Chapter 1056: The Two Batches
Thousands and thousands of divine herb combinations appeared in Ning Cheng’s Sea of Consciousness, combining again and again through different permutations. At this time, Ning Cheng’s entire mind and soul focused on deducing a viable pill recipe.
Time pa.s.sed little by little, and Ning Cheng deduced hundreds of pill recipes in three days. However, he didn’t feel he could refine a Dao Transformation Dao Pill from those recipes.
If given a few more furnaces of these divine herbs and more time, Ning Cheng believed he could deduce a Dao Transformation Dao Pill using these five divine herbs as the primary divine herbs. However, right now, he was too rushed for time.
Six days were coming up, and the fragrance of pills was already wafting out of Lu Dongze’s pill furnace, while Ning Cheng hadn’t even moved since taking out the pill furnace. No, to be more accurate, apart from twirling the five divine herbs in his hands, Ning Cheng showed no movement. Moreover, despite bringing out Primal Chaos’s First Furnace, he hadn’t even started any fire to prep it.
Seeing this, some people began to shake their heads, knowing that Ning Cheng would lose. It’s just that no one expected that Ning Cheng would lose so disgracefully. Six days were almost ending, but Ning Cheng hadn’t even put the divine herbs into the furnace. This went beyond just disastrous.
No one bothered to look at Ning Cheng’s actions any longer and instead focussed on Lu Dongze. Seeing Lu Dongze’s pill art continuously moving, even those who didn’t understand alchemy knew that Lu Dongze’s pills were about to take shape.
Ning Cheng sighed and finally woke up from deducing a pill recipe for this round. Immediately afterwards, he saw several pills flying out of Lu Dongze’s pill furnace and landing in a jade bottle on the side.
Lu Dongze panted, but he noticed Ning Cheng’s gaze and spoke up blandly. “Alchemist Ning, I’ve already finished refining my pills. Although there is still an hour until the end of this compet.i.tion, I can see that Alchemist Ning hasn’t started yet. Is everything all right?”
Although Lu Dongze spoke blandly, Ning Cheng could still hear some disdain in his tone.
No one made any sounds or spoke any words to ridicule Ning Cheng. Instead, they all looked at the jade bottle beside Lu Dongze in envy. It wasn’t because of the quality of the pills Lu Dongze refined. Rather, it was because Lu Dongze’s Dao of Alchemy had reached a height that they couldn’t reach. In six days, he had deduced a new pill recipe and successfully refined a batch. How many people in this hall could match this level of achievement in the Dao of Alchemy?
Even Ning Cheng couldn’t help but secretly admire such an accomplishment. If he didn’t have a Good Fortune Treasure, he would be far from being able to match Lu Dongze.
Considering Ning Cheng’s sophistry in the previous round, although the purple-robed man looked at Ning Cheng, he said nothing. After all, the time limit of six days hasn’t ended yet.
Ning Cheng decided to ignore Lu Dongze; no matter how much he admired Lu Dongze’s Dao of Alchemy, he had to get it together and defeat Lu Dongze now.
Based on what he deduced, he only had the confidence to refine a batch of Dao Sculpting Dao Pills. He had also deduced a Dao Transformation Dao Pill recipe, and he knew that If he could refine that Dao Transformation Dao Pill, then it was certain that Lu Dongze would be defeated. However, Ning Cheng hesitated momentarily and ultimately didn’t choose to refine the Dao Transformation Dao Pill. He didn’t have confidence in successfully refining it. Based on the calculations, he only had a success rate of at most 20% if he went with the Dao Transformation Dao Pill Recipe. But if he were to refine a batch of Dao Sculpting Dao Pills, he would have an 80% success rate and 60% if he were to refine a batch of Dao Raising Dao Pills.
What a pity; if only he had been given one more day, he could have increased his certainty of refining Dao Transformation Dao Pills to 40%. With a 40% chance, he could have taken the chance to refine it.
However, despite the high chance of success, considering everything, Ning Cheng chose to downgrade from a Dao Sculpting Dao Pill to a Dao Sculpting Spirit Pill. Since Lu Dongze had finished refining his pills this early, they should also be at the Dao Sculpting Spirit Pill level. In other words, if he were to refine a Dao Sculpting Spirit Pill, he might not necessarily win even if he succeeded.
Just when everyone thought Ning Cheng would wait until the end of the round and admit defeat, Ning Cheng conjured a flame as white as snow. Immediately afterwards, he took out the other fifty auxiliary divine herbs, piled them on the side, and, one by one, threw them into the pill furnace.
