The thick dark clouds gathered in the sky and pressured William with Heavenly Might. Elder Tianshen brought out his umbrella artifact again and was prepared to assist William, but refrained from doing so when William shook his head.
"You don't need to help me this time, Elder. I can manage on my own."
Elder Tianshen felt William was only saying this because he didn't want to lose points again, but he couldn't really stop the boy from attempting the Tribulation, and it wasn't his place to step in when William already said no.
"Okay...be careful." Elder Tianshen stepped away from William and sat with the judges to avoid being targeted by the Tribulation.
The first Heavenly Lightning bolt brewed, emitting a dense pressure at the early stages of the Core Formation Realm. The power was no different than the Tier 4 Iron Stomach Pill that William refined the day before and struck down on him with great intensity.
The Heavenly Lightning clashed with William's reinforced skin, greatly weakening before it managed to enter his body. Since he recently received a boost, William decided to use the Fire Element to battle the Heavenly Lightning.
The results were better than he expected. After absorbing the Fire Root the previous day, William's Fire Mana had improved by leaps and bounds. With just a small amount of Mana, the Fire Element completely wiped out the Heavenly Lightning that previously exhausted all of William's Mana when he used the Lightning Element.
It made sense when William thought about it. Although the Lightning Element was the best counter to Heavenly Lightning, his Lightning Affinity was only C Rank. It was a far cry from his A Rank Fire Affinity that was enhanced by a Fire Root.
Elder Tianshen was surprised to see William in much better shape than he was the previous day. It seemed that the Fire Root was of great use to a Manamatus.
William tanked the second bolt of Heavenly Lightning with his body, exhausting a large chunk of his Mana to defend against the mid-Core Formation Realm Lightning. He realized that he wouldn't have enough Mana to defend against the next Tribulation if he used it on the final strike, so William decided it was time to reveal another of his Talents to the Sect.
With a simple command, William released his Forcefield that had remained hidden for a long time. No one noticed anything at first, probably because of his Stealth Talent that suppressed his ambient Mana, but when the third Heavenly Lightning struck William, there was an obvious difference.
Instead of clashing with his skin first, the Lightning Bolt hovered just a centimeter away from his skin and couldn't progress further. Eventually, there was a loud noise like the shattering of glass as his Forcefield failed to keep up.
The remainder of the Heavenly Lightning was defended against by his reinforced skin, leaving William completely unharmed against a Tribulation that previously required Elder Tianshen's artifact.
-Survived a Heavenly Tribulation: +10 PP The rıghtful source is novel※fire.net
The judges were silent as they wondered how William could have improved so much in just a day. He went from barely surviving a Tier 3 Tribulation alone to effortlessly defending against a Tier 4 Tribulation, it was insane!
Elder Tianshen went over to William. "You grew quite a bit since yesterday. Impressive!"
William scratched his head, "I've hardly improved at all, I was just more prepared this time."
The Elder felt it made sense. So he just overexerted himself yesterday, huh? That makes more sense...
"Even so, it's truly impressive that someone who hasn't even Cultivated yet can come so far. Your Talent is nothing short of genius!" he spoke with a smile before taking William's pills to be evaluated with a score of 106 points.
He handed William two of the extra pills he refined as per usual.
-Refined a pill: +1 PP
-Perfectly refined a pill: +2 PP
With William's Tribulation over, there were only five minutes remaining until the time was up. Most of the Alchemists were still refining their pills, but Yuming, Lu Bingying, and an unknown female Cultivator with short red hair were finished already.
The time passed quickly, and no one else finished their pills in time so Elder Arthur stood up to make his announcement. "The time has passed, and there are four Alchemists remaining. Since he has the lowest score of 88 points, Yuming has been eliminated from the second round. The current scores are: William, with 106 points; Lu Bingying with 91 points; Mia, with 90 points.
The final round will begin after a ten-minute break to recover your energy. Your task this time will be to refine a Tier 4 Poison Resistance Pill. You may take this time to request the materials you think you need, then begin once the timer has started!"
William got to work writing down the ingredients he needed. According to the System, he could use either two or three bags of Neutralizing Powder, but using three bags would be harder to refine. That being said, it would also give him the highest score and if done successfully, would result in another perfect refinement.
The choice was obvious. William requested the ingredients and began the moment the timer started. First, he poured a batch of Poison Frog's Skin into the cauldron, then refined two Iron Roots into Steel Roots, which would increase his success rate. He placed both materials into the cauldron, then heated them up to the extreme with his powerful Fire Magic.
Once the liquid began to cool down, William took the Neutralizing powder and quickly poured all three bags into the cauldron at the same time, making sure not to allow it to react with the Steel Root too early, else it renders itself completely useless.
The operation was a success, allowing William to safely condense all the ingredients into five yellow-green pills each carrying two golden stars. Unsurprisingly, William triggered yet another Heavenly Tribulation, but the other two Alchemists were fully prepared by the time it began. They stabilized their cauldrons well in advance to preserve their ingredients at their peak condition.
Like before, William used the Hard Skin Talent to defend against the first strike, while his Fire Mana countered the second. His Forcefield stopped the third, showing the Elders that William's previous success wasn't a fluke at all. In fact, he had become even more accustomed to the process, allowing him to spend even less Fire Mana this time.
-Survived a Heavenly Tribulation: +10 PP
Elder Tianshen brought his pills to the judges' table to evaluate, raising a brow when he found that William had refined an extra pill compared to last time.
"108 points go to William!" Elder Arthur called out, crushing the hopes of both Lu Bingying and Mia. So far, neither of them had perfectly refined a pill, even at Tier 2! The difficulty spike between Tiers wasn't just a difference of one plus one equals two. No, it was much greater than that!
Yet, William still managed to effortlessly clear each phase of the competition with all but one perfectly refined pill. It was insane!
-Refined a pill: +1 PP
-Perfectly refined a pill: +2 PP
--Upgraded Title: +3 Potential Points
-Alchemist (Rare): You have perfectly refined five unique pills, making a name for yourself among your Alchemy Peers. Pills of all Ranks will be 10% easier to refine.
16 more Potential Points and a Title upgrade, nice! William was profiting greatly from this Alchemy Competition. He was starting to think maybe his first experience with the Alchemy Hall was just a terrible coincidence. It seemed his luck this time around wasn't so bad at all!