The Final Trial, The Strongest Tier 5 Divine Pill!

The fourth trial of the Alchemy Realm was finally different from the first three. The difference lay not in the nature of the questions, but in the direction of the examination. The first three trials had tested an alchemist's fundamental mastery, encompassing every detail from herbs and alchemical theory to concoction techniques. In short, they required one to create pill recipes from scratch. Creating a recipe was an endeavor impossible for anyone other than a grandmaster or someone endowed with extraordinary talent. For an ordinary alchemist, the first three trials alone would have stalled them for who knew how many years. Luo Chen knew that despite his solid foundation, without the system's help in filtering and verifying, relying solely on his own deductions and trial and error would have taken far more than six or seven years. Whether it was the Spiritual Root Pill recipe or the Demon Soul Pill recipe, each would have demanded decades, even a century—or an entire lifetime of deduction—from an ordinary alchemist. He had taken a shortcut, which was how he had managed to arrive at the fourth trial one step ahead of Haijiao Tianmu. Yet to his surprise, this fourth trial was "simpler" than he had imagined! "Testing concoction techniques?" Luo Chen chuckled softly, feeling increasingly at ease. It had to be said that for someone with a cheat like his, navigating the Alchemy Realm's trials was like walking on level ground! The first three trials had posed immense trouble precisely because he had to formulate his own recipes. But this seemingly harder fourth trial was nothing to him. With concrete recipes provided, even for Tier 4 pills, as long as he was willing to spend achievement points, he could easily achieve basic mastery no matter how difficult they were. Above all! He was already a Tier 4 alchemist himself. For pills of the same tier, mastering a recipe had a fixed cost of only ten achievement points. And on his panel right now, he had more than enough achievement points to spare. "Still, I shouldn't squander them carelessly." Luo Chen closed his eyes, carefully savoring the three Tier 4 recipes that the voice had just transmitted. Demon Transformation Pill, Beast Transformation Pill, Human Transformation Pill... According to the recipes' descriptions, a pill concocted in accordance with them allowed the consumer to undergo a perfect bodily transformation. Demons became beasts, beasts became humans, and humans became demons. It was utterly marvelous. Yet what surprised Luo Chen most was that the Human Transformation Pill gave him a seventy- to eighty-percent sense of familiarity. "A Transformation Pill?" After a moment of thought, Luo Chen could not help but nod. Indeed, this Human Transformation Pill was nearly identical to the Transformation Pill given to him by Demon Emperor Youquan of Mount Cangwu in his memories. Aside from a few auxiliary ingredients, the greatest difference lay in the primary ingredient. The primary ingredient of the Cangwu Transformation Pill was the essence blood of a Nascent Soul Perfected Person, whereas the primary ingredient for this fourth trial's Human Transformation Pill had been replaced by a Tier 4 spiritual herb called the Quying Fruit. "Can Quying Fruit truly serve as a direct substitute for Nascent Soul essence blood? Why haven't I ever seen such a description in ancient texts?" Unlike other unfamiliar ingredients, Luo Chen recognized the Quying Fruit; this spirit herb existed in the Mountain Sea Realm as well. Yet its recorded properties had nothing whatsoever to do with a Nascent Soul. In other words, for this fruit to replace Nascent Soul essence blood, either it possessed inherent effects that Mountain Sea Realm cultivators had never discovered, or it produced this unique property only when combined with the other auxiliary ingredients. For a moment, Luo Chen suppressed the urge to use the system for immediate mastery. Instead, he calmed his mind to study the recipe in depth. He had once successfully concocted a batch of Transformation Pills. If he could thoroughly master this new recipe through study, he could save at least ten achievement points. "Still, spending thirty achievement points to master those three body-tempering recipes earlier was a bit of a waste." Luo Chen glanced at the two hundred and seventy achievement points remaining on his system panel, estimating whether they would be enough for the trials ahead. Then again, considering that beating Haijiao Tianmu to the punch in the third trial had dealt her a psychological blow, those thirty points had been well worth it. Moving forward, he would save wherever he could within his ability. After all, Luo Chen did not know whether a fifth or even a sixth trial lay beyond the fourth... *** Within the Alchemy Realm, herbs were endless. On the whole, these herbs seemed prepared specifically for the recipes in the trials. Earlier, Luo Chen had tried harvesting extra herbs from the previous trials and stowing them in his storage ring, hoping to take them away. However, he discovered that whenever he entered a new trial, the herbs inside his storage ring vanished into thin air, as if they had never existed. Only the finished pills he concocted to pass the trials remained. By now, eight different types of pills had been added to his storage