Chapter 210: Chapter 209: Bringing Out the Elixir

Qiu Baxiong and Shen Mi woke up the soundly sleeping Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen rubbed his eyes, still looking half-asleep. He asked groggily, "Are you two done refining the Ice Pills?"

At that moment, Qiu Baxiong and Shen Mi were both incredibly smug.

’Jiang Chen actually fell asleep right here,’ they thought. ’How much must he have given up on himself to doze off during such an important event?’

It was enough for them to stop taking Jiang Chen seriously at all.

With great arrogance, they each took out the Ice Pills they had refined.

Each of them presented the Silver Quality Ice Pill from before.

The Ice Pills they had refined were white, surrounded by a silvery-white halo. However, the halo was tainted with Black Iron impurities, making them look like genuine, yet flawed, Silver Quality Ice Pills.

Shen Mi stroked his beard, a wide grin on his face as he looked at Jiang Chen.

"Steward Jiang, we’ve finished refining our Elixirs. Now it’s your turn."

"Everyone’s waiting to see."

"Of course, if you don’t know how to refine it, you can just concede. We won’t force you to refine an Ice Pill."

Certain they had Jiang Chen beat, Shen Mi and Qiu Baxiong exchanged a knowing smile.

Victory was in their grasp.

Faced with their taunts, Jiang Chen simply stretched languidly.

He said lightly, "Refine an Ice Pill? Heh, I’ve already finished."

What?

Shen Mi and Qiu Baxiong were both stunned.

Finished? You’re telling us you’ve finished?

Jiang Chen was clearly sleeping, yet he claimed he was done. It was utterly ridiculous.

Qiu Baxiong was dumbfounded.

"Steward Jiang, you must still be dreaming. Why don’t you go back to sleep? When you wake up, you’ll realize it was all a dream."

After all, Jiang Chen was being far too childish.

When they started their Alchemy, Jiang Chen was still watching from the side.

When they finished, he was asleep. And now he claimed he was done? Who would believe such a thing?

Did anyone here actually believe him?

Shen Mi felt the same way.

But as they were questioning Jiang Chen, the people around them all looked helpless.

They cast sympathetic glances at Shen Mi and Qiu Baxiong.

There was something strange about their expressions.

The atmosphere felt off.

The two of them realized something was wrong.

Because everyone was shaking their heads at them with pity.

Sure enough, someone spoke up.

"Vice President Shen, Vice President Qiu, Steward Jiang really has finished."

What?

The two of them thought this person must be joking.

Jiang Chen really finished?

They refused to believe it.

"Nonsense! Do you take us for blind men?"

"We didn’t see Steward Jiang perform any Alchemy at all, did we?"

Shen Mi’s expression turned ugly.

Someone was actually helping Jiang Chen lie.

It left a very sour taste in their mouths.

"It’s true. While you were busy with your Alchemy, Steward Jiang finished long ago."

"And then he took a nap."

Suddenly, a few more people chimed in.

They had watched the entire thing unfold.

A short while after Shen Mi and Qiu Baxiong began their Alchemy, Jiang Chen started as well.

But Jiang Chen’s Alchemy speed was simply too fast.

He managed to refine the Ice Pill in less than five minutes.

It caused a wave of gasps from the crowd.

At that time, however, Shen Mi and Qiu Baxiong were still engrossed in their own Alchemy and couldn’t afford any distractions.

Naturally, they hadn’t noticed Jiang Chen’s actions.

And since Jiang Chen couldn’t be bothered to wait for the two of them to finish, he simply took a nap.

It was as simple as that.

Listening to the crowd, Shen Mi and Qiu Baxiong found it all unbelievable.

They still didn’t believe it.

It was too outrageous. They hadn’t seen Jiang Chen perform any Alchemy at all.

They had seen him sleeping, though.

Immediately, Qiu Baxiong grew annoyed. Not believing Jiang Chen, he demanded, "Jiang Chen, since you say you’re finished, then show us the Elixir."

