Chapter 329: Korryn VS Marcellis - IV

Chapter 329: Chapter 329: Korryn VS Marcellis - IV

Chapter 329: Korryn VS Marcellis - IV

Rhain’s golden eyes stared into the Purple Moon Mystic Furnace.

He could clearly see the minuscule traces of earthen residue clinging to the core of the liquid essence.

If he allowed the pill to condense now, it would only reach ninety-nine percent purity.

It would be a masterpiece —but against Marcellis’s flawless one-hundred-percent pill, it would mean utter defeat.

And his doom.

"Without the incinerating purity of the Red Tribulations Heavenly Flame, this ordinary spiritual flame is simply too weak to eradicate the final microscopic impurities."

Rhain gritted his teeth, his vast spiritual sea crashing down upon the Purple Moon Mystic Furnace.

He was calm on the surface, but his mind was spinning with rapid calculations.

He had optimized the ancient Emperor-Grade formula in the first ten minutes, eliminating its inherent elemental clashes.

But to extract a one hundred percent flawless pill—to match or surpass the 100% perfection Marcellis had miraculously achieved—technique alone was not enough.

There is only one way to cross this threshold,’ Rhain calculated coldly.

He had to push the ordinary flame far beyond its natural limits, forcing the temperature to a degree that ordinary alchemist won’t even dare to imagine.

Rhain suddenly discarded all caution.

It was do or die now.

FWOOOSH—!!!

The pale blue flame beneath the Purple Moon Mystic Furnace instantly tripled in size.

Its colour shifted from azure to a blinding white as Rhain forcefully compressed and superheated his own essence, feeding it directly into the ordinary flame like fuel being poured onto a bonfire.

The temperature inside the Emperor-Grade cauldron skyrocketed to a level that the ordinary flame should never have been capable of reaching.

RUMBLE—!!!

The Purple Moon Mystic Furnace began to tremble.

Violent vibrations rippled across its starlight-infused purple surface.

The innate stabilizing array matrices etched into the Emperor-Grade metal blazed up, struggling to contain the sudden surge of energy raging within.

On the mountain peak, every single person felt the disturbance.

Royal Grandmasters immediately pointed at the shaking cauldron.

"Look at his furnace! It is completely destabilizing!"

"I told you! You cannot reverse the sequence of the Niravana Lotus! The medicinal properties are violently clashing! The cauldron is going to explode!"

"Hahaha! What a pathetic display! He is desperately trying to salvage a ruined batch!"

Standing at his side of the arena, holding the round golden pill in his hand, Marcellis let out a deeply satisfied exhale.

He looked at the trembling purple cauldron, and the dignified middle-aged man trying to control it, with eyes full of condescension.

’It is over,’ Marcellis thought, his heart swelling with an unparalleled sense of pride and supremacy.

He had actually done it.

Pushed to the limit by the fear of losing everything, he had broken his own centuries-old bottleneck and refined a flawless Emperor-Grade pill.

The whispers of doubt within the Royal Court would be permanently silenced.

He had gloriously reestablished himself as the undisputed, greatest Alchemist of the Solathane Dynasty!

"You were nothing but a stepping stone,’ Marcellis sneered inwardly, basking in the fanatical reverence of the Royal Court. ’I am the one, and only Alchemy Emperor of this dynasty."

The millions of people watching through the projection arrays across the dynasty immediately began to murmur.

"Has Grandmaster Korryn been defeated?"

"He’s finished! He gambled and lost!"

"Even with an Emperor-Grade Cauldron, you can’t fix a fundamentally flawed approach! The Alchemy Emperor was right all along!"

----------------------

In Valdris City, within the serene bamboo grove of the Valdris Royal Academy.

Dean Qaylus and the Old Dean stared unblinkingly at the glowing projection array.

Qaylus’s fists were clenched so tightly his knuckles were bone-white.

In a secluded courtyard nearby.

Seris, Liana, Lyra, and Elara stood tightly huddled together.

Seris stood frozen before the glowing screen with her delicate hands were tightly clasped together against her chest.

