Damned Healer-Chapter 731: Bit Too Showy?

"They’re Ancestors of the Hellfire Pill Sect!"

A shout echoed as a group of very old Alchemists entered.

The people in front were extremely ancient figures of that sect, more than ten of them. Behind them was the tower and branch administrator.

They would be the inspectors of this grand event. They were retired alchemists who probably didn’t have much time left to live. Unable to refine pills anymore, they had been sent to handle other important duties.

These elders had devoted their entire lives to Alchemy. Even in old age, their eyesight was still sharp. They were definitely the best people to judge properly if a new Alchemist Emperor emerged in this competition.

Everyone was on the main stage. The entire crowd fell silent the instant they arrived, the atmosphere immediately turning tense.

The leading Ancestor looked at the thousand candidates already on the stage in their separate areas. He nodded, sensing the determined gazes of two of them.

Darian was not among them, because he couldn’t have looked more relaxed and indifferent about all this.

"The test for the Alchemist Emperor is quite simple. During registration, we evaluated your latent talent for the future. In the eliminations, we evaluated what you could do based on what you had on hand and your knowledge. But in the finals..." His voice echoed with power through the arena.

"In the finals, everyone must show their skill by doing something for the first time."

All thousand nodded, swallowing dryly. All their study and practice in something specific didn’t carry as much weight here, but rather what they had truly learned in Alchemy theory.

"The pill you will make is something created dozens of generations ago by my sect. No outsider has had access to its recipe until now. But at this point, it no longer matters if it leaks. It is called: Primordial Bloodline Dew."

After speaking, he waved his hand, and small Jade Slips flew toward each candidate. Everyone grabbed one and saw the complete recipe for the pill inside.

Darian took a deep breath. It was a high-level pill, but he had never even been formally taught how to make something intermediate.

But... his eyes grew slightly excited. This pill was made for cultivators who already possessed a primordial bloodline; only they could consume it. It helped them assimilate that bloodline into the body and also stabilize their internal energies more easily.

In other words, for Chrysos, this pill would produce the same effect as the twelve-circle pill he needed, but this one would also give him several times more benefits on top of that. It was far, far better for him.

That elder waved again. This time, several spatial rings floated toward all the participants.

"Inside are the materials for three attempts at making the pill. Along with them, we are also providing a suitable pill furnace. Everyone must use this furnace to make the pill, so there is no chance of cheating."

The elder spoke, and his eyes moved toward Darian. Clearly, that part had been created because of him.

"T-This... this is impossible!" Some of the competitors were completely stunned.

This pill was only high-level, but it used ingredients that were incredibly difficult to handle and refine, pushing the difficulty to a Celestial level. It was too much. Normally, only Alchemist Emperors would dare attempt something like this, and even they had a low success rate with only three tries.

More importantly, refining a pill like this demanded enormous spiritual power and flame energy. That was something they simply could not reach.

Limdiss looked quite calm. Darian noticed and nodded; she had entered an absolute flow state, where she had no thoughts except doing her work.

As for Mulloy, he looked coldly at the others. When he saw Darian looking at him, his eyes changed, and he clenched his fists full of hatred. He could barely wait, and all he wanted was to win and take revenge.

"Since you are not Emperors yet, we know refining these pills is truly difficult for you. But don’t forget: this is a competition among you. We are not requiring you to refine them to a specific level. As long as you can condense the pill, you will have a chance to take first place, even if the pill you refine is poor," the central Ancestor said lightly.

His words caused a wave of relief among the competitors. And it was true. The thought passing through their minds was: if I can’t do it, the others won’t either.

If everyone else failed, then maybe even a useless pill could really take first place. Everyone recovered from their despair.

The Ancestor smiled and then took out a large hourglass. He flipped it, and the sand began to fall slowly.

"You have seventy-two hours. Let the finals begin!"

Everyone in the stands roared excitedly. Shouting was obviously not forbidden, or the finals wouldn’t be held in a public arena.

Each candidate only had three sets of ingredients. In other words, if you failed three times, you would be eliminated immediately.

Numerous flames ignited. That pill formula was extremely detailed; even the order in which the powders should be mixed had been fully explained. There was no need to fumble around on their own.

The main objective of this test was to evaluate each person’s control. This pill was deliberately difficult to push to their limits. By comparison, ordinary pills were like making a simple stir-fry; now they were slow-cooking a stew. They were competing in terms of endurance.

Darian was slightly lost in thought.

He read everything carefully, then snorted in relief. This pill had been created by the alchemists of this sect using techniques his uncle Almin had created. Therefore, Darian could read and understand the procedures, recalling his uncle’s words from the past.

Moreover... when Darian was a child, he had been far more interested in the techniques used to create pills than in the pills themselves. Because of that, Almin had felt compelled to impress him, teaching him his spiritual pill techniques.

In short, if Darian followed the recipe using everything he knew, he was completely confident. Using this professional pill furnace would make things a bit harder... but he had many methods in mind.

On the other hand, this test seemed extremely favorable to Mulloy. His powerful flame, one of the most potent Beast Flames in existence, gave him an immense advantage, especially in purifying the ingredients.

Limdiss was no different. These two were far ahead of everyone else, but no one could complain because a powerful flame meant nothing without equivalent control. If a strong flame alone were enough, everyone from the Golden Crow Sect would become Alchemists.

In other words, even if everyone there had the same flames as them, they still wouldn’t achieve the same results.

After the start, the entire arena fell silent, all eyes fixed on the top three from the eliminations. The second and third had already begun, but Darian spent several minutes just studying the recipe.

Until... he finally moved and let out a slow breath.

"This is forcing me to show off. Actually, I’m a very low-key person. Why does everyone have to make me do this?"

