"Grandmaster Song, y-you…
Xiao Ya pursed her red lips and despite knowing what he was doing, she couldn't outright say it. Before the three rounds, Zhuo Fan was nothing more than a nameless silk pants, now turned number one famous alchemist. Some token of respect had to be present when addressing him.
[Even as the first in the empire, you still need to be ethical. You should not openly break the rules of Hundred Pill Meeting.]
Xiao Ya was watching him awkwardly. She could neither stand still nor let him do what he wanted. This was a pickle.
Zhuo Fan's hands paused and raised an eyebrow, "Didn't you say these are for us? So which is it?"
"Grandmaster Song, I think you misunderstood me." She explained, "These are only used as complementary ingredients to the ones you have…"
"Yeah, but I am lacking everything!"
Zhuo Fan resumed looting the cabinets.
The crowd was speechless, [You can do that?] The alchemists from before were also shocked silly, thinking they should've taken some more when they had the chance.
"Uh, judge! If Grandmaster Song can do it, then there's no problem if I do it too…" Liu Yizhen licked his lips, looking at Zhuo Fan and Xiao Ya anxiously.
[If I don't hurry up, the kid will pick them all clean.]
He was a top alchemist, but he sorely lacked ingredients.
Xiao Ya glared, "Grandmaster Liu, don't make trouble. You're saying you can use them all in this round?"
Liu Yizhen let an awkward smile, then shook his head on his way to his spot.
With how many ingredients there were, who could refine them all? He couldn't mess with Drifting Flowers Edifice.
Then again, [Getting a couple can't hurt, right?]
Liu Yizhen looked again at Zhuo Fan with admiration. He was plundering the cabinets like he was moving house. [Just which clan or sect does he hail? There's no way a third rate clan kid would dare perform highway robbery right under Drifting Flowers Edifice's nose.]
"Grandmaster Song, you need to make sure you use all ingredients you are taking. Or there will be serious consequences!" Xiao Ya had gotten angry and changed her tone.
Zhuo Fan's hand slowed, then smiled inside.
[With how many there are here, how could they be refined in one go? This amount is enough for tens of thousands of pills. Then again, so what?]
Once he got crowned as the Pill King, he'd take the Bodhi Root and haul ass out! The Drifting Flowers Edifice could then do nothing but eat his dust.
So, he might as well get as many treasures as he could. They'd be breaking all ties at the end and it would be such a waste to leave these beauties lying here!
Slowly turning his head, Zhuo Fan grinned, "How do you know I won't be using them all? I'll do it in a jiffy, don't you worry your pretty little head about it."
He then resumed his shameless picking.
Xiao Ya was close to crying. She never saw a more vile grandmaster in her life.
Refining tens of thousands of pills on the spot? As if! This was daylight robbery!
The crowd watched the darkest horse in this arena, who had displayed alchemy skills more outstanding than even Vicious Pill King, now robbing the cabinets of ingredients.
[To think this grandmaster has balls to rob Drifting Flowers Edifice…]
Yet, Drifting Flowers Edifice did not even try removing him from the premises. After all, who told them to give the alchemists free reign? And what if someone insisted he could refine thousands upon thousands of pills?
[Although far fetched, that's beside the point. You can only settle this after the competition.]
Xiao Ya waited bitterly for Zhuo Fan to load up his ring.
When he stopped, Xiao Ya was overjoyed, and smiled, "Grandmaster Song, are you ready? Then please return to your spot and begin refining. Everyone is waiting for you."
Frowning, Zhuo Fan turned to Xiao Ya and his ring flashed, "My storage ring is packed, can you bring me another?"
Staggering, Xiao Ya was about to collapse. The audience's faces froze.
[Grandmaster Song, you're too shameless!]
"No, Drifting Flowers Edifice does not provide storage rings." Xiao Ya roared.
Glancing at her, Zhuo Fan snorted helplessly, "What Seven Noble Houses? So stingy!"
Xiao Ya was close to spurting blood. Thank god she choked on words and the blood stayed inside. She glared at Zhuo Fan with such hatred that she wished she could tear him limb from limb.
