The Gate Of Good Fortune

Chapter 1069: Fading Brilliance

“In addition to the above rewards, the reward for third place also includes two top-grade divine veins and ten Dao Essence Fruits. The second place will receive five top-grade divine veins, ten Dao Essence Fruits, and one Dao Fusion Fruit. As for the first place, they will be rewarded with ten top-grade divine veins, ten Dao Essence Fruits, and two Dao Fusion Fruits. On top of that, they will also receive one wood-attributed supreme-grade divine vein.”

Kong Lianbo’s words caused Ning Cheng to marvel secretly. The richness of this realm’s Pill Union went beyond terrifying. The first-ranked reward was a wood-attributed divine vein, but it was only one of the many rewards.

However, unknown to him, Kong Lianbo had yet to mention one other possible reward. That is, apart from the rewards mentioned above and distinctions, the first-place winner also had the possibility of obtaining the opportunity to discuss alchemy with Mu Zuoxiao.

After mentioning the rewards and waiting for the crowd's voices to quiet down, Kong Lianbo continued, “Next, we’ll start with the first round of this alchemy competition, identifying the seeds. The time limit is one day.”

After Kong Lianbo finished speaking, a transparent barrier rose, covering each alchemist on the altar. The barrier prevented the release of one’s spiritual consciousness outside the covered range while also preventing the spiritual consciousness of those outside the barrier from communicating with the alchemists.

Once the barrier fully covered the alchemists, a black seed the size of a dragon’s eye appeared on the small teleportation platform in front of Ning Cheng. Picking up the seed, he could sense a faint and weak dao rhythm circulating around it. It felt as if this dao rhythm would dissipate at any moment.

Seeing this seed, Ning Cheng inwardly breathed a sigh of relief as he recognised it. If not for the Compendium of Celestial Flaura, he would have even known where to start. Without Lu Dongze’s book, he would have been eliminated in this first round.

If it were a fully grown divine herb, given a day, Ning Cheng might have been able to deduce their effects. However, even with his heaven-defying Mysterious Yellow Bead, he couldn’t have figured out the effects of this seed or what divine herb it would grow into within a single day or even in several years.

This was a fruit seed with a slightly peculiar name – “Fading Brilliance”.

The fruit this seed produced contained not only the five-elemental dao rhythms of heaven and earth, but it would also derive the other elemental attributes at the moment of ripening, such as the law-infused dao rhythms of wind, thunder, ice, and others. However, these law-infused attributes were like a flash in the pan, as they would dissipate quickly. Truthfully, even the expression ‘a flash in the pan’ was an exaggeration, as the appearance and disappearance of these law-infused dao rhythms would only take an instant.

The Fading Brilliance Fruit belonged to the Dao Essence Fruit category, and its only purpose was to be refined into the Heaven and Earth Fading Brilliance Pill. Although this pill wasn’t considered the most precious Dao Essence Dao Pill, it was undoubtedly one of the most challenging to refine, with the primary function of assisting the consumer in comprehending the laws of the dao according to their current insights, somewhat similar to Ning Cheng’s Mysterious Yellow Formless.

For example, if you consumed it while trying to break through to the Dao Essence Realm, this dao pill could help you comprehend the worldly laws of the Dao Essence Realm. Similarly, suppose you're attempting to advance to the Dao Fusion Realm while taking this pill. In that case, it can enhance your understanding of the laws of the Dao Fusion Realm.

If you’re focussing on comprehending a certain type of law-attributed divine ability while consuming the pills, the Heaven and Earth Fading Brilliance Pill could also amplify your insights into that particular law ability. This amplifying property made it quite popular among the cultivators.

However, despite its popularity, acquiring the seed of a Fading Brilliance Fruit wasn’t the most difficult part; refining the Heaven and Earth Fading Brilliance Pill was the most headache-inducing process. After all, there was no reliable method to preserve the Fading Brilliance Fruit long enough to be used for refining the Heaven and Earth Fading Brilliance Pill.

