Alchemist Bai Lu still didn’t believe in the supernatural, but he bent down to hear the "sound of fire", and that melodious sound of melting material once again clearly reached his ears.

This time, he believed.

"I give up, I give up, so you really can see the situation inside the furnace."

Earlier, Alchemist Bai Lu was talking to Zhou Xuan, and when one speaks, their ears aren’t as sensitive,

In this state, even if Zhou Xuan were the Dan Ancestor come to earth, with ears that hear a thousand miles, he surely couldn’t hear the sound of fire inside the furnace with such precision.

Yet Zhou Xuan still managed to place the materials into the hottest fire eye with "absolute correctness" and "100% accuracy".

If he couldn’t see the situation inside the pill furnace with his own eyes, Alchemist Bai Lu couldn’t guess how Zhou Xuan did it.

"Mr., I completely surrender, you truly are a one-in-a-million alchemy genius." Alchemist Bai Lu’s expression was both excited and dejected, in short, it was one word—contradictory.

As a master of alchemy, seeing Zhou Xuan’s divine miracle, how could he not be excited,

But his long-accumulated, proud experience was ruthlessly crushed by Zhou Xuan’s powerful perception, naturally making him feel a bit dejected.

Zhou Xuan spoke flamboyantly to Alchemist Bai Lu: "Master Bai Lu, the era of alchemy has changed..."

Alchemist Bai Lu sighed deeply and no longer had the strength to banter with Zhou Xuan, simply sighed and said: "Indeed, the times have really changed, the waves behind push the waves ahead, and us front waves—splash—are washed up dead on the beach."

"You don’t have to be so pessimistic, I’m just joking." Zhou Xuan sensed Alchemist Bai Lu’s sorrowful feeling and didn’t want to overly provoke him, so he smoothed things over.

But Alchemist Bai Lu’s feeling of collapse was hard to heal, and he almost spoke with a sobbing voice: "Mr., do you know what the difference is between you and us alchemists?"

"What?" Zhou Xuan asked.

"In terms of alchemy, you are a whole person, while we are all blind.

In a world of the blind, a whole person means a god, he can see—he can see those flowers and grasses, see those lakes and mountains, see all kinds of colors in the world,

We can’t clearly see the world inside a pill furnace, so we use our hearing to compensate. I once thought, with the sharpness of my hearing, even the average person’s eyes might not measure up to my ears,

But today, seeing Mr.’s divine miracle, I realized that this innate deficiency is always just that, no matter how you try to compensate later, it’s to no avail,

I’m old...old and useless."

Alchemist Bai Lu’s remarks were certainly reasonable, but spoken in his tone, Zhou Xuan detected a sense of self-abandonment and disheartenment.

He tossed the last twenty or so materials into the pill furnace, clapped his hands to shake off the residue, and said earnestly: "Old Bai Lu, have you ever thought about becoming the world’s number one alchemist?"

"I haven’t thought about that."

"When you were learning your craft, you didn’t even have such a beautiful dream?" Zhou Xuan asked again. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"Never, never." Alchemist Bai Lu said: "Before the Ancient Era in Jing Country, there were many gifted and aspiring individuals in alchemy, each of them was a prodigy of the heavens, shining so brightly, I only dared to look up at them, they...were like gods."

Alchemist Bai Lu said this honestly.

Zhou Xuan nodded, then asked: "Then have you thought about becoming one of the world’s top ten alchemists?"

"Uh... I haven’t either... take the Fish Monk who occupied my Yunlu Mountain, his alchemy technique isn’t superior to mine, but it’s not much worse either."

Alchemist Bai Lu sighed heavily: "Over the years, Zoroastrianism has almost monopolized the entire Dan Road of Jing Country, they have trained many talented alchemists, among them are some outstanding ones, I Bai Lu am not as good."

Though old Bai Lu was devoted to the technique of alchemy, he wasn’t arrogant, nor was he lacking self-awareness; his words and thoughts were quite objective.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Xuan nodded again, but as he nodded, he suddenly put on a stern face, slapped Alchemist Bai Lu’s shoulder, and scolded,

"Then it’s perfectly fine, if you’ve never fantasized about becoming a top ten alchemist, then what were you sighing about just now? Why were you disheartened?"

"In the entire Jing Country, I’m afraid there’s only me who can do it, can actually put perception into a pill furnace, it means that there’s only one freak like me, whether I become the number one or second alchemist, what does it have to do with your ranking?"

"Oh, right!"

Alchemist Bai Lu suddenly cheered up.

Exactly! His ranking among alchemists in Jing Country might be noteworthy in the top fifty, or it might not even reach that.

Zhou Xuan’s status as a genius, whether he can achieve first in the Dao of Alchemy, doesn’t affect Alchemist Bai Lu’s standing in the martial arts world.

Since it doesn’t affect his status, why was he self-destructing earlier?

Zhou Xuan’s words were like a sudden enlightenment, thoroughly enlightening Alchemist Bai Lu.

"Moreover, old Bai Lu, not only should you not abandon yourself or be disheartened—you should rather be happy, you should be excited, if there were wine around here, you’d definitely have to drink three cups in celebration."

Zhou Xuan further coaxed Alchemist Bai Lu patiently.

"Why?" Alchemist Bai Lu asked.

"Simple, I’ll ask you, do I, Zhou Xuan, have the qualifications to be the number one alchemist in the Dao of Alchemy?"

"I think... not only do you have them, but it’s nailed down... all alchemists, in your eyes, are blind, this kind of talent cannot be compensated for by later diligence and practice... sigh..."