章 33: What kind of pill is this?
Chapter 33
The black smoke slowly spreads through the area, when two figures became visible. As the smoke slowly dies down, the figure becomes distinct. Then, they saw a man is in front of the woman in a hug with his bloody back facing a blown up furnace. What baffled the elders and the audiences, is that the young man's back which is full of blood only has a small wound. Which is almost impossible as the young man is just a mortal. People then presumed that since he sacrificed himself, Qin Lou saved him with her spiritual Qi shield.
A while ago, before the furnace blew up. Shin Jiao actually already noticed that the furnace is acting strangely, he then suddenly had a bad premonition. So without thinking twice he quickly stepped between Qin Lou and the furnace.
She actually didn't notice that there is something wrong as she is too focused in the middle of a crucial part in forming the pill. Then all of a sudden, she saw Shin Jiao in front of her disrupting her concentration followed by a loud bang.
Because of the force, Shin Jiao was thrown towards Qin Lou's arms and into a hug. This made her mind suddenly go blank, as it's the first time she felt a man's body, hugging her. Shin Jiao was also in a daze at that time as he suddenly felt the bounty peeks that almost served as a cushion.
But her stupefaction didn't last as she quickly recovered her senses. Then she remembered that she was about to finish her concoction when she was disturbed by him. Suddenly a feeling of anger swells in her heart as she put her hands on her hips in annoyance.
"What have you done?" Qin Lou said with an aggrieved voice.
"I… I'm sorry." Shin Jiao didn't know what to say so he just apologizes as he didn't know why she is angry after he saved her.
"I was supposed to finish and form the pill when you disrupted me." Although she felt angry, she still controlled her angry voice and didn't shout.
Before Shin Jiao could say anything, someone interrupted them.
"Ha. Is that it? You're still a newbie that's trying to show off. You can't even control your pill furnace from exploding. What genius? A genius of disaster, maybe. Haha." This time Xing Meng said.
With a quick hand movement, he suddenly hit his pill furnace cover and then 5 pills suddenly floated up.
Two of the pills are green with a golden aura while the other three are black without an aura. This means that out of the 5 pills two are high grade, while the other 3 are failed products.
Pill aura is the deciding factor of its grade: Normal-grade pills only have its color, middle-grade pills have its color luster, high-grade has a golden aura, mortal-grade have two golden auras, spirit-grade have a golden aura and either hot or cold temperature, hybrid-grade have the pill color luster and a golden aura, sky-grade pills are almost transparent but the pill color is in the middle just like a nucleus, heaven-grade pills have thick white aura, immortal-grade have two separate auras like yin and yang which is black and white, and the last is the diety-grade pill which already contains spiritual pulse.
After the people saw the pills, everyone was in awe and amazed at the skill of Xing Meng.
"Wow! He truly is a prodigy. He is able to make a high-grade pill. I wonder what is the effect of the pill he made."
"Of course it's a new pill. Who do you think young master Meng is? Unlike others, he's not a newbie."
The people began to discuss among themselves as they saw the pills that Xing Meng made. But on the judges' stage old man Lu Hao Duang crest his brows in confusion. After scanning the pill he seems to think that something is amiss.
"Hmm… this scent seems… familiar." Lu Hao Duang thought.
On the stage, Xing Meng is looking at Qin Lou.
"So… I guess you lost. You're not yet qualified to be an alchemist… Work hard… Newbie." Xing Meng taunted with a sneer.
Instead of answering Xing Meng, Qin Lou turned her gaze at the judges. This time Shin Jiao has already moved to her side. Then she walks to the front and checked her furnace. And there she saw that a foreign object had entered the tiny hole on the side of the furnace. But instead of complaining about this injustice, she just stood there and shook her head. Cheating and making dirty moves towards others and judges ignoring the rules, these things are not new to her. She has already experienced these things many times before so she just accepted her fate.
After checking the furnace she stood and was about to walk away, but a hand suddenly grabbed hers. She was startled because that strength was not that of a mortal man. When she looked at the owner of the hand a smile appear on her face under the white mask as she felt warm. She realized that Shin Jiao protected her a while ago, and she felt a little guilty for accusing him.
"You're not going to just give up are you?" Shin Jiao said in a low voice.
