Chapter 458 - Alchemy Challenge! Fang Shi Vs Xuan Hao!

"Great! We will just be using a simple pill furnace, the one to make the most Soul Grade Qi Gathering Pills will be the winner!"

Waving his hand as two normal pill furnaces directly appeared in front of them. Following which a large amount of spirit stones rushed out from the interspatial ring he was wearing before stacking up into a small mountain between the two pill furnaces.

The sheer amount of spirit stones that Fang Shi had taken out was more than Xuan Hao had ever seen in one place, that is not to mention the fact that the spirit stones pilled up into a small mountain was not only low-grade spirit stones, but there was also a large amount of high-grade spirit stones present!

"Are you ready?"

Having finished the little preparation required for the quick challenge, Fang Shi turned his attention back towards Xuan Hao.

"Yes, we can start any time."

Not willing to admit that he had momentarily been rendered speechless by the sheer quantity of spirit stones that Fang Shi had brought out with ease, Xuan Hao quickly calmed himself down before making his way towards one of the two pill furnaces.

Even if he mainly made potions due to the fact that his disciple along with the rest of the alchemists in the Flying Sword Sect did so as well, Xuan Hao was no stranger when it came to creating pills. Mostly due to the information he had gained in the past through the system, that included an equal amount of both potion and pill related knowledge at the Artisan Realm.

"The time starts now!"

After hearing Xuan Hao say he was ready, Fang Shi didn't waste any more time, as he announced the official start of the short challenge.

Whoosh~

At the same time, a small artifact in the shape of an hourglass was also thrown out by Fang Shi, as it soon came to a stop mid-air where it remained floating before quickly flipping around. Even Xuan Hao with little knowledge on artifacts understood that the small floating hourglass was used to make sure they only used fifteen minutes.

"At least we are not using something uncertain like an incense stick to measure time…"

Muttering this to himself as he turned his gaze away from the hourglass floating in the air above both of them, Xuan Hao focused on the spirit stones and the pill furnace in front of him.

The process of making a Qi Gathering Pill was incredibly simple and took close to no time to make. The only bad thing about it being the horrible conversion rate of losing around 50 percent of the qi inside the spirit stones in the process, but with Fang Shi providing all the spirit stones, Xuan Hao had no worries when it came to wasting the qi inside the spirit stones.

Not wasting any time, Xuan Hao began making his first Soul Grade Qi Gathering Pill.

"Ten to one… If I remember correctly…"

Muttering this to himself as he recalled what the ratio of low-grade to high-grade spirit stones were in a Soul Grade Qi Gathering Pill, Xuan Hao quickly took out ten low-grade spirit stones and a single high-grade spirt stone from the small mountain of spirit stones.

After which, he proceeded to stuff all of them inside the relatively small pill furnace before using his cultivation base to conjure forth a small flame that instantly caused the temperature inside the pill furnace to soar to a terrifying level.

Along with the increase in temperature inside the pill furnace, the spirit stones inside the pill furnace began melting one by one before all of them turned into a liquid state.

Following this, all Xuan Hao need to do was compress the hot liquid spirit stones into a small pill that could be directly swallowed.

The compression of the liquified spirt stones was the last step of the process and also the most heart wrenching part of the process.

Whoosh!

As he began compressing the spirit stones that had melted and merged together into a single liquid form, Xuan Hao could not help but frown upon watching the qi inside the liquid rapidly decrease, as the compression of it ended up forcing out some of the qi inside the liquid, that in turn instantly got burned up inside the pill furnace…

The sight alone was more than enough to cause even a Domain Lord like himself to feel a bit regretful over how much pure qi inside the spirit stones that ended up just being wasted as it was destroyed the moment it was forced out of the quickly shrinking liquid.

Soon enough, the liquid inside the pill furnace was compressed into the shape a normal round pill before Xuan Hao took it out and directly used his ice domain to cool it down before placing it at the side and beginning the process again, he couldn't be bothered to waste any time inspecting the Qi Gathering Pill, as another dozen or so spirit stones were directly thrown into the pill furnace.

The entire process of making a single Soul Grade Qi Gathering Pill, took no longer than thirty seconds, though during the creation of the second Qi Gathering Pill, Xuan Hao felt his speed increase, as he managed to finish it in only 27 seconds! Three seconds faster than the first time!

…

The challenge proposed by Fang Shi only lasted for 15 minutes and it didn't take long before the time ran out and both of them finished their last Soul Grade Qi Gathering Pill.

"That's 15 minutes! Haha, I wonder how many you managed to finish? Let's just put them on the table here and count them all."

Removing both of the pill furnaces along with the small mountain of spirit stones the moment fifteen minutes had passed, Fang Shi directly brought out a small table before placing the Soul Grade Qi Gathering Pills, he managed to create during the fifteen-minute time span before signalling for Xuan Hao to do the same with a confident smile.

"30… 33… 35!"

Seeing how many Soul Grade Qi Gathering Pills Fang Shi had managed to make within a fifteen-minute timespan, Xuan Hao calmed down as he let out a sigh of relief before putting his own Qi Gathering Pills down onto the table Fang Shi had taken out.

"Hm… Let's see how many you managed to make… 20… 27… 33… 37!? How is this possible?!"

Counting the Qi Gathering Pills Xuan Hao had managed to make, Fang Shi could not help but exclaim loudly as he realized that there were two more than what he had ended up making. Meaning, he had lost the challenge!

"Hah… Looks like I have lost this time around, but I really hope we can have a proper duel at some point in the future…"

Shaking his head before calming down, Fang Shi acknowledged his own defeat. No matter what, there was no use crying when he had already lost to the other person. The only thing he found regretful, was the fact that they didn't have a proper match and instead ended up having a short match on who could make the most Soul Grade Qi Gathering Pills.

This was especially so after he realized Xuan Hao was likely someone at his own level… But in turn, it also made him understand that he most likely didn't have any chance taking Qing Yi as his third personal disciple…

"Well, let's get back out. Don't worry, I won't try to take your disciple anymore… Anyways, I still managed to get a quite splendid new disciple in the end, so everything still ended well-"

"Are you not forgetting about something…?"

Just as Fang Shi was about to send both of them out again while saying this, Xuan Hao suddenly interrupted him.

"Ah… I have no idea what you are talking about! Look, it has already gotten quite late, and your disciple should be worried sick now that her master disappeared for so long, we can't keep her waiting!"

"…"

Not expecting the old alchemist to be shameless enough to ignore his earlier bet of giving away his own disciple in case he lost, Xuan Hao suddenly felt himself getting pulled out of the space inside the cauldron, as he quickly put away the Qi Gathering Pills he had made in his interspatial ring before finding himself back outside again.

"Well… I have some things to check up on, so I will be leaving first! Haha, I won't wait around for you two to have a nice little chat about the alchemy competition!"

"…"

The moment he found himself back outside the cauldron, Xuan Hao didn't even manage to say anything before he discovered that the old alchemist was already in the process of running away…

"Master? What happened…?"

"I will tell you when we get back…"

Seeing Qing Yi look over towards him with a questioning look on her face after seeing her master appear after only fifteen minutes, Xuan Hao decided not to chase after the old alchemist for now and instead decided to go back and rest.

A lot of things had happened during the day of the alchemy competition…