Chapter 1030: Moistening Things Silently

"Master? Hahaha, you... are you kidding me? This kid is at most thirty years old, and you call him master? Hahaha, what can he teach you?"

Hearing Xiao Ruyan's address to Ye Yuan, Gu Yue laughed uncontrollably.

He laughed for a long time, but suddenly found that no one echoed him, which made him feel very embarrassed.

And he suddenly noticed that Ye Yuan's group was looking at him with strange eyes, which made him somewhat furious.

"What are you looking at! Am I wrong?" Gu Yue said irritably.

"Mm, you're quite right. Well, since there's nothing else to do, you two have a good match with him." Ye Yuan said with a smile.

...

"Look, Gu Yue is dueling in alchemy again! I wonder what kind of opponent he's up against this time. Will it cause him any trouble?"

"Impossible? At the Alchemy Venerable level, no one can be his match. Otherwise, how could he have won three thousand four hundred and twenty consecutive matches?"

"True! Gu Yue may be a bit arrogant, but his skill is really strong! At this rate, he might actually break Ji Qingyun's record!"

The alchemy duel between Gu Yue and Xiao Ruyan immediately attracted a large crowd.

As Gu Yue had said, he was very famous in Yungao City, and his streak of over three thousand four hundred wins was no bluff.

Almost every time he dueled, the crowd was packed.

Gu Yue's temperament most enjoyed this kind of treatment, being surrounded like stars around the moon.

Xiao Ruyan was still a bit unconfident, after all, she had too few opportunities to actually compete with others.

Although she knew Ye Yuan was very skilled, she wasn't sure if she had truly grasped the essence of his alchemy.

In Chixia Holy Land, Xiao Ruyan had once taught a group of Alchemy Ancestors a lesson, but that was only about flame control.

An alchemy duel, however, was a comprehensive test of alchemy skills, completely different from flame control.

Moreover, her opponent was so strong!

Gu Yue noticed Xiao Ruyan's lack of confidence and said with a smile, "Beautiful, don't worry. If you become my dao companion, I'll teach you the essence of alchemy."

Xiao Ruyan's face darkened, and she said coldly, "With your lousy skills, stop making a fool of yourself! Once I knock you down, you'll kneel and beg me to take you as a disciple!"

Their agreement was: if Gu Yue won, Xiao Ruyan would become his dao companion; if Xiao Ruyan won, Gu Yue would kneel and call her master three times.

Alchemy duels in Yungao City were presided over by the City Lord's Mansion, and duels between Alchemy Venerables were officiated by a junior Alchemy Emperor.

The Alchemy Emperor stepped onto the arena and said slowly, "According to your agreement, the pill you will refine is the Bihai Zhenshui Dan. This is an eighth-grade upper-tier water-attributed pill. The one with superior quality wins. Begin now!"

The Bihai Zhenshui Dan was quite difficult to refine, and ordinary Alchemy Venerables couldn't manage it at all. But for Gu Yue, it wasn't a big problem.

With his skill, he had an eighty percent chance of refining it to upper quality.

If he was lucky, he could even refine it to supreme quality!

As for Xiao Ruyan, she was only an intermediate Alchemy Venerable. Even if she was exceptionally talented, just producing a finished pill would be good enough.

For Gu Yue, this duel was a match he simply couldn't lose.

He also intended to show off. After purifying the medicinal base, Gu Yue spread his palms, bringing out a fire dragon with one hand and a fire tiger with the other.

Under his guidance, the dragon and tiger began to raise the temperature of the pill furnace.

"Tiger crouching, dragon coiling! This is an extremely profound flame control technique, and Gu Yue executes it effortlessly! His streak of over three thousand wins is indeed no accident!"

"Look at that girl, what kind of flame control is that? Hahaha, does she think she's cooking a meal? With such inferior flame control, is she sure she can refine a pill?"

The two, now immersed in alchemy, could no longer hear the discussions of the onlookers.

Despite Gu Yue's arrogance, his alchemy skill was no empty reputation. Ordinary Alchemy Venerables were indeed no match for him.

Ao Qian couldn't bear to watch Xiao Ruyan's flame control any longer and couldn't help saying, "Milord, that girl Ruyan seems a bit nervous. How can such flame control win against the opponent? Milord, your alchemy may be divine, but she is not you after all!"

Ye Yuan, however, was unconcerned and said, "Old Ao, no need to rush. Just watch. That girl Ruyan can keep her composure when it counts."

Ao Qian and the others were speechless. She was so nervous she couldn't even control the flames properly, and she could keep her composure?

Where did they see that composure?

Just then, exclamations suddenly arose from the crowd.

"Look at that girl's pill furnace! This... how is this possible?"

"Crystalline! The pill furnace has become crystalline!"

"This... the flame control technique that girl is using, could it be the legendary 'Moistening Things Silently'? This was the flame control technique used by Lord Qingyunzi in his duels!"

"Back then, Lord Qingyunzi, with this seemingly ugly flame control technique, amazed countless people and won the admiration of many geniuses! I never thought that after three hundred years, the 'Moistening Things Silently' flame control technique would appear again!"

For fairness, both parties used only the most ordinary eighth-grade pill furnaces.

Such ordinary eighth-grade pill furnaces demanded extremely high flame control.

A single mistake could affect the entire pill refinement.

At that moment, Xiao Ruyan's pill furnace had become crystalline, like glazed tiles, a sign of extremely even heating.

Only when flame control reached an extremely high level could one refine the furnace to such a degree.

Yet just moments ago, everyone was mocking Xiao Ruyan's flame control as if she were cooking a meal.

This scene was very similar to what happened three hundred years ago.

When the crowd came to their senses, they recalled the scene of Lord Qingyunzi dominating Yungao City three hundred years ago.

That flame control technique was precisely 'Moistening Things Silently'.

Just as everyone was marveling, Ye Yuan shook his head and said, "The heat is still a bit off; she only barely managed to make the furnace crystalline. It seems this pill will only be of supreme quality. Ren Dong, tell your senior sister when she returns that she needs to practice 'Moistening Things Silently' another fifty thousand times."

Ren Dong's expression was calm, and he nodded, "Yes, Master!"

Ao Qian and the others exchanged glances, thinking, This master is too terrifying, isn't he?

You are the number one in a hundred thousand years, but others are not! This has already drawn exclamations from everyone, yet you want her to practice another fifty thousand times...

Is this how you teach disciples?

And in fact, this was exactly how Ye Yuan taught his disciples!

In Ye Yuan's view, there was never a shortcut in alchemy. Without millions of repetitions of tedious practice, one could never truly enter the hall of mastery.

Despite Xiao Ruyan and Ren Dong usually being playful and bickering,

the hardships they had endured over the past decade or so were known only to Ye Yuan himself.