Alchemy Master

Chapter 1077, Crisis

Translator: Silavin

The tide had turned once more, and the colour drained from the faces of Fiery and his companions in an instant.

This time, even the Elf Queen, stripped of the Life Scepter, seemed to harbour a flicker of doubt in her eyes.

After all, she had been moved by Fiery’s willingness to drink the poison wine of his own accord, to prove his innocence. And yet, after all this time, Fiery showed not a single sign of being poisoned.

It was impossible not to suspect something was amiss.

“What is this?” An Elder approached the table where Fiery and the others sat. Catching sight of the half-cup of wine left in Fiery’s cup, his brow furrowed as he spoke.

“Top Tier Divine Immortal’s Intoxication!?”

The moment the Royal Elves caught sight of that clear liquid gleaming within the cup, a long-forgotten fragrance seemed to drift into their senses, and their pupils involuntarily contracted.

Top Tier Divine Immortal’s Intoxication, though reserved exclusively as the Royal wine for the Elf Royal Family, was something these members understood better than anyone. It had grown scarcer and scarcer with each passing year. Even for them, to obtain a single jug in a year’s time was considered exceptionally fortunate.

“Fiery, where did this wine come from?” The Elf Queen, who had not spoken until now, finally opened her lips. Within her light, unhurried voice lay a dignity so absolute that no falsehood could stand against it.

“This…” Hearing the Elf Queen speak directly, Fiery’s expression crumpled into something wretched. In the end, the gazes of all his companions fell helplessly upon Qin Yichen.

Under ordinary circumstances, they might have found some pretext to conceal the origins of the Top Tier Divine Immortal’s Intoxication.

They had no desire to see other old dogs gain access to it, nor did they wish to expose their dealings with the Human Race. But at a moment like this, they dared not breathe even the faintest lie.

Should they be branded as accomplices of Felletin, no amount of words would ever wash them clean.

“Hmm?” Following the direction of Fiery’s gaze, the assembled great figures of the Elf Race turned their eyes at last toward Qin Yichen, seated quietly at the corner of the table.

At first glance, nearly every one of them knitted their brows, a quiet suspicion kindling in their hearts.

For upon Qin Yichen, they could detect no Racial aura whatsoever. The only thing that stood out was that they seemed to have the perfect Human Form.

“He is… from the Human Race? Why is he here?”

Yet when the Elf Queen’s gaze fell upon Qin Yichen, something unreadable, veiled and swift, passed through those crystalline eyes of hers.

As every eye in the hall converged upon Qin Yichen, the Elder who had spoken first hesitated a moment, then, with practised nonchalance, lifted Fiery’s remaining half-cup of Top Tier Divine Immortal’s Intoxication and drained it in a single swallow.

Fiery’s mouth twitched when he witnessed this. However, he dared not utter a sound. He cast that Elder one silently indignant glance. But, right now, clearing his name of suspicion was what mattered most.

“Young man, which Race do you hail from?” A Royal Elf swept Qin Yichen with a piercing gaze, then spoke.

The other Elf Elders narrowed their eyes as well, their auras locked firmly onto Qin Yichen. There was every possibility this young man before them was from the Blood Beastmen Race, concealing his aura through some Concealment Technique.

Faced with the weight of so many stares, Qin Yichen cupped his hands without servility or arrogance, and began to speak. “This Junior is Qin Yichen, hailing from the Human Race…”

“Ah…”

Yet just as the words were nearly out of Qin Yichen’s mouth, the Elf Elder seated beside him suddenly cried out, spitting a mouthful of dark blood that wrenched every gaze in the hall toward him.

“This… this wine…”

Beneath the scrutiny of so many eyes, the Elder’s face flushed crimson at once. Then, with something of a shamefaced bow toward the Elf Queen, he said, “Your Majesty, the Blood Devouring Poison within my body…”

Before he could finish, the assembled upper echelons of the Elf Race had no time to reproach him, their pupils snapping to sharp points.

An elderly Royal Elf shot to his side in an instant, seized his wrist, and began probing his condition.

“This… how is this possible!?”

Moments later, the old figure released the Elder’s wrist, disbelief written plainly across his face.

The Blood Devouring Poison, against which they had found no remedy whatsoever, had simply, impossibly, vanished from within this Elder’s body!?

“How did you expel it?” At that moment, the others could no longer maintain their composure.

After all, lying across the floor of this very hall was a tremendous portion of their Elf Race’s core strength.

If this Blood Devouring Poison could be cleared, the Elf Queen would be freed from the burden upon her heart. And with that freedom, how could she ever have been coerced by Felletin?

Moreover, even if the Life Scepter had already been surrendered to Felletin, who could say with any certainty whether that man would honour his promise and cleanse the poison from their bodies?

“I… I merely drank what was left of that half-cup of Top Tier Divine Immortal’s Intoxication…” The Elder thought for a moment, then murmured, almost to himself.

He had acted out of sheer impulse. It was actually a fleeting craving of his own palate. Having already resigned himself to death at the hands of the Blood Devouring Poison, he had thought this might be the last thing he tasted.

Yet what he had not anticipated was that the moment he swallowed that Top Tier Divine Immortal’s Intoxication, the poison within his body had been completely expelled.

“Top Tier Divine Immortal’s Intoxication?” The brows of many Elder Elves furrowed deeply at these words.

In all their records pertaining to the Blood Devouring Poison, they had exhausted every conceivable remedy. Top Tier Divine Immortal’s Intoxication had been among those tried, yet it had produced no effect whatsoever, nothing remotely resembling what he had described.

“This Young Friend, might I ask…” The Elf Queen gave a slight nod to a middle-aged Elf at her side, who stepped forward at once and directed his question at Qin Yichen.

His intent was plain from his mannerism. He wished to ask whether Qin Yichen still possessed any more Top Tier Divine Immortal’s Intoxication that might aid in dispelling the poison.

At this, the other High Rank Elves ceased troubling themselves with Qin Yichen’s identity. Now, every face turned toward him with undisguised expectation.

Without clearing the Blood Devouring Poison, those High Rank Elves collapsed on the ground would not last a single day. Should they be lost, it would be a wound from which the Elf Race might never fully recover from.

“Elder, you are over thinking it. The Top Tier Divine Immortal’s Intoxication carries no such effect.” Qin Yichen gave a light smile, his composure utterly natural, a steadiness no one of his apparent age should have possessed.

Even so, Qin Yichen produced a jug of Top Tier Divine Immortal’s Intoxication and set it on the table before them.

At the sight of it, several Elf Elders exchanged a glance, stepped forward, poured a cup each, and drank.

Moments passed, and contrary to every expectation in the room, the auras of those few Elders remained dim and suppressed, clearly still straining to hold the poison within their bodies in check.

“What is happening?”

The brows of the Elves furrowed deeply. The brief spark of elation from before had been extinguished without a trace.

“Is Heaven truly determined to destroy our Elf Race?”

That violent swing between joy and despair was enough to draw tears down the faces of more than a few of the older figures.

A suffocating silence settled once more over the hall, heavy and unyielding. And then, cutting through it, Qin Yichen’s voice rose with a quiet, assured arrogance: “Top Tier Divine Immortal’s Intoxication cannot expel the Blood Devouring Poison, of course. But this can…”