“What’s going on? Why did everyone’s cauldrons explode?” asked Wu Jian.

He knew very little about alchemy beyond what Zhou Lihua had told him. Having watched the woman refine pills several times already, he knew that cauldrons exploding was nothing knew. She blew up several in his presence already.

This didn’t always mean the cauldron itself exploded. It was often the ingredients inside. Actual cauldrons exploding was not only more violent but resulted in the alchemist needing a new cauldron. What happened here was the ingredients inside exploded.

Though Zhou Lihua had actually made several cauldrons explode when she refined pills, but that was neither here nor there.

“Hmmm…” Master Wong Jiu stroked his beard as he observed the participants. “I believe Sao Yong has purposefully introduced a flaw in his recipe.”

“He can do that?” asked Wu Jian.

Master Wong Jiu snorted. “Of course, he can. There is nothing in the rules of this competition that says he cannot. I would have been even more disappointed if he didn’t.”

Wu Jian was confused. Why introduce a flaw in the recipe? What purpose would that serve? He thought about this for several seconds, watching as several participants began trying to refine the pill once more. A flaw. A flaw…

“Have you figured it out?” asked Master Wong Jiu.

“… He is testing them,” Wu Jian said at last.

“That’s right.” Master Wong Jiu crossed his arms. “Being an alchemist is about much more than just tossing ingredients into a cauldron, refining, and combining them. A good alchemist must also have excellent deductive skills and reasoning. He’s testing to see whether these participants can figure out why they failed to refine the pill.”

“I see.”

Wu Jian’s eyes were on Zhou Lihua. She was one of only three participants who stood on the highest raised platform, reserved for the three who did the best during Round One of the tournament. She had not begun trying to refine the pill again after her first failure. Instead, she just stood there, lips pursed and eyes unfocused.

“Have you figured out the flaw in the recipe?” asked Wu Jian.

Master Wong Jiu chuckled. “That’s impossible.”

“What? Why?”

“Because…”

***

Since she did not know why her pill had failed to refine the first time, Zhou Lihua had decided not to begin her second attempt. She only had enough ingredients for one more pill.

Xiao Wei and Lili Ling were the same. Neither of them were attempting to refine their second pill.

Refining a pill without knowing what went wrong was the mistake of an amatuer alchemist. If you didn’t know where you failed and tried to refine a pill again, there was nothing to stop you from making the same mistake.

There must be a flaw within the recipe. That’s the only explanation for why every alchemist here failed to refine the pill. Even Xai Wei and Lili Ling failed to refine the pill, and they’re arguably the best alchemists in this competition.

Several other participants had already begun their second attempt. Zhou Lihua paid careful attention to the order they refined their pills. She believed the flaw had something to do with the rank 3 monster core and pure heart clover. That was why she felt shocked when she noticed that two alchemists had what seemed like completely different recipes. One of the alchemists placed the jade leaves in before adding bromeliad. Another added anthurium stems after the bromeliad.

Their cauldrons exploded less than a second later, thus disqualifying the pair from the tournament.

Zhou Lihua checked her recipe again, which called for those particular ingredients to be added in the following order: anthurium stems, bromeliad, then jade leaves. Her eyes widened.

All of the recipes have a different flaw in them!

Sao Yong was clever. He knew people would begin watching others to see where the flaw was, and so he had added a different flaw into each recipe so they couldn’t take notes from someone else. Now that she knew this, she also realized there was a possibility this recipe had multiple flaws.

Of course, it wasn’t as if studying others as they refined was completely hopeless, but it may also amount to nothing more than a waste of her time. She could use the flaws found in their refining method as the basis to locate her own. Whether or not this helped was up in the air.

Lili Ling and Xiao Wei finally began their refining process. She didn’t know if they had figured out what flaw their recipes had, but she assumed they wouldn’t start refining again unless they had figured it out. No alchemist worth their weight in ingredients would do something like that, and these two were disciples of two rhodium rank alchemists.

Zhou Lihua had already figured out the first flaw in her own recipe. The rank 3 monster core and pure heart clover were out of order. Adding a monster core with a lightning affinity created a volatile reaction that caused the ingredients to explode when they interacted with each other. However, if she added and refined the monster core first, she could purify it without having to worry about the other ingredients getting in the way.

Monster cores were some of the hardest ingredients to purify, not only because of their density but also because they were essentially solid balls of pure chi. To purify them with flames, you had to pure away all the impurities until the monster core was liquid, then you had to heat it on a lower temperature until the liquid turned into a fine powder.

Sparks flew inside of her cauldron as she purified the monster core. Flashes of lightning could be seen emitting from the vents.

Those vents were designed to release the impurities from the ingredients into the atmosphere so they wouldn’t affect the pill when it was being refined, but right now, they were simply releasing sparks of lightning. The lightning skittered across the cauldron for nearly a full minute before Zhou Lihua was able to completely refine the monster core into a powder.

Zhou Lihua took a deep breath as the first step was complete, then reached out for the next ingredient.

***

“Hmmm. It seems she’s figured it out,” mumbled Master Wong Jiu.

“You mean she figured out where the flaw in her recipe is?” asked Wu Jian.

“Yes.” Master Wong Jiu paused for a moment as though collecting his thoughts before continuing. “The most interesting thing about his recipe is that many of the ingredients don’t need to be refined in a specific order. That is why he used this specific one for the competition. He can rearrange many of the ingredients that need to be refined during the process and it will still come out right, but some of them do have to be refined in a specific order. Using a recipe like this will prevent people from cheating by looking at what everyone else is doing.”

“Hmmm…”

Wu Jian might not have been well-versed in alchemy, but he at least understood this.

