Chapter 330 – Ninth Province

Right now, the Great Desolate Lake’s young master that Zhao Jiutian despised was approaching the final moment to form her pill. She constrained the last bits of medicinal efficacy in a keylead vine and tossed it into the pill furnace. Then a net seemed to cover all of the medicinal efficacy, fusing it together.

“Form the pill!” With a clear shout, White Fengfeng raised a hand and pointed a finger. The pill furnace blew apart into countless pieces. In that instant, a crystal green bead the size of a cat’s eye projected a ray of green light that covered all the fragments of the pill furnace.

Then, as if the void had frozen over, all those pill furnace fragments froze in place.

At the same time, a thumb-sized pure white and warm jade-like pill appeared within the midst of the fragments.

White Fengfeng wiped the sweat from her forehead and let out a long breath of relief. This was her first attempt, and succeeding here was really a great stroke of luck.

But no matter what the reason was, success was success. Now it seemed that this miss could struggle for the competition championship!

She flipped her hand and took out a jade bottle from her storage ring. After opening it, powder floated out on its own volition, covering every fragment of the shattered pill furnace. Then, this powder ignited on its own, like numerous lamps in the air, all of them surrounding the pill.

Big Brother Baoyu, you must try harder! If your championship is stolen by others, I fear your face won’t be pleasant to look at!

While White Fengfeng was tittering with pride, Big Brother Baoyu had also smoothly completed the refinement of the Demon Puppet Pill.

Compared to the astonishing performances that Zhao Jiutian and White Fengfeng revealed when they finished refining their pills, the Demon Puppet Pill could be called unassuming and common. The furnace lid opened and the pill popped out.

The Demon Puppet Pill was the size of a pigeon egg, with black and red lines interweaving across its surface, forming all sorts of complex textures. Qin Yu’s attainments in array formations weren't too high, but this pill still contained a fair bit of his blood essence. He vaguely felt that these black and red lines seemed to be some sort of summoning array formation.

He coughed, immediately suppressing these thoughts as soon as they appeared. How could the textures on a pill be an array formation?

Qin Yu placed the Demon Puppet Pill into a jade bottle. Then, he took out some pills and swallowed them before closing his eyes in meditation. “Don’t be in a hurry, it isn’t dark yet. Soon you will know what card I have in my hand.”

The pill furnace was silent, as if saying ‘You had better make sure I am not disappointed.’

Night arrived.

At this time, most of the participants had finished their refining attempts. Of course, some failed and some succeeded. Those alchemists that failed had no choice but to withdraw with sorrow on their faces. As for those people that succeeded, most of them stayed in their stone buildings, using various methods to temper and strengthen their pills.

That’s right. Within the Land of Divinity and Demons, there were techniques that could temper pills. For instance, what schoolmates Zhao Jiutian and White Fengfeng did. At the same time, not all people had such daring spirits that they could pay such a high price to forcefully enhance their pills to the next level.

Hu –

Within the darkness, Qin Yu opened his eyes, a sharp light bursting from his pupils. He had fully restored himself from the losses he suffered while refining the Demon Puppet Pill. The furnace lid opened and closed. The clanging sound was particularly loud in the dark. It seemed that this brother pill furnace was growing impatient.

Qin Yu faintly smiled. His thoughts stirred and the little blue lamp that was within his dantian sea’s great dao base suddenly vanished from sight. He lifted a fist and slowly opened his five fingers. Then, a deep blue light flowed out like seawater, covering the surrounding foot.

𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Yes, its coverage area had shrunk. However, Qin Yu knew that this wasn’t because it had weakened, but because it was hiding its strength. Perhaps it did feel some dread within the Land of Divinity and Demons, so it needed to carefully conceal its own aura.

Even though Qin Yu had witnessed the little blue lamp light up several times, he still admired and acclaimed how gorgeous it was. Just glancing at this deep blue light once made an inexplicable feeling swell up from the depths of one’s soul, leaving them intoxicated by the sight.

But compared to Qin Yu, the pill furnace was far more excited. After it saw the little blue lamp, it fell silent for a short period of time before gently shivering. Its appearance was just like someone who was thrilled beyond belief and couldn’t constrain their emotions.

After a long time, the pill furnace finally fell silent. Then, strange syllables began to echo out in Qin Yu’s mind. Although he didn’t understand them, he mystically understood their meaning.

“Ninth…Province…”

These two simple characters rumbled in Qin Yu’s mind like thunder. It seemed that just the pill furnace’s name contained an invisible prestige and energy.

Qin Yu had a dignified expression. It seemed that he had underestimated this pill furnace. Just the name alone was able to conjure up such an incredible phenomenon; it was simply unimaginable!

Qin Yu took a deep breath and loudly said, “My name, is Qin Yu!”

The pill furnace didn’t respond. But through their contract, Qin Yu could feel faint fluctuations. It seemed it had obviously remembered this name.

There was nothing much said between them; they only told each other their names. But, Qin Yu could actually clearly feel that there was a much deeper harmony between him and the pill furnace named the ‘Ninth Province’.

He opened the jade bottle and poured out the Demon Puppet Pill, allowing it to bathe beneath the little blue lamp.

