Battle Frenzy

“This is really a tragedy. However, it is precisely this kind of tragic outcome that shows how valuable ‘humanity’ is. How will they fight? I am very curious.”

“I wasn’t satisfied with his previous battle with the bone demon. This battle is much more interesting. How far can humans reach?”

The aristocrats, who had received the news about the Arena teaser advertisement through their communication devices, grew excited. To them, morals or the fates of gladiators were no more than a game. Furthermore, they expected an endless pursuit for the most thrilling programs for this game.

In the prison cell…

The candle demon smiled and told Aiolos and Tsarilorhuan about this terrifying piece of news. Behind him was a squadron of suppressors. If they did not obey, the suppressors would take special measures to ensure that this life-and-death battle progressed successfully.

However, Aiolos and Tsarilorhuan’s emotions did not fluctuate much. Aiolos expressionlessly looked at the soldiers who were ready to suppress them. They were all good-for-nothings. However, their equipment linked with the restraints in Aiolos and Tsarilorhuan’s bodies. As long as the soldiers touched them, they would strip him of his ability to draw spiritual power.

However, this was not an absolute suppression. The flaw in these restraints was that they could prohibit their ability to draw spiritual power from the outside world, but they could not stop them from using the power in their bodies, regardless of whether it was spiritual power or even Soul Power.

Meanwhile, the corners of Tsarilorhuan’s mouth spat out a cold, mocking laugh. He could imagine how dirty the deals behind this arrangement were. He even suspected whether his fellow Titans had stepped foot into this. As he had rejected some “help” from them, they felt some humiliation. Thus, they hoped that he could kill Aiolos with his own hands, and would not be able to leave this place with Aiolos. —— The Titans did not think that the so-called human Master could defeat the noble silver electric Titan, even though he had proven himself in countless tough battles and even defeated the Invincible Skeleton from the Bone race.

After the candle demon confirmed their condition, he maintained his routine smile and led the suppression squadron away.

Aiolos turned around and looked at Tsarilorhuan. Their composure was because they had expected this a long time ago. If there were no more suitable candidates that could defeat and kill them, they could only make use of the “brothers fall out” path.

They had already discussed how they would face it when this kind of situation occurred.

“As we have discussed previously, when we go into the Arena, we cannot have a passive battle, let alone give any mercy. There will definitely be many more aristocrats watching this battle than there are clouds in the sky. If we disappoint them, it will no longer just concern you and I. It will also involve our family and friends, even our civilization.”

Aiolos nodded his head. He knew what Tsari meant. The rage of any random aristocrat could turn into a terrifying disaster for the Earth.

“If I die…”

“I will help Earthlings to the greatest extent. Likewise, if I’m the one who dies, please help me to take care of my younger sister…”

“Aren’t you afraid that I might have thoughts toward your younger sister?” Aiolos laughed. He tried his best to find a joke that could ease the atmosphere.

“You can try!” Tsarilorhuan flashed an intentful smile and then grew stern again. “If you are the one who survives, you must be careful of the Seductress race. I feel that Undine is very different. Her position in the Seductress race is very strange…”

…

As he had managed to watch a good show, the Titan supervisor gave them a long break of half a month.

When the supervisor’s mood was not good, he would announce a holiday to rest. When he was in a good mood, he would announce a holiday to celebrate. Either way, there were many reasons for having a holiday. He was truly willful. As a result, the pupils from the Combat Cultivation Hall were speechless. Luckily, he gave everyone a secret spiritual power palm control technique and told everyone about the importance of details through the Life and Death Arena. Then, he allowed the pupils to investigate and verify by themselves.

It seemed like the final deciding factor was the natural ice endowments, right? All the pupils could not fight back against this.

Without any classes to attend, they were free to do as they wish. During times like these, the large majority of Combat Cultivation Hall pupils had nothing to do. They were the most idle out of all the idlers in the Heavenly Gates. Putting aside their batch, as well as the fact that the Combat Cultivation Hall had the most classes, the Combat Cultivation Hall had always been like this. When they did not have classes, they would stroll around the streets, participate in activities organized by their associations, or invite three or four good friends to spend extravagantly in the Heavenly Gates Street and maintain the so-called Combat Cultivation Hall social circle. This was the daily life of the Combat Cultivation Hall pupils in the Heavenly Gates. Without the permission of the Heavenly Gates, pupils were not allowed to travel to the Dimensional World at will.

