Chapter 377: Xiao Ruyan Lost?

Although Ye Yuan's words were meant to encourage, they somehow lacked sincerity.

But for some reason, Xiao Ruyan's originally nervous heart calmed down under Ye Yuan's encouragement.

She shot Ye Yuan a fierce glare and walked to the dueling area.

"Tch, kindness taken for ingratitude!" Ye Yuan muttered discontentedly.

At this moment, a quasi-Dan King came to the arena, clearly the one maintaining order, while the final verdict would be decided by Yang Xiu and the other six Dan Kings.

As for Star Abyss Emperor, he had closed his eyes from the start, seemingly dozing off, as if everything here had nothing to do with him.

"First round: Combination Pills! Someone will soon bring a hundred spirit herbs. You two must identify these hundred herbs and freely combine them into pill formulas. The one with the most pill formulas wins!" the quasi-Dan King explained.

In the center was a long table. After the quasi-Dan King spoke, some apprentice-like people carried in spirit herbs one by one—some second-grade, some third-grade, all sorts.

Xiao Ruyan and Tong Wenhui each went to opposite sides of the arena and began identifying the herbs.

This was essentially a test of the alchemist's basic skills: quickly and accurately identifying spirit herbs was a necessary skill for an alchemist.

However, in a pill duel determining the fate of two families, identifying herbs was obviously not an easy task.

Admittedly, most herbs could be identified by both, but there were bound to be a few extremely rare ones that neither had even seen before.

In such a situation, it came down to the alchemist's solid foundation and whether they could identify them through records in ancient texts.

"Old Liu, in your opinion, who will win between the two?" Yang Xiu asked an old man beside him.

This old man was also a Dan King, Liu Han, an elder of the Alchemist Guild.

Liu Han said, "Ruyan has exceptional talent, and her future achievements are limitless. Unfortunately, she is held back by her family. Tong Wenhui is seven or eight years older than her, but his foundation is more solid. In my view, their chances are about fifty-fifty."

Yang Xiu nodded and said, "Actually, I think only Ruyan from the Xiao family can compare with Tong Wenchang. Rufeng has already been outshone by Wenchang. If Ruyan performs well, she might even be taken as a disciple by Star Abyss."

Liu Han agreed, "These two have been competing for years, and now it's time to settle the score. But I heard that Rufeng could participate in today's pill duel only because Ruyan refined the Haoling Peiyuan Pill. It seems this girl's talent surpasses her brother's!"

Yang Xiu exclaimed in surprise, "Is that so? No wonder! A failed breakthrough is the most troublesome. Although the Xiao family has the complete formula for Haoling Peiyuan Pill, they lacked the refining method. I didn't expect Ruyan to successfully refine it!"

As Xiao Ruyan and Tong Wenhui began, everyone else started discussing. The arena had a soundproofing formation, so they couldn't hear anything.

Many admired Xiao Ruyan's potential, but in terms of skill, she might not surpass Tong Wenhui.

However, the Xiao family could not afford to lose!

They had to win both of the first two rounds, or they would be eliminated.

At first, both identified herbs very quickly, but as time went on, their pace slowed noticeably.

Xiao Ruyan, in particular, was slower than Tong Wenhui.

Of course, the most important part was the combination of pills!

As long as one side combined more pills than the other, even if they didn't identify all the herbs, they would still win.

Xiao Ruyan calculated over and over, repeatedly verifying several times, before finally submitting her answer at the last moment.

Tong Wenhui wasn't much better; the two submitted their answers almost simultaneously.

The answers were sealed in jade slips, so neither knew how many the other had answered.

The presiding quasi-Dan King presented the sealed answers to Yang Xiu, and the seven judges began reviewing them.

Yang Xiu placed both jade slips into a spirit artifact, and soon the contents were projected onto a wall.

"Xiao Ruyan wrote down ninety-three herb names, Tong Wenhui wrote down ninety-five. In the herb identification contest, Tong Wenhui has a slight edge. Now let's look at the pill formulas they wrote." Yang Xiu's voice slowly rang out, and everyone held their breath.

As he spoke, Yang Xiu placed another jade slip into the artifact, and its contents also appeared on the wall.

Pointing at the newly projected content, Yang Xiu said, "The newly projected content is the standard answer deduced by me and the six elders here over two nights. All possible combinations of these hundred herbs are listed here. Now we will compare them one by one."

Deducing pill formulas from these hundred herbs—the formulas written might not all be refinable; they were only theoretical answers.

The formation of a pill formula requires extremely complex experiments and countless failures before it might succeed.

It might even be impossible to succeed!

These hundred herbs, combined in pairs or triples, could theoretically yield thousands of answers.

But due to differences in the properties and effects of various herbs, only a few dozen could actually form pill formulas.

And among those few dozen, after countless experiments, it would be good if even one could eventually become a pill formula.

Yet even if a pill formula could be formed, it might not be useful.

Some pill formulas might be extremely powerful, while others had negligible effects on martial artists and were worthless.

Thus, every existing pill formula was extremely precious.

Except for common ones, any formula of slight value would be closely guarded by major powers.

Developing a new pill formula was also extremely difficult.

Especially for higher-grade pills, the required herbs were naturally more precious. How could ordinary alchemists afford to develop new formulas?

Only large organizations could possibly research new pill formulas.

For instance, the Nethercloud Sect—a bunch of quasi-Dan Kings toiled for a long time and only developed some first-grade pills.

When Ye Yuan presented pills similar to what they had developed, they acted as if their tails had been stepped on.

"The correct answers total sixty-three. Xiao Ruyan wrote thirty-eight, Tong Wenhui wrote forty. Now we will compare them against the correct answers."

Yang Xiu began comparing Xiao Ruyan's and Tong Wenhui's answers one by one with the correct answers.

As a result, Xiao Ruyan only got one formula wrong, while Tong Wenhui got three wrong, ultimately resulting in a tie!

In the event of a tie, the winner would be determined by who wrote more herb names.

"Since they wrote the same number of pill formulas, the winner is..." Yang Xiu was about to announce the result.

"Wait!" Ye Yuan suddenly stood up, interrupting Yang Xiu.