Starting as a supporting character in Doupo

Page 351

"This kid........."

Su Qian appeared on a rooftop, looking at Xiao Fan in the arena with a forced smile on her face. Her gray hair was smoothed behind her head, and she stood with her hands behind her back, silently watching.

"This kid is simply the most talented disciple the academy has produced in recent years, isn't he?"

Just as Su Qian was watching Xiao Fan, another person appeared beside him. With fiery red hair, he was none other than Elder Huo of the Alchemy Department, who was also a peak fifth-grade alchemist in Canaan Academy.

Upon hearing this, Su Qian revealed a hint of pride on her face and said, "That's for sure."

As soon as he finished speaking, Su Qian winked at Elder Huo beside him and said, "How about it? Do you want to go up and ask Xiao Fan for some pointers? With your connections, Xiao Fan definitely won't refuse."

Upon hearing Su Qian's words, Elder Huo's beard bristled with anger. He glared at Su Qian before speaking with an air of arrogance: "There's no need for that. I can already feel the barrier to breaking through to the sixth-grade alchemist level gradually weakening. It won't be long before I'm able to step into the sixth-grade realm."

Elder Huo's tone was calm. What had initially been a matter of great importance to him was now gradually calming down. His gaze fell on Xiao Fan in the arena, then swept over each of the students. Perhaps, this was what he should be focusing on more...

Although he has always held the title of elder of the alchemy department, it seems that he has had very few opportunities to guide these students.

It was Xiao Fan's appearance that made Elder Huo realize that the disciples in the academy still had many questions they wanted to ask, but he rarely showed up, and with the exchanges between alchemists and the other instructors being at a loss, he had never paid attention to these issues...

While Elder Huo and Su Qian were talking, on the competition stage, Xiao Fan looked at the silent crowd, a smile on his face, and then said, "Everyone, it's rare to have so many alchemists gathered together. How about I take the initiative to hold an alchemist competition in the inner courtyard?"

"An alchemist competition?"

The alchemists present were taken aback when they heard Xiao Fan's words.

They wanted to know how Xiao Fan would instruct them on alchemy techniques, but they never expected that Xiao Fan would announce his intention to hold an inner court alchemist competition as soon as he opened his mouth.

However, after only a slight hesitation, the alchemists present immediately erupted in excitement.

"Okay! I agree!"

"That's right, I've been itching to try it out for a while now. With so many fellow alchemists gathered here, why not take this opportunity to have a competition!"

..........

As the alchemists responded, the scene immediately erupted in excitement. All the alchemists were thrilled. They were already overjoyed to receive guidance from Xiao Fan, but they never expected that he would decide to hold an alchemist competition in the inner courtyard in just a few words.

It should be noted that in the past, the competition for the inner academy's top rankings was a significant disadvantage for alchemists. After all, many alchemists in the academy focused their attention on alchemy and were not very good at combat. Therefore, those who dominated the top rankings were basically students who were immersed in cultivation for many years. Fortunately, alchemists had a good status and did not lack any important resources, so they never investigated this matter in depth.

However, now that they have this opportunity, and with Xiao Fan's reputation, they all want to show off their abilities.

"Hehe, since I'm the one who raised it, I'll just briefly explain the rules."

Looking at the excited crowd, Xiao Fan slowly spoke, and took out a few pill formulas from his storage ring. He said to the crowd, "Here are three pill formulas, which are grade two, grade three and grade four pill formulas. I will use them as a prize for this competition. After the competition, I will discuss our insights on alchemy with you all."

"As for the rules of the competition, you can refine pills at your own pace according to your abilities. I will give you a comprehensive score based on your performance during the refining process, your control of the alchemical fire, the extraction of the medicinal liquid, and the quality of the final pill. The one with the highest score will be the first place winner of this year's alchemy competition."

After Xiao Fan finished speaking, he looked at the students who had started to discuss and continued, "Of course, in order to ensure the fairness of the competition, the scoring process cannot be done by me alone."

Xiao Fan turned his gaze to where Su Qian was and slowly said, "Elder, Elder Huo, how about we both enjoy being referees for a bit?"

"hehe."

