Chapter 653

　　That person let out a miserable cry as he was slapped into the stone wall behind him . He fainted, causing a burst of startled cries .

　　Gou Jiba? He was definitely looking for a beating . Otherwise, why would he state such a name? Long Chen was speechless .

　　“Senior, brother Jiba wasn’t trying to waste your time . His name really is Gou Jiba . His father is the ill.u.s.trious Gou Ridi,” explained someone hastily .

　　Hearing that, everyone’s expressions became exceedingly odd . Gou Ridi? Guo Jiba? Were you certain he wasn’t just wasting everyone’s time with nonsense?

　　“The Jiluo Prefecture’s Gou family?” asked the elder with sudden comprehension .

　　“Yes . ”

　　“Cough, ah, sorry . It was a misunderstanding . As expected, the Gou family’s people really are amazing,” said the elder awkwardly .

　　At this time, others had long since helped Gou Jiba up and given him a healing pill . He gradually recovered .

　　“Senior, this junior truly is called Gou Jiba . The Ji refers to Jiluo Prefecture’s blue sea, while the Ba refers to pus.h.i.+ng oneself to seek the heavens’ will,” said Gou Jiba extremely sullenly .

　　“It was my fault . Let’s continue . Name?”

　　“Gou Jiba . ”

　　“Origin?”

　　“Jiluo Prefecture’s alchemist guild . ”

　　“Alright, take the test . ”

　　“Age: thirty-one . Excellent . Spiritual Strength: seventh tier Earth cla.s.s . Excellent . The Gou family’s people really are not bad . ”

　　The elder nodded with praise and wrote down a new rank: Outstanding .

　　Acceptable . Excellent . Outstanding . Now there was a third rank . This Gou Jiba was truly not bad .

　　Gou Jiba laughed heartily . But that ended up causing him pain as it pulled on his injury, and tears squeezed out of his eyes as if his extreme joy had turned to sorrow .

　　The failures all left sadly . The remaining people all had pleased smiles, which contained some ridicule toward those people who were still nervously waiting .

　　Out of Gou Jiba’s group of eight, four had failed and four had succeeded . The four failures could only leave, but the other four didn’t reveal any mourning . After some fake words of comfort, they said nothing more .

　　“Name . ”

　　“Duan Tianqiao . ”

　　Long Chen turned to see a female alchemist with surprise . She wasn’t tall, but she had a delicate figure . She was extremely unremarkable in the crowd .

　　Now that she was pointed out, she drew everyone’s attention . Due to the fact that women were on the Yin side but Pill Flame was on the Yang side, female alchemists were rare .

　　Even the elder was surprised . He examined her and continued, “Origin?”

　　“Lihua Prefecture’s alchemist guild . ”

　　“Take the test . ”

　　“Yes . ”

　　She smiled and confidently walked up to the stairs . Light enveloped her .

　　“Age: twenty-six . ”

　　When this number appeared, everyone was startled . To have reached the Xiantian realm at just twenty-six was truly terrifying .

　　Gou Jiba’s pleased smile stiffened upon seeing this . He had been thirty-one when he advanced to Xiantian, and that was already extremely impressive amongst alchemists . But this woman was much younger than he was .

　　“Spiritual Strength: ninth tier Earth cla.s.s . Good, very good! With your soul energy, it won’t be long before you can refine sixth tier medicinal pills!” The elder was extremely moved . This was his first time saying so many words .

　　“Many thanks for your praise, senior . I simply want to devote myself to cultivating in the Pill Tower . ” Duan Tianqiao bowed toward the elder modestly .

　　Although she acted modest, her eyes betrayed her excitement, proving that her inner heart wasn’t as calm as she appeared .

　　That made Gou Jiba displeased, as he had clearly been a bit arrogant just now . However, he was comforted to see that Duan Tianqiao’s rank was the same as his: Outstanding . In other words, they were still at the same level .

　　The people after Duan Tianqiao seemed to be influenced by her . Of thirty-plus people, only seven pa.s.sed . Finally, Long Chen was the last one left .

　　“Name?”

　　“Long San,” replied Long Chen .

　　The elder frowned, looking at Long Chen . This name didn’t sound like anything outstanding .

　　“Origin?”

　　“Qing Prefecture’s Wild Horse Fat Sheep Pig Butchering Mountain Forest Village,” answered Long Chen .

　　This location was real . Back when he had encountered the Muxue Mercenary Unit, they had pa.s.sed by this village . Long Chen still remembered it because this name was too memorable .

　　“You… are you trying to waste my time?!” The elder almost raised his hand and slapped him . But having made his earlier mistake, he held himself back .

　　Hearing this, everyone was dumbfounded . The people who arrived here all had to go show their various alchemy guilds’ tokens to enter . How had Long San managed to get in?

　　As for Gou Jiba, as soon as he heard this nonsense location, he thought that this Long San was doomed . But the slap he antic.i.p.ated never came, almost making him explode in fury . Why had he been slapped for speaking his real name, while this brat didn’t get slapped when he clearly was just asking for it?!

　　“Definitely not . I’m telling the truth,” promised Long Chen solemnly .

