Ten yuan… Fan Hongde frowned almost imperceptibly, but theoretically speaking, the materials prepared in the material kit were all extra, and could be added at any time if needed.
Golden Core cultivators are generally concerned with their reputation and would not be greedy for such a small advantage.
But Shi Xuan didn't know anything about face. Since he said he had plenty, let him take out more, at least let him feel the pinch.
Thunderstone ore is extremely rare; even Fan Hongde doesn't have much of it. The reason I said that earlier was simply to prevent Shi Xuan from drawing a new topic.
Now we're in a bind. We can't just say we have plenty and then not even be able to come up with ten dollars.
"The Thunder-Attracting Pill doesn't require a large amount of Thunderstone." Fan Hongde still wanted to give a few fewer pieces. Normally, one Thunderstone is enough to refine two batches of Thunder-Attracting Pills, but he couldn't say that, as it would be suspected of pointing out the amount of ingredients used in the pill formula.
"That's your Lightning-Attracting Pill, but my Lightning-Attracting Pill requires this many Lightning Stones." Shi Xuan smiled at him maliciously: "Sect Leader Fan just said he had plenty of Lightning Stones, could he have been exaggerating?"
Fan Hongde's hesitation had already sparked murmurs from the audience; he had no choice but to bring it out now.
Left with no other choice, Fan Hongde took out ten thunderstones and had a disciple from the Langya Sect deliver them to Shi Xuan, who then put them into Shi Xuan's material bag.
Shi Xuan then smiled with satisfaction.
Seeing her like this, Shu Yuanguan knew she was confident and stopped bothering her.
Fan Hongde was completely unaware of Shi Xuan's personality. If she couldn't refine the Lightning-Attracting Pill today, she absolutely wouldn't let Fan Hongde have his way. Even if it meant losing face, she would disrupt the competition until she changed the topic.
Now, Shi Xuan has interrupted him twice when he wanted to help her change the topic, which clearly shows that she knows what's going on.
After all the disciples checked their material packages and found nothing missing, they nodded to the Langya Sect disciples who were accompanying them.
Once everyone was ready, a gong sounded on the stage, and the Golden Core stage alchemy competition officially began!
Fan Mingzhu and Shi Xuan attacked almost simultaneously. Everyone knew that the pill Fan Mingzhu drew was the simplest among all the cultivators present, while Shi Xuan's was the most difficult. They could understand Fan Mingzhu attacking first, but could Shi Xuan really make that fourth-tier Lightning-Attracting Pill, such an uncommon pill?
Fan Mingzhu has now switched to the demonic path, and her alchemy skills have regressed instead of improved. This is because, according to the old alchemy methods, no matter what kind of pill it is, it will inevitably be tainted with a trace of demonic energy in the end. People who consume the pills are prone to developing inner demons without realizing it, and over time, they are in danger of going berserk.
In such a setting, with so many high-level cultivators observing her pills, she dared not take the risk and had to use even more of her divine sense to isolate the demonic energy from its corrosive influence. Fortunately, the Heavenly Army's divine sense could help her create a barrier against the demonic energy, allowing her to purify and compress the pills.
On Shi Xuan's side, she ground ten thunderstones into powder, then casually tossed a bunch of things, including a few other materials she had selected, into the alchemy furnace, causing the entire audience to gasp in surprise.
"My God, is she really not careful? Throwing so many thunderstones into the alchemy furnace at once, isn't she afraid it will explode?"
"Oh no, my goddess, we're going to mess this up! Why didn't she change the topic?!"
"You can't just change the question you drew yourself. There was no guarantee that the box would contain a third-tier pill."
"But even if she doesn't know how to use the Lightning Pill, there's no need to do this. All ten lightning stones are wasted, and if the furnace explodes in the end, it will affect the people around, which would be even worse."
"I thought Shih-Hsuan would definitely win this time, but it seems there are still many surprises."
...
Shi Xuan was completely unaware of their discussions. After putting all the materials into the alchemy furnace, she probed into the furnace with her divine sense, separated and processed all the materials, and then used a large amount of spiritual power to wrap around them, tighten and compress them, just like when she made the powerful explosive pill.
But this time, ten thunderstones were far too many. Even with further compression, they still couldn't be controlled to a suitable range.
But this did not deter Shi Xuan.
She first shaped the basic components of the materials into a preliminary pill shape, and then manipulated her spiritual power to draw a set of compression talismans on the pill that had just taken shape!
If the judges had seen this, they would have been utterly astonished. They had never heard of anyone drawing talismans on elixirs!
However, once the compression rune was formed, the energy inside the entire pill stabilized and became more tightly bound together. Then, gradually releasing the power of the thunderstone to adhere to the surface of the basic pill became much easier.
After compressing the explosive power of the Thunder Stone, the subsequent steps are basically the same as the normal procedure for obtaining a Thunder-Attracting Pill.
The announcement proceeded smoothly. The audience in the stands, however, were getting anxious.
"It's been so long, why hasn't it exploded yet?"
"How is that possible! She put ten thunderstones into the alchemy furnace, how could she have lasted this long?"
"It wasn't just ten thunderstones, there was a whole bunch of other stuff too, how did she do that!"
"Is it possible that she can actually refine the Lightning-Attracting Pill?"
"Didn't you see Sect Master Fan's expression earlier? It was obvious that the recipe for the Lightning-Attracting Pill didn't include that many lightning stones; maybe just one would be enough!"
"Such a potent substance as thunderstone, you might not even need half a piece."
"I'm just curious why mixing ten pieces of thunderstone together didn't cause an explosion in the furnace!"
...
Several people around Shi Xuan had already begun collecting pills, and some of them had happy expressions on their faces, which showed that they were doing well.
This includes Fan Mingzhu.
In the past, she wouldn't have been so happy to refine a pill, but the current situation is special. Being able to refine a pill without being eroded by demonic energy is already a very difficult thing, and she is also grateful for the assistance of the Heavenly Army.
Under these circumstances, producing even one batch of high-grade pills would be a remarkable achievement, which made her unable to suppress a satisfied expression.
The audience was quite puzzled. How could the daughter of the sect leader of the Divine Cauldron Sect show such joy over a batch of the simplest third-tier pills with a low success rate? Her standards for herself were truly low.
Third-tier pills can actually be refined in the late Foundation Establishment stage, but most disciples do not have a perfect grasp of them, and even when they reach the Golden Core stage, it is difficult to refine top-quality ones.
But top-quality products are not uncommon, so this is just a normal result. How could this make Fan Mingzhu smile?
Fan Mingzhu probably knew her own situation. A satisfied smile flashed across her face as she handed the six Rejuvenation Pills she had successfully made to the disciples of Langya Sect who had come to collect them.
All the pills produced this time will be submitted to the front for review. After the results are announced, they will be returned to the disciples who participated in the competition.
Five or six disciples have already submitted their pills, but Shi Xuan, who used to be very quick at pill-forming, has just begun to cast the pill-collecting incantation.
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