After Feng Zhenqiu left, a middle-aged woman walked to the center of the circular platform, bowed to the surroundings, and said, "I am Ming Ning from the Pill Pagoda of the Wentian Academy. I will be presiding over this Five Elements Pill Competition. Dean Feng is right, few people in our Five Empires can enter the third level of the Celestial Realm. As the saying goes, Heaven never seals off all exits. This Five Elements Desolate Domain gives everyone in our Five Empires a chance, and this chance will be decided by the Pill Competition."

"This Five Elements Pill Competition will have five Rank 6 Earth Pill Masters, including myself, participating in the final evaluation. I believe that as long as you have results, you will definitely achieve a good ranking. The first item of the Pill Competition is the elimination round. Please, all participating Pill Masters, proceed to the respective pill furnaces with your participation jade tokens."

"Wuji, whether you succeed or not, just go all out and don't worry about anything. At worst, we'll come again next time. Our last Pill Competition result was only ninety-seventh place, so it doesn't matter much if we don't get a ranking this time," Zhen Shaoke comforted Mo Wuji.

Mo Wuji nodded. "Don't worry, Pavilion Master Zhen, I will do my best no matter what."

Even if Zhen Shaoke could come again, he wouldn't have the chance. Mo Wuji wasn't surprised that Zhen Shaoke said the Jiu Yue Pill Pavilion's last Pill Competition result was ninety-seventh. How many large sects and forces were there within the Five Empires? The Jiu Yue Pill Pavilion really wasn't anything special. Achieving a rank within the top hundred meant the Jiu Yue Pill Pavilion had already performed well.

Mo Wuji took the jade token belonging to the Jiu Yue Pill Pavilion and quickly walked to a pill furnace on the edge. Although these pill furnaces were spaced far apart, the pill furnaces on the edge would ultimately be less affected.

When the numerous Pill Masters in front of the circular platform had settled down, Ming Ning said loudly, "Because there are many participants, to make the competition more convincing, the first competition item is the purification of medicinal herbs. This item is worth a hundred points, and the top three hundred will be selected..."

Hearing about the purification of medicinal herbs, Mo Wuji was overjoyed. He feared no one in this aspect. Even when purifying Rank 4 spiritual herbs, he was confident he wouldn't be weaker than an average Rank 4 Earth Pill Master.

"The medicinal herb we will be purifying this time is the Rank 4 Iron Heart Bodhi Fruit, and each person will only have one. The pill fire used for purification will be provided by the Crimson Flame Stone. Open the pill furnace to find the Crimson Flame Stone and Iron Heart Bodhi Fruit. Please insert the jade token in your hand next to the pill furnace to open the pill furnace. The competition starts now..."

Hearing Pill Master Ming Ning say the competition had started, almost all the Pill Masters standing in front of the pill furnaces inserted their jade tokens next to the pill furnaces, opened the pill furnaces, and took out the Iron Heart Bodhi Fruit and Crimson Flame Stone at the first moment.

Mo Wuji, however, was stunned and didn't immediately take out the items. The joy of initially hearing that the topic was the purification of medicinal liquid had long since disappeared.

The Iron Heart Bodhi Fruit was one of the most difficult Rank 4 spiritual herbs to purify. This spiritual fruit was extremely hard, and it was extremely difficult to purify its spiritual liquid even with Earth Fire, let alone the lowest-grade Crimson Flame Stone from a flame stone?

It could be said that he had the biggest disadvantage among the participating Pill Masters because he had the lowest cultivation.

The higher the cultivation, the easier it was to purify such hard spiritual fruits. The lack of flame power could be compensated with true essence and hand seals. The lower the cultivation, the stronger the flame needed to be to compensate. But now, using the Crimson Flame Stone was obviously the worst flame. How was he supposed to compete?

Zhen Shaoke's gaze had been fixed on Mo Wuji. When he saw that everyone else had started but Mo Wuji hadn't, he sighed inwardly.

As the young pavilion master of the Jiu Yue Pill Pavilion, how could he not know the difficulties Mo Wuji faced? He had anticipated everything, except that this first round of the competition was also related to cultivation.

With Mo Wuji's Meridian Opening Realm cultivation, refining the Iron Heart Bodhi Fruit with the Crimson Flame Stone was not a simple task in itself, let alone extracting the medicinal liquid and entering the top three hundred among these thousand-plus Pill Masters.

The reason he chose Mo Wuji was that the quality of Mo Wuji's refined pills was extremely high. According to the experience of past Pill Competitions, the last item of the Pill Competition would definitely be a pill refining competition. It wasn't impossible for a Rank 3 Human Pill with excellent quality to achieve a rank within the top hundred.

In the last Five Elements Desolate Domain Pill Competition, a Rank 3 Human Pill Master defeated a Rank 4 Earth Pill with extremely poor quality by relying on a Rank 3 Human Spiritual Pill of extremely high grade.

But the current situation was that Mo Wuji was very likely to be eliminated in the first round.

After being stunned for almost a minute, Mo Wuji inserted the jade token in his hand into the edge of the pill furnace and opened the pill furnace. No matter how difficult it was, he couldn't be eliminated in the first round.

After the pill furnace was opened, there was a fiery red flame stone inside, as well as a black fruit the size of a fist. In addition, there was also a jade bottle, and the number was already marked on the jade bottle. The number was exactly the same as the number on his participation jade token. It seemed that this number was generated only after the participation jade token was inserted into the edge of the pill furnace.

Mo Wuji put the jade bottle aside and directly activated the Crimson Flame Stone. Since it had started, he couldn't hesitate even a little.

