The setting sun dyed the blue stone slab road of Qinglan City a honeyed hue. Standing at the highest point of the awards podium, Ye Fan felt the bronze trophy in his palm grow heavy and warm. He looked out at the surging cheers of the crowd, his Adam's apple bobbing. In his past life, when he had been a supreme being of the Inquiry Realm, he had witnessed grander spectacles than this, yet never had he felt such a boiling, vibrant fullness in his chest.
"Young Friend Ye." The white-browed grandmaster tremulously handed over a brocade box. "This is the exclusive jade vial for Celestial Grade pills. A hundred years ago, when my master refined a nine-ringed Celestial Grade pill, he used the exact same batch of jade."
As Ye Fan took the brocade box, his fingertips brushed against a faint carving at the bottom. The moment his spiritual sense probed inside, the small lake within his Inner World suddenly churned, and the azure light of the Jiuxiao Huanpei shot out like a serpent, tracing half an array diagram on the inner wall of the trophy. His pupils constricted slightly, though on the surface he merely nodded. "Thank you, Senior."
Chapter 198