Martial Peak

Once again, everyone was annihilated.

Even the young genius Alchemist Wang Qi Ren had failed to pass Grandmaster Xiao’s test. This result was completely beyond everyone’s expectations.

After Wang Qi Ren left the high platform, for quite a while, no one dared to go up on stage.

With even these great family talents having failed, no one was confident that they could make it through Grandmaster Xiao’s test, and were afraid that going up would simply be disgracing themselves.

The Medicine King’s Valley disciples from beginning to end were not impatient, all of them simply stood around waiting.

When he glanced over at Dong Qing Yan, Yang Kai found her constantly clenching and releasing her two little hands, clearly very tense, yet her face still showed an eager expression even if it was mixed with a bit of unease.

An Earth Grade Top-Rank Alchemist had just failed, could she, a Common Grade Mid-Rank succeed?

“Sometimes, missing a single opportunity will be someone’s lifelong regret!” Yang Kai faintly whispered.

Hearing this, Dong Qing Yan’s tender body trembled. Turning to look at Yang Kai, her eyes flashed a thoughtful light before immediately became resolute; inhaling a deep breath, she declared, “En!”

Yang Kai smiled and, together with Dong Qing Yan, jumped up onto the platform.

Seeing someone still dare to take the stage, a round of voices suddenly stirred below, shouting a few words of encouragement, which caused Dong Qing Yan to smile shyly.

However in the next instant, these people noticed the ornament which was pinned to her chest.

“She’s just a Common Grade Mid-Rank Alchemist…”

“Her level is so low; she’s probably just another fool.”

“Poor little girl, even if she is a fool, how will she be able to show her face after this?

…

Listening to these words, Dong Qing Yan bit down on her lip and remained silent.

The three young Medicine King’s Valley disciples, however, still smiled at her. It seems that beautiful women were able to win favour no matter where they went.

“Young lady, if you please!”

Dong Qing Yan nodded gently, took a deep breath, and walked over to the pot. Pulling out a poison pill, she glanced back once at Yang Kai, silently consulting him.

Yang Kai nodded lightly and said, “Rest assured, I’ll observe you first.”

If Dong Qing Yan failed to pass the test, he would have to immediately bring her away. There was no way he could really allow her to disgrace herself in front of this crowd.

In addition, to the Medicine King’s Valley disciples, there were only Dong Qing Yan and Yang Kai on stage now, and since Yang Kai was dressed up as her escort, the Medicine King’s Valley disciples did not immediately ask him to leave.

Dong Qing Yan took a deep breath, put the poison pill into her mouth, and nervously swallowed it before immediately sitting cross-legged and running her Secret Art to refine the pill.

Yang Kai crossed his arms and stood nearby, straight as a javelin, vigilantly observing Dong Qing Yan’s every movement.

Half a cup of tea’s time later, she showed no reaction.

A full cup of tea’s time passed, yet she still did not show any symptoms.

Yang Kai couldn’t help but squint and secretly use his Divine Sense to sweep over Dong Qing Yan. He quickly discovered that the Yuan Qi in her body was now rapidly circulating and burning away some kind of debris in her meridians.

These pieces of debris should be the toxins that had been in the poison pill.

“Hey, this girl is pretty good; she’s managed to last for this long!” Someone in the crowd below suddenly called out in surprise.

Of the few hundred or so people who had taken this test already, in addition to a few of those Alchemists cultivated by Great Families, very few people had persisted for this long, and it wasn’t like no Common Grade Alchemists had come up before. It was just that them lasting more than ten breaths was already considered good, but Dong Qing Yan’s performance now had caused everyone to sit up and take notice.

“How did she do it? She’s definitely another Alchemy genius, possibly even greater than Wang Qi Ren.”

“I know her; she’s the Dong Family’s Young Lady Dong Qing Yan!”

“What, the Dong Family’s Young Lady?”

As everyone was chattering, a ray of black gas emerged from Dong Qing Yan’s brow and quickly became thick. Immediately after, this black gas disappeared back into her body and Dong Qing Yan quickly opened her mouth and spat out a visibly black breath.

