Primordial Chaos Dragon Tower: Harem System

Elaine stared at Kent's face, looking for the words to say, but in the end, she only managed to utter a single line.

"May the good Alchemist win."

The audience actually received those words well, and they started cheering for her. Her unspoken nature was just too cute, making her look much more lively yet hidden.

But after her cheering died down, Kent smiled and shook his head.

"A wise man once said," Kent paused, his gaze drifting toward his opponent, "alchemy isn't about winning. It's about healing, about understanding the balance between what is broken and what can be made whole."

The crowd quieted as his voice carried across the space, clear and calm. Even the other competitors momentarily held their breath, sensing something different in his tone.

Elaine blinked, surprised by the sudden weight of his words. She hadn't expected a reply like that—not from Kent.

Naturally, everyone expected some shameless words. But it's safe to say he surprised them all, and that made them wonder what he was up to.

"But," he continued, eyes locking with hers again, "if it comes down to winning… then let's both aim for it with everything we've got."

A quiet murmur rippled through the audience, impressed by his resolve. Then, a slow but steady round of applause followed, growing louder with each second.

Kent, of course, had to make it shameless, so he stood up and gave gentle bows like the elegant alchemist he was.

Naturally, this didn't sit right with the Pill Saints. Getting this much love from people who were meant to hate him wasn't what they were aiming for.

But that could wait for now. Kent had won this round, and they could only frown in peace.

"The second round will be slightly difficult," the elder began. "The pill for the second round is the Bone Tempering Pill."

Gasps rippled across the space when they heard the name of the pill the contestants will be making.

The first round was the Bone Hardening Pill, which is the easiest to make. But the Bone Tempering Pill isn't one that can easily be made.

The reason being, unlike the Bone Hardening Pill, which is a 7-ingredient pill, the Bone Tempering Pill is a 14-ingredient pill and one of the top Tier 3 pills every pill master will struggle with.

This is where one is required to have high spiritual energy; otherwise, the pill wouldn't finish concocting, and you will run out.

The elder smiled.

"Of course, while the pill is hard to make, you have three portions of the ingredients, so this means third time's the charm.

Again, before you think you will run trials before focusing on the real thing, know that you only have three hours.

This means you will only have an hour of trial session since the required time for this pill is mostly within the second hour.

Also, the passing purity level is now 85%. Anything below that won't be accepted.

Good luck, and may the best alchemist win."

The moment the elder ended his speech, everyone rushed to start concocting, except Kent. He just sat there. There wasn't even a cauldron on his table, simply because he destroyed the first one in the first round.

However, nobody said anything. He just sat there and continued to stare at Elaine, who was among the 21 who started working on their pill.

She divided the ingredients and lit her pill flame within 10 minutes, starting to heat the cauldron.

She had a yellow pill flame, which, if its source were traced, would be a flame from a rare spirit beast called the Winding Flame Bat.

It's a good flame that requires less spiritual qi to harness.

Since the beast it came from has both the wind and flame elements, the flame has some traces of the wind element in it, making harnessing it much easier.

But that doesn't mean she can casually use it without much attention to her control.

Naturally, Kent was impressed with her handling of the flame until she started extracting the second ingredient; that was when he noticed she wasn't really that good.

It was just that she made sure her pill flame didn't suddenly fluctuate, which in that case would destroy her process.

But that is admirable at best.

'She is good, but she can be better with the right techniques,' Kent said to himself, considering he had such good techniques in the hundreds and had mastered them since they all just came naturally to him.

It was strange, but he wasn't complaining.

An hour was almost nearing, yet Kent was still there watching his opponent. Naturally, Kent was doing something that would shock everyone but could also go against him if his ego got the best of him.

When the first hour of the three-hour duration was reached, many started talking about the stunt he was pulling.

"I am confused right now. Is he perhaps forfeiting the duel, knowing he will lose?" someone asked.

"Maybe he doesn't know the recipe. I noticed there are three wrong ingredients in the ones provided. Maybe he doesn't know which ones to use."

"I think so, too. Perhaps he doesn't know what to do with them, so he just wants to copy from Elaine."

Human nature is flawed in this aspect.

Just an hour ago, they were applauding him, and now he was being branded a thief. That was just like seeing him as a saint and a devil in the same body.

Time went by, and before long, two hours had passed, leaving only an hour more.

Elaine was done extracting the pill and was even burning impurities and forming the pill.

However, not everyone managed to get their luck.

Over ten contestants burned two portions of their ingredients, automatically disqualifying themselves.

Even some of the seven geniuses were struggling.

However, they didn't wash out, considering they managed to form the pill.

However, they were not confident in their abilities to surpass 85% purity or even reach it.

"Puff."

A dark smoke came from Elaine's cauldron, accompanied by the smell of a pill.

"She succeeded in making the pill," one person from the audience said, prompting everyone to clap for her.

Even Kent wasn't an exception. He was clapping, but he had his own intentions in mind.

She retrieved the pill and placed it in her pill bottle.

"92% pure, not bad at all," Kent said, making Elaine turn and look at him.

"Have you given up, considering you have less than 50 minutes?" she asked disappointedly. It seemed she didn't like seeing her opponent not doing anything.

It felt like a plan she had in mind was getting destroyed, and she didn't want that.

"You haven't given up, have you?" She asked again.

Kent smiled. "Actually, I was waiting for you to finish so that I could borrow your cauldron."