Chapter 710, Persuasion
Di Yao once again mentioned his mysterious Master, only increasing Yang Kai’s curiosity, he didn’t know just how powerful and influential this Master was, but he knew that if he asked anything directly, most of his questions would simply receive no answer.
“There are four Third Order Transcendents on my side that can escort me to Ascending Heaven Cliff, what about you, Brother Di?” Yang Kai decided to focus on things he could get an answer to for now.
“Senior Ao Gu will probably give me a few Transcendent Realm masters as escorts, but I don’t know exactly how many; however, as long as we work together, our chances will be much higher than most. At the start it will be a battle between Transcendent Realm masters, but once we reach the peak of Ascending Heaven Cliff, it will be a battle between Alchemists, and the strength of most Alchemists can be a discounted direction, so you and I should easily be able to snatch up the Thousand Year Demon Flower,” Di Yao smirked.
“Good, then we’ll go with that. We’ll act together on the day the flower blossoms,” Yang Kai nodded, putting down the medicinal liquid he had just condensed before raising his hand.
Di Yao was dumbfounded, “So fast?”
In the short time they were speaking, Yang Kai had actually condensed all the herbs into medicinal liquid.
The old men on top of the head platform who was in charge of supervising the competition all stared blankly, seemingly unable to believe one of the competitors had already completed the first event.
However, before they could return to their senses, in the next moment, Di Yao also hurriedly raised his hand, only lagging behind Yang Kai by a few breaths.
Immediately, one of the Saint Grade Alchemists flew down from the high platform and came over to Yang Kai and Di Yao; after checking their medicinal liquids, he announced in a somewhat strained voice their successful clearance.
Sitting atop the high platform, Du Wan smiled as he stroked his beard, seemingly having expected this scene from the start, his expression the very picture of calm as if he was simply enjoying the mid-day sunshine.
On the other hand, Old Man Du’s old friends couldn’t sit still, one of the yellow-faced old people asking, “Brother Du, where did you find these two little monsters? The speed they condensed their medicinal liquid was basically on par with our own.”
“Hoho, that’s a secret,” Du Wan smiled and shook his head, “I hope all of you are prepared to shave off a few pounds of meat.”
The faces of a few old fogies atop the platform turned bitter at these words, all of them clear that Du Wan had been assured of victory in their little game and that they had all stupidly walked right into his trap.
But all of them had been old friends for many years, so naturally, they wouldn’t renege on their debts for something like this and transfer things out of their Universe Bags.
On the contrary, they all became quite interested in these two outstanding young Alchemists, and they were all quite pleased to see the younger generation filled with such hopeful talents.
In the first test, out of the original several hundred contestants, more than half were eliminated. These people were unable to condense all of their herbs into medicinal liquid within the prescribed time or had failed too many times in the process.
Mi Na managed to enter the second round so she was quite happy.
After the first round, the second began immediately – portraying Spirit Arrays.
Using the Mysterious Grade Mid-Rank pill furnace inside the Universe Bag, the competing Alchemists were to portray Spirit Arrays. There was no time limit for this round, the more Spirit Arrays one could portray and the more complex their structure, the better.
Yang Kai and Di Yao once again easily won first place.
Third round, control of fire.
Fourth round, arranging medicinal herbs.
Fifth round, sixth round…
Finally, the last round was a competition of refining pills.
There was no time given to the competitors to rest and in just over a day, the Alchemy contest was completed; in the end, only Yang Kai and Di Yao remained.
Mi Na had been eliminated during the fourth round and although she was a bit frustrated with this result, it was still quite a good showing for her. After a few compliments from Old Man Du, she was immediately happy again.
In front of the whole crowd, when the last round of the competition came around, Di Yao took the initiative to forfeit.
For one, from their previous contest, he already knew he wasn’t Yang Kai’s opponent. Although their accomplishments in the Alchemic Way were quite close, there was still a small but obvious difference.
Di Yao also didn’t want to expose the full extent of his and Yang Kai’s abilities in front of so many people. The previous rounds were just side by side, single technique comparisons, so there wasn’t much of a problem showing off a little bit, but if the two of them were to go through the entire process of refining a pill, some things which were best kept secret would definitely be exposed.
Their Alchemy speed and methods were simply too unusual.
The Alchemist Guild experts were somewhat astonished, never having expected Di Yao to give up such a great opportunity, but after noticing his indifferent expression and mentality, they relaxed.
“Brother Yang, I’ll say goodbye here for today, let us meet again soon. I’ll be heading back first, or Master will yell at me again,” Di Yao said, and under the escort of the two Transcendent Realm guards, strolled back towards the City Lord’s Mansion.
Liu Fu stood atop the high platform and announced that the winner of the competition was Yang Kai and then delivered the prizes promised by the Alchemist Guild to the latter on the spot.
A Universe Bag filled with rare herbs and a Saint Grade pill furnace.
Countless people stared with envious eyes.
Yang Kai immediately threw the Saint Grade pill furnace to Mi Na, causing the little girl to become so excited she ran up to him and kissed him on the cheek.
“Little friend Yang, come here,” Du Wan smiled and beckoned him over to a corner of the high platform.
Yang Kai nodded and walked over.
“Kid, who is your teacher?”
“How about coming to my Three River City’s Alchemist Guild branch? We’re much richer than Grand Boulder City’s branch and there are many more beautiful women there as well.”
