Walking through the spiritual herb garden inside the alchemy trial, Qing Yi soon came upon a small open space in the middle of the spiritual herb garden.
"Looks like the fourth test is indeed going to take place here…"
Muttering this to herself, Qing Yi made her way up to the small open space, but quickly came to realize that there was no cauldron or anything she needed to make a potion present. Instead, all that was present in the small open space was what she expected to be a recipe…
"Hm? It's not a recipe?"
Picking up the small piece of paper, Qing Yi could not help but let a slightly surprised voice escape. The piece of paper in the small opening of the spiritual herb garden was not a potion recipe like she had expected but was instead a technique!
Yes! Not a potion or pill recipe, but a technique!
To be more specific, it was a special technique that would allow her to make a potion without the use of a cauldron and just through the manipulation of her qi!
Just looking over the nameless technique gave her quite a headache, as Qing Yi understood just how difficult it was and at the same time, she also understood just how difficult the fourth test was.
After all, from what she managed to guess so far after getting the nameless technique, Qing Yi clearly understood that she would likely have to learn this technique and use it to pass through the fourth test…
Having picked up the technique, Qing Yi continued walking through the spiritual herb garden before finally reaching the end after close to five minutes of walking.
It was also at this point in time that Qing Yi saw the familiar set up for her to make a potion, the only thing missing was the cauldron. Confirming Qing Yi's thoughts about her having to use the nameless technique to make a potion without the use of a cauldron.
At the very least, Qing Yi felt the pressure that had been bearing down on her from the time she stepped onto the narrow mountain path and headed up the mountain lift. Allowing her to regain her full strength in an instant.
However, this did not cause Qing Yi to feel the slightest bit happy, as she knew that the only reason why the pressure on her lifted, was to allow her to use the nameless technique. The qi required for it to work was nothing to scoff at. Even Qing Yi who could be considered to have almost reached the Peak of the Foundation Establishment Realm felt that she would not be able to keep the technique up for even half the duration needed to refine a single potion…
Throwing the thought of her inevitable failure to the back of her mind, Qing Yi made her way over towards the small table that was filled with all sorts of different potion recipes before going over every single one of them.
Even if she ended up failing the fourth test, she would at the very least commit the few high-level potion recipes to memory so she could use them in the future when she was strong enough…
"Even the worst of them uses a Peak Spirit Grade Spiritual Herb as the core…"
Finished reading over the potion recipes, Qing Yi could not help but sigh to herself. For the first time since the start of the alchemy competition, she felt completely helpless. Not knowing what to do, as the recipes presented to her were all far too difficult for someone like her who just broke through to the Expert Alchemist Realm a few hours ago…
Knowing her chances of success was abysmal, Qing Yi randomly chose one of the potion recipes using a Peak Spirit Grade Fire Spiritual Herb and went with it.
"Core Strengthening Liquid… Huh…"
Having decided on what she was going to make, Qing Yi headed into the spiritual herb garden behind her to gather the spiritual herbs she needed.
One part of the fourth test was also about the gathering process of spiritual herbs. The reason why this was important, was because the quality and strength of a spiritual herb could lower if it was done in a wrong way.
However, this was the least of Qing Yi's concerns… After all, one of the things she had studied the most in depth was how to precisely gather spiritual herbs without them losing any of their value!
Qing Yi was really not someone who wanted to chance upon an extremely rare spiritual herb only for her to ruin it when she pulled it out of the ground…
Whoosh~
Dashing from spiritual herb to spiritual herb, Qing Yi quickly managed to gather the spiritual herbs she needed for the Core Strengthening Liquid. The fact that the suppression was lifted also helped, as she could now use her cultivation base to easily move around.
Arriving back at the set up prepared for her, Qing Yi did not say much and quickly prepared the spiritual herbs.
Lucky or not, Qing Yi did not have the slightest issue when it came to preparing the Peak Spirit Grade Spiritual Herb and could begin the process of adding them into the cauldron-
"Ah!"
Realizing that she had momentarily forgotten the fact that she had no caldron, Qing Yi smiled a bit awkwardly to herself before picking up the nameless technique to read through it one last time.
"So, I should hover the water like this and heat it up like this…?"
Doing her best according to the technique, Qing Yi levitated a large clump of spiritual water before using her cultivation base to manifest a flame beneath the mass of levitating water to heat it up.
Having just finished the most basic part of the set up before she could begin the brewing process, Qing Yi suddenly felt an enormous strain on her dantian. The consumption of qi required for her to keep the water floating while heating it up at the same time was simply way too much for her natural recovery to keep up with and as a result, her qi reserves began to empty out at a speed visible to the naked eye…
Knowing that she could not delay for even a second, Qing Yi began adding in the different spiritual herbs in order, but despite that, she didn't even get to add in the Peak Spirit Grade Spiritual herb before she felt that her qi reserves had been completely emptied out and the clump of incomplete potion mixture floating in front of her began to dissolve as parts of the clump of liquid began breaking off before parts of it landed on the ground in front of her.
Splash! Splash! Splash!
Watching as parts of the incomplete potion mixture landed in front of her and almost splashed up on her legs, Qing Yi understood that in a short moment the rest of the potion mixture would follow, and her potion would end up as failure. Eliminating her and sending her out of the alchemy trial!
Knowing all of this, Qing Yi decided to gamble that she would at least be able to get some points if she at the very least presented a potion before being eliminated-
Whoosh~
Throwing the last few spiritual herbs along with the Peak Spirit Grade Spiritual Herb into the incomplete potion mixture, Qing Yi watched the spiritual herbs dissolve almost instantly before the floating ball of liquid turned from a bright green to a crimson red, pure black and finally bright orange colour before she managed to fill up a single potion bottle before losing control over the potion mixture.
SPLASH!
Following the last bit of her qi inside her dantian being used up, Qing Yi barely managed to dodge the boiling hot potion mixture falling down on the ground in front of her before she ended up getting hit by any of it.
Even if she was someone in the Foundation Establishment Realm, it would still be dangerous for her if she got hit by the boiling liquid filled with the qi of all sorts of different spiritual herbs.
Not to mention someone in the Foundation Establishment Realm like herself, even if she had reached the Core Formation Realm, she would still have to dodge the boiling liquid unless she wanted to end up with some serious and perhaps life-threatening injuries…
"At least I managed to fill up a potion bottle…"
Spending a few minutes just laying down on the ground to recover, Qing Yi who had thrown herself to the side to dodge the boiling hot potion mixture got back up and went over to inspect the potion bottle she had managed to fill up with the incomplete potion mixture.
Picking up the still hot potion bottle, Qing Yi directly placed it on top of the pedestal before watching it disappear like she had already seen quite a few times by now.
"Hm?"
Seeing that nothing happened after the potion bottle disappeared, Qing Yi suddenly felt herself growing a little excited.
"Perhaps I managed to-"
Whoosh!
Before she could even entertain the thought of her passing the fourth test for more than a few seconds, Qing Yi directly disappeared from the mountain inside the alchemy trial before reappearing back outside.
"…"
Looks like I got excited too fast…