Page 87: Explosion

"Ohh! I did it! I did it! A high quality lesser blood rejuvenating pill! Oh yeah!"

While he was celebrating his success, the audience were checking at the pill's appearance. The pill that was clamped between the index finger and the thumb was glowing with bright white halo around it. It was definitely a grade 3- high quality lesser blood rejuvenating pill. Tan Zhong who was already done didn't care about the other contestants. It was his first time producing a high grade 3 pill in his entire life. He was in high spirits as he flashed his finished product to the audience.

After some few minutes, he settled and contained his one and only high grade pill in a pill bottle. When he noticed the awkward atmosphere in the arena, he returned back to his usual composed self and walked towards the judges.

"Elders, this is the best pill that I have refined so far. Please check carefully."

Tan Zhong handed it carefully like he was treating it like a fragile baby. The 1st elder took the pill bottle and examined it himself. After sniffing and checking the surface, he passed it into the next person. After the five elders were done with their sniffing and other kinds of checking, they left the pill bottle in front of the sect leader for the announcement later. Tan Zhong on the other hand was asked to join his family's chairs and wait for the remaining participants to finish their work.

At a certain spot of the bleachers, Tan Zhong's group or should be said the merchant union representatives were already congratulating him. Although the test was still on going, to refine a high quality of grade 3 pill was already considered a success adding that he finished first. If someone would present a pill with the same grade and quality from the other contestants, surely Tan Zhong would still take the upper hand.

Back on the arena, Zhang Li has been pushing her limits with the last process of the pill refining. The pill furnace can be seen shaking from the unstable state she's in. A few seconds later, everyone heard two small clunks coming from her furnace. Everyone's reaction was to be surprised. If there are two clunk sounds, this mean that she was able to refine two pills.

Everyone's eyes were waiting for Zhang Li to take out the pills in her furnace. If the quality of the two pills were of high grade, then this could mean that she would hold the higher rank however, if not, having two pills with lower quality would still be inferior than the first. Just like the famous line, the world of alchemy would adhere "Quality over Quantity".

Zhang Li took out the two pills from the furnace and immediately placed it inside the pill bottle on her left hand. It was too fast that the people who were trying to determine its quality wasn't even able to take a glimpse of it. Although they haven't seen it, Zhang Li was well aware that the pill she refined was just a mid grade quality.

As she walked towards the elders to present her pills, she tried to hide the exhaustion under her eyes. The 1st elder took the pill bottle and went with the assessment. After all the elders did theirs, the pill bottle lastly rested beside Tan Zhong's pill bottle at the sect leader's table. The audience were waiting for any reactions from the elder but were only disappointed that such thing didn't happen. Now, instead of mulling something that would be announced later anyway, the audience reverted their attention back to the remaining participants.

Many if the audience have their attention to Yusheng since he was expected to be the best among his peers. On the stage, Yusheng was sweating profusely. The difficulty he's experiencing can be seen with his actions getting slower and clumsy. Aside from that, he seemed to be in a hurry now that there's only two of them on the stage. To finish last would definitely be a disadvantage since there are points allotted to faster refining. He can't also accept that he's having the same pace with a junior alchemists despite him being a senior in the field.

Long Bai on the other hand was trying to match up with Yusheng. With the current pressure Yusheng was in, he can guess that sooner or later, Yusheng would likely lose his concentration.

From the elder council's place, they noticed that Long Bai was almost done. Yusheng saw it too which made him to become more desperate. Like how they behaved from the previous participants, they waited to hear the clunks made by the finished product.

After some couple of minutes, Long Bai received the last notice from the system.

[System Notice: Refining of the Blood beast enhancing pill done. Eight pills were created.]

BOOM!

Together with the system's notice, an explosion occured at the same time. The audience were shocked by the loud explosion that occured on the stage. With the sound of explosion and the screams coming from the audience, they were not able to hear the sound of pills hitting the walls of Bai's furnace. Even the elders, together with the sect leader failed to hear the sound coming from Long Bai's furnace.

Now, everyone's attention went to the place where the explosion originated. At Yusheng's table, black smoke was coming out from his furnace. This black smoke just obviously indicated that the extracted properties of the herbs were all burnt and gone. Just beside the pill furnace, Yusheng slumped on floor of the arena looking hopeless. His eyes were teary while his appearance was colored black by the soot which came from the broken furnace.

Everyone from the audience were silent looking at the pitiful Yusheng. While all of these were happening, Long Bai kept the seven pills inside his cosmic pouch. He wasn't yet accustomed using the tiny world as a storage since he only have that recently. After dropping one pill on a pill bottle, he approached the elder council's place like nothing happened. Only after he spoke that the elders noticed him standing in front of them.

All the elders, as usual assessed the pill however their faces were full of doubts and questions since they never encountered such pill before.

"This is the bloody pill? This is my first time seeing one. Unfortunately I don't have the qualifications to tell if this is the real bloody pill or just another pill you tey to make to deceive us."

