Chapter 495:

At mid-morning, Qin Ran stood on the seashore, watching the waves under his feet recklessly crash against the reef, smashing themselves into a small white droplet that fell back into the sea.

As he watched, he had the feeling of a cultivator who challenged the River of Fate, but ultimately failed and fell back into it.

It made him feel sad.

“You’re going to compete in the Sea Lang Sect?”

A voice suddenly came from behind him.

Qin Ran turned around and saw the extremely well-built holy maiden walking towards him.

“Yes, it’s leaving soon. I’m waiting for Boss Pang.” He returned, “You know about it too?”

There seemed to be something different about the Holy Maiden today. Instead of the deep love and laughter in her eyes that always mesmerized people in the past, she had a bit of a downturn in her eyes that screamed that she looked downtrodden.

She walked over to Qin Ran and looked at the waves coming and going and asked again, “How long is it going to be?”

Qin Ran looked at her side face from the side and saw that she was still covered in black muslin, so he couldn’t see her face, only her curved shallow eyebrows and peach blossom eyes hooked at the corners of her eyes.

“Minimum one month, maximum two.” He returned.

“Two months, huh?” The saintly maiden sighed, “Just as well.”

“What’s wrong? You don’t look too happy.” Qin Ran asked, “Is it a problem with this competition, or have you encountered any problems?”

The Virgin looked at the sea, and after a long silence, returned, “I have come to say good-bye.”

Qin Ran sensed that there was something wrong with these words. But for one thing, he was about to leave Alcatraz and head to the Sea Lang Sect, so he could say goodbye; for another, this was the saintly daughter of the “Edge” organization, a devilish organization, so he didn’t dare to think too much about her words.

So he only replied back, “There’s no need to be so serious, I’m just going to the tournament, I’ll be back soon. It’s not like it’s a life and death situation.”

“Well ……,” perhaps Qin Ran’s comforting words had worked, the Holy Maiden smiled again, her eyes curved, she tilted her head to Qin Ran, and laughed earnestly, “You have to take care of yourself.”

This pair of eyes, in which there is no more flirtation and deep feelings, only as pure as autumn water, as if the eyes of a young girl in her cardamom years.

But meeting these eyes, Qin Ran saw the clarity inside, pure eyes, clean smile, his heart constructed by Divine Flower Immortal Condensation hit his chest hard.

There is no love inside the amorous eyes, but these feeling eyes ……

The knot in his throat swallowed involuntarily, and he panicked as he avoided those extraordinarily beautiful eyes and looked out to sea, returning, “Well, you take care of yourself, too.”

“Hee hee ……” the Holy Maiden laughed, she looked at Qin Ran’s flustered eyes from the side, reached up to her own ear, lifted the strap of her veil and asked Qin Ran, “After knowing you for so many years and rubbing up against you for so many meals …… Do you want to know what I look like?”

In five years, he had met with the Holy Maiden countless times, but Qin Ran had never seen what the Holy Maiden looked like.

To say that he wasn’t curious would definitely be a lie, after all, he knew that the Holy Maiden must be very beautiful, so he turned back to the Holy Maiden and looked at her, saying back, “It’s good to see.”

Yet for some reason, he suddenly felt that the distance between them was close, too close. So close that it made him feel a great deal of pressure. He didn’t see the Holy Maiden unveil her veil, only her clear eyes.

His throat swallowed involuntarily again.

“Hahahaha ……” the saintly lady suddenly burst out laughing, turned over, took two steps and pulled away, “Just kidding! How stupid ah you!”

Seeing the Holy Maiden walk out two steps, Qin Ran then realized that the reason why he felt too close just now was because the Holy Maiden had quietly closed the distance.

His heart thumped and he opened his mouth to ask something.

But at that moment, another voice came from behind him, “Mr. Knight, are you ready?”

He turned to look, but it was Pang Xuan’s rounded figure that came over. Behind Pang Xuan, there were dozens of people from the “Edge” organization.

“Ready.” He returned.

“It’s fortunate that Mr. Knight is here.” Pang Xuan smiled, walked over to this side, saw the Holy Maiden, and respectfully said, “So the Holy Maiden is also here? Is the Holy Maiden also here to bid farewell to Mr. Knight?”

The Holy Maiden changed back to that charming and affectionate look as she looked towards Pang Xuan and smiled, “Yes it is! I hope Mr. Knight gets first place! Complete the organization’s mission.”

“That’s a given!” Pang Xuan returned.

The Holy Maiden’s eyes moved soulfully as she glanced at Qin Ran, but did not speak again and left straight away.

Looking at the disappearing silhouette of the Holy Maiden, Pang Xuan smiled and asked Qin Ran, “What did the Holy Maiden say to you?”

