Alchemy Emperor of the Divine Dao

"How's it possible!?"

Lin Yongchang immediately exclaimed in shock, the arrogance in his expression completely swept away.

Black Tortoise Earth Pill was an alchemical pill that was extremely hard to concoct, even among Four-Star alchemical pills. Ordinarily, there was absolutely no way that a rookie would be able to choose this kind of alchemical pill to accomplish their breakthrough.

Could it be that Ling Han was a wolf in sheep's clothing? He was clearly a Four-Star Alchemist, yet deliberately concealed his identity?

"Grade… low." After a period of appraisal, that alchemist once again announced his verdict.

Lin Yongchang couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Though the difficulty level of pill concoction for Black Tortoise Earth Pill was higher than his pill's, the grade of his completed pill was medium. Overall, it was still he who had the upper hand, though this advantage was not very obvious.

This could offset a portion of Ling Han's advantage in recognizing herbs, but to be fair, it definitely could not completely erase it. However, as long as he continued to gain an advantage in Spirit Refinement, he could still attain the place of final champion.

At first, he had planned to ruthlessly crush Ling Han in this test of pill concoction, and then withdraw from the competition in a high-profile manner, showing off as much as possible. But now, it was no longer possible for him to withdraw.

…If he withdrew from the competition whilst he was at a disadvantage, everyone would think that he was afraid of Ling Han.

Could he possibly be afraid?

'Let's battle it out!'

This time, Lin Yongchang's fighting spirit had really been stirred up. He felt a pressing need to defeat Ling Han.

"All right, now that everyone has already completed pill concoction, let's begin to total up the results," an alchemist from Ancient Alchemy Tower said. He was a Four-Star grandmaster, and had been famous for an extremely long time. Thus, even if Ling Han and the others were also freshly promoted to the same rank as him, they still had to show him appropriate respect.

This was etiquette.

This process was very fast because the results of the members of the last over one dozen groups had long since been added up. They only had to add the results of these 100 participants, and the overall results would emerge.

Concocting a Four-Star alchemical pill would attain a mark, and the higher the difficulty level of concoction, and the grade of the completed alchemical pill, it would affect this mark, whether it would be raised or adjusted.

Finally, the results were announced.

First place was Lin Yongchang, 100 points.

There was no argument about this. The Crimson Flame Earth Fire Pill he concocted had reached medium grade. Though the difficulty level of its concoction was slightly lower than Black Tortoise Earth Pill's, it was still slightly superior.

Second place… was actually Fan Luoling, 97 points.

'F*ck!'

This was too shady, wasn't it?

It was still a question whether that Black Gold Celestial Bone Pill had actually been concocted by her, and to actually so shamelessly bestow the second place on her? Furthermore, even if it was indeed she who had concocted it, considering the ordinary difficulty level of concoction added together with its low grade, just what gave her the basis to emerge superior to the others?

But what could they do even if they were unconvinced? The people of the Ancient Alchemy Tower ignored all objections; this was the final result!

Third place was Wu Zixu, 96 points, and then the fourth place was Alchemist Riyang, 95 points, fifth place was Xie Yuezhang, 94 points, and only then was it Ling Han, 92 points.

He was only sixth, and had only gotten 92 points!

It should be known that the difficulty level of pill concoction for the Black Tortoise Earth Pill was high, surpassing the alchemical pills that Alchemist Riyang, Wu Zixu, and the others had concocted, and while the grade of the completed pill was inferior to Lin Yongchang's, it was the same grade as all the others.

Then Ling Han should have been ranked in second place, and should have gotten 98 or 99 points at least, shouldn't he?

92 points? How did they come up with this figure?

Even the others were all very dissatisfied by this mark. Though Wu Zixu and the others were contesting with Ling Han, they similarly were dissatisfied because what they wanted was not this kind of victory, but to defeat Ling Han in a bold and forthright manner.

To win through underhanded means, what meaning was there to it?

And combined with that ambiguous alchemical pill from Fan Luoling, how could they not tell that this was the Ancient Alchemy Tower deliberately supporting her? Since that was the case, even if Wu Zixu and the others could defeat Ling Han, they would ultimately still lose to Fan Luoling.

