Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Chapter 3944: Improper Pill

Heatwave was a step away from victory.

All that remained was to form the pill and call upon the Pill Clouds.

He used a powerful pill formation technique to gather the pills into a single sphere and then used his Qi to pull on the energy inside the cauldron and push it into the pill.

At first, all felt well. But as the energy entered the pill, it began to feel unstable. Highly unstable.

’Huh?’

The man didn’t understand what was happening. He grew serious and focused on controlling the energy to prevent it from exploding right then and there. While he succeeded in controlling it, he couldn’t pour it all into the pill at all. He knew very well that if he did that, the pill would explode right then and there.

"What’s wrong?" Alex’s voice came from a distance, one that he tried to avoid but couldn’t. "Do you need my help?"

"Shut up!" Heatwave shouted. "Shut up and let me do my work."

"What you are making is not a pill," Alex continued regardless. "The sooner you stop trying to make it as a pill, the easier it will be for you."

Heatwave didn’t listen at all. He tried to force his way with the energy and push it into the pill. It worked in the end, since his Divine Qi was strong enough to control any violent Immortal energy, but that did not mean that the pill had come out as well as he had wanted.

In struggling with the pill, he had ended up wasting a lot of energy. As a result, what had come out in the end could barely be called one.

The man slowly brought out his pill. Even then, he could feel that it was on the verge of exploding. He looked toward Alex, holding a confused expression at the moment.

Alex nodded slowly and tossed the pill behind him without looking. Suddenly, a massive explosion let out a burst of bright flames into the sky, releasing a wave of heat whose strength the audience themselves could feel.

Heatwave looked at the explosion in shock. The momentary drop in attention caused the pill in his hand to explode right then and there. A fiery explosion burst out there as well, but unlike Alex’s, it wasn’t nearly as strong at all.

Even a blind man could tell the difference simply based on the heat they felt upon their skin both times.

Heatwave was unhurt, but perhaps only physically. His psyche was affected by what had just happened. Although, he didn’t know what had really happened.

The Fire God watched with a look of pure anger. He had seen what had happened. He had the power to stop it.

And yet, Alex had asked him right at the start if he would be involving himself in any way. He had refused to.

’This bastard knew what he was going to do,’ the Fire God thought. ’Right from the start, he knew he would have his Axiom on his side. And none of us saw it coming at all.’

People were aware that Alex had an Axiom, but no one was truly sure what it really was. It was only now that many of them were beginning to understand what it might entail.

Alex’s Axiom was very simple.

Only pills that could be made use of by a mortal’s consumption could be considered a pill at all.

For an explosion pill, that acted without even eating, one had to understand that what they were making wasn’t a proper pill at all. Only those who went into its creation with the clear understanding that they were making an improper pill could form it at all.

And since Axioms were more or less heavenly truths for the areas where they affected, Heatwave had gone against that truth and struggled because of it.

Alex looked at the Fire God with a calm expression on his face before looking toward the swathes of people sitting in the audience. He looked through the gods mainly, seeing their faces.

The Half-Gods were either surprised or curious about what Alex had done. They, along with Bladedance and the Spear God, were some of the few people there who understood that Alex had been actively using his Axiom in that area.

Any of them could have fought against his Axiom in that moment, but none did. Had Ashmaker tried to fight back, they would have realized it as well, which would have factored into their judgment in the end.

Heatwave returned to his master with a grim expression on his face. "Forgive me, master. I have failed you."

The man knelt before the Fire God, looking at his feet, not daring to raise his head.

The Fire God stared at Alex for a few seconds before looking down at his disciple. "Stand up. It is just one match. There are more to come," he said before sending Heatwave back to the audience.

The people watched Heatwave return to his seat and looked back at the arena again. The ease with which Alex had just defeated his opponent still stunned many of the people. And as the truth of what had happened passed through the group, one by one, they all grew stunned, regardless of whether they were a God, a Sage, or just a random soldier in the Sky God’s army.

The news of Alex having an Axiom of his own spread like wildfire among the group. The people in the Divine Domain realm especially were stunned to hear about it. An Axiom was something they needed to enter the Celestial realm, and until now, they had not found a way to gain one at all.

And yet, somehow, the young man down below had already learned it when he was only an Immortal.

The opinion of Alex began changing subtly amongst the group as a result.

Perhaps, it was not a fluke that he was standing before the Fire God today, challenging him for his godhood. Perhaps, the young man truly had something that made him worthy of fighting today.