Chapter 308 - Reassessment
Alchemy room…
Stray rays from the sun poured down from the skylight and fell on Xu Xiaoshou’s exceptionally handsome face.
The young man opened his hand and curled his fingers close. He glanced at the door with some awkwardness and spoke with dissatisfaction.
“I say, with so many of you watching, I will be very stressed.”
In front of him were Shi Ti, Yun He, and the others while the old guys who wanted to watch the show gathered at the destroyed door.
Mu Zixi waved her hand at his side and said encouragingly, “Xu Xiaoshou, come on, make eighth-grade pills at one go.”
Xu Xiao did not take this well. He turned his head and looked at the little girl, who had squeezed in beside him.
“You should get out of here quickly. It’s too crowded. If there is an explosion later, can you run away?”
Fu Xing shouted from the other side, “Big Brother, don’t be afraid, I am here! Even if this furnace blows up 10 times today, it will not hurt you!”
As he spoke, he took a jade pendant from his waist and handed it over.
Xu Xiaoshou was taken aback. He swiped the jade pendant, saying, “You also should quickly leave. The air is too stagnant with everyone squeezed in here.”
“No, Big Brother, I want to see you become a god before my own eyes!”
Fu Xing held his hand excitedly.
‘He accepted the jade pendant!’
‘There is hope for my 10 Sections of the Finger Sword!’
Shi Ti said with a black face, “You guys, get out of here. Why is there a need to squeeze like sardines here? In the first place, the alchemy examination is not for you to observe.”
“We’ve already made an exception by letting you watch, yet you still want to squeeze around.”
He shushed everyone out of the door.
It was a pity that was not even a door in this ruined place. People were still going to crowd around.
He did not dare change the venue to another room. What if Xu Xiaoshou caused another explosion?
The Pill Pagoda barrier could no longer suffer this kind of damage.
“Bear with it for a moment,” Shi Ti said.
Xu Xiaoshou retracted his gaze, nodded, and said, “Just don’t talk.”
“Besides… Mr. President, please stand back, just in case…”
“I am at the Sovereign Stage!”
“Sigh!”
Xu Xiaoshou suddenly remembered that his facilitator was not Yun He but Shi Ti this time.
He sat down on the spot and grasped the bathtub with his fingers.
Clang!
The force of the countershock immediately resulted in all the residue within the bathtub flying out from the vibrations. Everyone’s hearts trembled, only to witness Xu Xiaoshou’s snapping his fingers and raising the temperature in the room instantly.
“Infernal Heavens!”
Shi Ti raised his body upright, his face thunderstruck in recognition.
He thought that Xu Xiaoshou might be Old Man Sang’s apprentice. When he saw this familiar flame in person, he found it difficult to conceal the astonishment in his heart.
Infernal Heavens… Even though this kid seemed erratic and unsteady, he had endured the pain.
He surveyed the youth and seemed to see a shadow within in him of his former companion, who once ended up boiling the entire lake while practicing in Greater Goose Lake.
If it were not for the sleepless cultivating day and night, and if it were not for his determined persistence, maybe…
That old guy would not have had those deep dark circles under his eyes.
“Spiritual Cultivation Pill.”
Xu Xiaoshou spoke, bringing Shi Ti out of his reminiscence back to the present.
Shi Ti took out the spiritual ingredients from his spatial ring, handed them over, and said, “Ninth-grade, Spiritual Cultivation Pill. You have three chances.”
Xu Xiaoshou acknowledged with an “Oh.” He proceeded to dump all the spiritual ingredients into the pot as if he were making stew.
This action immediately triggered an uproar from everyone outside the door.
Some old guys just wanted to call out. Before they could say anything, Yun He interjected with an I-know-it-all face and generously proffered an explanation.
“Calm down. Don’t get too excited. This is a normal procedure.”
“I’m familiar with this process. It is just the beginning. This kid is very particular, so be quiet.”
“Shut up and take a good look, that’s all!”
