Chapter 1130, The Three-Legged Black Flame Cauldron

Translator: Silavin

 

Myriad Beasts City, Medicine Market.

 

At this moment, the entire street was cloaked beneath a suppressive aura, a dense expanse of dark human heads, each face wearing an expression of gravity, every gaze pointed in the same direction.

 

At the point where all eyes converged, two figures stood with composed bearing.

 

Upon these two figures, there was no formidable Yuan Energy fluctuation. Instead, there was an invisible, dreadful pressure emanating outward in waves. It was the pressure of Spiritual Energy.

 

Heaven Grade Alchemists…

 

Who could say how many Forces had poured every last resource into cultivating even one, and yet the two people standing here were so extraordinarily young. In any Race, they would be regarded as treasures beyond price.

 

Now, two outstanding and rather terrifying Heaven Grade Alchemists were about to begin an Alchemy Duel, and naturally this drew the rapt attention of countless onlookers.

 

Though as for the result, perhaps in the hearts of the crowd it was already settled.

 

After all, the deep foundations of the Medicine Race were plain to see, and moreover, members of the Medicine Race were born with Spiritual Energy more condensed and solid than that of other Races. In Alchemy Duels, they were almost invariably undefeated.

 

Perhaps what truly interested the crowd was the fact that something which had not occurred for many years was about to be witnessed today, and Furthermore, one of the principal figures was the greatest prodigy of the Medicine Race’s younger generation, Yao Jie.

 

“Junior, how do you wish to compete?” Yao Jie fixed Qin Yichen with a cold, piercing gaze. Yet the latter seemed entirely unmoved, as impervious as a stone, which only made Yao Jie feel a flash of awkwardness. Accordingly, he drew a deep breath and slowly spoke.

 

Though he was inwardly burning with the desire to utterly destroy this Junior’s Spiritual Body on the spot, as a representative of the Medicine Race conducting an Alchemy Duel, he still had to present himself as magnanimous.

 

“How else would one compete in an Alchemy Duel? Naturally, the winner is determined by the quality of the Pills refined in the end.”

 

Qin Yichen cast Yao Jie a glance that one might reserve for a simpleton, and his undisguised mockery came spilling out quite directly.

 

Upon hearing this, Yao Jie nearly slapped himself. Knowing full well that this Junior had a sharp tongue, he had still given him the opportunity to mock him.

 

“Heh, very well!” Yao Jie let out a great laugh, as though he had not taken Qin Yichen’s mockery to heart at all, the bearing of a Grandmaster on full display, prompting quite a number of cultivators in the surrounding crowd to nod in quiet admiration.

 

“Putting on an act, seething inside while forcing a smile. How truly twisted.”

 

In contrast, Qin Yichen cut rather a self-conscious figure, his lips moving as though murmuring something. However, those words were deliberately suppressed, audible only to Yao Jie standing directly opposite him.

 

“Bring the Cauldron!”

 

Having been seen through without mercy, Yao Jie’s very frame trembled faintly with fury. At this moment, he wanted nothing more than to get to the main event as quickly as possible, and with his proud Spiritual Energy, obliterate this sharp-tongued swindler.

 

With Yao Jie’s words falling, a path opened through the crowd behind him, and two burly men were seen carrying a massive Cauldron of roughly a zhang in height, making their slow way forward.

 

The aura faintly emanating from these two burly men was unmistakably that of two Martial Ancestors. At this moment, the muscles of their arms were taut, veins bulging prominently, and even the hard stone of the street beneath their feet was being pressed into impressions with each step they took.

 

Ordinarily, a Martial Ancestor could carry even a small mountain without much difficulty. From this alone, one could imagine what immense weight this Cauldron of merely a metre in height actually possessed.

 

*Boom!*

 

Amidst countless expressions of astonishment, everyone felt the ground shudder violently as the massive Cauldron was set down before Yao Jie by the two Martial Ancestors.

