Meanwhile, in the Alchemist Guild, everyone looked at Roan with their eyes wide open.
"What the hell is he doing?!"
"Is he planning to cook the Green-Spotted Fox?"
"Shouldn't someone stop him?"
"But we're in the middle of the exam. Even if the fox dies, it only means that he'll fail."
"He should fail already. Who the hell would throw the fox inside the cauldron?!"
Both examinators and spectators didn't know what to do. Even Werxa was at a loss for words since he had never seen someone do what he did.
"Errr... Guild Leader... Should we stop him?"
Werxa could not help but sweat a little but shook his head in the end.
"He did well so far, so I believe... he has a plan... I guess. He should know that if his Green-Spotted Fox dies, he would be disqualified. The same will happen if his fox's body receives any permanent damage."
The other elders could only nod and wait to see what would happen in the future.
Old Worm, on the other hand, seemed pretty calm. Well, Old Worm's expressions rarely changed, so his guild companions by his side couldn't tell if he was surprised by that or not.
"This... Fauk, do you know what your disciple is doing?"
Old Worm looked at the people by his side and simply nodded.
"Yes."
Unfortunately for them, that was all he said.
Roan could tell that most of the eyes were on him, but he couldn't care less. At the moment, the cauldron still didn't heat up. However, the fox felt a sense of danger and tried to escape from there. Unfortunately for it, Roan had closed the cauldron when he threw it inside, so it couldn't force its way out. Not to mention that it was just a Stage One Demon beast. There was no way it could be stronger than Roan.
Roan ignored the fox struggling inside the cauldron and threw even more wood at the cauldron's fire. Eventually, the fox could feel it beginning to burn it alive and started to scream. The others looked at it and felt that it was too cruel, especially the females. Suddenly...
*Bang!*
Roan kicked the caldron with the fox inside.
"Shut up!"
His aura and Spiritual Energy made the fox fear it more than its own burning body. That wasn't alchemy anymore, but torture instead. He forced the fox to suffer in silence. However, the quiet fox only added more to the heavy air.
Time passed and over one hour passed. Because the fox was still a Stage One Demon Beast, it had its own Spiritual Energy. The cauldron's temperature wasn't anything heaven-defying either. Thanks to that, the fox resisted as much as it could until now.
Sometimes, it felt like screaming in pain again, but Roan's Spiritual Energy immediately attacked it, warning it to be quiet.
Except for the examinators, who had to keep their eyes on all the alchemists participating in this phase, all the other Spiritual Senses focused on Roan's cauldron. The cauldron wasn't any divine treasure, so it wasn't hard for their Spiritual Senses to penetrate into it.
"The fox is at its limit."
"It's going to die."
"I know it's just a demon beast without intelligence, but still..."
If they could tell that, Roan obviously wasn't oblivious to the fox. Still, he kept waiting as the paste and the fox boiled together. Only when he saw that the fox was really going to die did he nod his head.
"That should be enough."
Roan's hair changed into a mix of white and black once again as a burst of Light Element entered the cauldron. It immediately enveloped the Green-Spotted Fox, which healed its injuries at hasty speeds.
'Life Style, Second Form, Instant Recovery!'
Roan might not be as good as Rean. Nevertheless, his own Instant Recovery was powerful enough to outstrip the damage caused by the boiling medicinal paste. Soon, its fur that had been burnt began to grow again as the withered skin disappeared while the pain subsided. Other than that, Roan also used his Light and Dark Elements to get rid of the impurities from the boiling paste.
Everyone was shocked by Roan's actions once more. They had seen him changing his hair color a few times already and understood that it was related to his Light Element control. However, they didn't know that the Light Element had such a powerful healing power.
"Alright, you're back to full health. Stay there and cook for a while longer. Your smell is starting to get good."
The rest of the spectators didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He healed the fox just so that it could cook more. Just how much more do you intend to torture it?
Werxa, on the other hand, narrowed his eyes as his Spiritual Sense took a close look at the fox's conditions.
'Isn't this Green-Spotted Fox a little bigger than before?'
Of course, the other alchemists participating also noticed Roan's way of doing things. Still, because they had to prepare their own pastes, they couldn't spare too much time on it.
Two hours into the competition, the first alchemist had finished his medicinal paste. He looked around and saw that everyone else was still working or... cooking... and wondered if he was too hasty. Nonetheless, there was no turning back now, so he immediately applied his paste to his own Green-Spotted Fox. After that, he gave a sleeping pill to the fox. That way, it wouldn't move too much as his paste was absorbed by the fox's body.
Even though he was the first to finish, the next one didn't take long to appear. As if a chain reaction occurred, many more alchemists began to conclude their own pastes one after the other. Naturally, they did the same thing as the first guy. They applied the paste on their own foxes before giving a sleeping pill to them.
According to the general time, it would take at least three or four hours for the foxes' bodies to fully take in most types of medicinal pastes. The rule only said that they had to finish concocting their pastes in four hours. The time the foxes needed to absorb the pastes wasn't part of this limit.
It was at this moment that...
*Bang!*
The lid on Roan's cauldron exploded! His fox immediately jumped out while howling in happiness. It was finally free from the torture, so how couldn't it be delighted?
*Pah!*
However, Roan quickly knocked its head, which made the fox feel quite dizzy.
"Stop wasting time. Attack the dummy there."
Everyone was taken aback by that. Not only did Roan not apply any medicinal paste, but he also didn't give his fox time to rest either. But that wasn't all. Only now that the fox came out did they notice that it had become quite taller than the other green foxes.
"Wait!"
Werxa couldn't help but come out on his own.
"You made your fox go through quite a harsh treatment. As the stated rules, any permanent damage to it in exchange for strength would result in disqualification."
Roan nodded, not minding it too much as he responded.
"I know. The fox is fine. You can check it as much as you want."
Werxa nodded as he touched the fox's body and sent his Spiritual Energy inside. However, he really couldn't find anything wrong with the fox.
"This... how does it look so... healthy?"
The other examinators couldn't help but do the same thing. Sure enough, none of them could find anything wrong with the fox at all. In fact, it looked healthier than ever!
Roan then looked at Werxa.
"Are you done? Let's go ahead with this test."
Werxa's mouth twitched after hearing that. Roan didn't show as much as a single hint of respect to the Guild Leader. This was a kind of treatment that he rarely received from anyone. Still, he was also curious to see just how well Roan's Green-Spotted Fox would fare in the strength test.
"Ahem... Are you sure you want to do it already? Your fox just finished being cooke- cough, cough. It just finished absorbing your medicinal paste, right? You could give it some time to rest since all the other foxes would also need time to absorb the other participants' pastes."
Roan shook his head in response, saying.
"It rested a lot in the cauldron, so it can do the test already."
Rested? You call that rest? Is this guy's vision of the world that twisted?
"Errr... Alright then, have his fox attack the dummy."
