307: Chapter 307 He used the Divine Soul Secret Technique

"Seventh, the quantity is large but all are Low Grade. Plus, the success rate for forming pills must be calculated; he failed two furnaces.

Wu Chen has two High Grade, three Medium Grade, one waste pill, and one Low Grade; with the weighting of Medium and High Grade, he is firmly in first place.

Shen Qing has one High Grade, two Medium Grade, and two Low Grade, taking second place.

Zhou Mingyuan has one Medium Grade and three Low Grade, taking third place."

"Even if Su Cheng produces a Low Grade in the final furnace, his ranking won't change much."

"He probably wants to try and see if he can fight for a Medium Grade."

No one thought Su Cheng could fight for a High Grade, and not many even thought he could fight for a Medium Grade.

Su Cheng's impression throughout the journey was that he was "struggling against himself." Every furnace he tried a new method, and every furnace seemed a little better than the last, but it was limited, and still couldn't reach that threshold of Medium Grade.

Wu Chen had the Spirit Fluid of Heavenly Opportunity, Shen Qing had the True Intent of Water plus essence blood, what did Su Cheng have?

This question had been asked since the end of the second round, and to this day, no one could give a convincing answer.

The wanbao mirror Pill Furnace, the Nether Abyss Exotic Fire, the special cyan spiritual power—his preparation was indeed not bad, but compared to Wu Chen and Shen Qing, it was still lacking.

Su Cheng stood up in the independent space, and then he did something that surprised everyone.

He pressed his hand against the wall of the wanbao mirror Pill Furnace, and spiritual power surged in, but he wasn't lighting the fire; instead, he was shutting something down.

Five-colored spiritual light extinguished one by one on the furnace wall.

Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth—the five Array Inscriptions circuits dimmed one by one.

The spiritual power fluctuation of the entire Treasure Artifact Pill Furnace dropped by two grades within ten breaths.

"What is he doing?"

"Shutting down the Array Inscriptions? He turned off the Array Inscriptions of the Pill Furnace?"

"Is he crazy? The Five Elements Array Inscriptions inside the Pill Furnace is the core function. How can he refine pills after turning it off?"

The Golden Core Elders on the high platform were also full of confusion, and some even suspected that Su Cheng had made an operational error.

The Five Elements Array Inscriptions of the wanbao mirror was a multi-stage spiritual power interface personally designed by Sun Boyong, which could be independently switched on and off; this was a feature reserved during the initial upgrade.

After Su Cheng turned off the Five Elements Array Inscriptions, the grade of the wanbao mirror fell from a mid-grade Treasure Artifact to a Low Grade Treasure Artifact.

The spiritual power environment inside the furnace became much rougher, and the temperature control precision of the Abyssal Purple Fire dropped by thirty percent.

This meant that every subsequent operation required him to invest more Qi of Creation to compensate for the lack of Pill Furnace functionality.

In other words, he had actively raised the difficulty of the final furnace.

Using more consumption of Qi of Creation to exchange for less loss during the conduction of the Dao Rhyme.

He was betting that at the moment of condensing the pill, the Dao Rhyme could support nine golden inscriptions.

Su Cheng did not rush to light the fire; instead, he did one thing first.

He formed seals with both hands, and his Divine Sense rotated and converged rapidly in his Sea of Consciousness. The Divine Soul power scattered throughout his Sea of Consciousness was forcibly pulled away from its original position and gathered toward the center of the Sea of Consciousness.

Spirit Gathering Technique.

He had bought this second-grade Medium Grade Divine Soul Spell from the Dharma Transmission Pavilion several years ago, and after mastering it, he had practiced it many times, but he had never officially used it in actual combat or Alchemy.

The reason was simple: the price of the Spirit Gathering Technique was quite high. During the casting period, his perception of the external environment dropped to the bottom, effectively turning himself into a blind and deaf person, with only that mass of Divine Soul power concentrated to the extreme available for use.

Using this in battle was courting death.

But refining pills in this independent space, there were no external enemies and no interference.

He only needed to refine pills, and even if there were slight, weak aftereffects later, it didn't matter.

After the Spell was activated, the process of the Divine Soul power gathering toward the center made Su Cheng somewhat uncomfortable. The perception at the edge of his Sea of Consciousness dimmed piece by piece, and his hearing, touch, and temperature perception changed from clear to blurred in sequence.

In the end, Su Cheng could only perceive three things: the Pill Furnace in front of him, the Abyssal Purple Fire inside the Pill Furnace, and the layer of spiritual power where his ten fingertips touched the Pill Furnace.

