Chapter 302: Sweeping

Under Xiao Ming's almost fierce refining, most of the medicinal materials were transformed into the required medicinal liquids and powders in just over an hour.

Despite refining so many medicinal materials, Xiao Ming's complexion remained calm. However, his gaze turned to the three jade boxes in front of him, and a hint of solemnity flashed in his eyes.

While he could be extravagant with other medicinal materials, these three main medicinal materials had to be handled with great care.

With a flick of his finger, the lid of a jade box flew off, revealing a piece of greenish-brown with rich vitality seeping from it. This was one of the necessary ingredients for refining the Bone Growing Blood Fusing Pill - the Thousand Year Old Green Spiritual Vine.

Looking at the vine, Xiao Ming hesitated for a moment before tossing it into the medicinal cauldron and focusing his attention on controlling the flame temperature.

Inside the cauldron, the flames burned fiercely, but the seemingly fragile Thousand Year Old Green Spiritual Vine did not change at all under the high temperature. If one looked closely, one could see a faint glow emanating from the vine, isolating it from the heat.

All heaven and earth spiritual materials have a self-protective function, and Xiao Ming was not surprised by this. He had encountered this situation countless times before.

Maintaining the temperature, Xiao Ming closed his eyes and focused on refining the Thousand Year Old Green Spiritual Vine. It would take quite some time, and he could not afford to be impatient.

As Xiao Ming had expected, the refining process took nearly half a day.

The Thousand Year Old Green Spiritual Vine gradually broke apart, and a drop of green sap emerged from the cracks. After the surface of the vine was fully broken, the next steps were much easier.

After spending another hour or so, Xiao Ming had completely transformed the vine into a green liquid, suspended in the flames, wriggling like it had a life of its own.

Looking at the green liquid, Xiao Ming breathed a sigh of relief. He then waved his hand, and the various powders and liquids that were floating in the corner of the cauldron quickly flew into the green liquid under his full control.

Xiao Ming did a perfect job in the first step of fusion, and after about an hour, a sticky mass was suspended on the white flame. The first step of the refinement was a complete success.

After completing the first step, Xiao Ming took a short break and then focused his attention on the more complicated refinement process that followed.

...

Alchemy was an extremely time-consuming process, especially when it came to refining pills. Often, it took ten days or even half a month to refine a single pill, and this was not uncommon.

However, everyone present was well aware of this situation, so they did not appear impatient due to the long wait. Most of the people who could come to observe the process in Holy Pill City were mostly individuals with some level of strength and the necessary patience was naturally required.

Moreover, there were many alchemists present who could watch so many master alchemists refining pills up close, and they hoped that the time taken would be even longer.

Under the gaze of those expectant eyes, time quietly passed by. In the blink of an eye, four days had passed.

During these four days, the refining process on the square appeared to be quite calm, but occasionally there were low-pitched sounds, which were caused by some alchemists encountering problems in the refining process, resulting in the explosion of their cauldrons.

If the prepared medicinal materials were not sufficient and the cauldron exploded, they could only leave the competition with regret.

Three people have already left the competition, including the scruffy old man called Yan Tian whom Xiao Ming knew.

Yan Tian did not dwell on his early withdrawal for too long, instead, turned his attention to the remaining alchemists on the square.

Sweeping his eyes over the twenty-five medicinal cauldrons of the alchemists still present on the square, Yan Tian curled his lips.

Based on the energy fluctuations in the medicinal cauldrons, Yan Tian discovered that all the alchemists were refining peak seventh-tier pills.

This was not surprising, as whoever wanted to win the championship had to refine a peak seventh-tier pill. Even high-grade seventh-tier alchemists could refine peak seventh-grade pills, but their success rate was not high. Even the pill he had wanted to refine previously was a peak seventh-grade one.

Unfortunately, his luck was not good, and after his cauldron exploded, there were no more medicinal materials left for him to refine again.

"Compared with others, Xiao Ming's refining progress is really amazing! It's not even at the same level." Yan Tian noticed that Xiao Ming's medicinal cauldron fluctuations were much stronger than others. Moreover, Xiao Ming hadn't thrown any medicinal materials into the cauldron for half a day, and the medicinal materials around him had already disappeared.

"Is he going to start fusing the pill now? Other people haven't even finished refining their medicinal materials yet. Tsk tsk, the Heavenly Flame is really a divine tool for refining pills." Yan Tian's eyes flashed with envy.

