Alchemy Master

Chapter 1157-1158, Surrounded

Translator: Silavin

That uncanny silence, far from putting Qin Yichen at ease, had every muscle in his body drawing taut. He moved as though already facing a mortal enemy.

Years of surviving one perilous situation after another had taught Qin Yichen to recognise this silence for what it was: stillness before a storm.

Only two possibilities could reduce this Demonic Beast-ridden region to such silence. The first was that a far more powerful Demonic Beast had come to this outer edge of the range, and the sheer weight of its presence had left every weaker creature too afraid to make noise.

Were that the case, Qin Yichen would not be too deeply troubled. Even against a Saint Realm Demonic Beast, he was confident in his ability to hold his own. And if holding his own proved impossible, escaping was certainly within reach. Demonic Beasts, after all, were violent and merciless, but their intelligence was low.

What worried Qin Yichen far more was the second possibility: that the experts of the Myriad Races had already swept through and cleared this area.

To clear a stretch of territory this vast within a place as Demonic Beast-saturated as the Thunderous Blessings Mountain Range, the number of experts required would have to reach a level that genuinely filled him with dread.

Moreover, the thick, persistent scent of blood that permeated the mountain air told Qin Yichen plainly that the second possibility was by far the more likely one.

“I wonder which friends might be present. I would like to invite you to show yourselves.” At last, Qin Yichen landed upon a mountain summit, came to an abrupt halt, and swept a sharp gaze over the surrounding terrain before calling out in a measured voice.

Silence answered him.

Even so, Qin Yichen did not relax. His eyes swept a slow arc before settling on a stretch of forest not far away.

“Brother Qin, quickly leave!” Abruptly, a voice, urgent and thin as a thread, reached him from a distance.

At that warning, Qin Yichen’s expression shifted slightly. Because that voice belonged to Xiang Linzi.

[There is seriously an ambush here.]

“Ha! Not bad, your senses are quite sharp!”

Before Qin Yichen could so much as begin to move, however, a burst of laughter erupted from within the very forest his gaze had been fixed upon. The trees stirred, and more than ten silhouettes swept out from within.

“Must you all cower and hide like that? Come out, all of you.” Qin Yichen’s brow furrowed as he took in the emerging figures, and his voice rose in another sharp call.

The auras emanating from these ten-odd experts were all formidably powerful. Even so, this formation was less impressive than the ambushing parties he had encountered along the road.

To have cleared a patch of ground this enormous within the Thunderous Blessings Mountain Range, this small group could not possibly have managed it alone.

As if on cue, even as his words faded, the mountain woodland nearby began to stir, and another wave of experts surfaced from within it.

Their gazes all carried that same deep crimson tinge of greed as they fixed upon Qin Yichen.

**Swish!* *Swish!**

With those experts’ appearance, Qin Yichen stared in astonishment as the woodlands across the surrounding mountains came alive. From every direction, silhouettes surfaced like phantoms, until the tree line on all sides was dense with them.

A rough scan suggested at least a thousand figures, and from further away, the sound of parting air continued without cease as still more swept toward him from every direction, descending like a swarm of locusts.

“You all think rather highly of this Qin.” Surveying the countless silhouettes that had closed in and encircled him completely, Qin Yichen’s expression darkened to something cold.

Everyone who had made it this far through the first stage of the trials was capable, and those who had chosen to ambush him here numbered, by rough estimate, somewhere between one and two thousand.

If the total number expected to pass the first stage was only three or four thousand, then nearly half of all the experts who had come to compete for a place as the Supreme Expert’s Disciple were gathered here right now.

One to two thousand young elites from across various Races, even for someone as powerful as Qin Yichen, was not a figure he could regard with any confidence at all.

A number like this would give even a Saint cause to walk around it rather than through it.

“Hand over the Pill Formula and whatever fortuitous opportunity you have obtained in the Dangerous Territory. Then, perhaps we will leave you an intact corpse.”

From the forest directly before him, a Peak Stage Martial Ancestor bellowed, the glint of naked greed burning in his eyes.

A thousand pairs of eyes locked onto Qin Yichen.

Whatever wariness his inflated reputation had planted in their hearts, the presence of a thousand Martial Ancestors was a force that seemed to defy resistance. Not one of them believed Qin Yichen would dare to fight back.

A force this vast, moving together, could surely reduce him to dust with a single casual strike.

“In regards to this so-called fortuitous opportunity, I have no idea what you are talking about. As for the Pill Formula, I only have one copy.”

A faint, unusual light flickered in Qin Yichen’s eyes before his voice came out, flat and unhurried, drifting through the stillness of forest and mountain. “With so many of you present, who exactly should I hand it to?”

At those words, many brows furrowed in unison.

What Qin Yichen had said touched upon the one genuine source of unease among them.

Every expert gathered here hailed from a different Race. The Pill Formula that worked for every Race was something that, regardless of which Race obtained it, would cause that Race’s power to surge dramatically.

And no matter which Race laid hands on it, those Races that did not see eye to eye with them would be deeply, bitterly displeased.

The matter of distribution was, in truth, a genuine problem.

“Ha! You snake, do not try your pitiful scheme of sowing discord. You need only hand the Pill Formula over. How it gets divided afterwards is none of your concern.”

These experts were clearly not the sort to be pried apart by a line or two. Someone called out at once, loudly, tearing Qin Yichen’s line of thinking apart and laying it bare.

“What a headache…” Qin Yichen gazed at those experts, who had, for the sake of dealing with him alone, set aside their differences and presented a united front, and felt a genuine throb of pain behind his temples.

Several thousand experts. This was nothing like the dozens or few hundreds who had ambushed him along the road.

With a number this vast, hemming him in from every direction without a gap, he really had no confidence in being able to break through such a wall.

“Do you think your strength could have advanced so dramatically in barely half a month without a tremendous stroke of fortune? I would strongly advise you to stop playing mind games with us.”

A voice thick with menace emerged from the forest along his flank. A muscular Peak Stage Martial Ancestor stared at Qin Yichen with undisguised greed. The ferocity on his face made no effort to hide itself.

“As for handing anything over…” Beneath the gaze of a thousand eyes, Qin Yichen gave an unhurried roll of his shoulders, and a voice, cold and perfectly still, spread across the mountain air. “That is never going to happen. If you want it, come and take it yourselves.”

At that voice, it seemed even the wind threading through the forest came to a sudden stop. A thousand silhouettes went rigid all at once. Gaze after gaze landed on that lone, slender figure standing upon the mountain summit, every one of them wide with disbelief.

Silavin: Kind of odd. The writing between Chapter 1157 and 1158 is too similar. So, I’m combining both chapters.

They are not exactly the same, but far too similar to be viewed as different chapters. Better to just merge them.