 

This Cauldron was entirely black, its surface covered in inscriptions, an extremely ancient form of script. Even Qin Yichen could sense, from within those characters, a faint unusual fluctuation emanating outward, a fluctuation that could clearly provide a very strong amplifying effect upon Spiritual Energy.

 

“Is that the Three-Legged Black Flame Cauldron?”

 

“Good Heavens… that was once used by Yao Tianxin, the Patriarch of the Medicine Race!”

 

“It appears the Medicine Race has already tacitly acknowledged Yao Jie’s future standing!”

 

“To have obtained the Three-Legged Black Flame Cauldron, surely Yao Jie’s attainments go well beyond that of a mere Heaven Grade Alchemist?”

 

When they saw clearly what the Cauldron was, a great wave of stunned exclamations immediately swept through the surrounding crowd.

 

It was evident that this Cauldron, and the one who had once wielded it, had been the focus of countless people’s attention.

 

“Yao Tianxin?” When he heard the clamour around him, Qin Yichen’s eyes narrowed slightly, a peculiar gleam passing through them.

 

“Junior, are you frightened? Let me simply tell you, it is already too late!” Watching the change in Qin Yichen’s expression, a surge of satisfaction rose within Yao Jie’s chest. So even this fellow could be afraid when death was upon him?

 

“If you are sincerely willing to apologise to me in a moment, I can grant you one pardon.” Qin Yichen lifted his head and spoke to Yao Jie with an utterly earnest expression.

 

This look made Yao Jie feel another wave of suffocation in his chest.

 

“Junior, enough nonsense, hurry up and show your Pill Furnace!”

 

Born of the Medicine Race and gifted beyond his peers, when had Yao Jie ever been treated in such a manner? At this moment, he could no longer bear to exchange another word with Qin Yichen. He simply wanted to let his fury reduce this detestable fellow to ashes.

 

*Clunk.*

 

This time, Qin Yichen was perfectly straightforward, without another word. One saw only his palm reach into his breast pocket and produce a Pill Furnace no larger than a palm, which he set down before himself.

 

*Pfft…*

 

Upon seeing this Pill Furnace, even Yao Jie, burning with a belly full of fury, could not suppress a derisive snicker.

 

[That thing counts as a Pill Furnace?]

 

Though the Small Pill Furnace had been tempered and nurtured, and was no longer the dull, greyish thing it had once been, the cracks upon it nearly imperceptible, it was still utterly incomparable to the Three-Legged Black Flame Cauldron, with its elaborate inscriptions and full one metre height. It simply was not worth looking at.

 

In fact, Yao Jie was already somewhat regretting having made such a grand display of asking for the Three-Legged Black Flame Cauldron to be brought out. When he won, certain people with ulterior motives would surely claim it was all down to the advantage of his Cauldron.

 

“What is that? Is that supposed to be a Pill Furnace?”

 

“Heavens, is he even an Alchemist? He is not merely someone who stumbled into a tremendous stroke of fortune that gave him Heaven Grade Spiritual Energy, right?”

 

“That’s impossible. Even an Alchemist Saint pouring their attainments into someone could not forcibly elevate a person’s Spiritual Energy to the Heaven Grade.”

 

“He must be from some Minor Race somewhere. Otherwise, how could he not even possess a decent Pill Furnace?”

 

With Qin Yichen’s Pill Furnace now on display, a burst of mocking laughter rose from the masses of onlookers.

 

Were it not for the Heaven Grade Spiritual Energy fluctuation emanating from him, which commanded a certain involuntary respect, there would likely have been people jumping forward to denounce him already.

 

Even so, hardly anyone favoured Qin Yichen. What most people hoped for was that he would at least hold on for a while. No one was so bold as to expect him to actually refine a Pill in his Alchemy Duel against Yao Jie. They merely hoped he would not have his Spiritual Body annihilated within a single breath.