302: Chapter 302 What do you care what kind of approach it is?

Forty-five days without opening the furnace, and once opened, five Medicinal Pills were formed; this level of skill could no longer be summed up by the simple word "Genius."

Su Cheng naturally did not know about the discussions outside. He reached out and guided the five Medicinal Pills into a jade bottle one by one. Low Grade, five per batch.

He pursed his lips, seemingly somewhat unsatisfied.

After all, he had spent forty-five days of preparation and expended so much Qi of Creation, yet the result... was only Low Grade.

Although all nine golden patterns appeared, the lines were faint and blurry, and the quality of the spirituality was still a significant distance from the threshold of Medium Grade.

Although producing five at once had already surpassed everyone else, failing to break through the hurdle of Low Grade quality meant that his Qi of Creation scheme was still lacking something in the dimension of "quality improvement."

Dao Rhyme!

The Qi of Creation could allow the medicinal properties to react smoothly without obstruction and let the pill-forming process where the nine patterns merge into one complete spontaneously, but it could not bestow upon the Medicinal Pill that "spiritual sublimation" which transcends the Materials themselves.

With his current strength, if he wanted to jump from Low Grade to Medium Grade or even higher, and if he wanted to make those nine golden patterns change from blurry to deep and full, he had to introduce Dao Rhyme at the final moment of pill formation.

Su Cheng put away the Pill Furnace, swallowed a few Medicinal Pills, and sat cross-legged to recover the consumed Qi of Creation.

One of the five portions of Materials had been used, leaving four remaining.

He closed his eyes and began to adjust his state. Inside his Sea of Consciousness, the qiankun creation furnace floated silently, the pale cyan halo of Dao Rhyme on the inner wall of the furnace chamber flowing with the slow rotation of the furnace body.

Su Cheng's Divine Sense probed into the creation furnace chamber, resonating with the Dao Rhyme for about half an incense stick's time, and he opened his eyes after confirming the link was clear.

One day later, the second batch began.

On the light screen outside, Su Cheng's image once again lit up with the five-colored radiance of the wanbao mirror.

"He's starting again! Opening the second batch right after the first one finished? Only one day in between, he recovers this quickly? Even though he refined Low Grade, doesn't he need to summarize and review?"

"He's truly bold. Others would summarize for at least a few days after the first batch of Medicinal Pills is formed before starting again, but he just goes straight for it."

Now everyone was waiting to see what tricks he could pull off in his second batch.

The Abyssal Purple Fire rose again. Su Cheng took out the box of the second portion of Spirit Medicine, unsealed it, and arranged the nine types of Spirit Medicine in order.

The preceding procedures were no different from the first batch: purification, decomposition, release of medicinal properties. Every step was unbelievably steady, the Spirit Medicine in the furnace was like a fish in water, coordinating seamlessly.

"Here it comes again," someone in the viewing area muttered. "This Alchemy method that doesn't require controlling spiritual power, what kind of style is it exactly?"

"Who cares what style it is? He refined it and you didn't; that is the greatest style of all."

The seventh step, the eighth step, the ninth step—the three types of third-tier spirit medicine were integrated in sequence, calm and peaceful as always.

Su Cheng's gaze fell upon the golden medicinal liquid churning in the furnace chamber. He slightly withdrew his fingers. When it came to the pill-forming stage, he did not withdraw his hand to wait for the medicinal power to separate on its own as he had in the first batch.

Deep within his Sea of Consciousness, on the inner wall of the qiankun creation furnace chamber, that layer of creation dao rhyme accumulated over the years was brushed over by his Divine Sense.

The Dao Rhyme resonated with his Divine Sense, transforming into a wisp of extremely faint cyan light, flowing from the Sea of Consciousness along his Meridians toward the Dantian.

Passing through the dao foundation furnace, the creation spirit liquid carried that wisp of Dao Rhyme, outputting from the Dantian along the Meridians of his arm until it reached his fingertips, where it was injected into the furnace chamber of the wanbao mirror.

Su Cheng had polished this link for several months, and in the end, the success rate stabilized at fifty-five percent.

However, fifty-five percent was just a number in a statistical sense; when it came to each specific batch, it was either success or failure, with no middle ground.

