Chapter 1588: Overflowing Confidence

The difference between divine-grade and mortal-grade spiritual herbs is that divine-grade herbs contain various fragments of laws.

As a Divine Pill master, the ability to organically fuse these great Dao laws into a divine pill is where their skill lies.

Clearly, this is not a simple task.

Alchemists need not comprehend these laws, but they must be adept at guiding these law fragments for their own use—this is the essence of the Dao of Alchemy.

In this regard, Ye Yuan had gone further than other alchemists.

In fact, compared to comprehending specific laws, the Dao of Alchemy is even more elusive.

Thus, although there are many alchemists, very few truly reach the highest realms.

As for the Dao Realm, needless to say.

And Dao Extraction is about drawing out the law power within spiritual herbs.

This is a basic skill for every Divine Pill master!

Compared to pill refining, Dao Extraction, which draws out the medicinal properties of a single herb, is relatively simpler.

Of course, it's only relative.

Under normal circumstances, a three-star Divine Pill master extracting thirty percent of the medicinal properties from a third-grade herb is already quite good.

Those who can extract fifty percent are exceptionally skilled.

Those who can extract seventy percent can almost sweep their peers and become a grandmaster.

Ninety percent is merely a legend.

Of course, some herbs are easier to extract from, while others are extremely difficult—it all depends on the specific situation.

At this moment, three herbs were placed before each person, the herbs to be used in the second round.

"Blood Longevity Heaven Ginseng! Jade Cicada Immortal Stamen! Imperial Extreme Purple Grass! It's actually these three herbs!"

"It's over, it's over! These three herbs are notoriously difficult. What do we do?"

"All my preparation was for nothing. Even combined, I can't extract ten percent of the medicinal properties from these three herbs!"

...

Each of these three herbs was worth ten points; extracting ten percent of the medicinal properties earned one point.

Finally, the total scores were added together to rank the results.

If the combined score for the three herbs was less than ten, it meant they had no confidence in scoring four points on any single herb.

When the hundred disciples saw these three herbs, a chorus of wails immediately erupted.

The law fragments contained in these three herbs were extremely complex, making them notoriously difficult to extract.

Pills refined from these three herbs were all very challenging to produce!

This time, it was a real killer.

Song Qiyang, however, sneered inwardly, "A bunch of idiots, so weak and still thinking of advancing to the third round? Heh, Ning Siyu, I'll make you look bad in this round!"

To ensure fairness in the Alchemy Tower Grand Competition, the herbs for the second round were always selected by several highly respected and impartial elders from the Martial Tower.

None of the Alchemy Tower elders knew about them.

However, walls have ears. Ruoxu had learned the content of this competition through secret channels and informed Song Qiyang and the others.

This way, their faction could secure more spots.

But Ruoxu never expected that in the first round of this competition, his faction would suffer a crushing defeat, with many not even getting a chance to use this information.

Nevertheless, Song Qiyang had specifically trained in advance, so he was sure to take the lead this time.

Ruoxu was no longer paying attention to the guardian-level competition; he knew Lu Yi's strength made it hard for him to gain much advantage.

But in the disciple-level competition, he had already lost face.

In the second round, he had to regain his dignity!

He didn't believe Ning Siyu could dominate Song Qiyang in this round too.

"Second round, begin! Starting from the hundredth place, Dao Extraction!" the steward announced loudly.

With that, the steward took a divine artifact and approached the hundredth-place disciple.

Dao Extraction essentially meant using alchemical techniques to draw out the law fragments from the spiritual herb.

That divine artifact was called a Dao Extraction Instrument, specifically used to measure the quality of the extracted properties.

The disciple took a deep breath, shook his palm, and shattered the Blood Longevity Heaven Ginseng.

Then, with extremely fast hand movements, he began to guide the law fragments from the ginseng into the Dao Extraction Instrument.

The instrument had ten large scales and many small ones, very precise.

The disciple strained with all his might, desperately guiding the law fragments into the instrument. But no matter how hard he tried, it finally stopped at the third scale.

A deep disappointment filled his eyes; he knew he couldn't make it to the third round.

The second round would eliminate seventy people, leaving only the top thirty for the third round.

To enter the top thirty, one needed at least thirteen or fourteen scales.

Clearly, he was out of the running.

Sure enough, his performance on the next two herbs was not good.

For one of them, he didn't even reach three scales.

"Wang Heng: Blood Longevity Heaven Ginseng 3.2, Jade Cicada Immortal Stamen 3.2, Imperial Extreme Purple Grass 2.9, total 9.3!" the steward announced loudly.

Hearing this result, the others felt their hearts pound.

No one mocked Wang Heng, because they knew these three herbs were indeed very difficult.

If they tried, they might not do better than Wang Heng.

Sure enough, the ninety-ninth-place disciple scored even one point less than Wang Heng.

The ninety-eighth-place disciple's result was also unimpressive, as expected.

"Next, ninety-seventh place, Song Qiyang!" the steward announced loudly.

Standing before the herbs, Song Qiyang's shattered confidence instantly filled up.

In fact, it overflowed!

For this competition, Song Qiyang had specifically trained on these three herbs.

At his best, he could even reach seventeen points!

Though just over half, that was already an extremely high score.

Song Qiyang grinned, shook his palm casually, and shattered the Blood Longevity Heaven Ginseng into pieces.

Then, his hands moved like lightning, rapidly forming seals.

At this moment, Song Qiyang's superior alchemical technique was fully displayed; law fragments streamed continuously into the Dao Extraction Instrument.

The instrument's scale soared rapidly.

"Wow, Senior Brother Song is truly formidable! He capsized in the first round, but he's about to turn things around in the second."

"This Illusory Void Heaven-Interpreting Hand technique has reached the pinnacle of perfection!"

"It's already over four points! It looks like Senior Brother Song's Blood Longevity Heaven Ginseng will reach at least five point five—that's impressive!"

...

Song Qiyang's strength was undeniable; his alchemical technique was a delight to watch.

The other disciples looked at him with admiration.

Finally, the instrument's scale stopped increasing, settling at five point seven.

"Haha, I'm in great form today! I have a feeling I might break seventeen points! First place in this round is definitely mine!"

Seeing the score of five point seven, Song Qiyang was smug.

Seventeen points was his personal best, and now, channeling his grief into strength, he was in surprisingly good form.

This made his confidence overflow.

Song Qiyang shot a provocative glance at Ning Siyu, who stuck out her tongue and made a funny face in return.