Her pale purple eyes were wide, unblinking, fixed entirely upon the image of the trembling purple cauldron.

Her lips moved silently, repeating the same desperate prayer over and over.

"Please... please win, husband..."

------------------

Within the sprawling ancestral estate of the Vaelstrum Clan.

The Patriarch and the decaying Ancestor stared at the projection with expressions of profound dread.

If Korryn failed, their clan’s only lifeline would be severed forever.

-------------------

Far away in Stormveil City.

Dean Carmilla, Vice Dean Myrielle, Preceptor Fabian, and the High Preceptors watched the broadcast.

"Hold on... just hold on," Preceptor Fabian whispered incessantly.

Myrielle and other Preceptors were also praying with worried expressions.

"He will not lose," Carmilla stated firmly, but even she could not fully disguise the tremor hidden beneath her words.

------------------

And far away in the Outer Frontier, within the main hall of the Mirravele City Alchemy Guild.

Guild Master Aldric was screaming at the massive projection array.

"You can do it, Master!" Aldric shouted at the projection, "I believe in you! I BELIEVE IN YOU!"

--------------------

Back atop Cloud’s Apex.

"It’s going to blow!" a Royal Grandmaster screamed, genuinely alarmed. "Everyone, raise your barriers!"

Everyone braced themselves, fully anticipating the explosion of the purple cauldron that would signal Korryn’s defeat.

But then...

Something incredibly bizarre happened.

The bright, morning sunlight illuminating the mountain peak abruptly vanished.

A sudden, unnatural shadow fell over the arena.

"Huh?" one of the royal attendants murmured, looking up. "Why is the sky dark?"

It was not just a passing cloud.

The azure sky above Cloud’s Apex was being aggressively blotted out by a rapidly expanding mass of dark inky clouds.

And the darkness was spreading with an incomprehensible speed.

In the span of a few seconds, it swallowed the entire capital.

The golden spires of the Royal Palace, the sprawling noble estates, and the endless commercial districts were all hit by this unnatural phenomenon.

The merchants, nobles, and the rogue cultivators all looked up at the sky in bewilderment.

"What is happening?"

"Why is the sky dark? It was morning just a second ago!"

"Is the sun gone? Where did the sun go?"

RUMBLE—!!!

A deep, soul-shaking thunder reverberated through the sky so loudly that it vibrated even the ground beneath their feet.

Every single person on the mountain peak, in the capital, and watching through the projection arrays across the dynasty, instinctively looked up.

What they saw made their souls leave their bodies.

High above Cloud’s Apex, a colossal vortex had gathered.

And deep within the center of that massive vortex, terrifying streaks of purple lightning were flashing, crackling with a destructive might that felt as though the heavens themselves were preparing to enact divine judgment.

"T-That’s... lightning?" a man stammered, shivering in the streets.

The vast majority of the ordinary spectators had no idea what they were looking at.

They had never witnessed a phenomenon of this magnitude in their entire lives.

But the Domain Masters, the Imperial Patriarchs, and the true titans of the dynasty instantly recognized it.

"That’s... a Pill Tribulation!"

A Pill Tribulation!

It only occurred when a pill surpassed the natural one hundred percent purity and formed the legendary Pill Vein by seizing the creation energy of the world itself.

But it didn’t look like an ordinary tribulation cloud.

Every single gaze on the mountain, and across the hundreds of millions of screens, instantly snapped toward the center of the arena.

A question appeared in everyone’s mind.

For whom was this Pill Tribulation?

Was it for the trembling purple cauldron?

Or was it for the flawless golden pill resting in the hands of the Alchemy Emperor?

Marcellis stood perfectly still, his white beard fluttering in the howling wind generated by the descending heavenly pressure.

He looked up at the swirling vortex of destructive purple lightning with an expression of disbelief.

He had lived long enough to recognise what it truly was.

This wasn’t an ordinary tribulation.

The sheer scale of the vortex, covering the entirety of the Imperial Capital...

"It is an Emperor’s Pill Tribulation!" Marcellis murmured blankly.