Death... and me

Even though Roan said that he could make a neutral pill, the guild elders still looked at Werxa, waiting for his decision. In the end, Werxa nodded.

"Just bring him a neutral pill formula of an equivalent level of materials. It would take way too long to revise the exam just for his Darkness Affinity alone."

Immediately, one of the guild elders left. A few minutes later, he was already back with a neutral pill formula compatible with Werxa's requirements. The other elders also tested it and confirmed that at least the materials were at a similar level. Still, because it had no element, they didn't think it would do as well as the elemental ones.

Nonetheless, they passed it to Roan to work with.

With that said, Oligan once more took the front and continued.

"Now that the problem is dealt with, you can all start the test."

As weird as the situation might have been, the participants quickly put it behind their heads. Everyone only cared about the pills now. Roan then read the Pill Formula in the jade slip, not finding it surprising.

'It's a pretty standard formula, just like the other elemental pills. The only problem is that it can't take advantage of the users' elemental affinity. Well, that won't be a problem for me.'

Roan quickly asked for the herbs and prepared his tools. As always, only the ones provided by the guild could be used. Soon after, the assistants came back with the herbs and other materials for the Cross-Realm Pill. 

Following that, Roan turned on his cauldron and filled half of it with spiritual water. Well, it was basically just water imbued with Spiritual Energy, nothing that rare. While it heated up, Roan began to extract the medicinal liquid of the herbs. There were a few materials like the Stage Three Demon beast's blood, which didn't need to go through that process.

The water didn't boil, though. Roan controlled his fire so that it would be around 80 to 90 degrees. Seeing that it was already at the right temperature, Roan started with the demon beast's blood. He used his Spiritual Energy to do that while he continued to extract the herbs' medicinal liquids. 

Because his pill would have no element, Roan didn't hold back in his medicinal extraction. Every herb's medicinal liquid was at least at 90% of quality or higher. As one could imagine, that was because of the Light and Dark Elements working together. Too bad that Roan couldn't use the Soul Gem Realm pestle. Otherwise, it would have been even higher. Well, he couldn't use the Soul Gem Cauldron Either.

After some time, Roan began to add the liquids into the cauldron. At the same time, he looked at the formula inside the Jade Slip.

-The Fallen Snow Medicinal Liquid at three minutes and a half;

Increase the temperature for 23 minutes by ten degrees;

Send one-third of the Sulvor Powder right after, mix everything, and reduce the temperature by 15 degrees...-

'That won't work. My Darkness Element can help the Snow Medicinal Liquid achieve the right state faster. It will only take two minutes.'

'If I use the Light Element to protect the medicinal properties, I can increase the temperature to near boiling state. Let's make it 15 minutes or so.'

'Because of the previous changes, I will need more Sulvor Powder.'

Roan looked at his assistant before saying.

"Bring me more Sulvor Powder, at least three times more."

The assistant nodded and quickly left. That was how this exam worked. They only gave the formulas to the alchemists. As long as they created that type of pill, they could change its concoction process as much as they wanted. That's how one will find the best alchemists between the participants.

Halfway through the process, Roan began to use Rean's Light Element to protect the medicinal liquid while destroying the impurities with his Dark Element.

'That Soul Gem Cauldron is seriously a nice piece of equipment. The difference between that and this one is like heaven and earth. Although I can eliminate the impurities, it won't be as perfect as it would be with that. After all, I can't control the temperature precisely enough.'

Still, Roan didn't stop. His medicinal liquid revolved in the cauldron while he added some extra ingredients now and then.

Werxa and quite a few others looked at Roan's work. They knew what pill formula he was using. 

'If not because the materials are the same, I would think that he was concocting a completely different pill. Still, can he really win with a neutral pill?'

Werxa was considering whether he should still take Roan to the competition even years later or not. After all, he would fall behind if the test included a pill of the five primary elements. The Alchemist Headquarters would definitely not change the rules of the competition for Roan alone. At most, they would do what Werxa did, give him a neutral pill recipe for a similar level of materials.

Around one and a half hours later, Roan finally reached the time for pill formation. His eyes shone as he looked at the medicinal liquid in his cauldron.

'Far from perfect, but it should do.'

Immediately, a burst of Light and Dark Element came out of his body as he used his Spiritual Energy to form the pills. The two elements quickly entered the pills like torrents, making the medicinal liquid transform into a mix of black and white, just like his hair at the moment.

Werxa was taken aback by that.

'What is he doing? The phase where you add an element to the pill has already passed. I can tell that his neutral pill is far above average due to the process so far. Yet, to add an element at this point, and two at that... No! He's not creating an Elemental Cross-Realm pill. It is still a neutral pill. It's just that he's injecting his own elements inside, fusing them with the pill. Weird... is it some kind of pseudo-elemental pill?

The ones watching reached the same conclusion but couldn't tell what the effects would be. Still, it wasn't against the rules since he was making the same pill nonetheless.