The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu-Chapter 391: Continuing to Flaunt

"Courting death!"

Corpse Transformation Palm!

The Black Mountain Elder struck toward the charging Burning Heaven Ancestor.

However, at that moment, a vertical eye opened on Burning Heaven Ancestor’s forehead.

Corpse Transformation Palm!

To everyone’s shock, he unleashed the exact same palm technique, colliding directly with the Black Mountain Elder’s attack.

As their palms met, Burning Heaven Ancestor remained motionless, while the Black Mountain Elder was sent flying.

He crashed into a tree, breaking it, before coming to a halt. Staggering a few steps back upon landing, he raised his head, his eyes filled with disbelief.

"This is my self-created peak-grade martial art, the Corpse Transformation Palm. How is this possible?"

The other three evils exchanged glances, frowning deeply. Their expressions became extremely grim.

"Attack together!"

After a brief exchange of looks, the three of them charged toward Burning Heaven Ancestor simultaneously.

"Hmph! You overestimate yourselves! Since you wish to die, I'll grant your wish!"

Burning Heaven Ancestor roared in fury, and suddenly, three massive Heavenly Flames erupted from his body. The surrounding temperature soared instantly. Flowers, grass, and trees ignited spontaneously under the intense heat. Within moments, the entire forest was engulfed in a raging inferno...

Meanwhile, in Phoenix Heaven City, due to an unexpected turn of events, all participants had prematurely fled from the Medicine Realm.

Fear was evident on every face, with many looking disheveled, their bodies stained with blood and bearing serious injuries.

Upon seeing this, the panel of judges turned pale with anger.

After counting the remaining contestants, they discovered that only a hundred had made it out. Their expressions darkened.

"That's already more than expected. If Burning Heaven Ancestor had wished, he could have easily slaughtered everyone inside," someone remarked gravely.

"It seems he wants to defeat all his competitors openly on the battlefield. At least he hasn’t harmed the true prodigies of alchemy. A small silver lining," Qin Shang exhaled deeply and sighed.

"Hmph! So what? Are we supposed to thank him for this?" Wang Hu snorted coldly. His face darkened further when he noticed that at least half of the Wang Clan’s alchemists had perished. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Every alchemist who had made it to the third round was an elite genius of the Wang Clan. Losing even one was unacceptable, let alone so many.

The rewards from winning this competition could never compensate for such a loss. It was no wonder his expression was so grim.

However, the one with the worst expression was Feng Tiancheng. The Enlightenment Tea Tree, his nation's treasure, had been stolen, and the entire city was in chaos. At this point, he had no energy left to focus on the competition.

Yet, this grand Western Region Alchemy Tournament could not be halted. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to continue and stepped forward, sighing.

"Due to unforeseen circumstances, all contestants have exited the Medicine Realm before the allotted time."

"This was a failure on the part of the Feng Clan, and I apologize."

"However, although everyone’s time inside was cut short and the number of collected spirit herbs is limited, all competitors are on equal footing. The competition remains fair."

"Now, reveal the spirit herbs you have gathered."

With that, all contestants found a table, sat down, and retrieved the herbs they had collected from their storage rings, placing them on the table for evaluation.

The spirit herbs from the Medicine Realm had a unique aura, making it impossible for anyone to cheat by substituting external herbs.

At last, Long Xuan displayed his own collection.

Although the Enlightenment Tea Tree Branch was technically a spirit herb from the Medicine Realm, he knew he could not reveal it. To avoid detection by the Feng Clan, he had already instructed Sou Gu to transfer the branch elsewhere when his strength recovered inside the realm.

Even if the Feng Clan exhausted themselves searching, they would never find it.

Soon, he had finished laying out all his gathered spirit herbs, covering half of his table. Though the quantity was not enormous, thanks to his clone technique, his collection was among the largest of all contestants.

Of course, this was only in comparison to ordinary alchemists. That Burning Heaven Ancestor and Qin Dan had taken out far more spirit herbs than he had, piling them up on their tables to the point that there was almost no space left. Who knows how many people they had killed to plunder so many spirit herbs?

