Inside the ancient box, a round, green pill the size of a dragon's eye lay quietly, from which an alluring, exotic fragrance began to waft.
On the Dou Qi Continent, to become a true Dou Zhe, the first requirement is to condense a Dou Qi cyclone within one's body. However, the failure rate of condensing this cyclone is not small. Once it fails, a person's Dou Qi will regress from the ninth stage back to the eighth stage. Those with poor luck might even have to attempt it ten times before succeeding. Such repeated failures would waste their prime years of cultivation, ultimately ruining their future prospects.
The Qi Gathering Powder's effect was to grant someone at the ninth stage of Dou Qi a one-hundred-percent success rate in condensing their Dou Qi cyclone!
This miraculous effect made it a coveted treasure for countless people who wished to quickly become a Dou Zhe, a dream they yearned for day and night but could never attain.
Speaking of the Qi Gathering Powder, one could not help but mention its creators: Alchemists!
On the Dou Qi Continent, there existed a profession even more noble than that of a Dou Zhe. People called them Alchemists!
Alchemists, as the name implied, could refine various miraculous medicinal pills to boost one's strength. Every Alchemist would be eagerly recruited by various factions at any cost, granting them an incredibly illustrious status!
For Alchemists to enjoy such treatment, their numbers were naturally extremely scarce. The requirements to become an Alchemist were exceptionally harsh.
First, one's innate attribute had to be fire. Second, within their fire-attributed body, there had to be a trace of wood Qi to serve as a neutralizing agent during the refining process!
One must know that on the Dou Qi Continent, a person's attribute was determined by their soul. They would eternally possess only a single attribute, with no possibility of others mixing in. Thus, it was virtually impossible for a single body to harbor two different attributes of varying strengths.
Of course, nothing was absolute. Out of millions of people, there would always be a few whose souls underwent a mutation. Those with mutated souls possessed the potential to become Alchemists!
However, simply possessing a soul with both fire and wood attributes was not enough to make one a true Alchemist. This was because of another indispensable requirement: Soul Perception! It could also be called Soul Shaping Force!
In the refinement of medicinal pills, the three most crucial elements were: materials, a flame source, and Soul Perception!
Materials, of course, referred to all kinds of natural treasures. Alchemists were not gods; without top-grade ingredients, they could not create anything of worth. Thus, high-quality materials were of paramount importance.
The flame source was the fire required by an Alchemist to refine pills. Ordinary fire could not be used; instead, they had to employ flames generated from fire-attributed Dou Qi. Of course, there also existed many Heavenly Flames within the world. Only Alchemists of formidable strength could utilize them. Refining medicine with a Heavenly Flame not only vastly increased the success rate, but the resulting pills would also possess far greater efficacy than those refined using standard Dou Qi flames.
Because the refining process required a significant amount of time and consumed an immense amount of Dou Qi, every outstanding Alchemist was, in reality, a powerful fire-attributed Dou Zhe!
The final requirement was Soul Perception!
During alchemy, the control of the flame's intensity is extremely crucial. Sometimes, if the flame is even slightly too strong, the entire cauldron of pills will turn to ash. Therefore, controlling the flame is a mandatory skill for an alchemist to learn. However, to control the flame, one must possess a powerful Soul Perception. Without this, no matter how good the first two conditions are, it is all in vain!
Under such harsh conditions, those qualified to become alchemists are naturally as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns. With so few alchemists, various miraculous medicinal pills are naturally extremely scarce. The rarer a thing is, the more precious it becomes, which is why alchemists enjoy a highly respected, and perhaps even somewhat distorted, status.
……
Inside the grand hall, hearing the astonished voices of the three elders, the eyes of the young boys and girls widened. Pair after pair of burning gazes locked tightly onto the jade box in Ge Ye's hand.
Sitting beside her father, Xiao Mei gently licked her red lips, her eyes staring at the jade box without blinking once...
"Haha, this was personally refined by our sect's honorary elder, Lord Gu He. Perhaps you have heard of his esteemed name?" Seeing the three elders lose their composure, Ge Ye could not help but feel a bit smug as he smiled and spoke.
"This pill was refined by Pill King Gu He?" Hearing this, the faces of the three elders changed in shock.