ring. They were the Tier 1 Five-Viscera Peiyuan Pill, Tier 1 Snow Spirit Meridian-Opening Powder, Tier 2 Spiritual Root Pill, Tier 3 Qi-Cleansing Pill, Tier 3 Soul-Shaking Pill, and the Tier 3 Stone Skin, Thunder Bone, and Mercury Blood Pills. None were plentiful, nor were their tiers particularly high. Yet they covered an extraordinary breadth! More importantly, even if these concocted pills could not be replicated in the outside world, they still provided Luo Chen with tremendous inspiration. If he could modify the recipes slightly to suit the Mountain Sea Realm, they might allow his cultivation to reach greater heights. If nothing else, modifying the Soul-Shaking Pill formulated for demons to suit his own use would undoubtedly bring immense benefits to his soul's foundation! It might not expand his soul, but refining it was certainly possible. Of course, Luo Chen currently had no time to refine those recipes. A full eight years had passed since he entered the Land of the Fallen Demon! According to Taisui, the portal to the Land of the Fallen Demon usually remained open for forty to fifty years. Yet this time, the opening had clearly been triggered ahead of schedule. Shark Emperor Liu Jun had struck and sunk Three Pillars Gorge, causing changes in the Sunken Sea's great formation and opening the Land of the Fallen Demon prematurely. Consequently, no one knew when the Land of the Fallen Demon would close. Luo Chen had to seize every moment to complete the Alchemy Realm's trials. Otherwise, should he end up stranded here, whatever unknown perils awaited would become a massive problem. Across the Alchemy Realm, Luo Chen's figure began appearing in various places, harvesting the herbs required for the three Tier 4 transformation pills. This time, the requirements went beyond spirit plants; they also involved numerous mineral jades and nectars. He even discovered pre-arranged demon bones inside a stone house at the center of the realm—the primary ingredient for concocting the Demon Transformation Pill. Evidently, Demonic Lord Liantian had prepared all the necessary materials for whoever inherited his legacy in this fourth trial. During his moments of rest, Luo Chen had also wondered: why had Demonic Lord Liantian gone through the trouble of arranging such elaborate trials? What was the purpose? Were the trials in the other dozen-plus inheritance sites as peaceful and safe as the Alchemy Realm? From what he could see, these trials did not look like something hastily arranged by a cultivator prior to passing away; they were far too elaborate and thorough. Or could it be that this place, likely once a travelling palace of the True Lord, had been furnished with these trials during his lifetime, prepared specifically for others? Such questions led nowhere. Luo Chen occasionally speculated, but he did not dwell on them. His energy remained focused on processing the ingredients for the three transformation pills. This time, preprocessing the herbs alone took him four full years. Such a prolonged duration was truly unexpected. Several ingredients simply could not be readied using ordinary techniques; they required time to settle and cure before meeting the initial criteria for concoction. Moreover, for each pill, Luo Chen prepared at least ten batches of ingredients to ensure success in one fell swoop. During this period, Haijiao Tianmu arrived half a year after him. She had caught up to Luo Chen after all. When the two met, neither wasted breath on idle chatter. Presumably, the moment she stepped into the fourth trial, she had received the three specific recipes as well. For someone without a cheat, even though Haijiao Tianmu considered herself an alchemy grandmaster, one look at the recipes revealed their immense complexity. To concoct them one by one would require an untold amount of trial and error. Thus, as soon as she entered, she followed Luo Chen's lead and busied herself harvesting herbs. In fact, her movements were even grander than Luo Chen's, as she prepared dozens of portions for each ingredient. In any case, processing one portion and processing dozens of portions took the same amount of time; being thoroughly prepared was only prudent. Luo Chen paid no attention to Haijiao Tianmu's actions, focusing solely on his own corner. One day, four years later, a peculiar fragrance diffused through the air. Looking at the five golden, pearl-sized pills—from which the faint sound of an infant's cries seemed to echo—Luo Chen stored them away with utmost satisfaction. The Human Transformation Pill was a success! This was entirely within reason, and he felt no surprise. After resting for a night, he would spend achievement points tomorrow to master the Demon Transformation Pill and Beast Transformation Pill. The ingredients were already prepared, so he might as well strike while the iron was hot and finish them in one go. He pushed open the door of the pill room, only to meet a pair of weathered eyes. It was Haijiao Tianmu. Luo Chen gave her a nod and headed straight off to rest, without any of the verbal sparring from before. To him, now that they were in the fourth trial with concrete recipes provided, his lead over Haijiao Tianmu had widened even further. She had not even begun concocting yet, so one could imagine how many failures she would have to endure. Luo Chen, on the other hand, could already see