68: Chapter 68 The Explosive Flame of the Elixir and the Rampant Insect Insects

The thought flashed through in the blink of an eye, and Lin Chen's consciousness returned to the ongoing Alchemist Association competition.

Above the high platform, the voice of the Alchemist Association Vice President, Master Chiyang, rang out like a tolling bell across the entire venue: "The third round, form the pill! Pill Formula, Fourth Grade, chi yang bone-tempering pill!"

As his words fell, a low uproar swept through the arena.

chi yang bone-tempering pill!

This Medicinal Pill was notoriously famous in the alchemist circles of Qingzhou Prefecture.

It was not a poisonous pill, but a potent Body Refining Spirit Medicine that could assist Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivators in tempering their bones and significantly increasing their Physical Body strength.

But its refining method required such strict control over the heat that it was almost abnormal.

This pill required the use of pure, Yang-aligned flames to repeatedly refine seven main Materials with different attributes, and the smelting nodes and Fusion order for each material had to be precise without the slightest error.

If the heat was slightly too weak, the medicinal power would be impure; if the heat was slightly too strong, the pill would be destroyed and the person injured.

Sure enough, less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn after Master Chiyang finished speaking, two dull "bang" sounds rang out from the sidelines.

The Pill Furnace in front of two alchemists shook violently, and the furnace lids were blown off by a violent wave of fire. Black smoke mixed with the pungent smell of burnt herbs filled the air, announcing their failure.

The atmosphere in the venue became several times heavier in an instant.

Lin Chen's gaze moved past the sea of heads, locking firmly onto the cold and focused figure in the center of the square.

Su Qingyao's face was paler than usual, and a layer of fine sweat had already seeped out from her smooth forehead, sliding down her slender cheeks and dripping onto her collar, leaving a small dark stain.

In front of her, that ice-blue Pill Furnace was hovering steadily.

A wisp of crystal-clear flame, as if condensed from ice crystals, was wrapping around the bottom of the furnace; this was her innate pill fire, the "Ice Crystal Flame."

And on both sides of the Ice Crystal Flame, there were two slightly smaller auxiliary flames, one was the "Earth Pulse Warm Fire," and the other was the "Green Wood Ignition Fire." The three flames intertwined, together maintaining the delicate Yin and Yang balance within the furnace.

Lin Chen's breathing unconsciously slowed down.

He could feel the immense pressure Su Qingyao was under at this moment.

Her Divine Sense, like the finest silk thread, carefully probed into the Pill Furnace, feeling the subtle changes of each Spirit Medicine under the tempering of the Yang fire, while simultaneously having to split her focus to control three flames with different attributes. The consumption of her internal energy and mental strain was terrifying.

His right fingertips subconsciously rubbed slowly against that rough stone ring, once, then again, as if only this familiar touch could slightly alleviate the anxiety in his heart.

Time passed second by second.

Fewer and fewer alchemists were able to hold on, and the dull sounds of exploding furnaces echoed one after another, like a funeral bell ringing for this cruel competition.

Soon, only five or six people, including Su Qingyao, remained in the arena, which originally had dozens of competitors, struggling to hold on.

Just then, the flames beneath a Pill Furnace not far from Su Qingyao suddenly flared with great brilliance!

Lin Chen's gaze shifted over abruptly.

It was Ge Yuan!

At this moment, Ge Yuan's face showed an unnatural flush, his eyes were bloodshot, yet his gaze revealed a desperate, paranoid madness.

The fluctuations of spiritual energy around his body were nearly thirty percent stronger than before; he had clearly used some kind of forbidden secret technique.

Lin Chen's pupils contracted slightly.

He saw Ge Yuan, taking advantage of a turning motion, flick a blood-red pill the size of a fingernail into his mouth, swallowing it swiftly and covertly.

Blood-Burning Pill! A forbidden drug that overdrafts a Cultivator's vital essence to forcibly boost their cultivation level in a short time!