“…”
Everyone looked at Yun He with dissatisfied expressions plastered on their faces. They seemed to be controlling their emotions to a point where they were almost boiling up and appeared immensely uncomfortable.
Since when did this old guy learn to shut others up before they could even speak? Could they not even voice their thoughts now?
Compared to the others, Shi Ti’s expression was collected and calm.
He saw Xu Xiaoshou’s familiar and proficient movements, and he thought that it was so.
Apart from the overbearing Infernal Heavens alchemy technique, few alchemists dared to perform such bold actions.
“Sizzle…”
A soft sound came out from the bathtub. On top of the overbearing Infernal Heavenly Flames, the spiritual ingredients were promptly refined into liquid without any effort.
Xu Xiaoshou entered the boring stage of controlling the fire, and his eyes began to wander around.
Flame control was a major feature from Cooking Expert.
This feature directly introduced Xu Xiaoshou to the art of alchemy and opened the door to a side career.
For other alchemists, when they thought of refining elixir and Pill Condensation Art, the former was more arduous and challenging to perform.
It was necessary to control the medicinal properties of the substance to refine elixirs. More importantly, the alchemist also had to maintain perfect concentration for an extended period without any hint of distraction.
It required a lot of experience and practice to achieve.
For Pill Condensation Art, no matter how difficult it was, it was only a spiritual skill.
As long as one was willing to learn it and accept the same level of Pill Condensation Art as a Spiritual Cultivator, it was generally simple enough to learn the ropes, though not easy to progress far.
On the other hand, Xu Xiaoshou compared to ordinary alchemy masters behaved the opposite.
It was due to Cooking Expert and one of its branches: flame control.
Because of this Passive Skill, he seemed to have practiced the knowledge countless times in his mind.
He was an absolute natural at alchemy.
Apart from controlling the flames a little and dealing with some minor accidents that may occur in the alchemy process…
There was no other obstacle in his alchemy process of refining elixir.
What really challenged him was the Pill Condensation Art.
He just could not learn it.
Glancing at Shi Ti from the corner of his eye, he noticed that Shi Ti was carefully staring at his hand. Xu Xiaoshou waved more casually, which instantly puzzled Shi Ti further.
He looked out of the door again, and the crowd was even more at a loss.
Under the command of the Yun He, everyone’s eyes were zeroed in until they almost bled. All they wanted was to understand his Profound Way of the Heavens alchemy hand gesture.
Unfortunately, no one could decipher his technique.
Xu Xiaoshou smirked. It would have been a surprise if they could see through it.
His alchemy technique was something that even he could not decipher.
Under the Infernal Heavenly Flames, the elixir refined very quickly. When it was almost time, he focused his thoughts and concentrated on the next step.
“Pill Condensation…”
Xu Xiaoshou whispered. He looked at the Passive Points Information Bar.
“Passive Points, +24,333.”
Though it was not increasing fast enough, it was sufficient for him to improve his skill points.
Xu Xiaoshou did not originally plan to waste passive points on alchemy. After all, he had too many enemies, and they were too strong.
If he could refine eighth-grade magic pills, any one of the three favors promised by President Shi Ti could help him defend himself against the unknown killer.
Minutes passed…
The killer was at the Sovereign Stage…
As Xu Xiaoshou thought, his fingers moved faster unconsciously.
Under the influence of the Passive Skill Agility, if he did not control his hand speed, he could directly gesture out a phantom with his speed.
“How fast…”
Everyone stared even more intently. In the alchemy room, Shi Ti started pacing his feet unconsciously.
Gently, step by step, he did not even notice that he was already remarkably close to Xu Xiaoshou.
‘What a magical technique. It’s really as Yun He said! It closely resembles cooking!’
‘It’s too messy and disorderly. It’s almost like simply waving, but is it possible?’
‘He is the apprentice of Old Man Sang, could it be that this is the latest development by that old man?’
As Shi Ti thought, he proceeded to bend his knees, squatting directly by Xu Xiaoshou’s side.
