Chapter 882 - 129: That’s a Dark Horse
Three days later.
Celestial Craft Pavilion.
As the iconic building in each city of the Thousand Mechanism Domain, the Celestial Craft Pavilion is located at the center of every city.
At this moment, people are coming in and out of the pavilion continuously, including Grade-Entering Martial Artists and Innate Martial Artists.
"If you want to register for alchemy, sir, you just need to show proof, and you can skip the preliminary round directly."
The Upper-Grade Martial Artist responsible for registration, upon seeing Lin Chen approach, showed a smile on his previously stern face.
"What proof?"
"It’s the certification issued by the Artifact Refining Guild. Don’t you have it, sir?"
The Upper-Grade Martial Artist listened to Lin Chen’s inquiry and was slightly taken aback. Generally, those who pursue the path of alchemy begin artifact refining starting as Grade-Entering Martial Artists, and by the Innate Realm, they are at least intermediate artifact refiners.
It’s unlikely for someone to reach the Innate Realm and then start alchemy; that would be putting the cart before the horse.
The purpose of artifact refining, aside from a few who are truly obsessed with it, is mostly for acquiring resources, assisting in Martial Arts Cultivation, and having a chance to step into the Innate Realm through artifact refining.
"No."
Lin Chen’s expression didn’t change much. He spoke calmly, "Is it not possible to register without proof?"
"Yes... yes, it is possible. Here is your contestant’s badge. When you go in, choose the Alchemy Hall, where someone will guide you,"
The Upper-Grade Martial Artist quickly explained, handing Lin Chen a jade plaque engraved with a number.
Taking the number plaque, Lin Chen headed straight for the Alchemy Hall, disregarding the unusual glances of those around him.
...
Alchemy Hall.
Currently bustling with people, the entire hall has several side halls, each with hundreds of pill furnaces. Many are already engaged in alchemy.
The preliminary rules of the artifact refining competition are simple: within the allotted time, refine three furnaces of pills, with materials provided by the event organizers. Completion signifies passing the re-exam.
Compared to other contestants searching for positions for their pill furnaces, Lin Chen enjoyed special treatment, with hall staff personally guiding him to a pill furnace and delivering the materials.
Innate Powerhouses naturally enjoy privileges beyond those of Grade-Entering Martial Artists.
After one two-hour period, Lin Chen simultaneously opened three furnaces of pills, a scene that shocked the other alchemists in the hall, as they typically refined one furnace before beginning another, attempting to ensure successful pill refinement.
Everyone has only one chance, and failure means elimination.
Simultaneously refining three furnaces, and with different pills, would only be attempted with absolute confidence in one’s strength.
In the entire side hall, Lin Chen finished refining the earliest. Upon being declared to have passed the preliminary round, Lin Chen did not rush to leave, instead observing the alchemical efforts of others in the side hall, but only for a short while. He soon lost interest as these alchemists’ techniques fell short of his, even though he was a novice.
Innate Realm Martial Artists engaging in alchemy, no matter how newly started, amounts to a dimensional reduction attack against Grade-Entering Alchemists.
The truly skilled alchemists likely went directly to the second round.
Having lost interest, Lin Chen promptly left the side hall. The second round starts the day after tomorrow, and instead of wasting time here, he’d rather return home to refine a few more furnaces of pills for practice.
...
The next day.
In the Alchemy Hall, several elders sat comfortably in chairs, each with a list in hand.
These are the candidates who passed the preliminary round and entered the second round.
"It seems this year’s preliminary alchemy competition hasn’t produced any rising stars."
The artifact refining competition is a top-tier event in the Thousand Mechanism Domain, linked to the interests of each city. The cities take it very seriously, but don’t expect the preliminary contestants to achieve high rankings in the finals.
However, not being hopeful now doesn’t mean it’s unimportant. The artifact refining competition is held every five years, and these promising contestants from the preliminary round are the future forces, candidates for the main competition in the next or subsequent competitions.
Many cities make decisions based on the performance of the preliminary contestants and may seek to recruit talented artifact refiners from other cities if no promising candidates emerge in the preliminary round.
"There is one impressive participant who refined three different pills simultaneously within one two-hour period."
Listening to the elder on the left, the other elders smiled wryly. To be able to simultaneously refine three different pills within a two-hour period and succeed is indeed quite a talent.
But the key is that this contestant is already an Innate Powerhouse.
If the participant were a Grade-Entering artifact refiner, even an Upper-Grade refiner would have decent talent. But for an Innate Powerhouse, it doesn’t count for much.
"This participant, Xiao Yan, seems to have started alchemy only after achieving the Innate Realm, and the performance is largely due to his Divine Soul advantage,"
All present are Innate Powerhouses and alchemists, aware of how much benefit a Divine Soul provides to alchemy, and this round involved relatively ordinary pills, not very challenging.
While the elders were discussing this here, there was similar talk outside.
The alchemy subset of the artifact refining competition has always attracted the most attention, as it’s what all martial artists encounter the most frequently—every martial artist has consumed pills before.
"Did you hear? In this year’s preliminary round, the first-place contestant simultaneously refined three different pills within one two-hour period."
"So talented, has our Hundred Refinements City produced another genius?"