"Elder Zhou has arrived!"
Pill Peak.
Pill Hall No. 1.
A voice sounded from outside the Pill Hall.
As the sound of the voice faded, an old man wearing a plain robe with white hair and beard arrived.
He slowly walked into the Pill Hall.
"Hall Master Han, you're here."
Li Ce, Wang Lei and the other Deputy Hall Masters of the Great Pill Hall surrounded him. They first bowed respectfully before speaking.
They were facing a Rank 5 alchemist.
No one in the Pill Hall dared to question Elder Zhou's authority, especially since the other party was the Hall Master of Pill Hall No. 1.
"Mm, I already know about the matter."
Han Daobai stroked his white beard lightly and nodded his head in acknowledgement.
In the face of such an incident, his expression remained calm, as if there wasn't the slightest ripple on his face.
In the place where everyone was intentionally avoiding, Gu Zecang stood quietly.
When he saw Han Daobai's gaze fall on him, he did not hesitate. He immediately bowed respectfully, "Disciple Gu Zecang greets Hall Master Han."
Every Hall Master of the Pill Peak was a master of the way of alchemy who was at least a Rank 5 alchemist. Their contributions to the sect were enormous, so Gu Zecang naturally would not be negligent in this matter.
Seeing this, Han Daobai's expression was calm, and even his tone was extremely gentle as he asked.
"Are you Gu Zecang who previously refused to come to Pill Peak?"
"That's right."
Gu Zecang replied in neither servile nor overbearing manner.
"Alright, kid, your temperament isn't bad. You've already reached the Core Formation Stage at such a young age. It seems like it wasn't a wrong thing to reject the Pill Peak's invitation."
"I also know about the bet between you and Li Ce and the others. However, in the end, it was nothing more than some friction between you and your juniors. It was completely meaningless."
"But why did you say that there was a mistake in the alchemy skills taught by the Pill Peak today? Is it because you want to say it out loud to make yourself feel better?"
Han Daobai's attitude was beyond Gu Zecang's expectations.
He originally thought that the people on Pill Peak were all overbearing and unreasonable.
He didn't expect that the Hall Master of the Pill Hall No. 1, who was specially invited by a group of overbearing disciples, had such a gentle temperament.
It should be known that the other party's words just now had given him a way out.
It seemed, the elders of the Center Sect had their wisdom.
Yet, for some reason.
He still felt strange.
Gu Zecang said calmly, "Hall Master Han, the previous bet was indeed due to friction among us."
"But I am not finding an excuse to slander Pill Peak because I have not learned alchemy by myself. I wanted to point out this fact."
"The Pill Peak has made a huge mistake in the teaching of alchemy. At the very least, it has made a huge mistake in the teaching of Rank 1 alchemy."
"Especially the most basic which is the technique of pill fire. It's fundamentally wrong."
As soon as he finished speaking, the surrounding Pill Peak disciples were all gnashing their teeth. They were incomparably furious, and their eyes glistered with a fierce light.
If Elder Han hadn't been present, they would have immediately rushed up to him and started cursing him.
Li Ce, Wang Lei and the others were breathing so heavily that they were almost breathless.
"Gu Zecang, I've specially invited Elder Han as a witness. With Elder Han's status, he even gave you a way out. How dare you spout nonsense. It's really..."
Li Ce glared at him and wanted to continue.
However, Han Daobai raised his hand to stop him.
Han Daobai's expression was still calm. He only nodded at Gu Zecang.
Then, he slowly and solemnly said, "Since you're so persistent, you must have your reasons."
"But you should know that Li Ce originally invited me here because he wanted to allow you to prove that self-taught alchemy can also be successful."
"If you succeeded in making the pill, you win. If you failed in making the pill, you lose."
"But now, you insist that there's a problem with the alchemy techniques of our Pill Peak and that we have taught the pill fire wrongly, this matter is not as simple as you being able to refine a pill."
"Not only do you need to refine pills, but you also need to be stronger than our Pill Peak's Rank 1 alchemy disciples. You even need to be extremely obvious and prove to us that your alchemy techniques are truly better than the Pill Peak's."
"Can you do it?"
"Do you dare to compete in alchemy techniques?"
These words came from Han Daobai's mouth and fell into the ears of the disciples. The Pill Peak disciples all nodded in agreement.
The style of the scene changed abruptly.
Li Ce and Wang Lei, in particular, felt like prostrating themselves on the ground after hearing the words.
As expected.
If they wanted to make things difficult for others...
It would have to be the masters.
It was no wonder that Elder Han had become Hall Master of the most important Pill Hall No. 1 among the ten Pill Masters of the Center Sect.
After these words fell, the atmosphere on Pill Peak became more relaxed.
It was because no matter how they looked at this matter, they were sure to win.
Originally, when they saw Gu Zecang's confident appearance, they also started to wonder if this kid became a Rank 1 alchemist in one go, right?
Wouldn't their Pill Peak be the laughing stock of others?
They would also be ridiculed to death.
That's why they started to panic a little.
In the end, when Hall Master Han opened his mouth, he directly eliminated this possibility.
Yes.
It was possible for you to successfully refine the pill.
But now, it wasn't as simple as just refining the pill.
You, Gu Zecang, not only need to refine the pill, but you also need to refine it better than our Rank 1 alchemy disciples.
And not only better, but it also has to be extremely obvious.
Otherwise, even if you are a little better, on what basis do you say that the Pill Peak is wrong?
