Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

It was shocking for sure when Leafheart, the winner of the last competition, managed to go through the rings in a record time of 22 minutes.

But when an old man, with wispy white hair by the name of Windborn, managed to do it in just 20 minutes, the shock was far greater. No one had seen it coming at all.

It was confusing how a man of his caliber had managed to slip through the previous competition without topping the list. He didn’t even seem to have any special cauldron or flames, which made the display of his skills all the more amazing.

Skylight, Lakelily’s disciple, seemed similar to Jai Heiyun. He was talented, but he was far too young, with too weak a cultivation base to perform better than the average contestants in the competition. Still, he managed to do better than Jai Heiyun, finishing in around 39 minutes.

The rest of the participants weren’t impressive compared to what had already been presented. They were good, but being good no longer guaranteed a top spot.

From what Alex could tell, the average time was still around the 50-minute mark, as more people failed than succeeded and had to remake pills. The tiny 5% increase in the harmony requirement from the last competition was throwing everyone off.

Days passed as the competition continued, and finally, the numbers ticked down until it was Alex’s turn.

They began calling out the numbers one by one, until they stopped at Aethersage.

Alex wasn’t called.

“Wait, it stops at me?” Aethersage said. “Hey! That’s quite lucky.”

“Lucky?” Killersky said from the side. “I don’t know. Not putting the second and third place holders from the last competition in the same batch probably isn’t just luck.”

Alex thought for a moment. “Do you think so?” he asked.

“It’s obvious to me, at least. They want to test you. They won’t put their best against each other this early on. They’re keeping you separate,” Killersky said.

Alex had to agree in the end. Even though he hadn’t expected the competition holders to make such decisions, it did make sense.

Aethersage left for his turn, walking away with 127 other contestants. Once it started, he brought out the new cauldron Moonshard, which had once belonged to the Fourth Alchemy God.

Alex knew this cauldron had a cauldron spirit, and he wondered how it helped Aethersage.

Aethersage began making pills, and while many thought he was making a single pill at a time, it was evident from his use of ingredients that he was making more than just a few pills simultaneously.

Just a little over six minutes later, he had a batch of pills ready, which he quickly handed over before passing through the gates. He walked through seven rings before stopping at the eighth and began making pills again.

Another six or seven minutes later, he passed through seven more rings, arriving in front of the fifteenth. The speed at which Aethersage advanced was mind-boggling. He was even faster than the old man Windborn, who had managed to finish in 20 minutes.

Sure, the pills he made were helpful, but there had to be something else enabling him to make seven pills in just seven minutes.

‘That cauldron… it’s impressive,’ Alex thought.

The last six rings were easy for Aethersage. By then, he was alone and managed to pass through them before anyone else arrived. He completed all the rings in just 19 minutes and 27 seconds, with six seconds added because he had been slower than his opponent for the first three rings.

Before Alex was even called to receive his set of ingredients, Aethersage was already back in the room. The shock on everyone’s faces was apparent, and Aethersage seemed to bask in it.

“There you go, Brother Dawnblade,” he said. “Try beating that.”

Alex watched Aethersage sit back down and glanced at the time. Nineteen minutes for 20 different pills was absolutely insane in his eyes. The man had definitely done something incredible, especially given that he had made up to seven pills in the same cauldron.

Alex knew he could do it, but it was a lot of work. This was definitely not the fastest approach he knew of. He looked up at the maze and then at the time. Closing his eyes, he reviewed everything he had learned.

Every advantage, every flaw—there were things that others were missing, albeit for obvious reasons, that he wasn’t going to overlook.

After enough consideration, he was ready.

When the next batch was called, he was the first to step forward. He was handed the sets of ingredients to be used. The bag contained a total of 60 sets of ingredients—three sets for each pill, just in case one failed.

Alex immediately decided how he would approach these pills. Then, he used the remaining time to prepare himself physically and mentally.

The current batch of contestants finished their turn, and it was Alex’s turn next. He stood and made his way to where the staff called them.

They were checked to ensure they had no additional storage artifacts and were required to place their cauldrons into the storage bags provided, before the medallion from the first competition would be placed on them for the period of this competition.

They were not allowed to bring anything else out during the competition and this was to ensure that.

Alex could’ve brought out many cauldrons, but he brought out only Memory.

Perhaps the obvious strategy would have been to make many pills at once using multiple cauldrons at the same time, but Alex didn’t think that was the right answer here, not when it came to speed. He had identified an issue that no one else had exploited in the competition, and he planned to take full advantage of it.

Whether it was a good idea or not, only time would tell. If it wasn’t, he would still pass the competition without much trouble.

But if it did work, he knew for certain that he would win.