The moment the Medicinal Pill entered his mouth, the "Green Lotus Earth Heart Fire" imitation dancing in Ge Yuan's palm flared violently. The originally withered green flame instantly became solid and violent, forcibly suppressing the unruly Yang fire energy within the Pill Furnace.

The Fusion speed of the medicinal liquid inside the furnace visibly accelerated!

A grim smile curled the corners of Ge Yuan's mouth.

For this day, he had long made full preparations.

Although the chi yang bone-tempering pill was difficult, with his secret technique, he would definitely trample Su Qingyao under his feet!

However, he did not notice that with the activation of the Blood-Burning secret technique, the pill toxins accumulated in his body due to long-term consumption of various tonics were suddenly stirred up like waking poisonous snakes.

The skyrocketing spiritual energy and the churning pill toxins collided with a boom within his Meridians!

A fishy, metallic taste rushed to his throat.

Ge Yuan's expression changed, and he forcibly swallowed that mouthful of blood.

But the violent internal conflict caused his right hand, which was controlling the flames, to tremble uncontrollably.

The trembling was extremely subtle, but at such a moment where the heat control required minute precision, it was fatal!

Inside the Pill Furnace, the seven types of medicinal liquids were at the final stage of Fusion, and the prototype of a crimson Medicinal Pill was slowly condensing, emitting a scorching medicinal fragrance.

The pill was about to form in the blink of an eye!

Ge Yuan suppressed the discomfort in his body, attempting to make a final adjustment of his spiritual energy.

However, just as he injected the final wisp of spiritual energy to stabilize the pill shape, his trembling right hand ultimately failed to maintain control.

A wisp of violent spiritual energy, far exceeding his estimates, like a runaway wild horse, crashed fiercely into the heart of the "Green Lotus Earth Heart Fire"!

"Hum —"

The Pill Furnace emitted a wail of unbearable burden.

"Not good!" Master Chiyang on the high platform changed his expression drastically, just about to intervene, but it was already too late.

"Boom!!"

With a dull, ear-splitting roar, Ge Yuan's Pill Furnace exploded first!

The violent crimson pill fire, like a broken levee, mixed with countless red-hot fragments of the Pill Furnace, turned into a destructive shockwave, shooting wildly in all directions!

The energy of the explosion was so violent that it was like throwing a boulder into a calm surface of water.

This energy fluctuation traveled along the ground and through the air, instantly reaching several unnoticed, hidden corners at the edge of the venue.

There, several "Spirit-Devouring Gu" mother worm sensing talismans that had been planted in advance were triggered with a boom!

"Hiss —!!!"

A shrill, inhuman screech sounded simultaneously from the ground, from the stone cracks, and from the shadows.

Almost at the same time, hundreds of Spirit-Devouring Gu, the size of soybeans, jet-black with hideous and sharp mouthparts, swarmed out like a surging black tide!

Following the chaotic spiritual energy dissipated by the explosion and the vibrant scent of the Cultivators' blood, they crazily pounced on the nearest living things!

The venue fell into chaos!

Ge Yuan bore the brunt of it, blown away by the shockwave of his own exploding furnace. Half of his body was scorched black by the pill fire, and he spat out a mouthful of blood, instantly fainting.

And that raging pill fire ignited the auxiliary Materials and medicinal herbs piled up next to several nearby Pill Furnaces.

"Boom!" "Boom!"

Chain explosions occurred one after another!

Scorching flames and destructive airwaves instantly swept through nearly half of the venue.

"Ah!!"

"It's the Gu! Look, it's the Spirit-Devouring Gu!"

"Help! My spiritual energy... my spiritual energy is disappearing!"

Screams, exclamations, and explosions, mixed with the "buzzing" of the Gu's wings, instantly turned the venue into a living hell.

Those Spirit-Devouring Gu feared neither life nor death. They could ignore the spiritual energy shields hastily erected by low-level Cultivators, and those sharp mouthparts could easily pierce skin, crazily sucking the Cultivators' flesh and spiritual energy.

An alchemist who was pounced on by the Gu was sucked into a shriveled corpse in just a few breaths.