Long Yuyao, Feng Shuang, and Wang Wu also had a greater number of spirit herbs than him, thanks to the assistance of their fellow clansmen who were cheating on their behalf.

Long Xuan glanced at them out of the corner of his eye, frowning slightly.

The more spirit herbs one had, the more options one had to choose from. This round was extremely disadvantageous for him.

Although he had achieved perfect scores in the previous two rounds, he had only managed to gain a one-point lead over the Heaven-Burning Patriarch and Qin Dan.

If he made a single misstep in this round, not only would his previous advantage disappear completely, but he could also be left far behind by the other competitors. Long Xuan immediately felt the pressure weighing on him.

Long Xiaoyao turned his gaze toward him and saw that there weren’t many spirit herbs on his table. His brows furrowed deeply.

"Do you have confidence in this round?" Long Xiaoyao asked urgently through soul transmission, his expression tense.

But even as he asked, he felt like he was asking a pointless question. Given the current situation, even if Long Xuan claimed he had confidence, Long Xiaoyao wouldn’t believe him.

"It’s not a big problem. Even if I can't surpass everyone, I absolutely won't lose. The score gap shouldn’t widen. But I need time," Long Xuan replied through soul transmission, bracing himself.

His spirit herb count was far lower than those two. If he didn’t find a way to change the situation, he was bound to lose this round—and by more than just a single point.

With things as they were, he could only take an unconventional path.

The competition rules required each participant to refine a pill based on the spirit herbs they had gathered. The higher the value of the pill, the higher their score.

Given his limited number of spirit herbs, the only way for him to achieve the highest score was to create an entirely new pill recipe. He had no choice but to take a bold risk.

In the Medicine Realm, participants had three days to gather herbs and one day to refine pills. However, due to an unexpected turn of events, all competitors had exited the Medicine Realm in less than a day.

That meant, strictly following the competition rules, he now had at least three full days of available time. Since he wasn’t researching a pill that would trigger natural phenomena, this timeframe was more than sufficient.

With that thought in mind, he closed his eyes, allowing his consciousness to enter his Soul Library, where he began analyzing pill formulas at maximum speed.

No one paid attention to his strange behavior. Seeing that all competitors had already taken out their spirit herbs, Feng Tiancheng announced, "Since all participants have gathered their spirit herbs, the pill refinement process will now begin."

With those words, he fell silent.

Except for Long Xuan, who remained seated with his eyes closed, all other competitors immediately retrieved their pill furnaces and started tossing in their spirit herbs one by one.

The Burning Heaven Ancestor and Qin Dan swept their gazes over the other competitors' tables, their expressions filled with disdain.

Perhaps they believed their victory was already assured, or maybe they simply looked down on refining fourth-grade pills to bully weaker competitors. Either way, they had chosen to refine third-grade pills for this round.

Seeing the Burning Heaven Ancestor using third-grade spirit herbs, Long Xiaoyao, who had been watching closely, let out a sigh of relief. As expected, his guess had been correct—unless absolutely necessary, someone as prideful as the Burning Heaven Ancestor would never refine a fourth-grade pill.

However, due to his ruthless slaughter of many competitors, he possessed the greatest number of spirit herbs. Even if he refined only a third-grade pill in this round, securing the highest score would still be effortless for him.

Long Xiaoyao's expression grew tense again as he turned his gaze toward Long Xuan. Seeing him still seated with his eyes closed, he frowned deeply.

"What the hell is he doing?"

Long Yuyao also looked in his direction, feeling irritated.

She had suggested forming an alliance to cheat together, but he had arrogantly refused, saying he disdained such methods. Now, with far fewer spirit herbs than his rivals, had he overplayed his act? Did he really think closing his eyes would solve the problem?

If all the Long Clan participants had pooled their spirit herbs together, they could have at least gathered half the amount of those two competitors. Even if they couldn’t win outright, they wouldn’t have fallen too far behind.

Now, things had become troublesome...