.
In a dilapidated palace in the capital of the Long Empire,
in a vast, dark hall devoid of any living soul, a man seated on a throne at the center at the far end of the hall looked down at an object he held in his hand, with a neutral expression.
Due to the lack of movent from the figure of the man, an outsider might mistake him for a statue.
The object the man was staring at was a talisman, specifically one that had just arrived, containing a ssage sent by Jian Long.
The emperor didn't move for a long ti after the ssage ended, continuing to stare blankly, lost in unknown thoughts.
Then, with a sigh filled with fatigue, he looked towards a point in the throne hall.
There was nothing there but the wall of the hall, yet he seed to be looking at sothing beyond it.
There, a few rooms away, lay a large master bedroom, intact, and giving the impression that no one had visited it in a long ti.
Even so, the room appeared to be tidy, and no trace of dust could be seen anywhere.
On one side hung a large portrait depicting a woman who was smiling.
The woman in the portrait had long black hair that flowed over her shoulders like a waterfall, and a pair of erald green eyes that captivated anyone looking at her.
She wore a gentle smile, which seed to convey various emotions all at once.
Each ti he looked at this portrait, Long Hao's mind cald.
After an indefinite amount of ti, he opened his mouth and spoke.
"We don't have much ti left," he said in a calm voice, as if speaking to soone, though the nearly empty hall provided no answer.
"My ti is coming to an end.
Do a favor, my friend," he said in a weary voice, and again, no sound answered him beyond his own voice.
"Take care of the two of them after I'm gone," he said, and silence returned to reign in the hall.
After a few seconds, a shadow behind the emperor's throne moved, and a voice echoed, breaking the silence in the hall once more.
"Very well."
***
With Hu Xingyan having just pulled out her final pill, only Ethan's results remained to be seen.
After understanding what level of pill she had created, many imdiately thought the masked boy no longer stood a chance.
After all, he hadn't even produced a single pill in those three hours, while she had already produced several, and with that low-grade Level 3 pill, her victory seed almost certain.
Several audience mbers began to speak as they waited to see the inevitable.
"Hmph, he acted arrogant throughout the competition, and this is the result," soone remarked.
"Well, you reap what you sow, and in his case, he'll reap defeat and the embarrassnt of his arrogance."
"Though he has so skills, he never stood a chance against the White Tiger Kingdom's genius."
While there were those who naturally sided with Hu Xingyan, there were also those who still believed that the masked boy might have a surprise in store for them.
This hope was based on the fact that he had continuously surprised them throughout the competition, from scoring perfectly on the theory exam and landing in the Hall of Fa, to producing 12 pills in one go, all of high purity.
Many in the audience had already beco his die-hard fans, and so, while so mocked him, others cheered him on.
"Nuyu."
"Nuyu."
"Nuyu."
The examiners, seeing this situation, couldn't help but shake their heads.
Whenever a particularly outstanding contestant erged during the annual tournants, sothing like this always happened, though this ti, the intensity was slightly higher.
None of them paid much attention to the audience as they focused on Ethan to see what he had produced after all this ti.
They had already failed once to predict his final result, which, instead of a disaster, turned out to be several high-grade pills.
Therefore, none of them dared to make a judgnt, at least not until they had seen the final result of his work.
And so, with the sounds of the crowd on one side and the expectant gazes of many on the other, Ethan finally opened the lid, and suddenly, a faint colored glow erged from the cauldron, illuminating his area for a mont.
At this phenonon, everyone, regardless of what they were doing, turned to look towards his station.
"What is that?"
"I don't know, but it doesn't seem like anything good."
"Could the cauldron be about to explode?"
While another wave of conversations started about what might be inside the cauldron, the judges closest to it saw this phenonon and imdiately had one thought on their minds.
"It can't be."
As soon as they thought of it, all their expressions changed instantly, and just as in the last two rounds, they rushed from their positions to Ethan's station, surrounding it within seconds, as they looked darkly at what was slowly floating out of the cauldron.
Ethan didn't concern himself with their actions, and he used a bit of spiritual Qi to draw out what was inside the cauldron.
Everyone's gazes were focused on the floating object erging from the cauldron, and as they finally saw what it was, many wore confused expressions.
A golden pill?
What kind of pill is that?
While many wondered what type of pill Ethan had produced, the judges closest to the station, upon seeing the pill, trembled, their eyes widening more and more at the sight of the pill.
"No it can't be… it's really that pill."
"Wait, how did he produce it? Even for us, refining it successfully is a huge task."
"Stop asking pointless questions and examine the pill first!"
At these words from one of them, who had just finished examining the pill, the others quickly sent a bit of their Qi into it, and imdiately their expressions changed once again.
"This pill…"
"It's mid-grade, Level 3 pill."
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