C228

Smelling the fragrance in the air, Han Ming was rapidly pondering, constantly taking deep breaths, adjusting his state of mind to be very stable. In his mind, he was constantly debating the possibility of causing two types of herbs to be scrapped.

Was it the problem with the medicinal herb itself? Impossible! This medicinal herb was distributed uniformly by the organizers of the competition. There shouldn't be any problems with it.

Was it a problem with the Cauldron? Not likely. Although he had used an ordinary medicine cauldron as a camouflage when he was refining medicine, the true alchemist was the Void Medicine Cauldron that he inherited from the Emperor Spiritual Medicine Technique. This cauldron was a treasure passed down from the Holy Spirit Emperor back in the day. As for everything else, when Han Ming was refining a Grade 5 pill, he didn't have a single problem.

Was it because he didn't have enough spiritual power? It seemed a bit far-fetched as well. These few pills didn't consume much spiritual power at all. It could be said that even without using the Heaven's Eyes, he had only used half of his spiritual energy.

The problem of fire? It seemed possible. Why was it that when he was purifying the other two herbs, the Earth Core Fire seemed to be very easy. But when it came to the Deep Sea Ice Crystal, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find a suitable fire resistance temperature to smelt. Even though he had tried to increase the intensity of the flames by a tenth of a degree, he was still unable to succeed.

The Netherworld Grass also seemed to have this kind of possibility. It should have a very high tolerance towards flames, but why did it only use a small amount of flame and even slightly increase the strength of the flame?

Flame... Was it really a matter of fire? Could it be that these two herbs needed a special flame to refine?

"Yes!" That must be it! That must be it! " The doubt in his heart was immediately solved as he thought of this.

He immediately began his deductions once again.

The ice crystals of the deep sea were icy cold in nature, but theoretically, they possessed a high fire resistance. This meant that it wasn't that the temperature of the Earth's Core Fire was too high or insufficient, but that the attribute of the flame was wrong! Since it was of the cold attribute, he had to use the cold attribute of the flame to refine it. This way, the flame was able to adapt to the attributes of the medicinal ingredients themselves. On the other hand, it could directly reach the fire resistance temperature and find the best temperature!

It was the same with the Unholy Grass! Its attribute was insidious, and it was definitely a type of poisonous grass. And this poison and the pure yang energy of the Earth Core Fire were completely opposite. No wonder with just a tiny bit, the medicinal plant was immediately scrapped. It seemed that he had to use the fire attribute to melt it. Only by doing so would he be able to meet the fire resistance temperature!

"So that's how it is! No wonder I failed the refinement just now. "So the person who developed this pill formula is a sinister person. He should be an old freak!" His train of thought finally opened, and the chilling cries immediately became much more relaxed. Next, he had to find a way to obtain these two required flames.

To Han Ming, this question was not a problem at all. This was because before he had swallowed the Earth Core Fire, his body already contained more than twenty different types of flames. Each one of them had a different type of attribute. There were some with cold attributes. There were also those who were sinister in nature. However, during the process of swallowing the Earth Core Fire, these flames were directly swallowed by the Earth Core Fire and became one with it. In other words, these flames didn't actually disappear, but directly turned into the Earth Core Fire and became a part of the Earth Core Fire.

Therefore, what Han Ming needed to do was to follow the previous attribute and ignite the different flames in the Earth Core Fire. In other words, the Earth Core Fire was the same as the previous fire element. This wasn't too difficult. After all, his master had inherited the divine fire controlling skill of Empyrean Crimson Fire. This was still possible.

Xiao Yan inhaled a deep breath of air. A cold cry slowly separated two more flames from within his body and suspended them within the medicinal cauldron. After which, he used his Spiritual Strength to enter it and begin analysing the flames. In a short moment, the cold cry indeed found the previous fire attribute in the Earth Core Fire. With a single thought, the Earth Core Fire turned into two different balls of flame. One group of them flickered with a cold white light, while the other group flashed with a dark green light.

Now that the flame problem had been resolved, it was much easier to deal with it. He still had two complete sets of ingredients on hand, so he had no use for them. Moreover, the purification of the dragon blood and fire spirit fruit had also finished. Now, all he needed to do was to use these two flames to successfully purify the Deep Sea Ice Crystal and the Netherworld Grass.

At this moment, some of the other participants had already begun their process of refining the pill. Thus, to Han Ming, time was extremely short. In order to accomplish this, he had to refine these two medicinal herbs in one go. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to make it out of the twenty slots in this selection.

With his soul power released, the cold cry wrapped up the two medicinal herbs and directly threw them into the medicine cauldron. He controlled the two flames and began to refine the Deep Sea Ice Crystal and the Nether Grass.

Having the resistant temperature that the 'Core Yuan Flame' had tried earlier, Han Ming immediately used the same flame strength as before. Moreover, due to the fire attribute, this time around, there was no damage done to the medicinal ingredients. Moreover, under these two clusters of flame, these two medicinal ingredients actually displayed an extremely high fire resistance temperature.

As the cold cry repeatedly increased the intensity of the flame, these two medicinal ingredients began to turn into liquid little by little. Finally, they completely transformed into two clusters of medicinal ingredient liquid.

