Chapter Sixteen: The Medicine Meeting Begins

  At dawn, the sky's early light faintly appeared, and after a quiet half-night, Jiyuan City began to show some subtle changes. As time quickly passed, these changes grew bigger, and by the time the sky was bright, almost the entire city had turned into a boiling pot of water, erupting in noise.

  Inside the city of Ji, people's shadows can be seen everywhere on the streets and alleys.

  The cries of the early-rising vendors, the hubbub of footsteps, the calls to friends and companions, the shouts and curses, the laughter... rose and fell in waves.

  These countless voices converged from all directions into a mighty torrent, buzzing and pouring into the Lingbao Pavilion in the north of Jizhou City, exploding with a loud crash, and then spreading out again in all directions, instantly filling every corner of Jizhou City, even the laziest sleepyhead would be awakened.

  At dawn, the Lingbao Pavilion was already bustling with people. Apart from the ordinary citizens of Jicheng City who had come to watch the excitement, most were spiritual masters. Everyone's face showed a hint of expectation, and the bitter cold of this deep winter could not dampen their enthusiasm for this "Thousand Spirit Medicine Conference".

  After all, such a grand and lively gathering only happens once every five years. In the Great Completion Empire, it is only the Mu family of Luocheng that has the ability to hold this "Thousand Spirit Medicine Gathering" on its own. Others, even the imperial family of the Great Completion Empire, are probably unable to do so without joining forces with several other families.

  This is not to say that the Mu family in Los Angeles is the strongest. Among the five major families, the Mu family's strength is only slightly stronger than the Nie family, ranking fourth. However, the Mu family operates the "Lingbao Pavilion", accumulating spiritual medicine far beyond other families, and the number of spiritual medicine practitioners in the Mu family ranks first among the families.

  The entire Dacheng Empire, the only one 7th-grade spiritual pharmacist is from Luocheng Mu's family; there are two 6th-grade spiritual pharmacists in the Dacheng Empire, one from the imperial family and the other also from the Mu's family. As for the 5th-grade spiritual pharmacists, the Dacheng Empire has ten people, among which three are from the Mu's family.

  Such a family, with so many high-quality spiritual masters, for hundreds of years, I don't know how many people have been jealous. If the strength is weak, it's likely that they would have been divided and nothing would be left. However, although the Mu family's overall strength is not the strongest, there has always been a Tianling master in the family.

  There was a Tianling strongman, and the other families of the Dacheng Empire, even the surrounding neighboring countries, no matter how jealous they were, did not dare to make any rash moves, and could only put their jealousy in their hearts. Moreover, the Tianling strongman of the Mochi family is also the only seven-product spiritual medicine master of the Dacheng Empire.

  It is said that he has great hopes of becoming the king of medicine.

  The Great Empire has been established for hundreds of years, and there has never been a Medicine King. If he can succeed in obtaining the title of Medicine King bestowed by the "Ling Shen Temple", it will be a great honor for the entire Great Empire. Because of this, when the Lingbao Pavilion held the "Thousand Spirit Medicine Conference", other clans were more enthusiastic than before.

  "Ah!"

  The sun rises high in the sky, and the bell rings out suddenly.

  A deafening roar shook the air, thundering straight up to the clouds of heaven, even dispersing a few dark clouds floating in the sky.

  The noisy crowd suddenly fell silent, followed by a loud bang, as if tens of thousands of kilograms of explosives were ignited at the same time. The scene outside Lingbao Pavilion became even more lively. The originally densely packed crowd around Lingbao Pavilion began to split into two streams, one heading towards the large Zhuangyuan on the left side of Lingbao Pavilion, and the other going to the right side.

  Before long, another large crowd ran from the right side to the left. The spiritual masters who had personally participated in or had relatives and friends participate in the "Thousand Spirit Medicine Meeting" all knew that although the medicine sales area on the right side would also start selling various spiritual medicines and herbs today, the truly good medicines were only available tomorrow and the day after.

  As for today's main event, it is the opening of the "Thousand Spirits Medicine Conference" with the Medicine Conference Grand Competition.

