1847 Chapter 1840: Final Act (14)

All manner of preparations had been completed earlier, allowing each alchemist to exhibit their skills in the greatest environment that they could conceivably construct within a week's worth of time. Not a single second had been wasted by the Zeniths; even Suo Kai-Ming whose preparations were simple on the surface began to erupt with its stupendous wondrous effects towards the Alchemic Dao.

Their mental states were perfectly stable, not shaken by the others or by Wei Wuyin's abruptly executed trick to seal an instant winning round under his belt. It was made abundantly clear in the first few seconds that none of that had affected their hearts or minds in the slightest.

Heaven-Saint Extracting Divinity's Stellar Divine Septa-Myriad Domain Spell's magical effects showed themselves immediately as the materials for the Edict Potion were placed before him. He gingerly and masterfully selected each material, confidently pushing them into one of the seven hundred stellar glows as he determined their greatest affinity. Those stellar glows began to surge with fantastic light as essence and energy were flawlessly extracted and simultaneously nurtured to their greatest conceivable state.

This was a phenomenal feat, especially given that the majority of these materials contained extremely volatile energies originating from the heavens. If improperly handled, the destructive potential of these materials could easily rival a full-force attack by a Sage.

As the Zenith of the Extracting Divinity Zenith Tower, he was matchless when extracting the purest and strongest essence and energy from these materials with little flaws, eliminating the most stubborn natural impurities within the early process. Each stellar glow with a material placed within it shrunk down and transformed into a solid rhombus crystal with a radiantly pure light exuding from it.

There were 330 materials in a single set, each of Mystic-World and Mystic-Heaven grade, producing 330 crystals. Even then, a single low-perfection quality Edict Potion was valued at roughly eighty thousand times the value of the entire set. As long as one succeeded in concoction once in eighty thousand times, they would break even!

…As long as it was of low perfection quality!

However, even then, how could it be so easy?

With a single move, by virtue of his Stellar Divine Septa-Myriad Domain Spell, Heaven-Saint Extracting Divinity had completed the process of Extraction, Growth, and half-completed Containment. The speed of his execution was heart-pounding.

It only took approximately nine months, seventeen days, and eight hours!

Those of the Zenith Extraction Tower were observing each stage of concoction with zealous excitement, roaring boisterously with cheers after three concoction processes in such a frighteningly short amount of time!

Just under ten months!

GOOD TIME!

Heaven-Saint Growing Immortality's signature array—the Vitality & Decay Quasi-Heaven Array—was on full display at a mystical cycle of enrichment and decay. When the extraction process began, they tossed each material individually, subjecting each to the flow of decay, slowly webbing away their volatile nature, allowing the weakened energies and essences to be easily extracted by her alchemic spell.

When she completed extracting from all 330 materials, she brought the dying and fragile energies and essences on the verge of complete dissipation that remained forward and evoked the strength of the array. Shockingly, those dying energies on the verge of dissipation seemed to have had their impurities dissipate, leaving what remained to be abnormally pure, if only just excessively weak.

In an instant, the array activated its vitality-enriching effects, miraculously affecting the representative energies and essences, and granting them an abundant boost in intensity, aura, and quantity. But without any impurities, what grew from the remnants was slightly greater than what Heaven-Saint Extracting Divinity had extracted from his materials. If there was one difference, it was that Heaven-Saint Extracting Divinity wasted less time for the same quantity, only losing out slightly in quality.

The Vitality & Decay Quasi-Heaven Array was extraordinary when dealing with the alchemical growth process!

By the time they reached the alchemical containment process to properly seal the energies and essence, approximately nine months, twenty-three days, and two hours had passed! She was half a step behind Heaven-Saint Extracting Divinity, but her energies and essences were purer!

Suo Kai-Ming's initial preparations weren't too flashy, only bringing forth seven cauldrons at the peak of the Mystic-World grade. She quietly executed her style of alchemical concoction—Freestyle. Unlike Heaven-Saint Extracting Divinity and Heaven-Saint Growing Immortality, her methods were not generalized, and she preferred executing varying alchemical spells on each method.

She was methodical to an extreme. Carefully analyzing and observing each of the materials individually before selecting her designated alchemical spells or art to utilize. She brought each material before the first cauldron one by one, calmly executing her arts and spells to extract the energy and essence.

Normally, at this point, an alchemist would be in a rush to reach the containment process to properly seal off their progress, allowing them to focus on another material, but Suo Kai-Ming showcased why she is known as Heaven-Saint Infinite Containment. After completing her extraction of the first material, she pressed the energies and essences into her doubtful chest, allowing it to sink into her cleavage.

Despite the sight, not a single alchemist felt any sexual urges, and were instead wowed as the energy and essence were contained within her body prematurely without any harm to her. Her chest manifested a tiny rune at the location where the energy and essence were placed.

She took a deep, careful breath. Then, she began extracting the second material with the same cauldron. Without any issues, she once again stored the energy and essence at a region of her body just slightly above the prior spot. Another rune manifested, containing the energy and essence without a single fluctuation.

This happened repeatedly 330 times.

She then brought out each material to the second cauldron, designed to grow and nourish the material. She once again analyzed each energy and essence as if she were extremely familiar with every iota of its property and executed a different spell or art to nourish each. She had even used her own blood at times, causing an extraordinary explosive effect as she exceeded the Heaven-Saint Extracting Divinity in quality! She was only slightly inferior to Heaven-Saint Growing Immortality's material!

Very slight!

She methodically kept this pace, continuously creating the purest and highest quality material for each that she could, always exceeding Heaven-Saint Extracting Divinity while sometimes matching even Heaven-Saint Growing Immortality on some energies and essences. It was a genuinely wondrous showcase of methodical freestyling!

