1848 Chapter 1841: Final Act (15)
The last year and a half has been a period with flawless and phenomenal executions of arts, spells, methods, and tools occurring without pause from the Zeniths. Various arts and methods enlightened the masses in an unprecedented wave, growing the reverence of the Alchemic Dao of the Utmost Purity Galaxy, truly justifying their names as Zeniths!
Except for the lone foreigner. He had entered the competition bravely, daring to challenge each of the Zeniths of the Utmost Purity Galaxy in a contest of Alchemic Dao Vs Alchemic Dao. He had used a rather unexpected and slightly unsavory tactic to claim the first round immediately.
Yet when the real battle of alchemical techniques and skills was initiated, the audience had only seen him stationary as he sat comfortably on a couch or slept on an absurdly pleasant-looking bed. Only recently did he stretch his legs, stand before his cauldron, and begin reading from a spiritual jade as if analyzing the materials given or techniques he was preparing.
The idle attitude felt rather insulting with an aura of indifference, causing a few older fellows to spit at their spiritual projections in frustration. They wanted nothing more than to deliver a smack to Wei Wuyin's head like a young disciple "Look at this lazy f#cking bast—"
SMACK!
"Teacher Sun! Shut it!" A young male disciple with vastly inferior cultivation directly slapped his teacher on the head, feeling a heated pain on his palm. His youthful face was filled with anger and fear, and the fear was not because of his revered teacher.
The teacher was stunned. When has a teacher ever been slapped by their student in reprimand? He was so astonished that he grew speechless, before feeling the searing gazes of his peers looking at him began to create embarrassment in his heart. The embarrassment turned into fury, then murderous intent.
"YOU LITTLE TOAD! You want to die?!" Teacher Sun erupted with his cultivation, capable of crushing the young disciple in a single second with a single thought. The disciple was currently on the thin line of life or death, yet he wasn't the least concerned by his raging teacher.
He was focused on the spiritual projection as if staring at a vengeful ghost. Just before the disciple became a ghost at his teacher's hand, a gentle pressure landed on Teacher Sun's shoulder.
"WHAT?! Why are you touching me—guh!" His throat seized with words he didn't dare to continue speaking. He struggled to look at the spiritual projection. An unearthly handsome young man of unfathomable presence was looking at, seemingly piercing through the veils of spirituality and space to observe him directly.
Without hesitation, he slammed his palm into his throat, causing him to spew out blood and crushed flesh. He couldn't scream or grunt as his throat was destroyed by his own hands. He hurriedly kowtowed repeatedly toward the spiritual projection, cold sweat pouring down his back, hands, and brows. Even his forehead began bleeding.
His young disciple was right there with him, urgently begging for forgiveness on behalf of his teacher.
In Teacher Sun's fury, he had forgotten that this foreigner who was displaying such a flippantly disrespectful attitude was a Supreme Existence. Addled by age and status, he had made an incredible mistake. Without hesitation, he punished himself and begged for forgiveness with every ounce of his being.
Staring straight up with a beautiful flow of starry radiance within his gaze, Wei Wuyin's eyes narrowed before lowering to the spiritual jade in his hand. He was currently acting as a Supreme Existence, so he couldn't allow cultivators to badmouth him without proper criticism added.
This single gaze of his swept across countless cultivators who were on the verge of following the trend of badmouthing him. He had immediately shut that shit down. Before true might, the rules of the Utmost Purity Galaxy were unable to protect them, and even if they relied on the rules of the Utmost Purity Galaxy, with his protected status, he could easily crush anyone and pay a small fee for their lives.
Insulting an alchemist, let alone a Supreme Existence, openly, without sufficient backing, was no different than death. Fortunately, only those of the Utmost Purity Galaxy had brief lapses of this etiquette, and in all fairness, their rage was justified.
Wei Wuyin hadn't made a single move in over a year and a half. The Zeniths had already entered the fourth concoction process, the Refinement Process, while he hadn't even extracted any essence or energy from any material. In the eyes of the visitors here to enjoy the show, they fully believed that Wei Wuyin had surrendered this round.
However, each of the Zeniths could still fail all three chances given to concoct their product, not even acquiring an impure product. This was certainly a possibility that none of them would find disappointing or unlikely. While the Zeniths were Heavenly Saint Alchemists, the criteria for Heavenly Saint Alchemists, societally, were not the same for the Alchemic Dao.
As long as an alchemist successfully concocts a Mystic-Heaven grade product of any type without significant support or direct external assistance, they would receive recognition as a Heavenly Saint Alchemist. The Zeniths had astonishing success rates for Mystic-Heaven products but those were usually determined by their signature lineage product rather than generalized products such as the Soul Pill, Edict Potion, Void Pellet, or Mystical Paste.
It was well within the realm of possibility that all seven Zeniths would fail their concoctions three times in a row, and while that might be slim, the possibility gave Wei Wuyin a chance to acquire a tie. It made perfect sense not to surrender like they had.
However, betting on your opponents' failure was a disgraceful act in the eyes of these established alchemists. Meanwhile, those cultivators who fought tooth and nail for any advantage fully understood the belief of not giving up even till the final moment. If they had during their challenges, they wouldn't be alive today—someone else would.
