Just as everyone was discussing heatedly, someone suddenly shouted.
Everyone looked up!
They saw a purple speck of light coming from outside Jia Ma Sacred City, rushing straight toward them with an extremely powerful aura.
"Not good! Enemy attack!"
Fa Ma shouted loudly.
"Old Jia, what are you still standing there for? Hurry and join me to stop it!"
Jia Xing Tian glanced up but showed no intention of moving. Instead, his expression turned solemn.
"No need! That is the sixth-rank magical beast, the Amethyst Winged Lion King, raised by Ye Hao, the one competing with Gu He!"
"What did you just say? Th-that… Amethyst Winged Lion King belongs to Ye Hao?!"
Fa Ma thought he had misheard. He looked at Jia Xing Tian with a shocked and incredulous expression.
Everyone present knew the reputation of the Amethyst Winged Lion King.
It was the super overlord of the Magical Beast Mountain Range!
Very few people dared to provoke it.
Yet now they were being told that such a terrifying magical beast was actually raised by Ye Hao?
How could that be possible!
The others also found it hard to believe.
They saw the purple speck in the sky flash several times before arriving above the square.
It truly was the Amethyst Winged Lion King!
Standing atop its head was a tall, upright figure.
A teenage boy.
The Amethyst Winged Lion King flapped its wings that looked like flame-throwers and slowly landed in the square.
In an instant, the entire square fell silent.
Everyone stared dumbfounded at that figure.
And also…
At the graceful and peerlessly charming woman beside him.
"Me… Medusa!!!"
Jia Xing Tian looked at that red figure and his pupils shrank.
He involuntarily took half a step back.
Fa Ma had not heard clearly.
"What did you say?"
"Do you see the woman beside him? She… she looks like Queen Medusa of the Snake-People Tribe!"
"What?! Y-you must be mistaken! Queen Medusa is not someone to be trifled with. How could she follow a young boy?"
Back when the Jia Ma Empire fought the Snake-People Tribe, Fa Ma, as an alchemist, had only stayed in the rear providing medicinal supplies.
He had never gone to the frontier battlefield.
Thus, he had only heard of Medusa's ferocious reputation and had never seen her true appearance.
That kind of fierce woman could be subdued by a weak young boy?
Jia Xing Tian rubbed his eyes, suddenly unsure.
"That face… it's exactly the same! But Queen Medusa is a snake-person. She doesn't have human legs…"
"Hoo."
Fa Ma let out a sigh of relief.
"Hehe, a false alarm. She must simply resemble her. If Queen Medusa really came here, that would be disastrous. I think you were scared stiff by her back then."
"Nonsense! Do you think I'm that useless fellow Hai Bo Dong? Back then, this old man fought her to a draw!"
To be precise, he had been relying on his earth-attribute defensive abilities the entire time, passively taking hits.
But he endured it!
Even though he said that, Jia Xing Tian still felt uneasy.
It was as if something major was about to happen.
In the stands, within the crowd.
A man wrapped in a huge black robe, with eyes that looked as though someone had drawn dark shadow around them, stared viciously at the figure atop the Amethyst Winged Lion King.
"Damn it! How does that bastard have two Heavenly Flames? His luck is unbelievable!!"
"His strength has improved again! It seems he has already reached the peak of the Dou King realm!!"
"What? Peak Dou King? It's only been a few months. How is that possible!"
"I also find it strange."
"Why?! Why does all the good fortune fall on him and not on me!!"
Envy, jealousy, and hatred twisted Xiao Yan's face beyond recognition, and the dark aura in his pupils gradually increased.
Ye Hao jumped down from the Amethyst Winged Lion King together with Medusa.
He calmly looked toward Gu He.
Gu He flew over and stopped opposite Ye Hao.
"I invited the fellow members of the Jia Ma Empire Alchemist Association to serve as judges for our competition. You have no objections, right?"
Ye Hao smiled.
"Of course not."
The strongest alchemist in the association was Fa Ma, and he was only fifth-rank.
As for the others, they were merely third or fourth-rank.
If they were the judges, Ye Hao doubted whether they would even understand his alchemy techniques.
"Today, the pill I will refine is a top-tier sixth-rank pill, the Breaking Ancestor Pill!"
With that, Gu He waved his hand and a large cauldron appeared.
Now that he had returned to his familiar domain, confidence surged in Gu He's eyes.