But in exchange, his Divine Soul strength was forcibly pulled from the Late Foundation Establishment Stage to the Foundation Establishment Peak.

"Hmm?"

On the high platform, True Monarch Iron-Face's gaze fell on Su Cheng's light screen, appearing somewhat puzzled.

"He used a secret technique to raise his Divine Soul to the Foundation Establishment Peak." True Monarch Wanxiang next to him also said, puzzled, "What is this kid trying to do? Is he ignoring the risk of an unstable Dao Heart?"

They already knew Su Cheng's Divine Soul strength from the first two rounds. His spiritual power cultivation was Early Foundation Establishment Stage, but his Divine Soul strength had reached the Late Foundation Establishment Stage. Although this was quite exaggerated, it wasn't too outrageous.

After all, it was normal for an Alchemist's Divine Soul cultivation to be stronger than their spiritual power cultivation, and looking at Su Cheng, it didn't seem to have affected him.

But now Su Cheng had used the Spirit Gathering Technique, pulling his Late Foundation Establishment Stage Divine Soul up another level, topping it out at the Foundation Establishment Peak.

She didn't quite understand why Su Cheng dared to use it. After all, there was a time limit after the Spirit Gathering Technique was cast. Did this kid want to refine a Medium Grade or even High Grade Medicinal Pill within three hours?

Different positions naturally lead to different understandings. From True Monarch Wanxiang's perspective, spiritual power is the body, and the Divine Soul is the heart.

There is an old saying in the Cultivation world: Spiritual power is the body, Divine Soul is the heart; if the two are unbalanced, it is easy for the Dao Heart to become unstable.

For an average person, let alone refining pills, just maintaining daily cultivation without suffering Qi Deviation would be considered having a hard life.

True Monarch Iron-Face scanned Su Cheng's body with his Divine Sense for a few breaths, and his expression became somewhat surprised.

"There is actually no sign of imbalance. This child's Dao Foundation is much thicker than ordinary people, and his Meridians are also wide. I suppose he can withstand it."

This was even more outrageous. A thick Dao Foundation meant the quality of spiritual power far exceeded those of the same rank, and wide Meridians meant a large throughput. Coupled with the already abnormally high Divine Soul strength...

What kind of Cultivation Technique did this young man practice? Or was it some special Physique? It didn't look like it!

Although they were Nascent Soul True Lords, they had truly never seen such a situation before.

The three Nascent Soul True Lords exchanged a glance and tacitly decided not to continue discussing it.

After all, they had said beforehand: regardless of whether the Disciples' Opportunities were big or small, the Sect could accommodate them.

Then let's watch; perhaps the follow-up would give them the answer.

The reaction of the Disciples in the square was naturally a bit slower. After all, their perception at the Foundation Establishment Stage was limited, and most people only realized it afterward through the changes in the fluctuations of the Divine Soul around Su Cheng on the light screen.

"He used a Divine Soul secret technique." Zhou Mingyuan was the first to speak, his True Intent of Fire giving him extremely keen tactile perception of energy fluctuations. "Divine Soul strength... Foundation Establishment Peak?"

"What? Foundation Establishment Peak!" The Disciple next to him exclaimed, "But his cultivation is only Early Foundation Establishment Stage!"

"How is this possible..."

"It's just a secret technique amplification; it can't last too long." Someone tried to remain calm. "The problem is that his basic cultivation is only at the Early Foundation Establishment Stage. Even if his Divine Soul reaches the Peak, what's the use if his spiritual power reserves can't keep up?"

The Golden Core Elders in the viewing area were also whispering. These old guys looked at the problem from a different angle than the Disciples; they were not concerned with "how it was done," but "what it meant."

A Cultivator at the Early Foundation Establishment Stage having a Divine Soul at the Late Foundation Establishment Stage level in daily life meant that his Divine Soul cultivation speed was far faster than his spiritual power cultivation speed.

This was not uncommon among Alchemy Cultivators, but the gap was so large that it was rare.

Thinking of the layer of cyan spiritual power Su Cheng had used when refining pills earlier, which had zero separation from the Spirit Medicine, and then thinking of that flash of cyan light from the furnace...

Elder Qingmu held his teacup, his gaze never leaving the light screen. He couldn't even describe his own mood now.

When he first took Su Cheng as an apprentice, he just felt that this young man had a good Heart-Nature and high talent, but because he himself mainly cultivated the Way of Grass and Wood, he didn't have high hopes for Su Cheng's future after entering his Peak.

Who would have thought that he had actually raised a True Dragon.

"Old Qingmu, are you still bragging that it's wind?" Elder Chiyang leaned over.