Chapter 463: Refining one's blood under the rising sun
Once again, Feng Yingyue walked toward the central platform. Among the pills she had refined, she had obviously chosen the best one. Because of the array formations isolating the different contestants, Cao Yun was unable to ascertain the quality of that pill. From its general aspect, it had to have reached a very high level. And of course, since he knew about Feng Yingyue's talent, he didn't doubt it at all. However, even he was surprised by the result.
"Excellent! True Essence!"
The pill asked of the contestants was a 5-star Human pill, the Crane Devours the Tiger pill. Besides, they had received botched-up ingredients. Yet, despite all those difficulties, Feng Yingyue had been able to produce a True Essence pill. By definition, this pill had the highest level of medicinal essence within. Technically it was 99%, but it was just that obtaining 100% was technically speaking impossible. In other words, 99% was equivalent to 100% in that situation. But the arbiter wasn't done yet.
"2.1% of toxins! This pill is an absolute masterpiece! 100 points!"
Each trial could only give 100 points at best. Thus, even Feng Yingyue could not exceed that amount. However, her success would change the way the other contestants would be evaluated. Now, they would be judged regarding her great result. In fact, even the arbiter himself would not have claimed that he could rival her performance. If that women simply had spiritual senses, she would immediately become a Heaven alchemist. And in a very short amount of time, she would climb all the way to 5-star Heaven alchemist. This was a treasure for the Hongchen Kingdom.
Moreover, Feng Yingyue was Spirit Master Hua. Since all those women were young, the Hongchen Kingdom was extremely fortunate and blessed. Working together, they might be able to revive even more Spirit pills that just this one Life Boiling Cradle pill. The audience felt like they were witnessing a new chapter of the Hongchen Kingdom unveiling in front of them. Maybe this period would soon give rise to another era. The Forsaken Dao Era might be over. But with the looming threat of the demons, this new chapter might not be as bright as they imagined.
Anyway, going after Feng Yingyue was obviously difficult. This time, Xue Gulin made sure to go before Cao Yun. In fact, he even went before Mei Hua. His pill had reached 97.6% of medicinal essence and 4.9% of toxins. This was obviously a great achievement and he received 97 points. Without Feng Yingyue's performance, he might have obtained even more but he wasn't too upset. At the very least, he had exceeded his previous score. Moreover, this would be difficult if not impossible for Cao Yun to beat him by 2 points like he had done previously.
After Xue Gulin, Mei Hua was awarded 97 points as well. Unfortunately, although she had kept 98.5% of the medicinal essence, she had had a harder time with the toxins. Her best pill still had 8.8% of toxins. This was a lot considering her fellow students' performances.
At last, Cao Yun gave his pill to the arbiter. The audience was looking forward to that. Being able to identify a pill and refining one were two different concepts altogether. As a martial artist, his perception was maybe just prodigious. And as it turned out, the crowd learned that this wasn't just that. Indeed, the arbiter announced the result.
"Great. Pure pill! 98.4% of medicinal essence. 1.9% of toxins."
In that moment, Cao Yun was thankful to his teacher, Chief Elder Meng. He had engraved in his mind how dealing with toxins was important. After all, they were those that would leave traces in the body of the user. And they were the reason why taking too many pills was dangerous and could impede one's cultivation. Besides, from the book of Tree of Death, who was his master's pseudonym, he had learned even more about both poisons and toxins.
The arbiter was silent for quite some time as he was deciding on the score. Unfortunately, he couldn't give fractions of points. Because of Feng Yingyue's performance, he hesitated whether Cao Yun deserved more, but in the end he chose to be conservative.
"98 points."
Thanks to that, Xue Gulin wasn't too jealous. In the end, he had lost again but only by one point. In the last trial, he had lost by 2 points. There were still several days of trials. Although he might never surpass Feng Yingyue, he might be able to beat Cao Yun. In fact, the only to beat Feng Yingyue was for her to make a mistake and he knew how rare this was.
After that, all the other alchemists kept on working on their pills. Some spent almost the entire day on the three refinements. After each refinement, they would mull over it for hours before trying something else. In the end, they all succeeded to refine a Crane Devours the Tiger pill. Unfortunately, some were not able to get rid of much of the toxins. In fact, at least three of them had more than 25% of toxins within their pill. Even if technically the refinement was a success, they were disqualified. After this trial, there would only remain twenty contestants.
The ones who were disqualified would still partake in other alchemy exhibitions. In fact, they were invited to show off their talent. Even if they had failed at a specific trial, they might still shine in other areas of alchemy. Besides, many wanted to form relationships with them. The mere fact that they had been participants in the Alchemy Conference meant that they were great alchemists. Failing during the Alchemy Conference was not a sign that they would not reach the apex. As a matter of fact, it happened to be that Director Ge Ling had literally been disqualified during the first trial.
Despite this failure, Director Ge Ling was the head of the Golden Flowery Fragrance Institute. That trial had been a real mismatch with her abilities. After that though, she had shined during the entire Alchemy Conference and had impressed many great alchemists. From one of them, she had then learned and in the end she had become the woman leading the greatest institute of alchemy in the entire kingdom.
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Once the second day was over, the participant were exhausted. Cao Yun and the three others in the lead were quite refreshed though. Indeed, they had finished way before anyone else. In other words, they had already had enough time to rest and recuperate. As such, they would have even more time to prepare for the next trial.
As he was training on his Rune of Fire, Cao Yun decided to visit Hongyu. With the Myriad Cherry Blossom Hall behind it, she had been received in a great establishment just outside of the Imperial City. Cao Yun could get there in less than an hour. Hongyu was even more energetic and lively than before. With Cao Yun's help, she had gotten much stronger. Soon, he would refine the Frozen Fire pill. For now, he had asked Xiao Xuefeng to help him do so. Since he was busy with the Alchemy Conference, she was working on the pill alone. But he did intend to participate in the refinement process. In fact, he had invited both Feng Yingyue and Mei Hua. Song Guixiang had complained about his lack of invitation to such a refinement.