Qin Ran shook his head and said, “I’m not familiar with the Holy Maiden, but I met her by chance just now and chatted for a few moments.”

He asked Pang Xuan rhetorically, “How did she know I was going to the tournament?”

“She’s a Holy Maiden, of course she knows.” Pang Xuan looked at Qin Ran and didn’t continue to ask as he waved his hand and said, “Alright, we’re heading to the Hai Lang Sect!”

Qin Ran looked over and asked, “How do you get there, by flying?”

Pang Xuan laughed, his hand wiped on his storage belt and a model of a ship appeared in his hand, he threw the ship forward, the ship saw the wind and grew bigger, and in the blink of an eye, it turned into a large ship docked on the sea.

“Naturally, we’ll go there by boat!” Pang Xuan patted Qin Ran’s shoulder and flew onto the boat first.

The speed of the ship wasn’t too slow, it was comparable to the flying speed of an ordinary second grade cultivator, but it still took three days of sailing on the sea to reach the Sea Lang Sect.

And not surprisingly, the Sea Lang Sect was also an island. It was an island that was larger than Devil Island and Dragon Whale Island, and was considered an important island in the Tian Lan Sea Domain, named after the Hai Lang Sect and named Hai Lang Island.

If Dragon Whale Island was Lord Mode and Alcatraz Island was Pirate Mode, then Sea Lang Island was Clan Mode.

The entire island was dominated by the Sea Lang Sect, with the other cities surviving around it.

Also being an alchemy sect, just looking at the area alone, the area of the Sea Lang Sect was too much larger than the area of the Zhi Ginseng Valley. However, due to the different geographic conditions of the Heavenly Sea Region and the Spirit South Region, it was not certain which of the two sects was stronger or weaker.

Due to the fact that an alchemy competition was going to be held, Hai Lang Island was quite lively during this period of time. Inside and outside the sect, there were people everywhere, refining pills, buying pills, selling pills, or for other purposes. As for the inside of the city, people from the outer islands and people from the main island were crowding around, it could be described as shoulder to shoulder.

This was perhaps the main reason why Sea Lang Island was organizing the Alchemy Exchange Conference.

Although Qin Ran and the others were not late, there were too many people on the island, and secondly, there were too many of them, so naturally they couldn’t find the location of the inn. But fortunately, the “Edge” organization also had a branch on the island, and they ended up staying at the Edge Tea House.

On this day, within the elegant room on the third floor of the teahouse, Pang Xuan and Qin Ran were drinking tea while discussing the competition.

Pang Xuan said with Qin Ran, “There are six opponents you need to pay attention to. Three big island alchemists that are fifth grade alchemists ……”

He went into detail with Qin Ran and showed him the information he had collected.

He continued, “The other three opponents, two of them are from the Hai Lang Sect, one of them is called Dongfang Yu, a genius alchemist that the Hai Lang Sect has cultivated in the last few years, quite famous and gifted, although she is only a fourth grade alchemist, every time she makes an alchemy, it is bound to be of top grade quality. She must have cultivated a special technique.

“The other alchemist of the Sea Lang Sect is called Dong Guanhai, a veteran alchemist of the Sea Lang Sect, a Sixth Grade Alchemist. It was specially arranged by the Sea Lang Sect to sit on the throne to prevent the first place from being taken away by outsiders and losing face.

“As for the last opponent, it comes from within the organization.”

“An?” Qin Ran was looking at the information and was a bit caught off guard when he heard this.

“Someone from within the organization?” He asked, making sure he’d heard correctly.

“It’s true that they are alchemists within the organization, but the Hai Lang Island branch.” Pang Xuan explained, “Although they are all within the organization, ……”

“Ohhhh ……,” Qin Ran realized, “I get it.”

“His name is Bai Tu, he’s also a Sixth Grade Alchemist, he’s been with the organization for many years, he’s extremely experienced in alchemy, and he’s the chief of the Hai Lang Island branch.”

Pang Xuan said, “It’s the organization’s strongest alchemist in the Tianlan Sea Region. In this alchemy competition, if there are no surprises, the first will come between Dong Guanhai and Bai Tu.”

He stared at Qin Ran, who was reading the information, suddenly uncertain, and asked, “Sixth grade alchemist, can you …… win first place?!”

Qin Ran held the information, but his eyes moved from the information to Pang Xuan’s face, he didn’t answer, instead he asked, “I don’t know why you value this first place so much, but I remember that you said that winning the first place would give me a big credit, isn’t that true?”

Pang Xuan froze and nodded, “Naturally, it’s true.”

Qin Ran asked again, “Are there any teleportation formations on Alcatraz?”

“Yes.”

“I mean ……,” Qin Ran lurched, “ultra long distance teleportation formations, teleportation formations between domains and domains.”

