Paragon of Sin

1850 Chapter 1843: Final Act (17)

THE FIRST SUCCESS!!

After four grueling, intense, and mind-stimulating years, the first successful alchemical concoction of the Edict Potion had been completed! With loud gasps of awe and breathy exclamations of astonishment, all eyes were focused on Heaven-Saint Fusing Souls without a single act of blinking among them.

"HE'S DONE IT!" Hao Chengxue hollered with boisterous excitement and ravenous pride etched across his entire face. As a Manager of an Utmost Purity Hall, Hao Chengxue felt that he represented the Alchemic Dao of the Utmost Purity Galaxy as a whole, and this challenge, despite his feelings towards Wei Wuyin, was the greatest champions of their galaxy versus an audacious foreigner.

How could he not cheer?!

Tianshi Ya was equally as excited despite Tianshi Zaoxuan's failure to concoct an Edict Potion in three tries. She deeply understood the difficulties in concocting a Mystic-Heaven grade alchemical product, and had, in her lifetime, directly assisted in the concoction of a few under Tianshi Zaoxuan. Even then, they failed numerous times with far greater advantages on their side.

Not a single alchemist or cultivator in the Utmost Purity Galaxy would disrespect the Alchemic Dao by insulting an alchemist's failure of a product within their tier, especially when the preparations were so spontaneous without any external assistance concocting products that were not their specialty.

The mere fact that every Zenith worthy enough to hold the title had advanced as genuine Heavenly Saint Alchemists in the eyes of the Utmost Purity Galaxy meant that they had each concocted a low-perfection Mystic-Heaven grade alchemical product without any foreign external assistance. The keyword being 'foreign' as their arrays, formations, and arts were all a part of their strength as alchemists and cultivators..

In most All-Alchemic Clashes of the Utmost Purity Galaxy, alchemists relied only on their immediate power, wealth, and resources, and even then, their initial preparations were very limited due to time constraints established prior to the clash itself. Even if the Zeniths or Wei Wuyin failed their concoctions here, they were only given seven days maximum to prepare after the failure, unable to use any additional time to establish firmer advantages.

Mei Xiaoyang's eyes were glowing with an alluring charm, "Heaven-Saint Fusing Souls is renowned for his successful concoctions out of all alchemists throughout the Utmost Purity Galaxy and the Holy Void of Fortune as a whole; it's to be expected that he was the first to achieve alchemical success before the others!"

No one could disagree with her words. The Fusion Process was incomparably dangerous for any concoction, contributing to roughly a quarter of all failed concoctions by the estimation of many published studies across the galaxies done by acclaimed alchemists and scholars, regardless of the depth of the Alchemic Dao. The greatest exception and sign of divergence was the lineages of Zenith Fusion.

Luo Ning frowned despite the awe in her eyes from witnessing their skillful techniques and alchemic might, "While reaching completion is a great display of one's alchemical skill and alchemic talent, the quality of a completed product is equally as important, if not more so. It's not necessarily a success. Can anyone determine the quality of the completed product?"

"..."

Her words sparked a wave of realization and curiosity from the audience. The vast majority of products on the market were impure quality products, which were, by all rights and reason, imperfect products. Despite that, there was still the general agreement that a product within a specific range of impurity was perfectly normal. Countless cultivators have reached exceedingly high realms of cultivation without consuming a single low-perfection product suitable for their cultivation at the time.

For example, an Earthly Saint might never consume a Mystic-Earth grade product in their lives at low-perfection, high-perfection, or peak-perfection, let alone transcendent. Tian Muyang of the Tian Clan was a perfect example of this, having only consumed three Mystic-Earth grade products throughout his entire life, and not a single one was free of impurities or imperfections.

This wasn't generally true in the Utmost Purity Galaxy, but the difference wasn't like comparing heaven to earth, and while an Earthly Saint might have a greater chance to consume products, the chance of acquiring a low-perfection quality product appropriate for their cultivation was still abysmal.

Sovereign Elephant-Tigress and many other Supreme Sages who've yet to consolidate their foundation most likely hadn't consumed low-perfection Mystic-Heaven products either, only impure products that were commissioned by them. However, how could they possibly complain?