"I refuse to believe you can refine an Elixir in your sleep!"

Shen Mi was also frustrated.

He stared intently at Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen gave a cool smile. "You think I’m a slowpoke like you?"

"Alchemy isn’t just about quality; it’s also about efficiency."

"Taking five or six hours to refine an Ice Pill... Are you kidding me?"

He gave the two of them a harsh critique.

At the same time, with a decisive flick of his hand...

...three white pills appeared in his palm.

Ice Pills. That’s right, they were Ice Pills.

The Ice Pills that Jiang Chen had refined in just a few minutes.

The ones Shen Mi and Qiu Baxiong had refined were Silver Quality, but they were still mixed with Black Iron Quality components.

They weren’t the purest Silver Quality.

In contrast, the Ice Pills refined by Jiang Chen were surrounded by a golden halo.

A perfectly pure gold.

This signified the absolute peak of Gold Quality Elixirs.

"See? This is the Elixir I refined. What do you two think of its appearance?"

"Does it measure up to your Ice Pills?"

He laughed to himself. ’A contest of Alchemy Skill? Could I possibly lose?’

’Of course not.’

He had completely crushed them.

"Er..."

Shen Mi and Qiu Baxiong stared wide-eyed at each other, then fixed their gazes on the Gold Quality Ice Pills in Jiang Chen’s hand, their minds reeling.

"Gold Quality?"

They weren’t blind. They could tell at a glance that these were Gold Quality Ice Pills.

The quality and appearance were a thousand, no, ten thousand times better than what they had refined.

Looking at the Elixirs Jiang Chen had produced, the two of them were still in disbelief.

"But we didn’t see you perform any Alchemy."

Jiang Chen shook his head, looking exasperated.

"Just because you didn’t see it, that means I didn’t refine them?"

"What a joke. When I was performing Alchemy, you were too. As Alchemists, the biggest taboo is getting distracted during the process. Don’t you, as Alchemists, understand that basic principle?"

"Or were you planning to watch me while I was refining? Trying to secretly learn my techniques?"

Jiang Chen’s words made both of them flush with embarrassment.

Besides, everyone around them could testify that Jiang Chen had finished refining his Elixirs long ago.

And they were Gold Quality, no less.

Compared to Jiang Chen, they had been utterly defeated.

Under these circumstances, Shen Mi and Qiu Baxiong were so confused by their loss that they didn’t even understand how it had happened.

They thought Jiang Chen wouldn’t be able to refine the Ice Pill, but it turned out he had refined Gold Quality ones.

They had heard that Jiang Chen’s Alchemy Skill was impressive, but they never imagined it would be *this* incredible.

Exchanging a glance, Shen Mi and Qiu Baxiong were still unconvinced.

"Jiang Chen, we admit defeat in Alchemy Skill."

"However, we still have the vote to decide."

"And when that time comes, we won’t necessarily lose to you."

Even though they had lost the Alchemy Skill competition, they still had hope.

The final victory still required a vote.

Only by winning the vote could one become the President.

They believed that with the prestige and popularity they had built up over many years, they could easily defeat Jiang Chen in a vote.

Jiang Chen casually tossed the Ice Pills he had refined to a few Stewards standing nearby.

The Stewards trembled with excitement.

But Jiang Chen didn’t seem to care in the slightest.

He chuckled. "A vote is a vote."

He was very confident.

However, Shen Mi shot a look at Qiu Baxiong and suddenly said, "Steward Jiang, since we’ve competed in Alchemy Skill today, I think we should hold the vote tomorrow."

"What do you think?"

Because to defeat Jiang Chen, who was now also very popular, they really needed to do some planning.

Jiang Chen was just too unpredictable.

He suppressed them in every aspect, making them afraid to rush into a vote. Naturally, they had to come up with a plan.

"No problem."

Jiang Chen didn’t object and readily agreed.