Desolate Devouring Art - Chapter 1453 - Testing Phase

Chapter 1453 – Testing Phase

When the final pill rune appeared, Feng He felt as if he had plunged into an ice cavern. His legs buckled beneath him, and he collapsed onto the ground. As a dignified expert at the Earth Immortal Realm, he suddenly felt completely powerless. He simply could not accept what he was seeing.

The thirty pill runes were like thirty resounding slaps across his face. The Profound Spirit Pill was the Divine Alchemy Sect’s main product, and now that they had to withdraw it from the market, the impact on the sect’s income would be catastrophic.

Over the years, the Divine Alchemy Sect had been stockpiling Profound Spirit Pills, piling them high in their warehouses alongside mountains of raw materials. Many of those materials still hadn’t been paid for, as the Divine Alchemy Sect had planned to settle the debt only after selling their pills.

Now that they had to pull the Profound Spirit Pills from the market, it would trigger a chain reaction that wouldn’t just cripple the Divine Alchemy Sect but devastate their entire supply chain.

The Nine Dragon Palace would suffer the most, as they had sold more than a billion astral stones’ worth of spiritual herbs to them.

Feng He’s face turned ashen, and he trembled uncontrollably. He couldn’t squeeze out a single word. The other elders of the Divine Alchemy Sect didn’t fare any better, each of them wearing an equally grim expression.

As for Zhang Li and Wang Lai, they shook where they stood, cold sweat soaking through their robes. They belonged to the Divine Alchemy Sect’s younger generation of elites and had once held great hopes of reaching the upper echelons in the future.

Now, Liu Wuxie and the Heavenly Dao Society had utterly crushed them.

The Grand Unity Sect elders also furrowed their brows as a creeping sense of dread rose in their hearts. At this moment, they finally understood what Shi Yuan had to have felt at the time. Watching an enemy grow right before one’s eyes, while knowing that one couldn’t stop him was just… terrifying.

However, the humiliation didn’t end there. A thirty-first pill rune appeared and began to spread outward across the Heavenly Spirit Diagram.

“What a monster!” Shang Yi could only reveal a bitter smile.

The Spirit Martial Astral Domain did not lack prodigies in alchemy, but no one dared mention any of them in the same breath as Liu Wuxie.

This no longer resembled ordinary alchemy; it was as if he had woven the dao of heaven and earth directly into the pill.

The very fact that a sixth-grade spiritual pill surpassed a seventh-grade spiritual pill had already overturned the heavenly order. There was only one explanation: Liu Wuxie either stood above heavenly dao, or he had already transcended it.

The Heavenly Dao Book was a grand compendium of heavenly dao, recording every sequence of heaven and earth. That meant Liu Wuxie didn’t need to stand above or surpass heavenly dao—he was the heavenly dao itself.

By now, everyone slowly begun to emerge from their stupor.

“That’s impossible! That’s impossible!” The two elders from the Giant Spirit Hall clutched their swollen cheeks, eyes wide with disbelief. They could not accept that the Grand Unity Sect and the Divine Alchemy Sect had actually lost.

“He’s a monster! He’s a true monster!” Wang Lai yelled, jabbing a finger at Liu Wuxie.

Many people even nodded unconsciously at his remark. If Liu Wuxie wasn’t a monster, how could he have accomplished something so utterly beyond reason?

The result of the bet had become clearer than daylight.

The Heavenly Dao Society’s pill carried thirty-one pill runes, and each rune dwarfed the Profound Spirit Pill’s runes in thickness. On top of that, every single one of them extended several times longer.

“From this moment on, the Divine Alchemy Sect’s Profound Spirit Pill will withdraw from the market. You have ten days, and if you do not fulfill your side of the bet, don’t blame our Heavenly Dragon Sect for what happens next,” Zhuge Ming said.

The Heavenly Dao Society alone lacked the strength to force the Divine Alchemy Sect to honor the bet, but the Heavenly Dragon Sect certainly did not.

If the Divine Alchemy Sect dared to renege, the Heavenly Dragon Sect would gladly send experts to wipe them out, and even the Grand Unity Sect would have no grounds to object.

