Chapter 177: End of the match

.

What Hu Xingyan was using was clearly a simplified version of the basic spirit-Qi refinement technique that Ethan had used during his match against Xun Wei.

This was a technique not well known among adept and apprentice-level alchemists because, due to its high level of difficulty, it was practically impossible for them to use.

It was also challenging for expert, and master-level alchemists, who, although they could use it, applied it only to a limited extent.

Many didn't use it at all because they found they were faster refining without it than with it, due to the fact that two fundamental prerequisites were needed to master the technique:

first, having a cultivation level of at least mid-stage Qi Refining; and second, practicing it continuously, not for days, weeks, or months, but for several years.

Many chose to abandon it, as while the technique was very useful once learned, the time required to master it was, for many, not worth the effort.

Many trained to use it, but only to a limited degree and only occasionally, which made their improvement with it even slower.

After all, if you want to learn something well and as quickly as possible, you must study and practice it continuously until it becomes second nature.

It was like training a muscle in your body.

Only by training it consistently, over a certain period of time, could results be seen.

Training one day on, two days off would not yield any concrete results anytime soon.

The main reason she became so famous at such a young age wasn't because of her rapid progress in alchemy, but rather the fact that, at 25, she could already use this technique with a certain level of mastery.

Thanks to this, nearly all the competitions where she used this technique were won with relative ease, as it allowed her to speed up the refinement process and perform it with higher precision.

While the crowd cheered at her impressive display of this technique, the 10 judges who were still seated could only shake their heads at the sight.

It wasn't that they were better than her at using it, in fact, many of them were less skilled than she was in this regard.

The reason they shook their heads was because they knew one participant among those present who had demonstrated a much higher mastery of this technique than she had. seaʀᴄh thё ηovelFire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

His mastery was so advanced that no one who lacked some knowledge of this technique would have been able to detect its use.

When they saw him use it and finish preparing 12 entire pills at once, they were shocked to their core, and not only because of the refined pills, which had an exceptionally high degree of purity, but also because they didn't know of a single master alchemist who could wield the technique at that level.

Infact, they could only compare his level of mastery with this technique to that of a grandmaster,

and so, seeing Hu Xingyan use this refinement technique, they could only shake their heads and pity her for ending up against a "monster" of that kind.

Discover hidden content at m,v l'e-NovelFire.net

Ethan, seeing the use of the spirit-Qi-based pill refinement technique, showed no reaction and simply gave her a glance before getting to work.

He could already guess what the gray-haired girl was aiming for and had to admit that for her age, refining to that level wasn't bad at all.

'Well, if she thinks she can beat me with just that, then she's sorely mistaken,' he thought, deciding on how to proceed after analyzing his opponent.

He prepared the materials, and unlike in the first two rounds, where he refined his Level 2 pills with high purity in no time, he took his time this time.

Seeing him work calmly, as if he were refining at home, made everyone frown, including the judges.

They had thought Ethan would crush Hu Xingyan just as he had with his previous opponents, but now what they saw was a young man in a black mask, calmly slicing herbs as if he were preparing a simple stew.

"…"

For a moment, everyone wondered if he had given up or if he planned to give his best in the last 30 minutes, but from the way he proceeded for the rest of the three hours, it didn't seem so.

The only thing they noticed was that, once again, they couldn't tell which pill he was making due to his use of a large quantity of different materials that appeared unrelated.

Even Hu Xingyan, who had already produced several series of high-grade Level 2 pills, became frustrated seeing that Ethan hadn't produced anything yet, even though they were already halfway through the competition.

Her previous anger that had dissipated now returned, thinking he was still underestimating her.

She had produced the first series of pills to meet the minimum quantity requirements, but now that she had over an hour free and most of those requirements met, she decided to use the rest of her time to create the pill with which she would crush Ethan.

'Let's see if you still have that attitude after I finish this pill,' she thought as she began working on the new refinement materials she had just taken out.

And so, time passed, and Ethan, who had only worked on a certain amount of materials throughout, finally began opening the cauldron's lid in the last 5 minutes, moving his hand through the air to send some spiritual Qi into it.

At the same time, Hu Xingyan also began to take out her pill, which had taken her over an hour to prepare, and seeing this, the whole audience focused their attention on her.

As she opened the lid, a blast of vapor escaped and lingered for a few seconds.

While it dissipated, Hu Xingyan used her spirit-Qi manifestation to draw out her pill.

Within seconds, the pill was out of the cauldron, and she quickly took the prepared vial and placed it inside.

The pill in question had a greenish hue, with three intense green veins running across its surface.

Despite the veins, the pill's surface was still smooth, without any imperfections.

The judges, seeing the pill and noting the veins on it, couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

"A low-grade Level 3 pill."

Hu Xingyan had decided to prepare a Level 3 pill as her final product.

A level of pill that almost no one of the younger generation could refine yet, as it was a level too advanced for them.

And it was also the minimum criterion to be considered a one-star master alchemist.

In other words, Hu Xingyan was already at the level of an entry-level master alchemist.

This news shocked many, as having a master alchemist under 30 was something unheard of.

Just as she was beginning to enjoy the audience's admiration, some remembered that the masked boy was also about to reveal his pill,

and although they now believed he had no chance, they still cast a glance at him.