Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

1232 Dawned

Ryu's expression was indifferent and unmoved. He could tell what the others were thinking, but he seemed to care even less.

The reality was that because the percentage purity of the pill wasn't how the pills would be judged, if Ryu really wanted to create a Soul Nourishment Pill, even if he by some miracle took first place in the combat stream, his ranking in the alchemy stream would be so low that it would make his first place almost entirely irrelevant.

The final rankings would be decided on a combination of one's alchemy score and one's combat score, and by virtue of that, the pills concocted had to directly help with the combat stream. If not, wouldn't it entirely ruin the purpose of this tag team event?

The alchemy score wouldn't be decided until the use of the pill was measured after the combat stream. Only then would the skill of the alchemist and their warrior be measured and parsed apart.

Some believed that the reason Ryu was concocting this pill was because it was the one he was the best at, and they couldn't help but sneer. How could you claim that you wanted to get first when you didn't even understand the rules of the event? Even if he was the best alchemist of his generation, it would all be useless. He could even concoct a Runed Pill and it wouldn't matter, not that anyone here actually thought that such a thing was possible.

Ryu thought for only a moment before he began to move. However, even just this caused a commotion.

He pressed two fingers together and a stream of radiant blue came out. This caught the alchemists here somewhat off guard. It wasn't that they had never seen potion path alchemists before, but the trouble was that they were all women... Ryu was the only male present who had taken this path.

The smoothness of his Yin Water, the beauty, was enrapturing. It felt like the bluest of waters were floating in the air, golden koi fish swimming within its tides. The movement of Ryu's fingers seemed to be one with the world and the rowdy crowd became entirely silent.

However, just as the crowd was almost entirely distracted by this, Ryu's other hand moved. Pressing two fingers together, a delicate flame appeared. It was a delicate red-gold and didn't seem to give off any heat at all. And yet, when it appeared, Adlael's own flames seemed to become subdued and less unruly.

Adlael's pupils constricted just the smallest bit. He hadn't paid much attention to Ryu at all from the beginning. Whether it was an inner arrogance, or as a sign of not wanting to put too much pressure on a junior, it was difficult to tell. But at this moment, he could no longer ignore the latter.

The concoction process was purposely held out in the open, not only in the presence of an overwhelming crowd, but also in the presence of several other alchemists, all concocting different pills and causing variants currents of qi. This was without a doubt the most difficult environment to concoct within, it was yet another test for the alchemists.

But now, the currents seemed to be entirely controlled by Ryu.

The shock of Ryu controlling both Yin Water and an Alchemic Flame threw the crowd into an even deeper silence. But what shocked them even greater was the auras of the two. They were majestic and undying. One could almost feel the rumbling of the Phoenix Blood within Ryu's body.

The warriors of the combat stream narrowed their eyes, and this was especially so for Iroh.

Back then, Iroh hadn't said anything, but he had definitely sensed the Dragon Aura in the air when he arrived there, he was particularly sensitive to it. However, since the others hadn't said anything, he kept that detail to himself. But suddenly sensing the rising Phoenix within Ryu's body, he couldn't help but second guess himself. Had he mixed up the two majestic creatures?

No, that was impossible, how could he make such a mistake? Just who was this Ryu?

'Phoenix Blood?' Fairy Claire's pupils constricted into pinholes.

Others might be confused about what they were seeing, Phoenix Blood simply wasn't something one ran into on a daily basis, and the types they had seen weren't nearly as dense as what they were seeing now.

Fairy Claire, however, had seen this kind of Phoenix Blood up close and personal all those years ago...

Her aura turned chaotic and her indifference vanished. She looked down toward Ryu, her gaze sharpening with every passing moment.

Ryu suddenly looked up.

It was a great taboo to become distracted during the concoction process, and yet Ryu still spared the time to meet Fairy Claire's gaze. The coldness in his eyes seemed to note that he had sensed her threat. Even so, his hands remained steady, the delicate and subtle control never vanishing.

The Spiritual Herbs surged into Ryu's cauldron, his pace only increasing.

His challenge to Fairy Claire seemed quite blatant, but to the crowd, especially the lovesick fangirls, saw something completely different.

"Where is he looking? Fairy Claire? Is he... Is he serenading the Fairy with his alchemy?"

The words were only spoken by a single person but they spread like wildfire. And right then, the moment the rumors seemed to have reached their fever pitch, the skies rumbled and Ryu's cauldron quaked.

The crowd looked up all at once. It had just been a bright and sunny day, what was going on?

At that moment, the cauldrons of the surrounding alchemists all seemed to go out of control one after another. The most shocking part was that Adlael was among them.

Ryu's cauldron lid rumbled and it seemed that his would go out of control as well, but it was at that moment that he slapped the side, causing the lid to shoot into his palm as his other hand reached forward, snagging three pills between his fingers, all radiating perfect.

BOOM!

The skies crackled and a streak descended from above.

It suddenly dawned on them all at the same time...

Pill Tribulation!