Chapter 328: Day One of Imperial Competition [2]
In the elite VIP balcony, Shen Yu sat in absolute grandeur, exuding the effortless poise of a young lord at the height of his power.
To his right sat Lixue, her dark blue eyes scanning the roaring crowds below, while to his left sat Meng Yan, her cheeks still wearing a faint, charming flush from their uninhibited night together.
Standing attentively behind their chairs were Xu Yi and Li Qiu, Xu Yi’s voluptuous figure exuding mature elegance while Li Qiu maintained her submissive stance as his dutiful secretary.
Sitting on the adjacent carved jade seats was the He Clan’s rotund patriarch, his round face beaming with a wide, flattering grin.
Next to him stood He Lan, her fingers nervously twirling a lock of her hair as her cheeks burned crimson every time her eyes stole a glance at Shen Yu’s commanding side profile.
"Young Master Tang, Tang clan is surely going to win the Alchemy" the fat patriarch chuckled, his belly jiggling under his embroidered silk robes as he offered a respectful nod.
"To have Madam Yilan represent your estate... today’s trial will surely bring glorious renown to the Shen Clan."
Before Shen Yu could reply, a powerful, dignified aura swept across the balcony.
A tall man clad in deep purple robes adorned with golden wave patterns stepped into the private viewing area.
It was none other than City Lord Wu Shan, his keen eyes radiating the calm authority of a early stage Nascent Soul cultivator.
Shen Yu stood up smoothly and bowed slightly with polite grace, clasping his hands.
"Greetings, City Lord Wu."
City Lord Wu Shan chuckled warmly, waving his hand to dismiss the rigid protocol as he inspected Shen Yu’s aura.
A look of genuine surprise and shock flashed across his eyes.
"No need for such formality, Young Master Tang!" Wu Shan said warmly, his voice rich and deep.
"I heard rumors of your recent achievements, but seeing you in person... to think you have already shattered through the bottleneck and reached the Foundation Establishment realm at such a young age! Congratulations on your breakthrough!"
"City Lord flatters me," Shen Yu replied with a modest, composed smile.
"It was merely a stroke of good fortune during my secluded cultivation."
"Hahaha! Talent and ambition are never mere luck," Wu Shan praised before turning to greet the gathered patriarchs and clan leaders around the balcony, exchanging brief, dignified pleasantries with the He Clan patriarch and Meng Yan’s elders.
Just as the conversations subsided and the dignitaries took their assigned seats, a sudden, heavy pressure descended upon the entire arena.
A sudden, resounding boom shook the very foundation of the Imperial Grand Arena as the massive bronze ceremonial gong struck three times.
The deafening reverberation cut through the roar of hundreds of thousands of spectators, instantly plunging the colossal amphitheater into a heavy, expectant silence.
High atop the central imperial balcony, a grand elder clad in deep crimson robes stepped forward.
His hair was silver, but his eyes burned with the sharp, unyielding aura of a Golden Core cultivator.
Elevating his voice with dense spiritual energy, his declaration thundered across every corner of the grounds.
"Welcome, alchemists of the Crimson Lotus Empire!" the Grand Elder proclaimed, his gaze sweeping over the ten thousand competitors stationed at their stone platforms below.
"Today marks the commencement of the Imperial Alchemy Competition. Day One shall test the fundamental pillars of your craft: Flame Control, Spiritual Sense, and Extraction Purity!"
He waved his silk sleeve, and a massive, glowing array projection materialized above the arena, detailing the rules for all to see.
"The Trial of Ten Thousand Essences!" the elder announced.
"Before each of you rests a standardized, unaligned spirit furnace and a sealed wooden chest containing one hundred volatile spirit herbs, ranging from Tier-1 to Tier-3. Your objective is simple, Extract and isolate the pure spiritual essence of all one hundred herbs within four hours."
A wave of low murmurs rippled through the ranks of the competitors, but the Grand Elder raised his hand, suppressing the sound instantly.
"Do not celebrate prematurely. The herbs within your chests have been paired in deliberate opposition, Nine-Cold Ice Lotus resting against Sun-Fire Blood Root, Phantom-Soul Grass touching Burning-Heart Vines. Their ambient energies are actively reacting and degrading one another as we speak. You must employ your Spiritual Sense to isolate their conflicting natures, while simultaneously commanding your Spiritual Flame to extract pure liquid essence without scorching the medicinal properties!"
The elder’s eyes narrowed as his voice turned icy.
"The standard for survival is absolute: Essence purity will be evaluated via the Pill-Testing Quartz Stone upon your platform. Any candidate with an average purity below 90%, or who suffers a single furnace flare-up, will face instant disqualification. Let the trial... begin!"
BOOM!
The ceremonial gong struck once more, its deep, reverberating tone igniting an instant frenzy across the vast expanse of the arena floor.
A nearly identical scene of intense, high-stakes pressure unfolded on the adjacent side of the arena, where the weapon refining competition was underway.
There, the trial laid bare the absolute fundamentals of the craft, testing the blacksmiths on raw ore identification, precise thermal control, and impurity extraction.
Panicked, hundreds of young alchemists immediately flipped open their wooden chests.
The moment the seals broke, opposing elemental energies clashed violently in open air.
Red heat and frosty mist erupted outward, turning ingredients to ash or rotting slime before their eyes.
"No! My Crimson-Sun Stalk!" a young Foundation Establishment prodigy wailed as his furnace suddenly let out a black smoke flare, his stone platform flashing crimson as imperial guards promptly escorted him off the field.
Disqualified within seconds.
Up in the high-altitude viewing pavilion, Shen Yu leaned back in his plush velvet seat, a thin smile gracing his handsome features as he rested his chin on his knuckles.
Beside him, Meng Yan looked down at the chaotic scene with her arms crossed, though her cheeks still held a faint, rosy tint from their wild, uninhibited night together.
"They’re panicking," Meng Yan commented softly, her voice carrying a trace of her usual pride.
"Opening the box without stabilizing the internal array first is pure amateur hour."
"Watch Yilan," Shen Yu murmured softly, his golden eyes remaining locked on his mature aunt’s serene form down on the arena floor.
Unlike the panicked competitors around her, Yilan did not rush to touch her furnace or her chest.
She kept her eyes closed, her mature, elegant figure clad in dark blue silk remaining entirely motionless.
A smooth, invisible wave of powerful Spiritual Sense rippled outward from her brow, blanketing the wooden box without disturbing a single particle of air.
Inside the chest, her refined Spiritual Sense acted like thousands of invisible, delicate silk threads, gently wrapping around each clashing herb, creating isolated micro-spheres that completely neutralized their hostile reactions.
"Hah! Look at that woman from the Tang Clan estate! Is she sleeping?!" a spectating cultivator in the grandstands scoffed.
"Everyone else is already burning through their third herb!"
"Hah, you guys know nothing, she is Tang Yilan, the Matriarch of the Tang clan"
"Just look at her hands!"