In the end, Hua Fenfei had asked Cao Yun. Of course, he couldn't tell her no while he had asked her help to refine the pill too. Indeed, that pill was a 3-star Heaven pill. Although Cao Yun could probably succeed in refining it, its quality would be poor. Considering how rare the ingredients were, he had asked for the two Spirit Masters' help. Only Cao Yun could pretend get both of their help at the same. With them, there was a real chance to obtain a Pure pill.
For the time being, the two women were thinking about the refinement process. As soon as there would be some kind of break during the Alchemy Conference, they would be ready to refine it. Indeed, even during the Alchemy Conference, the younger alchemist would not compete every single day. Not even middle Mortal Warriors could take that kind of rhythm, alchemy was very tiring.
Anyway, Cao Yun spent some time with Hongyu. There was strangely a form of familial bond between them. The bird actually felt like Cao Yun was from her own lineage. On the other hand, Cao Yun would probably always feel guilty about her parents' death. But as Hongyu was growing stronger and stronger, he was able to see past this. At first, he was reluctant to bring her with him. Since she was so useful to him, he even felt like he had been using her. And in a sense, he had been. However, it didn't mean that he didn't sincerely care about her.
Soon after, he was joined by Feng Yingyue. Cao Yun had obviously told her about the fate of Feng'er and Huang'er. Indeed, they had met them together. However, Hongyu would have no way of knowing that so Cao Yun had decided to present Feng Yingyue to the demonic beast slowly. At first, Hongyu was a bit apprehensive. The moment she smelled Cao Yun's odor on the young girl, she let go of most of her defiance. There was no doubt in Hongyu's mind that Feng Yingyue was her brother's mate. For a fenghuang, mates were for life. This was an even stronger bond than for humans.
Thus, Hongyu let Feng Yingyue get close to her. And the young woman was even able to caress her feathers. Then, the couple mounted Hongyu and they flew outside of the Imperial City. Just like Cao Yun, Feng Yingyue had already experimented the sensation of flying while being held by a Spirit Warrior. She had also flown on a sword controlled by her master. But the sensation was completely different while she was on the back of such a majestic bird. The difference was hard to describe and the fact that she was sharing it with Cao Yun also made it something else.
For several hours, they played around with Hongyu. Even if training was important, getting some rest and getting their heads out of alchemy were also good things.
That night, they even spent it under the stars with Hongyu beside them. Of course, they did not dual cultivate while there was a demonic beast so close to them as it felt improper. But they laid next to each other, taking in all the sensation of the night in the woods and looking at the stars. None of them needed to sleep.
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In the morning, they both cultivated with the rising sun. This was a very auspicious moment to practice a cultivation based around the Fire element. When the sun was at the zenith was also a great moment for that matter. Of course, they had made sure that they would have enough time to come back before the beginning of the third trial. After this one, there would be a longer pause. A few days would be given to the alchemists who had already been disqualified. Then, there would also be a few conferences with Heaven alchemists. To be honest, neither Cao Yun nor Feng Yingyue were very interested in those. Feng Yingyue was being trained by one of two Spirit Masters after all.
Feng Yingyue was sitting cross-legged with her Five Prodigious Gates facing toward the sky, taking in the heat of the sun. Her recent dual cultivation with Cao Yun had sent a lot of Fire Qi in her body. And she had taken a Heaven pill to help her temper her Five Prodigious Gates. By using the sun, she was advancing on that. It wouldn't be long before Feng Yingyue became a 4th-grade Mortal Warrior like Cao Yun.
The young man, on the other hand, wasn't training his Qi cultivation. For a few days now, his blood cultivation was on the verge of a breakthrough. He had waited some time, but now was the moment. After sensing Xue Gulin's bloodlust against him and with the threat of the demonic cultivators and even the demons, he was convinced that the time was ripe. The only reason he had waited was to find the perfect moment for his breakthrough. His dual cultivation with Feng Yingyue had agitated his blood of course. As a consequence, his breakthrough might be even more powerful than before. Thus, he had waited for the effects to reach their maximum. Now, he was almost certain he couldn't go higher.
With the Drop of Wrath, he circulated his intent throughout his entire bloodstream. This intent also went through his entire body, every single cell, every single cavity within his organs and his fibers. The entirety of his body was coursed through by Qi and blood. His intent, and thus the intent of the Drop of Wrath, was everywhere. Slowly, he felt his blood becoming richer in Qi and intention and denser too. Soon his blood became heavier and heavier. A mortal's veins would not have been able to move this kind of blood as it was way too heavy by now.
From the outside, Feng Yingyue could see that Cao Yun's skin was turning red with all the blood flowing beneath it. It was as though he was overexerting himself during a physical prowess, his entire skin was red and burning. That was when he finally sensed it. In his kidneys, his prenatal Jing had reacted. This was the most difficult resource to work with as it had come from one's parents before birth. Replenishing or increasing it was as hard as reaching the heavens. On the other hand, improving its quality was a difficult but worthwhile pursuit that could improve one's lifespan and vitality in general.
In his kidneys, Cao Yun could feel a single drop of gold floating in the ocean of his bright red blood. Right now, it wasn't shining too much, but there was a golden hue within his kidneys.
Cao Yun had achieved 'Freeing the Blood'. He was now officially a 1st-grade Golden Blood Child. From this moment onward, he would cultivate his marrow and by consequence his Jing. Such a cultivation was truly incredible for a human. On the other hand, cultivating one's meridians and Dantian was also incredible for a demon. Cao Yun could combine the best of the two species.