"Presumptuous!"

Master Chiyang's hair stood on end with fury.

Flames rose around his body, and the pressure of his Golden Core Stage erupted. With a wave of his palm, it turned into a giant flame handprint, forcibly extinguishing the large swaths of raging pill fire.

But the incident happened too suddenly, and the number of Gu was large and widely scattered. Even he could not control the whole situation in an instant.

Just at the moment the explosion occurred, a shockwave mixed with flames and debris, along with several Gu blown away by the airwaves, had already charged straight towards the area where Su Qingyao was!

"Ugh!"

Su Qingyao groaned, her delicate body trembling violently.

Her Pill Furnace shook violently under the shockwave, the three flames originally running steadily inside the furnace became chaotic in an instant, and the medicinal liquid about to form a pill emitted a whimper of impending collapse.

She gritted her teeth, a trace of blood spilling from the corner of her mouth. Ignoring the internal injuries from the shock, she forcibly used all her Divine Sense and spiritual energy to wrap tightly around the Pill Furnace, attempting to save this last hope.

Her face was as pale as paper.

"Qingyao!"

Lin Chen's roar erupted almost at the same time as the explosion.

He did not hesitate at all, his figure like lightning, jumping down from the spectator stand dozens of feet high!

While in mid-air, his Foundation Establishment Stage spiritual energy was already fully unleashed without reservation.

"Thick Earth, Defend!"

He landed half a zhang in front of Su Qingyao and pushed his hands forward violently.

Massive earthy-yellow spiritual energy instantly gushed out, condensing into a thick, solid spiritual energy shield shimmering with mysterious yellow luster in front of him and Su Qingyao!

"Bang, bang, bang!"

The burning fire fragments and several Spirit-Devouring Gu slammed into the shield, making a teeth-gritting sizzling sound.

The shield fluctuated violently, its light flickering, but it ultimately blocked this fatal first wave of impact.

"Young Miss!"

"Family Head!"

In the spectator stand, Qin Ruowei and Liu Ruxu exclaimed, their faces deathly pale, and were immediately protected by the reacting Lin family guards, who erected another defense.

Lin Chen's expression was extremely solemn.

While frantically driving his spiritual energy to maintain the shield, he drew his long sword and struck backhand, the sharp sword light cutting two Gu that were trying to bypass the shield into two pieces.

His gaze, however, was locked firmly on Su Qingyao's trembling back.

He could feel her aura weakening rapidly.

Master Chiyang's Divine Sense swept across the entire venue, locking onto several areas where the Gu were most dense.

He flicked his fingers repeatedly, and several extremely scorching finger winds pierced through the air, as if they had eyes, accurately killing several larger mother worms.

However, the daughter worms had already formed a scale, and some had even burrowed into the bodies of injured Cultivators, making the situation increasingly critical.

In the chaos, his Divine Sense swept over the area where Lin Chen was, and his brows furrowed slightly.

He noticed an extremely strange detail: when those violent pill fire shockwaves and flying Spirit-Devouring Gu approached within a few feet of Lin Chen's earthy-yellow shield, their flight trajectories seemed to have an extremely subtle, almost imperceptible unnatural deflection, and their speed also seemed to be interfered with by some invisible force, appearing to lag for an instant.

Although Lin Chen's shield still fluctuated violently under the impact, that area revealed a "sense of calm" that was incompatible with the hellish scene around it.

What... was going on?

Master Chiyang

Lin Chen naturally did not notice Master Chiyang's gaze.

His entire focus was tied to Su Qingyao behind him, and the ever-increasing Spirit-Devouring Gu that were fearlessly pouncing on the shield.

The Foundation Establishment Stage spiritual energy in his body was being consumed at an unprecedented speed under such high-intensity continuous output.

The light of the shield had already begun to dim visibly.

He could clearly hear the increasingly violent energy humming coming from the Pill Furnace behind him; that was the precursor to the pill being destroyed.

And Su Qingyao's body was shaking more and more violently, as if she would collapse the next moment.