Pang Xuan opened his mouth and asked, “What are you doing?”

“I want to leave the Heavenly Sea Region and visit other domains.” Qin Ran asked, “Is this great feat doable?”

“It’s possible, you can be transferred to another branch at the same level. But ……,” Pang Xuan said, “Alcatraz doesn’t have a cross domain teleportation array.”

“No?” Qin Ran raised his eyebrows.

“The Land of the Seven Islands has it!” Pang Xuan hurriedly said, “As long as you take first place, I’ll send you to the Land of the Seven Islands. Personally send you to the other domains.”

“A gentleman’s word is a fast horse!” Qin Ran stared at Pang Xuan and said, “I’ll help you get first place, and you’ll help me travel to the Spirit South Domain!”

“Spirit South Domain?”

“Spirit South Domain!”

The full name of this alchemy competition organized by the Hai Lang Sect was the Alchemy Exchange Competition, and the focus was on exchanges, not competitions.

The economic and cultural development brought about by the alchemy competition is much greater than the competition itself.

So the first twenty-six days of the month-long Alchemy Exchange Competition were all about exchanges, with various alchemists exchanging their skills, buying and selling pills, and buying and selling herbs within the Sea Lang Sect, and the last four days were the competition.

Backed by the “edge” organization, Qin Ran in this period also made a lot of benefits.

Fun times are always short, and before you know it, it’s game day.

The place where the tournament was held was in the very center of Hai Lang Island, where a large square had been built and dedicated to the tournament, which had been thousands of years old.

There were more than a thousand participants, and everyone had a large alchemy furnace in front of them, so that they didn’t feel crowded in the square.

The first day’s competition was to recognize various kinds of spiritual medicines and herbs.

The Hai Lang Sect gave each participant a bag of miscellaneous medicinal herbs and asked them to organize the herbs inside into categories. And write clearly, how this herb was concocted, what its effects were, and what kind of dan could be refined.

This was exactly what Qin Ran was good at. Moreover, he had reviewed it for five long years in advance. So the same medicine was organized without any mistakes and took an A-class evaluation.

As an alchemist, recognizing medicines is a basic skill, and a number of alchemists have taken the A grade.

But to Qin Ran’s surprise, there was a female alchemist named Dongfang Yu who took the B grade, and he wondered if it was the genius alchemist from the Hai Lang Sect.

If so, the fun is over.

The second day’s competition was a test of the alchemist’s control of the dan water and dan fire.

Saying that it was dan water and dan fire, in reality, the vast majority of it was dan water, after all, this was the Heavenly Seas, fire alchemy was not popular over here.

And how do you test how to get a handle on danmizu?

Let the alchemist refine the medicine and be done with it.

See how many herbs they can refine at once, and how far they can refine the herbs. Test these two dimensions.

Qin Ran’s entire physical body was made up of dan water, and with the fact that he had also purposely honed his ability to refine medicinal herbs, there was about no one who possessed a stronger control over dan water than him.

He gets another A.

Controlling the dan water is still a basic skill of an alchemist, so there are still not a few who get an A grade.

But ……

There were those who got an A grade for both basic skills, and not many who got an A grade for both basic skills together, more than a thousand alchemists, not even a hundred.

The third day’s competition was to refine a finished elixir.

The Dan formula was issued by the Sea Lang Clan, which was equivalent to a proposition essay.

The formula was called the Phantom Spring Pill, a fourth-grade elixir.

The fourth grade elixir was not difficult for Qin Ran to refine, but since this was a new elixir, he spent quite a bit of time reading the formula before he started refining the elixir.

By the time he finished refining the pills, the others had long since finished. So this furnace of extreme fourth-grade pills was produced in full view of everyone.

Qin Ran gets another A grade.

“Excellent!” Someone marveled.

But then someone realized something even worse: “Three A’s!!!”

For the three days of the competition, there were alchemists who got an A grade every day, but there were only a handful of three who got an A grade every day for three days.

The other two, both two veteran alchemists, were two Sixth Grade Alchemists that everyone more or less knew.

Only Qin Ran, this young alchemist, was the first time they had seen him.

“Who is he?” Someone asked.

But no one answered, Qin Ran appeared as if out of thin air, and no one recognized him.

“The heaven and earth foreign water he used is very unusual.” Someone discovered Hua Dot.

“The character is high.”

“It kind of looks like ……,” someone recognized it, “Shenhua Xianning!”

“Shenhua Immortal Condensation?!!!”

The alchemists were in an uproar, “An heir to Old Devil Shen Hua?!”

“He got the inheritance of Old Devil Shenhua?”

“When!?”

Regardless of whether or not they knew of Qin Ran before, now, at this moment, everyone looked at that furnace of extremely high grade pills and remembered this Shen Hua Old Devil heir.