacking was most likely just cultivation realm.

Feng Ruoqing had the feeling that what she saw was only a tip of the iceberg of Ye Yuan’s abilities.

Just what kind of a freak was this fellow? He was only fifteen years old!

"You mean . . . you are confident?"

Even though she had confidence in Ye Yuan, what Ye Yuan was about to do was too subversive of common sense. So she had to confirm again.

"Uh. That I’m not too sure," Ye Yuan replied very irresponsibly.

Seeing that Feng Ruoqing was about to storm off, Ye Yuan immediately followed up and said, "Will simply refining any kind of Tier 2 medicinal pill work?"

"That’s right. As long can you can refine any kind of Tier 2 medicinal pill within four hours, it counts as passing the low-rank Alchemy Master test!"

"I see. If that’s the case, then it shouldn’t be an issue," Ye Yuan said nonchalantly as if refining a Tier 2 medicinal pill was as simple as drinking water and eating rice.

"Since that’s the case, I hope you don’t disappoint me!"

After Feng Ruoqing finished, she pulled out a bottle of medicinal pills from inside her sleeves, and then said to Chairman Wang, "Chairman, I have three Soul Nourishing Pills that I will place here as collateral for Ye Yuan. If Ye Yuan is really here to cause trouble, then these three Soul Nourishing Pills will be an apology to the association."

When these words were said, shock could be seen on everyone’s faces.

The Soul Nourishing Pill was a genuine Tier 3 medicinal pill. Furthermore, it was a highly sought and precious Tier 3 medicinal pill!

That was because the effects of the Soul Nourishing Pill was to strengthen a martial artist’s divine soul. It was able to make a martial artist’s soul more powerful!

This type of medicinal pill was something that alchemists dreamed about.

Chairman Wang was also astonished. He did not expect Feng Ruoqing to pull out such a precious item for Ye Yuan.

As one of the major heads of the Alchemist Association, he knew Feng Ruoqing’s true identity. That was why he was so courteous to her.

If someone else were leading the team today, then with his status, he would not be bothered to talk so much crap with them.

"Miss Feng really wants to take out such a precious item for an ignorant brat?" Chairman Wang asked disbelievingly.

"Ruoqing knows that Ye Yuan’s actions are unconventional, but I believe that he has the ability! Just because we have never seen something before, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. Things that we can’t do doesn’t mean that others can’t do it as well!" Feng Ruoqing said firmly.

"Fine. Since Miss Feng insists on it, then this old man won’t be the bad guy today. But Miss Feng needs to know that I only agreed for your sake. If it were another person, I wouldn’t accompany her to mess around even if she took out this Soul Nourishing Pill," Chairman Wang said seriously.

"Thank you, Chairman Wang!" Feng Ruoqing bowed slightly to express thanks.

She knew that Chairman Wang was not lying. Even though the Soul Nourishing Pill was precious, this kind of medicinal pills was not overly scarce with the Alchemist Association’s might.

The main reason why he agreed was still taking into account that she was the Head Imperial Princess.

"Since Miss Feng is so insistent, then Ye Yuan, stand on the right. But this old man will say some nasty words first. If you are really making fun of old me, I can forsake these pills, but you will pay for this! Otherwise, if this matter spreads, people will think that my Alchemist Association has become a place for children to mess around!"

Chairman Wang’s did not speak quickly, but each word was loud and clear. It was evident that he made up his mind to give Ye Yuan a good one.

Ye Yuan could not be bothered with him and went to stand beside Feng Zhirou.

"Hey! Did you make a mistake? Don’t harm my aunt! How can you, a Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm, possibly refine a Tier 2 medicinal pill?" Feng Zhirou said indignantly.

Ye Yuan glanced at Feng Zhirou and then retracted his eyes. He said indifferently, "You better take care of yourself. I think you are going to fail this time. Why is the academy’s Alchemy Roll of Honor so weak?"

"You!" Feng Zhirou did not expect Ye Yuan to rebuke her and was so infuriated that she was speechless.

On the other side, Wan Yuan gnashed his teeth as he looked at Ye Yuan hatefully.

Why? Why did Teacher Feng take out such a valuable thing for him? Just what capabilities does he, Ye Yuan, have? Just wait and see. Right now, you are unbelievably arrogant. In a while, I will see just how you intend to wind up. Wan Yuan was yelling in his heart.

. . . . . .

Individual pill refinement rooms were used for this test. There were a total of ten pill refinement rooms. Five refinement rooms in a row at the east side, and another five at the west side. At the center was a great hall, and at the north of the hall was a light screen. The examiner could see everything happening in the refinement room through this light screen. At the south of the hall was a herbal warehouse.

Alchemy involved many things such as controlling fire, medicinal theory, array formations, and etc. But in the end, it was all for refining the medicinal pill.

No matter how strong in one aspect a person was, if they could not refine out a medicinal pill, then it was useless. There would not be any recognition.