At the end of this breath, Dong Qing Yan slowly opened her big round eyes.

For the first time, Qin Ze stood up from his chair, his face bursting into a big smile, repeatedly praising, “Good, good! Finally, someone managed to pass Uncle Xiao’s test!”

[Passed?]

Hundreds of people suddenly went silent, almost unable to believe their ears.

From the beginning until now, more than three hundred Alchemists from numerous forces, hailing from all over the world had come up and taken this test. Many of them had exceptional aptitude and were considered geniuses. Even Earth Grade Top-Rank Alchemists had appeared, yet all of them had eventually failed.

But now, a Common Grade Mid-Rank Alchemist had managed to pass? What kind of profound and mysterious ability did she use to do it?

Even Dong Qing Yan was also stunned stupid, blinking her big eyes blankly while staring at Qin Ze.

Yang Kai lightly coughed and said, “Young Lady, this Senior just said you have passed the Grandmaster’s test.”

“Uh… huh?” Dong Qing Yan still seemed like she hadn’t recovered.

Qin Ze’s previously cold and solemn look had now changed to a warm and friendly smile as he once again said, “Little girl, congratulations! You have passed this test! From now on, you are my Uncle, Xiao Fu Sheng’s, disciple! Wait… this Qin should be calling you Junior Sister now!”

After this third explanation, Dong Qing Yan finally reacted.

Suddenly jumping high up into the sky, crying out and weeping with elation, her hands clutched her face as her eyes immediately became red.

This happiness had befallen her all too suddenly, and she was clearly caught unprepared.

Helplessly puttering about for a long time, unable to find any words to say, Dong Qing Yan simply continued to shed tears of joy.

Only after she carried on like this for quite some time did she managed to barely compose herself and reply, “Yan’er greets Senior Brother Qin!”

To this silly little girl, Qin Ze laughed heartily, “Junior Sister is too polite! Uncle Xiao accepting you as his disciple is a blessing for our Medicine King’s Valley.”

As these two exchanged greetings, the atmosphere between them immediately became harmonious, which caused the crowd gathered below to wear looks of pure shock.

When had any of them ever seen Qin Ze of Medicine King’s Valley acting so friendly? Every time someone found him to perform Alchemy for them, he would have an extremely ugly expression on his face, as though they all owed him something.

But now, this fellow was laughing so hard every one of his teeth was exposed.

It wasn’t like he was somehow incapable of laughing with others. It was simply that before now he had never placed anyone else in his eyes.

“Now that Junior Sister has passed Uncle Xiao’s test, you will be immediately counted as one of our Medicine King’s Valley’s disciple, if you have no other matters to settle first, you can accompany me into Medicine King’s Valley, if there is something you wish to deal with beforehand, please inform me now.” Qin Ze said as he laughed happily.

Dong Qing Yan simply nodded. About her joining Medicine King’s Valley, she obviously had to inform the Dong Family, but after things had progressed to this step, she firmly believed that her brother would no longer try to stop her.

Her becoming a Medicine King’s Valley disciple would also bring a lot of face to the Dong Family. It was quite simple actually, no matter which force it was, as long as they belonged to this world, they would desire a good relationship with Medicine King’s Valley, and now the Dong Family’s Young Lady was the Medicine King’s Valley Grandmaster Xiao’s direct disciple. It was simply an incomparable position.

“Senior Brother, Yan’er’s guardian would also like to try.” Dong Qing Yan looked towards Yang Kai and said.

“Guardian?” Qin Ze frowned, having written Yang Kai off as a simple escort before, although he did not openly show disgust, the look of disdain in his eyes was quite obvious.

“Yan’er’s guardian has been protecting her since she was just a child, so…”

Qin Ze suddenly looked at her wryly, apparently misunderstanding that his new Junior Sister had a forbidden love for this ‘guardian’ of hers.

Without digging any deeper into it, he simply nodded and said, “Since he would like to try, then so be it, in any case, there are still a lot of Uncle Xiao’s poison pills remaining.”

Having already agreed, Qin Ze casually asked, “What level of Alchemist is he?”

