Starting as a stray dog, I embarked on a journey of cultivation.

It was already late at night, and the number of monsters watching had decreased significantly.

The final round lasted a full five days, so most people wanted to wait until the last day to see the results and weren't prepared to wait indefinitely for the alchemy to begin.

Although most of the onlookers had dispersed, the ten alchemists refining pills in the middle of the square all had somber expressions.

The first two rounds were like appetizers; this last round is the main event.

Everyone wants to get a good name so they can choose their prize earlier.

However, the difficulty of refining this pill is indeed terrifying. The first few who tried to refine it encountered various problems every time they were halfway through the process.

Either the medicinal effects suddenly clash, causing all previous efforts to be wasted, or the different materials require different cooking times, making it extremely difficult to control the heat and causing the pills to burn black.

After several hours, everyone collapsed over the issues of the order in which the pills were placed and what temperature was best to use.

The recipe does not specify the order of placement, so the order can only be controlled by the alchemist.

However, in this case, the number of permutations and combinations of the sixty-four spiritual materials that are put in sequence is unimaginable.

Let alone a mere five days and sixty hours, even if they had a thousand years, and tried each alchemy furnace one after another without stopping, it would be impossible to try all the sequences.

Trying to figure out the correct order by guessing and trial and error is simply wishful thinking.

After realizing this problem, none of the alchemists felt relieved; some even thought it was impossible for anyone to refine a finished pill.

After all, such a complex elixir only has such a simple formula.

Even so, the alchemists did not give up. They kept trying even after repeated failures.

There is only the option of seeking temporary peace, and that remains the same.

Five hours had passed since the start of the third round of the competition, and night had long fallen, but Gou An was still slowly examining the spiritual materials, showing no hurry to refine pills.

The Demon King had already gone back to rest and would wait until the last day to check the results.

Although the three hall masters were still nearby, they were sitting cross-legged on their prayer mats, regulating their breathing, and no one paid attention to the alchemists' alchemy process.

After all, the three of them had personally experienced the immense difficulty of making this pill, and knew that they wouldn't be able to figure it out in a short time.

And so, the whole night passed.

The demon soldiers guarding the perimeter of the square had changed shifts three times, but none of the alchemists had taken a break; they were still diligently studying the correct sequence.

Only Gou An lay down on the wooden box and fell fast asleep, even snoring.

The alchemists, their eyes bloodshot from exhaustion, couldn't help but mock Gou An for his ease.

"This kid is really clever. He knows he can't make it, so he simply doesn't bother. Anyway, he can still get a prize."

"That's what monsters are like; all they know is how to cheat and be cunning!"

"Keep your voice down. This is the City of Ten Thousand Demons. Aren't you afraid of being...?"

He didn't say the last words, but he knew what they meant.

Just as these alchemists, exhausted from working all night, were preparing to take a short rest, someone pointed in a direction and shouted, "Look there!"

The alchemists looked over and saw that the flames in the Dragon Wanderer's alchemy furnace were shining brightly. As one ingredient was added after another, the furnace began to emit a fragrant aroma.

"No way, he found the correct refining sequence so quickly?"

"Impossible, it must be pure fabrication!"

"But look, he's already put in over thirty kinds of spiritual ingredients, and the furnace hasn't exploded yet!"

All eyes turned to him, eager to see the order in which Long Youzi added the materials.

Ke Longyouzi was very shrewd. Every time he took out medicinal herbs from the box, his hands were enveloped in a ball of spiritual light, making it impossible for others to tell what the materials were.

"It's over, looks like he's in first place!"

"We can only aim for second place now."

"But what school did that Dragon Wanderer study under? How does he possess such experience at such a young age?"

Who knows?

The alchemists, who were originally planning to take a short rest, also swallowed pills to refresh themselves after being stimulated by Long Youzi.

There was even an elderly alchemist with a stick of spiritual smoke dangling from his mouth, continuing to study the order of the spiritual materials, showing no signs of fatigue.

After smelling the aroma of the spirit smoke, someone nearby couldn't help but ask about its origin.

The older alchemist pointed to Gou An, who was lying asleep beside the alchemy furnace: "I bought it from him, but they're out of stock!"

As he spoke, he took out one: "If you want one, I can sell it to you for just two hundred spirit stones!"

"Two hundred spirit stones? Why don't you just rob me?" the young cultivator refused outright, adding, "Besides, spirit stone trading is prohibited in Ten Thousand Demon City!"

"We're not from the City of Ten Thousand Demons, so why should we be bound by these rules?" The older cultivator, seeing that the other party didn't want it, put away the spiritual smoke: "If you don't want it, then forget it."

The young cultivator was exhausted. He had tried to refine the items all night but failed each time, expending a great deal of energy and strength.

If I rest now, I will definitely fall behind others.

If you force yourself to continue, your body will eventually give out.

When he smelled the secondhand smoke emanating from the spirit cigarette, he couldn't resist any longer: "How about a hundred spirit stones? Give me one!"

"One hundred is too little!" The older cultivator chuckled and said, "One hundred and fifty per stick, take it or leave it."

The young cultivator thought for a moment and finally nodded in agreement. He then took out a storage bag and gave the older cultivator 150 low-grade spirit stones in exchange for a spirit smoke.

