Chapter 225: Each Displaying Divine Abilities

“That Alchemist?”

Hearing this, the Female Cultivator looked at Lin Jing and couldn’t help but be stunned.

She didn’t see anything special about Lin Jing.

If she had to say something, it was that his cultivation was the lowest among them. “Judging by your clothes, you should be a Pill Servant from Qingzhou’s Tongtian Pagoda, right?”

“Don’t tell me that Alchemist is an Alchemist from the Tongtian Pagoda—”

“No,” Xia Yan shook his head.

“Then it’s even worse,” the Female Cultivator said. “Even if he were an Alchemist from the Tongtian Pagoda, he likely wouldn’t be a match for that blond guy. If those Alchemists had outstanding combat strength, they wouldn’t need to train Pill Servants like you.”

“I’m from Martial Emperor City, so I know. That blond guy is likely Lei Zhen of the Lei Clan, one of the eight great martial families of Martial Emperor City. He has an Innate Thunder-Fire Dual Spirit Physique—two natural Physiques. His potential is definitely in the top tier among the Prodigies of Martial Emperor City.”

Xia Yan’s heart stirred.

Martial Emperor City!

Martial Emperor City does not belong to the Ancient Kingdom or Qingzhou. If Qingzhou is the Holy Land of Alchemy, then Martial Emperor City is the Holy City of Artifact Refining, representing the highest level of Artifact Refining on the entire continent.

Within Martial Emperor City, there are eight cultivation families that specialize in martial arts—a combination of the Martial Dao, Weapon Dao, and Immortal Dao. Furthermore, each Family is overseen by a Void Profound expert who wields a Quasi-Immortal Artifact.

As for the Lord of Martial Emperor City, they can even control the only Immortal Artifact on the continent.

With just one person and one weapon, they have prevented the Ancient Kingdom from incorporating Martial Emperor City into its territory to this day.

It could be said that every territory on the continent today that is not part of the Ancient Kingdom’s domain is guarded by a supreme expert.

If this blond youth really is a Prodigy from one of the eight great martial families, then indeed, even if a core Alchemist from the Tongtian Pagoda came, it wouldn’t matter.

“Tsk—you get it now, right?” The Female Cultivator sighed. She actually came from one of the eight families as well, but unfortunately, she was only a concubine’s daughter from another Family and couldn’t compare to a Lei Clan Prodigy like Lei Zhen.

She thought entering the Grotto-Heaven would be the start of her rise, but who knew she would encounter this monster from the Lei Clan.

“But I still believe… that Alchemist will win,” Xia Yan said slowly.

Back then, at his father Xia Jie’s funeral, even Venerable Lingquan, with his Soul Transformation cultivation, couldn’t tell that his father was possessing him as a flame remnant soul.

But this wandering Alchemist did it; not only did he see through it at a glance, but he also easily identified why his father had become a remnant soul.

Such vision made Xia Yan firmly believe that this Alchemist was absolutely a monster.

The ten-second selection time was far too short.

From the moment the Magic Treasure’s information appeared, ten seconds passed quickly, leaving no time for each cultivator to weigh the pros and cons.

Xia Yan, the Tongtian Pagoda Pill Servant, immediately chose to forfeit because he knew Lin Jing was unfathomable.

The Female Cultivator also recognized the blond youth and made a prompt decision to forfeit.

As for the remaining people, it wasn’t that they had absolute confidence in defeating others; it was simply that the selection time was too short, and unwilling to give up the supreme treasure they saw, they made a passive choice.

By the time they realized it, they had already become one of the contenders.

They hadn’t even had time to carefully judge the backgrounds of each opponent.

The youth dressed as a boatman took a deep breath. Since things had come to this, he was determined to get the final reward at all costs.

“What a pity. It would have been so much better if you three had forfeited like those two,” said the blond youth in luxurious robes, lightning flickering in his eyes as he observed the other three.

“Wishful thinking,” the girl in the green dress curled her lips. Although she looked a bit nervous, her Aura did not lose out in the slightest.

Lin Jing was the most inconspicuous among the four. He was the only one at the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage, while the other three were at Foundation Establishment Perfection.

