300: How did you manage to write Chapter 300?

Lin Ruoshui's second batch failed.

Although her Water Spirit Body shared the same origin as Shen Qing's, she walked a different path; instead of pursuing ultimate control over medicinal power, she relied on crushing speed and efficiency.

This worked on familiar Medicinal Pills like the biling pill, but when facing a brand-new Pill Formula like the nine-aperture golden spirit pill, speed was useless; stability was the key.

In the eighth step, her timing in incorporating the second third-tier spirit medicine was off by two breaths, causing the liquid medicine to instantly turn turbid.

Lin Ruoshui's expression was a bit unsightly as she cleaned up the waste residue, but she quickly calmed down, took out a blank Jade Slip to record the reasons for her failure, and prepared for the next batch.

Wei Tian's side was even more of a pity.

His combination of the Fire Spirit Body and the third-tier Purple Lotus Heart Fire still crushed his peers during the purification phase, making his speed in the first six steps the fastest among everyone.

But by the ninth step, when the third third-tier spirit medicine was being incorporated, the temperature of the Purple Lotus Heart Fire fluctuated for half a breath.

In just half a breath, the color of the liquid medicine turned from deep gold to gray, and the entire batch was ruined.

"Lack of experience," Elder Chiyang pointed out the crux of the matter from the high platform. "Wei Tian's exotic fire and Physique are both top-tier, but he has been in the sect for too short a time, and his anticipation of the medicinal property conflicts between the third-tier spirit medicines is lacking. This kind of thing cannot be compensated for by talent alone; it must be ground down over time."

Elder Chiyang had always been merciless in evaluating his own Disciples, but there was no derogatory intent in his words.

Wei Tian was still young; even if his remaining three portions of Spirit Medicines all failed, he would have plenty of opportunities in the future.

The discussions in the spectator area grew louder and louder, but the tone had shifted from initial excitement to heaviness.

"It's too difficult."

"Fifty people entered the third round, and after the second batch, only these few managed to form pills?"

"Shen Qing got one Low Grade, Zhou Mingyuan got one Low Grade, Wu Chen got a ruined pill, and the rest have either not started yet or failed. There are only two finished Medicinal Pills."

"If things continue like this, I'm afraid fewer than five people will successfully refine a Medicinal Pill after the three months are up."

"There is still over a month left, so it's hard to say if there will be variables later."

"Don't forget that Su Cheng hasn't even started his furnace yet."

"It's been over forty days and he hasn't even lit a fire. Are you still counting on him?"

Chen Yuan's second batch also failed, but his failure was different from everyone else's.

After opening the furnace, Chen Yuan did not throw in the medicines for refining according to the conventional method. Instead, he first took out a set of miniature Formation Flags from his Storage Pouch—six copper flags the size of a finger—and inserted them into six positions on the outer wall of the Pill Furnace.

"A Formation?" Elder Qingmu set down his teacup and leaned forward slightly. "When did this kid start researching this?"

Actually, Chen Yuan did not just practice Alchemy. Having studied pharmacology under Elder Qingmu for so many years, he had also practiced Artifact Refining in private, and had his own understanding of the operating principles of Formations.

The six copper flags laid out a simplified version of the Yuan Gathering Formation, whose function was to assist in gathering the medicinal power escaping within the furnace during the pill-condensation stage.

The idea was excellent, and could be considered finding another way.

The initial steps went smoothly, but during the Nine-Pattern Unity stage, a problem arose with the Formation, and the entire batch was ultimately ruined.

Chen Yuan was not frustrated; he took out his Jade Slip and recorded the data from the Formation's operation item by item.

Elder Qingmu looked at the screen showing his eldest Disciple and sighed, though there was no sign of disappointment on his face.

He had also pondered the path of using Formations to assist in Alchemy in his younger days, but he had never been able to make it work.

Chen Yuan was bolder than he was, directly bringing it to the grand competition arena to test. Although he failed, the failure was still valuable.

It was not until the forty-fifth day that Su Cheng finally made a move.

He stood up, stretched his limbs, and walked two laps around his independent space.

Then, he opened the box containing the first portion of Spirit Medicines and arranged the nine Spirit Medicines from left to right according to the order of refining.

The wanbao mirror transformed into a furnace, the Abyssal Purple Fire rose, and the Qi of Creation flowed from his Dantian along his Meridians, converging at his fingertips.

Su Cheng glanced at the Spirit Medicines in front of him, then at the Pill Furnace, and began.

The first Spirit Medicine entered the furnace.

To outsiders, Su Cheng's movements seemed completely ordinary—just normally tossing the Spirit Medicine into the Pill Furnace and using his spiritual energy to fuel the flames to begin purification.

"Why... does it look so ordinary?"

Someone in the spectator area was already frowning. Having previously watched Wu Chen control temperatures in partitioned zones with thirty-six fine flames, and Shen Qing moisten and harmonize medicinal properties with the True Meaning of Water, looking at Su Cheng's performance now...

"Is he doing it on purpose? Hiding his capabilities?"

"Would someone who refined one hundred and nine High Grade biling pills in the second round be at this level?"