Absolutely not.
No wonder Li Ce specially invited Hall Master Han.
"Hahahaha."
A burst of laughter rang out.
But the laughter wasn't from the surrounding spectating disciples but it was from Gu Zecang.
"Interesting, interesting."
"As expected of the Hall Master of the Pill Hall. Your disciple admires you."
After saying these words, Gu Zecang's tone changed, "Alright, I agree that you can send out a Rank 1 alchemist to carry out the competition."
"However, I'm a little doubtful now. If the pills I refined surpass yours, would you still deny the truth?"
"Or misinterpret the meaning?"
Seeing that the Pill Peak elders had also laid out their true thoughts, Gu Zecang naturally didn't plan to hide it anymore.
"You can rest assured on this point. My Pill Peak hates people who are arrogant and cannot refine pills."
"If you have such talent in alchemy, this old man will not only acknowledge it but will also not care about these frictions. I promise to give you the portion of pills you want, as many times as you want."
Han Daobai opened his mouth to speak.
"Is that so? Then I want twenty times the portion of pills."
Gu Zecang directly replied.
As the sound of his voice faded, his sentence caused the surrounding crowd to burst into laughter.
"Did you hear that? He made his choice."
"Where did you get your confidence from?"
"If you can still win this, I'll eat all the cauldrons in the Pill Hall!"
Amidst a wave of ridicule, Han Daobai raised his hand, signalling for everyone to quiet down.
Then he said, "You can choose a Rank 1 pill."
Gu Zecang did not hesitate and immediately replied, "Spirit gathering pill."
After he finished speaking, Han Daobai nodded and sat on the chair that Li Ce had brought over.
"Clear the area, move the cauldron and prepare the medicinal herbs."
Without needing Han Daobai to speak, Li Ce, who was the Deputy Hall Master of the Pill Hall No. 1, immediately opened his mouth and prepared to make arrangements.
After that, Li Ce called a youth over and said to Gu Zecang, "Gu Zecang, this is the Rank 1 alchemy disciple that we have sent out, Wu Hao. If you defeat him, we will give you twenty times your monthly share of the medicinal pills!"
"I've even talked about it before. If you win, I will directly eat the tree at the entrance of the Pill Hall!"
"But if you lose, not only will you have to clean up the ashes for a year, you will have to kneel and worship the way of alchemy and the Pill Peak. Worship us as an apology."
"Do you dare?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Gu Zecang nodded and said, "Yes, let's begin."
Seeing this, both sides didn't say anything more.
Li Ce looked at the scene of Gu Zecang and Wu Hao sitting cross-legged in front of the cauldron, and a smile appeared on his lips.
Although Wu Hao was still a Rank 1 alchemist, his alchemy skills were incomparably exquisite. He was almost at the bottleneck of becoming a Rank 2 alchemist.
In their Pill Peak, he was an absolute genius in alchemy.
Lose to Gu Zecang?
This was completely impossible.
Dong.
A bell rang.
This meant that the competition had officially begun.
And at the instant, the bell rang, Wu Hao immediately began to condense the pill fire and spiritual flames rapidly formed.
Then, he began to use the water spiritual root to export the water element.
The entire process was extremely stable. There weren't any small flaws or mistakes.
It was extremely smooth.
It looked like it would take around 300 breaths for it to condense successfully.
The surrounding disciples nodded their heads in satisfaction.
Not bad.
Among the Rank 1 alchemists, Wu Hao's talent could be said to be top-notch!
On the other hand, Gu Zecang...
Not only did he not start to condense the pill fire, he even lowered his head and did not move.
A disciple took a look and saw that he had fallen asleep?!
What did this mean?
He felt that he had made too big a joke and could not do it?
He chose to directly give up?!
The surrounding Pill Peak disciples all shook their heads in disdain while feeling puzzled.
It was not until Wu Hao successfully condensed the pill fire that Gu Zecang slowly opened his drowsy eyes.
Naturally, no one opened their mouths to remind him.
It was even better if he really fell asleep and then they would have got victory directly.
Wu Hao slowly wrapped the pill fire with spiritual energy and placed it under the cauldron.
"Good!"
"The purity of the pill fire that Junior Brother Wu Hao condensed this time is around 65% ."
"That's right! As a Rank 1 alchemist, it's already not bad to be able to reach 50%. It reached 65%!"
The surrounding disciples said excitedly.
On the other hand, Gu Zecang hadn't even started to condense his pill fire.
This scene fell into Li Ce's eyes, so he naturally had to mock him.
Today's matter had come to this point.
It wasn't something that could be settled just by Gu Zecang showing off and then admitting defeat.
"Gu Zecang, do you still remember?"
"You just said that our Pill Peak's method of condensing pill fire is also wrong."
"Remember to let us see the difference."
"Let's make it clear first. Pill flames that take more than 15 minutes to condense will be directly eliminated..."
Li Ce had yet to say the word 'eliminated', in the next moment, he was so shocked that he couldn't finish what he wanted to say!
At the same time, the surrounding disciples instantly froze and were silent.
Even as a Rank 5 alchemist, Han Daobai's pupils instantly dilated.
He stood up in disbelief!
Everyone present was stunned.
Because...
They had just seen Gu Zecang, whom they had always thought was showing off, did a flip of his wrist and a crystal clear pill fire suddenly appeared in his palm!
He flipped his palm to condense pill fire?!
How was this possible!??