[You took advantage of us and still dares to call us stingy? Is there anyone in the world more shameless than you?]
Looking at the cabinets, most of them were empty, leaving only the 1st and 2nd-grade ingredients behind. Xiao Ya was this close to bursting into tears.
These ingredients took Drifting Flowers Edifice a whole year to gather! Some of them were close to a hundred years old before being harvested. Yet, all of them were swept clean by a damn punk.
Drifting Flowers Edifice aimed to show off their power by letting the participants choose their ingredients. But then, this fool came around and nabbed them all.
[Just you wait, brat. If you don't bake ten thousand pills I will tear you a new one!]
Xiao Ya glared with all her power at Zhuo Fan to comfort her bleeding heart. Her slight, almost ephemeral respect she had for him before now burned in the flames of rage and hatred.
[This punk is a rogue.]
Zhuo Fan had better things to do than care about her opinion. He scratched his nose and went to his spot. [What is fame when tangible stuff is more valuable, he-he-he…]
On the terrace, Xie Tianyang was piqued by his actions, then asked, "Elder Jiu, I heard you and the brat came to become allies. All his ingredients must be coming from Veiled Dragon Pavilion. Why is it that he looks so miserably poor? He was even moved by those 1st-grade ingredients!"
"Humph, when talking about greedy people, even a needle on the ground can move them." Long Kui berated.
Xie Tianyang raised an eyebrow in thought. [Well, that's quite true. With this brat's character, everywhere he goes, not even grass is left.]
Long Jiu muttered under his breath but actually agreed with Long Kui's assessment, "What little Kui said isn't without wisdom. This brat sure is greedy. Veiled Dragon Pavilion may be his ally, but we can't just give him our best ingredients. We can only provide 4th grade at most. But for some reason, the attendant in charge of giving him ingredients suddenly gave 5th-grade ingredients too, and lots of them.
"We later questioned the old and loyal attendant but he would rather take the blame for sneaking the ingredients out than to say anything. Ha-ha-ha, that brat sure has a way with people!" Long Jiu chuckled. His eyes however were especially dignified.
Xie Tianyang muttered, "Damn, I know this brat is vicious to everyone, enemy and friend alike. But he can even dig out Veiled Dragon Pavilion cornerstones?"
"That's not quite right. The attendant is still fine, working for our house as we speak. Even he doesn't know what got into him at that time to help that brat out!"
Shuddering, Xie Tianyang and Jian Suifeng looked at each other as they sank in deep thought.
They, who had a certain understanding of Zhuo Fan, now revised their opinion of him. [We must not, by any means, act too friendly with him when we interact.]
[Or he'll dig out everything from our house.]
The overseers were too focused on what happened in the arena to pay attention to their discussion. With every empty cabinet, their hearts bled harder.
[As the son in law to Drifting Flowers Edifices, he shows not the least restraint when taking our things. But he even goes as far as not leaving anything!]
Chu Qingcheng's angelic eyes now had a rare hint of killing intent.
[Rotten brat, isn't what's yours mine? What are you taking everything for? You'll soon be returning them anyway…]
Xiao Ya took a few deep breaths to push her anger down.
Boring her eyes into Zhuo Fan, she shouted at the ten participants, "With everyone ready, the Pill King round shall begin."
Yuan Qi flames were ignited one after the other.
Zhuo Fan was unmoving, however. Xiao Ya gnashed her teeth and spat, "Grandmaster Song, don't forget, you have to refine all the ingredients!"
Snorting, Zhuo Fan had a smile of disdain.
[You daft? I ain't that stupid! Wait for me to be crowned Pill King, take my prize, then skip town. What will you do then?]
Boom!
Like a roar of a huge beast, the sound from a blood-colored flame shook everything as it reached the heavens.
The instant it appeared, the alchemists close to it had their flames shriveled up.
Squinting, Zhuo Fan laughed coldly inside.
[Humph, that old coot finally plans to show his true skill…]