Outside the Grand Dao River, not only were the seats filled with elders and stewards representing various major sects, but countless onlooking cultivators crowded the area as well.
Although they could not see the participating alchemists refining God Origin Pills, two enormous array screens displayed the rankings.
The first massive array screen showed the sect rankings, while the second displayed the rankings of the participating alchemists.
For this Grand Dao River Pill Tournament, most sects sent three alchemists. It was almost unheard of for a sect to send only one, especially a top-tier sect like Origin Dao Sect—even ordinary sects wouldn't do that.
This tournament was not only about the sect’s reputation, but also directly affected the sect’s cultivation resources.
A portion of the God Origin Pills refined by the participating alchemists would be distributed to their sects. Thus, the more God Origin Pills an alchemist produced, the greater the harvest for their sect.
Origin Dao Sect had internal issues, which was the only reason they sent just one alchemist. Otherwise, such a situation would be impossible.
The rankings on the sect array screen were clear: First place, Divine Alchemy Sect, with 2820 points; second, Purelight Sect, with 2432; third, Azure Glass Dao Sect, with 2428...
The individual alchemist rankings were equally clear: First place, Eric Howard, with 1811 points, from Divine Alchemy Sect. Second, Jack Hayes, with 1400 points, from Eternity Saint City...
Each score reflected the number of God Origin Pills refined. In less than half a stick of incense, Eric Howard from Divine Alchemy Sect had already produced nearly two thousand pills, far ahead of the other contestants.
Vice City Lord Wan Hexue of Eternity Saint City glanced over the two monitoring screens, then laughed heartily, "No wonder An Tuning wanted to leave."
Wan Hexue didn’t need to explain; everyone could see it clearly.
On the massive array screens, Origin Dao Sect ranked last with zero points. Naturally, the last place on the second screen was also Di Jiu, the sect’s participating alchemist, with zero points as well.
Aside from Wan Hexue’s mockery, the other sect elders said little. They all knew well how fierce the internal power struggles within Origin Dao Sect were. Moreover, Origin Dao Sect was never a major force in alchemy; though ranking last was a surprise, it wasn’t entirely unreasonable.
...
Di Jiu watched as all the other alchemists frantically refined God Origin Pills and guessed that there must be major rewards for the top few. He figured he was just a fake contestant—he didn’t even know why he was here, nor what the prizes were or how they would be awarded.
Clearly, for An Tuning, simply participating was enough; nothing else mattered.
But since he was here, Di Jiu had no intention of leaving empty-handed. With so much alchemical energy around, missing out would be a real crime.
Wasn’t he in urgent need of cultivation resources? Where else could he find resources to rival the alchemical energy of this great river?
Other cultivators couldn’t bring rings inside, nor could they set up any large formations here—or even if allowed, they wouldn’t be able to. At least, there was one thing no other alchemist could do: integrate their own alchemy Dao into a grand formation. Not just alchemists—even top formation masters couldn’t pull that off.
Di Jiu, however, had no such worries. With his rule flags and unique alchemy Dao system, he could set up a rule formation to refine God Origin Pills.
Di Jiu was already familiar with the rules of heaven and earth here. Using those rules, he mapped out an array of rule flags and merged his own alchemy Dao rules into the grand formation, setting it to operate and transform the world’s alchemical energy into God Origin Pills.
Although Di Jiu set up a formation to refine God Origin Pills, he didn’t dare make it too large. If he alone swept all the alchemical energy from the river into his formation, he’d be courting disaster.
Di Jiu placed his rule formation inside the Grand Universe Cauldron. As soon as alchemical energy entered the cauldron, it was immediately refined into God Origin Pills, then sent into the Ninth World.
Di Jiu felt completely at ease about the Ninth World. If anyone could detect it, he figured he wouldn’t be standing here competing in the first place.
Once the rule formation for refining God Origin Pills was up and running, a vortex quickly formed above the Grand Universe Cauldron. The vortex drew in alchemical energy, instantly transforming it into pill after pill, each one identical in size and overflowing with pure heavenly God Origin energy.
In just a dozen breaths, thousands of God Origin Pills had accumulated in Di Jiu’s Ninth World.
Di Jiu began to worry—the vortex of alchemical energy above his Grand Universe Cauldron was growing larger and larger. If there was a monitoring formation here, he might well be discovered.
Helpless, Di Jiu set up a counter-rotating rule formation. Its sole purpose was to weaken the vortex—yet the alchemical energy continued to be drawn into the cauldron without the slightest reduction.
Only a cultivator like him, who could set up formations using the rules of heaven and earth, would dare do such a thing. Otherwise, tossing out a single flag would expose everything.
After setting up the second counter-rotating rule formation, Di Jiu used his divine sense to observe the pill refining vortices of the surrounding alchemists. He kept his own vortex weaker than those nearby before relaxing.
Ten thousand God Origin Pills quickly entered the Ninth World, and Di Jiu began distributing them. He hadn’t come here for prizes; since he’d found God Origin Pills, he was here to make a fortune.
For every hundred God Origin Pills, he sent one into his ring; the rest all went into the Ninth World.
Di Jiu didn’t choose this number at random; he calculated it based on the pill refining vortices of the surrounding cultivators. He couldn’t afford to have more than the others, but it also couldn’t be too little.
Although Di Jiu could have made his rule formation even larger, he decided it was best to stay low-key. Making a fortune was good enough—no need to be overly greedy.
With the help of the rule formation, the Grand Universe Cauldron began automatically refining God Origin Pills. Di Jiu didn’t need to expend any effort, nor did he need to constantly perform alchemy hand seals.
He simply used his extra time to cultivate. If he didn’t cultivate here, where else could he?
The pure, rich alchemical energy was swept away by Di Jiu, rapidly refining his cultivation and strengthening his God Origin.
Soon, Di Jiu entered a deep state of seclusion. With such dense alchemical energy, even his insights became sharper.
Di Jiu was unaware of what was happening outside, but his score kept climbing.
Though he tried to keep a low profile and even controlled the size of his rule formation, he was still using a rule formation—completely different from ordinary alchemists. No matter how skilled, ordinary alchemists needed breaks during the pill refining process. They could use the world’s alchemical energy to recover before continuing.
Di Jiu’s rule formation for refining God Origin Pills required no rest at all. As long as there was enough alchemical energy, it could keep producing top-grade God Origin Pills.
...
"Something’s not right—Origin Dao Sect’s ranking has climbed into the top hundred..."
Someone in the crowd finally noticed something amiss. Not only had Origin Dao Sect’s ranking risen to the top hundred, but the ranking of its contestant had also soared alarmingly. With nearly two thousand alchemists competing, this guy had made it into the top fifty—currently ranked fiftieth.
"It’s definitely strange. His score rises at a steady rate, almost as if it increases by a fixed amount every moment..." Now that people were paying attention, the oddity in Di Jiu’s God Origin Pill count became apparent.
Having perfected his Dao, breaking through further was not something seclusion alone could solve. Di Jiu finally opened his eyes.
His divine sense swept through the Ninth World and he was stunned to find that at least hundreds of millions of God Origin Pills had piled up inside.
With so many God Origin Pills in the Ninth World, it was clear that the rule formation had sent millions of pills into his ring.
This was bad—Di Jiu realized the situation immediately. He’d underestimated the power of the rule formation, which refined God Origin Pills constantly. If it were just tens of thousands, it wouldn’t matter, but now with millions, someone would definitely notice.
Understanding this, Di Jiu broke out in a cold sweat.