On stage, the Pill Fairy sat on a soft cushion she had also procured herself.
Before her was the table, upon which were various items. She picked up the simple looking root. There was no aura around it, nor any mana whatsoever.
It was a completely normal, regular herb, similar to what some random grandmother would use to prepare an herbal tea for her sick grandchild.
There was an inkwell and a pen, as well as paper and some tiny vials of odd-looking dust.
Ao Yueyan gently placed the ordinary root upon the small table. It looked so painfully mundane that several people in the audience frowned.
There wasn't the slightest trace of magical energy within it. It was little more than a common medicinal root sold in village markets for a handful of copper coins.
Ao Yueyan allowed everyone to inspect it for several long moments before speaking.
"As many of you have already discerned, this is merely a Plain Earth Root."
"It possesses almost no medicinal value beyond easing a fever or calming an upset stomach."
"It cannot absorb mana, nor can it naturally ascend. It also cannot aid in cultivation."
She smiled faintly. "Or so we believed."
Silence settled over the gathering as Ao Yueyan dipped her pen into the black ink.
She began drawing, elegant strokes flowing across the white sheet before her.
No one recognized the symbols, but they resembled ancient characters while simultaneously resembling magical runes.
Each stroke appeared alive.
She never hesitated. The pen moved with impossible confidence until, eventually...
The final stroke landed.
Nothing happened at first, and so several younger alchemists exchanged uncertain looks.
Lin Fan frowned. "That's it?"
Jin Huang paused his eating and answered the young man, "No. I'm smelling something else in the air now."
Lin Fan and Song Mei shot the gluttonous Jin Huang a look, a hint of disdain in their gazes.
Then... the ink began to shimmer, attracting everyone's attention.
Every line upon the page began glowing emerald green. The paper itself remained upon the table, but the ink did not.
One after another, the runes slowly peeled themselves free from the page.
Gasps erupted.
"What?"
"The ink..."
"It's moving!"
Each completed rune floated gracefully into the air.
Like butterflies made from emerald light, they circled Ao Yueyan once before descending toward the Plain Earth Root.
One.
Two. Three. Seven. Twelve.
Soon, thirty-six glowing runes gently embedded themselves into the herb, causing the root to tremble as a faint pulse escaped it.
The audience collectively leaned forward.
Tiny roots burst from its base, its coarse skin gradually smoothing. The dull brown coloration shifted into a vibrant golden tan.
Most shocking of all... a faint strand of mana seeped from within it.
"..."
"Impossible..." Pill Master Zhao Kun slowly stood. "It evolved..."
His disciples stared at their master, his reaction solidifying their belief that this was, indeed, the real deal.
Others in the crowd began to realize as well.
"It actually evolved..."
"It advanced into a magic herb..."
Even Yuan Zhi's confident smile faltered slightly.
Herb Master grinned, "Yan'er's perfection of the Art has surprised even me."
Ao Yueyan calmly picked up one of the tiny crystal vials. Inside rested pale silver dust that glittered like powdered stars.
"The Ancient Art of Spiritual Herb Ascension," she explained, "does not force growth like some crude processes."
"Instead, it reminds herbs of what they were always capable of becoming."
She uncorked the vial.
Rather than pouring the dust directly onto the herb, she blew gently, causing silver particles to float through the air.
Each grain sought out one of the glowing runes already embedded within the root.
The runes awakened once more, their brightness intensifying as the dust dissolved into streams of pure mana.
Crack.
The herb split open and fresh leaves emerged!
Its roots lengthened, golden veins spreading through every fiber.
The medicinal aroma instantly multiplied. Many ordinary spectators merely found the fragrance pleasant.
However, the true alchemists stopped breathing.
"No..."
"No..."
"No!"
An elderly alchemist nearly fell from his seat.
"Golden Vein Spirit Root!!"
"She skipped decades of cultivation!"
"Without soil!"
"Without planting it!"
"Without heavenly nourishment!"
Song Mei's mouth hung open. "Senior Brother Lin..."
