Chapter 1146: Confidence

In the past, he had thought that the Heavenly Gates wanted to use the Earth to keep him in check and to have a hold on him, using it as an assurance that he would repay the Heavenly Gates. This was not wrong. The superintendent and the higher-ups in the Heavenly Gates did think about this aspect. However, this was obviously not the entire story. He had thought too simply of this matter.

The true higher-ups of the Heavenly Gates thought about problems on a completely different level from minor players like him. Both the Earth civilization and Wang Zhong himself were no more than soft marbles that could be casually kneaded by the hands of the higher-ups. One could not resist nor influence their fate. One once thought that fate and power were at play, but when one had the qualifications to look at the issue beyond the surface, one would realize that they had been overthinking.

Of course, besides the unhappiness from being manipulated by others and the danger that the Earth civilization would face in the future, at the very least, the Earth was currently the beneficiary of some largesse. Furthermore, this so-called danger was obviously a kind of test. The superintendent clearly thought highly of Wang Zhong and expected him to grow to certain heights in a short period of time, allowing him to help the Earth protect the glory and benefits that had been bestowed upon them. Thus, she had raised the Earth to its current position. Even if other civilizations wanted to be placed on the fire for roasting like this, they did not have the qualifications to do so.

Furthermore, if Wang Zhong did not succeed in the end and was unable to bear this pressure, causing the benefits they had received to be swept up by other envious parties, this would have just meant that Wang Zhong had no skills. Who else could be blamed then?

Celeste simply gave him a reminder. However, they could not discuss more advanced things without restraint. Coincidentally, Roro and Nini seemed to be tired from arguing and were now glaring at each other. Celeste hurriedly walked over with a smile. “If we continue chatting, I would have forgotten about our actual business. Wang Zhong, let’s refine pills. I have prepared for a long time, so would you like to go first or should I go first?”

Lao Wang made a “go ahead” gesture. He was not as well-prepared as Celeste.

Celeste nodded and walked forward. After carefully checking the pill furnace and carrying out other steps, she lit the furnace and arranged the medicinal ingredients before starting work.

They were refining the level-6 Soul Moulding Pill. A few days ago, the supervisors in the Pill Refinery Hall had taught them the prescription. Elder Yimo had also mentioned some points to take note of during a Pill Refinery Hall class. Even Wang Zhong was extremely clear about this process.

Needless to say, the Heavenly Shell race had unique natural endowments in pill refinery. Celeste had just entered a state of concentration when Wang Zhong saw an illusory haze indistinctly appear behind her. As she continued to refine the pill, the illusory haze became clearer and clearer. They were the shells of the Heavenly Shell race that opened and closed around Celeste and trembled slightly. They simply seemed like projections of shells, but Wang Zhong could clearly sense the connection between these shells and the pill furnace. It was as if they had integrated into one and became another pill furnace that enshrouded the pill furnace.

At that moment, the entire Jiuli Wood Furnace turned from white to red to purple. The temperature inside the furnace increased significantly, but it was not burning hot. It was completely different from the Jiuli Furnace that Lao Wang typically used. This was the efficiency of the shell.

Lao Wang sighed silently. The shells of the Heavenly Shell race naturally nurtured pills and had extremely powerful pill refinery and balance abilities. These were the unique natural endowments of their bodies.

Furthermore, when they were practicing pill refinery, besides refining the pill, they even refined the pill furnace. Thus, forging masters often looked for members of the Heavenly Shell race to “consecrate” pill furnaces when refining furnaces. They allowed the members of the Heavenly Shell race to use the pill furnace and refine pills a dozen times. With the natural nourishment from the Heavenly Shell race’s shells, the value of the pill furnace could instantly multiply by four or five times…

At first, Wang Zhong could sense the pill spirits moving restlessly in the pill furnace, but with the nourishment from the shell, the entire pill calmed down very quickly. Furthermore, it was extraordinarily calm. As a result, Wang Zhong, who was carefully observing, almost could not sense the changes in the pill. He could only infer the situation in the pill furnace from Celeste’s continuous actions.

After slightly over five minutes, a smile appeared on Celeste’s slightly fatigued face. She stretched her hand and waved it slightly. The lid of the pill furnace that had been extremely peaceful throughout the process suddenly opened, and a turbulent air current surged forth. Then, seven shining silver pills soared into the air.

“Gather them!” Seeming to not fear the scalding air current, she simply stretched out her hand and grabbed the seven pills.

She had succeeded in refining the level-6 Soul Moulding Pill. Meanwhile, Wang Zhong simply smelled the pill aura that filled the air and knew that the quality of these seven pills was definitely satisfactory.

“They’re 90% pills.”

