NovelPantheon

Chen Jiaxi

Late Foundation Establishmentscarlet-robed master alchemistGolden Frost Sect

Chen Jiaxi is a World Pill Division master alchemist who attempts to make his reputation by defeating East Pill Division Furnace Lords. His escalating contest with Meng Hao ends with Chen swallowing a mislabeled ancient poison and surviving only because his rival saves him.

Biography

Public challenge to the East Pill Division

Chen arrives at the Black Sieve Sect with Li Yiming and immediately questions why Fang Mu wears Furnace Lord robes. During the public lecture he attacks Zhou Dekun's philosophy of alchemy, expecting a victory over the East Pill Division to establish his own fame. Meng Hao responds that every alchemist must possess a personal, unchangeable Dao rather than merely repeat received doctrine. The answer wins the gathering and shakes Chen because the dispute has moved from memorized knowledge to the foundation of why he practices alchemy. (Chapters 246 and 249–251)

Plant and pill contests

Unable to accept the public loss, Chen produces ancient Dried Spring Equinox stems and challenges Meng Hao to revive them. Meng Hao generates ten sprouts and ten flowers, exceeding Chen's plant knowledge and control of life force. Chen then wagers medicinal pills in Instantaneous Formula Scrying. He supplies one pill after another from his collection, but Meng Hao identifies all 127, turning Chen's intended display of breadth into a steady depletion of his own resources. Each loss makes withdrawal more humiliating, so envy drives him into a final, much more dangerous wager. (Chapters 252–253)

The ancient pill and collapse

Chen presents an ancient pill in a jade box as a Primordial Heavenly Replenishing Pill. Meng Hao identifies its layered structure and argues that it has become poison. Because Chen has staked his authority on the identification, he swallows it rather than concede. The predicted bleeding and collapse follow. Meng Hao rapidly formulates an antidote and saves him, but the treatment leaves Chen aged into a feeble old man and temporarily shatters his cultivation base. Chen publicly admits that alchemic battles can be fatal while privately retaining hatred, then departs with Li Yiming. His defeat is complete precisely because Meng Hao demonstrates superior ethics and practical rescue skill after winning every formal contest. (Chapters 254–255)

Appearance and personality

Chen is a skinny middle-aged man with a mustache shaped like the character for eight and a scarlet master-alchemist robe. He is articulate, ambitious, and deeply invested in public reputation. His knowledge is substantial, but envy converts expertise into recklessness: after each defeat, he raises the stakes rather than revise his conclusion. Even when Meng Hao saves his life, humiliation prevents genuine gratitude.

Abilities and cultivation

Plant and vegetation knowledge

Chen knows roughly nine hundred thousand plant variations, placing him at the peak of the second realm of plant knowledge. That breadth supports identification and formula construction, but it is not the same as perfect understanding. The Dried Spring Equinox test exposes the gap: Meng Hao's deeper comprehension coaxes ten viable shoots and blooms from material Chen uses as a supposedly impossible challenge. Chen's limit is therefore not ignorance, but a rigid ceiling he mistakes for mastery. (Chapters 252–253)

Instantaneous Formula Scrying

In Formula Scrying, an alchemist studies a pill and reconstructs its ingredients and refinement logic without seeing the recipe. Chen owns enough varied pills to stage 127 consecutive tests and expects obscurity to produce an eventual failure. Meng Hao identifies every pill, so the contest measures both Chen's collection and the opponent's analytical range. The technique does not guarantee truth merely because a pill is ancient; Chen's fatal error with the supposed Heavenly Replenishing Pill proves that prestige and age can conceal toxicity. (Chapters 253–254)

Cultivation and practical alchemy

Chen possesses late Foundation Establishment cultivation, useful for supporting refinement but insufficient to resist the poison he consumes. Meng Hao's emergency antidote preserves his life at a severe cost: his body becomes old and his cultivation temporarily vanishes. The outcome illustrates a core limit of alchemy in the corpus—saving a patient may require trading longevity or cultivation for survival when the toxin has already penetrated too deeply. (Chapters 254–255)

Relationships

  • Meng Hao: Rival who defeats Chen in philosophy, plant knowledge, formula analysis, and diagnosis, then saves his life despite Chen's hostility.
  • Li Yiming: World Pill Division companion who supports Chen throughout the gathering and helps the aged alchemist leave.
  • Zhou Dekun: Chen's original target; attacking Zhou's lecture draws Meng Hao into the debate.
  • Patriarch Violet Sieve: Host and prospective buyer whose recognition Chen hopes to win with the ancient pill.

Items

  • Dried Spring Equinox stems: Two ancient stems used to test plant knowledge; Meng Hao revives them far beyond Chen's expectation.
  • Medicinal-pill collection: Chen loses 127 pills through the Formula Scrying wager.
  • Ancient jade box and mislabeled pill: Presented as a Primordial Heavenly Replenishing Pill but diagnosed as poison; both pass to Meng Hao after Chen loses. (Chapters 252–255)