Taking Her Time

Qin Qingmu glanced at the sleeping Shi Yu, her brow furrowing slightly. She then looked over at Yin Wenzhou and Pei Yanji, seeing that both were still pressing on through the night. Gritting her teeth, she retrieved another piece of Azure Cloud Willow spiritual charcoal, threw it into her pill furnace, and refused to rest.

All three of them were Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators, possessing far deeper spiritual energy and divine sense than the other Qi Refining Realm contestants. Aided by external fire seeds, they had yet to reach their physical limits.

Qin Qingmu prided herself on her reputation as a genius, having spent ten years furthering her studies at the renowned Shiyan Academy. She had returned specifically to claim the top spot. Her setback in the first trial had merely been a moment of carelessness, failing to grasp the underlying trick in time, but in the upcoming trials, she was strictly unwilling to fall behind anyone else.

Still... her ability to step into the Foundation Establishment Realm at thirty years of age was thanks to an opportunity she had encountered in a secret realm a few months ago. Inheriting an ancient legacy, spiritual Qi had poured forcefully into her body, taking her from the early eighth layer of the Qi Refining Realm directly to Mortal Dao Foundation Establishment, allowing her to leap ahead as one of the earliest students in the academy to reach Foundation Establishment.

Although her mentors had berated her severely upon her return, saying she originally had a chance to achieve Earthly Dao Foundation Establishment...

As long as she could enter the Yanyang Spiritual Realm and obtain a spirit fire, everything would be worth it.

Qin Qingmu's gaze sharpened. Forming hand seals with both hands, she used her divine sense to monitor every minute shift within the furnace.

...

After a night passed, the square—quiet throughout the darkness—grew lively once more.

The second trial lasted three days in total, and with the second day now underway, the atmosphere turned increasingly tense. The alchemists who had slept through the night scrambled to get up, eyeing their rivals as they hurriedly resumed the unfinished work from the previous day. Only after waking did a wave of belated regret and annoyance wash over them for having slept so long.

The shadow-recording stone mirrors slowly swept across the crowd, lingering a moment longer on Shi Yu's figure.

While the other alchemists on stage had long since gotten up one after another, passionately testing their pill recipes, she was still wrapped tightly in her quilt, sleeping peacefully.

President Song and the others couldn't help but mutter among themselves.

“Why is she still sleeping?”

“The array probably blocks out external sound, so she can't hear the commotion. Little Yu must be in a deep sleep.”

Master Ji looked at Shi Yu's sleeping figure with a kindly expression and waved his hand. “The child is exhausted. Sleeping a bit longer won't hurt.”

When the sun reached high noon and Shi Yu still hadn't awakened, even Master Ji's gentle smile began to stiffen. “This... should we ask a proctor to go wake her?”

In the spectator stands, the audience was likewise locked in heated discussion. Looking at Shi Yu, some felt anxious and worried, while others secretly gloated over her plight.

Shi Yu knew nothing of these discussions and speculations. It wasn't until midday that she slowly opened her eyes and sat up. Little Seven, sleeping right beside her, flapped its wings and opened its drowsy little eyes.

Yesterday, she had completely exhausted her divine sense and was truly worn out.

During the Qi Refining Realm, one relied on sleep to replenish mental energy, and recovering divine sense through rest was far faster than meditating to regulate breath. That was why she had slept until now, waking only after her divine sense was fully restored.

That said, she had already deduced roughly seventy to eighty percent of the spiritual plant proportions yesterday. With the refining direction and techniques clearly formed in her mind, today she only needed to make fine adjustments to locate the most suitable point of fusion.

She raised a hand to signal a proctor for a few more sets of spiritual plants.

Once the ingredients were delivered, Shi Yu glanced at Little Seven. Little Seven immediately perked up its wings, flew to the front of the furnace, and spat the Seven-Color Glazed Fire into the furnace chamber.

Gazing into the flames, Shi Yu's mind gradually settled into absolute calm. After a long moment, she let out a soft breath and flipped her wrist, drawing a stem of Seven-Star Wind-Welcoming Grass. The instant the furnace preheating finished, she tossed it inside with flawless precision.

Licked by the flames, the leaves began to wither, emitting a faint green glow. A quiet sizzling sound echoed within the furnace, like the whistling of a gentle breeze. Seeing the signs of wind-attribute spiritual Qi activating, Shi Yu remained vigilant, adjusting the heat to maintain a balance between the fire and the condensed medicinal liquid. Waiting for the optimal moment, she swiftly threw in the other two secondary main ingredients.

With her divine sense encompassing the pill furnace, even the subtlest shifts generated by the mutual repulsion or affinity of the medicinal liquids during their delicate fusion were fed back to her mind through her airtight, web-like divine sense. In this process, she calmly sensed and sought out the single point of perfect harmony.

Her practice of the 《Soul Tempering Art》 had never ceased, granting her immense benefits over time.

Supported by a divine sense far exceeding that of cultivators at her tier, a process of exploration that would prove nearly impossible to sustain for ordinary Qi Refining Realm alchemists proceeded smoothly for her.

