With a pitiful scream, Nie Cong stumbled back, blood bursting from his new wound, creating a spectacular red fountain.
The onlookers also called out in shock, none of them having anticipated seeing such a scene.
Although Yang Kai’s punch contained a substantial amount of force, it had still only been meant to push Nie Cong back, the one responsible for cutting off the latter wrist was the young man Yang Kai had been competing with. Without the protection of Nie Cong’s True Qi, his severed hand then directly exploded under the influence of Yang Kai’s attack.
The seller’s jaw dropped as he wore an expression of utter disbelief.
“You… you dare hurt me? You bastards, I’ll kill you!” Nie Cong didn’t come to his sense for a while but the moment he did, seeing his stump hand, his eyes instantly went bloodshot as he rushed towards Yang Kai and the young man in a hysterical rage.
Yang Kai remained indifferent and simply stared back at him coldly.
The youth opposite him went one step further and coldly said, “I told you, if you dare reach out for it again, I’d cut off your hand.”
Nie Cong once again froze up as he felt a chill run up his spin and penetrate his heart, his eyes wavering.
“If you dare take one more step, I’ll kill you!” The young man threw out this threat.
Nie Cong’s expression twisted as he did his best to endure the humiliation he felt in his heart before yelling, “Just you wait!”
Having left this threat behind, Nie Cong flew off, leaving a trail of fresh blood behind him.
Yang Kai’s eyes flashed dangerously but quickly suppressed his idea of cutting weeds and pulling out roots before glancing over at his competitor.
The scene was so quiet one could hear a needle drop. Everyone’s eyes were focused on Yang Kai and the young man. Some of them had expressions of pity while others were taking pleasure in their misfortune, while still others had thoughtful looks, wondering what kind of strong backing these two had that allowed them to not fear a Saint Realm master.
“Two little brothers, you…haa!” The seller was speechless, all he wanted to do was sell some herbs but now it had actually turned into such a mess.
“Sorry about that, I got a little too excited,” The young man smiled before turning to look at Yang Kai, “Stirring up such trouble, aren’t you afraid?”
“You’re clearly not afraid, so why should I be?” Yang Kai grinned meaningfully.
“Interesting, I suddenly found that I quite like you.”
Yang Kai’s face went black, “I’m not interested in men.”
The young man quickly realized the ambiguity in his words and waved his hands in a flurry, “You misunderstand me, I just think that your temperament is quite to my taste, how about we become friends?”
“Good, give me this Earth Fire Core first.”
The youth couldn’t help gritting his teeth and going silent for a while before finally saying, “If we continue like this, neither of us will ever give in.”
Yang Kai nodded gently. Strictly speaking, he also noticed that he and his opponent’s personalities were somewhat similar. When people of similar dispositions have a dispute, it is often difficult for them to resolve things due to their similar methods of handling affairs. Of course, this also led to them being able cooperate quite smoothly with one another like how they had just dealt with Nie Cong. In truth, Yang Kai was not the only one just now who had wanted to cut weeds and pull out roots, the youth also had such thoughts flash across his mind.
“Is friend an Alchemist?” The young man asked with a smile.
“En, just like you.”
“Since we’re both Alchemist, and this dispute is over an herb, how about we settle things with an exchange of pointers?” The young man narrowed his eyes and proposed.
“Good!” Yang Kai nodded slightly, his expression overflowing with confidence.
“Great!” The other party nodded repeatedly as he laughed, “Then we have a deal, whoever wins this contest gets to keep the Earth Fire Core. Before then, we’ll let this beautiful girl hold on to it.”
Saying so, he glanced over at Fei Yu.
Fei Yu smiled and let out a light giggle, “Young man, you really know how to talk.”
“Just stating the facts!”
Fei Yu smiled even wider.
After asking the seller about the price of the Earth Fire Core, Yang Kai and the young man both handed over half the required Crystal Stones and bought the Earth Fire Core before turning it over to Fei Yu, who smiled and said, “Little Martial Nephew, although Martial Aunt wants to help you, since you’ve already agreed to settle this with a contest of skill, Martial Aunt will act fairly and present this to the winner. If you lose, don’t blame Martial Aunt, a real man must keep his word.”
“En,” Yang Kai nodded, “Let’s first find some place quiet, there seems to be a few too many people here.”
The young man happily agreed.
Seeing their nonchalant attitude, the seller couldn’t help calling out, “Two little brothers, you should hurry up and leave Floating Clouds City, after injuring Young Master Nie Cong, if you don’t leave now, I’m afraid you’ll never be able to, him withdrawing just now was definitely to find reinforcements.”
“It’s not a problem,” The young man shook his head lightly before turning to Yang Kai, “Let’s go to your place, it’s not convenient for others to come to where I’m staying.”
Yang Kai shrugged his shoulders and nodded before he and Fei Yu led the way back to their inn.
Only after the three of them had left did the seller shake his head and sigh, “Two lunatics.”
“What are you so worried about? Them acting so fearless must mean they have an incredible background. Perhaps this time, Nie Cong has gotten in over his head, heh heh,” The Alchemist companion of the seller whispered softly. Apparently, he didn’t have a very good impression of Nie Cong and hoped these two young strangers would teach him a harsh lesson.
His words also resonated quite well with the surrounding crowd, many of them who were idle at the moment choosing to follow after the three ‘lunatics’ in hopes of seeing this good show continue.
Back at the inn, inside Yang Kai and Fei Yu’s room.
After stepping inside, the young man took a quick glance around before giving a slight nod and extending his hand to Yang Kai while introducing himself, “Di Yao, how should I call this friend?”
“Yang Kai,” Yang Kai didn’t hesitate to give his real name as he shook the outstretched hand before turning to Fei Yu, “This is my Martial Aunt, Fei Yu.”
