Meanwhile, enough time had passed for Kali to throw the last ingredients inside.
Once the last ingredient was inside the cauldron, Kali closed it with the lid.
Then, she sunk her consciousness into the and manipulated everything closely.
Inside the cauldron was a mix of the ingredient's essence and impurities and a few solid ones that had yet to be processed.
With tremendous accuracy, Kali began purifying everything into its most primal state and essence.
'Hmm, this [Steel Black Tree Bark] is taking a bit to heat up without messing with the rest of the ingredients. I need to move it to the side and control the impurities from not mixing while I heat it.'
On the outside, they suddenly saw Kali's tame, gentle flames whooshing with strength and power as they consumed half of the cauldron.
Inside, temperatures rose exponentially as Kali's energy walls and control over the matter lessened.
The glow of her flame made the white-wearing fox appear ethereal.
The tree bark gained temperature quickly, heating up like a metal and gaining a white glow because of the heat.
Kali pushed her energy further, and the standard orange flames became lighter colored as the temperature increased, changing to a yellowish color.
The change didn't stop there as the color lightened more and more.
The tree bark was already melting, the only ingredient left to vaporize. However, Kali needed more heat.
Kali's face became serious as she saw all the other gases begin to try to fuse at the wrong time.
Even though she was using deep and profound techniques to keep the temperature lower on that side, Kali could not wholly avoid the temperature rise.
'Ho? I see why they used this recipe. This ingredient is quite tough; without expert control, everything can go to waste easily.'
Kali's verdant green eyes gained a slight glow, shining like precious emeralds. 'But I've worked with worse. Let's finish this.'
Then, the flames that only reached a quarter of the height of the cauldron blazed with strength and engulfed three-quarters of it, changing the color from the previous yellow to a pure white color.
The heat from the flames took aback many people as the first wave of heat spread around and reached even the stands.
Andrea whistled. "Those are temperatures I use to melt my materials."
The judge and other Alchemy masters frowned. 'How can she control the inside with such a powerful flame? She will fail without a doubt.'
Kali's forehead began to sweat as her energy was doing its best to redirect the powerful heat and energy release her ingredients were doing.
This extra heat purified the previous ingredients even further. However, if she didn't control the impurities released and the tree bark's process simultaneously, everything would fail instantly.
'Well, I admit. You are a tough ingredient, but this is it.'
Then, the liquid tree bark bubbled and puffed into pure energy dust in what seemed an instant.
Kali used her soul power together with her energy to slowly guide everything inside the cauldron.
Valeria was watching with amazement. She has seen a much stronger alchemist at work. Nonetheless, for Kali's level, her feat was exceptional. 'My~, if she didn't have to hold back the results, these pills would end up being high-level Heaven-grade pills with more than eighty-five percent purity. It is certainly one of the bests pills she has ever concocted.'
Kali didn't lose focus for a second as her spiritual sense and eyes moved around quickly while her brain processed the torrents of information quickly and efficiently.
Kali waved her white sleeve, and the white flame rotated down the cauldron, becoming darker each second until it reached a yellow color.
Then, Kali maintained the flame there.
Kali smiled under the veil. 'I got it~.'
Then, our fox separated the essence into five different clouds and began spinning everything rapidly, with the center of each colorful cloud as a core.
The centrifugal force created a sphere, and Kali's energy and soul pushed everything together, fighting that centrifugal force.
The impurities were gathered at the side into a black cloud, taking very little space.
Because they were Heaven-ranked, the energy in the surrounding was attracted by the rich treasure and absorbed into the cauldron.
This extra energy helped Kali push against the nature of things.
Alchemy and most professions were practices that went against the heaven order, and that's why the last step of energy conductivity, or in an Alchemist's case, compressing the pills into a ball and making every ingredient blend, was so hard.
The energy absorption event was quickly noticed.
Valeria looked around and commented. 'Kali, if you continue, it will end up above ninety percent purity, and with a mid-level grade, add a few impurities and stop absorbing so much energy to feed them.'
Kali frowned. She didn't really like holding back while creating pills. The other girls were the same.
However, she understood the necessity. Therefore, with an uncomfortable heart, she opened the barrier containing the impurities for a second and saw a bit of that nasty black gas blending with the slowly-forming pills.
'Tsk, what a shame.'
After Kali allowed a few strands of the black smoke she had separated to mix with her pills, she continued the process.
The rotation speed increased as the volume of the sphere reduced, and Kali's energy usage was also accelerated.
Valeria carefully used her energy to clean the sweat that almost dripped in Kali's eyes while looking over her.
After ten minutes of focus, Kali's aura swelled for a second as she compressed the air in the cauldron to create the final result.
The powder was harshly squeezed, creating a small explosion of aura that the alchemist had to compress.
Then, she felt relaxed as the pills stopped fighting back and fell to the bottom of the cauldron.
After a few seconds, Kali stopped and smiled. With a sigh of exhaustion, she laughed. "Finished."
Everyone saw her stopping, so they looked over.
Elder Mu commented. "They should be very high level."
Yasenia nodded. "Yes."
