Battle Through the Heavens

Pill Refinement was an extremely time consuming task. It was not rare for one to refine a medicinal pill for ten days to half a month…

The people seated here were clearly aware of this kind of situation. Therefore, they did not appear impatient because of the long wait. Most of those who could hurry to Holy Pill City to observe were those who had some strength. They also naturally possessed this kind of necessary patience.

Time quietly flowed by amid the countless number of anticipatory gazes. Five days quietly passed within the short blink of an eye.

The refinement in the sky had appeared quite calm during these five days. However, there would occasionally be some low, deep voices being emitted. These were the cauldron explosion sounds that were emitted when a problem appeared during the refinement.

There was also a small portion of alchemists who had successfully refined their medicinal pills during these five days. However, when their medicinal pills were refined, they understood that their participation in this competition had come to an end because the medicinal pills of a higher tier required a longer time. Those like them… could only be the characters who filled the bottom spots.

The gazes of the entire place did not linger on the small number of alchemists who had finished refining their medicinal pills. Most gazes were pausing on Cao Ying, Song Qing, and some of the other alchemist grandmasters with great reputations. They were aware that the competition between these people was where the most interesting part of this Pill Gathering lay.

Xiao Yan had made a mistake once during these five days. An extremely careless mistake while merging the Snow Bone Ginseng made him decisively abandon the refinement and choose to refine all over again.

Fortunately, no errors occurred when he merged the Snow Bone Ginseng a second time. After all, Xiao Yan had only prepared two sets of medicinal ingredients. If he were to fail, he would have to find some other method.

Xiao Yan’s shut eyes were slowly opened when the sun on the fifth day had risen to the middle of the sky. His expression was solemn as he looked at the interior of the medicinal cauldron. There were three clusters of medicinal liquids. These three things might appear inconspicuous, but they emitted a concentrated, pure medicinal strength that caused one shake…

These three types of things were the result of Xiao Yan’s refinement during these five days. Currently, his refinement had been successfully completed. Next, he needed to perfectly merge these three things together and calcinate them until they took an embryonic form before becoming a pill…

Merger was the most important step in pill refinement. Moreover, Xiao Yan currently did not possess many medicinal ingredients. He could not easily fail during this merger. Otherwise, he would not only exhaust time, but the exhaustion of one’s Spiritual Strength would also be terrifying. Refining a medicinal pill of this tier was quite a tiring event. How could it last for so long…

Xiao Yan tried his best to maintain his peak condition. His eyes swiftly glanced at Cao Ying in the distance. Old Mu Gu and the rest were currently controlling the medicinal cauldron within the flame with grave expressions. There was a faint energy ripple being spreading from them…

“The medicinal cauldron of these fellows are not ordinary items. They kept over half of the ripples in the medicinal cauldron. Otherwise, I would be able to guess just what tier the medicinal pill they were refining belonged to…

Xiao Yan slightly sighed in his heart when he saw the focused manner of Cao Ying and the others. He quickly withdrew his attention and inhaled a deep breath of hot air. His grave eyes turned to the interior of his medicinal cauldron. A thought passed through his mind and the Glazed Lotus Heart Flame lingering within the medicinal cauldron swiftly swept forth, wrapping around all three types of pure medicinal liquids!

The step of merging Medicinal Strength imposed a harsh requirement on the alchemists’ control ability. Even the slightest unexpected change during this period would lead to one’s effort going to waste.

Hence, this step was unusually important!

Xiao Yan clearly understood this point. Hence, he focused all of his attention. A mighty Spiritual Strength filled every corner of the medicinal cauldron. Any slight changes within it would instantly be fed to his mind.

Under Xiao Yan’s grave treatment, there was fortunately not many mistakes during the merger. Although this merger process was extremely slow, who would dare increase one’s speed at this moment.

Stability held the priority in everything!

The time required to merge medicinal strengths was the longest among all of the many pill refining steps. Xiao Yan’s merger continued for nearly ten days before it finally approached the end…

Time swiftly flowed by like sand between one’s fingers. Half a month passed within the blink of an eye. An increasing number of alchemists had refined their medicinal pills during this period. Hence, the competition grounds were filled with pill fragrances that would not scatter. After inhaling a breath of air, the tiredness that had resulted from the long wait had also suddenly disappeared…

Although an increasing number of competitors had successfully refined their medicinal pills, not a single one of those medicinal pills successfully stirred the appearance of Pill Lightning. The best among them merely stirred some dark clouds in the sky. However, not even the flash of lightning appeared within the clouds let alone a true Pill Lightning descending from it.