Ning Cheng finally began to refine the pills. At this time, a few people who wanted to speak hurriedly shifted their gazes to Ning Cheng’s movements.
In just a few moments, the crowd turned astonished. Ning Cheng’s movements were like flowing clouds and water without hesitation. It was vastly different from Lu Dongze’s movements, where he had to stop and think carefully about the divine herbs.
In just a dozen breaths, Ning Cheng put the five primary divine herbs in front of him into the pill furnace. Even the fifty auxiliary herbs Ning Cheng had taken out had entered the pill furnace.
Some suddenly realised that Ning Cheng and Lu Dongze used two opposite methods. The method used by Lu Dongze was a push-type method of refining, where the alchemist derived a pill recipe by adding it to the furnace. In contrast, the method used by Ning Cheng was to deduce the pill recipe before the start of the refinement.
One could say that Ning Cheng’s method was more difficult. After all, practice was the most important means of deduction, no matter where one was. But Ning Cheng didn’t need to practice. He deduced the pill recipe first and then proceeded to refine it. It’s just that this method involved a lot of risk. If there was even the slightest mistake in deducing the pill recipe, and the alchemist couldn’t control the refinement, it would not only ruin the batch but might also destroy the furnace and harm the alchemist.
Now that he decided to refine a spirit pill, he no longer needed to consider the law-infused dao rhythm in the divine herbs. It gave Ning Cheng a much easier time refining the pills. Not only did he add all five of the primary divine herbs into the furnace, but even the refining process also went quite smoothly. As half an incense stick"s time pa.s.sed, Ning Cheng didn’t encounter much difficulty.
However, just when Ning Cheng wanted to infuse the medicinal essence of the Silver Ring Fruit, the infusion of the other medicinal essences inside the furnace suddenly turned violent. It felt like a bomb about to explode at any moment, greatly alarming Ning Cheng. He couldn’t let the medicinal essences explode; if it did, it would completely ruin this batch.
Fortunately, Ning Cheng had cultivated the Dark Nether Spirit Devouring Scroll. Therefore, he had a solution ready: to use his spiritual consciousness to forcefully grab the Silver Ring Fruit’s medicinal essence that he had just introduced and crush it. In this way, he would only be using four of the five primary divine herbs.
With so many alchemical powerhouses here, whether a Dao Sculpting Spirit Pill had used all five divine herbs, they could easily check for it by examining the pills. It’s just that using only four divine herbs wasn’t the issue. The main issue was that he needed the Silver Ring Fruit for all his deduced pill recipes. If he took it out, all the pill recipes would fail.
The medicinal properties of the Silver Ring Fruit appeared in Ning Cheng’s consciousness. The Silver Ring Fruit was a metal-attributed divine herb that didn’t contain any laws yet carried a killing aura with a tearing effect.
But why would this divine herb produce such a terrible consequence when added to the medicinal liquid? Ning Cheng didn’t even have the time to think clearly about this question. He didn’t hesitate and infused the Red Cloud Wings’ medicinal essence into the liquid mix instead of using the Dark Nether Spirit Devourer. If he pondered over this issue any longer, the pill essence inside the furnace would explode.
The Silver Ring Fruit had a metallic attribute, while the Red Cloud Wings had a wood attribute, both having a restraining effect on each other.
Incorporating the Red Cloud Wings’ medicinal essence was the only solution Ning Cheng could come up with quickly. Fortunately, to Ning Cheng’s surprise, as soon as the Red Cloud Wings’ medicinal essence fused with the liquid, the violent aura brewing instantly calmed down, and he once again regained full control of the spirit pill’s dao rhythm.
Even though Ning Cheng was refining pills behind the restriction, the people around him still sensed that Ning Cheng’s pill had almost been destroyed.
But regardless of whether Ning Cheng’s pills were almost destroyed, most people’s opinions of Ning Cheng had completely flipped around. Since Ning Cheng could refine a pill to this extent, regardless of whether he won or lost, they all had to admit that Ning Cheng had real ability.
Ning Cheng, on the other hand, couldn’t care less about what people thought about him right now and focussed on why this had happened. As for the law-infused dao rhythms of the Twin-leaved Scales of the Celestial Fox and the Clear Wind Immortal Claw, Ning Cheng ignored them, letting them dissipate. This made it much easier for him to refine the pills. Besides, neither of these herbs would cause the Silver Ring Fruit’s violent aura to spill out.