All the elders shared the same sentiments. Ultimately, they left the pill bottle on the sect leader's table. They would let the leader decide how to check it since he's the only one who knew about it. On the other hand, Yusheng slowly stood up and checked the inside of his broken furnace. To his surprise, there was one pill that was formed and was able to withstand the force of explosion. He immediately took the pill and checked that it was a low quality grade 3 pill. With this, his rank was just below Zhang Li.

"Look! There's still something left even after the explosion! Although it might still be a pill, it would just be classified as a low quality pill."

"He's done for! Looking at Long Bai's pill, it seemed that he was successful."

"I don't think so. There is no guarantee that the pill he made was a grade 4 pill. Yusheng still has some hope."

People were discussing about Long Bai's pill if he was successful or not. If Long Bai's successful in making the pill he was tasked to make, then Yusheng would become the 4th place. Today, it would be Long Bai's pill that will decide who will be in the top 3.

With all the pills presented ti the sect leader, the presiding elder stood and gave an announcement.

From this onward, the assessment of each participant's pills will be announced by the sect leader. Although he's not an alchemist, he's qualified enough to assess the pills due to his rich experience back in his days.

"Let us begin! First ti be assessed will be the first one to submit.

With me here is alchemist Tan Zhong's lesser blood rejuvenating pill. From its aroma, an experienced alchemist can already tell that this is a real lesser blood rejuvenating pill. The five elders have also concluded that this is real. Now to its quality grade, if you look, this pill shines a small white halo around it which means that it has reached the high quality grade requirement. This will conclude Tan Zhong's pill assessment."

People from the merchant union showed their support by screaming their hearts out. Similar to a concert, Tan Zhong's name was yelled multiple times before it stopped.

"Next are the pills from elder Wei's second disciple, Zhang Li. She was able to refine two lesser blood rejuvenating pill however both pills were at the mid grade quality meaning it is a grade lower compared to Tan Zhong. As of now, Tan Zhong occupies the first spot while Zhang Li seats at the second."

"Before we go to Long Bai's pill, I would like to reiterate again that his case was special. You have received news about it already so he would be assessed last. For the moment, I will be giving my assessment to the 1st disciple of elder Ling, Yusheng.

Here in this pill bottle is a life extending pill however there was one problem, due to a small mistake, the pill quality dropped. Now, it can only be considered a grade 3- low quality pill. This makes him at the third place.

Now, I have prepared a stage to check if Long Bai did really managed to refine a grade 4 pill. Before we start, I'll give you a short introduction about the bloody pill."

The sect leader gave the information about the pill and after his explanation, the people were in disbelief. They have heard that it was possible to tame a wild beast but never been they have heard of how it was done. Now that they learned the value of the pill, they saw a new light on Long Bai. If such pill will be available to the public, it would be a phenomenal event in the entire history of merchant city.

"Now, bring in the beast!"

After the leader's order, they saw a 3m x 2mx 2m cage with a purple cloud beast on it. Standing on four legs, purple body with white fur on four legs which resembled like small patches of clouds, two sharp fangs, long dark tail and with diamond green pupils, its appearance was a sight to behold. This beast is a sky rank low grade which rivals someone who are at the essence condensation layer of the core tempering stage. In terms if strength alone, it can match Long Bai and if they'll fight one on one without skills, Long Bai will lose. Basically, beast are essentially stronger than humans or other races.

"I have explained before, if this pill which Long Bai refined is truly the pill in question, then the beast should be tamed after it eats the pill. Who would like to volunteer feeding the pill?"

Everyone became quiet. No one wanted to become an experiment of the pill. Even just by facing the beast in close proximity gives them shivers. The sect leader scanned the audience and no one volunteered. As he looked at the elders, their faces were showing horrors as if they were already being fed to a beast. One last place, the participants. In there, he saw Long Bai raising his hand.

"Sect leader, since I am the one who made the pill, let me have the honor to prove that the pill is genuine."

Long Bai walked towards the sect leader's place and took the pill bottle. Immediately, he walked straight towards the cage. Every move he made was on everyone's eyes. He took out the pill and offered it by hand to the roaring beast but after it smelled the aroma of the pill, it seemed like it was attracted by it. Long Bai remembered the info given to him by the system a moment ago after the pill was made.

[Blood beast enhancing pill (Bloody pill)

- When taken by a beast, it purifies its blood and makes its lineage pure. Due to the purity of blood, it will gain a certain level of sentience and will be faithful to the one who gave the pill. The pill's aroma is extremely appetizing to beasts.]

"Hm, since I'm the one feeding you this pill, I should give you now a name. How about "White Paw", does that sound good? Here then, eat this. From now on, I'll call you White paw."

Long Bai reached out his hand with the pill on it inside the cage. In an instant, the beast used its tongue to take the pill and swallowed it with a satisfied expression. However after a few seconds, a painful roar came from the beast and it started bleeding from all of its orifices.