success on the horizon. In the courtyard, watching Luo Chen's unhurried back, Haijiao Tianmu wore a dark expression, hesitating to speak. His progress completely defied her expectations. In such a short time, after the arduous work of processing herbs and deciphering recipes, he seemed to have expended hardly any effort and suffered barely any failures before successfully producing a finished pill. Such attainment was simply unfathomable. For a moment, Haijiao Tianmu even wondered whether he was one of the human race's pinnacle alchemy grandmasters. Yet she had heard of every grandmaster standing at the apex of the Northern Sea, and had even discussed the Dao privately with one or two; there had never been anyone named Demonic Lord Qingyang. Could he have come from another continent? Even so, as fellow figures at the peak, the gap between them should not have been this immense. She doubted Luo Chen, and she doubted herself as well. Could her title of alchemy grandmaster be entirely undeserved? This self-doubt intensified over the following months until it reached a boiling point. Three months later, Luo Chen successfully concocted a furnace of Beast Transformation Pills! At that time, Haijiao Tianmu had only just begun attempting the Beast Transformation Pill, which she had deemed the simplest. Faced with the stark contrast, Haijiao Tianmu's composure shattered. To be crushed so thoroughly in the field where she excelled most was a blow greater than any other in the world. When the fifth year of the fourth trial arrived, after a dozen-odd failures, Luo Chen successfully concocted the Demon Transformation Pill. That increasingly feeble, peculiar voice echoed across the Alchemy Realm once more. And this time, Haijiao Tianmu gave up all hope. She could never catch up now. She had yet to produce even a single Beast Transformation Pill, estimating that it would take another year or two at best. Yet he was simply too fast! She made numerous excuses for herself: innate physiological differences between demons, beasts, and humans; wasting too much time processing ingredients; having no assistants... and many more. Yet in the end, it all came down to her skill falling short! Whether there were more trials ahead, she did not know. She only knew that in this inheritance of alchemy, the opponent she faced was one she could never hope to rival or surpass. "Am I... truly to halt here?" As Luo Chen's figure vanished before her eyes, Haijiao Tianmu sank into a daze she had not experienced in centuries. *** Inside a quiet stone house, Luo Chen sat cross-legged on the ground, quietly listening as the demonic voice poured into his ears. A new recipe was etched firmly into his memory. Having passed the fourth trial without excessive effort, gained a dozen unique transformation pills, and left his rival Haijiao Tianmu in the dust, he should have felt pure joy. Yet the task of the fifth trial—the final trial—stirred his heart into a frenzy. The fifth trial was the last. Passing it meant claiming the true alchemical inheritance of Demonic Lord Liantian! Everything was within arm's reach. Yet the test for this fifth trial was to concoct a Tier 5 pill! A Tier 5 pill! It was a test that made sense, yet exceeded all expectations. Generally, an alchemist's rank was bound to their cultivation realm. Low-tier cultivators capable of concocting pills a tier above their level existed, but they were extraordinarily rare. Yet this time, he was required to leap across an entire major tier of alchemy to concoct a Tier 5 pill meant exclusively for Soul Formation experts! How could Luo Chen not be shaken? How could he not feel apprehensive? At the same time, he was wild with joy that he had obtained a Tier 5 recipe for free! Furthermore, the efficacy described by this Tier 5 recipe was utterly wondrous, making it the crowning jewel among Tier 5 divine pills! Even though Luo Chen had never seen or heard of any other Tier 5 pill, based on the description of its effects alone, he unhesitatingly crowned it the greatest of Tier 5 pills! And for good reason. Its name was none other than—Law Derivation! [Law Derivation Pill: When consumed, allows a Soul Formation cultivator to merge their spirit with heaven and earth, derive cosmological principles, and deepen their comprehension of laws. When used by a Nascent Soul cultivator, grants a chance to comprehend the power of laws across realms.] The moment he received the recipe, Luo Chen finally understood why Demonic Lord Liantian was hailed by Taisui as the strongest Void Refining True Lord in all of history. Nor did he doubt for a second whether the man had truly comprehended and mastered over a dozen laws simultaneously. If this recipe was real, and Demonic Lord Liantian had actually concocted it, then after consuming vast quantities, how could he not have comprehended myriad laws and attained boundless cultivation? As for whether the recipe was genuine? Luo Chen had his own way to verify. With a single thought, his attribute panel cascaded downward like a waterfall. Simultaneously, a remarkably simple line of information surfaced before his eyes. [Complete Law Derivation Pill recipe detected, Tier 5.] [Master it?] *Crack!* Luo Chen clenched his fists tight, veins bulging beneath his sleeves. An overwhelming rush of ecstasy erupted uncontrollably from his eyes. It was real! This recipe was real!