Chapter 478: Exposed? Shocked Crowd!
One by one, the alchemists who failed gathered on one side of the stage. It wasn't until seven of them failed that another one succeeded.
It was a young woman named He Qian, who managed to make the pill. Despite her young appearance, she was already close to being 30 years old. Her thin robes were drenched in sweat, outlining the curves of her body.
She looked at the pill in hand with a sense of pride and happiness.
"Passed!" Zhong Er exclaimed, making her lips curve upwards. She moved to join the rest of the group while ignoring their envious gazes.
…
Time passed, and in the end, only three people managed to pass the test among the 15 rank 4 alchemists.
The last person who passed was surprisingly a woman wearing a black cloak. She was the last disciple who came along with the rank 5 alchemist woman.
This alone shows the difficulty and complexity of the test.
"Congratulations to the three of you. I have to say I am surprised that even three people managed to pass this test. Even among rank 4, only very few alchemists achieve what you did…."
While Zhong Er was giving his short speech, his older brother Zhong Yi suddenly frowned as if he had noticed something.
"We cannot continue on like this." Silently, he took out a yellow talisman and channeled his Qi through it.
"Hmm?" In the private room, Wuhan, who was watching the test along with Xin Yan, noticed his talisman shaking in his storage ring.
"What is it, Zhang Yi?"
Hearing the voice on the other side of the talisman, Wuhan looked back on the stage. Hearing his words, his expression also became a little strange before he sent another set of instructions.
On the stage, Zhong Er had just finished congratulating the alchemists who had just won. Just as he was about to continue with his words, a voice stopped him in his tracks.
"Ahem! With that, we would like to conclude the first phase of the test." It was none other than Zhang Yi who spoke up. His words confused the two brothers, but they didn't say anything.
"Don't you all want to see the top talents of our empire in action?!" His voice raised as he spoke with a smile on his face, receiving exciting cheers from the people in the crowd. "Now is the time that you all have been waiting for!"
All the other participants, both who passed and failed, looked in the direction of Noah and the cloaked woman.
"Unlike the ranks up until now, we had a lot of challenges, which is why different stages of tests are arranged for them. But since we only have two rank 5 alchemists," he said, looking towards Noah and the cloaked woman, "there is no need to waste time with any of these challenges. Just a single test is enough to decide the winner among the two of them."
Seeing that neither of them had any objections to his words, Zhang Yi continued speaking, "The test for both of you is simple."
With a wave of his hands, a table and two cauldrons appeared on the center stage in the arena.
The two exquisite-looking cauldrons gave off an ethereal energy. Their size was taller than an average human's height.
Without even waiting for the elder to call them, Noah jumped on the stage, ignoring the cauldron, his eyes landing on the only table on the stage.
Since the cauldron was so big, they did not need a table for it. The cloaked woman, upon seeing Noah taking action, clicked her tongue in annoyance and followed behind.
"I will show you the difference between a real Rank 5 alchemist and a nobody like you." Upon appearing beside Noah, she warned him coldly, her red eyes meeting his indifferent gaze for a second before she walked past him.
Just as she took a step forward, she felt the cloak on her body shifting. The hood was dragged along with the whole robe and slithered through her back before falling on the ground, revealing her appearance to the crowd.
Her red hair cradled down on her shoulders, covering half of her back, including the huge cauldron symbol on her robes.
Her beautiful appearance stunned the crowd and caused the three supervisors to frown.
Seeing that the robes she wore belonged to the Alchemy Pavilion caused the frown to deepen even more.
Wuhan's eyes flashed with a cold light, but he did not say anything or intervene.
Seeing that the emperor had no intention of making a move, the three supervisors also remained silent.
"You!!" After a moment of shock, the red-haired beauty suddenly realized what had happened. She turned around and saw Noah's foot on her cloak.
She glared at Noah as if she wanted to kill him, but feeling three pairs of sharp eyes, she did not dare to act rashly.
She did not understand why, but she was momentarily stunned for a second, allowing her identity to be revealed like this.
The red-haired woman looked at her aunt in the crowd and saw that she was ready to take action at any time but did not dare to cause any commotion.
"My bad, I have a bad habit of ignoring the things that annoy me. Because of that, I didn't even know you were there for a second." Noah said apologetically. His apology seemed so real that had it not been for his words, she might have believed what he said.
"How dare you speak to me like that?!" She could not contain her anger upon hearing his words.
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"Why are they acting like that when they only just met?"
People started to gossip, seeing Noah's provocative actions. Some thought Noah was too arrogant, while the rest thought he was trying to play with the woman's mind.
"Ahem! Don't cause any trouble here. Settle your differences later." Suddenly, Zhang Yi spoke up with a light cough, intervening between them to avoid a fight from erupting.
With a harrumph, the red-haired woman ignored Noah and turned to look at the old man.
Zhang Yi sighed before rising into the air. His figure glowed with a warm, fire-like glow, making the rest forget about the small incident.
"Before we begin, let me introduce these two once-in-a-millennium geniuses." Hearing Zhang Yi's words, the red-haired woman's face showed slight hesitation, but she bit her lips.
The ranking on the board shifted before two names appeared on the screen.
"Starting with the young miss here, she is the prodigy among her peers and family members. The young miss of the Zhang family, Zhang Ying."
Zhang Ying sighed in relief upon hearing that her other identity was not exposed, but just before she could relax completely, the old man continued with a slightly sharp tone.
"Many of you may not know this, but Young Miss Zhang here is also a prodigy in the Alchemy Pavilion, one of the five great sects. She is just about to turn 30 this year."
An uproar spread like wildfire throughout the arena. Even the members of the major families could not sit still upon hearing those words.
"What? Did we hear it right? Someone from the great five sects is here?"
"There is no rule that people from sects cannot enter."
"No wonder she managed to reach Rank 5!"
"If she is from the Alchemy Pavilion, then the others must be from the same sect."
The sect master of the Alchemy Pavilion, Hong Mei, clenched her hands into fists before glaring at the old man in the air.
It was not a coincidence that the old man knew so much about her niece. The Zhong brothers were once core members of the Zhang family.
The family of her niece was born into severed ties with them because of their decision to serve the emperor.
She only blamed the boy on the stage for everything that was happening.
Ignoring the comments from the crowd, Zhong Yi smiled and turned to look at Noah.
"On the other side, we have young master Nuo Yan. A young man of unknown origin and monstrous talent." Hearing this, Noah chuckled slightly while Zhang Ying scoffed.
In her mind, she was already sure that Noah was someone from the royal family or someone working for the emperor.
"The reason I said he was a monstrous genius was his great accomplishments in the Dao of Alchemy at the mere age of 20!" His words echoed in the arena like a dragon's roar.
Whoever heard his words gasped in unison. They looked at Noah and then at the old man as if he were joking.
"Is that even possible?"
"Such a talent has never been seen in the life of this empire."
"I think that old man is simply boasting. He could be someone he knows. There is no way that's true."
Zhang Ying became flabbergasted upon hearing Noah's age and looked at him in doubt and suspicion.
Just like the others, she did not believe someone around 10 years younger than her could have such talent.
Not even bothering to clear the doubts of the people, Zhang Yi waved his hands, and two sets of herbs appeared on the table.
"The challenge for both of you is simple: make any pill you know of from these heavenly materials." His words temporarily halted the commotion. "The pill with better effects will win."
His words were neither loud nor light, but they managed to stir the heartbeats of the audience.