As for the purification process, it was not a big problem for Han Ming. He would have to use his spiritual force to search for impurities within the solution and remove them. Of course, this was also a crucial step in testing the mental strength of an alchemist. If one's mental strength was insufficient, then purifying the medicinal ingredients would be a lot more difficult to find and it would also be difficult to completely remove the impurities. This would affect the final pill quality.

However, Han Ming possessed the strength of a Heavenly Soul cultivator. In addition to his terrifying mental strength, he was many times stronger than an ordinary Soul Cultivator. Thus, with this step, Han Ming skillfully removed all the impurities within the four medicinal herbs.

Seeing the four types of liquids that had been purified, Han Ming's nervousness was finally lifted. And at this time, the individual participant's medicine cauldron had already begun to shake. This meant that the pill was about to exit the furnace! Sure enough, just as the cold cry rang out and the four types of liquid had yet to merge together, the first pill on the stage was successfully born.

"Xu Fu, Tier 4 Clear Wind Pill has been successfully refined. Everyone, please examine it." He saw the alchemist who was in his prime speaking in a relaxed manner.

And after Xu Fu's pill was successfully refined, Ouyang Bo's pill was also successfully produced.

"Ouyang Bo, Tier 4 Soul Recovery Pill has been refined. Please inspect it!"

Following which, there were continuous Alchemists announcing the success of their medicinal pills. Within fifteen minutes, ten people had successfully refined the medicinal pills designated by the competition. As for most of the people, they were still working in secret. There were also those who were disappointed. They had already failed two times, and only the final one remained in their hands, which had just been thrown into the cauldron. More than half of these people were like this.

As for Han Ming, he didn't move at all. He focused all of his attention on the original wood element and guided by the wood element within his soul. He quickly fused the four medicinal ingredients. He had entered the final stage of the calcination process. With the experience of refining the 'Black Fire Cold Pill', Han Ming was not afraid of this final step.

During this quarter-hour, the medicinal pill was directly refined into a solid substance and was directly left the furnace!

He only saw that there was no activity from Han Ming's Cauldron and it appeared to be purifying itself. Under the effects of his Spiritual Strength, the lid of the Cauldron was opened with a 'sou' sound. After which, Han Ming's large hand grabbed the air and directly held the pill in his hand. Even the flames had not yet subsided.

"Han Ming, the grade-4 pill, Dragon Essence Pill has been successfully forged. Please examine it!" Looking at the ten people who had successfully refined it, Han Ming smiled and said calmly.

"What?" What this kid refined was actually Dragon Essence Pills? "No wonder he had such a serious expression on his face. This medicinal pill isn't something that a human can concoct!" After hearing the name of the pill that was refined, most of the people who had mocked him before suddenly realized the reason and exclaimed in admiration.

Of course, these people did not have any conflict with Han Ming. The earlier mocking laughter was only directed at the tier three alchemist's robe and the ordinary medicinal cauldron. But now, Han Ming was using his own strength to concoct the required pills before they did. Regardless of the final grade of the pill, this alone was enough to prove that Han Ming's alchemy level was above theirs!

But this time, Tang Bozhong and Zhang Jihu, who had made a bet with Han Ming and had mocked him throughout the match, completely shut their mouths. Firstly, because they had already lost their bet with Han Ming, and secondly, because they did not have the time to be distracted! After Han Ming, there were several other people that successfully refined a pill. So far, the number of people that succeeded in refining this pill had already reached 18!

As for the two of them, they had reached a critical moment in the process of forming the pill.

Finally, after approximately ten minutes, the two of them revealed expressions of joy. This was because their medicinal pellets would be successfully concocted in a few more breaths! However, at this critical moment, there were two contestants who spoke almost in unison.

"Tier 4 pill. The Bone Ablutionary Dan Bead has been forged successfully. Please examine it!"

"Tier 4 pill. The Blood Replenishing Pill has been forged. Please examine it!"

"Pfft!"

When they heard that their pills had been successfully refined, Tang Bozhong and Zhang Jihu almost bled out blood. However, the two of them were experienced alchemists, so they had a firm attitude. Soon after, he opened the medicine cauldron and announced his success.

"Tang Bozhong, Tier 4 pill. You have successfully refined the Nourishment Yin Pill. Please examine it!"

"Zhang Jihu, Tier 4 pill. The Tiger Form Pill has been refined. Please examine it!"

Even though the competition was to enter the finals for the top 20. However, it was not certain that the first twenty people to succeed would be able to enter the finals. After all, the pills he refined had to be divided into the best and the worst. Only those who could refine a designated medicinal pill with great speed and quality would be able to enter the finals. Thus, although Tang Bozhong and Zhang Jihu were ranked 21 and 22, they still had some hope of entering the finals. Of course, what they hoped the most was that their cold cries would be erased …

However, the results of the evaluation made the two of them surprised.

"Dragon Essence Pill, fourth rank, three pill patterns, it is a top-grade fourth rank pill!" With the unanimous decision of the jury, Han Ming entered the finals and was immediately confirmed.

The other nineteen people in the top twenty had all refined superior dan beads or pills and entered the finals. As for Tang Bozhong and Zhang Jihu, although the two of them had also refined two high-grade pills, because their refining speed was slower than the other two, they didn't have the chance to enter the finals!

Looking at the dejected two, after feeling happy for them, Han Ming and Ouyang Bo arrived in front of them with smiles on their faces. Han Ming faintly smiled and said, "You two, admit your defeat and give me the money!"