William finished up in the Great Hall and took a trip to Wild Clover for a quick meal before heading home for some rest.
-Potential Farm: +3 PP Tʜe sourcᴇ of thɪs content ɪs novel⚑fire.net
He woke up early in the morning to see that the Potential Farm had already yielded results. It seemed that the Potential Farm would give him points at the same time each day.
3 Potential Points per day? So I will make back my investment in just over a month...
William found this to be a pretty good deal, especially since Cultivators tended to spend a long time in secluded Cultivation. This would at least ensure that William was always earning Potential Points and wouldn't always have to go out and cull the local Magical Beast population when he was running low.
That being said, William didn't plan to upgrade the Potential Farm anytime soon. He walked to the Alchemy Hall like the previous few days and prepared for the final day of the Alchemy Competition.
Yuming was waiting for him. "Are you ready to lose to me today?" he teased.
"In your dreams!" William walked inside together with Yuming and took his usual seat on the stage.
Yuming gave him an apologetic look, "Sorry Will, I'm going to sit far away. Who knows what kind of Tribulation you will summon this time? I at least want to score in the top three!"
William nodded in understanding. He wasn't going to give up on the first-place rewards, so he was more than prepared to do exactly what Yuming and the others feared. He cracked his knuckles and brought out the cauldron that Yuming had let him keep after yesterday's competition.
Most of the other competitors were present already, even though the stage was only around half full. There would only be fifty Alchemists on the stage today, who previously placed in the top 10 of their respective group.
Elder Arthur stood up as soon as the last Inner Core Disciple took his seat. "You've all done well to make it this far. Today marks the final day of the Annual Alchemy Competition, so be sure to do your best to win the grand prize of a Gold-Ranked Fire Root!"
Elder Arthur's words made the Alchemists cheer. This was the most generous Alchemy Competition in the last dozen years or so. They eagerly listened to Elder Arthur's next set of instructions.
"Of course with a greater reward comes greater challenge. We, the judges, believe that each and every one of you possess the talent and ability to refine Tier 4 pills, and so that is the requirement to move on to the next phase of the competition." he looked directly at William with a slight smile.
William guessed that the Alchemy Hall had raised the bar since he perfectly refined a Tier 4 pill the previous day, while the Inner Core Disciples carried mixed expressions of surprise, shock, and worry.
"How can this be the requirement for just the first phase? Are they trying to eliminate all of us right from the beginning so that no one gets the reward?" one Alchemist spoke quietly to the group around him.
A few other conversations started across the room, but they were quickly silenced with a word from Elder Arthur. "Alright, be quiet. You will be free to refine any pill you like, as long as you are confident, and the pills are not too expensive. Are there any questions before we begin?"
No one spoke, so Elder Arthur gave the go ahead.
William was stuck in another dilemma. Since the Alchemy Hall always provided him some of the extra pills he refined, he wanted to make something that would be beneficial to him. He didn't know what he needed, so he asked the System, which recommended the Tier 4 Saturation Pill.
It wasn't very useful to Cultivators since they didn't need to eat, but a Saturation Pill could even be consumed by a normal person and would keep their stomachs full for an entire week even at Tier 1. At Tier 4, the Saturation Pill would satiate a normal person for an entire year!
William quickly wrote down the ingredients and called for Elder Tianshen.
"This is what you want to refine?" Elder Tianshen was surprised. William chose a fairly simple Tier 4 pill recipe, and the ingredients weren't very complicated. What was the boy getting at?
Is he doing this because he doesn't want to upset the judges during the final day? It was the only explanation Elder Tianshen could think of. He smiled at William, and fetched an Inner Core Disciple that was serving as Yuming's replacement.
Within a few minutes, the ingredients were in front of William: Two thighs of a Spirit Hog, a dozen pieces of Mana Grass, and a Luminous Pearl. Unlike before, there was no problem with the materials, and he didn't sense any form of sabotage. Maybe the Iron Root from yesterday just happened to be damaged and it was all a coincidence...
William was still going to play it safe. He picked up the Luminous Pearl and set it in the cauldron first to melt down. He chopped the Spirit Hog thighs into small bits, then threw them into the cauldron as well with the Mana Grass.
With that, all William had to do was carefully control his Mana circulation when stirring the cauldron, and the pills would be refined.
While William was stirring, though, he noticed that the difficulty of stirring the cauldron was increasing. This wasn't listed in the recipe; this was something else.
He inspected the cauldron while trying to maintain his speed, but couldn't find any problems. The stirring became more and more difficult until it felt as if William was trying to stir a thick molasses. He performed a simple inspection on himself using Life Sense, and that's when William noticed that there was a thick black tar inside his joints that would normally be impossible to detect.
He panicked and almost lost control of his cauldron. Elder Tianshen noticed something was wrong but didn't interfere since William was in the process of refinement.
William's arms became more and more useless until he could barely move them. I have to do something!
His mind spun as he desperately tried to resolve his current situation. He could call for help, but the pill ingredients would be lost before anyone could assist him.
He thought of a solution.
William forced a slow hand movement and called some Mana to his fingers, creating a strand of Wind Element Mana on each fingertip. He controlled the Mana to take hold of the cauldron's ladle and physically let go, allowing the Wind Element Mana to do all the work.
-Developed a complex new spell: +5 Potential Points
-New Spell: Wind Grasp
Success! William was able to stabilize the ingredients with Wind Magic, but the Mana expenditure wasn't small.
"Elder Tianshen!" he called out with a slight sense of urgency.
The Elder rushed over, noticing something was wrong with the talented young man, his arms hanging limply by his side while Mana of the Wind Element stirred the cauldron for him. It was obvious that William wasn't doing this to show off. "What is it?"
"I can't move my arms. I think someone did something to me!"