Hence, the Alchemist Association’s tests had always taken a completed medicinal pill’s grade as the benchmark.

Whatever pill one could refine meant that they belonged to that alchemist rank. This was the most straightforward way, as well as the most persuasive.

Four hours were neither too long nor too short. It required the success rate of refining a medicinal pill to not be too low. This also reduced the likelihood of the alchemist being lucky.

In this place, everything was decided by strength!

"The test officially begins now. Examinees can start choosing the herbs. The first two groups of students, make your way into the herbal warehouse."

The host of the test changed to a middle-aged Alchemy Master. Under his instructions, the first two groups of students went into the herbal warehouse to choose their herbs.

Selection of herbs being included in the four hours was actually also a form of test for the students.

It was a basic skill for an alchemist to find the required herbs in the shortest amount of time, in order to save time for the preparation of the herbs and refinement process later.

As a matter of fact, one could tell the strength of the students from this herbs selection stage.

The faster and more accurate a person was when choosing the herbs meant that they had a more skillful understanding of medicinal theory. It also meant that they had a better grasp on the attributes of the various herbs when refining. The success rate of refinement would naturally also rise significantly.

Feng Ruoqing’s gaze involuntarily looked towards Ye Yuan, and she thought to herself that with Ye Yuan’s extreme understanding towards herbs, he only needed to spend a short while inside the herbal warehouse.

When she was refining the Qi Returning Pill, he could actually use his hands to flawlessly grab and prepare various herbs. It was truly heaven-defying!

He was clearly only fifteen years old. Even if he started training alchemy in his mother’s womb, how was it possible to reach such a level?

Thinking up to this point, Feng Ruoqing gained a little more confidence in Ye Yuan.

Perhaps Ye Yuan could really create a miracle?

In the first two group, the main focus was naturally Xu Feng-er and Sun Keyun.

Reality had proven that these two people truly could best the Dan Wu Academy’s students.

When the two of them walked out of the herbal warehouse, everyone else was still looking for herbs.

As for Xu Feng-er and Sun Keyun, the two of them were pretty much neck-to-neck and exited the herbal warehouse together.

Watching Xu Feng-er and Sun Keyun standing out like cranes among chickens, both Elder Wang and Elder Sun felt a pleasant warmth on their faces. Especially Elder Wang who was vexed by Ye Yuan earlier. Right now, he felt his mood turn for the better.

Elder Wang was named Wang Jinfu, and Elder Sun was Sun Jianming. The two of them were veterans in the Alchemist Association and also highly respected Alchemy Grandmasters who were second to none in the State of Qin.

Both of them were the Alchemist Association’ deputy chairmen, but they were secretly competing by bringing their disciples to take part in this test this time around.

"Oh Old Sun. I didn’t think that Keyun this lass would improve so quickly. I’m afraid you expended no little effort on her!" Wang Jinfu said as he stroked his beard.

"Haha. Your family’s Feng-er isn’t bad either. I remember that you only took her in as your last disciple the previous year. I didn’t think that she was going to become a high-rank Alchemy Apprentice this quickly."

"That’s right. Feng-er this lass is quite intelligent. Just a little bit, and she would understand. She is a good seedling. During this herb selection stage, it counts as a draw between the two of them. But this is just the appetizer. The key point is still the refinement."

Sun Jianming nodded in approval.

It was apparent that between these two old men, Wang Jianfu was more talkative, while Sun Jianming was taciturn.

After Xu Feng-er and Sun Keyun entered the refinement room, they immediately started preparing the herbs.

During the preparation stage, their actions were very swift and proficient. One could see that the two of them were frequently assisting the two old fogeys outside.

However, these basic skills were normally not visible. The effects would only show itself when it really came down to it.

Aside from some students who had greater emphasis placed on them, the Dan Wu Academy’s students rarely had the opportunity to do miscellaneous tasks for the instructors. Thus, they obviously could not be compared to how fast Xu Feng-er and Sun Keyun were.

Furthermore, Wang Jianfu and Sun Jianming were Alchemy Grandmasters. With them teaching step-by-step along the way, it would be impossible for these two girls not to stand above the rest.

The Dan Wu Academy students were worse off once again during this segment.

What amazed everyone was that the two of them progressed in a synchronized manner without any clear distinction between them. It was like Xu Feng-er and Sun Keyun discussed it beforehand.

From selecting the herbs to finishing the preparation of the herbs, these two girls took around an hour. One could see just how solid their fundamental skills were.

Each student had three chances in the Alchemist Association’s test. So everyone would prepare three sets of herbs.

Xu Feng-er and Sun Keyun finished preparing their herbs and started on their first refinement.

In the hall, Feng Zhirou watched the light screen in utter boredom. She was already a high-rank Alchemy Apprentice since long ago, so she obviously lacked interest in watching this kind of matches again.

"Hey, Ye Yuan. Who do you think will win between those two girls?" Feng Zhirou moved over to Ye Yuan’s side and started talking with voice transmission.

