Too few had been eliminated in the first two rounds. Although this result was within the organizers’ expectations, when over 70% of nearly 700 contestants still successfully advanced, the few elders on the judges’ seat couldn’t help but frown.
Pei Changjing flipped through the advancement roster and let out a sneer.
“The group of contestants isn’t lacking in basic skills. At this rate, the final competition might not even start until next month.”
Yin Zheng set down his teacup and nodded.
“The number is indeed a bit high. Although the assembly’s purpose is to discover new talent, if every round is this lenient, the final competition will become a sea of people, and the spectacle will suffer greatly.”
The few elders discussed in low voices for a moment, then turned their gazes to the platform that had been rearranged in the field.
They all decided to temporarily raise the difficulty of the originally planned third round by one level.
Then the host’s voice once again resounded across the plaza.
“The third round: Pill Synthesis. After unanimous agreement from the judges’ seat, the difficulty of this round has been raised. Each contestant will randomly draw a Fourth-Rank pill formula. The assembly will provide all auxiliary ingredients and one standard main ingredient for the formula. Contestants may also choose to use their own high-grade main ingredient to replace the assembly’s standard, but the pill formula itself cannot be altered.”
“Those who successfully form a pill within the time limit will advance. Those who fail to form a pill or whose pill quality does not meet the standard will be eliminated.”
As soon as these words were spoken, the viewing platforms erupted in chaos.
Voices of discussion rose and fell.
An experienced old alchemist in the audience shook his head and commented that this was clearly testing Fourth-Rank pill formulas at the standard of a Fifth-Rank Pill Master.
This demand on control was not just one level higher than usual; this round would likely weed out the majority.
When nearly 700 contestants once again stood before their respective stone platforms, looking at the thin pill formula in front of them, many wore grave expressions.
Suddenly, a few disciples from major sects unhurriedly took out their own precious spirit herbs from their storage bags and placed them on the stone platform, drawing envious looks from all around.
One young man, holding a Star Pattern Grass that shimmered with purple light of extremely high grade, drew the gazes of several nearby contestants the moment it appeared.
He glanced at a nearby rogue cultivator dressed in plain robes and sneered without concealing his mockery.
“Fellow Daoist, you’re still using the assembly’s standard main ingredient? With this quality, you probably can’t even draw out 80% of the medicine power. Want me to share half a plant with you? Though it can’t compare to my thousand-year-old plant, it’s still stronger than that one of yours.”
That rogue cultivator’s face flushed red.
His lips moved, but in the end he did not retort.
He just lowered his head and placed the assembly’s standard main ingredient into his elixir furnace.
Meng Qiuran stood among the crowd, scanning the people, his brows slightly furrowed as if looking for someone.
From the first round to the third, he had never seen Su Wan’er’s figure. Senior had clearly said she would participate in this Alchemy Grand Assembly, but he had not seen her among the contestants from beginning to end. Since Senior was here, why hadn’t Fellow Daoist Su appeared? Had something unexpected happened?
His thoughts drifted for a moment, but were pulled back by the bell.
Regardless, the most important thing now was the competition.
He took a deep breath, expelled all distracting thoughts from his mind, and slowly released his spiritual power.
The pill formula Ruan Se drew was the Fourth-Rank Cold Dew Pill, one of the more difficult among all the formulas.
The standard main ingredient provided by the assembly before her was ordinary in appearance, the branches and leaves withered, clearly left over after being picked through in the stock.
She picked up the Cold Marrow Herb, examined it, then put it back without changing her expression.
Originally, she had planned to use her own materials, but she realized that most of her spirit stones had been spent on materials for the Green Wood Harmonizing Qi Pill, leaving no extra spirit stones to prepare.
Her spiritual power was already low.
She had only recovered a small portion after meditating for half an hour in the rest area.
At this moment, her complexion was even paler than usual.
The firestone lit up, and a spiritual flame rose from the bottom of the elixir furnace, quietly reflected in her pupils.
On the judges’ seat, Ruan Qin’s gaze lingered on Ruan Se for the first time for a long while.
Although no trace of concern could be seen on her face, her fingers resting on the armrest tightened slightly.
In a corner of the plaza, Shao Jiao also began his refinement.
The pill formula he drew was a relatively average Fourth-Rank formula, neither too difficult nor too easy.
He picked up the assembly’s standard main ingredient, weighed it in his hand, and nodded slightly, as if the quality of the materials had never been the most important thing to him.
But no one noticed that the moment his spiritual flame ignited, it flickered abnormally.
The flicker was extremely slight; even he himself thought it was just the firestone being damp.
He adjusted his spiritual power slightly and stabilized the flame, then threw the medicinal herbs into the furnace and began refining.
Lai Li’an sat on the judges’ seat, shifting his gaze away from Ruan Se and casually sweeping it across the viewing platforms around the plaza.
Suddenly, he caught sight of a familiar figure in the crowd.
The person was wrapped in a cloak, his form hidden at the very edge of the viewing platform.
It was Yin Wuji.