Not many people felt disappointed about this situation because they knew the Pill Gathering was gradually approaching its climax. The medicinal pills that were currently being refined had already climbed to the sixth tier. It was likely that a true tier 7 medicinal pill would be successfully refined very soon.

Xiao Yan ignored the change in the outside world. His eyes were unblinking as they remained locked on the interior of the medicinal cauldron. After ten long and slow days of merging the medicinal strengths, there was a vague fist-sized round-ball-like thing within the flame in his medicinal cauldron.

This small ball was formed from over a hundred medicinal ingredients’ essence strength. However, the medicinal pill was still only in its embryonic form…

Although it could not even be called an embryonic form, the most difficult refinement step was at least over. Next, as long as Xiao Yan’s condition was stable, he would truly be able to refine this Bone Growing Blood Fusing Pill!

However, before the complete pill formed, he still require some brewing time.

“Bang!”

The deep sound of thunder suddenly resounded over the sky above the somewhat hot area. Immediately, countless numbers of eyes were shifted over. They saw that dark clouds had unknowingly appeared in the sky. However, the interior of these dark clouds emitted rumbling thunder, clearly a sign of Pill Lightning forming.

“Pill Lightning? There is a tier 7 medicinal pill that is about to be born!”

An uproar resounded over the stadium when everyone saw the unusual phenomenon in the sky. Immediately, a countless number of gazes were gathered on a stone platform below the sky. A middle-aged man was looking at the thunder cloud in the sky with wild joy on his face. He was the first person who had attracted Pill Lightning.

The appearance of Pill Lightning had attracted the attention of Xiao Yan, who had been focusing his mind on brewing the medicinal pill. His narrowed eyes were slightly widened. After glancing at the thunder clouds in the distant sky, he nodded his head a little. Based on this weak Pill Lightning, it was likely that the medicinal pill being born should be a tier 7 low grade level.

Xiao Yan’s eyes took a glance before being withdrawn. His gaze once again turned to Cao Ying and the rest and his heart involuntarily jumped. This time around, he could vaguely sense the energy ripples being emitted from within the medicinal cauldron of the few of them. From the looks of these fluctuations, it was likely the medicinal pills they were refining were not ordinary things…

“There is really a great amount of pressure. I wonder if I will be able to become the champion by relying on this Bone Growing Blood Fusing Pill. If this is insufficient, it is likely that I could only…”

Xiao Yan’s eyes also slightly flickered when he thought until this point. He bitterly laughed before withdrawing his thoughts. Who cares. Currently, the most important thing was to sit back and observe. That thing was merely his final tactic.

Within just half a day after the first Pill Lightning appeared, some thunder clouds began to gather in the sky again. Moreover, looking at the strength of these thunder clouds, they were clearly stronger than earlier. Clearly, there should be a competitor who had refined a medicinal pill of a better grade.

This subsequent period of time had become lively with two to three Pill Lightnings appearing everyday. The density of these Pill Lightnings were not uniform. However, based on Xiao Yan’s guess, the highest grade medicinal pill should only be that of a tier 7 middle grade…

The square had also become unusually lively due to the occasional Pill Lightning that appeared. The dispiritedness of a couple of days earlier had completely disappeared. Each time a tier 7 medicinal pill was born, it would attract quite a number of coveting eyes. A medicinal pill of this grade possessed an extremely great allure to most experts. Except those who had already advanced to the Dou Zun class.

Bang bang bang!

Pill Lightning, which was usually rare to see, had become commonplace in the sky. This caused quite a number of people to feel like this was an eye-opening experience.

Following the flow of time, there were fewer and fewer stone platforms with flames still rising. In the end, there were basically less than fifty. However, everyone knew that those who remained were definitely the top existences within the alchemist world across the Dou Qi continent. If things did not deviate from expectations, the champion of this Pill Gathering would be born among these remaining people!

The atmosphere had unknowingly become serious and more tense as the crowd watched the rising pill fires that rose over the dozens of stone platforms. Those present understood that the most intense competition was about to begin!