A moment later, he watched as the black and red colors on the pill’s surface deepened and formed even more complex textures. Qin Yu’s heart relaxed. He was originally worried that he wouldn’t be able to utilize the strength of the little blue lamp to enhance the Demon Puppet Pill because he had used his own blood to refine it, but now he could rest assured.

Hum –

Ninth Province suddenly shook and an invisible aura emanated outwards. It flooded the entirety of the stone building. It was like a thick sponge was stuffed into the surrounding spell, thoroughly isolating the outside world so that no one could peek in.

Qin Yu smiled. He wasn’t surprised that he had easily obtained the approval of Ninth Province. After all, the little blue lamp was the most precious and unique treasure in the entire world.

Qin Yu took out a pill and swallowed it. He closed his eyes and started to refine it.

There was still two days before this stage of the competition ended; he naturally couldn’t waste this time. The journey of a thousand miles began with the first step and one’s cultivation had to be gradually grown. He couldn’t slack off in the least.

In the blink of an eye, two days passed and the competition reached its final event. The Southshine Nation officials also released the restrictions they placed on various network platforms and major streaming stations. Countless cameras were already locked onto the competition field as well as a hundred foot high jade mountain located just outside the field.

On the peak of this mountain, there were countless words. If one looked carefully they could see that these were the current rankings for the fourth stage.

“Ladies and gentlemen, friends and family, how do you do! I am the South Xiang’s television station host, Wang Ling. Today, it is my greatest honor to live stream the final qualifying stage of competition to you. Alright, let’s dispense with the small talk. I ask that all our spectators follow our camera as we focus on the rankings atop the peak of the jade mountain.”

The screen changed as the camera turned. The camera could capture an extremely high-definition image, since even though the peak was far away, it was still incomparably clear.

“First, everyone should be focusing on the dazzling rainbow-hued name in the front. Yes, just as you think, he is the provisional first place contestant. Wuyuan…this seems to be the name of a geographic location. Since this person dares to use such a name, he is assuredly a proud elite of heaven. Fellow daoist Wuyuan hasn’t shown too much brilliance in the competition so far, but he was clearly hiding his own true skills. In this competition, he has successfully refined a fifth-grade Fire Path Pill, something extremely beneficial to fire-attribute cultivators. He really does deserve the title of temporary first place contestant…”

A headset that Wang Ling wore on his ear suddenly flashed. He attentively listened to the incoming message and then his eyes brightened. “Dear audience, before the finals began, everyone should have seen the name list that contained all the proud young elite cultivators. For instance, Cleansing Temple’s heartless Zhao Jiutian and Great Desolate Lake’s beautiful White Fengfeng. You should all be quite curious as to why their two names haven’t appeared on the rankings atop the jade peak.”

After pausing for a moment to deepen the mood and provoke excitement, Wang Ling suddenly said, “We have obtained confirmation that fellow daoists Zhao and White have finished refining their pills. However, due to certain questions related to their rank and efficacy, the appraisal has been temporarily postponed. To ensure absolute fairness, the assessment will be carried out in public to determine the final rankings.”

Broadcast on the live stream, a simple platform was set up just beneath the jade peak. Ten alchemy grandmasters appeared in front of everyone, causing countless cultivators to gasp out in alarm.

“Audience, audience, do you see! Those you see in front of you now are some of the most famous and skilled alchemy grandmasters of my Southshine Nation! They are the final judges for this competition. Now, even I am curious as to what pills fellow daoists Zhao and White have refined that not even these grandmasters were able to make a judgment of.”

The voice of a Southshine Nation official suddenly spoke up on the live stream. “Fellow participants, we will be assessing the pills in the order that they were received. The first to be assessed is the Great Desolate Lake White Fengfeng’s pill.” He clapped his hands and a person holding a jade bottle with both hands quickly walked up the platform and passed it to the ten grandmasters.

With a simple judgment verifying that there were no problems with the pill, the grandmasters all nodded together, acclaim in their eyes. This sight caused the hearts of the countless viewers watching to shake. Anticipation rose in their hearts. If a pill could cause such a reaction from the grandmasters, it was surely something incredible!

The official continued to say, “The grandmasters have confirmed that there are no problems with the pill. Following this, we will proceed with the method to determine the pill’s medicinal efficacy.” He paused and then said, “To inform everyone ahead of time, the pill that White Fengfeng refined is an upper fifth-grade Sky Soaring Pill.”

The countless live streams all took a panning close-up shot of the Great Desolate Lake’s group.

White Fengfeng had a calm expression, but her fists were tightly gripped beneath her long sleeves. She was barely managing to restrain her mood.

Upper fifth-grade Sky Soaring Pill. Even her father and mother didn’t think she could accomplish this.

Hum hum! She was truly a genius! All of you trash, you had best tremble before this miss!

If others were to learn that the calm and aloof White Fengfeng was thinking such thoughts at this moment, they might vomit out blood for dozens of meters.

Black Beibei revealed a happy look. He naturally knew how strong a Sky Soaring Pill was; it was a high grade pill. Without accident, his cousin would be the champion. If so, then he really didn’t waste his points in taking the ghost visage lotus leaf first and wiping out 10 of Zhao Jiutian’s points ahead of time.