Flames rose under the pill furnace. Mo Wuji slapped the pill furnace wall a few times, cleaning the pill furnace with the simplest means.

Immediately afterward, the Iron Heart Bodhi Fruit was put into the pill furnace by Mo Wuji. The flame at the bottom of the furnace was constantly stimulated by Mo Wuji, but the Iron Heart Bodhi Fruit in the pill furnace was still melting extremely slowly.

After more than ten minutes, only a small portion of the Iron Heart Bodhi Fruit had melted. At this time, Mo Wuji could already smell the aroma of the Iron Heart Bodhi Fruit medicinal liquid.

Mo Wuji knew very well that this smell was not coming from his pill furnace, but from others melting the Iron Heart Bodhi Fruit. In other words, before his Iron Heart Bodhi Fruit had melted, others had already started to purify the medicinal liquid.

He couldn't go on like this. Mo Wuji took a deep breath. Others could lose this round, but he definitely couldn't.

Mo Wuji carefully reached into the pill furnace with his hand and began to wave hand seals. In fact, he was hiding pill incantations within the hand seals, using the pill incantations to help with the purification.

Originally in Mo Wuji's plan, he hadn't intended to use pill incantations from the beginning. He planned to use pill incantations only at the end of the pill refining, when fusing the medicinal liquid and forming the pill. As for purifying the medicinal liquid, he didn't need to use pill incantations at all.

But now, at the beginning of the competition, he had to take out his trump card. This made him very helpless. Who told him that his cultivation was too low to use true essence to cooperate? Among the thousands of Pill Masters participating in the Pill Competition, perhaps he was the only one still in the Meridian Opening Realm.

The pill incantations landed on the Iron Heart Bodhi Fruit, and the previously slow melting speed of the Iron Heart Bodhi Fruit accelerated. But the speed was still not fast, after all, the flame was only provided by the Crimson Flame Stone.

No, this might allow him to extract the medicinal liquid from the Iron Heart Bodhi Fruit, but he definitely wouldn't get a ranking. Thinking of this, Mo Wuji gritted his teeth and directly used his hand to stir the Iron Heart Bodhi Fruit.

On the surface, he was stirring, but in reality, he was allowing the pill incantations to have a more direct effect on the Iron Heart Bodhi Fruit. He had no choice, who told him his cultivation was poor, and his spiritual will power couldn't drive the pill incantations for a long time.

Fortunately, this was purifying only one medicinal herb. If he was purifying several mixed medicinal herbs, he could only watch others surpass him. Purifying several medicinal herbs, using his hand to touch the medicinal herbs to cast pill incantations would only allow the medicinal herbs to fuse in advance, and finally dissipate all the spiritual energy.

The heat like flames landed on Mo Wuji's skin, immediately causing Mo Wuji's skin to be scorched. If it were lightning strikes, Mo Wuji wouldn't care, but this burning of fire directly scalded Mo Wuji, making him grimace. Even so, Mo Wuji still didn't dare to let go. He was afraid that if he let go, he would never be able to do it a second time like this.

Looking at the Iron Heart Bodhi Fruit that had melted and was accelerating to be purified, he thought of his previous ridicule of Shi Jun. He had ridiculed Shi Jun for refining pills like stir-frying dishes in a big pot, but wasn't he himself doing the same thing now? At least Shi Jun still used a spatula, while he was stir-frying directly with his hand.

Mo Wuji suddenly had an understanding in his heart. At any time, in any place, do not underestimate anyone. Not because this person might be stronger than you in the future, but because you might be the same as him in the future.

A full half hour passed, and when Mo Wuji really couldn't bear it anymore, he finally withdrew his hand. The Iron Heart Bodhi Fruit in the pill furnace had completely melted, and most of the medicinal liquid had been purified by Mo Wuji's hand-stirring method.

Because he had used too much spiritual will power, Mo Wuji felt a little dizzy, but he didn't dare to stop for even a moment. Nor did he dare to swallow any pills, he was afraid that if the rules didn't allow it, everything he had done before would be in vain.

This Pill Competition wasn't for his own honor, but to save Yan'er. He couldn't make any mistakes.

The hand that was stir-frying the medicine was burning with pain at the moment, but these were completely ignored by Mo Wuji. All his attention was now on the Iron Heart Bodhi Fruit in the pill furnace.

After his efforts, the Iron Heart Bodhi Fruit finally emitted a faint medicinal fragrance. Mo Wuji didn't dare to be careless and focused all his attention on it. It was at the final moment, about to separate the residue.

He mobilized the true essence of his whole body and poured it into the pill furnace, using it with the pill incantations to begin separating the residue.

"Pa!" A piece of medicinal residue was sent out of the pill furnace by Mo Wuji, and then the medicinal liquid purified in the pill furnace was also lifted up by Mo Wuji and sent into the jade bottle on the side.

If it were normal times, Mo Wuji would definitely purify it again. But now he really couldn't hold on anymore. He could even imagine that if he forced himself to continue refining, everything he had done before might be invalidated, and this purification of the medicinal liquid would be in vain.

"Phew!" After covering the lid of the jade bottle, Mo Wuji finally let out a long sigh. When he looked up at the surroundings, he realized that he was almost the last one to finish, except for a few dozen people.

Fortunately, he finally finished it. The burning sensation came again. Mo Wuji looked at his right hand, which was already charred black, as if it didn't belong to him.

Now that the purification of the medicine was complete, Mo Wuji still didn't dare to take out healing pills to swallow before the jade bottle was taken away. He didn't want to make any mistakes in this competition.

(Today's update is here, good night friends, and finally, please support Immortal Mortal with a monthly ticket!)