As Yan Tian thought, Xiao Ming had reached the stage of pill fusion.

Slowly opening his slightly closed eyes, Xiao Ming looked solemnly at the medicinal cauldron. In the rising flames inside, there were three clumps of either liquid or powder-like substances, which, although insignificant in appearance, were filled with a dense and shocking purity of medicinal power.

These three things were Xiao Ming's achievements over the past four days, and now the refining had been successfully completed. What he needed to do next was to perfectly integrate these three things together, forge them into the form of a pill, and finally turn them into a pill.

Xiao Ming took a deep breath of the hot air caused by the Heavenly Flame, and his serious gaze turned to the medicinal cauldron. With a thought, the White Glazed Heart Flame, which was coiling in the cauldron, suddenly swept out and enveloped all three types of refined pure medicine substances.

Merging the medicinal powers was a step that required almost perfect control from an alchemist. Any slight changes during the process could ruin all the previous efforts.

Therefore, this step was exceptionally crucial! And Xiao Ming naturally understood this point very well.

At this moment, his focus was also at the extreme, and his vast soul power filled every inch of the medicinal cauldron. Any extremely subtle changes inside were instantly fed back to his mind.

The fusion of medicinal powers requires the longest time among the many steps in pill refining, and Xiao Ming's fusion this time lasted nearly five days before it finally came to an end.

...

Rumble!

A deep and thunderous sound echoed through the slightly warm atmosphere, catching everyone's attention. Before they could even turn their heads to look, a surge of powerful energy erupted from the square like lighting, causing the dark clouds above to rapidly condense and sending countless silver snakes wriggling through the sky.

"It's Xiao Ming!"

Currently, Xiao Ming had made the fastest progress on the square, and the energy surge also came from his Ten Thousand Beasts Cauldron.

"Surprisingly, it's a peak seventh-tier pill! Judging from its appearance, the quality of this pill is probably approaching the limit of a seventh-tier pill!"

"Only half the time has passed, and he has already refined a peak seventh-tier pill. Even with the support of the Heavenly Flame, Xiao Ming's alchemy skills are extremely superb. Except for Elder Qiu Ling, no one here could surpass him!"

"Alas, compared to other people, Xiao Ming is simply crushing the competition. Fortunately, this time it's only about the quality of the pill. As long as the pills refined by other people are not worse than his, there is still hope to win the championship."

...

Regarding the discussions outside, Xiao Ming paid no attention at all. His gaze was fixed on the medicinal cauldron without blinking. After five days of long fusion, there was now a small oval-shaped ball, roughly the size of a fist, rising in the flames within the cauldron.

This ball was formed from the pure medicinal properties of hundreds of medicinal herbs, but it was still just the embryo of a pill.

After a little more refining, the pill would be complete, and then the lightning in the sky would fall.

However, Xiao Ming was not satisfied with just a peak seventh-tier pill. He was determined to obtain the Core Soul Marrow this time!

Thinking of this, Xiao Ming's mind suddenly stirred, and a small spark of powder flew out from his storage ring, which then darted into the medicinal cauldron.

The Bone Growing Blood Fusing Pill that Xiao Ming was refining was already close to perfection. If his soul could fully enter into the Spirit Realm and give the pill enough spirituality, then he would be able to refine an eighth-tier pill this time.

That spark of powder was the Spirit Nourishment Powder, which already contained spiritual energy and could replace the effect of a soul in the Spirit Realm. The Spirit Nourishment Powder itself could be added to the pill without any problems.

As soon as the Spirit Nourishment Powder entered the medicinal cauldron, it quickly dissipated into nothingness. Still, if there were strong perceivers present, they would have noticed that the spiritual energy in the medicinal cauldron had suddenly become much denser and was gradually being absorbed by the embryonic pill.

Chi!

After the spiritual energy was completely absorbed, a thirty-three-meter large green column of light shot out from the cauldron and pierced the sky!

Underneath this green column of light, the dense silver lightning that filled the sky was now rapidly retreating as if it had encountered something terrifying. The thundercloud that had been previously flaunting its power also shrank back, not daring to touch the pillar of light even slightly.

In countless shocked eyes, the light column shot into the sky, and then, as it passed by, clouds suddenly appeared and condensed into a massive thundercloud hundreds of meters wide in just a few blinks of an eye!

What was most shocking was that the thundercloud formed this time was actually composed of two colors - green and silver!

"A two-colored thundercloud?"