The martial arts arena, its morning mist still unscattered, was already packed with people, sandalwood blending with the fragrance of spiritual herbs in the air. Ye Fan stood behind the artifact-crafting station in the front row, his fingertips gently rubbing the Jiuxiao Huanpei at his waist—last night, the half-piece "Jiuyao" jade pendant in his Inner World had suddenly emitted a blue light, causing even the cloud patterns on the pendant to flow as if alive, as if reminding him of something.
"The ultimate showdown begins!" The chief examiner's voice pierced through the morning mist.
Ye Fan took a deep breath, his gaze sweeping over the bronze cauldron before him. He had already sorted and arranged the required medicinal herbs: thousand-year-old crimson fruits wrapped in gold leaf, ice-soul flowers condensing frost pearls, and right in the center, inside a jade box, three nine-leaf black ginseng stalks radiating a faint glow—these were what he had specially asked Chǔ Hóngzhuāng to source from the poisonous miasmas of Southern Xinjiang, capable of neutralizing the violent energy of medicinal pills.
Chapter 126