Furnace Explosion, or Furnace Explosion!

Furnace Explosion—Another Furnace Explosion! After Zhao Hao returned to his cave dwelling, the first thing he did was not sit down to meditate, but carefully go over the jade slip that recorded the Foundation Establishment Pill formula once more.

After confirming there were no mistakes, he solemnly put this priceless Foundation Establishment Pill formula safely into his storage pouch.

This thing was the greatest gain he had made so far from attending the Alchemy Grand Assembly.

One had to know that a single Foundation Establishment Pill could fetch the sky-high price of three thousand Spirit Stones at auction, and even then, it was often something with a price but no market.

There was no other reason: demand was too great, supply too small.

The number of Qi Refining cultivators was more than a hundred times that of Foundation Establishment cultivators. Who did not want to break through to Foundation Establishment, extend their life by a hundred years, and become the ancestor of a cultivator clan?

And the Foundation Establishment Pill was undoubtedly the best choice for increasing the chance of a breakthrough!

It was just that the spirit herbs required to refine a Foundation Establishment Pill were all, without exception, century-grade, and the difficulty of refining it even surpassed that of some second-rank pills.

More importantly, the upper-tier sects and clans, whether intentionally or not, controlled the spread of the formula in order to control the number of Foundation Establishment cultivators as a group and prevent century-old spirit herbs from being consumed in large quantities.

Now, this threshold was already no different from empty air before Zhao Hao.

As long as he had enough Spirit Stones, he could use the system to continuously strengthen century-old spirit herbs.

How was this a pill formula? This was practically an inexhaustible Spirit Stone mine.

However, at the moment, his pockets were cleaner than his face. All his Spirit Stones had been pressed into the betting pools at the Ten Thousand Immortal Gambling House.

If he wanted to rely on refining Foundation Establishment Pills to make a fortune, he would still have to wait until tomorrow and win his capital back first.

He sat cross-legged and began to construct tomorrow's "performance script" for the second round in his mind.

Since he was going to act, he had to put on the whole show.

The next day, at the Ten Thousand Immortal Pavilion.

There were already fewer than a hundred alchemists who could participate in this round, and those capable of refining the Foundation Establishment Pill, which was harder to refine than quite a few second-rank pills, were undoubtedly genuine second-rank alchemists.

The atmosphere inside the building was several times more solemn than yesterday, but the number of people who had come to watch had not decreased; instead, it had increased.

The moment Zhao Hao stepped into the hall, he immediately sensed several obscure yet powerful divine senses probing out from the private rooms on the second floor, briefly lingering on him.

One of those divine senses was tyrannical beyond compare and made no attempt to conceal itself, as though a mountain had rolled over his head, carrying scrutiny and investigation.

A Golden Core ancestor!

Zhao Hao's heart gave a thump!

Good heavens. Today, even a Golden Core ancestor had shown up.

On the surface, he looked as if nothing had happened. He calmly started forward, swaggering toward an empty spot on the left.

Very soon, the appointed time arrived, and the steward began distributing materials.

Three sets of spirit herbs for refining the Soul Condensing Pill, a brand-new first-rank middle-grade pill furnace, plus a jade slip that recorded the formula and refining method.

Like Zhao Hao, quite a few alchemists in the venue immediately sank their minds into the jade slips after receiving them and began reading carefully.

Although the Soul Condensing Pill was a second-rank low-grade pill, because it had the effect of nourishing the soul and increasing divine sense, its formula was priceless.

Quite a few people had come precisely for this free second-rank formula. Even if they could not pass, freeloading a pill formula was still a bloody profit.

Zhao Hao also put on an act, holding the jade slip as his brows sometimes locked tight and sometimes relaxed, looking as though he was reading with "great relish."

Only when half the people had begun preheating their furnaces did he slowly put down the jade slip and begin a new round of performance.

The same formula, the same flavor.

With a crash—

He dumped all the spirit herbs into the pill furnace in one go.