That’s because the primary fruit required for refining the Heaven and Earth Fading Brilliance Pill was undoubtedly the Fading Brilliance Pill. However, to refine the Heaven and Earth Fading Brilliance Pill, one must cultivate this fruit on the spot and then send it into the alchemical furnace when the Fading Brilliance Fruit’s dao rhythm is about to vanish and just before condensing the medicinal concoction into the Heaven and Earth Fading Brilliance Dao Pill.

This minuscule time frame alone showed how difficult it was to refine this pill. First, cultivating the Fading Brilliance Fruit went beyond the capability of ordinary individuals. It required precious materials and resources and demanded the alchemist’s profound understanding of heaven and earth's laws and dao rhythm. Even a tiny mistake can cause the fruit to wither.

Secondly, even refining the Heaven and Earth Fading Brilliance Pill was equally arduous. The Fading Brilliance Fruit contained the elemental law-infused dao rhythm of the five primary elements and could even derive the law-infused dao rhythm of other attributes like wind, thunder, and ice upon maturation.

Thus, it became paramount that the alchemist master these law-infused dao rhythms within the fruit. As such, because of this sky-high requirement, only some people can successfully refine the Heaven and Earth Fading Brilliance Pill with all its law-infused dao rhythms intact. As a result, a Heaven and Earth Fading Brilliance Pill containing more than two types of law-infused dao rhythms can already be considered a top-quality pill.

Because of all these reasons, even if some alchemists manage to cultivate the Fading Brilliance Fruit, they wouldn’t be able to refine a Heaven and Earth Fading Brilliance Dao Pill, as they won’t be able to grasp the moment when the law-infused dao rhythms in the Fading Brilliance Fruit were about to dissipate. Or rather, they can’t grasp when the fruit is about to mature.

Ning Cheng took a jade slip and engraved everything he knew about the seed. He guessed the second round would likely involve refining the Heaven and Earth Fading Brilliance Pill.

As one day passed quickly, Kong Lianbo appeared again on the giant altar. “Fellow alchemists, the first round of this competition is over. Please place your jade slips onto the teleportation platform in front of each of you so they can be sent to the judging table.”

Ning Cheng placed his jade slip on the teleportation platform before him, feeling confident that he would pass the first round.

The first round’s judgement was not subjective. The jade slips revealed whether one knew or did not know about the topic. Thus, the results came out in just less than an hour. Based on the rating of how well the participating alchemists understood the Fading Brilliance Fruit, with a full score of one hundred, Ning Cheng scored sixty-seven points and ranked forty-sixth.

Ning Cheng wasn’t surprised by this ranking. After all, he hadn’t written down the cultivation method for the Fading Brilliance Fruit nor how to control the alchemy process. There were many methods to cultivate the Fading Brilliance Fruit, but Ning Cheng didn’t write about it because the method he came up with differed slightly from the ones recorded. As for the alchemical process to follow, Ning Cheng would never write it down, as his Dao of Alchemy was different from the others.

Sure, he could have scored more if he had written those down, but if the judges decided to be picky later, they might point out that his method differed from what was written on the jade slip. Although he could argue that he had his reasons for the difference, he was not inclined to explain all that. Moreover, Ning Cheng knew full well that the decisive rounds of this alchemical competition were the second and the third rounds, not the first.

Fifty-two participants successfully advanced to the second round, with the highest score of ninety-eight. Interestingly, it wasn’t just one person but three people with the same score. As such, Ning Cheng’s forty-sixth position looked somewhat lacklustre.

A few moments later, the ranking appeared on the huge screen in the square, indicating to everyone that only fifty-two people had entered the second round. It also showed that the elimination rate was also quite high.

Moreover, apart from Ning Cheng, another participant from the Grand Essence Realm has also advanced to the second round – Le Xizhen. Not only did Li Xizhen make it to the second round, but his score was also slightly higher than Ning Cheng’s, ranking forty-first.

Lu Dongze, sitting at the judges' table, couldn’t help but frown slightly as he saw Ning Cheng’s ranking. Given the questions Ning Cheng had asked him earlier, he should have already understood the effects of the Fading Brilliance Fruit. If Ning Cheng had grasped that, he would have easily reached the top ten. Why did he only stop at sixty-seven points?