She disdained words like “similar” or “close enough.” Even when she sensed and captured a rare point of balance, she discarded it without the slightest hesitation or regret. Otherwise, she could have finished the deduction process yesterday and moved straight to refining the Mind-Soothing Pill.

The rough recipe she had deduced yesterday was already eighty to ninety percent accurate—more than enough to refine at least a medium-grade Mind-Soothing Pill.

Yet an answer that would satisfy ordinary people was, to Shi Yu, merely an unpolished rough draft, an uncarved stone block.

What she demanded was an impeccably precise answer without the slightest deviation.

Thus, she had to refine the draft and polish the stone.

This was a stage that severely tested an alchemist's skill, requiring precise and nimble control over every single detail, as well as ample patience.

Shi Yu lacked no such patience. She devoted her entire focus to communicating and interacting with the cluster of medicinal liquid inside the furnace, guiding it toward the outcome she desired, completely oblivious to the commotion around her.

...

As the sky darkened once more, Yin Wenzhou and Pei Yanji pulled back their hands from their pill furnaces almost simultaneously. The two glanced at each other, then turned away expressionlessly.

Seeing both men swallow recovery pills before sitting cross-legged to regulate their breath, the spectators knew that they had finished pondering their recipes. Once they restored their energy through meditation, they would begin refining.

“Looks like both of them are full of confidence.”

“I wonder whose pill quality will prove superior once they officially open their furnaces.”

After all, speed mattered little here. With a time limit of three days, as long as one finished within the allotted time, the final score depended entirely on pill quality.

“Hard to say. Though Pei Yanji performed brilliantly in the first trial, no one has seen him actually refine pills before. Perhaps he merely excels at identifying pills? In my eyes, Yin Wenzhou is still the stronger contender.”

“I agree. Yin Wenzhou has been famous for a long time, and his pill quality has always been exceptional and remarkably steady.”

Amid the crowd's speculations, Qin Qingmu closed her furnace and pulled back her hands shortly after.

A faint, confident smile rose on her face as she looked around. Seeing that both Yin Wenzhou and Pei Yanji had finished before her, her smile dimmed slightly. She then turned her gaze toward Shi Yu.

Seeing Shi Yu still standing before her furnace, experimenting with the recipe, Qin Qingmu looked away, a trace of subtle mockery flashing in her eyes before she sat down to meditate and recover.

The sun gradually drifted west until it vanished completely, and from the deep blue night sky, a bright, clear moon rose in its place.

Moonlight bathed the ground like sheer silk, and across the square, countless lamps lit up once more.

By now, more and more alchemists had begun to discern a clear direction. All of them ceased their attempts at recreating the recipe and began meditating to recover, waiting for their condition to reach its peak the following day before officially refining.

Yet Shi Yu—who had slept the earliest yesterday—did not cease her exploration of the recipe even as the moon reached its zenith and began to sink.

Seeing that the person who had gone to sleep earliest yesterday was still standing in front of her furnace past midnight, President Song and Master Ji exchanged glances, a hint of worry surfacing in their eyes.

In the spectator stands, the crowd—sitting or standing—watched Shi Yu and broke into various discussions.

“Could it be that she still hasn't figured out a clue?”

“Who asked her to sleep so long and waste time?”

“What a pity. Judging by her performance in the first trial, I thought she'd be a dark horse.”

“Her cultivation is simply too low to sustain it, most likely. But she's so young; she'll surely achieve great things in the future.”

“Indeed. Participating in this grand competition was a bit too much for her current level, but in the next one, or the one after that, she'll likely shine brilliantly.”

...

When the horizon paled with the faint glow of dawn, a crisp ding finally echoed in Shi Yu's ears, like the clinking of fine jade.

Slowly withdrawing her hands, Shi Yu ceased all movement and stood quietly in front of her pill furnace.

She had deduced the complete, flawless recipe. All that remained was to begin the actual refining process.

By now, the alchemists who had rested through the night were waking up one after another, preparing to begin formally refining their pills. With the second trial reaching its final day, no matter how far their recipe deduction had progressed or how little confidence they held, they had to make an attempt now.

Looking across the stage, some alchemists looked radiant and brimming with confidence—though whether that confidence was genuine or blind remained to be seen. Others looked utterly dejected, shuffling hesitantly in front of their furnaces with an obvious lack of composure and a guilty conscience.

“I fear more than half of the alchemists will be eliminated in this second trial...”

“Indeed. This trial is exceedingly difficult; its very purpose is to weed people out.”

Across the vast stage, the alchemists displayed their respective skills, reigniting their furnace fires as they rolled up their sleeves to begin refining.

For a moment, flames soared skyward. Even with the isolating arrays in place, the temperature across the square seemed to rise several degrees.

Yet, under the astonished gazes of the crowd, Shi Yu unhurriedly rolled out her bedding once more, popped a few pills into her mouth, and lay down to sleep.