Lin Fan swallowed hard. "Master wasn't exaggerating at all. This really is the Ancient Art..."
Zhao Kun slowly nodded, unable to remove his eyes from the herb. "She did not merely recover the technique..."
"She's perfected it."
Ao Yueyan remained completely composed as she selected another vial. This dust shimmered with faint hints of crimson.
"This," she said, "is where we enter uncharted territory."
"No surviving record of this art details what I am about to do next. It would not be disingenuous to say that this is my very own invention."
The crimson powder drifted over the herb, and the Pill Fairy's brows furrowed as she poured out every ounce of her concentration.
Unlike before, the runes surrounding the herb began to rearrange themselves under her direction.
They detached, rotated, connected and separated again by the dozens.
Then hundreds.
An intricate sphere of floating runes slowly formed around the Golden Vein Spirit Root.
Every rune continuously shifted position, like stars orbiting a tiny sun.
"This!" Yuan Zhi was the first to realize something, then others got to the same conclusion shortly after he did.
"They're adapting!"
"The runic composition is changing itself!"
The Herb Sage smiled warmly. "So you've even reached this point, Yan'er."
"Herb Master's disciple seems to have had an extremely lucky encounter," Ximen Ming said with a knowing smile, spectacles glinting.
Herb Master and Yuan Zhi looked at him somewhat warily, but Herb Master nodded with a proud smile.
"Indeed. As her master, I couldn't be happier for her."
Ao Yueyan gently closed her eyes, mana flowing from her fingertips in a way that was not forceful, yet still immensely powerful.
The flow was almost... loving.
The rune sphere contracted and the crimson dust disappeared.
Silence followed.
Then... a single leaf unfolded, every vein within it glowing a bright emerald. Golden light spread throughout the herb.
Its roots no longer resembled roots, they instead resembled flowing streams of jade.
A medicinal aura erupted across the gathering that people instinctively inhaled.
Several elderly cultivators suddenly straightened their bent backs.
Minor aches vanished, old scars tingled, one elderly merchant blinked repeatedly.
"My eyesight... It's clearer..."
Someone else gasped. "My chronic cough... It's gone..."
Another person gasped loudly, "My erectie dysfunction! It's gone!"
That person suddenly turned beet red and shied away from the crowd.
Herb Sage chuckled softly. "It has become..."
He paused. Even he seemed reluctant to believe the words. "...a Jade Spirit Root."
The gathering exploded.
"Impossible!"
"That herb shouldn't exist!"
"She created a treasure! A bonafide treasure!"
"All that from a roadside root?!"
"This overturns the foundations of herbology!"
"If ordinary herbs can be raised into heavenly medicines, what will happen to heavenly medicines!?"
"Could Divine Herbs also ascend in this manner!?"
"Every herb garden in the world has just become priceless!"
The VIP section was filled with praises, directing most of them toward Herb Sage, who was her master.
Yuan Zhi slowly rose to his feet. For the first time since he had began attending these Alchemist Gatherings, the legendary alchemist applauded.
"Magnificent." His applause echoed throughout the gathering.
Soon, everyone else followed.
Thunderous applause shook Pill Tower itself. Outside, the thousands watching through the magic-tech screens erupted into cheers.
Ao Yueyan bowed her head gracefully, wiping her sweat and putting the items away. Soon, all that was left was the Jade Spirit Root.
"Thank you, all."
Back in the VIP seating, Jin Huang stared thoughtfully at the glowing herb.
He sniffed once, then twice, then finally, he looked at Xiao Chen.
"It smells better now."
Xiao Chen remained silent for a while. "But?"
Jin Huang tilted his head, suddenly laughing. "But it still smells like it would taste better in a soup."
His laughter once again attracted the gazes of those nearby, who saw nothing but an ignorant, obnoxious and uncultured youth.
Lin Fan and Song Mei decided to ignore him.
After a point, only those he was sitting with seemed to pay him any mind. Of course, that was the way it seemed.
However, there was someone else that paid very close attention to Jin Huang.
The Beast Master, Ximen Ming.