At this question, Dong Qing Yan blushed even harder and said, “He’s not an Alchemist…”

“Not an Alchemist?”

“…” Qin Ze’s expression suddenly turned sour, sternly objecting, “If he has never performed Alchemy before why does he want to try now? Does he looking down on Alchemy as if it’s some kind of trivial matter? My Medicine King’s Valley’s isn’t some random place that one with no heart for Alchemy can casually join. Him being able to pass this test isn’t even worth considering.”

In response, Yang Kai simply looked at him and asked, “May I ask, did Predecessor Xiao ever state that someone with no experience in Alchemy cannot participate in this disciple recruitment test?”

To this, Qin Ze laughed loudly, “Indeed, Uncle Xiao did not say as such, but since you have never learned Alchemy before now, your future achievements on this path will naturally not be anything significant. If you aren’t willing to dedicate your life to the pursuit of Alchemy then this is not a place where you belong.”

However, Yang Kai remained unfazed, lightly countering, “According to what this junior knows, Grandmaster Xiao himself was twenty-six years old when he was first exposed to Alchemy. This junior is still only seventeen this year, nearly ten years younger than Grandmaster Xiao when he began learning.”

This was something he had overheard people talking about earlier.

To this point, Qin Ze frowned, his expression quite displeased.

Suddenly, some people in the crowd below began to curse, “Who the hell do you think you are you damn brat! how dare you compare yourself with Grandmaster Xiao!”

“Grandmaster Xiao is a Heaven sent genius, he was born for the Alchemist Path, so what if he was twenty-six years old when he began practicing Alchemy, even if he had been forty or five years old it would have been the same, how could a nobody like you hope to compare with him!?”

“Enough!” Qin Ze roared furiously, immediately causing the crowd below to fall silent.

Staring silently towards Yang Kai for a long time, he eventually gave a nod, “What you have said is not without reason. Since Uncle Xiao did not set any requirements about having to have practiced Alchemy beforehand, you are indeed still qualified to take this test. Go get yourself a poison pill.”

Yang Kai also gave a nod, and while the other three young Medicine King’s Valley disciples sneered, he reached out and swallowed one of the poison pills.

Nearby, Dong Qing Yan was looking towards him nervously, but Yang Kai just smiled at her then sat down and began refining the pill.

Circulating his True Yang Secret Art, a sweltering heat began to spread out around him, causing Qin Ze’s brow to prick up as he secretly nodded.

Although he still somewhat looked down on Yang Kai, after feeling his True Qi fluctuations, he also realized that this boy was not simple. Being able to reach the True Element Boundary at such a young age, this kind of aptitude was not something an average person would possess. If he did not distract himself by trying to learn Alchemy and instead concentrated solely on the Martial Path, he would not doubt have some achievements in the future.

[Even just a trivial guardian is so powerful? The Dong Family’s background is not shallow], Qin Ze thought to himself in surprise.

As soon as the poison pill reached his stomach, Yang Kai will felt it completely dissolve and pour directly into his meridians.

It was truly something personally refined by a once-in-a-generation master, this effect was simply too fast, not to mention Yang Kai with his True Element Boundary Second Stage cultivation, even someone who had just entered the Initial Element Stage, as long as they even slightly circulated their Yuan Qi, would effortlessly be able to absorb this medicinal essence.

As the poison flowed through his meridians, it was quickly refined and incinerated by his True Yang Yuan Qi, which made it completely unable to harm him in any way.

After he had completed a few rotations of his True Qi, Yang Kai felt the last of the toxins in his body completely disintegrate, while the remaining dregs rose up to his head and gatheed into a cloud of turbid gas in his mouth.

Startled by this, Yang Kai suddenly began feeling anxious.

When Dong Qing Yan had spent only slightly more than a cup of tea worth time to pass this test, it was apparently quite surprising to Qin Ze, if he were to achieve the same results after only a few breaths of time, it would no doubt set of a great storm.

[It’s too fast!]

Considering up to this point, Yang Kai quickly held his mouth shut, refusing to spit out the black gas, and continued circulating his True Yang Secret Art as if nothing had happened.