However, Lao Wang was obviously a different breed from them. Recently, he did not even have the time to cultivate his Devouring Heaven Technique, let alone stroll along the streets or participate in association activities. Ever since the battle at the Life and Death Arena, Lao Wang finally got peace and quiet and threw the effects of this battle to the back of his mind. Over the past 10 days, he had devoted his heart and soul into the pill houses almost every day.

For the first two days, he mainly focused on turning his remaining Vitality Supplement Pill ingredients into pills.

With pill refinery experience and self-adjustment over this period of time, Lao Wang’s success rate in refining Vitality Supplement Pills was relatively high. His success rate was definitely a stable 100%. He had not experienced the taste of his furnace exploding more than a few times. Of course, just forming pills was not enough to display Lao Wang’s terrifying standard, as what was more frightening was the quality of his refining. One could no longer find 60% pills as even the pills of poorest quality started at 70%. In particular, 70% pills made up 40% of all the pills he refined. Meanwhile, 80% pills made up another 40%, and 90% pills made up 20% of all the pills! Although he still did not have the luck of refining 100% perfect pills, there was no doubt that he had reached the peak of Vitality Supplement Pill refinery and was very skilled. Even if he closed his eyes, he could rely on his senses to carry out the actions perfectly.

In Nini’s words, the pursuit of pill refinery was never to reach 100% perfection. If one was occasionally able to refine 100% pills, one could only attribute that to luck. Many alchemists were the crazy kind. Occasionally, they were able to perform extremely well and were able to refine 100% perfect pills purely based on feeling. However, they frequently made small mistakes, causing their furnace to explode. This kind of person seemed impressive but would never be able to become a Pill Grand Master. Only stable alchemists like Lao Wang were said to have terrifying natural talents in pill studies that were worthy of praise.

This kind of natural endowment was not by chance. It was obvious that Wang Zhong’s precise control over spiritual power was unheard of. Regardless of whether it was his divine cells or his Spirit Sea, they were the domains that Wang Zhong was most skilled in. It was the same when it came to pill refinery. Furthermore, he had always been pursuing the comprehension of his core, which gradually became clearer to him.

Deep down, Lao Wang desired to achieve the Void Core Realm. He had abused his divine cells during the previous battle. Their might was decent, but its supplementation of power was too slow, and its pool of power was too shallow. It could not sustain him for long battles or support even more powerful combat techniques.

He had not been able to obtain a stronger method, and when Nini and Jhonas chatted, as they did on occasion, they realized that there did not seem to be any technique that was as simple and as crude as the Devouring Heaven Technique. Furthermore, throughout the process of pill refinery, he had become even more skilled in the Devouring Heaven Technique. With the assistance of the level-9 Vitality Supplement Pill, his spiritual power had been increasing steadily as well.

In essence, techniques increased one’s spiritual power. Before he accumulated his Void Core, and before there were any advanced changes in his cultivation, the Devouring Heaven Technique would definitely be considered a peak Foundational Stage technique. Some said that the accumulation of one’s Void Core was related to techniques. This was the main reason why Lao Wang longed for other techniques so that he could refer to them. However, even more people said that techniques and one’s core were completely unrelated.

Accumulating one’s core was equivalent to an evolution in life and the process of transforming one’s soul. This did not simply involve increasing one’s spiritual power. One could also rely on supplementary techniques or their own comprehension. There were various arguments supporting this. As for more concrete factors, both Nini and Jhonas could not clearly explain them. They could only say that they came naturally.

Of course, Lao Wang knew that one could not force the accumulation of one’s Core. He was not anxious. Over the past few days, he had refined the last batch of Vitality Supplement Pills to familiarize himself with the feeling of pill refinery, including the various growths he had experienced. This was all preparation for his next action: the Yin and Yang Pill!

Uncle Sea had sent the prescription and ingredients for the Yin and Yang Pill over. Over the past few days, while he refined the Vitality Supplement Pill, he also used his fragment world to improve the quality of these ingredients at the same time. However, most of these ingredients had been bought from the Netherworld Faction and were already of decent quality. Thus, the effects of the fragment world on their quality was limited. Of course, the amount of time spent also decreased. If not, nurturing a batch of medicinal ingredients for a level-8 pill was not something that could be done in a few days.