“I was lucky.” Celeste smiled. Even though the Soul Moulding Pill was a level-6 pill, it was not difficult for her. Firstly, her coordination with Roro had recently advanced and improved significantly. Furthermore, soul-type pills matched Celeste’s attributes. Thus, this level-6 pill was not much more difficult to her than the level-7 Glazed Crystal Life Extending Pill she had previously refined. “Wang Zhong, do you have anything you would like to point out to me?”

It was said that the onlooker would see clearer. With the full devotion to the pill refining steps, as well as the ever-changing pill spirit, it was very easy for an alchemist’s mind to be overly scattered. As a result, they were typically not aware if they made mistakes. However, if there was a spectator of similar standards present, that person could discover one’s problems very easily and remind them. Then, one would deliberately pay more attention the next time they refined pills. This was a method of improvement.

“It was perfect.” Wang Zhong shook his head. To be honest, after one week of research in the library, Lao Wang thought that he had improved greatly in his foundations. When he recalled the details of his previous attempts at pill refinery, he simply felt that there were flaws everywhere. However, at that moment, when he watched Celeste refine pills, he could not even find one mistake. From the start to the end, the entire process was extremely pleasing to the eyes.

This pleasure was not just because she did not make any mistakes, did not make any unnecessary and wasteful actions, and did not make any useless or inefficient operations. Instead, it was so thorough that Wang Zhong could sense this in every detail. Even when she stretched out her hand to push back her hair during the process of pill refinery, Lao Wang felt that it was perfect… It was not a misconception that had occurred because he was infatuated with Celeste’s appearance or aura. Lao Wang was very certain that she had integrated such a natural action into the steps of pill refinery. It was as if throughout the six-hour pill refinery process, there was only one second that she did not have to use her right hand, and she used this one second to push back her hair…

When one reached this realm, it meant that they had truly integrated the basics of pill refinery into their bones! On the other hand, Wang Zhong still had to think about what the basic steps were and how he should remedy the situation when a problem occurred while refining pills. There was a world of difference between their foundations. Asking him to point out problems in Celeste’s foundations? Lao Wang was not that arrogant. Furthermore, he really did not see any mistakes. On the contrary, observing many of the basic methods that Celeste used allowed Lao Wang to benefit greatly.

“That’s right. When you were arranging the medicinal ingredients, how did…?” Lao Wang had all along been a thick-skinned person. He had no pointers that Celeste was expecting, but on the contrary, his questions followed one after another. If there was anything he did not quite understand from the steps he had witnessed, he would simply ask her.

Celeste smiled and answered him. If both sides wanted to benefit from communication between alchemists, then both parties had to have extremely similar standards. Wang Zhong’s strong point was his natural endowments in pill refinery, not his foundations. Thus, Celeste would not be able to benefit from this session. This time, it was obvious that she had asked him to refine pills together mostly because she wanted to help Wang Zhong with his ideas.

There was no doubt that Wang Zhong was a rare genius and had a secret involving the elemental spirits. The Heavenly Shell superintendent had set her mind on nurturing him and asked Celeste to show Wang Zhong the basics of pill refinery when she had the time. This was a mission she had received from the Heavenly Shell superintendent.

The Heavenly Shell race had many unique understandings in pill studies. Putting aside the pill refinery process and their differing foundations, there were some discrepancies between the understanding Lao Wang had arrived at in his preparations and Celeste’s understanding. Through Celeste’s explanation, Wang Zhong immediately understood what was wrong with his divergent thoughts.

From this interaction, he felt as if his understanding of the level-6 Soul Moulding Pill had deepened.

He only had two portions of materials. Lao Wang took a deep breath and was fully prepared. It was time to get to work!

Before coming here, he had thoroughly researched the prescription for this level-6 pill and felt 80% confident of success. However, after observing Celeste’s refinery process, Lao Wang only felt 40% confident in his previous preparations. After their interaction, his confidence had climbed back to 70%, but when he started, he felt the success rate continuously dropping with every step.

The level-6 pill was one level higher and was completely different from the level-7, level-8, and level-9 pills he had refined. Level-7 pills were called the pinnacle of skills. As long as one did not make any mistakes and there were no problems with one’s steps and one’s control was detailed enough, there would not be many problems. However, level-6 pills were particular about conscientiousness. For example, when it came to the most basic fire control, just relying on Yiyi’s control was not enough. Wang Zhong had to divert his attention to controlling the fire. Furthermore, the difficulty of the other aspects had increased…

Ever since he started until the second half of the pill refinery process, there was no moment when it was calm. He had noticed quite a lot of problems with his planned steps when he observed Celeste refining pills and even actively asked her about them. However, when he integrated this into actual practice, there were still many problems. He was not timely with various emergencies, and they started to snowball. Before the pill was formed…

Boom!