He was starting to get hungry, so Wu Jian went over to the table, quickly piled up a plate with steamed pork buns, egg rolls, and fried dumplings. He went back to view the competition and saw that Zhou Lihua was still in the process of refining her ingredient.

Some ingredients took a very long time to refine. The more powerful the ingredient was, the longer it would take. Zhou Lihua had once told him that some ingredients could take days if not weeks to refine. Of course, those ingredients were the kind used in tier 8 and 9 pills. The ones these participants were refining would only take a few hours at a maximum.

“Since the order of the ingredients can be changed, does that mean it doesn’t matter what order they are placed in besides the few that must be refined in a specific order?” asked Wu Jian before phasing an egg roll through his mask and eating it. This food had been well-prepared. The egg roll had a deliciously crispy fried texture on the outside, but the inside was moist and overflowing with juices.

“Not necessarily,” Master Wong Jiu answered. “While this recipe doesn’t call for a specific order to refine the pill, it can affect the pill’s quality. This is also part of the test. The alchemists who can refine the highest quality pill will receive the most points and also earn the highest praise.” He glanced at Wu Jian out of the corner of his eye. “I am surprised you can eat during a tense competition like this.”

Wu Jian shrugged as he continued eating. “I have complete confidence that Zhou Lihua can win.”

Master Wong Jiu raised an eyebrow, but then he broke out into a smile. “Good. Very good. It seems you recognize talent. Ha ha. I also have the utmost confidence in my disciple.”

The pair turned back to focus fully on the competition.

***

Refining all of the ingredients was much harder than she thought it would be. Not only did each ingredient require a different temperature to properly remove the impurities and turn it into a usable substance, but the amount of chi she was burning to refine them was insane. Sure, she might not have as much chi as monsters like Hou Jingshu and Wu Jian, but her chi was very pure, very refined, and much easier to control. She could perform alchemy without even using half the chi of a normal alchemist, which was how she could refine dozens of pills a day.

She would only be able to refine this pill once.

Truly, the Refreshing Pill was a monster. She now understood why Sao Yong had decided not to sell it on the open market. It was too difficult to refine. Even a normal palladium rank alchemist would have trouble with it.

Sweat dripped down her chin and fell onto her cauldron, sizzling as it evaporated in an instant. Her clothes were soaked and caking to her skin. She glanced at Xiao Wei and Lili Ling. Both were in the same situation as her, breathing heavily, drenched in sweat. It at least made her feel better to know she wasn’t the only one struggling with this pill recipe.

She had finally refined all of the ingredients. Now she had to combine all the ingredients and form a pill. This next part would be even more difficult.

Zhou Lihua clapped her hands together as she unleashed her chi, causing the flames to roar. They covered the entire cauldron, wrapping around it like the petals of a flower closing during the night.

Sweat beaded her brow as she willed her chi to swirl around the ingredients and bring them together. Each ingredient reacted negatively. The repulsive force almost made her cauldron blow up, but she quickly brought them under control. She took a deep breath through her nose.

I can’t just combine them. It looks like I need to combine them in a specific order…

Zhou Lihua quickly ran through the list of ingredients, then began combining the gentlest ingredients together. They had little reaction as they merged. She continued to breathe evenly as she merged more of the ingredients one at a time. It wasn’t until she came upon the last three ingredients that she struggled to figure out which to combine with the others first.

The ingredients to be refined were the pure heart clover, rank 3 monster core, and twenty year iron chi sand.

While it was called iron chi sand, it was not actually sand or iron. The reason it had been given this name was because of what the ingredient looked like after it had been refined. It was originally the bulb of the iron daffodil, known for the hardness of its petals. It was an ingredient heavy with the earth element. That meant it should have complimented the pure heart clover, which was also of the earth element, but that wasn’t the case. The reaction she got between these two when she tried to merge them was violent.

A gong suddenly echoed around them.

“You have twenty minutes left,” said Sao Yong.

Zhou Lihua’s eyes widened. How much time had passed? Had it really been almost five hours?

A cheery shouted alerted her that Lili Ling had finished refining her pill. The woman was cheering wildly as she removed her pill and held it up for all to see. Xiao Wei had also just finished, but he did not react with the same enthusiasm as the young woman.

Noe one else had refined their pill yet. Most of the disciples had already failed both attempts. Only a few were struggling to finish. Just then, another cauldron exploded, making Zhou Lihua feel the pressure.

I need to refine this soon or the ingredients will get burned. What do I know about these three ingredients? Pure heart clover is gentle, but it doesn’t seem to react well when I attempt to combine it with the iron chi sand. That has to be due to the earth element. Too much earth element is creating an unstable reaction with the flames. I can’t combine the monster core with the pure heart clover, but what if I combine it with the iron chi sand?

Zhou Lihua narrowed her eyes and focused her will, slowly merging the monster core with the iron chi sand. Sparks flew. They were muted, however, and it wasn’t long before the two ingredients were smoothly combined. She didn’t allow herself to feel relief yet. The moment she lost focus was the moment her control would slip.

Forming a tiger seal with her hands, she willed the flames to burn hotter, then merged the combined monster core/iron chi sand with the pure heart clover. The ingredients congealed together and formed a substance that felt like it was halfway between a solid and a liquid.

Another gong sounded. Just five minutes left. Several more cauldrons exploded as alchemists rushed to finish their pills and made simple mistakes.

Zhou Lihua felt the pressure, but she remained calm as she merged the last three ingredients with the rest. No sparks flew this time. She took in a deep breath before changing the hand seal from tiger to snake. Her chi condensed around the cauldron as the ingredients formed the shape of a pill, then hardened.

She released her control over the flames just as another gong echoed out and Sao Yong yelled, “Time is up!”