When the Grand Elder saw Xiao Fan calling him, he did not refuse. He and Elder Huo landed on the competition platform and addressed the students: "Previously, the academy did not impose many restrictions on students who were proficient in alchemy. As a result, you all lacked opportunities to compete. In my opinion, this competition is an excellent solution."

After the First Elder finished speaking, he continued, "However, the position of referee still needs to be filled by professionals. In my opinion, how about having Xiao Fan and Elder Huo select a few instructors from the Alchemy Department to monitor the process together?"

“That’s right, Elder Huo is right.” Elder Huo echoed, then his gaze swept across the arena, a smile on his face, and he called out to several people, “Elder Renqiu, Instructor Hanluo, Instructor Muran, you are all instructors in the Alchemy Department. Since you are here, why don’t you come up on stage and act as judges?”

As Elder Huo finished speaking, three people in the crowd gave a wry smile and did not refuse.

Of the three, Elder Renqiu was an elderly man with gray hair, Hanluo was a middle-aged man with a calm demeanor, and only Mu Ran was a woman who looked to be around thirty years old and always had a smile on her face.

After going on stage, Xiao Fan greeted them briefly, and the group discussed the competition.

However, this competition was not the goal; it was merely to promote communication among alchemy students. What everyone was probably more looking forward to was interacting with Xiao Fan.

However, since the Grand Elder had come out, he generously prepared some fire energy for the top three: three hundred fire energy for the first place, two hundred fire energy for the second place, and one hundred fire energy for the third place. This was a pleasant surprise, which made the participating alchemists even more excited.

Moreover, in case some students lacked the necessary materials, the Grand Elder thoughtfully provided them with the medicinal herbs required for the competition. All the students needed to do was tell him which pills they wanted to refine, and someone would prepare the herbs for them.

However, to prevent waste, the elder prepared two portions of medicinal herbs for each of them.

After preparations were complete, Xiao Fan, Elder Huo, and the others took their positions on the competition stage to supervise the students. They then allowed the students who wanted to participate in the competition to go directly onto the stage, maintaining a slight distance between them.

After everyone went up on stage, Xiao Fan looked around and saw that there were thirty-three alchemists on stage. There were also quite a few alchemists who probably knew that their current strength was insufficient and did not want to go up and embarrass themselves, so they just kept shouting and observing from below the stage.

After preparations were complete, Xiao Fan and Elder Huo exchanged glances and then announced the start of the competition.

As the competition began, flames of alchemy ignited on the competition platform, and medicinal herbs were thrown into the cauldrons by the participants, who began refining the pills they had already chosen.

Xiao Fan stood still, carefully sensing the refining techniques of the students around him.

Now, with his level of seventh-grade alchemist, he could naturally detect the numerous flaws in the students' alchemy skills. Some of them even failed to satisfy Xiao Fan in terms of controlling the alchemical fire.

In Xiao Fan's view, as an alchemist, controlling flames is the most basic ability. If you can't even control the flames used to refine pills, how can you talk about refining pills?

Xiao Fan's own fire control technique was already extremely terrifying under the enhancement of the Chaotic Flame Body. Moreover, since obtaining the Five-Round Fire Separation Technique from Venerable Heavenly Fire, although Xiao Fan was unable to use it after being injured, he had been researching the Five-Round Fire Separation Technique.

He was already extremely familiar with the Five Wheels of Fire Technique, but he lacked practical experience.

After all, during the time he was injured, Xiao Fan couldn't do anything but study these things.

Getting back to the main point, besides the issues Xiao Fan just mentioned, Xiao Fan also discovered some promising talents.

For example, Xin Lan from Panmen, as expected of someone from a family of alchemists, was the most outstanding student Xiao Fan had ever seen, whether it was her fire control techniques, herb extraction, or her mastery of the heat.

Besides Xinlan, there was another young man among the students who wielded a red beast fire. He had extremely precise control over the flame and was also exceptionally skilled at handling medicinal herbs.

However, from his alchemy techniques, Xiao Fan could tell that the other party's alchemy skills had not been systematically learned, and many parts were very rough.

Xiao Fan was very perceptive about this.

After all, his own alchemy skills had mostly come from the system's rewards in the past. Although he had absorbed the alchemist's experience, he had mostly relied on his own exploration later on, so he could see the student's strangeness at a glance.

