Rise of the Alchemy God

Chapter 185: Ethan vs Ling Xue

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Ethan and the woman named Ling Xue took their positions, waiting for their turn to start.

As soon as the timer began, she immediately got to work, wasting no time, while, unsurprisingly, Ethan calmly took his time to start.

"There he goes again," someone in the crowd remarked, as murmurs began to rise among the audience.

Even the judges could only shake their heads, and at this point, none of them dared to underestimate Ethan even slightly.

If they saw him idling like that, it meant he was absolutely confident he could win.

Just like in his previous matches.

While others stopped questioning Ethan's behavior and focused on the woman, he, who was currently still at his post, was having a conversation with Bai Yu.

"So, have you finally found the formation?" he asked mentally.

The two of them could speak at a distance thanks to the Amphora that bound them.

In a way, they had their own private communication channel, completely unlike the spiritual energy transmissions used by more experienced cultivators.

This private channel allowed them to interact with each other, no matter how far apart they were, without ever risking that their conversation could be traced or overheard.

To test how effective this link was within the minor dimension, Ethan sent Bai Yu several miles away, and even from there, they could still hear each other clearly, as if they were standing just a meter apart.

Though not particularly important at the moment, this discovery made Ethan realize that, in certain situations in the future, one of them would always be ready to listen and possibly step in.

"Yes, I've already neutralized it.

Now we only need to locate the link that connects it to the one who'll activate it, and we'll know his position.

Of course, you'll need to wait until the other side makes the first move.

Right now, it can't be traced," she said, standing in her human form over an inscription on the ground in the Coliseum's underground.

"I see. If nothing happens by the end of the tournament, then I'll handle locating the individual," he replied.

Bai Yu had basic knowledge of formations and could only execute a few she had memorized.

Ethan, on the other hand, was highly skilled in formations.

He could learn, create, or even modify them as he pleased, as long as they were within his skill level.

So, although she couldn't track the other side unless they made the first move, he could. Stay tuned for updates on mvl

They just needed to wait until the end of today.

Tomorrow would be the tournament finals, and the enemy would most likely act then.

They had already neutralized the formation, so the immediate threat was suppressed for now.

But that alone wasn't enough.

They also needed to capture the person behind this attack.

At the moment, their options were limited, so they could only wait and see what would happen tomorrow.

Due to the fragmentary information, Ethan and Bai Yu only knew that the demonic cultivators planned to attack during the tournament and cause chaos in the capital.

Their ultimate goal seemed to be to harm the empire as much as possible.

Neither of them for a moment thought the demons intended to assault the castle, as they both knew the emperor resided there, who, as far as Ethan knew, was the strongest fourth-stage cultivator in the empire.

In other words, he was immune to the effects of the formation and strong enough to withstand a possible attack.

This was why the two didn't fully understand the ultimate objective and could only make some guesses.

Regardless of their goal, their task was to find the enemy and eliminate them before a demonic Qi infection could be unleashed on the capital.

That would be disastrous, and neither of them would be able to stop it alone.

Bai Yu nodded at Ethan's words, then rematerialized into her shrunken beast form and left the spot, leaving behind a Qi clone to watch for anyone entering the area.

The clone was more like a surveillance device and could only signal the presence of someone nearby.

Ethan, meanwhile, refocused on the competition, and seeing that half an hour had already passed since the start, he decided to begin his own refinement.

He had been observing his opponent's actions since the beginning and could already guess the type of pills, their effects and level, as well as the surprise concealed within.

He had to admit he was a bit disappointed with the woman's performance.

He had thought that, perhaps against him, she might try to win by pulling out a trump card, maybe a new refinement skill or a recipe for a rare, unknown pill, and so on.

But it seemed the other party had no intention of doing any of that.

She seemed to limit herself to high-grade level 2 pills.

Ethan didn't know whether this was the best of her abilities or if she simply didn't want to take it seriously, but he knew there wasn't much he could do about it.

So, without wasting any more time, he got to work, and just like before, he tossed everything into the cauldron, pulled out a chair, and sat down comfortably to wait.

By now, people were no longer surprised by his relaxed attitude.

They knew that if he was calm, he must be confident of winning.

Just like in previous matches, the examiners eventually gave up trying to guess what kind of pill or pills the masked boy was trying to refine.

What could have been a fierce competition between the two turned into both of them going about their business while they finished their refinement.

Neither of them displayed any flashy refinement skills or new methods, making this last match of the semifinals a bit dull for everyone.

Something nobody expected at this stage of the competition.

The only good thing about this situation was that the maximum time was an hour and 30 minutes, not three hours as in previous rounds, as they would have otherwise had to endure more than two hours of this scene.

Not everyone felt this way, but most did, and finally, the time ended, marking the end of the last match.

To no one's surprise, the masked boy won once again, producing five low-grade level 3 pills, reaffirming his position above the others.

Five low-grade level 3 pills in less than an hour, a feat even for two-star master alchemists, let alone those below them.

Ethan's opponent, the demonic woman, showed little reaction and quietly withdrew to join her team members after the results were announced.