"Indeed. I heard from Jinzhu that his master is even the Medicine King from our Yin Ruins."

Mu Qingyi glanced at her daughter, a faint, peculiar smile playing on the corner of her lips.

"What? The Medicine King actually took an apprentice?" Mu Qingying was even more dumbfounded. After a long moment, she came to her senses, pouting with a tearful lament, "Grandmother, why didn't you tell me sooner?"

The content of this third trial was her suggestion. In her mind, among all the men who came to Yin Yue City for the Grand Ceremony, there was only one Apothecary. If she placed the alchemy trial last, no matter how many contestants passed the previous rounds, the final victor would be the one she desired.

Who would have thought that the two men entering the third trial would both be Apothecaries, and one of them was the Medicine King's disciple? How could it be easy to defeat him? What depressed Mu Qingying the most was that Mu Jinzhu clearly knew Mu Hong’s identity yet deliberately kept it from her beforehand.

She looked up at Nie Kong in the arena. He appeared perfectly calm, but Mu Qingying couldn't settle down, an involuntary flicker of anxiety showing in her eyes...

"Slap! Slap!" Mu Jinzhu clapped her hands. The crisp sound echoed with surprising clarity, suppressing all the surrounding clamor. As the applause faded, more than ten tall women approached. The first four carried tables in pairs, upon which rested wide wooden boxes and alchemy cauldrons.

These alchemy implements were placed before Nie Kong and Mu Hong respectively. The women then dismantled the jade tablets inscribed with illusionary phantoms and carried them away.

Mu Hong moved slightly closer to Nie Kong, grinning broadly, "Mu Kong, I didn't expect you to be an Apothecary too. To be honest, alchemy is what I'm best at. I've refined fourth-grade spirit medicine fifty times, succeeding forty-eight times. Four attempts achieved an integration rate above ninety percent, twelve attempts above ninety percent, and the rest were all above eighty-five percent. I've also successfully refined fifth-grade spirit medicine—only twice did the integration rate barely reach eighty percent; the others were between sixty and seventy percent. You'd better prepare yourself; if we are refining fourth-grade spirit medicine, you'll only have a chance to win if your integration rate surpasses ninety percent."

"Thank you for the reminder," Nie Kong replied with a forced, insincere smile.

This man was tall and broad, with an honest face that easily gave the false impression of being simple-minded, yet he was anything but simple. Boasting about his success rate and spirit medicine integration rates to an opponent before a competition was a classic way to exert immense psychological pressure, potentially causing the opponent to falter during the trial. Of course, this show of prowess had no effect on Nie Kong.

Seeing Nie Kong's composed expression, a disappointment flashed across Mu Hong’s eyes. He opened his mouth to say more, but Mu Jinzhu had already stepped between them.

"The medicine to be refined in this third trial is the fourth-grade spirit medicine, the Phantom-Dissipating Heart Separation Pill, which can elevate a Spirit Master from the fourth-grade of Spirit Transformation to the fifth-grade. All medicinal ingredients have been prepared. You only have one chance, so be meticulous. Should you fail, you will have to leave. If both of you fail..." Mu Jinzhu didn't explicitly state the consequence of total failure, but her tone clearly implied that both would be disqualified.

"Phantom-Dissipating Heart Separation Pill!" This spirit medicine capable of boosting a Spirit Master's cultivation level was something Nie Kong heard of for the first time. It must be unique to the Yin Ruins. Among fourth-grade spirit medicines, as far as Nie Kong knew, only one could be used for cultivation advancement. Now, it seemed, the "Phantom-Dissipating Heart Separation Pill" must be added to that list!

As Mu Jinzhu uttered the name, Nie Kong quietly observed Mu Hong beside him, noticing his complexion shift subtly. It seemed refining this spirit medicine was quite difficult. However, he concealed it exceptionally well; his expression returned to normal in the blink of an eye.

"Time will be measured by the hourglass. When the last grain falls, the trial ends!" Before Mu Jinzhu’s voice completely faded, a small hourglass flew through the air from the edge of the arena, landing lightly before Nie Kong and Mu Hong. Nie Kong silently calculated that this alchemy process would take about fifteen minutes.

If nothing unexpected happened, fifteen minutes should be sufficient to refine a single fourth-grade spirit medicine.

Nie Kong's mind raced. Fourth-grade spirit medicines differed vastly from first, second, and third-grade ones. Consuming spirit medicines below the third grade to advance cultivation caused immense physical pain.

However, when using a fourth-grade spirit medicine for advancement, the physical pain became negligible, but one would encounter various internal demons. These demons were somewhat similar to the previous amorous illusions, acting directly upon the spirit, making them impossible to guard against; one lapse in attention could lead to failure. Since the post-ingestion effects differed, the refinement methods for fourth-grade spirit medicines were also somewhat unlike those for lower-grade ones.

The most significant difference lay in the application of Spiritual Sense. When refining fourth-grade spirit medicine, control over the fire's intensity needed to be even stricter, and the timing for deploying Spiritual Sense had to be perfectly judged. If, during the ingredient integration phase, the Spiritual Sense and spiritual power failed to align smoothly, the outcome of the refinement would be starkly clear: "failure."