　　“How did you get in?”

　　“I gave the guard my badge, and he let me in . ” Long Chen showed his badge to the elder .

　　When the elder saw the badge, his pupils shrank . “Pill Valley’s badge? Where did you get this?!”

　　“My master gave it to me . On the eve of his death, he told me I could use this badge to join Pill Valley, and then I’d definitely have food to eat,” said Long Chen .

　　“Food to eat?”

　　Everyone was flabbergasted . A grand alchemist actually couldn’t even feed himself? Was that an insult to the Pill Tower?

　　“Who is your master?”

　　“He was called Yun Qi . I was raised by him, and he taught me alchemy deep in the mountains . I never left the mountains, but one day, he was heavily injured, and he gave me this badge before he died, wanting me to find a place to make a living . He said with my talent, I’d definitely have food to eat and wine to drink here . I could buy a carriage, a house, and even get multiples wives and concubines,” said Long Chen .

　　The elder almost laughed . The Pill Tower had been taken as a place to make a living? But this was an authentic Pill Valley badge, and they were very rare .

　　In truth, the Pill Valley had long since stopped issuing such badges . In fact, most of them had already been taken back . When running into this badge, the Pill Tower had to give the owner a fair chance . Those were the rules of Pill Valley .

　　“Do you know what we’re doing here?” asked the elder .

　　“No . ” Long Chen shook his head .

　　“This is the centennial Pill Emperor Compet.i.tion . It is to determine the true emperor amongst Pill Emperors . Are you sure you want to partic.i.p.ate?” asked the elder .

　　“The true emperor amongst Pill Emperors? Will there be a good reward?” Long Chen’s eyes shone . He hadn’t expected to run into something that good .

　　The elder didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, feeling like this foolish mountain brat didn’t understand anything .

　　“Let’s not talk about the reward for now . Let’s see if you have the qualifications to even enter . We’re going to test your age and Spiritual Strength . ”

　　The elder directly left a blank s.p.a.ce for Long Chen’s origin and moved on to the next section .

　　Long Chen walked up the steps . Gou Jiba immediately sneered, waiting to see Long Chen’s embarra.s.sment .

　　“Age: eighteen . ”

　　Everyone was stupefied, looking at Long Chen like he was a freak . This dumb mountain brat was only eighteen years old? Had there been a mistake? Even the elder felt like something was wrong and redid the test, only to receive the same result .

　　“Eighteen-year-old brat and he reached the Xiantian realm . Isn’t this just nonsense?”

　　“How could an alchemist cultivate so quickly? He didn’t train his soul energy? Is he even an alchemist?”

　　Clamor erupted . Alchemists couldn’t cultivate quickly, because their cultivation base was secondary . Their Spiritual Strength and Pill Flame were more important .

　　If they cultivated too fast, their alchemy skills wouldn’t be able to keep up . They would be crippling their future . So alchemists would all spend a great deal of time training their Pill Flame and Spiritual Strength . Duan Tianqiao’s age had already been the limit .

　　Long Chen couldn’t possibly be a real alchemist . No one would believe such an absurdity .

　　“Shut up! If you make such an uproar again, I’ll immediately expel you!” shouted the elder .

　　This elder was a Sea Expansion expert and a powerful alchemist . His Spiritual Strength was extremely powerful, and he sensed that Long Chen was different .

　　“Now let’s test your Spiritual Strength,” said the elder .

　　A small portal appeared in front of Long Chen . He felt a powerful pressure that was trying to suppress his Spiritual Strength . It was no wonder those people had been so confident but still failed . The problem lay here .

　　It seemed this test was completely different from what they had taken before . Long Chen hesitated for a moment, but in the end, he slowly sent in his Spiritual Strength .

　　When Long Chen’s Spiritual Strength touched the portal, the entire stone bloomed with light .

　　“This is… Heaven cla.s.s! First tier Heaven cla.s.s Spiritual Strength!” cried the elder with wild delight .

　　Heaven cla.s.s?

　　Everyone turned wooden . Gou Jiba looked especially amazing . His jaw could not drop any lower, and his eyes were almost circular .

　　Eighteen-year-old Xiantian expert? Spiritual Strength that had reached the first tier Heaven cla.s.s? Was this just a story?

　　The elder directly wrote down a fourth rank for Long Chen’s talent: Genius!

　　Acceptable, Excellent, Outstanding, and Genius . Long Chen’s rank was the highest until now .

　　Long Chen smiled slightly . This was just the slightest bit of his soul energy . If he had used his full strength, that stone would have instantly exploded . That would probably frighten a few of these people to death .

　　But doing so would be too much and not be favorable for his plans . After the registration, Long Chen asked around and found that there was a total of three days for registration . There were still many more people to come, and Long Chen was too lazy to watch them . Saying goodbye to the elder, he left .

　　Once he returned to the small alley, he suddenly noticed there were many more burly fellows than before . At the same time, he heard a wail from the small courtyard he was staying at . He quickened his footsteps .

　　“If you’re sensible, you’ll immediately scram!” Suddenly, two large men blocked his path .

　　Sounds like something similar to dogs.h.i.+t .