306: Chapter 306 Is He Finally Going to Make a Move?

"High Grade! High Grade!" The roar from the viewing area reached the peak of the entire Grand Competition.

"Permanently increases Spiritual Qi absorption and conversion speed by twenty percent! This thing..."

"Don't say it, I don't dare to think about the price."

Zhao Zhengyang's hands were trembling inside his sleeves, and Elder Fang's eyes were slightly red. The two exchanged a glance; they said nothing, but everything was in that look.

The reactions of the three Nascent Soul Ancestors on the high platform were also different from before.

True Monarch Wanxiang put away her spirit fan; she no longer needed to deduce anything. The quality of the High Grade Medicinal Pill was right there; looking at it with her eyes was enough.

True Monarch Iron-Face nodded, which counted as acknowledgment.

True Monarch Yunyang said three words this time: "Very good."

"Very good" was not on the same level as the previous "not bad." "Not bad" was affirmation, while "very good" was praise. The difference was subtle, but everyone present could taste it.

Shen Qing put away the Medicinal Pill, his expression showing a bit more relief than the previous few batches.

Five batches later, from Low Grade to Medium Grade, and then to High Grade, every step was a polishing and accumulation of the True Meaning of Water.

That mouthful of essence blood was not a spur-of-the-moment decision; it was a decision he had made after the fourth batch ended.

For a Cultivator with a Water Spirit Body to use essence blood in Alchemy, the cost is that their cultivation level drops by a small Realm, and it would take at least a year to Cultivate back up.

This cost was not small, but in exchange for a High Grade nine-aperture golden spirit pill, it was by no means a loss, especially since it was during the Grand Competition.

Just as the crowd was still digesting Shen Qing's High Grade Medicinal Pill, Wu Chen's side had also reached the final moment.

The fifth batch of Spirit Medicine, after being processed by the medicine shovel, entered the Pill Furnace. The thirty-six streams of fine flames controlled the temperature in zones, and his synchronization Alchemy technique had been polished to the fluency of the third batch.

The first nine steps were completed in one go.

In the pill-forming stage, nine golden patterns took shape one by one under the forging pressure of the Glazed Pure Fire.

The quality of the first eight golden patterns was on par with the fourth batch, stable at the Medium Grade level, but the key lay in the ninth one.

When the ninth golden pattern condensed to eighty percent, Wu Chen's Spiritual Qi reserves were less than thirty percent.

The consumption of the Glazed Pure Fire to maintain zone temperature control was too great. That was the cost of synchronization Alchemy; everything was good, except that it consumed too much Spiritual Qi.

Wu Chen's right hand reached into his Storage Pouch and took out a palm-sized jade bottle.

The bottle was entirely translucent white, without any decorative patterns, and the mouth of the bottle was sealed with three Nascent Soul level Restrictions.

He lifted the Seal, and there was a drop of water inside the bottle.

It was a droplet circulating with seven-colored light, hovering above the mouth of the bottle, neither falling nor dispersing.

The Spiritual Qi within a ten-zhang radius rushed toward it the moment it appeared, being absorbed, converted, and released by it, forming a miniature Spiritual Qi tide.

"Heavenly Secret Spirit Liquid!"

It was unknown which Golden Core Elder on the high platform shouted out in shock.

Heavenly Secret Spirit Liquid is created by Nascent Soul Cultivators condensing the essence of heaven and earth with their own magic power. One drop is equivalent to the total Spiritual Qi of a Golden Core Cultivator's ten years of hard work, while also carrying the Law aura of the Nascent Soul level.

This kind of item has no circulation market in the Tianlan Immortal Realm, because no Nascent Soul Cultivator would take out their own essence to sell.

The Wu Family's Nascent Soul Ancestor had actually given him a drop.

No one thought it was given by True Monarch Yunyang, because he had more than one Disciple besides Wu Chen, and he likely wouldn't do something that consumed his own cultivation like this.

A drop of Heavenly Secret Spirit Liquid was introduced into the Pill Furnace by Wu Chen. After the Nascent Soul level Law aura fused with the Glazed Pure Fire, the quality of the Spiritual Qi in the Pill Furnace underwent a qualitative leap.

The unfinished half of the ninth golden pattern quickly solidified under the washing of the Law aura, and the depth of the pattern even exceeded the first eight.

Then the excess Spiritual Qi and Law aura were not wasted; they echoed in the Pill Furnace for a few breaths and fed back into the first eight golden patterns.

The quality of the eight golden patterns was simultaneously raised.

The treasure light flared brilliantly, and golden treasure light gushed out from the mouth of the furnace, turning into a brilliant golden rain in the independent space.

High Grade! And that wasn't all.

After the golden rain dissipated, two Medicinal Pills were floating in the Pill Furnace.

Two High Grade nine-aperture golden spirit pills.

The massive amount of Spiritual Qi provided by the Heavenly Secret Spirit Liquid allowed the advantage of the synchronization Alchemy technique to be fully unleashed. The medicinal power in the furnace was sufficient to condense two complete Medicinal Pills, and every single one was High Grade.

