Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

As the fourth pill lightning struck Memory, Alex cleared the pill clouds above him. The energy from the pill lightning settled into the pill, forming another pill vein atop it.

When the pill vein formed, the pill was ready. So, Alex pulled it out and looked at it one more time.

It was the ninth pill he had made in a row and the tenth 100% pill if one counted the pill he made before the round of eight ended.

Alex handed the pill over to the Divinity and looked through his storage bag to see how many sets of ingredients he still had. He was beginning to get low on them.

“Senior, I need some more ingredients for me soon.”

The Divinity, having just accepted his pill, put it aside and nodded. “I will get you some when you pass the round. Unless you are out of them, I don’t believe I need to leave right now, do I?”

Alex checked the storage bag again and shook his head. “I have enough for three more pills, so maybe you go afterward,” he said as he looked up. As he did, he saw the bracket past the Divinity.

A smile broke out on his face. “And it just so happens, senior, the afterward has arrived.”

The Divinity raised an eyebrow and turned around, looking at the bracket alongside Alex.

For Alex, there was 100% next to it. But for Palesilver, it was 98%.

She failed to form a Pill Cloud.

Alex wondered why she had failed. Had she made a mistake? Or had she run out of something else?

Whatever the case, he had already wasted half an hour of this round. So, now was the time for him to get back into business and figure out this next recipe before the round’s end.

For if he didn’t, he was going to automatically fail.

So whatever he needed to do to get it done, Alex needed to think of the next recipe.

Before he started, however, he looked back at the bracket once again. It showed that both Faithseeker and Leafheart were still at a standstill, with 100% pills on both sides.

‘They are still going at it, huh?’ Alex thought in surprise. He wondered how much longer they were going to take. At this point, no matter who won, they would be at a grave disadvantage.

Although, it wasn’t as though Alex didn’t have the same issue himself. So, he simply closed his eyes and began finding the next recipe.

* * * * * * *

Faithseeker had understood his own suffering with his creation fatigue and, as a result, knew when to give up on coming up with new ideas. But it had been a while since he had stopped, so now was the proper time to get back to it.

And yet, he hadn’t found the chance to just yet. He was still making the next pill.

He silently cursed the woman he was up against for wasting so much of his time and laughed at the thought of her cursing him as well. He shook away the thoughts and proceeded to make the pill.

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The pill took some time to complete. Doing the same thing ten times in a row until now, he had more or less built a muscle memory for it. He refined the ingredients he put in and then compounded the powder a little before forming the final pill.

Once the pill formed, he looked up above once again at the Pill Cloud that would form there.

* * * * * * *

Leafheart had to change her strategy.

Since she no longer had any pills to use as sources of additional energy, she had to find more energy elsewhere. As such, she had begun forming the pill directly in one of the three outer cauldrons while she used the other two cauldrons to refine the actual pill.

Now that she had begun using it, it was so much easier than the first method.

Making multiple pills at the same time was of no difficulty to her at all. So, she could easily split her attention for two separate refinements.

While the main pill formed, its energy was placed back into the cauldron in order. Once all ingredients were refined, the final energy settled inside the main cauldron.

Once that happened, Leafheart allowed the outer cauldron, where she had formed the other pill, to stream its energy back into the main cauldron. When all the energy was in the main cauldron, all that remained in the outside cauldron was the energy-less powder.

Leafheart dropped the powder away, and it quickly marred itself in orange, like taking on the lighting of a sunset.

Once the main cauldron overflowed with energy, Leafheart pulled in the remaining powder from the other two cauldrons and formed the pill. Once the pill formed, she expectantly looked up above her and smiled when the pill clouds appeared.

The sky rained with five purple lightning bolts back to back before Leafheart sent the clouds away. Once they left, Leafheart pulled out the pill.

She had done it once again.

Leafheart handed the pill over to the Divinity before her, who quickly tested it.

The Divinity accepted the pill, and Leafheart smiled. But when she looked at the bracket in the sky, she froze.

The smile faded away as Leafheart looked at the result before her. She could not believe it at all.

Faithseeker had failed.

At 99%, he had failed to make the perfect pill. When the 100% appeared next to her name next, the smile on Leafheart’s face returned doubly. And now, she was elated more than ever before.

Finally, this long nightmare had come to an end.

* * * * * * *

The pill-forming technique that Faithseeker used belonged to the Alchemy God himself. The technique was so good that under the perfect conditions, the chances of failing to form a Pill Cloud were near zero.

So the fact that Faithseeker failed meant that he was just that unlucky today. After all, he had made no mistake.

“It appears you have failed to make a pill better than your opponent,” the Divinity before him said. “I must let you know that you have been disqualified as of now.”

Faithseeker gave a slight nod in thanks for all the Divinity had done. The barriers around him faded away, bringing back all the sound and sight that had been absent all this time.

Faithseeker got up from where he sat and put away his cauldron. Then, he stood on the stage for a short while, looking at the four contestants that were still up there.

These were the final four contestants.

He looked through them all, but his eyes settled on the mostly orange surroundings of Leafheart. He could still see the smile on her face, a complete opposite of his own feelings of sadness.

He felt some regret already that he failed, but somehow, the feeling that overwhelmed him at the moment was that of understanding.

Because he was the best of the younger generation of alchemists in the Medicine World, he had always considered himself the best of the younger generation all around.

However, this was proof that this wasn’t true. This was proof that one didn’t need to be born here to become the best.

Faithseeker smiled.

While this situation would depress many, he would instead use it for motivation. And before long, he would truly become the greatest alchemist of the younger generation.