Having gone over the spiritual herbs, Qing Yi picked up the recipe and began thoroughly reading through it. Not willing to miss even a single word, as she tried to find out if there was any hint inside it that could help point her towards which of the spiritual herbs could be used as replacements for the ones used in the recipe.
Sadly, her attempt to find out which order to use the different spiritual herbs did not work out. Instead, she just ended up confirming the fact that she would have to try her hand at making the potion first before she could figure out the correct order in which to add the different spiritual herbs.
In the end, it looked like she could not escape from having to waste some of the spiritual herbs inside the cave…
"Hah…" Picking up one of the three different spiritual herbs before beginning to prepare them, Qing Yi could not help but sigh to herself as she realized the fact that she would not be able to take away as many of the spiritual herbs with her as she had first expected.
Yes, Qing Yi wanted to take the spiritual herbs she didn't use out with her! After all, there was no rules about her taking away the remaining spiritual herbs…
For this reason, Qing Yi was way more focused than normal when she began preparing to brew the potion required for the first test of the alchemy trial.
Soon enough, Qing Yi began her first attempt on the potion in the recipe and…
Boom!
"Failure…"
The potion failed and the spiritual herbs used in the brewing process were all rendered completely useless! Two Mortal Grade Spiritual Herbs and one Earth Grade Spiritual Herb was gone just like that!
The sight alone caused Qing Yi to feel sad for the three spiritual herbs that had been completely wasted by her…
At the very least, she managed to understand the potion she was making and grew confident brewing the potion, but…
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Three times in a row!
She failed all three times of her next attempts without successfully making the potion!
If the pain of wasting one batch of potion materials was not large enough, the pain of directly wasting four was enough to cause Qing Yi to feel like she was burning up spirit stones!
Other than that, Qing Yi also realized how difficult the first test of the alchemy trial was. Even after four attempts, Qing Yi was still not confident that she would be able to successfully make the potion required for her to move on to the next test!
If things continued like this, would she not be eliminated from the alchemy trial having received a score of zero points…?
Feeling herself grow slightly nervous upon thinking about this, Qing Yi picked up the last batch of spiritual herbs available to her inside the cave before carefully preparing them. Not daring to be the slightest bit careless in case she messed.
Zap~
Even when the Thunder Thistle accidently let out a small spark of electricity while being cut into, that hit her hand and left a small burn mark behind…
At this point, Qing Yi had already understood why the pressure was present on the mountain, as the reduced strength had made it harder for her and likely also the other alchemist, to prepare the spiritual herbs. This in turn resulted in them possibly making a mistake that could get them injured along the way!
Even if the small spark of electricity was not enough to truly hurt her, Qing Yi knew that the Thunder Thistle was only an Earth Grade Spiritual Herb… How painful would it be if she ended up making a mistake while preparing a Spirit Grade Spiritual Herb in one of the latter tests…?
Just thinking about this made Qing Yi shiver as she placed down the small knife, she had used to prepare the Thunder Thistle.
At the very least the knife she had been provided was sharp enough to cut into an Earth Grade Spiritual Herb without any problems… Something that a normal knife would struggle with…
Blop~
Having already finished preparation of the other spiritual herbs, Qing Yi once again began the brewing process as she added in the first spiritual herbs with a nervous look on her face.
Blop~
Blop~
Soon enough, Qing Yi had added in all the required spiritual herbs, as she nervously stirred the mixture. Looking out for anything that might signify that she had made a mistake in the order of the spiritual herbs…
"Success!"
However, much to her happiness, Qing Yi watched as the mixture suddenly turned into a bright red colour before settling down.
From what she had read in the recipe, Qing Yi knew that she had succeed in making the potion!
But at what cost…?
Looking over towards the empty place where the spiritual herbs had been located just a moment ago, Qing Yi could not help but feel sad at the fact that she had missed the opportunity to get some free spiritual herbs.
Fwoosh~
All of a sudden, Qing Yi heard something and looked back towards the cauldron filled with the potion mixture. Only to see it disappear in front of her. Not leaving behind even a single drop as everything had disappeared…
In the end, she got nothing out of the first test… Other than a few points… 10 points to be exact.
How much was 10 points worth? Qing Yi had no idea, all she knew, was that the mist that had been blocking her way forward had cleared up and she could continue further up the mountain.
"I wonder what the next test will be about…"
Muttering this to herself as she looked up the narrow mountain path snaking its way up the mountain that pierced far into the sky, Qing Yi felt herself growing more curious about the other tests that awaited her on the mountain!
Given how difficult the first test had been, Qing Yi could easily imagine how hard the other test on the mountain would be!
Thump~
Taking a step forward, Qing Yi once again began making her way up the mountain following the narrow mountain road…
…
BOOM!
"This damn rat is growing stronger!"
At the same time that Qing Yi was undergoing the alchemy trial and was climbing up the mysterious mountain, her master was leisurely observing the battle taking place outside the barrier of the capital city.
"Looks like that Zi Hui guy and General Guan have both joined forces…"
Gazing over towards General Guan who had just been sent flying once again, Xuan Hao could not help but feel a bit of pity for him. Even if he was an enemy, his current situation was quite a depressing sight...
After all, so far, he had not really done much other than show up in front of the capital city of the Iron Sky Kingdom to talk with Yi Min. In the end, he was now being thrown around by the demonic rat.
Even worse for General Guan…
Bang!
The demonic rat seemed to have discovered that General Guan's strength would weaken every time he hit the barrier protecting the capital city…
"But that demonic rat truly is strong… Will it really reach the Soul Ascension Realm if things continue like this…?"
A total of five Domain Lords were currently fighting the demonic rat, but it was still holding on and even started to grow stronger with the passing of time.
The only good thing, was that Zi Hui managed to get a few good attacks in every time the demonic rat launched the poor General Guan flying into the barrier…
"Ahhh-!"
Bang!
"…"
Maybe he should help them out…? After all, if the demonic rat managed to recover its strength to the Soul Ascension Realm like the system had suggested, he would most likely not be able to leave the Iron Sky Kingdom alive!
And more importantly, it did not look like the five people currently fighting with the demonic rat would be able to deal with it before it managed to recover what he assumed to be its strength before it had been sealed underground.
"I will wait for a bit more… Hopefully Yi Min will be able to finish the demonic cultivator and get back soon…" Muttering this to himself, Xuan Hao decided to observe the one-sided beating for now without interfering.
Anyway, he should still have some time left before the demonic rat's strength recovered.
Other than that, Xuan Hao didn't plan to kill the demonic rat, just for the five Domain Lords outside to attack him when he had left the barrier!
Woosh!
Just as Xuan Hao had decided to wait for a while longer, a large shockwave spread through the surroundings as one of the two Domain Lords that had come together with General Guan was caught off-guard by a claw swipe from the demonic rat. Directly splitting his body into several smaller chunks that fell onto the ground below.
"M-my body-"
Before the soul of the Domain Lord even had the time to retreat, the giant maw of the demonic rat descended from above and swallowed the soul that had barely emerged from the now destroyed body!