Chapter 61 The Last Competitors

Chapter 61: 61 The Last Competitors

61

The Last Competitors

[First stage completed.]

[Second stage initiated.]

[Objective: fuse three incompatible spiritual essences.]

[Failure probability without assistance: 61.8%.]

Yun Che narrowed his eyes. If the three incompatible essences were fused directly, the reaction would be destructive.

[Recommended sequence.]

[Essence A: Centenary Chestnut.]

[Essence C: Dripping Bud.]

[Essence B: Green Sandalwood.]

[Interval between fusions: 2.7 seconds.]

Yun Che began the first fusion and stabilized it. The second began reacting violently, so he immediately adjusted the flame.

Then a change appeared, and the System responded in time.

[Do not interrupt.]

[Temporary reaction required.]

Yun Che kept the flame under control, sweat running down his face beneath the mask. The essence seemed to be on the verge of exploding.

Su Meilin looked at him.

"He isn’t correcting it."

Chen Ruyue asked:

"Why?"

Su Meilin replied:

"Perhaps he realized that the reaction is part of the process."

Guo Han heard them and narrowed his eyes. He had noticed it as well, but before he could react, Lian Yue’s furnace began to tremble.

She had chosen another approach. She tried to stabilize the three essences simultaneously. It worked for several seconds.

Then one of the essences absorbed too much energy. Lian Yue immediately reduced the flame, but when the light above her began to flicker, she attempted one final correction.

The pill cracked, and its light immediately went out. Lian Yue’s body was enveloped by the formation. Before disappearing, she looked at her furnace.

She had reached her limit.

Then she disappeared, leaving only four remaining.

Yun Che.

Guo Han.

Su Meilin.

Chen Ruyue.

The pressure on the participants increased.

[Third stage.]

[Complexity increased.]

[Warning.]

Yun Che frowned when a second message appeared in red with a warning symbol.

[Lust Points at critical level.]

[Current state: dangerously low.]

[Core instability detected.]

[The host’s core is losing stability.]

[If this condition persists, cultivation will progressively decrease.]

Yun Che gritted his teeth.

Damn it. Not now.

He then ignored the warning.

[Recommendation: perform Dual Cultivation for stabilization.]

[Safety period reduced.]

[Decrease in cultivation inevitable if the need is not fulfilled.]

Yun Che closed the mental window.

"Later."

The System remained silent.

The third stage began. Chen Ruyue was the first to encounter the problem. The essence of one of the herbs began adapting to the spiritual environment inside the furnace. She noticed it immediately.

"It’s changing."

Su Meilin replied:

"Don’t try to stop the change. You could provoke an adverse reaction in its spiritual essence."

Chen Ruyue nodded, but there was a difference. She knew what was happening, yet she did not know what to do afterward. The essence continued changing.

Chen Ruyue tried to follow its composition, but it became completely different, and she lost control the following second.

Her light began to weaken.

"No..."

She used all her abilities to recover, but the pill resisted. However, the final transformation had already surpassed her knowledge.

Chen Ruyue looked at the essence and then smiled bitterly.

"I understand now."

Her light went out as the formation activated beneath her, and she was immediately expelled, leaving only three.

Yun Che.

Guo Han.

Su Meilin.

The silence became suffocating. Guo Han looked at Yun Che.

"You haven’t made a single mistake yet."

Yun Che did not respond. Guo Han smiled.

"Interesting. Let’s see which of the three of us can condense the pill. I wish each of you good luck."

The fourth stage began, and the difficulty changed completely. It was no longer a matter of controlling ingredients, but of understanding the formation engraved within the furnace itself.

Su Meilin noticed it first.

"The formation is redistributing the energy."

Guo Han nodded.

"Yes."

She studied the inscriptions.

"But there is a hidden sequence."

Guo Han mentally approached the problem.

"Four points."

"Five."

Guo Han looked again.

"You’re right."

Su Meilin pointed.

"The fifth point is hidden by the spiritual circulation."

The two began working.

Yun Che also received the analysis.

[Spiritual energy distribution formation identified.]

[Five circulation cores.]

[Correct sequence determined.]

[First core: 3.]

[Second: 1.]

[Third: 5.]

[Fourth: 2.]

[Fifth: 4.]

Yun Che executed the sequence, and the energy changed direction. The essence stabilized.

Su Meilin attempted to do the same.

But there was a difference. She needed to discover the correct sequence and execute it with surgical precision.

Yun Che only needed to execute it, causing his light to remain stable.

Su Meilin advanced for a few more moments, and then the formation of her furnace began to collapse. She tried to understand it and changed the sequence midway.

She failed.

Her light flickered. She looked at Yun Che, the mysterious masked cultivator, and at Guo Han, her fellow sect member.

"You two have already found the correct sequence, haven’t you? This is the end for me. May the best alchemist win."

Guo Han remained silent. Su Meilin smiled sweetly.

"Then it seems this is my final stage."

The light went out.

She disappeared.

Outside, she joined the others, and now only two participants remained inside the mausoleum.

Yun Che.

Guo Han.

The old alchemist finally smiled.

"Now the true test begins. It was only to be expected that the final would be between the two of you."

The old man had nearly exhausted all his energy just to utter those words.

The walls of the chamber began to move. The six furnaces disappeared, leaving only two.

One stood before Yun Che, and the other before Guo Han.

A new formation appeared in the center. The old man spoke amid his increasingly heavy coughs:

"From this moment onward, you will no longer receive prepared ingredients."

Two boxes appeared.

"You will have to create the final essence from the remaining materials."

Guo Han took a deep breath.

"So we’ve come to this."

Yun Che opened the box.

The System immediately responded.

[Fifth stage.]

[Complete analysis initiated.]

[Unknown material identified.]

[Properties partially concealed.]

[Failure probability without assistance: 82.3%.]

Yun Che remained motionless, and then new messages appeared.

[Lust Points remain at a critical level.]

[Core instability increasing.]

[First stability reduction detected.]

[Warning.]

[The host’s cultivation will begin to decrease if Dual Cultivation is not performed.]

Yun Che gritted his teeth.

Even so, he continued despite having already lost three entire realms from his cultivation.

The material began to melt. The temperature had to be exact. Even one degree higher would destroy the essence, while one degree lower would prevent the fusion.

[Optimal temperature found.]

[Tolerance margin: 0.6 degrees.]

Yun Che adjusted it, and Guo Han did the same. The two were perfectly synchronized as the essence began to take shape.

Then an unexpected reaction occurred. Guo Han frowned.

"What is happening..."

He changed the flame again, altering it by 0.06 degrees, but the reaction became worse.

Yun Che received the analysis.

[Secondary reaction identified.]

[Cause is not the ingredient.]

[Origin: accumulated spiritual energy.]

[Do not dissipate.]

[Concentrate.]

[Compress.]

Yun Che obeyed.

The essence began to contract, and the pressure became frightening, causing the entire furnace to tremble violently and creating a resonance.