Half a month slipped by as the many Alchemists worked tirelessly.
The fragrance of pills grew richer across the land. Exhausted spectators felt refreshed with every breath, a sign that the Pill Convention had entered its most intense stage. Though contestants had been finishing their pills throughout the past half month, the eagerly awaited Pill Lightning had yet to descend. Even the standout who had drawn dark clouds overhead had produced only faint energy fluctuations within them, without so much as a glimmer of lightning.
As time passed to the dance of flames beneath the cauldrons, more and more Sixth-Grade Pills were completed. The main event was close at hand. Experienced spectators knew that the most thrilling sight would come when seventh-grade, or even eighth-grade, pills burst from their cauldrons. The absence of lightning was no disappointment. It was the calm before a storm, gathering enough power to shake heaven and earth.
Inside Xiao Yan's cauldron, he had guided the extracts of every herb into a single mass. But with nearly a hundred materials fused together, the pill's rough form was still the size of a baby's head.
Clearly, Xiao Yan was still a long way from finishing. He was in no hurry. The Pill Convention's final standings were not decided by speed.
As time went on, thunder sounded more and more often, until silver-white Pill Lightning finally crashed down.
The first to summon it was an Alchemist who had refined a mid-tier seventh-grade pill. Lightning resembling a heavenly tribulation generally appeared only when a pill truly reached that level or higher. Even so, the Pill Lightning this pill had drawn was far weaker than what Xiao Yan had faced from an eighth-grade pill.
The Alchemist was more than satisfied. Clutching the pill, which was the size of a