After all, the Grand Unity Sect had started all this by instructing the Divine Alchemy Sect to provoke the Heavenly Dao Society.

“No!” Feng He’s eyes reddened as he lurched to his feet. If they withdrew the Profound Spirit Pill from the market, he would instantly become the greatest sinner in the Divine Alchemy Sect’s history.

“Liu Wuxie, please! This is all my fault! Don’t force us to take down the Profound Spirit Pills!” He dropped to his knees before Liu Wuxie, begging for mercy.

At this moment, he cast aside all dignity. He clung to a single thought—to protect the Profound Spirit Pill at all costs, even if he had to end his own life right here. Since he had already steeled himself to die, he naturally no longer cared about pride.

“I believe that I once said something during the apprenticeship ceremony: an eye for an eye. You should understand what that means,” Liu Wuxie replied. He didn’t bother repeating himself. Feng He had been present at the ceremony and naturally understood what those words entailed.

Those who offered respect would receive it in return. Those who killed could just as easily die by another’s hand. Everything that happened today was a direct consequence of the Divine Alchemy Sect’s choices. From the beginning, the Heavenly Dao Society had never provoked anyone.

It was the Grand Unity Sect who had tried to use the Divine Alchemy Sect’s hands to remove Liu Wuxie, only to end up smashing their own toes instead. People like that hardly deserved any sympathy.

“Liu Wuxie, what do you want before you’ll let the Divine Alchemy Sect go?” Feng He asked, his eyes completely bloodshot. If Elder Jian and Zhuge Ming hadn’t been present, he might already have thrown himself at Liu Wuxie in a suicidal attack.

“I already said that I want to destroy the Divine Alchemy Sect,” Liu Wuxie said calmly, yet his words sent a chill down everyone’s spine. At this point, no one dared doubt him. He had already succeeded, and no one could stop him.

“Liu Wuxie, our Divine Alchemy Sect won’t fall so easily! But from this day forward, there will be no end between us until one of us dies!” Feng He roared as the other elders helped him back to his feet.

Even if they had to withdraw the Profound Spirit Pill from the market, the Divine Alchemy Sect still possessed other products. At worst, they would suffer heavy losses.

As long as they could develop a new pill to replace the Profound Spirit Pill, they would recover in a few years.

Liu Wuxie remained unmoved by Feng He’s threats. This confrontation was only the first step of his plan. He had more measures waiting, and those would become the Divine Alchemy Sect’s true nightmare.

“Elder Yan, it’s your turn to apologize now,” Liu Wuxie said, casting a mocking smile toward the Grand Unity Sect.

“I made a mistake. The pills produced by the Heavenly Dao Society aren’t trash, and I offer a formal apology for that,” Elder Yan said straightforwardly.

Everyone had witnessed Liu Wuxie’s ability with their own eyes. If Elder Yan refused to apologize now, Liu Wuxie would surely find a way to push the Grand Unity Sect into an even more humiliating situation.

With that, the farce finally came to an end. The exhibition segment itself, however, continued, and many cultivators crowded around the testing area, each handing over an astral stone in exchange for a pill.

When a cultivator at the Void Realm swallowed a pill, he closed his eyes to feel the Heavenly Dao Society’s medicinal effects.

“Truly excellent! It’s not a seventh-grade spiritual pill, but in terms of effects, it’s even stronger than ordinary seventh-grade spiritual pills.” The cultivators who tested the pills praised them one after another.

They all came from different planets within the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain and had no ties to the Heavenly Dao Society.

Upon hearing those evaluations, even Earth Immortals could not resist stepping forward to test the pill’s power. The hundred-odd testing pills disappeared in an instant, and the latecomers could only sigh in regret.

“Liu Wuxie, what is this pill called?” An elder from the White Mist Villa asked as he approached. He could not understand how a sixth-grade spiritual pill could possess medicinal effects more potent than seventh-grade spiritual pills. It defied all logic.

“It’s called the Origin Union Pill. It can fuse the impurities in a person’s body and purify a person’s true essence,” Liu Wuxie explained. He could already foresee the Origin Union Pill sweeping through the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain in the near future.

