Lan Xuan blushed, but he immediately roared with laughter. "If you lack the courage to make a choice, say it. Why do you have to hide under a woman's skirt? So, this is the eldest grandson of Duke Jingguo, the firstborn of General Feilong? Haha!"
"Ha my a*s! Pooh!" Yunxiao spat a lump of phlegm straight toward Lan Xuan's face, which flew with such a great force that it even whistled through the air.
Lan Xuan was furious, but since he could not block the phlegm with his hand, he was forced to dodge it by stepping aside. In the eyes of the onlookers, he was making way for Yunxiao.
With a sardonic look on his face, Yunxiao walked over, then raised his middle finger and said, "Although you have no shame, I accept your challenge! Three days later, I'll beat you to your knees in this martial arts arena and make you lick my shoes!"
All the students present were struck dumb, while Han Bai and Chen Zhen were so frightened that their faces turned deathly pale. They ran over hurriedly and stood behind Yunxiao to show their support, urging him not to be impulsive.
Ruxue also said hurriedly, "No, Yunxiao, you can't blow off in a fit of pique..."
Yunxiao felt warm in his heart. Although he had been in a muddle for fifteen years and achieved nothing, he had found himself a few true friends. In his previous life, he had stood at the pinnacle of the continent, but he was all alone.
He smiled at the three of them. That sunny smile on his face immediately influenced Chen Zhen, Han Bai, and Ruxue, soothing their anxiety in a flash and making them believe one hundred percent that he would win the fight.
They were stunned, frozen in place, and could not figure out why they had such a strange, impossible feeling...
Lan Xuan froze as well, and his face was livid with rage. He never expected Yunxiao would take up the challenge so readily. Fearing that the latter might go back on his words, he hurriedly said, "Remember what you've just said. If you don't show up in three days later, there will be no more place for you in Jialan Academy!"
Yunxiao strode away without looking back, his faint laughter filling the air. "Don't worry, I won't wash my feet for three days."
"You!" Lan Xuan gritted his teeth as he watched Yunxiao walk away. "You can only talk! If I don't cripple you completely three days later, I'll eat my hat!"
The smile on Yunxiao's face melted away and a murderous look flashed through his eyes.
'The enmity between the Li Family and the Lan Family has been going on for decades. I will start from you little b*stards, and then uproot the whole Lan Family when the time comes!'
Just like that, he left the campus, heading straight to the Alchemist Association.
The lobby on the first floor was still bustling with activity. Yunxiao glanced around and saw an apprentice alchemist concentrating on concocting some potion. A faint medicinal smell drifted over and he knew it was a powerful potion, one that could temporarily increase a warrior's strength.
It was the annual assessment of the academy now, and these things sold like hotcakes.
The apprentice was fusing his soul power into the vessel to balance the conflicts between various medicinal properties, while adding other things into it from time to time.
Yunxiao smiled, and he could not help but warn the apprentice, "You've added too much cross-refining grass. You need to add a dust flower to neutralize the medicinal properties. Otherwise, it will explode in five breaths."
The apprentice looked up, and when he found that he did not know this guy, he said grumpily, "What do you know? Don't disturb me!"
"Three breaths."
"Two breaths."
Yunxiao counted in a faint voice. Finally, when he said 'one breath', the apprentice's face fell as the calm potion in the vessel suddenly boiled and exploded with a boom.
"This..." The apprentice was utterly struck dumb.
It was not a huge explosion, and he merely got splashed all over with the potion. An incident like this happened dozens of times a day in the lobby, so no one paid him any attention.
"You...How did you know I've added too much cross-refining grass?" The apprentice asked in surprise.
"I smelled it. I am looking for Jia Rong. Can you inform him for me?"
"You smelled it?" The apprentice had an obvious look of disbelief on his face. "Master Jia Rong seems to be in seclusion all the time, and I have no right to go to him."
Just then, a beautiful figure walked over and asked with great concern, "You've failed again, brother? Are you hurt?"
The apprentice shook his head and said, "I'm fine, just wet. It's just that I've wasted these ingredients. Ah...I'm such a failure!"
Looking at the beautiful girl, Yunxiao smiled and said, "Miss Lu Yao."
Lu Yao turned and said in surprise, "Ah! It's you!"
Yunxiao assumed a gentleman's look and said, "It's my pleasure to have a beautiful girl remembering me."
Lu Yao chuckled. "Master Liang spoke highly of you after he read your prescription."
"Master Liang spoke highly of him?" Lu Yao's brother, Lu Yu, exclaimed, "Are you an alchemist?"
"I used to be, but not at the moment. I wish to see Jia Rong, so can you please inform him for me, pretty lady?"
Lu Yao was a little shocked. "Master Jia Rong? He's just come out of seclusion. Come with me." Then she turned to Lu Yu and said, "Don't give up, brother! Try a few more times, and you will have succeed eventually."
"Perhaps I don't have the gift to become an alchemist," Lu Yu said bitterly. "It is only a simple strengthening potion, and yet I can't make it even after I've tried more than a dozen times. The ingredients are very expensive, and we have no more money to waste like this. Besides, I'm not young anymore...I plan to find a family and join them in the next few days."