A relaxed smile appeared on his face.
"And you?" Gu He asked with a smile.
"An eighth-rank pill, the Origin Beginning Pill."
Ye Hao originally planned to refine another pill, but certain unexpected events had caused him to change his plan.
"Whoa!"
As soon as those words came out, an uproar erupted.
Immediately afterward, thunderous laughter burst out from the surrounding stands.
"Eighth-rank?"
"Seriously? Do young people nowadays boast without even thinking first?"
"If he said fifth-rank or even sixth-rank, we might believe it. But eighth-rank… what kind of joke is that?"
"The Jia Ma Empire only produced one alchemy genius in hundreds of years, Gu He. That kid really has quite the nerve."
"Exactly. Just because he rides the Amethyst Winged Lion King doesn't mean he can brag without limits."
…
In their understanding, a sixth-rank pill was already a top-tier pill.
Anything beyond that existed only in legends!
If there was anyone in the Jia Ma Empire who could become an eighth-rank alchemist…
That person could only be Pill King Gu He.
No one else had the slightest possibility.
"Roar!"
Hearing the noise, the Amethyst Winged Lion King roared loudly.
The square instantly fell silent.
"That kid sure talks big, claiming he can refine an eighth-rank pill. The soul strength required for an eighth-rank pill is unbelievably powerful."
Yao Chen's voice sounded inside Xiao Yan's mind.
Xiao Yan did not respond.
He simply prayed over and over that Ye Hao's cauldron would explode repeatedly during the refining process.
It would be best if he lost to Gu He.
Gu He sneered.
"Eighth-rank. That is truly impressive confidence. Admirable. I only hope it is not empty boasting."
Naturally, Gu He did not believe Ye Hao possessed the ability to refine an eighth-rank pill.
After many years of hard practice, even now his success rate in refining high-tier sixth-rank pills was not high.
Because of that, he had prepared five sets of ingredients for the Breaking Ancestor Pill.
He believed that as long as one succeeded, it would be enough to defeat Ye Hao.
Fa Ma stepped forward.
"Since both of you are ready, the time limit for this competition is twenty days. Whoever refines the higher-quality pill within twenty days will be the winner."
"I announce that the competition officially begins!"
As his voice fell.
Gu He gave Ye Hao a confident smile and immediately summoned his purple flame to begin refining!
As a veteran alchemist, Gu He appeared extremely calm while extracting the medicinal ingredients.
His technique was skilled and steady, his soul power control meticulous.
His control over the heat was also masterful.
Everything proceeded in an orderly manner.
In contrast, Ye Hao…
Everyone was surprised to discover that he had not moved at all.
He had not even taken out a medicinal cauldron!
What was going on?
Was he frightened by Gu He's strength?
Gu He also noticed and reminded him with a smile.
"If you keep standing there watching, you will not beat me."
"Do not rush. I am simply letting you go first for a while."
"In that case, you might end up letting me take the victory as well."
"That is not necessarily so."
As he spoke, a deep blue flame shot out from Ye Hao's left hand.
The moment the flame appeared!
The purple flame inside Gu He's cauldron trembled violently as if it had encountered something that terrified it.
"Stay still!!"
Gu He shouted with an ugly expression.
Only after exerting his full strength did he suppress the restless flame inside the cauldron and continue refining the ingredients.
The various flames within the other alchemists' bodies also emitted frightened buzzing sounds, as if they might burst out of their bodies and flee at any moment!
Fa Ma stared at the deep blue flame in the arena that was gradually forming into something.
His face turned pale.
"Deep blue… deep blue. Th-this… this is the fifteenth Heavenly Flame on the Heavenly Flame Ranking, Sea Heart Flame!!!"
Fa Ma cried out in shock.
Fu Yan and the others nearly drooled with envy when they heard it.
Heavenly Flames were the dream of every alchemist!
And now, the teenage boy before them possessed one.
Who would not envy him?
What shocked them even more was that Ye Hao actually condensed the Sea Heart Flame into a medicinal cauldron?!
"Using Heavenly Flame as a cauldron? Th-this…"
Fa Ma and the others had not even closed their mouths yet when they saw Ye Hao raise his other hand and summon another flame.
A pale green flame!
"Th-this… another Heavenly Flame?! Heavens! He actually has two Heavenly Flames! Th-this… how is this possible!!"
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