Looking at the irrefutable yet widely accepted failures of Tianshi Zaoxuan and Heaven-Saint Transforming Worlds, genuine Heavenly Saint Alchemists recognized by the Alchemic Dao, the entire audience witnessed the immense difficulties in concocting these products after four full years of arduous effort. It was more often that failure would happen than success, even the production of impure products was a rarity.

Therefore, it was normalized to think that success was a success, even if it was an impure product. But Luo Ning's mentality was different from the rest; the Alchemic Dao of the Neo-Dawn Lineage pursued low-perfection as the standard with a highly competitive atmosphere that would send shivers down the Utmost Purity Galaxy native's spines. After all, impure products were riddled with uncertain immediate or long-term consequences to one's cultivation base despite their world-defying alchemical effects, capable of affecting lifespan, cultivation speeds, cultivated foundation, rate of recovery, innate talents, and comprehensive combat strength.

Tianshi Ya's eyes sharply narrowed as her ears twitched uncomfortably. She could hear the scathing undertone in Luo Ning's voice, lacking any form of respect for the completed product of the Mystic-Heaven grade. If she were aware of Wei Wuyin's insane standards for the Hepta-Dawn Alchemic Corps, she would understand why Luo Ning was so dismissive of the term 'completed product'.

In the Neo-Dawn Empire, Wei Wuyin had rewritten the standards for alchemy for the new generation and era that he had established.

As for determining the quality of Heaven-Saint Fusing Souls, that wasn't something immediately performed upon completion. Instead, the audience watched as the Supreme Sages established a cubical container with transparent walls as they carefully, respectfully, and reverentially accepted and stored the Edict Potion.

The assessment would only happen at the end of this stage, and only the alchemist would have any idea as to its quality in the meantime. However, his success seemed to instill a strong air of tension across the Blank Dominion. A formless pressure could be felt by each alchemist.

Wei Wuyin, on the other hand, had his head down as his lips moved with a frenzied cadence. No one could hear the words he was speaking as if the words weren't transmitted to the outside world but to somewhere else.

At the moment, Wei Wuyin was communicating with his Second Mind and Bai Xiu. '8%? That's of a usable degree of impurity.'

"Usable? Pfft! That's no different than trash, Master! You wouldn't even let something like that touch your lips." Bai Xiu communicated her truest feelings, clearly spoiled by Wei Wuyin's quality of concoctions that were borderline divine. "How long has it been since I last saw you make an impure product? I can't believe the highest form of Alchemic Dao considers this a success!" She asked, pouting.

Wei Wuyin couldn't resist the urge to recall his last impure product concoction. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't ever concocted an impure product since obtaining Bai Xiu…

Almost as if they shared the same realization, Bai Xiu innocently asked: "Uhm, Master. When was the last time you made an impure product?" Seeing how genuine her tone was when asking this, Wei Wuyin could only reply with a dry laugh.

Wouldn't answering that be no different than praising himself? Actually…

'It's been a long, long while. Long before I met you,' Wei Wuyin was not above praising himself at all.

"See! Trash!" Bai Xiu repeated with a breathy harrumph.

"Too terrible…" The soft voice of the other Bai Xiu responded as well. Despite being the older of the two, her personality was far too reserved.

"Even Big Sis says it's trash!" Bai Xiu echoed with a triumphant smile.

Wei Wuyin couldn't defend the Heavenly Saint Alchemists at all from his position. Any attempt would easily be a sign of him looking down on each of them. Still, their lineages and legacies were incredible evidence of their alchemic talent and skill.

'Have you finished replicating the several concoction processes?' Wei Wuyin asked his Second Mind, changing the topic.

"Replicating? Pfft. They've initiated micro-failures at several early stages of the concoction process. How come alchemists rely on Spiritual Energy, Spiritual Aura, and Spiritual Sense so heavily? It's intermixed with so many impure qualities by their various Cultivation Methods, even if they possess Alchemic Souls, they're unable to execute their arts and spells to perfection. They are their greatest obstacle. A bunch of amateurs. Tch." The Second Mind assessed with a tone of ruthlessness.

