The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu-Chapter 403: The Demonic Pill Incites Public Fury

At this moment, in the center of the grand hall, the most attention-grabbing three geniuses had two of them open their eyes—both Ancestor Burning Heaven and Duan Tianwu awakened almost simultaneously and immediately began writing down their pill recipe at an astonishing speed.

However, the third genius had also awakened, though he did not open his eyes and instead continued to sit there in meditation.

He had exited his state of enlightenment, but the judges, with their keen perception, had noticed. Nevertheless, none of them exposed him.

Among all the contestants, Long Xuan was the fastest to break out of his enlightenment—much quicker than Long Yuyao and the others. With his Soul Library, he had a distinct advantage in creating original pill recipe, making him unmatched in speed within this competition.

However, despite being the first to awaken, he was cunning. He deliberately pretended to still be in deep contemplation, appearing to be asleep.

His plan was simple: wait until all his competitors had submitted their pill recipe, assess their submissions, and then decide which of his own recipe to present for maximum benefit.

Long Xuan had three pill recipe in hand: Bone-Regrowing Blood-Merging Pill, Estrus Pill, and a Reduced-Version Estrus Pill.

He wanted to gauge the quality of his opponents' submissions before deciding which recipe to turn in. If he determined that only the Bone-Regrowing Blood-Merging Pill could secure his victory, he would have no choice but to submit it, even if it meant revealing a powerful recipe.

By the time Ancestor Burning Heaven and Duan Tianwu had written more than half of their pill recipe, Long Xuan finally opened his eyes in a seemingly casual manner. His Heavenly Eye instantly scanned their pill recipe, allowing him to fully grasp their contents at a glance.

What he saw made his heart jolt in shock.

They were using live humans as ingredients!

Even worse, they were planning to refine pills using Gu Kings in a cruel manner. In a setting like this, was it really acceptable to create such pill recipe?

After all, no one could determine the authenticity of a pill recipe just by reading it.

There was no guarantee that the recipe could actually produce a real pill. The judges always assumed a recipe was viable before grading it, and only afterward would they attempt to refine the pill to confirm its validity.

If a recipe contained fundamental flaws and the pill could not be refined, then the contestant's score for that round would be nullified.

But these two contestants were boldly presenting pill recipe that required live human sacrifices. Did they expect the judges to actually kill people just to verify the recipe?

This grand alchemy competition was under the spotlight, drawing the attention of all the major forces in the Western Regions.

If two pill recipe requiring live human refinement were submitted in such a prestigious competition, Long Xuan had a strong premonition: no matter how miraculous these recipe were, they would be destroyed on the spot—otherwise, a massive controversy would erupt, one that even the Ten Nations could not suppress.

Through his deep understanding of pharmacology, Long Xuan quickly deduced the effects of these two pill recipe—and his expression turned to one of astonishment.

Good heavens!

The first recipe, titled Gu King Pill, could actually elevate a Spirit Gathering stage Gu Cultivator to the level of a Gu King! This was practically heaven-defying!

Although the price was severe—the consumer would be permanently unable to advance in cultivation—and the rare ingredients made it impossible to mass-produce, its value to a powerful faction was undeniable. It was no less valuable than Long Xuan’s own Estrus Pill.

The second recipe, Soul-Replenishing Pill, was even more terrifying.

It required throwing a group of living people into a pill furnace and refining them into pure soul essence. Consuming this pill, which contained condensed soul essence, would significantly enhance one's innate soul power.

So far, Long Xuan had only known that his Soul-Nourishing Wood could enhance innate soul power, and he had never seen a second treasure capable of doing so—until today.

Long Xuan clicked his tongue. The Soul-Replenishing Pill was just as heaven-defying as his Estrus Pill.

His expression gradually turned serious. These two pills were simply too extraordinary. To ensure victory, he would have to bring out the Bone-Regenerating Blood-Merging Pill recipe. Even using the full version of the Estrus Pill recipe would at best result in a draw.

No, wait. They were refining Demonic Pills made from living humans, which were despised by righteous alchemists. Those righteous alchemists would likely refuse to give a Demonic Pill the highest score. Using a redacted version of the Estrus Pill recipe should be sufficient.

With this thought, Long Xuan’s confidence surged, and he immediately began writing the redacted recipe on paper.

However, by this point, no one was paying attention to him anymore. When the panel of judges saw the large words "Living Human" written on both pill recipe, their expressions turned grim.

They didn’t mind using some demonic techniques in secret if the benefits were great enough, but such things could never be displayed in the open.

This was a high-profile alchemy competition, watched by tens of thousands. If the organizers dared to publicly collect Demonic Pill recipe that required killing people for refinement, their reputation would be ruined beyond repair.

They might even be labeled as part of the Demonic Cultivator Faction, giving various forces an excuse to attack them under the guise of eliminating evil while secretly seeking to steal their treasures.

Qin Shang shook his head with a bitter smile. "What a pity… These two recipe are truly terrifying. One can rapidly increase the number of Gu Kings within a faction, while the other can significantly enhance innate soul power—every alchemist’s dream."

"Honestly, these two pill recipe are incredibly tempting. But why do they have to be Demonic Pills?"

"Tsk tsk, using the hunting of Gu Kings to quickly expand a faction’s Gu King numbers… Anyone who possesses this Demonic Pill will undoubtedly become the target of a joint crusade."

Long Xiaoyao’s face was dark. He slammed the table heavily and roared, "These two old demons actually dared to create Demonic Pills in the middle of the competition? Such audacity!"

"Do you all realize the consequences if these two recipe spread?"

"If the Gu King Pill recipe gets out, countless factions will start hunting Gu Kings to refine it. The number of Gu Kings across the land will drastically decline, and the Western Region will be plunged into an era of endless slaughter and chaos!"

"These two recipe must be publicly destroyed! They absolutely cannot be allowed to spread! We must also erase our memories of them—otherwise, the consequences will be unimaginable!"

Upon hearing this, all the judges looked solemn, realizing the gravity of the situation.

"Yes! These Demonic Pill recipe must not remain!" A righteous-looking female judge in the panel asked angrily, "Then what about this round of the competition? Should we disqualify these two old demons?"

Feng Tiancheng shook his head and sighed. "Disqualifying a participant requires a valid reason. The competition rules never stated that Demonic Pills are forbidden. Technically, they didn’t break any rules."

"You all should understand the true reason why the Ancestor Burning Heaven is participating in this alchemy competition. If we disqualify him, he will surely go berserk."

"Which one of us here can actually stop Burning Heaven? If we don't want this entire alchemy competition to end in disaster… If we don't want to become a laughingstock to the world… then we must not act recklessly." 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

"There are countless death row prisoners in the Phoenix Heaven Empire’s dungeons. We’ll use them to verify the authenticity of these recipe, then assign scores accordingly."

Feng Tiancheng was counting on the Ancestor Burning Heaven to win this competition, so how could he possibly agree to disqualify him? Thus, he immediately opposed the suggestion.

However, his reasoning was sound. Under his crafty argument, no one brought up the idea of disqualification again.