This time, not only did the spectators in the stands not mock him, each and every one of them craned their necks instead, concentrating fully as they tried to discern some clue from his bizarre technique.

Boom!

Earthfire surged upward. Zhao Hao covered both hands in spiritual power and once again began a round of furious clang-clang slapping against the pill furnace.

"It's here, it's here! His special skill!"

"Where, where? I had something to do last round and didn't see it."

Half a quarter of an hour passed, and another cry of surprise rang out!

"Look, he's about to add ingredients!"

Sure enough, Zhao Hao lifted the furnace lid in one motion, grabbed the one hundred Low-grade Spirit Stones prepared at the side, and threw them in without the slightest hesitation!

Everyone held their breath.

However, the anticipated medicinal fragrance did not appear.

Boom—!

An explosion even more muffled than the previous round rang out from inside the pill furnace.

The furnace lid was blasted by the air wave and jumped ten feet into the air, while a dense, acrid cloud of black smoke shot straight upward.

The furnace had exploded!

The first refinement was declared a failure.

A wave of disappointed sighs and stifled snickers immediately rose from the stands.

"I told you. That technique of his was pure nonsense. The last round had to be sheer luck!"

"Who knows whether that method of his is actually useful or not? Now this is going to be fun."

Zhao Hao's face instantly darkened, turning livid and ugly to the extreme.

Without saying a word, he casually cleaned out the pill furnace and directly began refining the second batch.

It was still the same recipe, still the familiar flavor.

When he lifted the furnace lid again and prepared to throw Spirit Stones inside, everyone saw that this time, what he grabbed was a full two hundred Low-grade Spirit Stones!

"Fuck! This lunatic actually raised the stakes?"

"It's over! This barbarian has completely lost his head!"

Less than a moment after those two hundred Spirit Stones smashed into the pill furnace—

BOOM!!!

An earth-shaking explosion rang out.

That first-rank mid-grade pill furnace burst apart under everyone's eyes!

Burning-red fragments of the pill furnace, mixed with a scorching blast of air, shot out in every direction!

"Buzz!"

Zhao Hao reacted extremely quickly. His protective spirit shield instantly sprang open, blocking every fragment flying toward him.

But the pill refiners beside him were not so lucky.

The sudden explosion was not enough to injure them, but it still made their minds slip for an instant, and the medicinal liquid fusing inside their furnaces instantly went out of control.

"Pfft!"

"My pills!"

Several furious roars rang out. Quite a few pill refiners glared at Zhao Hao with blazing eyes, staring at him fixedly.

Zhao Hao, however, seemed not to hear them.

His eyes were bloodshot as he stared fixedly at the pile of shattered pill furnace wreckage before him, his teeth clenched until they made a grinding "grrk, grrk" sound.

"Hahaha, I'm dying of laughter!" Open mockery came from the stands. "I heard this reckless brute won twenty thousand Spirit Stones yesterday, then bet it all on himself to win today. The odds were one to three. Now he's losing everything down to the last drop of blood!"

"What? He bet twenty thousand Spirit Stones on himself?"

"Is that for real? Doesn't that mean he's losing even his underwear?"

"His pill furnace is gone. Let's see how he cleans this up!"

As soon as those words came out, the anger on the faces of the pill refiners who had been glaring at Zhao Hao eased considerably. Instead, they looked at him with gloating eyes.

Fairy Xuan Su, positioned on the right, put away the successfully refined Soul Condensing Pill and looked at the mess all over the ground around Zhao Hao. Her elegant brows knitted slightly; she also could not figure out what medicine he was selling in his gourd.

Even on the second-floor viewing platform, the Golden Core Ancestor whose attention had been drawn by the two furnace explosions showed displeasure on his face.

Just then, Zhao Hao moved.

Under gazes filled with mockery and sympathy, he took from his storage bag a first-rank low-grade pill furnace he was used to using.

The furnace body was old and worn; one glance was enough to tell it had been used for quite some time.

He set that battered furnace on the ground and began the third, and final, refinement.