Chapter 19: Completed Alone

There were hundreds of thousands of refining sects of various sizes in Huobao Town, but fewer than a hundred were of significant scale. Any refining sect with a refiner registered with the Refining Guild had received a message from the guild, informing them of a major refining task at hand. Naturally, each sect sent its refiners to the Refining Guild, resulting in a massive gathering of refiners there—up to a hundred thousand in number. It could be said that almost all of those hundreds of thousands of sects had sent representatives.

These hundred thousand refiners were all arranged in the “Who Can Win” competition arena, which had exactly a hundred thousand seats to accommodate them all. Qu Yi came alone, representing the Fangqi Pavilion. Due to that impressive refining competition, Qu Yi had already been remembered by the many refiners in Huobao Town. As soon as he appeared, he was surrounded by numerous refiners who greeted him warmly, hoping to establish a friendly relationship. Qu Yi responded with a smile and walked into the arena alongside them, chatting cheerfully.

Coincidentally, Tan Changhuo, an elder from the Xiaoding Hall who had competed against Qu Yi, was also heading toward the arena entrance with Tan Chongji, the head of the Xiaoding Hall. Qu Yi and Tan Changhuo stood calmly, facing each other. The other refiners, aware of their past rivalry, stopped in their tracks and gathered around them, watching with mischievous smiles, eager for something to happen. The refiners in the Divine Realm led rather monotonous lives—refining could take millions or even tens of millions of years—so they enjoyed any excitement they could get.

“Qu Yi, your Fangqi Pavilion only has three people. Add the five newcomers you recruited recently. With such strength, you still dare to show up at an event like this? You really overestimate yourselves,” Tan Changhuo snapped angrily, provoked by the faint smile on Qu Yi’s lips. Having lost Shop No. 3, the Xiaoding Hall had long regarded the Fangqi Pavilion as an enemy and had secretly investigated, thus learning about the current situation of the Fangqi Pavilion.

In response to Tan Changhuo’s mockery, Qu Yi smiled and pointed at the entrance of the arena, saying, “Elder Tan, you must be quite familiar with this place. How about we have another competition to see the true strength of our Fangqi Pavilion? Oh, this time we could even refine divine artifacts at the Divine Weapon level.”

Upon hearing this, Tan Changhuo’s face turned red with anger. His fiery eyes seemed ready to burst forth as he glared fiercely at Qu Yi.

“You…” Tan Changhuo was so enraged that he couldn’t speak.
Tan Chongji, the head of the Xiaoding Hall, spoke lightly at that moment, “Qu Yi, just because you won the crafting competition, do you think your skills are unmatched? This time, all sects and schools have a chance to get crafting tasks from the Crafting Guild, but your Fangqi Pavilion will not get a single one.”
Upon hearing this, the craftsmen from various sects who had been watching immediately realized that the Xiaoding Hall was still among the top ten sects in Huobao Town. If Tan Chongji took an interest in them, it would be very difficult for their own sects to obtain crafting tasks. So, the craftsmen quickly headed toward the competition arena.
Qu Yi sensed Tan Chongji’s threatening intent. It seemed he wanted to use the power of the Xiaoding Hall to strike down the Fangqi Pavilion, preventing them from getting crafting tasks and thus stopping their rise.
“Is that so? Whether I can get crafting tasks or not isn’t something your Xiaoding Hall can decide. If you have the strength, then show it properly. If you fail to get crafting tasks in the future, don’t blame others—examine your own strength,” Qu Yi said with a smile.
Tan Chongji merely smiled faintly upon hearing Qu Yi’s words, refraining from further argument. He gave Tan Changhuo a glance, and the two immediately walked toward the competition arena.
Qu Yi also entered the arena with ease.
Inside the arena, with its hundred thousand seats, all the craftsmen were already seated.
Huang Futing, the president of the Crafting Guild, and Huang Yunle, the vice president, along with other guild members, entered the arena and stood on a platform in the center under the applause of the hundred thousand people.
All the craftsmen sat down, quietly waiting for Huang Futing to speak.
Huang Futing swept his gaze around, intimidating all the craftsmen, before nodding in satisfaction and saying, “Craftsmen of Huobao Town, I recently received orders from the higher-ups. The crafting sects in Huobao Town must produce one million divine weapons of the Divine Weapon level within a hundred thousand years. This task is extremely difficult, but there will be no leniency from above—we must complete it. That’s why I’ve gathered everyone here to work together and accomplish this huge crafting task.”
As the president, Huang Futing didn’t bother with pleasantries and got straight to the point.
As soon as he spoke, gasps of shock filled the entire arena. Most of the craftsmen shook their heads and sighed, looking utterly disheartened.

Given Huobao Town’s current scale, although there are 100,000 alchemy sects, few alchemists have reached the Divine Weapon stage—only about 10,000 in total. And among these 10,000 Divine Weapon-stage alchemists, their skills vary greatly. On average, it takes around 10,000 years to create a single divine artifact at that level. Therefore, with Huobao Town’s current alchemical capabilities, it could only produce 100,000 divine artifacts of this kind within 100,000 years—making it impossible to complete the task of crafting one million such artifacts.

