Jin Huang, who was once regarded as an imposter, was now revered as something akin to a god. The uproar continued for several breaths before the Herb Sage finally slammed his palm against the armrest of his chair.
"Silence!"
His voice was not particularly loud, yet it carried across the entire area with the weight of a mountain. The countless voices gradually died down. However, the shock remained.
Everyone's gaze was fixed upon Jin Huang.
Old Man Duotian.
That name had not merely belonged to some ancient alchemist. He had been a legend whose existence had transcended the boundaries of the Alchemy Dao itself. There were countless stories about him.
Some said that Old Man Duotian had once refined a pill capable of restoring a shattered cultivation foundation. Others claimed that he had created a pill which could allow a mortal to comprehend the laws of heaven and earth in a single night.
There were even rumors that his alchemy had reached a realm where pills no longer required medicinal ingredients.
Naturally, most people regarded those tales as absurd exaggerations. But now, a supposed disciple of Old Man Duotian was standing before them. And that disciple was displaying an alchemy skill that even the senior alchemists found difficult to comprehend.
Yuan Zhi's fists tightened beneath his sleeves.
Old Man Duotian... Even he had heard of that name.
If Jin Huang truly was the man's disciple, then everything could be explained. His understanding of medicinal principles, his terrifyingly accurate and easygoing control over mana, and even his ability to recognize the foundations of the Spring Nurturing Pill could all be attributed to that ancient inheritance.
But if that was the truth, then what did that make Yuan Zhi, the so-called 'inventor' of the Spring Nurturing Pill?
How could he possibly prove that he was not a thief who had merely stumbled upon a fraction of Old Man Duotian's teachings?
"No." Yuan Zhi shook his head inwardly. "Impossible. This brat must be lying."
Yet the more he watched Jin Huang, the more difficult that conviction became to maintain.
At that moment, a sharp chime rang through the arena. The time allotted for the first round was nearly over.
Several contestants immediately accelerated their movements. The flames beneath their furnaces surged as they hurriedly attempted to complete their pills. A few grew flustered and accidentally caused their furnaces to tremble. One of them even spat out a mouthful of blood after the medicinal energies within his furnace violently collided.
Jin Huang glanced toward them, then shook his head. "Impatience is for fools."
His voice was not loud, but the nearby contestants heard him clearly.
Mo Kuang, who was currently using Jin Huang's more refined method of violence alchemy, wiped the sweat from his forehead. "You say that as though you aren't wasting time talking to everyone."
"This Esteemed One is not wasting time," Jin Huang replied. "This Esteemed One is educating the ignorant."
Mo Kuang's eyelid twitched. "Then educate your own furnace first."
Jin Huang looked down. His furnace had been completely silent for some time. No flames roared from beneath it, and no violent fluctuations of medicinal power came from within.
To the spectators, it appeared as though he had already finished. But Jin Huang knew that the most important portion had yet to begin.
The Spring Nurturing Pill was not difficult to refine if one only sought a common result. Its ingredients were gentle, and its medicinal properties were stable. However, producing a higher grade of Spring Nurturing Pill required an alchemist to draw out the hidden vitality within every ingredient, combining those forces without allowing any of them to overwhelm the others.
It was a delicate balance. A single mistake could cause the pill to lose most of its vitality. Two mistakes would cause its medicinal properties to collapse.
And if the alchemist wanted to produce a divine pill halo, then perfection was not enough. The pill had to possess a degree of harmony that approached the dao itself.
Jin Huang placed both hands around the furnace. His expression, which had previously been playful and careless, gradually became tranquil.
The entire arena seemed to quiet down with him. Even the people who had been whispering about Old Man Duotian noticed the change. The young man before them no longer looked like a shameless fraud or a second-rate alchemist pretending to be profound.
He looked like someone who had complete control over everything.
Jin Huang's fingers tapped gently against the furnace three times, each tap causing a minute fluctuation to spread through the metal. The medicinal essences inside the furnace reacted in sequence, one after another, as if answering a call.
The fragrance of a forest suddenly filled the arena. It was faint at first, almost impossible to notice, then it grew stronger.
A warm breeze brushed across everyone's faces. The scent carried the freshness of newly sprouted grass, the sweetness of flowers blooming after winter, and the gentle vitality of a world returning to life.
Several alchemists immediately stopped what they were doing, their eyes widening.
"The medicinal essence is resonating."
"No, that's impossible. The furnace hasn't even been opened!"
"It's not just resonating with the furnace... It's resonating with the surrounding mana."
The Herb Sage stood fully upright. His cloudy eyes were no longer cloudy. The old man stared at Jin Huang's furnace with an intensity that made the people near him uneasy.
"Is he really going to...?" Yuan Zhi's heart sank.
"No." He stepped forward without realizing it. "Open the furnace now!"
Jin Huang raised his gaze. "Why?"
"You've already finished refining the pills. Open the furnace and let everyone inspect them!" Yuan Zhi's voice contained a trace of urgency that he could not conceal.
Jin Huang tilted his head. "What's the hurry? Are you afraid that this Esteemed One will refine better pills than you?"
"You—!"
A burst of laughter came from the surrounding contestants. Even Mo Kuang snorted.
Yuan Zhi's face darkened. "Stop playing around!"
Jin Huang ignored him, instead placing his palm atop the furnace and gently pressing down.