As for the Predetermined Alchemical Process of both Heaven-Saint Extracting Divinity and Heaven-Saint Growing Immortality, they weren't objectively worse, but they had a lack of flexibility, which was why even Suo Kai-Ming could consistently exceed Heaven-Saint Extracting Divinity and match the specialty of Heaven-Saint Growing Immortality!

While her methods were exceedingly slow, she was meticulous.

However, upon completing the Extraction Alchemical Process and Growth Alchemical Process, finally reaching Containment Alchemical Process, she was capable of making up for lost time by executing instantaneous containment via Mystic Runes, sealing every energy and essence with flawless precision and not a single loss of energy or essence throughout the process.

When she completed this process, she spent a total of one year, one month, and six days!

Meanwhile, Heaven-Saint Extracting Divinity completed his Containment Alchemical Process in eleven months, two days, and seven hours!

Heaven-Saint Growing Immortality completed their Containment Alchemical Process after eleven months, sixteen days, and two hours!

The early handling of each material was extraordinarily important, and the slightest mistake could immediately lead to an inevitable failure! Not a single alchemist in the All-Alchemic Clash was careless in their concoction!

"A masterclass of the three initial concoction processes by each Zenith!" Hao Chengxue exclaimed in wonder after explaining each of their methods to the best of his knowledge alongside Mei Xiaoyang, Tianshi Ya, and Luo Ning. Shockingly, Luo Ning's depth of knowledge exceeded the expectations of the others by a considerable degree. They doubted whether she was truly a simple Earthly Saint Alchemist.

After a full year and six months, all the Zeniths had finished their three stages of concoction—Extraction, Growth, and Containment, while simultaneously displaying masterful usage of various spells, arts, formations, spells, and even their treasures.

"I agree. While in comparison, there were overall signs of a lack of skills, when taken individually, they each displayed a fantastically flawless execution of their alchemical skills." Tianshi Ya commented, noting the clear discrepancy between times, quality, and quantity of essence and energy despite being given the same material.

It was clear that Heaven-Saint Extracting Divinity would be able to extract the material the fastest while Heaven-Saint Growing Immortality would be able to nurture them out of everyone present. In fact, Heaven-Saint Extracting Divinity had the undisputed advantage over time while Heaven-Saint Growing Immortality had won in terms of quality and purity of nurtured material after extracting.

After all, Heaven-Saint Extracting Divinity was a full seven months ahead of the slowest Zenith! Yet this was fully expected by many to be the result, simply because their methods were so wildly different and their specialties gained them certain advantages.

Heaven-Saint Refining Skies, Heaven-Saint Containing Creation—Tianshi Zaoxuan, and Heaven-Saint Transforming Worlds should have a greater advantage in the later stages of the alchemical process, allowing them to either catch up or exceed their competition. As for Heaven-Saint Fusing Souls, the final process was the most difficult, and he was known as having the highest success rate within the entirety of the Utmost Purity Galaxy for a reason!

"As long as an alchemist can get past the early stages, they can enter the true stages of alchemical concoction! Refining! Creating! And Transforming!" Hao Chengxue said with deep anticipation in his starry eyes.

"I didn't expect that Heaven-Saint Infinite Containment was a Freestyler. Is she the only one?" Luo Ning asked curiously. She was a Freestyler too. Wei Wuyin's entire lineage favored the Freestyle Process over the Predetermined Process, which was already an unpopular style of concoction. After all, it was easier to become extremely masterful in seven different concoction methods and adapt them than trying to execute tens of thousands of different arts and spells to suit specific materials and alchemical processes.

"She is," Tianshi Ya stated flatly. Freestyling was an extraordinarily difficult path to undertake, and few dared to brave such actions even if they could objectively get better results. It was simply because mastering arts and spells was extremely difficult while deciding which to use required an extraordinary degree of intelligence.

"Not exactly," Mei Xiaoyang corrected Tianshi Ya, "Heaven-Saint Refining Skies is also a Freestyler."

"Not a true one," Tianshi Ya objected without hesitation. "If he could be considered a Freestyler, then so can Heaven-Saint Containing Creation."

"..." Mei Xiaoyang's brows furrowed at that comment.

"Not a true Freestyler?" Luo Ning was confused. But she kind of understood why Heaven-Saint Refining Skies was a Freestyler. After all, he possessed a rich Enlightened Scholarly Mist, but so did Tianshi Zaoxuan to some degree.

Hao Chengxue explained, "Freestyling is a process that's very much up for debate on what's considered true or not. Well, you see—Predetermined Styles employ seven methods throughout the concoction process without deviation, and they often flow into each other. Even when flaws emerge during the later stages of concoction, they can often be alleviated or eliminated, resulting in greater compatibility.

"Meanwhile, the Freestyle Process used the best method for the material and the specific process. The point of contention of true and not is whether the action of swapping compatible arts and spells with one or more of the seven Predetermined Methods constitutes freestyling or not. Heaven-Saint Refining Skies adapts that method."

Luo Ning was stunned. That was an interesting controversy that she hadn't expected. If you use the Predetermined Process for Extraction, Growth, Containment, but change the method during Refinement, and then return to the original set for Creation, Transformation, and Fusion, then was it Predetermined or not? Was it Freestyling or not?

"Now you see," Hao Chengxue sighed with a weak smile.

Luo Ning didn't know where she stood on that specific controversy. She only knew that Suo Kai-Ming was a Freestyler, and this made Luo Ning pay closer attention to her.

As for Wei Wuyin, he was standing before his cauldron, meditating while reading various spiritual jades.

He hadn't even started!

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