Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

The Endurance Test was easy, for now. Half a day had passed by, during which Alex had made a total of 40 pills. He hadn’t used any crazy techniques, nor had he used any strong Intent.

The pills were made as simply as he could, sometimes even deliberately slacking to conserve his energy. So long as the pill came out above 75% in harmony, he was still in the competition.

He had to make a 90% pill once every hour and a half, which was still quite simple. Since he wasn’t rushing to finish all the pills, his Qi was quite well reserved as well.

This was a slow competition even for the audience. Everyone made their pills, and it was early enough that even with mistakes, no one failed.

No one wanted to fail. Failure here meant disqualification. There was no hoping someone else would do bad here like the previous competitions. Since everyone took part at the same time, one wanted to last as long as they could to become the final 500 remaining. That was all they really wanted at this moment.

Next to the bright timer in the sky, white against the dark night, which showed that over 13 hours had passed since the start, another number had appeared at some point.

It showed the number 4,825. The total number of participants. Everyone wondered, who would be the first to be counted down from that number?

It took an entire day before the number dropped by 1.

A young man with a depressed look slowly got up far away from Alex and was escorted out of the competition ground. To be the first to fail, one could only wonder how that must feel.

The young man was first, but he wasn’t the only one.

The numbers trickled in at the start, with 1 or 2 failing every half an hour. But then, as the sun reached its zenith and went past, more and more began failing.

The cause of failure was unknowable to any of the other contestants since they weren’t privy to others’ pills. It could be that they failed to make 3 pills above 75%, or it could be that they failed to reach a 90% harmony every 5 pills. Most didn’t believe it was the last cause, which would be a 5-stack of different sets of ingredients that weren’t turned into pills on time.

As the hours continued, the number of remaining participants continued to decrease.

3638

3592

3201

3088

2853

2619

Every hour, the number dropped drastically.

Alex could understand why. Even he was beginning to feel the effects of making pills with the Qi he had. His Qi was thankfully thick enough that he could continue to do so while others failed.

Also, that wasn’t the only reason why he lasted as long as he did. Memory had a big hand in his surviving until now.

After the past decade, Alex had fed Memory even more than before, making the spirit within it grow that much bigger. He could feel the spirit within it having grown a lot, but as he had expected, there was still a small stretch to go.

Even so, Memory had grown to a point where Alex didn’t need to put as much effort into making the pill. Like the formations surrounding him, Memory made everything easier by making Alex use less Qi and concentration for the pills.

That significantly improved just how long he lasted in the competition.

By midnight on the second day, the number dropped drastically until there were about 700 or so left. People tried very hard this time around to not fail, using whatever method they could to last longer.

Some even began deliberately failing at making a pill instead of trying hard and reaching 75%. That allowed them just enough respite to make the next pill with good enough quality.

There were also people who deliberately didn’t make pills for up to an hour at a time and let the sets of ingredients stack up. As long as the stack didn’t reach 5 in total, they would be safe.

They didn’t care if that wasn’t how an alchemist was supposed to act or if it was dishonorable. All forms of propriety were lost when the chance to move on to the next competition was close at hand.

They held, as long as they could, and then right around dawn, enough failed that the number dropped down to 500.

The moment came as great satisfaction for the ones who remained and great disappointment for the ones who failed. One could immediately notice the behavior of many of the alchemists and could guess just by that whether they passed or failed.

Immediately afterward, the number dropped drastically once again.

All who held on until now knew that they had passed. So, they didn’t need to hold on any longer. They gave up one after another, and within 2 hours, the number dropped to below 100, and even then the number continued to drop one by one.

Alex held up for a while, but even he was beginning to feel the effects of having to work with little Qi. He looked to the sky and saw the timer and number remaining.

It was 4 hours until the 2nd day was over, and there were now 82 people remaining.

He quickly made a mental note of the time and people, for this would be when he failed, as the Qi in his dantian had finally fully dried up. He had tried lasting as long as he could, but as an Immortal Origin 1st realm cultivator, there was only so much Qi he could use.

Others had more Qi than him and thus lasted much longer.

That was not to say that Alex had failed just yet. He had made every pill until now, so he could wait until all 5 sets of ingredients were stacked before he left. That would let him stay here for another hour and a half.

But of course, Alex wasn’t going to go out just like that. There was one more trick up his sleeve.

He took in a deep breath and then converted all the blood aura within him into Qi.