In this hall, no matter how quiet she was, those two old men would definitely hear it with their strength.

"Sun Keyun," Ye Yuan similarly replied using voice transmission without even thinking about it.

"Eh? You already knew it? Why?" Feng Zhirou was surprised.

Feng Zhirou did not doubt Ye Yuan’s words. She knew that Ye Yuan was really amazing. Feng Ruoqing’s eyes were always at the top of her head. A youth that was so highly regarded by her aunt was absolutely no ordinary man.

It was just that no matter how amazing she felt Ye Yuan was, she did not think that he could pass through the Alchemy Master test with his Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm.

"Because Chairman Sun is a notch above," Ye Yuan replied nonchalantly.

"Chairman Sun? What has it got to do with Chairman Sun?" Feng Zhirou was confused by Ye Yuan.

"Chairman Sun is a man of few words and is more infatuated with Alchemy Dao. His abilities should be a notch above Chairman Wang’s. Chairman Sun is pragmatic, so he is logically more strict when teaching apprentices. Sun Keyun inherited her predecessor’s style, so she is obviously a cut above."

"No way. Just because of this?"

Ye Yuan rolled his eyes at Feng Zhirou. "When they were choosing the herbs, the two of them seemed to be on par. But Sun Keyun was actually slightly faster than Xu Feng-er."

Feng Zhirou was dumbfounded. "How did you tell?"

"Xu Feng-er is refining the Fierce Tiger Pill, while Sun Keyun is refining the Profound Clarity Pill. The Profound Clarity Pill has one more secondary ingredient than the Fierce Tiger Pill, but the two of them finished at the same time. The winner and the loser are clear at a glance."

Ye Yuan’s words left Feng Zhirou wide-mouthed for a moment. "Y-you aren’t talking rubbish, are you? You can tell what kind of pill they are refining just from the light screen?

Ye Yuan gave a faint smile. "Won’t you know whether I’m talking rubbish or not after they finish refining?"

"Fine then. I want to see if you are the real thing! If I find out that you were talking crap, no need for Chairman Wang to take action. I will throw you out first!" Feng Zhirou threatened him.

"Whatever!" Ye Yuan said indifferently.

"Tch. Talked until it sounds so incredible. The final result of the test still lies on the refined medicinal pill. Even if they really refined the Fierce Tiger Pill and the Profound Clarity Pill, it still wouldn’t be easy to determine the winner between these two pills, right?" After a short while, Feng Zhirou found it boring and transmitted her voice over again.

"No, the winner has already been decided."

"Acting! Carry on acting! I don’t believe that you can tell which one of them won from the light screen! Both of their herbs are only half-way refined and haven’t condensed into a pill yet!" Feng Zhirou was triggered by Ye Yuan’s posturing attitude and felt even more strongly that Ye Yuan was talking nonsense.

"Sun Keyun’s refinement went smoothly. Without any accident, it should be a high-grade medicinal pill. But Xu Feng-er made a small mistake at the start of the refinement, Even though she corrected it right away, it definitely affected the quality of the Fierce Tiger Pill. At best, it can barely reach the high-grade standard. If later on she made another mistake, it wouldn’t be surprising for it to become a middle-grade medicinal pill." Ye Yuan continued to analyze calmly.

"Did Xu Feng-er make a mistake? Why didn’t I see it?"

"Your level is too low, so you can’t see it."

"Ye Yuan! You!" If not for the fact that this was not the right place, Feng Zhirou would definitely stab him with her sword again.

. . . . . .

Xu Feng-er and Sun Keyun finished refining virtually at the same time. Furthermore, they succeeded with one try and only used an hour.

Among these two groups of students, they thoroughly deserved to be kings. It was already without any doubt that they passed the high-rank Alchemy Apprentice test.

What was left was seeing the quality of the medicinal pill that the two of them refined to determine who was better.

The two of them carried the medicinal pill that they refined and walked to the hall. Bowing towards the two old men, they said respectfully, "Master (Grandfather), please inspect."

But Wang Jinfu laughed and turned to Feng Ruoqing instead. "It naturally isn’t nice for us to talk about our family. Can Miss Feng come and help us judge?"

Feng Ruoqing smiled lightly and said, "It’s better to accept than to stand on ceremony."

Feng Ruoqing took the medicinal pill on Xu Feng-er’s tray and inspected closely. "A high-grade Tier 1 medicinal pill, the Fierce Tiger pill. It was completed outstandingly and has reached the standard of high-grade."

Finishing, Feng Ruoqing did the same with Sun Keyun’s medicinal pill, and said, "A high-grade Tier 1 medicinal pill, the Profound Clarity Pill. Similarly finished splendidly. The grade of the medicinal pill has also reached the standard of high-grade."

At a corner, Feng Zhirou’s jaw dropped and looked at Ye Yuan as if she saw a ghost . . .