Wei Wuyin sighed. Not everyone had Celestial Eyes or a sentient and sapient Alchemic Soul, let alone both of them together. They needed to use various Ocular Spells or Spiritual Sense to observe and regulate the concoction processes, often temporarily imbuing their Spiritual Energies or enveloping the materials in their Spiritual Aura to observe or control the energies and essences better. If not, it would be no different than a chef trying to cook blind, deprived of their sense of smell and touch.

It would be hellish. You would find it extremely difficult to determine how hot or cold the meal was by relying solely on your senses of hearing or taste.

While there were arts and spells to mitigate these foreign introductions into products, such as Ocular-type Spiritual Spells or Extraction-type Arts, they would still infect the concoction process and lead to micro-imperfections that were difficult to spot. They might not lead to lethally explosive backlashes, but they would inevitably lead to imperfect products, disqualifying them from ever becoming perfect products.

These products wouldn't receive the recognition of the Alchemic Dao.

However, as long as one spotted these developing imperfections and had the proper technique to compensate before it's too late, it would result in a perfect product. Alchemic Souls' higher quality energies were notoriously great at handling these imperfections. Then, from there, the product would be low, high, or peak in terms of its degree of perfection.

Wei Wuyin had never personally delved too deeply into the study of concoction failures, but he was fully aware that low-perfection products of the Utmost Purity Galaxy were regarded as products with micro-failures mended like a wall with a hole repaired with mismatched color of plaster. High-perfection products were the same color, making it extremely difficult for one to even realize it was imperfect or originally damaged.

Meanwhile, peak perfection production products were flawlessly crafted products from start to finish, without any sign of micro-imperfections present. They were notoriously difficult to concoct for this very reason.

Wei Wuyin knew that his concoction rate of quality and success was largely because he rarely, if ever, made micro-imperfections. More importantly, his Freestyle Concoction Process allowed greater flexibility to find the perfect method to avoid these micro-imperfections.

An 8% impure product didn't just have micro-imperfections, but compounding glaringly obvious imperfections. If a Supreme Sage consumed this Edict Potion, they would be subjected to severe disadvantages, affecting their ability to resonate with the heavens, and while the effects would certainly outshine the flaws by thousands of miles, making it almost unnoticeable or justifiably irrelevant, imperfections often build silently until an inevitable fallout.

To cultivators, this fallout was too elusive and irrelevant. Moreover, they could rely on cultivation to mitigate or reduce the fallout, allowing them to acquire immediate progress and power to fight for greater opportunities that could lead them further down the path of cultivation.

While Wei Wuyin refused to take that path as he was now, he completely understood why others would do so. He, at one point in his early years, had that same mentality.

"Well, I've gathered enough." His Second Mind, more or less, felt confident in the Concoction Method that he had devised for the Edict Potion by relying on observations of failures and a success, and its own foundation of the Alchemic Dao.

Wei Wuyin frowned slightly as he observed Suo Kai-Ming execute the Transformation Process with meticulous care and patience despite Heaven-Saint Fusing Souls' success. She was tasked with ensuring they completed the product once, and she was unwilling to fail. However, her techniques were displaying a masterclass of what not to do.

This was beyond helpful.

'Let's watch a little more. Obtain every iota of information you can, process it, and compile it all together. I'll review it with Eden,' Wei Wuyin decided as his heart tensed before relaxing.

The current stage of this clash was agreed upon by these Heavenly Saint Alchemists, under the guise of fairness, but this was all a masquerade. They had willingly subjected themselves to unfair fetters, joining him in the mud, and challenging him in his best environment.

The limited time for preparation to take away their advantages of hundreds of thousands of years of foundation, the extreme temporal zone forcing them to continuously combat temporal dissonance, a hellish restricted region without any external energies or essences to supply their formations or arrays, and a concoction stage where he could freely observe their entire concoction process with his Celestial Eyes to learn from as if they were his most diligent teachers.

Unbeknownst to them, the Neo-Dawn Alchemic Saint had set the stage flawlessly for himself, and he was ready to make his final move that would consign them to an unbelievable fate.

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