“If you keep following Du Wan, your future prospects will be limited. This old fart already has half a foot in the grave, you should come with us instead.”
As soon as Yang Kai arrived, all the old fogies beside Du Wan began bombarding him with such comments as they stared at Yang Kai feverishly.
Yang Kai was shocked, the enthusiasm of these old fogies was way too high and he immediately felt smothered.
“Do all of you old farts, have you no shame?” Du Wan cut in, “Since when did I become a half-dead old man? Actually trying to snatch a treasure right in front of me? If any of you dares say anything more, this old Du will go all out with you!”
“Du Wan, save your energy, what’s the point in becoming so excited at your age? Be careful not to strain your back,” Someone laughed.
“Your age is not small either,” Du Wan snorted back.
“This Junior is grateful for various Seniors’ care,” Yang Kai took this chance to get in a few words, “But Junior does not intend on pursuing the Alchemic way for his entire lifetime, I wish to spy on the peak of the Martial Dao. Studying Alchemy is just a way for me to compliment my pursuit of the Martial Dao, so Junior is sorry but he must reject your good will.”
The crowd of old fogies were all dumbstruck, their jaws dropped as they stared at Yang Kai, even Du Wan was no exception.
“You want to immerse yourself in the Martial Dao? With such astounding aptitude in Alchemy, why would you insist on pursuing the Martial Dao? Young man, don’t you understand what kind of potential you have?”
“Indeed, this is simply a waste of the gifts the Heavens have bestowed you. If your objective is to protect someone, you can do so easily by enhancing your Alchemy skills. As long as your Alchemist grade rises to a certain point, there is nothing in this world you cannot obtain, whether it is wealth, privilege, reputation, status, or beauties. On top of that, you won’t need to struggle to obtain them yourself, as long as you put out the word, someone will naturally deliver it to you.”
“After becoming an Alchemy Grandmaster, you will receive all kinds of advantages, no matter where you go, even if you visit the Demon Land or Monster Domain, those Demon Race and Monster Race powerhouses will treat you as a respected guest.”
The group of old folks continued their attempts to persuade Yang Kai, painstakingly describing the wondrous prospects of becoming a top tier Alchemist in an attempt to change his mind.
“My only hope is to reach the peak of the Martial Dao!” Yang Kai declared firmly, without the slightest hint of uncertainty in his eyes.
Everyone was struck speechless.
The Martial Peak was not something one could achieve simply by pursuing Alchemy.
Feeling the steadfast determination of Yang Kai, everyone sighed as they all thought he was ruining himself.
“Du Wan, you must spend some time talking to this little boy, he’s too young and impetuous, I’m afraid he cannot see far enough into his future to understand,” The old man who invited Yang Kai to Three River City before whispered into Du Wan’s ear.
Du Wan nodded lightly, “When I have a chance to, I will speak with him.”
Du Wan obviously also felt like pursing the peak of the Martial Dao would be too much of a waste given Yang Kai’s aptitude for Alchemy.
Coughing lightly, Du Wan said, “This matter can be set aside, for now, little friend Yang having his own goals is a good thing, young people must naturally have their own thoughts and pursuits.”
He was afraid that the zealous teachings of these old guys would have the opposite effect which would do no good in the end so he quickly changed the subject, “Since you all are willing to gamble, you must be prepared to lose, are you all ready?”
Hearing this, the crowd of old fogies all suddenly wore bitter expressions as they clenched their teeth and scowled towards Du Wan, “You old fox!”
Although they all said as much, none of them was about to renege on their bet so they all took out their own Universe Bag and tossed it to Yang Kai.
Yang Kai stretched out his hand and in an instant; there were five new Universe Bags in his hand.
“Heh heh, who made you all so overconfident?” Du Wan laughed happily while saying to Yang Kai, “Little friend Yang, no need to act polite, if you have a liking for anything you see, just take it, the good things in their Universe Bag were all gifted to them anyways.”
“Then… Junior will be impolite,” Yang Kai also smiled and in front of these old folk’s nervous stares, released his Divine Sense and carefully examined the Universe Bags.
After simply seeing the content of the first Universe Bag, Yang Kai’s face changes greatly.
It was worthy of being the Universe Bag of a Saint Grade Alchemist, everything contained inside was extraordinary, there was nothing below Spirit Grade Low-Rank, and whether it was pills, herbs, Secret Arts, or artifacts, there was no shortage of items which had reached Saint Grade.
There were also a number of strange items Yang Kai couldn’t identify.
But regardless of what it was, the aura and energy fluctuations given off by them made it obvious they weren’t ordinary.
Yang Kai was dazzled but after confirming that there were no herbs he needed in this Universe Bag, he then began the difficult process of choosing something else.
“Young man, do hurry up, this old master can’t help feeling a little anxious if you act so slowly,” The owner of this Universe Bag couldn’t help but comment.
“Old Man Du, can I only take one thing?” Yang Kai turned an awkward look to Du Wan.
“En, my bet with these old friends was for one item each,” Du Wan nodded gently before suddenly wearing a mischievous grin, “But my old friends are all generous characters who are especially fond of promising young talents, therefore, I think it won’t bother them if you were to take something more as a sign of their appreciation, isn’t that right, Brother Chang?”
Saying so, Old Man Du smiled crookedly at the owner of this Universe Bag.