I lit it, took a sip, and immediately felt refreshed, as if all the fatigue of the night had vanished.

So they quickly continued refining the elixir.

As for Long Youzi, although he had a smooth journey, he failed when he put in the forty-sixth spiritual ingredient.

The furnace suddenly burst into flames, burning all the materials that had been put in.

When everyone saw that Long Youzi had also failed, they all showed relieved smiles.

However, Long Youzi remained calm and quickly cleaned the residue inside the furnace, preparing to try again.

Only Gou An was still fast asleep. When he woke up, it was already noon the next day.

After waking up, he did not start refining pills. Instead, he continued to examine the spiritual herbs in the box closely, as if he were having a conversation with them and cultivating a relationship with them.

When other alchemists are also stumped, they will gather together to discuss their experiences.

Gou An was an anomaly; he didn't communicate with others, nor did he try things himself. When he was tired, he would sleep, and when he woke up, he would touch and smell the spiritual materials.

For the past three days.

The alchemists were still completely baffled. Although they were much more skilled than at the beginning, they still found it difficult to refine finished pills.

Even if someone carefully controls the furnace fire and successfully fuses all the spiritual materials, the final pill will still lack any spiritual brilliance.

It's clearly a useless pill!

Only Long Youzi made the most significant progress and was able to refine pills. The pills also had a spiritual light appearing on their surface. They were not good pills, but they were much better than the others.

And there are still two days left, so maybe he can actually do it in the end.

At this moment, Gou An finally opened the alchemy furnace and heated it up. He was not in a hurry, and seemed to have figured things out.

The three days of playing it safe were not a sign of weakness, but rather a way of utilizing the unique constitution of his Green Wood Spirit Body to continuously resonate with the sixty-four kinds of spiritual materials.

It wasn't something I read in an instant; it was a gradual process of getting to know each ingredient, understanding its nature, its tolerance for heat, and the principles of mutual generation and repulsion.

The Fiery Sacred Body was also silently sensing, mentally calculating the optimal cooking time for each medicinal ingredient.

Unlike others who relied on repeated trial and error by exploding the furnace, he used his unique physique to understand the medicinal herbs themselves.

With a flick of his finger, Gou An caused the flames to slowly rise within the alchemy furnace.

Unlike the violent alchemical fires ignited by other alchemists, this cluster of flames was restrained and gentle, drawn by the Fire Flame Saint Body from its own primordial spiritual fire.

Those watching from afar secretly mocked him, thinking that after three days and three nights of complacency, taking hasty action now would likely be a waste of materials.

Gou An turned a deaf ear to this.

He didn't rush to add a lot of materials. With one hand suspended above the alchemy furnace, he took out the first spiritual material from the wooden box with the other.

With a slight circulation of his spiritual power, Gou An was able to sense the temperature and medicinal properties of the spiritual material the moment his fingertips touched it.

When others refine elixirs, they force the medicinal materials to be combined according to the elixir formula.

Gou An's alchemy involves following the inherent nature of each spiritual ingredient and guiding them to blend together.

The moment the first ingredient was added, the temperature of the flames inside the furnace subtly changed, precisely matching the limit that the ingredient could withstand.

After the outer shell of the first medicinal herb melted in the furnace fire and the spiritual material transformed into a warm spiritual liquid, Gou An added the second spiritual material.

Meanwhile, the fire in the furnace began to circulate again, and the intensity of the heat and cold changed in an instant.

The sixty-four kinds of spiritual materials cannot be thrown in all at once, nor can they be rigidly arranged in a fixed order.

Some medicinal herbs must be put into the furnace in pairs one after another. There are several herbs that conflict with each other, and several neutralizing herbs must be placed between them to buffer their effects.

When faced with two potent and mutually antagonistic ingredients, Gou An would use his precise control over the furnace fire to gradually wear down their conflicting properties.

The other alchemists in the square, while busy with their own alchemy furnaces, would also keep an eye on Gou An.

At first, everyone was sarcastic, but gradually, everyone realized that something was wrong.

Gou An's alchemy furnace produced no roaring explosions, no overflowing medicinal mist, and no acrid, burnt smell.

The outer shell of the alchemy furnace emitted a warm, soft light, and a faint fragrance of elixirs slowly diffused from the furnace's cracks.

Long Youzi was working on his batch of pills, researching the best refining method, when he caught a glimpse of the strange phenomenon on Gou An's side out of the corner of his eye. His heart skipped a beat, and he almost made a mistake. He quickly steadied himself.

After many days of deduction, he could only barely produce a flawed pill. Gou An, on the other hand, had already silently invested most of the spiritual materials in his first attempt at refining, and the whole process was smooth and uneventful.

On the stands, the three hall masters of the Pill Hall, who had been meditating with their eyes closed, opened their eyes and fixed their gazes on Gou An's pill furnace.

They had deduced the effects of the Myriad Source Soul-Stabilizing Pill countless times, and they knew all too well what a stable batch meant.

So much so that all the alchemists looked in Gou An's direction, and none of them dared to speak.

They had no time to discuss it; they were all silently remembering the order in which Gou An was involved.

Gou An, unlike Long Youzi, did not conceal the order in which the medicinal herbs were added.

Even if they knew the correct order, without their own precise control over the heat, they couldn't refine it better than I could.

First, I've made up my mind!