As soon as Liu Ling finished speaking, a pitch-black hurricane arose in the arena, accompanied by Huo Tan's mocking voice, "Haha... You worthless alchemists of the Jia Ma Empire, the championship is mine for sure."
Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw Huo Tan summon a flame that was black with a tinge of red. The moment the flame appeared, the flame in Liu Ling's hand seemed to weaken slightly. Although his flame was nowhere near as powerful as the Heavenly Flame, it was still stronger than Liu Ling's flame by a small margin.
"Heh, it seems it's time for my performance," Xiao Se said with a faint smile as he looked at the colorful flames around him. He raised his right fist high and slowly opened it. A cyan flame flickered and suddenly shot up, causing the temperature of the entire plaza to spike drastically. It became so unbearably hot that it felt like being in the Tagore Desert.
Threads of cyan flame rose slowly from Xiao Se's palm and silently gathered above his head, forming a massive, semi-transparent cyan lotus made of crystal.
As the cyan lotus spun, the once lively flames in the hands of Liu Ling, Huo Tan, and the others suddenly withered. All the flames bowed toward the cyan lotus above Xiao Se's head, as if they were subjects worshiping their monarch.
When the Heavenly Flame appears, all other flames submit!
"That's... the Heavenly Flame?" Gazing at the massive cyan lotus above Xiao Se's head, the five influential figures of the Jia Ma Empire—Hai Bodong, Fa Ma, Jia Xing Tian, Yun Yun, and Gu He—stood up in unison from the VIP stands, their eyes filled with astonishment at the extraordinary sight. Their faces showed a mix of gravity and amazement.
Gu He took a deep breath and, with a complicated expression, looked at Yun Yun beside him, and smiled bitterly. "Sect Leader Yun, could he be the masked boy with the Heavenly Flame from last year?"
Yun Yun slowly nodded.
"Heh, to be so close with Elder Hai, I should have guessed it was him. But I didn't expect him to be this young. If I remember correctly, he registered as being just seventeen. Truly, the younger generation surpasses the old," Gu He sighed with a helpless smile.
"His talent is indeed exceptional," Yun Yun remarked. Even with her usual composure, she couldn't help but show admiration in her beautiful eyes as she looked at the cyan flame dancing in Xiao Se's hand. A Heavenly Flame, a rare and dangerous natural treasure, was not something even she dared to touch lightly.
Standing behind Fa Ma and Hai Bodong, Ya Fei, Yao Ye, and Yao Yue were equally shocked by their conversation.
"This boy really knows how to surprise people," Ya Fei murmured softly with a gentle smile, looking at the attention Xiao Se had drawn.
"This guy... his flame is even stronger than Grandpa Long's Ocean Flame," Yao Yue muttered, feeling a sense of helplessness.
Initially, she had comforted herself that in a few years, she would be able to catch up to Xiao Se. But now, with the appearance of the Heavenly Flame, she knew that there was no hope. Although he was supposedly just seventeen years old and she was only fourteen, the gap between them—whether in strength or alchemy skill—was insurmountable. She no longer foolishly believed that Xiao Se was merely a second-tier alchemist.
"Surely he's not that petty. Maybe... I'll apologize after the competition," Yao Yue thought, her mind filled with indecision.
In another corner of the VIP section, Nalan Yanran, who was sitting beside Nalan Jie, had also stood up, still reeling from shock. Though she had known beforehand that Xiao Se possessed a Heavenly Flame, seeing it with her own eyes was a completely different experience.
The flame that even her mentor, Yun Yun, and several Dou Wangs couldn't obtain, was now in Xiao Se's hands. How could she not be astonished?
Back in the plaza, Xiao Se marveled at the scene of the flames submitting to him. Noticing the stunned gazes around him, he shrugged slightly, and with a wave of his hand, he poured the Heavenly Flame into the cauldron. Only then did the flames of the other contestants return to normal.
"Hmph, so what if your flame is good? The gap in our alchemy levels can't be bridged by just having a Heavenly Flame," Huo Tan sneered as he poured his black-red flame into the cauldron.
Unlike Huo Tan's confidence, Liu Ling's face was far more somber. To impress Nalan Yanran and win the top spot in the Alchemist Competition, he had asked his mentor, the Pill King Gu He, to obtain a fifth-tier beast flame for him. He had hoped to defeat Xiao Se with it, but once again, he ended up looking like a fool.
As the strange phenomenon disappeared, the contestants refocused their attention on the final round of the competition. Pouring their flames into their cauldrons, they began extracting the medicinal essences, completing the first step.
Xiao Se's eyes were fixed on the cauldron as he recalled the recipe from Luo Han's memories. His hands moved smoothly, occasionally tossing herbs into the cauldron, and slowly refining the required medicinal essence.
Though he was thoroughly familiar with the recipe, Hai Bodong had only managed to gather two sets of the necessary herbs. Xiao Se couldn't afford to make any mistakes.
The massive plaza fell into a deep silence, as everyone focused on refining their respective pills. Even the once noisy spectators and VIPs gradually quieted down in the solemn atmosphere.
"They all have hidden cards to play. Whether it's the strange alchemist from the Izumo Empire or that Liu Ling kid, they both have trump cards. But compared to Xiao Se's breathtaking display of flame mastery, they pale in comparison. To encounter someone like Xiao Se in their generation is both their fortune and misfortune," Nalan Jie sighed as he looked at Xiao Se skillfully refining the medicinal essences with the Heavenly Flame.
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