“Did you come here for the Thousand Year Demon Flower?”
“En, you as well?”
“Indeed, but my purpose is different from yours, so you don’t have to worry about me trying to snatch the Thousand Year Demon Flower’s medicinal essence from you, it may even be possible for us to cooperate.”
“Cooperate?” Yang Kai’s brow furrowed slightly, “Cooperate how?”
“Let’s not mention this for now, we can always talk about it when the time comes. Just, perhaps you won’t be able to reach Ascending Heaven Cliff as easily as you think,” Di Yao smiled lightly, “Let’s first deal with the matter at hand.”
“How should we do this?” Yang Kai sat down cross legged and took out his Incense Burner.
This Incense Burner was the reward he obtained from the third page of the Black Book; whenever Yang Kai performed Alchemy he would generally use this pill furnace.
When he saw the Incense Burner, Di Yao’s eyes couldn’t help shining, “Friend is a real master, being able to use such a small pill furnace is quite rare.”
Alchemists, when refining pills, needed to portray various kinds of Spirit Arrays inside their pill furnaces to assist them in the Alchemy process. The larger the pill furnace, the easier it is to portray a Spirit Array, and the less precise the Spirit Array would have to be.
Conversely, a skilled Alchemist didn’t need to use a large pill furnace to portray the required Spirit Arrays. To some extent, the smaller the pill furnace used by an Alchemist, the superior that Alchemist’s skill was.
As he made this comment, Di Yao also took out his own pill furnace.
His pill furnace was exquisite, with carvings of dragons and phoenixes all over its surface. It was a high quality item that obviously stemmed from the hands of an Artifact Refining Grandmaster. Its size was also just about the same as the one Yang Kai used.
In comparison, Yang Kai’s pill furnace seemed a bit quaint compared to this one, but anyone with any kind of vision could tell that his Incense Burner was a higher grade item.
Di Yao stared at Yang Kai’s Incense Burner with a look of envy.
His pill furnace was given to him by his master and it was actually a world famous pill furnace. It had been used by Di Yao’s Alchemy Master when the latter was young. Di Yao had thought that there was no pill furnace in the world better than his own, but now he had actually discovered one.
“Let’s have a single round Alchemy Technique contest. No matter what pill you refine, we only look at the grade and quality of the pill as well as the time used to refine it.” Di Yao composed himself and laid out the contest’s rules.
“Agreed,” Yang Kai nodded succinctly.
“Then let’s get started,” Di Yao cracked his neck and in the next instant became focused, quickly taking out a number of herbs from his Universe Bag.
At the same time, Yang Kai’s hands also started moving, pulling one kind of rare herb after another from the Black Book space, each of their ages and efficacies reaching the highest standard.
An invisible aura condensed inside the room as the two young men both reached the height of concentration as they arranged their ingredients and began circulating their True Qi, warming up their pill furnaces as they portrayed their chosen Spirit Arrays.
Fei Yu’s beautiful eyes couldn’t help flashing as she stared at their movements, covering her mouth in shock as clear signs of admiration appeared on her face.
She quickly found that the actions of the two young men in front of her were surprisingly consistent and the speed at which they engraved their Spirit Arrays was essentially equal.
In this world, there was someone of the same age who was actually able to compete evenly with her little Martial Nephew in Alchemy? Who exactly was this Di Yao?
Fei Yu was shocked and soon became immersed in watching their performance, even going so far as to silence her breath so she wouldn’t disturb their concentration.
After just ten breaths of time, the Spirit Arrays inside both pill furnaces had been perfectly drawn and the two young Alchemists simultaneously picked up one of their chosen herbs while pushing their True Qi.
Yang Kai’s True Qi carried a strong and pure Yang Attribute which was scorching hot like the sun while Di Yao’s True Qi, similar to Cang Yan’s, was of a burning hot Flame Attribute. Both of them were perfectly suited for Alchemy.
The herbs quickly dissolved under the effects of the pair’s True Qi and medicinal liquids were rapidly produced, the various impurities being burned away and evaporated as a visible rate.
Medicinal liquid, like spring raindrops, danced through the air inside the two young men’s swirling True Qis and with every rotation increased in purity and density.
The two young men’s hands both waved and the condensed medicinal liquid fell directly into their respective pill furnaces.
A second herb was taken by each of them at that moment and the process began repeating itself.
Fei Yu’s eyes flashed with a brilliant light as she stared fixedly at these two.
She found that the hearts of these two young men in front of her were now completely immersed in Alchemy, neither of them responding to or even aware of the world around them, such dedicated focus was truly remarkable.
Men who were completely serious always had a unique and distinctive air about them.
Seeing this, Fei Yu’s brow furrowed slightly as she suddenly came to the understanding that these two youths would definitely become grand figures in the future and reach a height others could only look up to in awe.
Time passed slowly, and the room gradually filled with an enchanting pill fragrance.
The two young men’s True Qi wrapped their respective pill furnaces tightly at that moment in preparation for the final stage of refinement.
Suddenly, Di Yao wore a happy expression and a smile appeared on his lips. Reaching out, he opened his pill furnace and a round golden pill flew out and was immediately caught.
Inspecting the quality and grade of the pill, Di Yao nodded with satisfaction, although he had been rushing himself and was quite nervous, he had still managed to perfectly display all of his Alchemy skills.
Nearby, Yang Kai also seemed to have reached his final step.
Fei Yu couldn’t help becoming nervous. Yang Kai had fallen behind in terms of refinement speed, so if he couldn’t surpass this Di Yao in terms of quality, he would lose.
The Alchemy contest between these two young Alchemists was coming to a head, causing Fei Yu to feel almost breathless.
