Chapter 332: Day Three of Imperial Competition [2]
She began the long, painstaking extraction process.
First came the Void-Bound Grass.
Yilan raised her left hand, her fingers forming a delicate orchid seal.
A thread of azure fire wrapped around the dark purple herb, suspending it inches above the cauldron’s rim.
Instead of blasting it with raw heat, her flame pulsed in rhythmic, breathing intervals, alternating between intense heat to burn away the fibrous impurities and gentle warmth to preserve the fragile spatial properties within.
Within minutes, the herb dissolved into a shimmering, violet liquid droplet that drifted safely into a waiting crystal cup.
Next, she introduced the Soul-Nourishing Lotus.
This herb was notoriously fragile, a single temperature spike would cause its delicate spiritual veins to shatter, turning the medicinal essence to useless ash.
Yilan’s dark blue eyes focused sharply.
She split her azure flame into six microscopic fire-filaments, weaving them through the petals like glowing silk threads.
The fire slowly melted the golden core of the lotus, drawing out a fragrant, shimmering liquid that smelled of fresh spring rain.
One by one, all four primary ingredients and twelve secondary spiritual herbs were meticulously purified, each reduced to its absolute purest, unblemished essence.
Hours bled by in agonizing, high-stakes tension.
Sweat soaked through the robes of the surrounding finalists as they struggled to maintain their furnace temperatures and keep their complex formulas balanced.
Across the arena, dramatic visual anomalies began to erupt as the other finalists reached their final stages.
To the north, Master Yan of the Pill Dragon Association let out a thunderous roar, slamming both palms onto his bronze cauldron.
A pillar of blinding, multicolored Pill Light shot three hundred feet into the sky, illuminating the clouds above and drawing deafening cheers from his disciples.
To the south, another young Golden Core prodigy let out a breathless, triumphant laugh as his furnace chimed softly.
The lid flew off to reveal three sparkling pills adorned with delicate, glowing Pill Veins etched onto their surfaces.
The grandstands erupted into a frenzy, the spectators drunk on the magnificent, high-level spectacle unfolding before their eyes.
Up in the elite private pavilion, Shen Yu watched the chaotic displays with a subtle, knowing smile, his golden eyes filled with effortless calm.
Beside him, Meng Yan and Lixue held their breath, their fingers tightly intertwined, their eyes completely glued to Yilan’s stationary figure down below.
Down on the dais, Yilan remained entirely unfazed by the roaring crowd and the glowing pillars of light around her.
She took a slow, deep breath, her chest rising gracefully beneath her silk dress as she reached the final, most dangerous phase of all: Pill Fusion.
Carefully, she guided all sixteen extracted liquid essences into the core of her heated furnace simultaneously.
The moment the opposing forces touched, a violent, screeching reaction echoed from inside the cauldron!
The energy of the Void-Bound Grass clashed savagely against the heavy spiritual density of the Soul-Nourishing Lotus, threatening to blow the heavy lid straight off its hinges.
Yilan’s eyes snapped open, glowing with a sharp, ethereal light.
She closed her palms together, weaving an intricate sequence of ancient hand seals taught to her by Shen Yu.
She drew upon the profound Dao insights unlocked during her bloodline awakening, drawing forth a strand of her own pure, fiery-golden Will.
Passing through her arms, this refined spiritual intention plunged directly into the chaotic heart of the furnace.
Like an invisible, unyielding hand, her Will wrapped around the warring liquid essences, forcing the clashing spatial and soul energies to align, forcing them to fuse into a single, perfectly balanced sphere of supreme power.
OMMMM—!
Suddenly, the ambient spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth above Thousand Waves City went wild.
The clouds turned dark, swirling into a massive, funnel-shaped vortex directly above Yilan’s cauldron!
"L-Look at the sky!" a spectator shrieked, pointing upward with a trembling finger.
"Heavenly energy is being swallowed whole! Is she... is she actually refining a genuine Tier-4 Nascent Soul Pill?!"
Before the crowd could comprehend the sight, thick, dark storm clouds coalesced directly over the arena.
Deep within the swirling vortex, jagged purple lightning snakes writhed and roared with terrifying pressure.
CRACK-BOOM—!
The terrifying pressure of Pill Tribulation Lightning descended!
It was the exact same divine trial cultivators faced when breaking through from the Golden Core realm to the Nascent Soul realm!
"Heavens! Tribulation Lightning!"
"RUN! IT’S THE WRATH OF HEAVEN!"
Panicked screams erupted across the grandstands as hundreds of thousands of spectators turned pale as ash, many falling to their knees in raw terror.
For most gathered here, this was the very first time in their lives witnessing the oppressive, apocalyptic aura of heavenly tribulation!
Down on the arena floor, the other nineteen finalists lost control of their flames in sheer shock. Their cauldrons sputtered out into plumes of useless gray smoke as they stared up at the churning storm in numb, soul-crushing dread, completely abandoning their refinements.
Up in the VIP balcony, Shen Yu raised his head and gazed directly into the swirling vortex of the tribulation storm. As his golden eyes pierced the oppressive darkness, something bizarre occurred within the raging lightning. For a fleeting fraction of a second, the violent purple bolts flickered with a faint, almost shy pink hue before instantly snapping back to their destructive form.
It happened so fast that nearly no one in the arena caught it, except for Shen Yu and City Lord Wu Shan.
Wu Shan’s brow furrowed tightly. Intrigued and alarmed, he immediately swept his powerful Nascent Soul spiritual sense upward into the eye of the storm, scrutinizing every inch of the clouds, yet found nothing amiss.
Shen Yu, however, simply let out a dark, knowing smile, his gaze lingering on the churning clouds with playful amusement then he looked back at Yilan.
As if sensing his dismissive stare, the tribulation cloud seemed to react with sudden, unnatural indignation, as though enraged that he had shifted his attention away to look down at Yilan.
BOOM—ROAR!
The heavens thundered with a deafening, anger-fueled roar that shook the very foundations of Thousand Waves City!
Amidst the howling gale and violent thunder, Yilan’s dark blue robes whipped wildly around her mature, curvaceous figure.
Her face was pale from the intense strain, but her dark blue eyes burned with an unyielding, fierce resolve.
CRACKLE—!
A thick, blinding bolt of purple lightning tore through the black sky, plunging straight down like a divine lance toward her unsealed cauldron, intending to incinerate the arrogant pill attempting to defy the laws of Heaven!
"Not on my watch!" Yilan spat softly, her voice carrying absolute pride and authority.