  At first, this trial was only to motivate the younger generation of spiritual masters in the family, and it was generally limited to the five major families of the empire, namely the Dacheng Imperial Family, Lífēng Qū House, Yègē Kuí House, Luòchéng Mù House, and Jìyáng Niè House.

  After holding several times, it was found that the number of participants in the trial was too small, so five other powerful families were introduced. Now, with a larger scale, regardless of whether they are from a noble family or not, any spirit medicine practitioner under the age of 25 can sign up to participate, as long as he is a citizen of Chengguo.

  As a result, every time there is a big auction for medicine, many civilian alchemists participate. Their strength may not be very good, but some have decent talent, and such alchemists are the objects of recruitment by various large families. Therefore, most of them come here for this purpose.

  For this "Panacea Conference", the left side of the Zhuangyuan had been thoroughly cleaned up several days in advance. Upon entering through the open gate, there was a vast expanse of flat land that could accommodate tens of thousands of people, and at the northernmost end of the flat land stood a massive triangular high platform with layered stairs leading up to it.

  These stairs, from bottom to top, can also be divided into five levels. The height of the stairs between each two levels is quite different. This is the five passes in the Medicine Will Grand Competition. All participating medicine refiners start from the first pass and go to the next pass after passing a level to participate in the next round of competition.

  After passing the five levels and reaching the top, you can get the most generous rewards. The top ten spiritual medicine masters also have rewards, but compared to the first-place spiritual medicine master, the gap is huge.

  Below the high platform of Wuguan, there were rows and rows of seats that seemed to stretch on forever. Those who could sit there were the judges for this grand competition, as well as the esteemed guests attending the Qianling Medicine Assembly. At this moment, the medicine assembly's grand competition had not yet officially begun, so all the seats were empty.

  "Whoa..."

  After a while, dozens of figures appeared at the passageway connecting the Lingbao Pavilion on the side of the high platform. This vast expanse of flat land suddenly erupted with a burst of thunderous explosions, and the murmurs, discussions, and chirping voices of the crowd converged into one place, like a bursting dam, rolling out in all directions, shaking the air for tens of miles.

  The spiritual masters attending the "Panacea Conference" came from all over the Great Completion Empire and instantly recognized the identities of those in front.

  "Look! That's Master Muzi Si of Lingbao Pavilion!"

  "Master Tianxin of the Nie family..."

  "Cheng Fei Liu is a grandmaster! And he's the imperial family's Cheng Fei Liu grandmaster! I didn't expect that this time, the imperial family also sent a fifth-grade spiritual medicine master. It seems like he will be one of the judges for this grand competition!"

  "Hmm, although the imperial family has sent people to participate in the Medicine Assembly's grand competition before, the imperial family's high-ranking spiritual medicine masters have never been judges for this kind of competition. The impact of this grand competition will definitely exceed that of the previous ones."

  "Huh? Isn't that Qu Tingyun, the great master of the Qu family from Lífēng City, our Da Cheng Empire's only fifth-grade female spiritual pharmacist?"

  "I had expected as much, the five-element spiritual medicine masters of the four major clans have all arrived, it's only logical that the Qu family from Ye Ge City wouldn't miss out. Let me take a look, if I'm not mistaken, the one standing next to Tian Xin Da Shi should be Qu Fei Da Shi from the Qu family. Haha, I've heard this master has never left Ye Ge City before!"

  "Ah, and there's also Wu Leng Rong, the 5th-grade spiritual medicine master from the Luoxia Sect. Could he be one of the judges this time? If so, that would be the first time a judge has been introduced from outside the five major families..."

  “……”

  In the rolling waves of sound, those people sat down one by one in front of the high platform, just as everyone had guessed, Mu Zisi, Lian Tianxin, Cheng Feiliu, Qu Tingyun, Que Yu and Fu Erhong all sat in the first row. The ones who took their seats behind them were important figures from various families and sects.

  Soon, the seats in front of the high platform were filled. Everyone knew that this medicine comparison was about to begin, and the atmosphere on the vast flat ground was surging like a wave.

  At this moment, behind that high platform, there is another scene...

  ……