Expressionless, he looked at the other three as if looking at dead men. Although they had no grievances, there was no right or wrong in the struggle for the Grotto-Heaven. Everyone was considering their own interests; thus, it could only be a life-and-death struggle.

In any case, he wouldn’t be able to stay in Tianqing City for long again.

Right now, in the four-way melee, no one was willing to be the first to attack another party and let a third party benefit. Instead, they all displayed their Divine Abilities to strengthen themselves.

A vegetation mark appeared on the forehead of the girl in the green dress, her hair fluttering. As her Cultivation Technique circulated, her cultivation fluctuations began to rise.

There was a faint Golden Core prestige, but upon closer observation, it didn’t seem like Golden Core fluctuations. Instead, she had temporarily condensed a False Core through her Cultivation Technique!

She didn’t seem worried about others interfering, having other tricks up her sleeve, and the others had no intention of interfering either, as they were all busy with their own affairs.

The youth dressed as a boatman performed a hand seal. With him as the center, the surrounding water Spiritual Qi instantly surged into his skin. During this process, his skin gradually turned from white to light green, and as the color deepened, his expression became increasingly joyful.

The blond youth stretched out his palm. In his hand, a mass of golden lightning and red flame fused together, their violent power condensing into a small sphere. As time passed, the power of this thunder-fire Spell continued to increase, quickly growing from the size of a fist to the size of a head, with no sign of stopping.

The Auras of the several individuals were rising at a terrifying speed. Seeing this deadlocked melee scene, the Female Cultivator outside the main hall spoke slowly.

“The magic power intensity of that girl in green is already close to the Golden Core Stage—”

“And that boatman. He’s not a pure-blood Human Race; he has Sea Race Bloodline. His pure physical strength is already comparable to a Golden Core Body Cultivator.” Xia Yan nodded heavily, his expression serious. “That woman practices the Taixuan Scripture, a top-tier Cultivation Technique of Qingzhou. It includes the False Core Technique, Phantom Nascent Technique, Proximity to God Technique, and Void Refining Technique. At the Foundation Establishment Stage, she can display Core Formation power through the nature of the technique. Upon reaching the Golden Core Stage, she can temporarily condense a Phantom Nascent. Upon reaching the Nascent Soul Stage, she can emulate the Soul Transformation Concept. It’s a powerful Cultivation Technique that allows one to always exert strength half a Realm beyond their base level. She is a True Disciple of the Taixuan Sect in Qingzhou!”

“The strongest warrior tribe under the Ancient Dragon Palace of the Sea Race. The Sea Race can only exert their full abilities in the sea,”

“But the quality of Spiritual Qi in this Grotto-Heaven is much stronger than that of the Tianyuan Continent. The water Spiritual Qi within can perfectly activate his Sea Race warrior Bloodline just the same!!” Xia Yan felt that they truly deserved to be chosen by the Grotto-Heaven; they were far stronger than those Family disciples of Tianqing City.

“However, no matter how hard they try, it’s all in vain. That ‘Thunder-Fire Bead’ condensed by Lei Zhen fuses the two most violent powers together and has killed a real Golden Core! The only flaw of this Thunder-Fire Bead is that it’s difficult to condense and takes a long time. But as long as he is given time to make it large enough, killing a Golden Core is easy. These people gave him the chance to condense it; at least one of them is in trouble—” As the Female Cultivator spoke, she and Xia Yan noticed that while the other three were working hard to condense their finishing moves, Lin Jing alone…

…was being far too simple, stuffing himself with two bottles of Medicinal Pills.

One of the bottles was the Yuan-Replenishing Pill for replenishing true essence.

The other bottle, Xia Yan recognized, was the Cancan Pill.

Before entering the Grotto-Heaven, Lin Jing was performing Alchemy and had consumed quite a bit. He was not currently in peak condition, with less than half of his magic power remaining.

He also had to work hard to maintain his illusionary form, so immediately replenishing some true essence was a logical choice.

He was unhurried because he had already reached a conclusion. The three of them had average strength, not even comparable to the Prodigies like Chen Fan and Yan Xiangbei whom he had defeated over a decade ago—only around the level of the tenth place on the heavenly pride ranking. They were all young, around thirty years old. For these naive geniuses to encounter an old monster like Lin Jing, who was much older, was truly unfortunate.