Chapter 653

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 illustrious 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 pushing 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 class . 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 class . 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 passed . 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 passed 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 anticipated 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 Competition . It is to determine the true emperor amongst Pill Emperors . Are you sure you want to participate?” 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 space 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 embarrassment . “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 class! First tier Heaven class Spiritual Strength!” cried the elder with wild delight . Heaven class? 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 class? 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 dogshit .