Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Chapter 2313  Orange Flames

"What… is she doing?" Momo asked, having never seen what was being done on screen.

"I… am actually not that sure," Alex said, quite curious what the woman was doing.

Leafheart, or as Alex knew her, Shao Humin had a large cauldron before her, made up of some sort of orange metal, not that indistinctive from her own hair color. Beside that large cauldron were 3 smaller cauldrons, making a total of four.

Using 4 metal cauldrons wasn't something Alex hadn't seen before. He himself could use a dozen different cauldrons at the same time to make a pill.  But what was happening with those cauldrons certainly was weird.

While the large orange cauldron remained firmly in place, the other 3 cauldrons hovered halfway up in the air, hovering around the main cauldron at the center.

The orange cauldron glowed with a bright orange fire that blotted out the entire area in its orange hue. The other 3 cauldrons had regular fire but they seemed to be affected by the orange fire as well.

A large amount of ingredients all flew into the main cauldron, and it was unclear what else was happening inside.

Alex watched with a confused look, barely understanding half of what was going on, even if that. They all continued watching for a few minutes when the cauldrons opened and pills flew out.

"What?" Pearl asked in surprise. "It's only been 3 minutes."

"10 pills," Whisker said. "I counted. She made 10 pills in 3 minutes."

"That… she did," Alex said, very much surprised by what he was seeing. If she could make 10 pills in 3 minutes then…

Without wasting any time, Shao Humin poured the next set of ingredients into the cauldron.

"She's putting all ingredients at once," Pearl said. "Even you struggle to make pills that quickly with 10 sets of ingredients, don't you brother?" "I do," Alex said. "At least I cannot make it that quickly."

The issue with making 10 pills in the same cauldron using his separated space method of refining was that when one needed to mix together the energy at the end, one only had to be very aware of what rate the energy needed to be mixed at to get the proper reaction.

Not only that, for energies that needed to be mixed slowly, it took 10 times the duration to move on to the next layer of energy. That made the overall experience slow and annoying. If possible, Alex would rather just do it one at a time.

He could make 10 pills in about 4 minutes if he were to take that route, but that would certainly have been very slow for the competition as the other way was much faster for him. But the woman on the screen was doing something different. Whatever technique she was using, she was making pills at an exceptional speed and without any issue from the look of it.

The next set of pills flew out and she moved on to the next.

"Is it the fire? What is that orange fire?" Whisker asked.

"I do not know," Alex said. "But the fire alone couldn't help her speed things up so fast. There has to be something else going on. Maybe a technique of hers, or maybe that large cauldron of hers."

The others nodded.

They waited and watched as the woman continuously made pills one after another for the 30 minutes the competition lasted. By the time the timer had come to an end, she had made a total of 10 different sets of 10 pills, for a total of 100 pills.

"She looks happy," Whisker said. "I don't think she made a single mistake."

"No," Alex said. "She achieved what she had set out to do."

Everyone waited for them to tally up the points. Alex noticed that part of the woman's green robe and a bit of the floor had now become orange in color. As if the light from the fire had dyed them that color.

They waited for a few moments and the result was published.

Alex's name in the ranks suddenly slipped down to the 2nd place and the woman's name appeared in the first place.

1. Leafheart - 8855 points.

2. Dawnblade - 8785 points.

3. Aethersage - 8360 points.

Alex and the group were speechless.

"Didn't you get an extra 400 or so points from making a new pill and getting pill veins?" Pearl asked.

"I did," Alex said. "And she blew past that with 70 more points."

"I'm sorry, Master. You should've been first," Momo said, turning around with a dejected look.

Alex chuckled a bit. "Why are you sorry? It's only a competition. Besides, anyone who gets those points deserves to be there."

"But… aren't you sad? Isn't it better to get the first place?" she asked.

Alex smiled. "I'll get them next time. There are still 5 other competitions I can get first place. I won't lose the rest."

Momo saw a drive in Alex's eyes as though he more than believed his own words. She could almost see him win everything.

"Wait, isn't one of those competitions supposed to be me?" she asked.

Alex ruffled her hair. "And you will do fantastically. You are my disciple after all."

Momo couldn't help but smile widely at the trust. "I won't let you down, Master."

The group finished their meal in the restaurant and returned to their place where they settled into their rooms. Whisker needed some time to get used to his Immortal realm cultivation, so he would need a day or two to get used to it. Momo was more than inspired enough now that she went directly back to training again.

As for Pearl, he had nothing else to do except cultivate.

Alex was alone for the most part, so he focused his time and attention on making some more pills while he could. He had lost his first place to someone else today, and while it stung a little, he didn't let it get to him. There were still many more competition to come, many more opportunities to show itself.

He simply had to do better the next time.