Xiao Fan glanced at the others and finally found that only Xin Lan and the young man using red beast fire aroused his interest.

Chapter 80 Finally Healed

The alchemy skills of Xiao Fan and Elder Huo were far superior to those of the students in front of them; it was easy to discern their abilities from their alchemy process.

After a brief observation, Xiao Fan discovered that Xin Lan and the student using the red beast fire had both reached the level of fourth-grade alchemists. If nothing unexpected happened, the champion would probably be one of them.

As time passed, most of the students on the competition stage finished their alchemy practice.

Some people failed twice and looked regretful, but they didn't do anything outrageous. They just sat quietly on the stage, watching the remaining students refine medicine, comparing their own shortcomings, and making up for their deficiencies.

Xiao Fan looked at the students' actions with satisfaction. The academy was the purest place. Although there was competition among these students, they were generally positive and motivated.

Half a day passed in the blink of an eye. Under the watchful eyes of Xiao Fan, Elder Huo, and the others, all the alchemical fires on the competition stage had been extinguished, which meant that the students had finished their alchemical refining.

After half a day of observation, Xiao Fan and Elder Huo had already formed a certain judgment on the students' alchemy skills.

"Boom!"

"Now that everyone has finished refining, please place your pills on the trays over there. Disciples will come to collect them and hand them over to the judges on the stage for scoring. Finally, you will be ranked based on your pill-refining process and the quality of your pills!"

Su Qian gave a deep shout, and his deep voice rang in everyone's ears.

The students placed the pills they had refined into trays, which were then presented to Xiao Fan and the others.

Xiao Fan and the others carefully examined the quality of the pills again, gave their own scores, and scored each participant based on their observations of the pill-refining process.

Finally, after combining the scores from the five judges, the ranking of the trainees' alchemy skills was determined.

"Third place, Gu Yue!"

As the referee finished speaking, everyone's eyes fell on a somewhat immature young man in the crowd who slowly raised his head.

"Senior Gu Yue is only ranked third?"

"That's right, I thought Senior Gu Yue was at least number one!"

Through the conversations among these students, Xiao Fan also learned about Gu Yue's identity. She was a disciple of the Inner Court's Alchemy Department and had received a lot of guidance from Elder Huo. It seemed that some people even said that Gu Yue was a disciple of Elder Huo of the Alchemy Department.

"He has a good foundation and a solid foundation in alchemy."

Xiao Fan looked at the somewhat immature Gu Yue, then turned to Elder Huo beside him and said with a smile, "To reach such a level of alchemy at this age, his talent is quite remarkable."

"Hehe, that's right!"

Elder Huo smiled slightly upon hearing Xiao Fan's praise, stroked his beard, and his face crinkled into a chrysanthemum shape.

"Hehe, Elder Huo, your disciple is exceptionally talented."

Beside the two, Elder Renqiu's eyes darted around, and he suddenly bowed to Elder Huo.

"Hehe, although he has good talent, he is still a little bit short of becoming my disciple."

Upon hearing this, Elder Huo's smile deepened, but he deliberately put on a serious expression, feigning disappointment, and spoke in a pretentious manner.

"Oh?"

Upon hearing Elder Huo's words, Instructor Han Luo immediately chimed in, saying, "Since that's the case, and I haven't taken on any disciples yet, I think it would be better if I took Gu Yue as my disciple."

"Instructor Hanluo is also exceptionally talented in alchemy, and his alchemy skills are among the best in the inner academy. He is more than capable of teaching Guyue."

Mu Ran, who was standing to the side, also spoke up, her face beaming with a smile.

By this point, everyone could see that Elder Huo had probably long harbored feelings for Gu Yue and even considered taking her as a disciple. They just didn't know why he hadn't made their relationship public.

Seeing Gu Yue's extraordinary talent, and with Xiao Fan starting the conversation, the judges also began to speak up and tease Elder Huo.

"you........."

Elder Huo looked at the group of people singing in unison with a look of astonishment on his face. He then pointed at Xiao Fan, his beard bristling with anger. He glared at the group and said irritably, "Hmph!"

"This Gu Yue is my disciple, so what? You all actually dare to set your sights on my disciple..."