According to the requirements in the contract that Uncle Sea had sent, he had to sell at least 100 Yin and Yang Pills to the Faction every month for half a year. Of course, the pieces would be according to market rates. This was the basic condition of the entire agreement. If this condition could not be met, the consequences of breaking the agreement were relatively severe. They would have to pay a terrifying penalty, and even selling the entire Heavenly Treasures Street would not be able to cover this penalty.

After signing this agreement, Uncle Sea could not fall asleep until he saw the refined Yin and Yang Pills. However, Wang Zhong was still as big-hearted as before. After slowly making sufficient preparations, he brought Nini and closed himself in the pill house once again.

This time, he still rented a beginner-level pill house. It was not that he could not bear to use a better one, nor was it because he could not use a better one. Most important was that he had just started to learn pill refinery. Recently, he had been using the Abstruse Ice Bronze Furnace and was obviously more familiar with this. To a newbie, the best might not necessarily be the most suitable for them. They could only perform their best with the most suitable equipment on hand.

A level-8 pill seemed to only be one level higher from what he had been refining, but the difficulty level instantly multiplied by many times.

Lao Wang had studied the Yin and Yang Pill prescription. There were over a hundred main and supplementary ingredients, which was more than twice that of the Vitality Supplement Pill. The more complex the ratio of ingredients was, the higher the demands for arrangement of ingredients, control of the fire, control of the medicinal properties, and other factors would be. Amidst the complex process, each additional arrangement of ingredients would mean a higher risk of failure. Furthermore, the addition of every medicinal ingredient would mean that there would be many changes in the combination of pill properties.

There were even more things to analyze and grasp. Even the volume of operations had increased greatly. Furthermore, there was another difficult thing about the Yin and Yang Pill that ordinary level-8 pills did not require. It was to ensure that the yin and yang properties were balanced throughout the process of pill refinery. Coincidentally, this was the aspect that Wang Zhong was lacking most in pill refinery…

The first half of pill refinery tested one’s basics, while the second half tested one’s experience. Meanwhile, wrapping up pill refinery tested one’s accumulated knowledge of pill refinery. These few minutes seemed easy but were the most difficult part of pill refinery. The difficulty of the Yin and Yang Pill was in the process of forming the pill. For a Foundational Stage newbie who had not even accumulated his Core, one could well imagine the terrifying difficulty of this.

Typically, without the experience of refining 10 to 20 different level-9 pills, the large majority of alchemists would not even dare to think about refining level-8 pills, let alone refining pills like the Yin and Yang Pills, which were said to be very difficult among the level-8 pills. Wang Zhong was the only one who dared to simply jump into the level-8 Yin and Yang Pill after refining one kind of level-9 pill. Even Nini, who was extremely confident of him, felt worried for him.

At that moment, the door of the pill house was shut tight. When it came to the detailed preparatory steps, including checking the pill furnace, counting the medicinal ingredients, dealing with the ingredients, and so on, Lao Wang personally completed them very carefully.

Even though there were many trivial things to do, Lao Wang had no intention of asking Nini for help. Not only was this his preparation before refining pills, it was also an extremely important ceremony. He could only calm himself down if he did everything himself and understood everything clearly. Good habits were nurtured from the very beginning. Many newbies were anxious to explore profound pill studies at the beginning stages of learning but ignored these seemingly trivial chores. In reality, this was a start that destined them to failure.

Once all the preparations were complete, he controlled the fire and started the furnace!

The demands for refining the Yin and Yang Pill were different from refining the Vitality Supplement Pill. The few basic ingredients for the Vitality Supplement Pill that were placed in the furnace did not have a high melting point. Their medicinal properties were also rather gentle and balanced. Thus, when he started the furnace, he had to start with an appropriate temperature that was not too hot. This was a relatively ordinary beginning.

However, for the Yin and Yang Pill, it started off with eight ingredients that offset one another.

The Extreme Fire Vine, the Scorching Star Grass, the Kalazanye Gold Spirit, and the Burning Phoenix Feathers were extremely tyrannical yang ingredients.

The Netherworld River Spring, the Heavenly River Crystal, the Abstruse Crystal Moonlight Grass, and the Demon Horse Fruit were extremely dark yin ingredients.