Pill King Gu He possessed immense influence within the Jia Ma Empire, and his alchemy skills were miraculously profound. Countless strong experts wished to curry favor with him but could not even find a way to meet him.
Gu He not only possessed miraculous alchemy skills, but his strength had also long since entered the Dou Wang realm, earning him a spot among the Jia Ma Empire's Ten Grand Experts.
For such a figure, the Qi Gathering Powder he refined would likely be worth several times its normal value.
The three elders beamed with joy as they stared at the Qi Gathering Powder inside the jade box. If the clan could obtain this Qi Gathering Powder, they would likely have the power to produce a young Dou Zhe.
While the three elders were plotting how to secure the medicinal pill for their own grandsons, a youth's calm voice, suppressing a hint of anger, suddenly rang out in the hall.
"Old Mr. Ge Ye, you should take the pill back. We will not agree to today's matter!"
The hall fell dead silent. Every gaze shifted to Xiao Yan's delicate face.
"Xiao Yan, is this a place for you to speak? Shut your mouth!" With a darkened face, one of the elders barked angrily.
"Xiao Yan, step back. I know you are feeling hurt, but we will make the decision for you!" another elderly man said indifferently.
"Three elders, if the person whose marriage was being broken today were your own son or grandson, would you be able to feel so at ease?" Xiao Yan slowly stood up, a mocking smile playing on his lips as he asked. Since the three elders looked down on him, he saw no need to put on a polite front for them.
"You..." Hearing this, the three elders were momentarily choked up. The hot-tempered Third Elder glared at him, his Dou Qi slowly beginning to surge.
"Three elders, what Brother Xiao Yan said is correct. He is the party involved in this matter, so there is no need for you to interfere." A young girl's soft voice calmly echoed through the hall.
Hearing the young girl's soft voice, the anger of the three elders suddenly subsided. They exchanged helpless glances and then nodded.
Seeing the three elders back down, Xiao Yan turned his head and stared intently at the smiling Xiao Xun'er. *You little lass, what exactly is your background? Why are the three elders so wary of you...*
Suppressing the doubts in his heart, Xiao Yan quickly stepped forward, bowed respectfully to Xiao Zhan, and then turned to face Nalan Yanran. He calmly asked, "Miss Nalan, I would like to ask: has Old Master Nalan agreed to today's annulment?"
Xiao Yan's sudden intervention displeased Nalan Yanran, causing her delicate brows to furrow. This person, who hadn't seemed so bad at first glance, why was he so obnoxious? Did he not realize the gap between them?
She blamed Xiao Yan in her heart, never once considering that her public demand for an annulment had placed Xiao Yan and his father in an extremely humiliating and infuriating position.
Standing up, Nalan Yanran looked at the youth who was supposed to become her husband in the future and said in a flat tone, "Grandfather has not agreed, but this is my own affair and has nothing to do with him."
"Since the Old Master has not agreed, then my father will not agree to your request either. This marriage was personally arranged by the two grandfathers. As long as they do not speak of dissolving it, no one dares to break this engagement, otherwise, it would be a desecration of our elders! I believe that in our clan, no one would commit such an act of filial impiety, right?" Xiao Yan turned his head slightly, looking at the three elders with a cold sneer.
Having such a heavy label slapped on them by Xiao Yan, the three elders instantly froze. In a clan with strict rules, such an accusation was enough to strip them of their elder positions.
"You..." Hearing Xiao Yan's words, Nalan Yanran shuddered, unable to find any words to refute him. Her face paled slightly with anger as she stamped her foot hard. Taking a deep breath, her spoiled young mistress temper flared up, and she looked at the youth before her with disgust. Feeling frustrated, she spoke plainly, "What do you want to dissolve the marriage contract? Is the compensation too little? Fine, I can ask my teacher to give you three Qi Gathering Powders. Furthermore, if you are willing, I can even arrange for you to enter the Yunlan Sect to practice high-level Dou Qi Methods. Is that enough?"
Hearing the alluring conditions offered by the young girl, the three elders' breathing instantly grew heavy. The youths in the hall all swallowed hard. Entering the Yunlan Sect to cultivate? Heavens, that was something countless people could only dream of...
Having stated these conditions, Nalan Yanran lifted her fair chin, waiting for Xiao Yan's reply like a proud princess. In her mind, such terms were enough to drive any youth mad.