Ken channeled his Qi into the three completed formations as he worked on the fourth one. Luckily, the central formation was complete and stable as it was, so he didn't need to invest extra effort to maintain it as well.
'Can this kid really succeed?' The voice pondered inwardly as it watched Ken and awaited him to falter and fail. It knew it couldn't talk while Ken was already multitasking.
Condensing the fifth-grade Red Moonstone gem into essence, he guided it to where the southern formation was meant to be constructed. His core churned as it brought out a large amount of Qi to support so many activities simultaneously, and luckily, Ken's core was powerful enough.
He drew the large runes without a break until he was finally done, and eventually, the formation was completed. Standing in the center, he felt a strong sense of satisfaction wash over him as he looked at the complicated formations interwoven one into another.
"Great job, I'm surprised you've managed to finish on time. Now we need to test whether the formation works or not, and this will be the final part of the challenge. The formation's limitation is dealing with fifth-grade materials; thus, you must concoct a fifth-grade pill to show you've replicated the formation perfectly. The specific pill is up to you."
Ken sat down as soon as the voice finished giving him instructions and pulled toward himself a few materials. Many types of herbs, animal parts, and other ingredients appeared in the room while the voice talked earlier.
'I will go with a Soul Constructor Pill.'
It was one of the popular pills among fifth-stage cultivators as well as those at the peak of the Core Formation stage. They were meant to help one construct or enhance their Nascent Soul and stimulate their advancement.
Many fifth-grade materials could affect one's soul, and he had a large variety to choose from in the test room.
The young boy placed a set of ingredients in front of each cauldron and took a deep breath before starting.
He began by separating the flowers very carefully; he had to use only very specific parts of them, and even the petals had to be cut with precision. Once he had in hand only the materials he needed, the young alchemist started the condensing process.
He could sense all his actions being mirrored in the other formations, showing it was working fine.
Ken condensed those parts into essences with his Qi, destroying the material parts and effectively extracting the essences. He repeated this process several times until all the essences he needed were floating in front of him outside the cauldron.
'And combine!'
Ken worked on combining everything into one large pool of medicinal energy, which would later be refined inside the cauldron and become a pill. Everything worked smoothly so far, but now things got shaky.
The smaller formations were trembling under pressure as they were facing hardships copying those delicate movements perfectly, and Ken was starting to lose control.
Ken clenched his teeth and scanned the place with his Alchemy Qi and Runic Qi. Finding the defects that caused the malfunction, he quickly channeled Qi there, moving the woods and even rewriting a few runes.
He perspired in his whole body from the exertion; now he was holding four formations and 5 pill mixes forcibly while working on four different formations at the same time. He recalled elder Galen's figure work on the formations and did his best to locate anything that might not be a perfect replication as he thought at first.
'Done!'
Ken managed to restore balance to his formations, and everything stabilized in a calming manner. Heaving a long sigh of relief, he completed the concoction by controlling the fire in his cauldron skillfully and coated the five pills with Qi, overseeing the procedure to the last detail.
"Five pills came out, you've done great. One pill with no impurities at all while the rest are 95% pure. Elder Galen's standards were 100% purity for the main cauldron and 90% purity for the rest, so you passed with flying colors. Congratulations on clearing the Challenge of Comprehension and Integration. You may now approach the reward."
The voice congratulated Ken on his victory and three pedestals emerged from the floor. Ken didn't even glance at the middle one since he knew what awaited him there, it was the Inheritor Token which would allow him to talk to Elder Galen.
Going to the right reward, he found it was another token. It was labeled as a "Library Token", and it did exactly what its name implies.
"It gives you free access to the library. The library was meant for the education of the evil cultivators who were members of the sect, and it includes knowledge on every second profession to the eighth rank. Unfortunately, as you are under the sixth rank, you will have to learn them all manually. Only sixth-stage cultivators can go through transmitting knowledge."
Helpful as always, the familiar voice explained to Ken about the use of the token.
"So I have less than two months to read all this? I will never make it; can I take the books with me?"
"Those books don't really exist; they are only an illusion made from Elder Galen's memory and mine. Their content is real, but the books will disappear once they are brought out of the formations. The secret realm will collapse in two months from now."
Ken's time was limited, and he didn't have the luxury of reading everything. He sighed as he realized he would only be able to memorize the contents of the fifth and sixth ranks before having to move on to the next challenge. The elders of the Bloodthirst Sect would never allow him to skip on becoming the inheritor at this point.
Checking the prize on the left, he found a large, fancy cauldron. A large label stated its name was "The Golden Sun Cauldron", referring to its golden color that seemed to glitter.
'The price is insane!'
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