"Begin!" As Mu Jinzhu’s voice fell, the hourglass was immediately flipped over. Nie Kong and Mu Hong both took a quiet, deep breath, unhurriedly opening the wooden boxes before them.

The boxes contained a prescription and twelve small compartments, each holding a portion of medicine. Nie Kong rapidly scanned the ingredients—five of the twelve herbs were unfamiliar to him.

He picked up the prescription, cross-referencing it with the twelve compartments in the box. Nie Kong realized that after accounting for the exact amount needed for the "Phantom-Dissipating Heart Separation Pill," a small surplus remained in each compartment. Only then did he secretly breathe a sigh of relief. If the portions were precisely the right amount with none left over, he wouldn't even know how to begin tasting those five unfamiliar medicines.

In a thought, Nie Kong pinched a small clump of herbs, brought them to his mouth, and began employing "Aroma Sensing to Identify Medicine." "What is he doing? Testing the medicine?"

"Impossible! That Mu Kong is an Apothecary. For the refinement of the 'Phantom-Dissipating Heart Separation Pill,' I recognize all twelve necessary ingredients; how could he not know them?" "That's right. Perhaps he's trying the medicine for another purpose..."

"..."

Seeing Nie Kong's action of tasting the medicine, the momentary silence in the crowd erupted into an uproar, filled with puzzled speculation.

On the high platform, Mu Qingying watched Nie Kong's appearance, her dark, lively eyes wide with astonishment. Tasting medicine at such a critical juncture—wasn't that a waste of time?

Mu Qingying never once considered that five of the twelve drugs were ones Nie Kong had never encountered before. After all, the variety of medicines in the Yin Ruins was far less than on the outside Tian Ling Continent. It was almost impossible for an Apothecary in this place not to recognize those ingredients.

"This Mu Kong is rather interesting. The competition has already started, and he's still tasting medicine. Do the properties of these herbs, researched by the many Apothecaries of the Yin Ruins, truly not compare to what comes out of his mouth?" Watching Nie Kong place pinch after pinch into his mouth, Mu Qingyi chuckled softly.

After a pause, Mu Qingyi asked with a smile, "Qingying, is Mu Kong truly an Apothecary?"

"Of course, he is," Mu Qingying nodded without hesitation, but a moment later, her delicate body trembled. The news that he was an Apothecary only came from Mu Xinye's report. But in reality, neither she nor Mu Xinye, nor anyone else, had ever seen him refine spirit medicine, not even the simplest first-grade one!

According to Mu Xinye, after they sparred in Fengyi Town, Mu Kong only gave her a spirit medicine he refined himself to restore spiritual power. That claim of "self-refined" was also spoken by Mu Kong. What if what he told Mu Xinye was not entirely true? Or what if he was a true Apothecary, but his skill level wasn't high, and now using a fourth-grade spirit medicine for the third trial was counterproductive? If she had known the Medicine King's disciple was also here, she should have found a way to confirm things with him beforehand.

"What if..."

Seeing Mu Hong already adding ingredients to his cauldron while Nie Kong was still quietly tasting his, Mu Qingying instinctively clenched her small fists, a trace of panic surfacing in her beautiful eyes. If the final winner wasn't Mu Kong but that burly Mu Hong, she wouldn't even have the option to refuse marriage...

"Hiss! Hiss!" A piercing sound of sonic boom erupted. Mu Hong had begun his refinement. Six streams of fire dragons shot from his palms, winding tightly around the alchemy cauldron like vines. In an instant, scorching hot waves of air surged outward, so intense that even Nie Kong several meters away could feel the strong heat.

Nie Kong had finished testing the five strange herbs by then. After only a moment of thought, he selected three of the drugs from the box and placed them into his cauldron.

"Boom!" Like Mu Hong, Nie Kong also began with a fierce fire. The moment the "Yin-Yang Soul Devouring Art" began circulating, two masses of verdant spiritual power flared fiercely from his palms. The scorching flames not only impacted the bottom of the cauldron but also radiated a strong suction force through the rotation of the six small apertures.

In the next moment, a large amount of green energy manifested from the void, pouring into the base of the cauldron like moths to a flame.

"Whoosh,"

It was as if a can of gasoline had been poured onto a fiercely burning fire. The spiritual flames leaped several meters high, followed by a massive wave of crackling explosions that reverberated, as if the very air around them was igniting under the intense heat. The emerald glow completely submerged the alchemy cauldron.

At that instant, the Half-Spirit Race members seated around the arena nearly all jumped up simultaneously, staring at the towering flame with astonishment. Mu Hong's fire power was indeed fierce, but compared to that green flame, it was vastly inferior, instantly suppressed.

Mu Hong couldn't help but be shocked. Suddenly, he gritted his teeth, and a fiery red phantom shot out from between his brows, instantly merging into the six fire dragons in his palms. In the next second, the six fire dragons in Mu Hong's hands expanded at a speed visible to the naked eye. The red glow illuminated the sky above the vast arena completely...