"Then this of his is too..."

Before the debate could end, Su Cheng's second Spirit Medicine had already entered the furnace.

As the breaths of time passed, the purification, decomposition, and release of medicinal properties were executed strictly according to the parameters given in the Pill Formula, without the slightest error.

Yet, it was merely without the slightest error; there were no creative operations beyond what was written in the Pill Formula.

It was like someone cooking according to a recipe—how much seasoning to add and how high to set the heat at each step were all done strictly by the book.

Could it be made? Most likely, yes.

But could it produce any stunning flavor? Hard to say.

Elder Qingmu's Divine Sense was tightly locked onto Su Cheng's screen, and the more he watched, the more he felt something was off.

No, Su Cheng's spiritual energy output and heat adjustment timing at every step indeed matched the standard values given in the Pill Formula.

But if one looked closely, they would find that his spiritual energy carried an extremely faint azure halo, which dissolved into the liquid medicine the moment it made contact, vanishing without a trace.

That was the manifestation of the Qi of Creation.

When other people's spiritual energy entered the liquid medicine, it would produce a certain degree of "resistance," because spiritual energy and medicinal properties were fundamentally not the same thing.

Even for the most brilliant Alchemists, no matter how fine their spiritual energy control was, there would still be minuscule energy loss after it entered the liquid medicine.

But Su Cheng's Qi of Creation would not.

The process of that azure halo dissolving into the liquid medicine had no resistance whatsoever; the liquid medicine's acceptance of the Qi of Creation was several times, or even over a dozen times, that of ordinary spiritual energy.

This meant that the actual precision of Su Cheng's operations at every step was much higher than it appeared.

On the surface, he was following the routine, but in reality, every wisp of the Qi of Creation that entered the liquid medicine was doing one thing—guiding.

The Qi of Creation had pre-soaked every single Spirit Medicine; it recognized these Spirit Medicines and knew their temperaments.

Therefore, when it entered the liquid medicine again in the form of spiritual energy, it did not need to be forcibly suppressed. It only needed to gently nudge along the flow of the Spirit Medicine's own spirituality, and the medicinal properties would obediently react according to the predetermined trajectory.

This was the reason Su Cheng had spent forty-five days preparing.

Others were controlling the Spirit Medicines; he was cooperating with them.

Control required fine spiritual energy manipulation, a powerful Divine Soul, and superb hand seals.

Cooperation only required understanding the Spirit Medicine well enough—to the point where it felt closer to you than yourself.

During the first six steps, the changes of the liquid medicine in the furnace were surprisingly stable, without the slightest fluctuation, and the golden luster deepened bit by bit.

The Golden Core Elders in the spectator area, who had initially been indifferent, gradually fell silent.

In some matters, laymen look at the fun, while professionals look at the skill.

Wu Chen's partitioned temperature control was flashy, and Shen Qing's True Meaning of Water was powerful, but their operations shared a common point: "confrontation."

Wu Chen used thirty-six fine flames to suppress the conflicts in medicinal properties, while Shen Qing used the True Meaning of Water to lubricate the rejection reactions.

In essence, both were humans contending with the Spirit Medicines, only their methods of contending were brilliant.

There was no confrontation on Su Cheng's side; the entire Alchemy process was abnormally quiet.

The liquid medicine reacted when it should, and stopped when it should. There was no fluctuation at the moment each Spirit Medicine was incorporated, as if the Spirit Medicines themselves wanted to take this path.

"This kid..." Elder Qingmu was astonished, just like when Su Cheng had revived the dragon blood vine.

The seventh step, the first third-tier spirit medicine: thousand-gu wood heart.

Su Cheng held the thousand-gu wood heart in his palm, and a wisp of the Qi of Creation seeped from his fingertips into the core of the wood heart.

In the next breath, he placed the thousand-gu wood heart into the furnace.

The moment the wood heart submerged into the golden liquid medicine, nothing happened.

The thousand-gu wood heart simply dissolved into the liquid medicine naturally, sliding into its proper place.

Then the eighth step, the second third-tier spirit medicine: Crimson Firmament Condensed Bead.

Using the same technique, the Qi of Creation seeped in, and it was placed into the furnace with a four-breath interval, precise to the extreme.

The Crimson Firmament Condensed Bead dissolved into the liquid medicine, and everything remained completely calm.

The ninth step, the third third-tier spirit medicine: Silver-Thread Dragon Saliva.

Su Cheng's hand was extremely steady; the Silver-Thread Dragon Saliva stayed in his palm for only two breaths before being placed into the furnace.

The three third-tier spirit medicines were incorporated one by one, all passing on the first try.

The entire process took less than thirty breaths.

The difficulties that had stuck others at the seventh to ninth steps for dozens of days, and which they only figured out after wasting several batches of Spirit Medicines, were passed by Su Cheng as easily as taking a stroll in a courtyard.

"How did he do it?" Almost everyone had the same question rise in their minds.

They did not understand; without special techniques, without the enhancement of secret arts, and with spiritual energy control that could not even be considered that fine, on what basis?

On what basis did the liquid medicine simply not reject him?