Everyone nodded repeatedly, and just as Liu Wuxie described, the pill’s power clearly purified their true essence after they consumed it.

Many cultivators even used the pill to break through by one level, and as the Origin Union Pill’s reputation spread, more and more sects rushed over to place orders. However, Liu Wuxie turned every single one of them away.

The Origin Union Pill would not accept advance orders, nor would it be supplied exclusively to any one sect. As for distribution rights, that was out of the question. He had chosen a distributor for the Soul Pills only because of the vast distance between the two astral domains and his limited options.

For the Origin Union Pill, he intended for the Heavenly Dao Society itself to sell it throughout the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain, using it as a stepping stone to build their own sales channels.

Everyone could see through Liu Wuxie’s intentions. The Heavenly Dao Society clearly planned to seize a share of the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain’s market.

The sudden appearance of the Origin Union Pill immediately made many other pills look dull in comparison.

After all, the Origin Union Pill sold at the price of a sixth-grade spiritual pill, yet its quality matched or even surpassed seventh-grade spiritual pills.

Under the same conditions, seventh-grade spiritual pills cost several times more than sixth-grade ones.

The immediate consequence would be a massive impact on the market for ordinary seventh-grade spiritual pills, except for those unique and irreplaceable types.

One day passed in the blink of an eye, and the alchemy exhibition still had not come to an end.

“Master, the testing phase is going to begin.”

The exhibition segment consisted of a display phase and a testing phase. Various sects would present some of their pills for professional alchemists to evaluate, and only through testing could their effects be truly determined.

The Divine Alchemy Sect had developed several new pills, and if they threw them straight into the market, few people would dare to buy them. Only after receiving endorsements from recognized grandmaster alchemists would buyers feel confident enough to purchase them.

“No hurry,” Liu Wuxie replied. He remained unhurried and planned to let the other sects step forward first.

Few sects had managed to invent new pills, and the testers were influential figures from across the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain. They would not openly side with anyone, as they had to bear responsibility if a pill caused problems later.

The Comet Temple took the lead and presented their pill first, and its performance proved solid. Once released to the market, it would definitely enjoy decent sales. One by one, the other sects followed and sent their pills for appraisal.

The Divine Alchemy Sect, on the other hand, showed no anxiety. As usual, they would appear last in this phase, serving as the grand finale.

“It’s the Divine Alchemy Sect’s turn.” After the other sects finished their tests, the grandmaster alchemists announced their verdicts, with the Comet Temple’s product coming out slightly ahead. The rest were decent but unimpressive—not that their quality was poor, but their effects were merely average.

The Divine Alchemy Sect presented three pills and handed them to the five grandmaster alchemists for evaluation. This time, they did not use the Heavenly Spirit Diagram but relied on an appraisal crystal to test the pills’ effects and quality.

The appraisal crystal’s results were not as heaven-defying as those of the Heavenly Spirit Diagram, but they were still highly accurate.

“With the Profound Spirit Pill gone, they’ll suffer a massive blow if they cannot produce any good pills,” many people whispered among themselves.

“I heard that the Divine Alchemy Sect ventured to the outer worlds just to invent these three pills, mainly to find a particular ingredient,” another voice said, joining the discussion.

Roughly fifteen minutes later, the testers fully confirmed the Divine Alchemy Sect pill’s effects, and the results were excellent. Their potency was in no way inferior to the Profound Spirit Pill.

Upon hearing the verdict, Feng He and the others finally exhaled in relief. At least they had found a replacement for the Profound Spirit Pill. Even so, they still faced a tremendous loss from the Profound Spirit Pills that they had stockpiled and the unused ingredients, which they could now only digest internally.

“What a pity that the Heavenly Dao Society had just managed to suppress the Divine Alchemy Sect, and they managed to bounce back,” said some of the forces who supported the Heavenly Dao Society, their tone tinged with regret.

As more people rallied behind Liu Wuxie, his achievements on the Celestial Jade Star had already spread far and wide. Those he had saved there had long since carried news of his deeds throughout the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain.