Chapter 416: Alchemy Challenge 4

Immediately after Shen Xu won the first two rounds, two cultivators walked onto the stage.

Both were Mahayana realm cultivators, but one was male while the other was female.

The male cultivator looked ordinary and didn’t appear sick, but the female cultivator was pale and subconsciously clenched her hands in nervousness.

Most importantly, a hundred or so isolation talismans were pasted on her outer robe, making it look like a weird fashion statement.

’Why does she need so many isolation talismans?’ Shen Xu wondered and instinctively used his spiritual ability to investigate.

However, he soon paled and subconsciously took a step back.

’What a foul smell.’ He thought and couldn’t help but look at the female cultivator with pitying eyes.

At the same time, he called up his memory and tried to deduce the cause of the female cultivator’s foul smell.

’Is it a disease or a poison?’ He wondered, his eyes narrowed into slits.

Shen Xu could name a few diseases that caused foul body odour, but none fit the female cultivator’s smell.

After eliminating diseases, he shifted his focus to poisons and immediately thought of something.

’Corpse flower poison.’ He excitedly thought and almost shouted out loud.

Corpse flowers grew on graves, especially mass graves.

That said, they were relatively rare, and the method of refining them into poison was obscure.

Fortunately, Shen Xu was interested in poisons and had read about the corpse flower after seeing it in an alchemy book.

’I can identify the poison but…’ He thought and turned to the ingredients table, but soon sighed.

’Let’s hope there are suitable spirit grasses.’

“Elder Yang…” Xuanyuan Yan called, and everyone turned to look at her.

“What if we both refine the necessary pills? How do we decide the winner?” She asked.

Hearing this, Yang Zitao nodded and began explaining.

“The judge elders will examine the pills and choose the most suitable.” He said and quickly continued.

“If the two disciples refine the same pills, the winner will be the one with the better-quality pill.”

“What if we disagree with the elders’ diagnosis and treatment plan?” Xuanyuan Yan asked, but Yang Zitao was prepared for all questions.

“The two disciples will be asked to justify their diagnosis and treatment plan. If your arguments are reasonable, the judges will rethink the issue based on your suggestions.”

Xuanyuan Yan was finally satisfied after hearing this.

However, her string of questions made Shen Xu wonder if there was something tricky about the two patients.

’Does she plan to refute the judges’ diagnosis and treatment plan?’ Shen Xu wondered but didn’t dwell on it.

Regardless of what Xuanyuan Yan was planning, he only needed to do his best to treat the two cultivators. As long as his actions were reasonable, he could justify them to the judges and win the third task.

“You have two days to diagnose, create a treatment plan, and refine the necessary pills.” Yang Zitao announced and retreated to the side of the stage.

Seeing this, Shen Xu and Xuanyuan Yan walked to the two cultivators – the double went to the female, while Xuanyuan Yan went to the male.

“Senior sister, can I take your pulse?” The double asked, and the female cultivator obediently stretched out her arm.

However, she didn’t look at Shen Xu, perhaps too embarrassed to face him, considering her foul odour.

Shen Xu sighed when he saw this, but didn’t say anything.

Excluding a few people, everyone, especially female cultivators and doubles, was careful to show a good image in front of others.

Unfortunately, the female cultivator was beautiful, but her odour was unbearable, and Shen Xu could imagine how much she had suffered because of it.

An incense stick later, the double withdrew his fingers from the female cultivator’s wrist and subconsciously narrowed his eyes.

The result of the examination was as expected, and the female cultivator was indeed suffering from corpse flower poisoning.

However, the poison was made from a rare mutation of the corpse flower called the death yin corpse flower.

Ordinarily, corpse flower poison only affected the body odour, but death yin corpse flower poison not only poisoned the smell but also tainted the body with cold death qi.

’This is not good.’ Shen Xu thought, but his expression didn’t change.

A moment later, he changed places with Xuanyuan Yan and began examining the male cultivator.

However, he soon frowned, and a trace of murderous intent flashed in his eyes.

’Bastards.’ He thought, but still maintained his outer calm.

[What’s wrong?] Zhen Yuan transmitted.