BUT THEY WERE HERE! So they would grab any flimsy string for a chance of victory, no matter how unreliable or unlikely that possibility was! The Heart of Cultivation can be built on the foundation of seeking opportunity amidst danger or the likelihood of success.
Moreover, even if all Zeniths did fail before the eyes of the audience, none of their reputations would suffer any harm; failure was a critically expected part of being an alchemist. Moreover, they were handling high-grade energies and essences while executing extraordinary spells and arts that required them to thread the needle lest they produce flaw after flaw.
While the audience had their thoughts, Wei Wuyin stared at the spiritual jade in his hand with a vexed expression. This was the concoction method for the Edict Potion. This was both a common and a rare product, and while it might be low-tier, it was not the slightest bit ordinary or easy to concoct.
'Mystic-Heaven graded products are an entirely different beast,' Wei Wuyin thought, carrying the hint of a sigh. The first three concoction processes for the Edict Potion—Extraction, Growth, and Containment—were not simple! They were extraordinarily complex to an almost baffling degree.
While it seemed that each Zenith was easily performing each process, the truth was far from what was seen on the surface. Each material was volatile to a disgusting degree or fragile with a brittleness where the slightest carelessness could cause dissipation.
For example, one of the 330 materials was a Mystic-Heaven Essence Stone. The first goal was to extract the Heavenly Essence from it, retaining its connection with the Heavenly Realms and the pureness of its mystic essence. Each Mystic-Heaven Essence Stone contained their own subtle connection of the Three Thousand Heavenly Realms of Laws, but they were far too impure and scattered to become Edict Seeds.
If the connection to the realms were severed accidentally during the extraction process, the material was lost.
If the Mystic Essence extracted dropped in quality or its delicate quantity was lowered, it could no longer hold a soulful affinity, and thereby no longer contain the properties of the heavenly realms.
By All-Alchemic Clash standards, that was an automatic loss of a single set of material for either situation.
This was nightmarish.
And it wasn't an exaggeration to say that the Mystic-Heaven Essence Stone was the easiest of the 330 materials to extract. There were volatile energies of some that would detonate in open contact with mana. Any type of mana! In this type of environment, that was deadly. If it did, the detonation was comparable to the self-destruction of a Heavenly Saint. It was uncontrolled, too.
You didn't just have to extract those materials; after extraction, they needed to be nurtured via a specific method to accommodate Heavenly Essence, so the self-destructive material had to be grown to the extent where a single touch of mana would inflict True Sage-level self-detonation!
Then, an alchemist had to conjure a containment that could hold all that volatility, uniquely designed for each particular material that wouldn't affect its purity, quality, quantity, and fundamental properties. If carelessly handled, flaws would begin to emerge, and the concoction process was already on the verge of failure.
'The refinement process is even harsher. We have to refine each material into each other by removing any excess that was developed during the Growth Process, isolating the core qualities necessary of each essence or energy, and then balancing them before refining them all into a singular congregation or mass, liquid, or light.
'This wasn't too difficult, but it's here where failure was prominent.' Wei Wuyin couldn't help but think that performing a balanced and perfect mixture of 330 different types of energies and essences at the Mystic-World and Mystic-Heaven was a herculean feat.
What a... Boom! BOOM!! BOOM!!!
Three consecutive explosions unfolded as the protection barriers established to segregate each region began to distort and shimmer. The three Supreme Sages overseeing the stage reinforced the barriers, ensuring that none of the alchemists could feel even the slightest trembling or its thunderous sound.
Wei Wuyin's senses were far too powerful, so even while they sealed his region, his body was attuned to the Void, which transmitted the information of everything that was occurring. He looked outwards beyond the wall protecting him.
"A failure!" Hao Chengxue announced with distress and sadness. "How unfortunate. During the Refinement Process, Heaven-Saint Fusing Souls created an imbalance, initiating an explosive eruption of materials."
Luo Ning was standing up, her eyes wide as she gazed piercingly at Heaven-Saint Fusing Souls' region, her heart racing. They had watched his refinement process for a week, and they noticed an issue four days ago. A tiny spark flared within his region, creating an uncharacteristically unknown hue to emerge. At the time, the ambient hue swiftly vanished, and they assumed it was only a minor, inconsequential issue.
But that was only the trigger to a sequence of chaotic developments for Heaven-Saint Fusing Souls. Eventually, after the sixth day, they heard him roar with frightening rage and ferocity, drawing upon his entire cultivation base and various formations and arrays previously established. His withered form began to experience a chaotic wind as the materials released a blindingly ferocious heavenly and worldly light.
This lasted for over half a day before the inevitable climax was reached as the 330 materials exploded directly in his face.
The Incandescent Star Palace Lord, Golden Night Sovereign, and Goliath Bird Sovereign had stressed gazes and auras, their complexion either twisted or pale as resonant qi flowed into the regions to protect the participants. Every iota of resonant qi was supremely powerful, capable of accomplishing divine feats of revival or intergalactic travel, yet they had exhausted several strands here.