The flames beneath the furnace suddenly vanished. The furnace remained suspended over the empty furnace platform, surrounded by a thin layer of golden light.
Ximen Ming's expression changed. That golden light was not a result of mana. It was something far more ethereal. Something that, he was beginning to realize, came directly from Jin Huang himself.
A trembling spread through the arena as Jin Huang slowly extended his other hand and drew a circle in the air. The golden light surrounding the furnace began to rotate. Within the furnace, the pills slowly turned.
They rotated at a steady pace, releasing a clear and harmonious medicinal rhythm.
Jin Huang's eyes narrowed. "The Spring Nurturing Pill relies on the harmony of nature, and its ease of access to endless mana," he murmured. "By taking this pill, one will be brought closer to nature, until mana itself sees you as a fundamental part of it."
"Thus, the mana will become just as easily accessible to you, giving the illusion of it rushing into the body and catalyzing the growth of additional spirit springs."
At those words, the countless living beings within the arena felt their hearts beat in unison. Even the plants decorating the walls began to sway despite the absence of wind.
Ao Yueyan stared at Jin Huang in a daze. This was no longer merely the refinement of a pill. He was imparting meaning into the medicinal energy.
He was giving the Spring Nurturing Pill something in addition to mere creation.
Jin Huang slowly closed his fingers. "Open."
The lid of the furnace flew into the air. In the next instant, a pillar of dazzling light shot into the heavens.
It was so bright that the entire arena was bathed in white-gold radiance. The sky above the Alchemy Pavilion seemed to split apart as the pillar pierced through the clouds and continued upward.
The formation protecting the venue trembled violently.
The contestants all froze. Several senior alchemists stood up in disbelief. The Herb Sage's body trembled as his eyes locked onto the open furnace. Yuan Zhi was forced to take multiple steps forward, each time trying to convince himself that he was dreaming.
Inside, three emerald-green pills hovered quietly above the waves of heat coming from the bottom of the furnace.
Each pill was perfectly round and flawless. Their surfaces were smooth enough to reflect the surrounding light, and countless tiny golden lines slowly flowed across them like living veins.
Around each pill was a faint, luminous ring. A halo. Three divine pill halos.
The arena fell into absolute silence.
Jin Huang waved his sleeve, and the pillar of light slowly receded, sinking back into the three pills. Once it vanished, the sky above the venue returned to normal, but the three pills remained suspended above the furnace and continued to glow.
Ao Yueyan's lips parted, but no words came out. Mo Kuang stared blankly for several seconds before turning toward Jin Huang.
"You... refined three supreme-grade Spring Nurturing Pills?"
Jin Huang frowned. "Why are you saying it like it's hard to believe?"
Mo Kuang's face twitched. "Those are practically three divine pills! Coming from a single attempt- one singular furnace!"
"That's right." Jin Huang smirked.
Mo Kuang clenched his fists. He suddenly felt that following Jin Huang's instructions had been a mistake. Not because the method was wrong.
It was because the gap between them was too enormous.
He had believed that he was beginning to understand Jin Huang's approach to alchemy after listening to his advice, but after seeing this scene, he realized that he had been a fool from the start. Jin Huang's advice wasn't a window into his own personal methods.
He had branched off into an entirely different world of alchemy, just to offer Mo Kuang genuine, helpful advice.
The Herb Sage descended from his platform. His movements were so swift that several people failed to notice him until he had already arrived beside Jin Huang's workstation.
He stared at the three pills for a long time, then he reached out, his hand trembling slightly, and carefully picked up the first one.
The moment his fingers touched it, a warm current surged into his body.
The medicinal energy entered his channels without resistance. It did not merely nourish his vitality, but gently washed away impurities, restored exhausted blood essence, and strengthened the foundation of his physical body.
The Herb Sage's pupils contracted. The old man's breathing grew heavy. A strange sensation spread through his body. "This is..."
For an instant, he felt as though he had returned to his youth. His thoughts became clear, his blood surged powerfully, and even the exhaustion accumulated over countless years seemed to recede.
He looked at the three pills as though they were priceless treasures. "Calling these mere Spring Nurturing Pills is a disservice to them."
Jin Huang smiled. "This Esteemed One improved upon the formula slightly."
"Improved it?!" Yuan Zhi raised his head, the veins on his forehead bulging. "You altered my Spring Nurturing Pill formula?"
Jin Huang shrugged. "It was too simple as it was."
The surrounding alchemists nearly lost their balance.
Too simple?
That was a pill formula created by Yuan Zhi, a legendary alchemist whose name had spread throughout the world. Countless alchemists had spent years studying it, trying to catch a glimpse at the formula behind it.
Yet Jin Huang said that it was too simple.
Yuan Zhi felt as though he had been struck by lightning. He stared at the three pills, his face pale and his eyes bloodshot. He had devoted decades to creating the Spring Nurturing Pill.
He had calculated every herb, tested every ratio, and personally endured countless failures. But Jin Huang had refined a better version in a single attempt.
No. It was more than that. Jin Huang had refined three supreme-grade pills while instructing half the contestants, mocking him, and casually answering Ao Yueyan's questions.
Yuan Zhi's breathing became ragged. "This is fake," he muttered.
No one responded. His voice grew louder.
"This is fake! It is a fiction! How can three divine pill halos appear in one furnace? He must have tampered with the ingredients!"