His voice could be heard by everyone in the arena.

Suddenly, a flame appeared in the palm of Darian’s hand. The moment the flame appeared, shocked cries echoed from the crowd.

"What... what flame is that?!"

"It has red, yellow, and also blue? One, two, three... actually, there are eighteen colors. What is going on?"

People were stunned when they saw the multicolored flame in Darian’s hand. Its colors were extremely complex.

"It looks like a legendary fused flame. He merged multiple beast flames to release an unprecedented force!"

"Are you kidding? Each person can only use one beast flame. If they tried to use two, the stronger flame would devour the weaker ones. How could anyone use so many at the same time?" someone shot back.

"Then tell me, what is that flame?!" Having been criticized, that individual became a little irritated. He pointed at Darian’s flame.

The critic was immediately speechless. A fused flame was like trying to gather a wolf, an insect, a tiger, a leopard, a chicken, a duck, a cat, and a dog. They would definitely fight and kill each other, and could not fuse.

But aside from a fused flame, there was no other way to explain the flame in Darian’s hand.

The central Ancestor smiled and nodded. "This little one is truly interesting. He is capable of fusing flames."

Darian was focused. And indeed, he had taken all the beast cores from those alchemists earlier and fused them to use in this final.

He had not fused them into his body; the blood of many innocents had been used to create that, and he would only feel disgust. He was using it to win, and afterward, he would destroy everything.

The fusion of flames Darian had summoned shocked everyone. Even from so far away, they could still feel the terrifying heat of that flame.

"The power of his combined flame seems to be on the same level as Mulloy’s Flame!" people exclaimed. Although there was no way to make a detailed comparison, the powerful fluctuations of both flames were similar.

Mulloy couldn’t help but be startled. But then a cold smile appeared on his face.

If you gathered a hundred sheep, could they have the same strength as a lion? That made no sense. It probably only looked strong, but Darian wouldn’t be able to sustain it until the end, since it should be difficult to stabilize.

Darian began the work meticulously. With his flame, refining the ingredients into powder was quite simple and fast. Even so... it had to be done with maximum care and would take quite a while.

If Darian only wanted to turn everything into nothing, his power could do it in a single second. But alchemy wasn’t about power; it was about refining the ingredients in very specific ways.

If they had been given only one day, everyone else could have simply given up. That wouldn’t even be enough time to refine the ingredients into powder.

Because of the advantage of those three’s flames, they could do it in half the time of the others. That was why the other candidates already knew first place would definitely belong to one of them.

They wouldn’t even have time to use the other two attempts; they would only manage once because they were weak. Thus, most of the people there had no hope of refining a high-quality pill, or even a medium-quality one. As long as they could condense the pill, it would already be incredible.

Within minutes, many already felt their souls beginning to reach their limits. For them, refining this pill would depend on luck.

After twelve hours, the sky darkened.

More than ten people were completely pale. It was far too draining on spiritual power, and they needed to recover their energy. In this competition, it was allowed to consume pills to revitalize the soul. The only objective was to evaluate each person’s potential.

Around the twentieth hour, most of them had to take a break. Only people at the level of the top three were still enduring.

When the sun rose again, after the twenty-fourth hour, the only ones still going were Mulloy, Darian, and Limdiss. But Mulloy and Darian clearly still had plenty of energy left, while Limdiss was a bit pale.

Refining these ingredients was extremely exhausting, both spiritually and mentally. At the thirty-sixth hour, Limdiss was reluctantly forced to stop to rest.

As for the others, they had already recovered and continued refining the ingredients.

After refining the last ingredient, Darian couldn’t help but sigh. That had been very tiring.

Darian had barely finished when Mulloy also completed his refinement. He looked at Darian and, seeing that he had finished earlier, let out a cold snort. He sat down and swallowed a soul-nourishing pill to recover.

The true refinement was about to begin. He needed to remain at his peak because he could not afford the slightest mistake. Because the initial refinement stage required so much time, only half of the seventy-two hours remained. At that moment, the competitors would have only one chance to refine a furnace of pills.

The only reason Mulloy had worked so hard refining those ingredients was that he hoped to beat Darian in terms of speed. Unfortunately, Darian didn’t even give him that chance. He could only calm himself and prepare for the final stretch.

Seeing this, Darian mocked him inwardly. If he wanted, he could keep this refinement going until next month. He was using only 10% of what he had, because he was saving a trump card for the end, just in case.

But...

Why the rush?

If the opponent needs to rest, it’s better to give him a chance to think he was in control, right?

Darian placed all the ingredients into the furnace and closed it, without using any flame.

Then he yawned and took out a reclining chair and a parasol to shield himself from the sun, which he had inside one of the rings he stole earlier.

Thus, under everyone’s confused and shocked gaze...

...he lay down, crossed his legs, and began to pretend to sleep.

The spectators were dumbfounded. Wasn’t that a bit too showy? He wasn’t going to swallow any pill, nor meditate? Instead, he was sleeping?

The Elders’ expressions darkened. Darian seemed far too arrogant. One of them was about to say something when the central Ancestor shook his head. "Young people need to be spirited. Besides, he hasn’t broken any rules. Let him do whatever he wants."

In truth, this was somewhat disrespectful, and he could punish Darian for it if he wanted.

But... this elder felt something off about Darian’s furnace.

He didn’t know what it was, nor could he sense anything coming from it. It was just an instinctive impression.

As for Darian... he was secretly keeping an eye on a special rune he had placed inside the furnace. It would nurture the materials, and he didn’t need to do much, just watch. It was one of the techniques he learned from his uncle, but he didn’t want to give anyone hints about it... and besides, it was fun to put on a bit of a show for the audience.