The First Immortal of Destiny

This is a cauldron as massive as a mountain, suspended above the city, with ethereal radiance continually rising from it, forming a magnificent display of colorful clouds!

The lid of the cauldron appears extremely spacious, resembling a flat plaza...

On it, dozens of "Consciousness" figures are gathered, fiercely debating something, with sparks flashing continuously on their bodies, capturing quite an attention, even Shen Mo was drawn toward it.

Mingling among them, some people floated in mid-air, some sat cross-legged on the ground, some lay on the colorful clouds, gathered like an overturned iron pot together, while in the center of the "pot", stood a white-haired old man and a boy with a ghastly green appearance, arguing so fiercely that their faces were flushed, and sparks from their hearts burst out like two blazing torches!

In the cultivation world, especially for a cultivator in the Divine Bridge Realm, an elder is not necessarily old, and a youth not necessarily young, and moreover, this is the Dreamland where appearances can change at one’s will.

Therefore, Shen Mo did not have the habit of "judging people by appearance", but instead, listened intently to their debates.

"The Red Flame Fruit tends towards fire in the five elements, its medicinal properties are fiercely hot, how could it possibly substitute the water-oriented Green Spirit Fruit to concoct the Grade V Prosperity-Decay Pill?"

"After making a bet with you, I attempted over a dozen times in the real world using your method, only to burn through alchemy materials worth over ten thousand Spirit Stones and blow up my spiritual level cauldron..."

"Wang San, you lost the bet and must admit it. Not even one of the thousand Dream Realm copper coins can be missing!"

The white-haired elder had an angry look, his emotions visibly agitated.

"Your control over the flame was definitely off, I’ve told you to regulate the temperature of the cauldron’s fire while melting and refining the Red Flame Fruit..." The gauntly green youth disagreed with the elder’s conclusion and retorted fearlessly.

"You talk nonsense! I, Jiang, a dignified Grade V Alchemist, still couldn’t control the flame in the cauldron?"

"..."

After listening for a while, Shen Mo finally understood.

The gauntly green youth Wang San and the elder surnamed Jiang are debating a modification method for the Grade V elixir Prosperity-Decay Pill and have set a bet of one thousand Dream Realm copper coins on it!

Wang San said one can use the "Red Flame Fruit" to replace the main ingredient named "Green Spirit Fruit" in the Prosperity-Decay Pill recipe.

The Green Spirit Fruit comes from the Green Spirit Bamboo, which not only has harsh growth conditions but only bears fruit when it flowers as it is about to wither and die after a thousand years, making it incredibly rare and valuable. Thus, a Grade V Prosperity-Decay Pill with Green Spirit Fruit as its main ingredient is quite valuable in each Immortal Mountain and immortal workshop, not cheaper than grade six Elixirs.

If one can use Red Flame Fruit, which is more commonly found and of lower value in the Immortal Realm, to replace Green Spirit Fruit, the market price of the Prosperity-Decay Pill can drop by at least half, allowing more cultivators to enjoy this cultivation-enhancing elixir... Indeed, this would be a significant improvement to the Prosperity-Decay Pill recipe!

As Wang San mentioned, he seems to have successfully concocted it in the real world;

But after betting with him, the elder surnamed Jiang tried for ages in the real world without ever successfully making a batch with Red Flame Fruit as the main ingredient for the Prosperity-Decay Pill.

Therefore, neither could convince the other, leading to their endless debate, surrounded by spectators!

"Alright Wang San, you’re like a dying duck with a stiff mouth! I’ll concoct one in front of you, if there’s any mistake in the alchemy technique, flame control, refinement process, just point it out. If you can’t say anything, you’ll obediently pay up."

The elder surnamed Jiang snorted and with a hand swipe, various spiritual medicines, cauldrons, and other items appeared before him, then he began concocting the Prosperity-Decay Pill.

This isn’t true cauldron-opening alchemy but projecting any alchemy materials from the outer realm and the changes during alchemy onto the Dreamland through mind’s sense!

Thus, in just a few breaths, the elder surnamed Jiang completed all the steps.

As he said, after substituting Red Flame Fruit for Green Spirit Fruit, the cauldron quickly exploded, and the spiritual medicine inside became a cauldron full of charcoal.

From Shen Mo’s Grade six Alchemy Path insight, the elder surnamed Jiang’s timing in adding spiritual medicine, control over fire, and the countless seals during alchemy were standard and error-free; yet, indeed, he could not successfully concoct the Prosperity-Decay Pill.

The gauntly green youth Wang San also witnessed the whole process, pondered deeply over it, couldn’t find a single flaw, and wore a perplexed expression on his face.

"I may not know where the issue lies, but for sure, there was something wrong when you concocted this batch of elixir!"

Wang San still refused to admit defeat, immediately mimicking the elder, projected Red Flame Fruit, other auxiliary medicines, cauldron fire, and began concocting the elixir using mind’s senses.

Unexpectedly, even though using the same original material and steps, he successfully concocted a batch of Grade V Prosperity-Decay Pill, with a decent yield and quality!

Even Shen Mo was somewhat shocked, the "sparks" on his "Consciousness" body flickering brightly.

During the competition between Wang San and the elder surnamed Jiang in "projecting alchemy process", the "Heart-thought Sparks" on their bodies continuously erupted, akin to sparks from a torch, swiftly dissipating into the void.

Simultaneously with the disappearance of the "Heart-thought Sparks", gold copper coins appeared out of thin air beside them, carefully stashed away into their sleeves!

Not only these two alchemy practitioners but also the scores of Xian Dao Stronghold observing the debate exchanged arguments, with sparks similarly bursting from their bodies. Although not as numerous and splendid as the ones from Wang and Jiang, after vanishing into the void, a smaller quantity of gold copper coins would appear and be collected by them.

Shen Mo was no exception, after the sparks from his Heart-thought dissipated, eight golden copper coins appeared in the void beside him, which he picked up to examine and play with.

"The sparks bursting from my body should be thoughts from the heart!"

"If it’s a valuable thought, Dreamland would spawn gold copper coins out of thin air, which should be the Dream Realm copper coins mentioned by the elder Jiang. These copper coins might be some sort of incentive mechanism in Dreamland..." Shen Mo thought privately, while sparks burst wildly from him, directly reflecting his intense stream of thoughts, unstoppable.

However, upon pondering this time, he did not obtain a single Dream Realm copper coin, clearly this thought held no value to Dreamland.

"Fake for sure! The scene of successful concoction you’re showing is obviously something you’re fabricating!" The elder surnamed Jiang waved his sleeve, dispersing scenes of spiritual medicine, cauldron, Grade V Prosperity-Decay Pill, and the like, rebuking somewhat frantically.

In Dreamland, with Heart’s Command...

Even what cannot be successfully achieved in the outer realm can be projected here through the flow of thoughts.

Though the gauntly green youth Wang San succeeded in Dreamland by "concocting" a batch of Prosperity-Decay Pill with a modified recipe, the elder Jiang suspected that he failed in actually concocting in the real world and was now merely fabricating a façade of success with his consciousness!