Chapter 278: The Tenth Candidate (1/2)

Chapter 278: The Tenth Candidate

A Violet Furnace Lord promotion was not a grand occasion for the Violet Fate Sect only, but rather the entire Southern Domain as a whole. This was not just because a Violet Furnace Lord represented a peak position of incredible height, but also because…

A promotion to Violet Furnace Lord was actually an apprentice-accepting ceremony of Grandmaster Pill Demon!

Currently, there were eight Violet Furnace Lords in the Violet Fate Sect, and all of them were novitiates of Grandmaster Pill Demon. This ceremony was actually a way of formally becoming an apprentice!

Some disciples, such as Chu Yuyan and Ding Xin, were qualified to directly become Grandmaster Pill Demon’s apprentices. However, this generally didn’t meet with the approval of the alchemists of the East Pill Division. Alchemists were partial to those who relied on their own hard work, who started out as apprentice alchemists, then worked their way to become master alchemists, Furnace Lords, and then finally apprentices of Grandmaster Pill Demon, by joining the ranks of the Violet Furnace Lords.

Chu Yuyan was a bit different. Because of her skill in pill concocting, she had a good reputation in the East Pill Division. Add in her incredible beauty, and the alchemists were more easily able to accept her.

Despite that, to Chu Yuyan, promotion to Violet Furnace Lord was incredibly important. She stood there in the crowd, her eyes glowing with determination. This was her chance to become a Violet Furnace Lord, and she was determined to succeed.

Her gaze came to rest upon a man who was standing behind one of the Violet Furnace Lords. He was middle-aged, and his face was flawless and handsome. His expression was tranquil, and he wore the robe of a Furnace Lord. A faint medicinal aroma wafted off of him; he was clearly beyond ordinary.

Within his face could be seen a hint of lonely arrogance. His expression and appearance were exactly how Chu Yuyan imagined Grandmaster Pill Cauldron to be.

“He will be my biggest competition for promotion to Violet Furnace Lord….” she thought with an inward sigh as she looked at him. This proud, aloof man was like a Chosen among the Furnace Lords. His name was Ye Feimu. [1]

Among the Furnace Lords, Ye Feimu was well known as having incredible skill in the Dao of alchemy. His skill was the type only seen once in a thousand years, and he was generally acknowledged to be the alchemist most likely to be promoted to Violet Furnace Lord. Upon joining the Sect many years ago, he had immediately caused a huge stir in the East Pill Division. Furthermore, Violet Furnace Lord Ye Yuntian took special notice of his talent and showed him favor. This was mostly because they shared the same surname, Ye. [2. Ye Yuntian’s name in Chinese is 叶云天 yè yún tiān - Ye is a surname which also means “leaf.” Yun means “cloud.” Tian means “sky” or “heaven”]

With assistance the entire time, he became the number one apprentice alchemist at the time, then the number one master alchemist. Finally, he became a Furnace Lord, whereupon not much was heard about him for many years. According to the rumors, his skill in the Dao of alchemy had reached the peak of the Furnace Lord rank, and he was halfway to being a Violet Furnace Lord already.

Even more stunning was that it wasn’t just his Dao of alchemy that was so high; he had long since reached the Core Formation stage. He hadn’t cultivated Core Qi yet, but many people speculated that if he hadn’t devoted himself so much to alchemy, he would already be above the mid Core Formation stage.

In this Violet Furnace Lord trial by fire, Ye Feimu was viewed as the most likely candidate to win. Second was Chu Yuyan. There were other candidates, but the general consensus was that the main competition would be between these two.

Chu Yuyan had one advantage; she was an apprentice of Pill Demon. As for Ye Feimu, his advantage, which even Chu Yuyan had to acknowledge, was that he had the support of ninety percent of the Furnace Lords, as well as five of the Violet Furnace Lords. In addition, Pill Demon himself had praised him on past occasions. All of this really put Ye Feimu in a superior position.

Even more importantly, Chosen-like Ye Feimu had been talked a lot about in the past year. More and more people outside the Sect were spreading rumors that… he was Grandmaster Pill Cauldron!

Ye Feimu never made any comments on the subject, which of course caused even more rumors to spread. Soon, everyone was convinced that Pill Cauldron was none other than Ye Feimu.

In fact, many people felt that the reason he sealed his pill with the cauldron (鼎) was because of his name, Feimu (非目)!

The characters 非 and 目 can both be seen in the character 鼎!

Even many of the Furnace Lords agreed with this, as well as a few of the Violet Furnace Lords, who began to pay closer attention to him because of it.

Chu Yuyan was very focused on the matter of Pill Cauldron. She had even gone to visit Ye Feimu to ask about it. While he hadn’t openly admitted that he was Pill Cauldron, he had vaguely implied that such was the case. How could Chu Yuyan not have understood his meaning?

After finally resolving the issue, she actually felt a little bit disappointed. It was an indescribable feeling, sort of like waking to find that reality was very different from the dream world you had just been in.

“Even if he is Grandmaster Pill Cauldron, I will fight with everything I have to become a Violet Furnace Lord,” she thought, taking a deep breath and deepening her resolve. For some strange reason, as soon as she made her mind up, the image of another person suddenly appeared in her mind. Fang Mu.

“Why am I thinking about him…?” She frowned, dispelling the image of Fang Mu from her thoughts.

It was early morning on Eastern Emergence Mountain. Cool sunlight fell upon the snowy mountain peak. The enormous pill furnace emitted an archaic aura of Time, and the surroundings were very quiet.

The eight Violet Furnace Lords of the East Pill Division sat cross-legged. Behind them were the Furnace Lords and master alchemists, over a thousand people altogether.

Also present off to the side were representatives from the other Sects and Clans, here to observe the ceremonies. If someone was promoted to Violet Furnace Lord, they would witness the event and then announce throughout the Southern Domain that there was a ninth Violet Furnace Lord, and that Grandmaster Pill Demon had accepted a new apprentice.

“The hour has arrived!” cried Lin Hailong, the most senior of the Violet Furnace Lords.

As soon as his words rang out, the sound of bells filled the mountain peak. The clouds above roiled, forming together to form an ancient-looking face that stared down at everyone.