Rise of the Alchemy God

Chapter 220: Battle Maniac

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Currently, in the desert east of the Phoenix Kingdom, two figures stood in midair, keeping a measured distance as they stared at each other without breaking eye contact for even a moment.

These two figures were none other than Ethan and Feng Huang.

At the moment, Ethan wore a frown as he addressed the woman before him.

"Is this really necessary?" he asked, clearly displeased with the situation.

"Of course it is. Do you really expect me to follow the orders of someone weaker than me? I acknowledge your cultivation base, but if you can't prove you can defeat me in a duel, there's no point in me following your plan," she replied, her reasoning full of holes Ethan had already pointed out multiple times before, only to receive the same response every time.

The woman in front of him had declared she would only accept the soul contract and his assistance to correct her cultivation base if he could prove he was stronger than her, in other words, by defeating her in an all-out duel.

Ethan honestly doubted that a battle between two experts of their level was a good idea, considering even their weakest attacks could cause massive destruction.

Even if they tried to hold back, it would be impossible to avoid significant collateral damage.

That's why they had moved to the desert on the eastern edge of the Phoenix Kingdom, where no innocent bystanders would be caught in the crossfire.

Ethan would've much preferred for her to accept the agreement normally, without resorting to a fight.

While he had somewhat expected this outcome from a battle maniac like her, he still had a small hope that it wouldn't come to this.

But it seemed that whatever deity was out there wasn't answering his prayers, and here he was, forced to comply with the demands of the beautiful woman in front of him.

In the end, he gave in, deciding to finish this fight as quickly as possible.

Before they began, Ethan activated a series of symbols in the air, forming a large formation that covered several miles.

Seeing his actions, Feng Huang couldn't help but ask what he was doing.

He replied without stopping his work,

"It's a large-scale formation that will hide what we're doing here from prying eyes," he said as he made the final adjustments.

"The last thing I want is to attract uninvited guests to our fight," he added, his tone still a bit disgruntled.

Hearing this, Feng Huang nodded in agreement, as she too disliked being interrupted during a fight.

She appreciated Ethan's gesture.

Once he was done and stood still, she couldn't help but ask,

"You're not going to use any weapon?" she said, a little confused.

At the moment, she was holding a long sword with a vermillion blade and a golden hilt engraved with inscriptions.

Ethan could tell these were runes with various effects that amplified the sword's power.

He shook his head and made a gesture with his hand, motioning her to attack, as he said,

"There's no need. This fight will end much sooner than you think," he declared with a calm yet challenging expression.

Seeing his gesture, she narrowed her eyes, clearly displeased at being underestimated.

With a crazed glint in her eyes, she attacked without another word.

Ethan, watching her reveal her warrior side, smiled slightly as he prepared to take her attacks head-on.

It wasn't that he was underestimating her, but at his current level, he truly didn't need to go all out against her.

He could tell her cultivation base had reached the sixth level of the fifth stage, a level that, for him, was nothing.

After countless battles against the dragon woman, Ethan was certain he could hold his own against a cultivator at the peak of the fifth stage.

So what was a cultivator still four levels away from that to him?

And the next series of events only confirmed his earlier statement.

At the Peng family residence, in a spacious area, seven people stood in front of a cauldron, fully focused on refining their pills.

No one could tell how long they had been at it, but none of them showed any signs of exhaustion as they continued with impassive expressions.

Finally, after some time, one of them finished the process, extracted their final pill, and carefully placed it into a vial using their spiritual Qi.

Not long after, the others began finishing one by one, doing the same as the first person.

Each of them demonstrated a high level of mastery over the technique of manifesting spiritual Qi, a level that rivaled those of many master alchemists skilled in the technique.

If one of those masters had been present to witness this display, they would've been embarrassed to see these seven people performing at nearly the same level as them.

After all, none of the seven had an alchemy rank beyond the expert level, and even the most advanced among them was only at the peak of that rank.

That said, there was no doubt that their proficiency in the refinement technique taught by Ethan was impressive.

Seeing that their final pills turned out well, each of them could only smile inwardly, amazed at how far they had come in less than a month.

The most skilled among them were two individuals: one of the two Expert alchemists Ethan had trained first and a girl from the group of disciples who had only been at the apprentice level.

This girl had now reached the expert rank, a full two ranks ahead of her previous level, and was second only to the other expert level alchemist.

To everyone's surprise, including Ethan's, she had proven to be a genius in alchemy.

Noticing her immense potential in this profession, Ethan had devoted extra time to training her, and within less than a month, her progress had doubled that of anyone else.

Even Ethan had to admit that, if not for his system, he might've been outshone by this little alchemy prodigy.

As each of them examined their pills, having them appraised by a three-star expert who confirmed their high purity levels, a slight tremor shook the area for a second before stopping.

Before anyone could question what had happened, another series of tremors followed, lasting for a full minute.

The quakes alarmed not only them but everyone in Sun City and the surrounding territories.