"It's… It's no use. The furnace is already broken and there is no replacement for that. One of the hidden rules in this tournament is one alchemist, one furnace. So, how could I continue with this?" Qin Lou replied also in a low voice.
"Haha... Who says that you cannot produce pills without a furnace? That's just how the old ones think. I already made a promise to show you a miracle pill, right? Do you… trust me?" Shin Jiao said flashing his charming smile.
Seeing his handsome smiling face, Qin Lou seemed to forget his question and just dazedly look at him but someone shouted in the crowd which interrupted her train of thought.
"What are you two lovers whispering for? Just get down from here and give up."
"Yeah, it's already over. Get down from there…"
"Haha, I guess senior sister Qin Lou can't accept her defeat."
The people especially those that had lost the contest already are shouting with contempt towards Qin Lou.
"Lass, what will you do? If you gave up now then you will lose. Though you are already accepted as an inner disciple of the school, you would still lose the contest." Hu Ao said while looking intently at her.
"I will trust you." Qin Lou said to Shin Jiao which made him feel happy.
Shin Jiao secretly pass her a tiny scroll when he held her hand as he acted like he politely assists her back to their alchemy table. When she noticed the tiny scroll, she was a little taken aback.
"What is this for? Why did he give me this tiny scroll?" Qin Lou is a little confused about what to do.
But she still looks at her hand and secretly opened the thumb size scroll. Upon seeing this, Shin Jiao can't help but laugh at himself, it's like he could once more remember when he was still in school. Those students who like to cheat on exams would always carry those tiny papers that contain some answers, they would sneakily look at them while trying to evade the teacher in charge of the exam from catching them. If they are successful then their exam's result would be good if not then they would face the consequences.
As Qin Lou reads what's in the tiny thumb-sized scroll, her expression can't help but change a lot. But before anyone can notice her reaction or even scan the scroll she immediately burns it with her fire secretly. As if with a tacit understanding both of them nod their head and began to move. Shin Jiao acted as if he is taking something out of the bag and brought out an item wrapped in animal skin. Qin Lou accepted it and began to boil some water as she put the thing inside the paper in it.
When the people saw what she is putting in the pot, everyone was dumbfounded, it was a beast bone and skin. Some almost fell down their seats when she started to carefully stir the water in the pot.
"What's this? Is she out of her mind? The explosion may have affected her brain, that's why they started to make some bone soup. Haha!" a person in the crowd shouted.
People began to mock Qin Lou for being a sore loser and acting like that. She is even trying to insult the alchemy contest by cooking bone soup in the middle of the match. Some people even closed their eyes in disgust.
As the people are busy trying to mock her, another contestant successfully made a pill. Inside her pill furnace lays 3 pills with a golden aura, which caught everyone's attention, especially when they smell the rich aroma of the pill.
"Those are 3 high-grade pills." An elder suddenly stood up.
It is known that most students here can only make 1 or 2 high-grade pills successfully. Even the genius Xing Meng can only reach 2 in his current level of ability. Now seeing that there are three high-grade pills, this made everyone excited.
"Seniors, I'm done with my pills." The young woman said.
The young woman is Susu Ling, who excitedly took a glance at Qin Lou's table. But when she saw what Qin Lou is doing her smiling face suddenly froze. She too was dumbfounded by that scene. But her feeling is different from the rest.
She can't believe that Qin Lou is nonchalantly cooking a bowl of soup in the middle of the tournament, which made Susu Ling admire her more.
Susu Ling at that time was too much focused on concocting her pill that she didn't notice what's going on around her surroundings. She was not aware that Qin Lou's pill furnace blew up. So upon seeing her calmly cooking, she can't help but admire her bravery and nonchalant way. It's as if Qin Lou is saying that this test is truly a piece of cake.
The glimmer of adoration is in Susu Ling's eyes, as she watches her new idol in alchemy. Everyone's attention was on Qin Lou and Susu Ling, while Shin Jiao is starting to mix a couple of herbs by using a mortar and pestle. As nobody minds him, he started to use his small stove and slowly refine the herbs he mixed in a porcelain container. His actions are too inconspicuous that everybody didn't noticed or even care what he does so no one is paying attention towards him.