[His soul is superficially damaged. The main problem is the soul-eroding worm.] Shen Xu answered, and Zhen Yuan narrowed his eyes.

[What are you going to do?] He asked, and the double sneered.

[Treat him.]

Although Shen Xu knew why such a patient was brought out for the challenge, he decided to play with fire.

After all, he and the Lin family were already enemies.

Even if he pretended not to notice the soul-eroding worm and only treated the superficial injuries, the Lin family would still not let them go.

Considering that, he felt that the best strategy was to raise his own worth so that interested people would shield them from the Lin family.

That said, Shen Xu was not optimistic about the prepared spirit grasses.

“Elder Yang, are we allowed to use our spirit grasses in this round?” He asked, and Yang Zitao turned to the judges.

Unfortunately, the judges didn’t agree, and Yang Zitao looked at Shen Xu with helpless eyes.

’I will have to make do.’ The double thought and walked to the materials table.

However, after opening and closing hundreds of boxes, he sighed with a helpless expression.

The antidote for death yin corpse flower poisoning required twenty-seven different spirit grasses, while that of ordinary corpse flower poisoning needed fourteen.

However, only thirteen spirit grasses were provided, and Shen Xu couldn’t help but feel at a loss.

From the available materials, he could guess the judges expected them to refine the ordinary corpse flower poisoning.

After all, for genius alchemists, it was not impossible to substitute one missing item with others, but even Shen Xu found it difficult to substitute fourteen missing spirit grasses.

’What a mess.’ He thought, but still collected the spirit grasses.

After that, he began collecting the materials for the male cultivator’s pills.

From his examination, the male cultivator needed an ordinary soul healing pill for his superficial soul injury and a soul worm dissolving pill for the soul-eroding worm.

Like with the antidote, the materials for the soul healing pill were missing one spirit grass, but unexpectedly, only two spirit grasses were missing for the soul worm dissolving pill.

’I can work with that.’ Shen Xu thought.

After all, he created the soul worm dissolving pill from scratch and had a deep understanding of it. Because of this, he could more easily substitute the required materials as compared to when dealing with other pills.

After collecting all the spirit grasses he was sure of, Shen Xu picked a few promising ones and returned to his work table.

In the spirit of conserving time, the double sat cross-legged, closed his eyes and mentally worked on the recipe for the soul healing pill.

A shichen later, he opened his eyes and began refining the pill with one of the substitutes he had thought of.

Unfortunately, the first two attempts failed, but the third try succeeded, and he refined a full pot of pills.

However, of the eight pills, only one was high grade while the rest were mid-grade.

’I will redo a furnace if I have time.’ He thought and collected the pills in a porcelain bottle.

After that, he once again sat cross-legged and worked on the soul worm dissolving pill.

This time, Shen Xu spent half a day but eventually figured out five spirit grasses that could make up for the missing two.

Most importantly, he succeeded in the first refining attempt and produced one top-grade pill, four high-grade, and three mid-grade.

After successfully refining the pills for the male cultivator, Shen Xu sighed in relief but didn’t relax.

Compared to the soul healing and soul worm dissolving pills, the difficulty of refining the antidote for the death yon corpse flower poison was at least one hundred times greater.

Thinking that he only had a little more than a day, Shen Xu didn’t relax and sat cross-legged to begin working.

This mental work lasted a little more than a day.

At this time, Xuanyuan Yan had already refined her pills and was resting at her worktable, looking at Shen Xu with mocking eyes.

However, Shen Xu didn’t care and began trying to refine the antidote for the death yin corpse flower.

First attempt…

Second attempt…

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.

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Tenth attempt…

On the fifteenth attempt, Shen Xu finally refined a furnace, but the quality was so mediocre that he almost cried.

’Four mid-grade pills and four low-grade pills.’ He thought and shuddered.

However, he couldn’t help but be proud of himself.

After all, he lacked fourteen spirit grasses but was able to replace their effect by methodically refining the extracts of two hundred and sixteen substitute spirit grasses.

’I am such a genius.’ He thought and proudly raised his chin.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep