“Crash—”
With a sweep of his sleeve, Jiang Yifan brushed all the rare materials on the refining table into a specialized storage bag.
These specific storage bags were distributed by the organizers to prevent contestants from bringing their own materials and interfering with the fairness of the competition.
In the blink of an eye, the refining table that had been piled high with rare materials was empty, leaving only the faint shimmering light of the restriction on the mouth of the storage bag.
The entire venue suddenly erupted into a commotion.
“Is... is this a robbery?” a disciple of the Heavenly Sound Sect asked, his eyes wide.
“Isn't that a bit too arrogant?”
At the judges' table, Elder Chang Yan frowned and spoke up to remind him, “Jiang Yifan, the rules states that anyone who wastes more than thirty percent of their materials will be directly disqualified. Why are you taking so many materials?”
Jiang Yifan did not even look up, his voice calm. “They will all be used.”
Those four simple words caused the entire arena to fall silent instantly.
Elder Chang Yan opened his mouth, but in the end, he only let out a heavy sigh. “Fine, this old man wants to see exactly how you plan to use them all!”
Liu Qingyang was the first to react, letting out a strange cry. “Senior Brother Jiang, wait for me!”
As he spoke, he also lunged toward the material racks and began a frantic scavenging spree.
Seeing this, several others also fell into a chaotic scramble.
Chu Chenzhou remained somewhat restrained, taking only a few key materials, while Lu Tingyun anxiously swept the rare ores in front of him clean.
“Quiet!” the Hall of Discipline elder barked. Several deacon disciples quickly stepped forward to replenish the material racks. “Any further looting will result in immediate disqualification!”
Feng Qingping’s brow furrowed slightly as she watched Jiang Yifan’s movements in the arena. “What is Fourth Senior Brother trying to do?” she lowered her voice. “Even if he wants to fleece them for everything they're worth, he shouldn't be so blatant about it, right?”
She had learned this fresh term from Li Nanzhu, and she hadn't expected it to come in handy so soon.
Suisui crouched on her shoulder, its soul fire flickering as if it were also pondering the question.
Li Nanzhu, however, was full of smiles. “Don't worry, Fourth Senior Brother always acts with discretion.” She pointed at the specialized storage bag at Jiang Yifan’s waist. “The capacity of the bags provided by the organizers is limited; they can't hold that much.”
Looking at Li Nanzhu’s certain expression, Zhu Yinxi suddenly spoke up.
“Junior Sister... do you know what Fourth Junior Brother is planning to make?”
“The Six-Combination Continuous-Bead Gun,” Li Nanzhu said.
Duan Xianxing was completely baffled. “The what-gun?”
Li Nanzhu smiled without explaining. Only she knew that the blueprints she had given to her fourth senior brother three days ago had already been thoroughly studied by him.
In the arena, Jiang Yifan had already begun processing the materials.
He first threw the mysterious yin iron into the furnace, where cyan flames immediately enveloped it.
Unlike the cautious techniques of the other contestants, his movements were bold and grand, as if he didn't care at all about these rare materials.
His hands traced mysterious paths above the refining furnace, and the mysterious yin iron gradually softened in the cyan flames, fine black patterns appearing on its surface.
With a flick of his finger, three grains of scarlet sun sand fell precisely into the furnace, creating a sharp contrast with the mysterious yin iron.
“Fourth Senior Brother is so cool!” Duan Xianxing excitedly grabbed Li Nanzhu’s sleeve. “This technique is simply incredible!”
Jiang Yifan formed seals with both hands simultaneously, and the furnace fire suddenly split into three.
The mysterious yin iron and scarlet sun sand began to meld in the main furnace, while in the small furnace on the left, amethyst steel was being forged in golden flames, and the small furnace on the right was used to process green rainbow stone.
“Dividing his attention into three?!” The Great Elder of the Shenmu Sect suddenly stood up from the judges' table. “This...”
A Water Moon Sect elder almost knocked over his teacup. “Controlling three types of flames simultaneously? How powerful must his divine sense be?”
The corners of Li Nanzhu’s mouth curled up unconsciously, her eyes sparkling with excitement.
She watched the three distinct colors of flames in Jiang Yifan’s furnaces. her fingers moved slightly in sync, as if she were reliving the scene when Xiao Yan first taught her.
“The three-flame control method...” she murmured softly, her voice carrying an irrepressible pride. “Fourth Senior Brother uses it even better than I do.”
Feng Qingping keenly caught her whisper. “Junior Sister, did you teach this to Fourth Senior Brother?”
Li Nanzhu nodded, her gaze still fixed on the arena. “The Dao of alchemy and the Dao of refining may seem like different paths, but they lead to the same source.”
On the stage, Jiang Yifan seemed to be proving her words.
His left hand controlled the cyan flames in the main furnace, while his right hand guided the golden and purple flames in the side furnaces. Under his control, the three flames each maintained a perfect temperature and form.
“Alchemy emphasizes precise heat control, while refining pursues the fusion of materials,” Li Nanzhu explained. “But at their core, both are the ultimate mastery over spiritual energy and materials.”
Duan Xianxing’s eyes widened, and he desperately lowered his voice. “So Fourth Senior Brother is... using alchemy techniques to refine equipment?”
“Not entirely,” Li Nanzhu shook her head. “He is only borrowing from them. Most of it is Fourth Senior Brother's own understanding.”
Just then, Jiang Yifan’s movements suddenly changed.
His hands crossed, and the three streams of flames actually intertwined for a brief moment before separating again in an instant.
That split second of fusion caused a subtle change in the materials in the main furnace—at the point where the mysterious yin iron and scarlet sun sand met, a perfect gradient pattern appeared.
The elders of the Water Moon Sect looked at each other, clearly not expecting Jiang Yifan to have such high attainments in the Dao of refining.
“Is this a secret technique of the Jiang family?” the white-bearded elder sent a secret voice transmission.
“I'm not sure.” Even Liu Changhe’s gaze became somewhat hesitant. After all, he knew little about either the Jiang family or the Five Elements Dao Sect.
Thus, even as the Sect Leader of the Water Moon Sect, he could not be certain of its true origin.
Watching Jiang Yifan’s figure on the arena, Li Nanzhu’s nose suddenly felt a bit prickly.
She remembered the patience Xiao Yan had shown when teaching her flame control by hand, and she remembered him saying that myriad methods share the same origin.
Now, this realization had been passed through her to her fourth senior brother, and it was shining brilliantly at the Refining Great Competition. This feeling was even more joyous than her own success.
“Master, did you see that?” Li Nanzhu said silently in her heart. “Just wait a little longer. I will make your name reappear in the cultivation world.”
With Jiang Yifan’s stunning performance, the other contestants in the arena also began to enter their zones.
Without the hindrance of sabotaged materials, everyone’s refining process appeared smooth and fluid.
Over where Liu Qingyang was, the black ore in front of him was slowly deforming in the flames, occasionally spitting out sparks.
Beads of sweat had already formed on his forehead, but his eyes were exceptionally focused.
Chu Chenzhou’s refining process appeared particularly stable.
He first placed a piece of thousand-year cold jade in the furnace. Only after it softened did he slowly begin adding auxiliary materials, without a single wasted movement.
The arena was deathly silent. Although the soundproofing arrays had long since isolated the inside from the outside, the watching cultivators still held their breath in unison, fearing they might disturb the contestants.
An hour passed in the silence.
A wisp of soft, lustrous light suddenly leaked from Jiang Yifan’s refining furnace.
“It's done?!” Duan Xianxing almost jumped up, then quickly covered his mouth, letting out only a muffled gasp from between his fingers.
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