She was acting calmly, but she was smiling wryly inside. 'I hope honey has remembered to hold back. She gets too immersed when doing alchemy.'
The fox opened the lid, and a cloud of dark grey-colored substances floated upwards, escaping the confinement.
The darker the cloud, the more impurities the alchemist could keep from mixing with the final result. Therefore, the color of the clouds that formed after the alchemist finished was a general telling if the results were good or bad.
Many alchemists nodded after seeing the dark grey-colored claw.
"She managed to expel quite a lot of impurities."
"You are right. The result must be good."
"Do you think she has reached seventy percent purity?"
"With the dark color of the cloud, it may have even reached eighty!"
"Eighty percent for a peak-level Earth-ranked pill? That's impressive."
"How many pills do you think she has created?"
"I guess she has created three."
"Three pills of that quality at once? That's something only a senior can do! Her participation is a bit unfair if she has created so many."
"Unfair? You are too young."
Yasenia heard the surroundings, and her lips twitched. 'Honey, I hope you held back, or you will have a hectic life in the future. I can already imagine many powers flocking to you to create their pills.'
The judge warned. "Participant Kali, do not touch the cauldron. We'll be scoping out the result to avoid any manipulation."
People using tricks were many, so they were cautious.
Kali nodded and took a step back. "Please, go ahead."
The judge nodded and approached. Then, he used his hand to scope out the pills inside. His eyes couldn't help but widen when he felt five rounded items touching his hand.
The spectators watching leaned forward, trying to see the results. However, the judge froze briefly, making it impossible to see.
He looked down at the items in his hand and saw five perfectly spherical and beautiful green pills. 'Huh? This is my first time seeing such a beautifully rounded and smooth shape. They look like marble balls.'
He finally took them out, and the highest-level people could see them before he placed them in a container to measure purity and level.
Elder Mu paused and blinked twice, her old face looking surprised. 'Did I see right?'
This woman has visited the Alchemy section in the Astral Sky Shop and seen the beautiful and perfectly rounded pills. Many shops would round the pills artificially with proper items to make them look more appetizing.
Elder Mu didn't like that practice, but she didn't hate it. She understood why someone would do it, even though she would never do something like that.
The old senior thought Yasenia was doing the same. Yet, under her nose, the fox junior has created a pill that can be classified as artistic.
Yasenia also spotted them, but she was accustomed to that shape, so she didn't find it strange. Even her pills were round when she created them. Although purity was a problem for our dragoness, shaping them relied on technique and spiritual strength. Hence, our dragoness could compress them perfectly and quickly.
When the judge saw the machine's results, his eyes widened. 'Is the thing broken?'
The judge even blinked a few times and looked again, trying to see if he was seeing things, but the results didn't change.
"Oy, Judge! Say the results already!"
"That's right, what are you looking at so dumbly? Be quick!"
"Are you trying to act mysterious or something? See if I don't mysteriously make your life disappear!"
Tatyana saw the results from afar and patted Yasenia's hand. 'Don't worry, she held back.'
Yasenia breathed a sigh of relief.
The judge announced. "Five low-level Heaven-grade pills, eighty-two percent purity!"
The stadium was silent for a second. Then, an explosion of exclamations of surprise was heard all around.
"What!? Did I hear right?"
"I must be dreaming. Since when could Earth-ranked recipes turn into Heaven Ranked pills!?"
"Did he say five pills? A junior has concocted five Heaven-ranked pills at once!?"
Yasenia looked around, and her lips twitched. 'Is even her holding back this impressive?'
The announcement was so shocking that a few participants lost concentration, and the insides of their cauldrons exploded, creating a mess.
"Fuck!"
"Crappy judge, can't you announce it later!?"
"Those were my last set of ingredients! Shit!"
"Why are you all fuckers shouting!? I lost concentration because of that!"
Our girls almost laughed aloud. Well, Valeria didn't hold back since nobody could hear her. 'Kali, you beat a quarter of the competitors even before the official announcements were made, hahaha.'
Kali sighed. 'Losing concentration over this is a big mistake.'
As Kali said that to Valeria, the judge's face became gloomy as he shouted. "Shut up! If you can get distracted by a simple announcement, you deserve to be last in the competition! The next person that complains, I'll throw them out of the competition even if you have more materials to continue trying!"
Everybody got silent, even if their faces were a bit resentful. Although silence was a formal setting for these tournaments, it was not obligatory.
There were a few shameless people who would not hold back and talk aloud in the middle of the concoction to distract others.
Naturally, not many did it since it would spell disaster if they offended an influential person.
Elder Mu was not impressed and muttered. "So low quality? The process, the feelings, the aura, the speed, and the technique of impurity retention I saw should have created a better result."
Yasenia's sharp ears heard her mutter, and she was impressed. 'As expected of a senior. Yet, she can't really prove it, nor will she dive into it because a junior creating something better than this within this time frame would be pretty absurd.'
Yasenia smiled contentedly. 'A good result all around. With this, Kali's high ranking should be guaranteed.'
The rest of the competitors finished their work, and the judge announced the results.