The eliminated alchemists descended from the giant altar, leaving only the fifty-two ranked alchemists on it.

Kong Lianbo’s voice resonated again, “The first round of the alchemy competition has ended. Now, the second round will commence. The fifty-two qualified alchemists will be part of this round. The second round will be about refining the Heaven and Earth Fading Brilliance Pill. Each alchemist has a teleportation platform in front of them. Apart from the Fading Brilliance Fruit Seed that has already been sent to you, if you require any specific divine herbs, you can inscribe your requirements onto the jade slip beside the teleportation platform, and they will be sent to you. The second round will last for a month, starting now.”

As expected, the second round was about refining the Heaven and Earth Fading Brilliance Pill. You must also cultivate the Fading Brilliance Fruit to refine the dao pill. But one month to cultivate the Fading Brilliance Fruit was undoubtedly a challenge. Ning Cheng had read about cultivating the Fading Brilliance Fruit in the Compendium of Celestial Flaura and understood that it required a minimum of one month to cultivate the seed into a Fruit. However, the fact that they were only given a month indicated that this competition demanded high alchemical skills and a deep understanding of the worldly laws of the alchemists.

The stronger one’s comprehension of the worldly laws, the stronger one’s dao rhythm. As for the Fading Brilliance Fruit, the clearer its five-element dao rhythm, the faster it would mature.

Ning Cheng casually crafted a simple clay pot and added some soil from the Mysterious Yellow Bead into it. Since this competition only provided a seed, without anything else, it indirectly indicated that the alchemists could cultivate the Fading Brilliance Fruit Seed in their own way.

Ning Cheng then carefully planted the Fading Brilliance Fruit Seed into the pot and then extracted some water from the Mysterious Yellow Bead to irrigate it.

Cultivating the Fading Brilliance Fruit this time was a matter of personal abilities. Even if you used Breath Soil, it was still a part of your abilities.

Mu Zuoxiao made it clear long ago that one’s opportunities and luck were indeed a form of one’s abilities.

Thus, tender sprouts emerged from Ning Cheng’s Fading Brilliance Fruit Seed in just three days.

This round was open for everyone to observe. Although restrictions limited the use of spiritual consciousness where Ning Cheng and the other participants were located, the cultivators watching from below the altar could observe every participant’s actions in cultivating the fruit.

Therefore, everyone also noticed Ning Cheng’s Fading Brilliance Fruit Seed sprouting in three days. However, he wasn’t the first. The first alchemist to cultivate the Fading Brilliance Fruit Seed into sprouts did it in two and a half days. Thus, Ning Cheng’s sprouting speed might not be the fastest, but his seed was the third to sprout among all the participants.

Due to the restrictions, those outside observers couldn’t determine whose Fading Brilliance Fruit Seed had a stronger dao rhythm. However, considering Ning Cheng’s ranking of forty-six in the first round and Mu Zuoxiao mentioning him before the competition, many people’s attention remained on him.

After the Fading Brilliance Fruit Seed germinated, it grew similar to the Bestowing Lawless Fruit, requiring all kinds of worldly laws and dao rhythms to grow. But unlike the Bestowing Lawless Fruit, the Fading Brilliance Fruit didn’t devour the worldly laws and dao rhythms but grew under the influence of the various laws and dao rhythms.

With his Law-Breaking divine ability and a relatively strong understanding of worldly laws, Ning Cheng constantly infused his insights and understanding of his great dao into the Fading Brilliance Fruit Sprout.

Ten days later, Ning Cheng finally sensed a difference between him and the other higher-level alchemists. In these ten days, his Fading Brilliance Fruit Sprout had only grown by a foot. In contrast, the higher-level alchemists' Fading Brilliance Fruit Sprouts had long surpassed his sprout’s height.

As for those alchemists with formidable cultivation levels, their Fading Brilliance Fruit Sprouts were rapidly approaching one meter at this stage.