The moment the Dao Rhyme entered the furnace chamber, the golden medicinal liquid in the furnace suddenly brightened. Under the guidance of the Dao Rhyme, the nine strands of medicinal power began to condense, and the nascent forms of the golden patterns appeared at an extremely fast speed.

The first, second, and third golden patterns formed almost simultaneously, the lines deep and clear, far stronger than those blurry, shallow marks from the first batch.

On the high platform, the attention of the three Nascent Soul Ancestors was simultaneously drawn to this scene.

True Monarch Wanxiang unfolded that spirit fan again, the spiritual light of his deduction techniques rapidly circulating on the fan's surface.

"This wisp of spiritual power..." True Monarch Wanxiang said in a low voice, "There is something else added inside." (Creation is special; as long as the protagonist does not actively let people see or know, no one can know.)

The other two True Monarchs did not speak, only continuing to watch. They all really wanted to know just how "outrageous" Su Cheng truly was.

The fourth golden pattern formed, with the fifth and sixth following closely behind.

Then, a problem arose.

In the process of the Dao Rhyme being conducted from the Sea of Consciousness to the furnace chamber of the wanbao mirror, it had passed through too long a path.

From the Sea of Consciousness to the Dantian, from the Dantian to the Meridians, from the Meridians to the fingertips, and from the fingertips to the furnace chamber—there was attenuation every time it passed through a section.

During the first batch, Su Cheng did not use Dao Rhyme; although the medicinal power condensed the patterns slowly on its own, it was stable. In this batch, he introduced Dao Rhyme, and the first six golden patterns condensed quickly and well, but there was not enough remaining Dao Rhyme. (Dao Rhyme dissipates along the way, just like when Su Cheng usually uses the creation furnace for Alchemy; that is why the absorbed Dao Rhyme is pitifully little, and basically all of it acts upon the Physical Body.)

The seventh golden pattern was halfway condensed when the cyan light suddenly dissipated.

The medicinal power, having lost the guidance of the Dao Rhyme, did not have time to adjust its direction on its own, and the lines of the seventh golden pattern became crooked.

The crooked golden pattern collided with the fourth golden pattern, and the two strands of medicinal power began to repel each other.

The chain reaction of repulsion propagated forward, and the third and second golden patterns shattered one after another.

The color of the medicinal liquid changed from deep gold to grayish-white within three breaths.

It was ruined. (Although there was still residual Qi of Creation, it was still ruined; failure to guide the Dao Rhyme equaled failure of the entire batch, as they were a whole after being guided.)

The spiritual light in the furnace chamber dimmed, leaving only the Abyssal Purple Fire silently burning a lump of waste residue.

Su Cheng sat there, his hands retracted to his knees, his expression not changing much; he had expected this result.

Fifty-five percent meant that in every ten batches, four or five would reach this stage, where the Dao Rhyme guidance would break midway, causing the entire batch to collapse—this was a situation he had repeatedly experienced while in seclusion polishing his technique.

It was just that when in seclusion, he was refining biling pill, and ruining a batch merely meant losing some ordinary Spirit Medicine.

Now, what was ruined was the Spirit Medicine for the nine-aperture golden spirit pill provided by the Nascent Soul Ancestor; only three of the five portions remained.

Su Cheng cleared the waste residue out of the furnace, put away the wanbao mirror, and closed his eyes to regulate his breathing.

The reaction in the viewing area was polarized.

"The second batch is ruined?"

"Ruined. Look inside the furnace; it's all grayish-white, not even residue is left."

"No way... When he produced five Low Grade Medicinal Pills in the first batch, I thought he was going to leave everyone in the dust, and now he's flipped his car directly in the second batch?"

"Could it be that the method he used in the first batch without controlling spiritual power has failed? I noticed his operation in the second batch was clearly somewhat different."

"Most likely he wanted to aim for higher quality and was too impatient."

Others disagreed: "He still has three portions of Spirit Medicine; what is there to rush for?"

"But at least that ruined pill from Wu Chen's first batch was still a Medicinal Pill, just not high enough in quality. This one of Su Cheng's didn't even form a pill, it's just waste residue."

"His ruined pill is still a pill, while waste residue is just residue."

Although these words were coarse, the logic was sound. A ruined pill at least indicated that there were no major problems in the preceding steps, just lacking in the final stage; waste residue meant a total collapse halfway through, which was different in nature.

The Golden Core Elders on the high platform did see some of the underlying logic.