After some time, Qin Lou now saw that there are some things that started to float on the top layer of the boiling water. Qin Lou carefully scoops it up and put it in a small container. Then, after gathering a substantial amount, she began to refine it and burns out the dregs that came with it, until such time that a gelatinous liquid is left which grabs everyone's attention.
"What… what is that thing? It's like a white goo…" Hu Ao muttered to himself.
Then in front of everyone, Qin Lou used her spiritual sense control to start forming tiny spheres with the gelatinous substance. Qin Lou was able to make a total of ten thumb-sized spheres from it, which after cooling are now like soft gel pill.
"I'm done!" Qin Lou said excitedly.
"Okay, you have to combine this medicine with the remaining Ganoderma which you refined." Shin Jiao said as he handed her the porcelain container which contains some green liquid.
"But the remaining Ganoderma that I had refined is too little…" She protested.
"We actually didn't need that much. All we need is 3 drops of Ganoderma extract, and that's it." Shin Jiao said.
"Okay." Qin Lou said as she took out the remaining drop of the Ganoderma which is surprisingly exactly 3 drops are left.
Then she combined it with the greenish concoction that Shin Jiao gave her. She then carefully used her fire while the ingredients are in the porcelain container. With her level of control, the porcelain didn't break. Not long after, the medicine began to combine with each other and with the use of her spirit sense as she slowly refined them.
When the greenish liquid turns to brown with a glimmering golden aura, Qin Lou herself became amazed. She can't believe that she has refined something without using a pill furnace. Her elation was through the roof at the discovery of a new way to make medicine.
"Whew, it's done at last!" She said excitedly to Shin Jiao.
"Okay that's good, now use this and take some medicinal liquid and fill a sphere gel." Shin Jiao whispered as he handed her a syringe-like thingy which Shin Jiao had already crafted last night.
Qin Lou understood what he meant and did what Shin Jiao asked her to do. She is able to fill up around 6 spheres with the liquid concoction. These series of actions made everyone in the audience filled with excitement. As they have never seen any pill made this way, they were amazed at the gel-like substance that held liquid medicine. And the most amazing part is that they can now see 6 brown pills with a golden aura on a plate in Qin Lou's table.
"This is truly an ingenious idea. With this, we can now concentrate more on refining and combining the materials rather than forcing the extract to be heated and hardened into a pill."
"Yeah, this would lessen our effort but double our success rate in making pills."
"Hey, did you remember what she did?"
"No, I actually thought that she's just making some soup so I kept my eyes closed at that time."
"Damn… me too…"
The people began to discuss what had happened and how Qin Lou made a new type of pill, even though she blew up her pill furnace. On the judge's platform, all the elders are looking at each other in disbelief. Those that mocked Qin Lou kept their mouths shut as they too were dumbfounded and felt like they had slapped their own faces upon seeing her performance. The eyes of Elder Ao and Lu Hao Duang are gleaming with joy and excitement. They did not expect her to show this kind of ability.
"This is… I... I must get this method. My teacher would praise me more and give more benefit if I could get him this method of concocting." Xing Meng's eyes had a glint of craftiness and evil scheme.
"I must get her... not only her martial arts are good she can even make this new kind of pill." Xian Jian Feng within the audience also shows extreme lust towards Qin Lou's ability and knowledge.
He is now looking at Qin Lou like a ravenous wolf ready to pounce on its prey.
While everyone is busy with either scheming heart or amazed expression towards her, Qin Lou's eye are filled with happiness. Her heart felt really warm as she remembers Shin Jiao's question 'Do you trust me?' At that time although she said yes, there is still a little doubt in her heart.
But she is truly happy right now that she put her trust in him. What she didn't know is that in her heart Shin Jiao has now made his mark which she would valuable very much.
"Boom! Boom!"
All of a sudden two explosions once more rang inside the arena. As the two remaining contestants had their pill furnace exploded and they declared that they would give up.
So, in the end, there are 3 people who passed the final test. Of course, the three are Qin Lou, Susu Ling, and Xing Meng.
"I would like to congratulate the three winners. We already know the quality of the pills you've made and that the two of them is of a higher grade than it's original and an original type of pill. But we need to make sure of the efficacy of those medicines. So a test on the quality of your pill is necessary." the old man with a long beard who acted as the spokesperson of the judges said.
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