Rise of the Alchemy God

Chapter 189: Scarlet Essence Heart

.

Just as the judges managed to calm themselves, Ethan placed yet another material on the table.

At the sight of this new material, the judges once again felt almost tempted to stand up, rush over to Ethan's station, and stop him.

This was because the material he brought out was another very rare one.

An ancient jingshen, and if their eyes didn't deceive them, it was at least a century-old jingshen, a rare herb to come by due to its significant age.

All herbs have different stages in their life cycles, and once they reach maturity, they usually wither.

But there are instances where the spiritual energy of the surrounding environment aligns so well with those materials that they reach the point of maturity and remain there for a long time.

The longer they stay at this stage, the more effective the herb becomes compared to its normal counterpart.

A ten-year-old one was already precious; a fifty-year-old one was something only a handful of people possessed.

A hundred-year-old one was something only a few individuals across the entire continent could claim to have.

A cultivator, as long as they cultivated and advanced, could live for several centuries, so it wasn't unusual that someone might eventually cultivate or find such an old herb.

But even so, the number of people who actually had one was very small.

The judges could feel the pressure of the competition at this point.

The participant was supposed to be the one under the most pressure, but here it was the opposite.

Unlike them, Ethan didn't even bat an eye as he continued to pull out yet another material.

By now, he had already taken out four, enough to make most pills.

Only a few specialized pills required the use of a bit more material, but even then, nothing too excessive.

Ethan took out a few more materials, and luckily for the judges, these were fairly common, sparing them from another heart attack.

Just as the ten judges breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that they wouldn't have to witness the refinement of yet another rare material, Ethan pulled out his final refining ingredient.

The judges thought they finally had an idea of what type of pill the other party was creating, and this alone made them frown.

"Well, this is unexpected," many of them thought, wondering if they had guessed right or not.

The pill they all assumed Ethan was making was the Minor Vitality Pill, a pill capable of giving a boost to one's body, making an elderly person feel as if they had the energy of a 20-year-old.

A very useful pill for many uses.

That said, even though it was not necessarily simple, it was far from what they expected from Ethan.

Just as they thought it might be a different pill, Ethan pulled out his last ingredient.

As the others saw the material, they frowned.

"What material is that?" they thought as they examined it further.

The material looked like a smooth stone, almost 15 centimeters long.

The material had a somewhat oval shape, but not completely, and showed no physical characteristics that would help identify what it was.

"Could it be some kind of mineral?" some thought, as the material seemed more like a rare rock of some kind.

Just as many of them had this intuition, the elderly-looking judge noticed a small detail and immediately widened his eyes, standing up abruptly, ready to dash toward Ethan.

Seeing this, all the others didn't waste any time and released their auras to hold the judge in his place, frowning and asking him,

"Old geezer, have you finally gone crazy?

Did you actually try to intervene during the tournament?" said the woman in pink, not believing that one of them would attempt such a shameful act.

Although they had all felt the urge to storm the masked boy's station several times due to the materials he wanted to use for refining, and perhaps hit him for wanting to use those materials, none of them dared to act.

But how could they?

They had a reputation to maintain, and no matter how much they wanted to, they wouldn't throw their reputation away over some materials, precious or not.

It wasn't that they wanted to steal them, but simply that they would have preferred not to see them wasted like this.

After all, it took only a small mistake to turn a successful blend into a disaster.

And although they believed that an alchemist of Ethan's level knew what he was doing, they all knew there was never a 100% success rate for refining a high-level pill.

Even they could not boast a success rate above 60% for a level 3 pill of medium grade.

This made them afraid that if he failed, those materials would go to waste.

This was the only reason they wanted to rush over and stop him, but as mentioned before, none of them dared to do such a thing.

After all, the materials, whether they liked it or not, belonged to Ethan.

The old man, who hadn't expected to be restrained by them all, yelled at them while saying,

"Idiots, haven't you figured out what material that is yet? We have to stop him, or we'll regret it for the rest of our lives," he said, even more agitated.

The others, hearing him, couldn't help but look puzzled again.

'What is he talking about?' they thought as they re-examined the material, still unable to understand the old man's overreaction.

Then one of them noticed a particular characteristic of the material, and for a moment, he froze in shock as he murmured,

"A Scarlet Essence Heart…"

The others, who were all close to him, managed to catch his murmur, and as soon as they did, their expressions also changed as they looked more closely at the material.

What appeared to be an ordinary red stone with a glassy look actually had a slightly soft surface, almost gelatinous to the touch.

When Ethan first brought it out, they hadn't noticed, but now that they had heard their colleague, their hearts raced as they analyzed the material more deeply.

The first to speak was the one closest to the elderly alchemist:

"It can't be that, right?

It's impossible, where the hell did he find it?" he said, incredulous.

"That's right, how could he possibly have such a material?

The last time one appeared was over 300 years ago," exclaimed the woman in pink.

The more they examined it, the more the characteristics of the material started to match what they had read in texts about materials so rare they were nearly impossible to find.

Even the grandmaster alchemist, who was sipping tea in his VIP room, nearly spat out his drink as he watched in shock at the material Ethan had revealed.

"Holy sh*t, how the hell did he get his hands on something like that?" he exclaimed, completely ignoring the presence of the servant next to him, who was ready to serve, her face now as shocked as his at what she was witnessing.

She had had the chance to serve many high-ranking individuals, including alchemists, and in the last six years, she had been assigned to Grandmaster Alchemist Bái Huò Sh?n three times.

From what she had seen, he always maintained a composed and refined appearance.

But now, none of that could be seen; it was as if the image she had constructed of him over the years had suddenly been torn apart.