That startled Lu Yao. "Don't do that, brother! You have to believe in yourself. In my heart, you are the best!"
Lu Yu's eyes lit up, but soon dimmed again. "You've been working hard to earn the money for my studies all these years, and I don't want to be a burden on you anymore. When all these ingredients are exhausted and I still can't produce the strengthening potion, I'll give up."
Suddenly, Yunxiao laughed and said, "Add three less cross-refining grasses, and if the potion's color is too light, add a crossing cloud mushroom. Believe me, you can do it!"
"You...Are you an alchemist?"
"Haven't I told you just now? I used to be, but not at the moment."
"..."
Lu Yao said encouragingly, "Brother, just try what he said. Even Master Liang praised him for the prescription he brought here the last time."
After pondering for a brief moment, Lu Yu said, "Fine, I'll give it a try!"
Yunxiao smiled and then followed Lu Yao to the second floor.
This was the first time Yunxiao came to the second floor, but as all the Alchemist Towers in the continent had the exact layout, he did not find the place strange.
Soon, they came in front of a door, and Lu Yao carefully knocked on it. Jia Rong's impatient voice immediately rang out, as if his cultivation was distracted.
Lu Yao's heart skipped a beat as she said in apprehension, "There's a young man who calls himself Young Master Yun looking for you."
"Young Master Yun!"
A shocked voice echoed out, followed by a series of clanging noises as if many things were being knocked over. In the next instant, the door flung open.
"Young Master Yun!" With a look of reverence on his face, Jia Rong hurriedly stepped aside and made way for Yunxiao.
Lu Yao was stunned, and her face was covered in a look of disbelief. What happened to Master Jia Rong, who was always so proud and lofty? Why was he so polite to a young man? No, this was not politeness, but reverence! His expression was even more reverent than when he met the president!
Yunxiao smiled and told the frozen Lu Yao, "You may leave us now."
After Lu Yao left in a hurry, Yunxiao strode into the room. It was spacious and packed with all kinds of refining equipment and arrays. There was only a small resting area in a corner, where a few fine leather couches and a small bed were placed.
The alchemist's glorious status was acquired through their day-and-night cultivation. Although there was luck behind every alchemist, perseverance and hard work were a must as well.
"Young Master Yun, not only has my soul power fully recovered, but I've also made a breakthrough! A real breakthrough!" Jia Rong said excitedly. Since he made the breakthrough, he had no one to talk to. And now, he had finally found someone who could listen.
"Why are you getting so excited over such a little thing?" Yunxiao glared at him. "I've no time to listen to these trifles. Come talk to me when you've broken through into a sixth-tier alchemist."
It was a piece of great news for the entire state when someone became a real alchemist, and yet it was only a trifle in Yunxiao's eyes. Jia Rong's face turned blue when he heard that, but when he heard the last sentence, his eyeballs almost popped out. "Sixth...sixth-tier? A Grandmaster!" He cried out in astonishment. "How's that possible? I'm not so gifted!"
Yunxiao said indifferently, "Of course you are not so gifted, but with the soul cultivation technique I've taught you, you can still achieve that."
Jia Rong was completely crazy this time as he muttered to himself, "Sixth tier...Sixth tier...I can get to the sixth tier? You didn't lie to me, did you?"
Yunxiao frowned and said coldly, "Don't forget who you are. What makes you think you are worthy of me lying to you? The sixth tier is just a rudiment in my eyes. Anyhow, I need you to help me refine a few pills."
"Yes! Yes!" Beads of cold sweat broke out of Jia Rong's forehead. The sixth tier was just a rudiment? Although this Young Master Yun was mysterious, he must be boasting.
Yunxiao nodded and said, "One is an origin impacting pill, and the other is an origin blasting pill."
"An origin impacting pill and an origin blasting pill!" Shocked, Jia Rong said, "These two pills are infinitely close to the second-tier. I've just been promoted to the first-tier. I am afraid I can't refine them."
Yunxiao sneered, "With me here, what are you afraid of? Prepare the ingredients…I have no time to waste."
Jia Rong froze. 'Is Young Master Yun going to guide me in pill refining? Could he also be an alchemist? But, how's that possible?'
Although he was grumbling in his heart, he did as Yunxiao bid. Soon, he got someone to bring him three sets of ingredients for both pills.
"I only need one for each pill, so why did you prepare three sets of ingredients?" Yunxiao asked.
Jia Rong smiled wryly. 'This Young Master Yun is indeed not an alchemist, for he doesn't know about the success rate of pill refinement.' He explained, "A first-tier alchemist can refine a first-tier pill with a success rate of over sixty percent, and not one hundred percent. The success rate of refining this kind of a pill, which is infinitely close to the second tier, is even lower. In fact, I don't think three sets of ingredients are enough either. But, there are only three sets in stock, and I've asked someone to find more for me."
Yunxiao snorted. Wordless, he went straight to the refining equipment and glanced at them as he said, "Let's begin! You will do the work as I tell you the steps."
Jia Rong found it hard to believe, but he held back the doubts in his heart and began the pill refining process under Yunxiao's guidance.