As for the primary auxiliary herb that he added, the Red Cloud Wings, it was even less likely to ruin the medicinal mix. The Red Cloud Wings was an important divine herb that helped recover this almost-failed liquid. Therefore, the Sakyamuni Flower was the only ingredient that could derail this refinement.
That’s right. The Sakyamuni Flower. It was an attributeless divine herb that had the effect of amplifying the power of laws. Fortunately, as he chose to refine a Dao Sculpting Spirit Pill, this law amplifying nature wouldn’t be much of an issue. After all, lowering the rank of the pill from a Dao Sculpting Dao Pill to a Dao Sculpting Spirit Pill caused a loss of efficacy in the medicinal essence. Without this loss of efficacy, it could again prompt an outbreak of the Silver Ring Fruit’s violent essence.
The Red Cloud Wings was a supplementary divine herb added to quell this outbreak. The wood-attributed divine herb could subdue the Silver Ring Fruit’s sharp metallic attribute, allowing the medicinal liquid to eventually form into a pill. However, this was the first time that Ning Cheng used an attributeless divine herb. Therefore, he wasn’t sure enough about the effect of the Sakyamuni Flower on a dao pill. Fortunately, he didn’t choose to refine the Dao Sculpting Dao Pill; otherwise, something unexpected might have happened. Facing that amplified violent aura, coupled with the law-infused dao rhythm, even the Red Cloud Wings might not be enough to stop the concoction from exploding.
Thinking of this, Ning Cheng sucked in cold air. By this time, he understood that the purple-robed man already knew what kind of pills the five divine herbs could be combined into; otherwise, he wouldn’t have taken out the Red Cloud Wings.
Those old fogies, none of them was a pushover.
Unfortunately, all these thoughts and conjectures slowed him down, causing a slight delay in infusing the Red Cloud Wings.
“Ding-Ding-Dong-Dong!” Twelve consecutive green-coloured rays flew out from Ning Cheng’s pill furnace and landed in the jade bottle Ning Cheng had prepared earlier.
Ning Cheng placed the jade bottle on the table before him and cupped his fists towards the purple-robed man, “I have also finished refining it. Senior Kong, please judge.”
Ning Cheng regretted not properly controlling the Silver Ring Fruit, making him a few breaths late in adding the Red Cloud Wings. The batch wasn’t perfect, with only two top-grade spirit pills. Based on his deduced pill recipe, he should have refined the batch with at least 80% top-grade spirit pills.
“Not bad.” The purple-robed man nodded. There was still half an hour before the end of six days. In other words, Ning Cheng finished refining this batch in half an hour.
Once the purple-robed man finished speaking, he waved his hand, and the jade bottles in front of Ning Cheng and Lu Dongze fell before him. He opened each jade bottle and poured out a pill from each.
Although the purple-robed man didn’t close the jade bottle, no one used their spiritual consciousness to peer into them.
An incense stick later, the purple-robed man suddenly took out two jade trays and poured out the contents of each jade bottle onto them. “Everyone should look at the pills refined by Union Master Lu and Alchemist Ning.”
Receiving the purple-robed man’s permission, everyone"s gaze, and spiritual consciousness, fell onto the two jade trays. A moment later, most of the people’s gaze rose in shock.
Only then did the purple-robed man speak, “The pills that Union Master Lu and Alchemist Ning refined just now are Dao Sculpting Spirit Pills, with twelve completed pills, two top-grade pills, and ten high-grade pills. And both used all five divine herbs from the first round. To deduce the recipe and successfully refine the Dao Sculpting Spirit Pill within six days, this level of Dao of Alchemy stands at the pinnacle among the five grand realms.”
The crowd fell silent. Before the start of the second round, absolutely no one thought that Ning Cheng would refine the same pills as Lu Dongze. That’s because they all thought that to be impossible. It wasn’t that Lu Dongze was a monstrous existence, but rather because they all thought that Ning Cheng didn’t have the ability. Unexpectedly, not only did Ning Cheng refine it, even the quality and grade of the finished pills were no weaker than the ones refined by Lu Dongze.
Even Lu Dongze was shocked beyond belief. He could deduce this recipe because he had the Herbs and Plants of the Universe. He was sure he would have lost if he didn’t have the book.
“I will now judge the highs and lows of this round. If there are any mistakes in the judgement, please correct me.” The purple-robed man finished with a cup of his fists to show that he was being fair.
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