Neutralizing ingredients with clashing yin and yang medicinal properties was not just difficult. Just meeting the requirements of the furnace temperature when inserting the ingredients was much more arduous than that for the Vitality Supplement Pill. However, he had discussed and rehearsed the techniques with Nini. Now, it depended on how he performed.

Under the activation of Wang Zhong’s spiritual power, the Fire Quartz was heating up the furnace in a systematic manner. Instead of heating up the entire furnace like last time, it simply heated up the left side of the furnace. Furthermore, he also had to use the high temperature on the left side of the furnace to violate conventional rules and cause the right side to freeze completely.

Under normal circumstances, this required some methods to assist in controlling the fire. It was called the Split Control Technique and allowed one to control two different temperatures at the same time. This was considered one of the most basic methods among beginner fire-control methods. Some higher-leveled Split Control Techniques allowed one to control a few or even several dozen different temperatures in the furnace at the same time. One could even completely maintain an orderly state.

However, even though this basic version was not very difficult, it increased the amount of work and increased the rate of mistakes. To a newbie, the new method of controlling fire for the Yin and Yang Pill was already a massive challenge. Luckily, the material of the Abstruse Ice Bronze Furnace had a special characteristic that made the accumulation of heat extremely focused. By using a runic array on the furnace, it would cause all the heat in the furnace to accumulate to the left, causing the right to become colder.

Of course, just this was not enough. Half of the Yin and Yang Pill had yin properties, while the other half had yang properties. If these properties did not move, the pill would be a dead object and could not be called the Yin and Yang Pill. Thus, the furnace heat had to rotate, and yin and yang had to take turns. He would use the heat to push the cold air, while the cold air spurred along the heat, forming an internal cycle and balancing the temperature in the furnace. This involved yet another new technique… The level-8 pill was only one level above level-9, but there was an all-rounded jump in techniques from the very beginning.

Even though he had rehearsed and understood everything clearly, this was only easy in words. One would only know how difficult it was when it actually came to doing.

Lao Wang had failed four or five times just in the beginning stages of heating up the furnace, as well as creating a natural exchange between yin and yang through the heat and the cold air in the furnace. Luckily, this was only the beginning stage. If he threw in four or five batches of ingredients just to fail, he should not even think of refining the Yin and Yang Pill.

On the contrary, the consecutive failures made Wang Zhong think that this was even more interesting. He had refined the Vitality Supplement Pill until he wanted to puke. When he suddenly jumped levels and played with this “advanced” toy, it was normal to be unfamiliar with it. It did not seem to shake his confidence. This time, the key was not just in controlling the fire but also the spurring and integration of yin and yang. This was slightly important towards accumulating his Core. This was simply the most visual way to display a mature environment for accumulating one’s Core. The key was in the individual’s comprehension and their grasp of pill studies.

Beside him, Nini continued to guide him on the exchange between yin and yang, as well as the fusion when these two forces pushed each other forward. She also explained some new details about controlling the fire, tricks for the Split Control Technique, as well as her understanding of the integration and exchange of yin and yang. Wang Zhong was also rapidly growing and quickly controlled the Yin and Yang Fire perfectly.

Lao Wang was not anxious either. He felt that his understanding and control of the Yin and Yang Fire was insufficient. He might not be able to completely control this batch of pills with his current methods.

Either way, this was only the beginning, and he had only used up a Fire Quartz, not ingredients. Wang Zhong simply gave up and started again.

He did so 17 or 18 times. When the second Fire Quartz was gradually exhausted by this constant repetition, Wang Zhong finally felt that he was gradually becoming skilled and stable in his control. After repeatedly succeeding and giving up to explore, the entire furnace adjusted to the process of exchange between yin and yang.

“Just about right.” Wang Zhong was sure of what he felt and silently nodded his head. This time, he finally did not have to repeat the process. He simply pressed his hand on the lid of the furnace. Then, he opened the furnace and arranged the ingredients!

…

The starting and ending stages of refining the Yin and Yang Pill were the most difficult. Although the process of arranging medicinal ingredients and refining the pill in the middle became complicated and long because of the diverse ingredients involved, these were the relatively easy stages. Refining the Vitality Supplement Pill earlier had laid the foundation, providing some of the necessary skills and experience for this complicated refinery process. As a result, this process was methodical and safe.

He continued with the entire process. When the first batch of pills entered the pill-forming stage, a full eight hours had passed.