BXBX NOVEL Chapter 322: Challenge
“Elder Su, what do you mean by that?” asked Fang Lin, looking surprised.
Elder Su rolled his eyes: “Nothing, just a casual remark.”
Having said that, Elder Su turned his back and walked away leisurely.
Fang Lin studied Elder Su’s retreating figure deeply. This old guy, was that remark really as casual as he claimed?
Master Qi, with his two disciples, left without any desire to stay, swearing he would never return to such an unappealing place as the Qian Country.
After Master Qi’s departure, the Pill Alliance quickly recovered its usual atmosphere. Many were thrilled by his departure.
In the afternoon, Fang Lin took the advancement assessment and, without any surprises, became a Third Cauldron Pill Refiner seamlessly.
This time, Fang Lin didn’t shine too brightly, his assessment results were not perfect but considered to be excellent.
Putting on the badge of a Third Cauldron Pill Refiner, Fang Lin entered the rankings via the badge region to find his position at 130th out of the 150 available places within the total rankings of Qian Country’s Third Cauldron Pill Refiners.
In the vast Qian Country, there were just over a hundred Third Cauldron Pill Refiners, an undeniably limited number. Most of these Third Cauldron Pill Refiners were concentrated within the Pill Alliance, possessing more than half of all Third Cauldron Pill Refiners.
When Fang Lin’s name disappeared from the Second Cauldron Pill Refiners rankings and appeared in the Third Cauldron Pill Refiners rankings, Qian Country’s Pill Refiners were shocked.
Fang Lin, not yet twenty years old, had already become a Third Cauldron Pill Refiner. Aside from the era of the Four Saints of the Pill Sect, basically no one reached such a level as Fang Lin.
What does it mean to be a Third Cauldron Pill Refiner before twenty? This indicates that Fang Lin has immense potential and amazing talent in Alchemy Tao. The extent he can reach in the future is unimaginable to anyone.
Of course, while some are awed, others ridicule.
Some people believe that, although Fang Lin seems to be an unrivaled genius, he focuses on exploiting his potential. Even though he is currently at his peak, his future achievements remain uncertain.
After all, many understand the idea that a precocious child may not turn out well. Not all who exhibit genius early on can maintain this momentum.
Many examples also exist of mediocrity at first, yet making a great leap forward later.
In general, Fang Lin, in the eyes of most people, is a rare genius in Alchemy Tao. However, in the eyes of a few, he is like a meteor: dazzling but unsustainable.
And of course, this minority generally holds hostility towards Fang Lin.
Looking at his name ranking, Fang Lin started having some thoughts.
The ranking is not fixed and can change at any time.
The simplest way to move up the rankings is by challenge.
Challenge Pill Refiners who have a higher ranking. As long as you defeat them, your ranking will immediately rise.
However, in Qian Country, challenges to change ranking happen rarely, because the quality represented by these rankings is recognized as high. Those Pill Refiners ranking higher generally have real abilities. For a lower-ranked Pill Refiner to successfully challenge a higher-ranked Pill Refiner is almost impossible.
Of course, examples of successful challenges exist but they are extremely rare. In the past two or three years, there hasn’t been a single successful challenge.
If a challenge is successful, not only will there be a ranking change, but you can also obtain rewards from the Pill Alliance depending on the difficulty of the challenge.
Fang Lin just got this idea of challenge rewards. He thought, why not do it if it’s free, and also take the opportunity to observe the abilities of other Pill Refiners in Qian Country.
Then, Fang Lin shared his thoughts with Elder Su. Elder Su agreed, looking forward to seeing Fang Lin’s challenges.
Fang Lin considered carefully and chose to challenge the Pill Refiner in the 20th place on the rankings, a man named He Liangyong from the Pill Alliance.
This He Liangyong was also one of the stewards of the Pill Alliance. He didn’t stand out in appearances, but no one in the Pill Alliance underestimated him because he had participated in a Grandmaster Conference and had almost earned an upcoming spot in the Pill Pole Tower.
Unfortunately, that was barely not happening. He was defeated by a Pill Refiner from Yun Country, which led to his confidence being stricken. Following up, while fighting against a Pill Refiner from Meng Kingdom, he made a mistake in his moment of distraction, resulting in the loss of a competition that he had a high chance of winning.
After He Liangyong’s loss in the Grandmaster Conference, he lost his former sharpness, appearing quite like an ordinary person.
He Liangyong’s Pill Refining mastery was also constantly improving with his increase in age. Although he hadn’t entered the realm of Four Cauldron Pill Refiners, he was quite outstanding among Third Cauldron Pill Refiners, with solid foundational skills. Even those who were ranked around the teens were not much stronger than He Liangyong.
He Liangyong’s ranking was due to him not having made any challenges. If he were to challenge the Pill Refiners in the top ten, his chances of success wouldn’t be low.
Fang Lin chose to challenge him because he felt that He Liangyong was a worthy contender.
In a side hall, Fang Lin met He Liangyong, indeed an ordinary person, polite and gentle, giving people a good first impression.
“Fang Lin, I didn’t expect you to come and challenge me. I’m afraid I might not be your match,” He Liangyong said with a smile.
Fang Lin saluted him with his fist clenched: “I look forward to learning from Senior He.”
Elder Su and several stewards of the Pill Alliance came here as witnesses for the challenge. After briefly stating some precautions, they announced the start of the challenge.
Since it was a challenge, naturally, the difficulty of refining the chosen pills was not low, known as the Rhinoceros Pill.
This Pill was a high-grade Third Tier Pill and very challenging to refine. Anyone who wasn’t an experienced master was 80% likely to fail.
The Rhinoceros Pill had astonishing effects as it increased the chance of breaking through levels. Of course, the effectiveness depended on the quality of the consumer.
High-quality consumers would see more prominent effects from the Rhinoceros Pill, and for poorer quality consumers, the Rhinoceros Pill’s effects might not manifest as well.
However, on many occasions, the Rhinoceros Pill can produce extraordinary effects for those of lower quality, guiding martial artists into the rare state of Rhinoceros One-Movement, significantly increasing their perception.
Of course, how potent it could be primarily depended on the quality of the Rhinoceros Pill that the Pill Refiner could concoct.
He Liangyong, being an experienced Pill Refiner, was naturally familiar with the Rhinoceros Pill. But even so, to refine this Rhinoceros Pill, he had to be fully focused and could not be careless.
“Hehe, it looks like we’re about to see a good show.” Just as the two were about to start refining, two more people entered the side hall. They were both young, and there was an air of mockery on their faces.