This was too shady. How could they be so underhanded and shameless?

Added with the results on recognizing herbs, the rankings and marks were as follows.

First place, Lin Yongchang, 197 points.

Second place, Fan Luoling, 193 points.

Third place, Ling Han, 192 points.

Fourth, Wu Zixu, 191 points.

Fifth place was shared by Alchemist Riyang and Xie Yuezhang, 190 points.

Not only had Ling Han fallen to the third place, there was a total gap of a whole five points between him and Lin Yongchang!

This was practically an irreversible disadvantage. He had to achieve a massive lead in Spirit Refinement to be able to make up for this gap in points. But going by how they were purposely causing trouble for him now, even if he did get a very great lead, would they even give him the points that he deserved?

"10 days later, the top 100 will proceed to undergo the third contest of Spirit Refinement." With a command from that Four-Star Alchemist, the end of the second contest was announced.

When the news spread out, the masses erupted in uproar.

Shady, this was a great shady business.

The most greatly discussed was the matter of that alchemical pill from Fan Luoling, whether it was she who had concocted it, and whether it had been replaced.

99% of the masses believed that it had been replaced. Otherwise, why did they have to be so secretive? And why did they not agree to further assess that alchemical pill?

And the other most discussed issue was how Ling Han was being suppressed.

He should have been able to place second in this test of pill concoction. In fact, he should have been first place in terms of overall results, yet now he had dropped down to third place, falling behind Lin Yongchang by a total of whole five points, which was equivalent to having lost the competition.

"Whom has Ling Han offended here?"

"It must be someone from the Ancient Alchemy Tower."

"I heard that it was already decided that Fan Luoling would get the first place, so they definitely want to get rid of Ling Han."

"Then, why wasn't Lin Yongchang also beaten down on?"

"This… F***, how should I know?"

Tongues were wagging spiritedly outside, and there were also voices of disagreement inside the Ancient Alchemy Tower too. Some people thought that they should not have been so unfair, but this kind of opinion was quickly suppressed by the combined efforts of Lin Yongchang and Yuan Tongguang.

The elders of these two were both Five-Star grandmasters!

How many people would be willing to throw everything on the line to offend them? With a few words from a Five-Star grandmaster, it was possible even the dome of heaven would collapse.

In the world of cultivators, Celestial Kings were gods, and in the world of alchemists, Five-Star alchemists were similarly existences that were equivalent to gods.

In the inn, Fu Yue was also indignant.

"They have really gone too far. How could they be so shameless?" He slapped a hand on the table, even more anxious than Ling Han himself. Those not in the know would have thought that it was he that had suffered such an unjust treatment.

Ling Han rubbed his chin, his brow wrinkled in a slight frown.

In a fair competition, he did not fear anyone, but if his opponents were going to play dirty, and in such a shameless way at that, how was he supposed to win?

Even if he surpassed Lin Yongchang in the Spirit Refinement 10 days later, unless he achieved the astonishing and absolute crushing victory of Sixth Refinement versus Fifth Refinement over him, there would still be no way he could turn this disadvantageous situation around.

But the problem here was: how could Ling Han possibly attain Sixth Refinement in 10 days?

To say nothing of 10 days, he might not be able to succeed even in a billion years. From Fifth Refinement onwards, every step forwards was as difficult as climbing up to the heavens.

Then what was he to do? Just allow himself to be bullied like this?

"Kill Lin Yongchang," the Empress suddenly spoke up, her voice icy cold.

"That's right, kill that bastard!" Hu Niu immediately jumped up, waving her little fists around.

Meanwhile, Fu Yue got a huge scare. Afterwards, he had also found out that Lin Yongchang's background was even more powerful than that of Yuan Tongguang. The former's father was an elder of the Ancient Alchemy Tower, a Five-Star alchemist!

Kill Lin Yongchang?

Hiss, to say nothing of the fact that he was in the Hundred Pills Palace, with elites standing guard, even if he could be killed, this would mean piercing a hole into the heavens[1]. Just how terrifying consequences would result from that?

[1] A Chinese line that basically means they would get into heap loads of trouble.