“President, our Huobao Town cannot complete this alchemy task.”

“President, asking us to produce one million divine artifacts within 100,000 years—isn’t this putting us in a difficult situation?”

“100,000 divine artifacts might be achievable if we work together, but one million? That’s simply impossible.”

……

The 100,000 alchemists grew anxious and each voiced their difficulties, concluding that the task was unattainable.

In fact, Huangfu Ting was well aware of this, but it was an order from the Alchemy Association. If they failed, Huangfu Ting would be held accountable, and Huobao Town would never again be given alchemy tasks. Left with no choice, Huangfu Ting decided to make this arduous task public, hoping that all the alchemists in Huobao Town would contribute their efforts to devise a new method to complete it.

Hearing the disheartened voices of the 100,000 alchemists, Huangfu Ting’s expression darkened. These alchemists hadn’t even tried to find a solution yet and had given up so quickly—he was deeply disappointed.

Just then, Tan Chongji, the head of the Xiaoding Hall, stood up.

All the alchemists in the room immediately fell silent, curiously looking at Tan Chongji to understand why he had stood up. Could Tan Chongji have a way to complete this task?

If the Xiaoding Hall succeeded in this task, its reputation would soar, and it would surely receive the majority of future alchemy tasks. The loss of Shop No. 3 in the previous alchemy competition would then be insignificant.

Tan Chongji smiled and shouted, “President, our Xiaoding Hall discovered a source of Mo Lan Divine Fire some time ago and has also developed a method for mass-producing divine artifacts at the Divine Weapon stage. However, with only our alchemists, we’re not enough to implement this method. Therefore, we wish to take on this task but need your help in arranging certain things for us.”

As soon as these words were spoken, they immediately caused ten thousand alchemists to take deep breaths, all of them shocked by the news revealed by Tan Chongji. It was no longer just a matter of alchemy tasks; all alchemists realized that if Xiao Ding Hall truly completed this task, it would rank first among the alchemy sects in Huo Bao Town from then on, and it would surely receive the most alchemy tasks. Since this affected the distribution of interests among the alchemy sects in Huo Bao Town, it naturally made all alchemists nervous. As the president of the Alchemy Guild, Huangfu Ting would not consider the interests of other sects; all he cared about was completing the tasks assigned to him. Now that Xiao Ding Hall had the capability to complete such tasks, he naturally wanted to rely on them. “Hall Master, if you have any requests, you can state them now,” Huangfu Ting replied happily. All the other alchemists also listened attentively. “President, the Mo Lan Divine Fire veins discovered by our Xiao Ding Hall allow us to craft a thousand artifact cores at once. However, our number of alchemists is limited, and we don’t have enough to form arrays for these cores. Therefore, after taking on this task of crafting one million artifacts, we request that you arrange for alchemists at the Divine Weapon and Divine General levels from other sects to come and assist us in crafting divine artifacts,” Tan Chongji said with a calm smile. This statement immediately provoked anger among the alchemists of other sects. “Tan Chongji, we certainly know what schemes your Xiao Ding Hall has in mind. Don’t think your despicable plans will succeed.” “Xiao Ding Hall is hiding its true intentions well—trying to swallow up all the alchemists in Huo Bao Town. What a clever plan.” “You Xiao Ding Hall want to monopolize all alchemy tasks—how arrogant! Don’t even consider your own strength.” … Ten thousand alchemists now united in condemning Xiao Ding Hall, filled with resentment toward them. Xiao Ding Hall’s goal was clear: after gathering all the alchemists from their own sect and completing the tasks, they would dominate the task points. Then they would poach alchemists from other sects and monopolize all alchemy tasks in Huo Bao Town. By announcing his plans now, Tan Chongji was willing to confront other sects, and hearing the anger of the alchemists, he smiled happily. Huangfu Ting was in a difficult position, standing quietly on the competition platform, not daring to agree outright.

Qu Yi had been sitting in his seat the whole time. Only after hearing Tan Chongji’s words did he understand the meaning of what Tan Chongji had said at the entrance of the competition arena. Since Xiao Ding Hall had taken on all the artifact-forging tasks, it naturally wouldn’t share any with Fang Qi Ge. Amidst the chorus of criticism directed at Xiao Ding Hall from the audience, Qu Yi stood up with a smile, winked at Tan Chongji and Tan Changhuo, then immediately focused his gaze on Huangfu Ting. Huangfu Ting immediately sensed Qu Yi’s gaze and looked over at him, his eyes filled with confusion. The artifact forgers in the audience, seeing Qu Yi stand up, also grew curious and quieted down, waiting for him to speak. “President, I’ll complete these one million artifact-forging tasks by myself,” Qu Yi said confidently with a smile.