Lai Li’an’s brows immediately furrowed.
When the competition had been going on for about half an hour, accidents began to occur one after another.
First, a rogue cultivator’s elixir furnace exploded for no reason.
The spiritual flame inside suddenly shot up several feet, engulfing the entire set of materials.
That rogue cultivator was covered in dust and soot, staring at his furnace in disbelief.
The people around him couldn’t help but turn their heads to look.
Next, two contestants, one after the other, showed signs of losing control of their spiritual power.
It was as if an invisible wind had blown through, and then their flames began to waver eerily.
No matter how much spiritual power they poured in, they could not stabilize it.
One of them barely managed to stabilize the situation, but the other failed to rein in the medicine power in time.
The essence of the spirit herbs overheated and burst in the furnace, blasting his elixir furnace out of position and nearly affecting the contestant beside him.
Disciples from the Enforcement Hall quickly intervened.
The scene had already become slightly chaotic.
These accidents seemed unrelated, scattered across different parts of the plaza.
But Lai Li’an quickly connected their locations in his mind.
Every spot where an accident occurred was not far from Shao Jiao.
He looked again at the edge of the viewing platform and found it empty.
In the field, Ruan Se’s refinement had entered its most critical moment.
Her hands hovered above the elixir furnace, and her spiritual power transformed into dozens of extremely fine threads that simultaneously reached into the furnace, each protecting every auxiliary ingredient of the Cold Dew Pill.
Her technique was still exquisitely brilliant, but her face grew paler and paler.
The bubbling medicinal liquid in the furnace was slowly condensing into a pill embryo under her guidance.
Suddenly, the spiritual flame burst into a conflagration.
Ruan Qin on her seat abruptly sat up straight.
It didn’t seem like an ordinary flare-up.
Ruan Se’s spiritual flame was being pulled in four directions simultaneously, as if several invisible forces were tugging at it in a struggle.
The pill embryo that was about to take shape in the furnace trembled violently, emitting a series of faint buzzing sounds.
Ruan Se’s eyes flew wide open, a flicker of panic in them.
She frantically poured her spiritual power into the furnace, forcibly pressing the trembling pill embryo back into place with a domineering manner.
In the end, the pill embryo stabilized.
But a thin line of blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.
Her last bit of spiritual power was nearly drained in this forceful suppression.
The spiritual flame in the furnace began to flicker unsteadily, like a lamp about to run out of oil.
Lai Li’an felt his heart skip a beat.
The murmurs on the viewing platforms instantly quieted.
Many eyes focused on Ruan Se.
Anyone could see that she was at the end of her rope.
That invisible force from before was too strange.
Clearly someone was secretly causing trouble.
And Ruan Se was already short on spiritual power.
After this expenditure, she probably couldn’t hold out until the pill was formed.
A disciple from a major sect saw this and curled his lip in contempt.
“So what if she’s a genius? She’s just showing off. Without good materials and without enough spiritual power, she still wants to refine a Cold Dew Pill?”
Ruan Se leaned on the stone platform.
The coppery taste in her throat surged up again, and she forced it back down.
Her gaze was fixed on the barely stabilized pill embryo.
With her spiritual power exhausted, an ordinary alchemist might have already abandoned the furnace and conceded.
But in Ruan Se’s eyes, there was not a trace of retreat.
Instead, a flash of determination flickered.
She suddenly remembered the scene of Senior refining pills earlier:
“using medicine to control medicine.”
Perhaps without needing a large amount of spiritual power to drive it, she could use the medicinal property of the auxiliary ingredients to nourish the spiritual flame, and in turn, feed the pill embryo!
Without time to think further, Ruan Se raised her trembling hand.
Instead of forcefully injecting spiritual power, she used the last wisp of her spiritual power to gently hook onto one of the auxiliary ingredients in the furnace.
Her fingertips moved slightly.
That wisp of spiritual power gently stirred the medicinal fragrance of the spirit herb, guiding it to slowly seep into the spiritual flame.
The originally faltering spiritual flame actually brightened for an instant.
Ruan Se’s heart relaxed.
She then took the opportunity to guide the medicinal properties of the other auxiliary ingredients, one by one, into the spiritual flame.
With each ingredient incorporated, the flame stabilized a bit more, and the trembling of the pill embryo lessened.
On the judges’ seat, Ruan Qin’s tense body slowly relaxed.
A glimmer of surprise flashed in her eyes, then turned into approval.
She had never seen such a peculiar method of alchemy, abandoning spiritual power and using auxiliary ingredients instead, going against the usual approach.
In the field, Shao Jiao had stopped his actions at some point.
He turned his head to look in Ruan Se’s direction, apparently stunned.
Ruan Se had already forgotten everything around her.
The buzzing in the furnace gradually subsided, and a clear, crisp fragrance of the pill emanated.
The scent carried a bone-chilling coldness yet was not without warmth.
The old alchemists on the viewing platform all lit up, unable to help murmuring in admiration.
“Such a pure Cold Dew Pill aroma! This quality must be very high!”