“This is the first region. After this boulder, the path to the second region is covered with a poisonous miasma…. One must concoct a poison repelling pill to be able to get through safely. The greatest difficulty is that throughout the journey, different miasmas will appear, and special pills will have to be concocted for each one.” Meng Hao thought about the situation for a moment. Finally, he pulled out the black pill furnace and looked it over. It seemed to him that he hadn’t truly won out over it, so he decided to put it back into his bag of holding, leaving it suppressed for the time being. Instead, he took out the Ten Thousand Refinements Furnace, put some medicinal plants in it, and then started concocting.
After two hours he had produced a medicinal pill. He swallowed it, then glanced around at the scenery once more, and then walked past the enormous rock. As he proceeded onward, his body was enveloped by a thin mist.
The master alchemists immediately started to discuss what had just happened.
“Furnace Lord Fang Mu thinks a bit too much of himself. He only used two hours to concoct the pill. Of all the other candidates, the one who used the least amount of time was Ye Feimu, who took four hours. The longest was a day.
“How could he possibly compare with Furnace Lord Ye? Furnace Lord Ye is Grandmaster Pill Cauldron. Look, he’s the furthest ahead, and is already half way through the first region.”
Everyone watching the screens could clearly see what was happening, and knew exactly how far everyone had progressed. Even some of the Furnace Lords exchanged glances; to them, it really did look like Meng Hao was being sloppy and careless.
Of course, Meng Hao had no idea what things they were saying, nor did he care to know. He continued on relentlessly through the miasma. It grew thicker as he went, and the color changed as well, to dark gray.
All the plants and flowers in the area were withered, and seemingly had been for years. A gloomy, cold aura filled the air. As Meng Hao went on, he occasionally caught sight of arm-length centipedes, scurrying about quickly through the shrivelled grass.
However, whatever poisonous bugs that appeared as Meng Hao walked along, would suddenly pause, seemingly incapable of doing anything to him. They would just let him continue on his way.
Time passed slowly. As he traveled he would occasionally take break, using some of the nearby withered grass, as well as some of the poisonous bugs, to concoct a medicinal pill. He did this a total of three times.
More and more poisonous bugs began to appear, soon, they were swarming. But as soon as Meng Hao neared, they would either begin to tremble, or run away. As for the roiling miasma, it would consistently move out of the way, making way for Meng Hao to travel along the path.
This too, was clearly visible to the observers, who watched on with wide-eyed astonishment. Soon, more and more eyes were focusing on Meng Hao’s screen. It wasn’t just the East Pill Division; even Cultivators from the other Sects were watching closely.
“He’s using the poison bugs to make medicinal pills, but what pill exactly?”
“What medicinal pill is that? It has such an incredible effect….”
The Cultivators watched on in astonishment, then glanced over at the screens of the other candidates, including Ye Feimu and Chu Yuyan. It seemed most of them were reaching the end of the stairs that were part of the first region. Most of them had concocted medicinal pills on many occasions during the journey. They also would concoct pills to ward off the poison, but none of them were as dramatically effective as Meng Hao’s.
This, of course, was because the poison bugs along the path didn’t seem to have any inclination of avoiding Ye Feimu and the others. However, in their terror, they clambered over each other in order to get out of Meng Hao’s way.