The whole venue was quiet for about three breaths, and then waves of sound surged from all directions.

"Two High Grade! Two High Grade in one batch!"

"The foundation of a Nascent Soul Family is too terrifying! They are even willing to take out Heavenly Secret Spirit Liquid to use!"

"This is no longer a question of talent; this is resource crushing. It's too exaggerated!!"

"You can't say it like that. The Heavenly Secret Spirit Liquid only filled the gap in Spiritual Qi; the previous synchronization Alchemy and pill-forming techniques were all Wu Chen's own ability. If you gave me a drop of Heavenly Secret Spirit Liquid, I still couldn't refine a High Grade pill."

The expressions of the two Wu Family Golden Core Elders changed from smugness to relief.

That drop of Heavenly Secret Spirit Liquid came from their own Old Ancestor and was originally intended for Wu Chen to use when breaking through to the Golden Core Realm, but they didn't expect this kid to use it in the Grand Competition.

He would probably get scolded when he went back, but as long as he took first place, it would be worth the scolding. The effect of the Wood Spirit was much better than the Heavenly Secret Spirit Liquid.

On the high platform, True Monarch Yunyang watched the screen of his own Disciple in silence for a few breaths; he did not offer any comments.

Beside him, True Monarch Iron-Face snorted: "The spirit liquid of that old thing from the Wu Family; he is truly willing to part with it."

True Monarch Yunyang was noncommittal; his gaze moved away from Wu Chen's screen and swept across the entire square.

Among the fifty screens, forty-nine had already dimmed. For the Disciples who had used up their Spirit Medicine, the light walls of their independent spaces dissipated on their own, and they returned to their positions on the square, sitting or standing while watching the light screens.

Only one screen was still lit.

The one on the far left of the first row.

Su Cheng.

Everyone's gaze on the square converged on that last screen.

In the screen, Su Cheng was sitting cross-legged in front of the Alchemy platform, the wanbao mirror Pill Furnace placed before him, the Abyssal Purple Fire not yet ignited.

On the platform in front of him, the box containing the last portion of Spirit Medicine was open, and the nine ingredients of Spirit Medicine were neatly arranged there.

From the end of the fourth batch until now, Su Cheng had kept his eyes closed for six days.

For six days, he had just sat there, motionless.

People outside could not feel what was happening in his Sea of Consciousness.

During these six days, Su Cheng had reviewed all the experience from the first four batches in his mind no less than a hundred times.

In the previous four batches, each batch had advanced a step compared to the last, but every step was missing just that little bit.

In his hundred repetitions of deduction, he had gradually touched upon an extremely subtle critical point.

After the Dao Rhyme was released from the Dantian to cover the Pill Furnace, the attenuation was reduced, but the precision of the release was also lowered.

The Dao Rhyme was not evenly distributed in the furnace; some places were thick and some were thin. Where it was thick, the golden patterns condensed well; where it was thin, the quality of the golden patterns was poor.

The slight gap in the ninth golden pattern of the fourth batch was not because there wasn't enough total Dao Rhyme, but because the distribution of Dao Rhyme in the furnace was uneven, and the ninth golden pattern happened to be in the location where the Dao Rhyme was thinnest.

Where was that location?

Su Cheng repeatedly simulated the distribution of the Spiritual Qi field of the released Dao Rhyme covering the Pill Furnace in his mind and finally found the answer.

After the wanbao mirror transformed into a Pill Furnace, the Five Elements Array Inscriptionss formed five Spiritual Qi grooves on the furnace wall.

These grooves were used to conduct Spiritual Qi, but at the same time, they would also absorb a small amount of external energy passing through the furnace wall.

When the Dao Rhyme was released from the Dantian to cover the Pill Furnace, a small portion would be additionally absorbed when passing through the five grooves.

This small portion was the very breath that the ninth golden pattern was missing.

There was only one solution: temporarily close the Five Elements Array Inscriptionss of the wanbao mirror.

Closing the Array Inscriptionss meant that the Pill Furnace function of the wanbao mirror would be downgraded, from the mid-grade Treasure Artifact level to the Low Grade Treasure Artifact level.

The output control of the Abyssal Purple Fire would become rough, the Spiritual Qi conduction efficiency would drop, and the difficulty of the entire Alchemy process would rise by a large margin.

But the loss of Dao Rhyme would be reduced to a minimum.

Was it worth it?

Su Cheng gave the answer in six days: It is worth it.

The eighty-eighth day, two days left until the end of the Grand Competition.

Only Su Cheng's light screen was still lit on the square, while the other forty-nine screens were all dark.

Forty-nine Disciples were scattered all over the square; some were exchanging insights, some were reviewing their own Alchemy processes, and some were secretly calculating the rankings.

But most people's gazes fell on the only lit screen on the light curtain.

"Is he finally going to move?"

"There are only two days left; I thought he had given up."

"Give up? Five Low Grade plus one Low Grade, what is his ranking now?"

(The Grand Competition was written a bit long, which is meant to increase the protagonist's reputation for the future; it will end immediately.)