There was a massive sound when the equilibrium within the pill furnace had been lost. The lid of the furnace was brutally sent flying by this massive misstep, and violent heatwaves surged forth and exploded out.

The furnace also exploded.

Even though he already had an unpleasant premonition, he was unable to sustain his utmost efforts towards a remedy even at the final stage of pill formation. Lao Wang stood on the ground as he tried his best to recall and ponder about this. This situation was bound to happen. Meanwhile, Celeste quietly stood at the side. She would only explain if Wang Zhong asked her.

Celeste was rather clear that refining a level-6 pill was a step higher. It was not enough to only rely on Wang Zhong’s natural endowments in pill refinery as the gaps in his basics would be amplified. This was the main objective behind why she had actively invited him to refine pills. It was easiest for such one-to-one guidance to leave a deep impression of the basics, as well as other lessons that needed to be learned. This was much more effective than the typical lessons by the supervisors in the Pill Refinery Hall.

Some special characteristics of the Heavenly Shell race were that they had self-restraint and were patient. However, the elemental spirits beside them had started to chatter.

“We refined 90%-pills! Hey! Hey! Look at you guys. Aiya! Tsk tsk tsk!” Roro was extremely pleased. She looked at Nini and Yiyi, who were beside Wang Zhong, with a provocative gaze. “Ha ha ha ha. I believe that Wang Zhong is not worse than my Cece. After all, they are both in the Celestial Honors Class. But these assistants of his… Heh heh. It’s hard to say.”

Nini’s eyes were raging, but she was unable to refute Roro. She was slightly crestfallen. Even though she knew the difference between Wang Zhong and Celeste’s foundations, she could not possibly put the blame of failure on her master. After all, this was a level-6 pill, a huge leap from the previous level-7 pill they had refined. No matter how much of a genius Master was, there was definitely no way for there to be any miracles this time.

Damn, that bitch experienced a reversal of luck today. She ought to be delighted.

“A second time.”

On the contrary, Lao Wang did not seem dejected at all. The interaction with Celeste had made him feel very good. Just now, he had failed because he was too deliberate. There were some corroborations between his experiences and his gains from watching Celeste’s pill refining, but there would definitely be some confusion in his thoughts. This failure had helped him to smooth out all these problems.

“Again.”

Wang Zhong’s confidence was also something that Celeste admired. Frankly speaking, learning how to refine level-6 and level-7 pills was essentially different from learning how to refine level-8 and level-9 pills. This was not just in terms of the difficulty of refining them but had more to do with one’s attitude. When refining level-8 and level-9 pills, even if one failed 10 times, the ingredients were cheap, and anyone could afford them. Typically, one would not have any psychological pressure. Of course, those who were particularly poor were an exception. But what about the level-6 pill? One batch of ingredients cost several thousand Gold Star Stones. Even Celeste, the daughter of the Heavenly Shell Crown Prince, would be affected if she wasted one batch of ingredients, let alone those from typical middle-ranked civilizations.

However, Wang Zhong was clearly from a level-4.5 civilization. Even though he had some foundations after joining the Celestial Honors Class, this was a batch of ingredients for a level-6 pill. Even with his points in the Celestial Honors Class, as well as some of his savings, getting one or two batches of ingredients was already difficult for him. Others would probably die from distress if they had failed. If they did not prepare for another three or five days, they probably would not even dare to look at a pill furnace. However, Celeste did not even sense a hint of annoyance from Wang Zhong’s expression. Not only did he not mind this failure, he was even faintly happy. It was as if he had grasped the key to his problem.

He should be able to succeed this time… hopefully.

Celeste made a judgment. She would believe in this beginner’s success even though it was rather inconceivable. Celeste had a feeling that Wang Zhong’s confidence easily influenced others.

As expected, when he started again, Wang Zhong’s actions were completely different from before. Some of the problems he had faced seemed to be solved perfectly this time. When he suffered losses, he would deeply remember the lesson and find a way to deal with it and avoid it, ensuring that he would not make the same mistake again. No matter what this kind of person did, there was no doubt that they were very terrifying.

Even though two or three new problems and mistakes occurred during the process, Lao Wang was in good condition. Nini and Yiyi were also matching their strength with Roro and put in all their effort, surpassing their usual level of strength. They managed to make up for the mistakes in a timely manner several times.

Seconds and minutes passed. He took slightly more time than when Celeste had refined the 90% pills.

Celeste looked at him with rapt attention. From her experiences, she judged that this should be a batch of 50% pills. Even though he had managed to make up for his previous mistakes, with the twists and impacts that had occurred to the pills throughout the process of refining, it was not quite possible to have high-quality pills. They would only be around 50% pills.

However, before Celeste could complete this thought, she simply heard…

Ding ding ding ding

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