The destructive nature of Heaven-Saint Fusing Souls' failure was enough to test the joint effort of three Supreme Sages!
In the eyes of the audience, to their horror, they observed an eruption of chaotic color and distortions of chaotic space and self-created flows of time. Some felt giddy, seeing the concoction process of Heaven-Saint Fusing Souls in reverse or at odd, sporadic intervals. It was sufficient to produce temporal dissonance to an extreme.
Some even reached out geysers of vomit as they couldn't handle the feeling, falling to their knees while holding their heads.
If not for the Spiritual Network's innate defenses, these cultivators might have had their souls dispersed from just a simple observation, not just a little sickness and headache.
Heaven-Saint Fusing Souls' fate wasn't unknown. Just as the explosion was about to occur, he brought out a Resonant Qi Talisman that conjured a watery egg that encapsulated his figure, absorbing the destructive power while diffusing its might. If not for the talisman, his body might have scattered to the four winds without a trace, deader than Guo Heng.
"What type of alchemic backlash was that?!" Luo Ning shouted in disbelief. That was insane! If that happened in the outside world, there was a strong potential for several Stellar Regions to cease to exist. What in the actual fuc... Before her mind could process the sheer devastation she had just witnessed, Tianshi Ya, with heavy breathing, said: "The Edict Potion, no—all four treasures are insanely destructive upon failure of certain concoction processes. The early stage of refinement is one of the lowest—LOOK!" She interrupted herself as she gestured toward Heaven-Saint Containing Creation.
At the moment, his entire region was painted by a starry hue. Countless miniature Solar Stars diffusing worldly and heavenly radiance were created. The old man was panicked as he was hastily trying to adapt, dispersing each Solar Star or containing them with alchemical arts.
Moreover, he was in a free fall of failure. He was going to fail. Moreover, it seemed his failure was going to initiate a nova of some sort. Despite his continuous efforts, more Solar Stars were born, which were irregular in shape, some being cubes and others being prisms.
His eyes widened uncontrollably before he brought out a silver coffin. Without hesitation, he placed himself within. It was perfectly fitted to his body, and the coffin shut as he no longer tried to contain any of these Solar Stars. With a blip, he vanished as he entered the Void.
He departed faster than one could even blink.
"HOLD STEADY!" The Incandescent Star Palace Lord shouted as he poured more resonant qi, focusing on Tianshi Zaoxuan's region.
Luo Ning's eyes constricted as she felt an extreme danger slam into her consciousness. She wasn't even close to the actual Blink Dominion but outside of it by a few million miles. She hastily activated the Void Ring's escape function. She grabbed the other announcers before leaving the subspace they occupied.
They couldn't even resist the Void Ring's power as they slipped into nothingness, vanishing.
Suddenly, a surge of worldly, heavenly, solar, and spiritual radiance erupted from the projection they were watching. The entire space was inundated by this radiance, eviscerating it entirely.
The Spiritual Network's defenses activated, severing all connection to everyone else.
"What? What's happening?!" A few were extremely confused.
Meanwhile, Wei Wuyin's Alchemic Stars of Unparalleled Creation was wide with shock and disbelief. He didn't have to move as the walls protected him, but the destruction unfolding was unprecedented as wave after wave crashed into his walls. It was almost as if light itself wanted to devour the entire world, emulating a micro heaven spilling out.
When things finally settled down, Wei Wuyin saw Tianshi Zaoxuan's region. It was destroyed. Only chaos mana in dust form remained as empty chaotic space could be seen through gaps and tears.
'An alchemic backlash can be so fierce?' Wei Wuyin's draconic heart was beating absurdly fast, not out of fear, but pure shock and horror.
Was this not dancing on the blade of death with each concoction?
Then, he recalled that the environment they created wasn't fully developed, lacking all safeguards and protections they normally have. If they were in their Zenith Towers or their designated and fortified realms with the assistance of their Dao Enforcers, Alchemic Knights, and assistance, this would have been either heavily mitigated or avoided altogether.
Insanity.
Wei Wuyin couldn't help but recall that silver coffin that Tianshi Zaoxuan used to escape. After an hour or two, Tianshi Zaoxuan returned. He looked around casually, completely uncovered by the devastation, as he etched out another region of a hundred miles and began to reestablish his preparations.
It was remarkable to see such a strong mentality in the face of literally explosive failure. He had two more chances, and it seemed he wouldn't give up until they were exhausted. A wisp of respect emerged in Wei Wuyin's heart.
However, he only looked at the area and thought to himself. He then observed elsewhere. With his Celestial Eyes, these obstructions were useless.
He genuinely had very little confidence in concocting the Mystic-Heaven grade Edict Potion with zero experience, so he could only do the one thing that was possible: learn.
He had seven teachers, each giving it their all. How could he not calmly observe each as they failed and succeeded?
He stealthily began observing Heaven-Saint Growing Immortality. 'Your techniques are masterful and awe-inspiring. Keep giving it your all! Please succeed!' Unbeknownst to the Zeniths, they were seen as the greatest teachers, cheered on by the same foreigner they wished to crush into oblivion.

Comments

Loading...