Chapter 3993 — Kang Jingming Stamps the Pills

Yet what happened next caught Shangguan Lan'er utterly off guard. There was no mocking or jeering as she had expected. Instead, a single collective gasp rose from the entire hall.

Shangguan Lan'er was stunned. Everyone present was a person of rank and standing, each of them deeply experienced and worldly; what rare treasures had they not laid eyes upon?

And yet Wei Zhao's gift had left them all collectively stunned and speechless. That was surely a bit too much.

But when Shangguan Lan'er herself saw what lay inside the spirit-jade box, even she could not help gasping in disbelief.

Within the spirit-jade box rested two pills, Foundation Establishment Golden Cores like Kang Jingming's, but with one slight difference: the two Wei Zhao had given were wreathed in layer upon layer of entrancing pill halos. They were, astonishingly, the legendary and exceedingly rare top-grade Foundation Establishment Golden Cores!

Top-grade Foundation Establishment Golden Cores—marvelous pills that only a legendary alchemist of Zhang Lifeng's caliber could possibly refine!

Search the entire Northern Island Pill Hall, count every alchemist from top to bottom, and one would likely find not a single soul capable of producing a top-grade Foundation Establishment Golden Core.

If an alchemist like Kang Jingming, able to refine high-grade Foundation Establishment Golden Cores, could be counted among the elite, then an alchemist capable of refining top-grade Foundation Establishment Golden Cores was, without question, of grandmaster rank!

For a time no one in the hall spoke at all. Even Xu Lingchong and Kang Jingming, who had deliberately stirred up this scene and been stewing in their desire to see Wei Zhao humiliated, were struck dumb with shock.

"This... this has gotta be fake, right?" Kang Jingming could not help muttering aloud.

Ten days and ten nights to refine a single high-grade Foundation Establishment Golden Core—that was already the limit of what he could achieve, and even then only with Xu Lingchong's considerable support. To refine a top-grade Foundation Establishment Golden Core seemed to him utterly impossible, at least certainly not something an alchemist of his rank could ever hope for.

But Wei Zhao—this fellow had crossed paths with him since the secular world, and they knew each other inside and out. He had never once heard that the man possessed any heaven-defying alchemical talent, still less believed he had any profound mastery of alchemy. How could he possibly have suddenly refined top-grade Foundation Establishment Golden Cores?!

No matter how one looked at it, this was completely unscientific and utterly unreasonable!

Kang Jingming's words set the whole hall abuzz. Had these two top-grade Foundation Establishment Golden Cores come from the hand of some great personage present, there would have been nothing strange about it. But they had come from a mere newcomer, and that was simply too shocking for words.

Two top-grade Foundation Establishment Golden Cores—not to mention that they were priceless and unobtainable, even at the lowest prices of the past they would be worth at least several thousand spirit jades. That was far beyond what any ordinary newcomer could afford.

Xu Lingchong, who had himself been mired in shock, brightened at the words and shot Kang Jingming a meaningful look. "Junior Brother Kang, you are an alchemist, and you have personally refined Foundation Establishment Golden Cores. No one is better qualified to judge whether such pills are genuine. On an occasion as important as this, we cannot let certain persons with ulterior motives slip through. It would be better to examine them carefully."

Seeing that none of the great personages present showed any sign of objecting, Kang Jingming nodded in understanding and stepped forward at once. Before little Curly Bear could react, he snatched up the Foundation Establishment Golden Cores along with the spirit-jade box.

By the time Shangguan Lan'er thought to stop him, it was already too late.

Kang Jingming picked up one of the pills with a show of great care, examined it, then put on an expression of exactly-what-I-expected and sneered loudly, "I knew this Wei Zhao was no good. Back in the secular world all he ever did was fake this and forge that, and now he's pulling the same trick again—he truly doesn't know death when he sees it! Don't let him fool you, everyone. These so-called top-grade Foundation Establishment Golden Cores are nothing but fakes wrapped in a shell!"

With that, amid a chorus of gasps from the hall, Kang Jingming flung both pills to the ground and, without another word, stamped them flat with his foot—and after stamping, he made sure to grind them in hard with a twist.

Watching this, Wei Zhao's eyelid twitched. A dog really cannot stop eating shit—Kang Jingming had pulled this very same stunt back in the secular world, and now, instead of learning his lesson, he had simply changed venues and played the old trick again!

A dead silence fell over the hall. Many of those present now looked at Wei Zhao with evident hostility. They were all persons of name and face; if, right under their noses, a petty scoundrel like Wei Zhao had truly fooled them with fake pills, they would be the laughingstock of the streets for years to come!

Xu Lingchong and Kang Jingming exchanged a smile of secret triumph. Wei Zhao had no backing here, after all—no great personage would step forward on his behalf. Whether or not those two top-grade Foundation Establishment Golden Cores had originally been genuine, they were fakes now.

Both pills had been stamped to a pulp by Kang Jingming, their appearance utterly destroyed. Unless a true connoisseur took them in hand and examined them closely, an ordinary layman could never tell fake from real. But among the great personages present, who would risk losing face to personally inspect them on behalf of a Wei Zhao they did not even know?

This tactic was called striking first to gain the advantage. So long as no one spoke up for Wei Zhao, there would be no evidence left to verify.

Yet just as the two of them believed their scheme had succeeded and were preparing to savor Wei Zhao's stifled expression, a figure appeared beside Kang Jingming like a gust of wind, shoved him aside, picked up the pills from beneath his foot, and examined them closely.

Wei Zhao had been about to rise and settle the matter himself, but when he saw who had stepped forward, a faint smile returned to his face and he sat back down in calm composure.

The person who had rushed out to inspect the pills was something of an acquaintance of Wei Zhao's: the Manager Linghua of the Pill Hall's spiritual herb garden.

"Uh, Manager Linghua, what are you doing? I already told you these are fake pills..." Sensing trouble, Kang Jingming broke out in a sweat and hurried to stop him. He had truly never imagined that anyone would actually come forward to inspect the pills in person.

"Fake pills?" Manager Linghua was so angry he nearly laughed. "Whether it's the color, the medicinal scent, the pill halos, or the texture—by which of them did you conclude these are fakes wrapped in a shell? Top-grade Foundation Establishment Golden Cores like these, and you dare to stamp both of them underfoot! You're damn well wasting pills—is a man like you even fit to be an alchemist?"

Everyone knew that Manager Linghua detested above all else the scoundrels who ruined good things. Once he had agonized over a few dozen spiritual herb seeds; now Kang Jingming had publicly ground two priceless top-grade Foundation Establishment Golden Cores into fragments underfoot. How could he possibly let this pass? (Author's public WeChat: yuren22—welcome to add for the latest game and film adaptation news!) R1152